Ryan Blaney dominated and won Sunday night's rain-delayed Quaker State 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway Atlanta.
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Ryan Blaney dominated and won Sunday night's rain-delayed Quaker State 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway Atlanta.
Blaney led 171 of 263 laps, including the final lap when he passed Carson Hocevar for his first win on the new Atlanta configuration.
Blaney won the pole for the race and led the opening 64 laps, winning the first stage.
STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 60): Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Carson Hocevar, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace.
When the caution flew for lightning on lap 108, Blaney had led five times for 86 laps. He held on to win the second stage.
STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 160): Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Denny Hamlin, Shane van Gisbergen.
Then, in the final stage, strategies shuffled Blaney back in the pack. However, a caution for A.J. Allmendinger spinning on the frontstretch on lap 195 put him back near the front.
Blaney took the lead 14 different times, accounting for most of the 30 lead changes in the race, including on the final lap.
Top 10 (LAP 263): Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, Ty Gibbs, Erik Jones, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher.
Bubba Wallace crossed the line in second. However, NASCAR dropped him to 29th after officials believed he passed below the yellow line on the final lap.
The NASCAR In-Season Challenge was in its third round with these matchups:
Todd Gilliland vs. Alex Bowman, William Byron vs. Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin vs. Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe vs. Chase Elliott.
Blaney (first), Bell (second), Elliott (13th) and Gilliland (19th) advanced. North Wilkesboro Speedway will weed that down to two drivers to face off for $1 million and a trophy at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Blaney is now 65 points behind points leader Denny Hamlin, who is now just 24 points ahead of Tyler Reddick.
