What Happened?
HAMPTON, Ga. – Joey Logano dominated the 260-lap pack racing event to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2023 with a last-lap pass on fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski on Sunday, March 19 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Christopher Bell, Corey LaJoie and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five.
The victory is the first ever for Logano at Atlanta and the first for Ford in 2023.
But What Really Happened?
The talk of the Atlanta town entering the weekend was anything but a car or driver wearing a blue oval.
Eyes were instead on the bowties of Hendrick Motorsports after all four teams were hit with points penalties and crew chief suspensions after NASCAR found their louver parts to be illegal. This had been the same week after HMS had dominated the previous two races to win back-to-back at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway.
There was also talk about Denny Hamlin after he too was penalized for his contact with longtime friend Ross Chastain last weekend at Phoenix. With all of this, there was plenty to talk about when it came time for interviews during the weekend.
But while media members swarmed the drivers covering the big controversies on Saturday morning during the Cup Series qualifying session, another story was occurring on the Georgian track surface.
The Fords were retaking the headlines.
For the first time since 1965, the famous blue oval brand swept the top-eight positions in a NASCAR qualifying session.
That really should have been our first clue, but in case we didn’t get the message, the Ford drivers of Team Penske, RFK Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing continued to steal the spotlight on Sunday.
Out of the 260 laps run on Sunday, a Ford was leading the field for 221 of them.
Even Cody Ware, who had led only seven laps in his entire Cup career before Sunday, was able to stay out during a caution to take the top spot for a lap.
By the time the white flag had waved, it was a Ford duel between former teammates Logano and Keselowski. Logano won, and in the process, ended the Chevrolet winning streak that began at Daytona International Speedway in February.
But with Chevrolet on the run, how long will the Ford dominance last? Had they simply just dialed in the new Atlanta better than anyone else? Or was it perhaps something more?
Who stood out?
You can likely take a guess.
There were…
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