Brad Keselowski sat out final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday as he battled the stomach flu. When Sunday rolled around, though, he was able to climb aboard his #2 Team Penske Ford and drive to the win of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. The win was Keselowski's 60th win Penske across NASCAR's Cup and Xfinity series, making Keselowski Team Penske's winningest driver across all forms of motorsport in which team owner Roger Penske competes.
“I think any win means a lot, but that's a big number,” Keselowski said. ”Now I get to wear that yellow Mark Donohue helmet. [Broadcaster Matt] Yocum has been on me about it. Now I can, Matt, so here we go; we're going to wear it next week. But what a tremendous honor. This day is ‑‑ wow, I don't even know how to put it in words. I'm just excited for this team, first race with the new rules or whatever they're called now, and to be able to win it, that's really special, as well, and I know everybody here is excited about that, and just a great day overall for Team Penske and our Ford Mustang.”
Keselowski's win also was the first for Ford's new Mustang in the Cup Series.
The top-three of the Atlanta race finishing order consisted of all three manufacturers, as Martin Truex Jr.'s Toyota took runner-up honors, and Kurt Busch finished third in his second race as driver of the #1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
“It was great watching [CGR teammate Kyle] Larson up front. I knew I needed to drive harder to catch him,” Busch said. ”Our balance was a little bit looser, and then, the track came to us a little bit better at the end, so it was a good day for us to carry that banner (as the highest-finishing Chevrolet).”
Busch's teammate, Kyle Larson, led 142 of the 325 laps that made up the race, but he was unable to recover from a pit-road speeding penalty during a caution on lap 222 when Kyle Busch suffered a right-front tire problem.
“The car handled really well until we got put in traffic, there, but even the #18 [Kyle Busch] seemed to struggle trying to get back to the front,” Larson said. “Yeah, dirty air was much worse than I thought it was. I spent most of the day up front, so once I got back there it was pretty crazy.”
Busch was able to drive from the back to the front twice during the race. He started in the back in a backup car because of a practice crash and was up to second before his tire issue. He got back up to sixth by the checkered flag.
Busch's caution was the first of only two yellow flags for on-track or pit-road incidents. The other came with 52 laps remaining when Ryan Preece hit B.J. McLeod on pit road. The final caution came right after all but two drivers, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano, had pitted. As a result, Busch and Logano were the only two drivers on the lead lap, but more than 20 cars took the wave-around to rejoin them on the lead lap.
Keselowski took what was, ultimately, his race-winning lead with 33 laps remaining when he passed his Penske teammate Joey Logano. Both his teammates were with him up front until both had to make green-flag stops in the closing laps — Logano for a loose wheel with 21 to go, and Ryan Blaney for a right-front tire problem with 13 laps remaining.
Larson won the first 85-lap stage of the race, and Kevin Harvick the second stage that ended on lap 170. Harvick finished the race in fourth, and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer joined him in the top-five. All four SHR drivers were in the top-10 of the checkered flag, as pole sitter Aric Almirola finished eighth, and Daniel Suarez was 10th.
Other top-10 finishers included Erik Jones in seventh and Chris Buescher in ninth.
