By David Morgan, Associate Editor
HAMPTON, Ga. – The first ticket to the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs has been punched.
Joey Logano, with a helping hand from his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in the closing laps of regulation, advanced to the front of the field, set to square off against the Trackhouse Racing duo of Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain in a battle to the finish.
However, the caution flag would fly with two laps remaining, pushing the race into overtime, with Logano able to keep his wingman in tow for the overtime restart.
Logano and Suarez would stay side-by-side for the first lap of overtime, but when Chastain lost contact with Suarez, Blaney gave his teammate the shove of all shoves, boosting him into the lead heading into Turn 1 for the final time.
From there, Logano was able to play defense as Blaney, Suarez and the others behind were unable to mount a charge to take him down before the start/finish line, leaving the two-time Cup Series champion to streak across the line and advance to the second round.
“Man, incredible execution from the team. When it’s Playoff time, it’s our time,” Logano said. “As I said, we got to always get the level up when it comes Playoff time.
“The gave me a great Autotrader Mustang. She was fast all day. Got stuck in the back a little bit. It was hard to get track position back. Had a good restart and got towards the front. Had my teammate Blaney behind me. That really helped out in the last lap to be able to make sure a Penske car won, ultimately move on to the next round.
“Good day for all the Penske cars. Got a lot of stage points as well. Pretty good day today. This is Autotrader’s home in Atlanta, Coca-Cole’s home in Atlanta. A lot of people here. It’s important for us to run good at this track.
“There’s a lot of memories right here at this start/finish line for me racing Legends cars as a kid. This is really a cool feeling to be out here in a Cup car again.”
Suarez would best Blaney at the line for second, with Blaney finishing the day in third.
“Definitely not satisfied,” Suarez said of coming so close to pulling off the season sweep at Atlanta.
“I am happy with it, but not satisfied. I lost my pusher, my teammate. He was doing a great job, and I felt like we were going to have a great shot at it. Ross was doing an amazing job of pushing, and I don’t know if he got a flat tire or something, but once I lost…
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