Just before the start of the 2025 season, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, and Ryan Blaney all got together for a private theater screening of the documentary, “So Damn Close” about their history-making three-wide finish from the Atlanta race on February 25, 2024. Also in the room were the drivers’ crew chiefs and spotters involved in that fateful run to the checkered flag. NASCAR had brought them all together, nearly a year later, to watch, laugh, and explain their mindset through every critical moment of last year’s thriller, with the trio all crossing the line, and eventually seeing Suarez break a long streak of zero wins.
To the surprise of no one, it didn’t take long for last year’s first race at Atlanta to devolve into mayhem as 16 cars piled into a Lap 2 crash. Among those involved were Suarez, who was lucky to escape the wreck with a competitive car still under him. Busch and Blaney didn’t even know the eventual race winner was swept up in the early melee, both expressing surprise in the documentary when told.
