Blaney wins Atlanta as all eyes turn to Bristol
It sure seemed like our string of new winners in this unpredictable 2021 NASCAR season was all but finished Sunday at Atlanta, where Kyle Larson lapped just about everybody but himself during a dominant afternoon.
Larson, who won a few weeks ago at Las Vegas, led nearly every lap, jumped out to six, seven and sometimes eightsecond leads, and easily won the first two stages.
But, as we said earlier, this season has been anything but predictable. So when Ryan Blaney nosed his No. 12 Ford ahead of Larson’s in the waning laps, and then quickly sped away to his first victory of the season, perhaps we all should have seen it coming.
Heck, even Blaney did!
“The 5 was crazy fast there the whole race and then we started closing in,” he said after the race. “Our car got a lot better there. I think towards the end of Stage 2 it was starting to get there, and then before that last green-flag stop it really came to life.”
First gear
Blaney’s win gives us six different winners to start the season as we inch toward the high mark (under this current format) of seven in 2014.
If you’ve been paying attention, this one was only a matter of time.
Blaney (this year’s breakout driver, as predicted in these spaces back in January) has been closing in on that first win for a few weeks now, finishing fifth at Las Vegas and 10th last week at Phoenix.
Early on Sunday, it was clear this was going to be a Hendrick-versus-the-field kind of day, and Blaney’s No. 12, for the third straight week, was right in the middle of it.
Second gear
While Blaney and Larson stole the show, there were plenty of disappointing acts. Even though Kevin Harvick somehow finished 10th, his No. 4 Ford struggled all day. So did Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano (although Keselowski’s No. 2 machine was damaged early on).
Chase Elliott continued his uneven start to the season with the rare blown engine, while Aric Almirola finished 20th or worse for the fourth time this year. It wasn’t all bad, though!
How about Daniel Suarez, who ran up front all day, recorded a stage point, and finished 17th? Austin Dillon finished sixth as Richard Childress Racing continues to show more speed this year, while Roush Fenway’s Chris Buescher finished seventh.
If all that seems weird, just wait until we head to Bristol ...
Third gear
Speaking of Bristol, the last time the NASCAR Cup Series raced on a dirt track was in 1970 for the Home State 200 at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.
Richard Petty won the race — he won 18 times in 1970 — followed by Neil Castles and Bobby Isaac. Bobby Allison finished sixth, Dave Marcis finished seventh, and Benny Parsons finished 14th.
Fourth gear
Petty’s father, Lee, tops the list of Cup dirt-track winners with 42. Herb Thomas is second with 41, followed by Buck Baker with 40. Richard Petty finished with 30 wins on dirt, just behind Ned Jarrett’s 33.
There were 489 NASCAR Cup Series races held on dirt between June 19, 1949, and Sept. 30, 1970, including the first race in premier series history at the .75-mile track known as Charlotte Speedway.
In the 1949 season, seven of the eight tracks competed on were dirt.