Joey Logano won the Ambetter Health 400 with a dominant performance Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Logano led for 140 laps, earning his long-awaited first victory in Atlanta. It still required a close finish, with Logano edging Brad Keselowski during the final lap to secure his first victory of the year. Logano has three top-10 finishes in five races.
Christopher Bell finished third, followed by Corey LaJoie and Tyler Reddick. It was a good day for Ford, which had three drivers in the top 10 (Logano, Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, seventh).
Down the stretch, two wrecks knocked out the leaders. Kevin Harvick, who earned his first win at AMS in 2001, took the lead with 72 laps to go but was pinballed in a big wreck that ended his afternoon. It began when Ross Chastain closed on Harvick, though both drivers noted Chastain didn’t make contact with Harvick’s car (“Just a weird deal,” Harvick said on the Fox broadcast).
Josh Berry, Harrison Burton, William Byron, Chris Buescher and BJ McLeod were among others involved in the wreck. Berry suffered damage in the collision but stayed on the track and finished 18th. He replaced Hendrick’s Chase Elliott, the Dawsonville native who won the last Cup Series race here in July but has been out with a broken tibia.
A five-car accident then occurred with 51 laps to go, taking out leaders Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson, who slammed hard into the wall. Larson was seeking his third top-five finish, while Almirola potentially missed out on his first.
Logano led for the first 60 laps, earning his first stage victory of the season. Austin Cindric, another Ford driver, collected his first stage win in Stage 2.
Byron, who won here last March, was eliminated after suffering damage during the big collision. He’d won his previous two races and was the betting favorite Sunday. This was the third race at the repaved AMS. Logano joined Byron and Elliott as the winners on the remade track, which debuted last March.
AMS races often bring out notable Atlanta athletes. This time, several Falcons attended, including quarterback Desmond Ridder – likely the team’s Week 1 starter – and former Bulldogs Lorenzo Carter and John FitzPatrick. The AMS crowd was smaller than usual, perhaps partly due to the chillier weather (mid-40s during the afternoon).
The Cup Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 9 for the Quaker State 400. Elliott won the event last summer, his first hometown victory.
