As has become customary with a Harvick win at Atlanta, the driver held three fingers out the window of his #4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford as he made a victory lap around AMS. the gesture wasn’t to signify his three wins at the track; instead, it was to honor the late Dale Earnhardt, the all-time winningest driver at Atlanta. The first of Harvick’s three wins at the track was his first-career Cup Series win in 2001, two races after he assumed driving duties of the renumbered #29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet upon Earnhardt’s death.
“I didn’t get a chance to show very good a couple years ago with my gloves on, so I made sure I took my gloves off this year,” Harvick said. ”Obviously, first win came for me here at Atlanta and this is just a race track that I’ve taken a liking to, and you always come back and have those memories, and now, you want to celebrate everything that Dale Earnhardt did for this sport. To come here and be able to do that with wins and go to victory lane is pretty special, so I just have to thank everybody from Busch Light. We’ve got corn all over our car this week, so Busch Light for the farmer’s campaign. Go buy those corn cans so we can donate $100,000.”
Kyle Busch passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. with five laps remaining to finish second. Truex finished third and JGR driver Denny Hamlin was fifth to give the team three cars in the top-five of the finishing order.
“Our Fudge Brownie M&Ms Camry was pretty decent,” Busch. “We had good speed; you just couldn’t really push too hard. Every time I pushed too hard, it would really hurt my tires in the long run. I think that was for everybody. That last run, I was trying to keep up with those front guys, and as soon as I felt like I was pushing too hard and they were inching out on me, I just gave up and decided just to run and try to make sure I didn’t slip a tire and do the best I could without pushing anything too hard. Was able to get Martin, at least, there at the end. Can’t say enough about all my guys – Adam Stevens [crew chief] and everybody; they’re doing a really good job. We’re working hard and trying to get it all better. Certainly, want to give a shout out to TRD [Toyota Racing Development], Toyota, Rowdy Energy, Rheem, Stanley and everybody that makes this happen for us.”
Ryan Blaney was the other top-five finisher in fourth.
Most of Harvick’s laps led, 105 of them, came in the 115-lap third and final stage of the race. Busch was first off pit road after the second stage, but when the race restarted for the last stage, Harvick took the lead.
“They had a great pit stop,” Harvick said. “We got a restart on the bottom, and they got my car to take off. I was able to get track position, and then, once I could get through those first 10 laps, and my car was freed up enough to where I could get in a rhythm and really start hitting my marks, and then, by about lap 25, I could start driving away. I’m just proud of everybody from Busch Light and Ford, Stewart-Haas Racing. Thank you guys for everything. Hunt Brothers Pizza, Fields, Mobil 1, Jimmy John’s. I know I’m gonna forget somebody. Haas, everybody who helps us on this car and you the fans. We appreciate everything you guys do for us.”
The only laps Harvick didn’t lead after taking the top spot from Busch early in the final stage came in the final cycle of green-flag pit stops. After most of the lead-lap cars pitted with about 60-63 laps remaining, Joey Logano stayed out a few extra laps and led before finally making his stop with 55 remaining. When Logano pitted, Harvick retook the lead for the final time.
Truex won both of the 105-lap stages in the first 210 laps, his first two stage wins of the season.
After the race field stopped on the track during pre-race pace laps for a 30-second moment of listening in honor of the Black Lives Matter racial equality movement, Chase Elliott led the field to green as the pole sitter and ran up front until pit stops during a lap-25 competition caution. Logano was first off pit road to lead laps until Harvick took his first lead on lap 37. Truex took his first stage-winning lead from Harvick on lap 87.
Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer was first off pit road after the first stage, but a right-rear tire issue forced him from the lead to pit road on lap 147. The rest of the competition began cycling through green-flag pit stops about 10 laps later, and when those stops were completed on lap 164, Bowyer was back up front. But on older tires, Bowyer lost the lead to Truex on lap 185. By the time the second stage ended on lap 210, Bowyer was back to ninth in the running order.
Right-rear tire problems plagued Bowyer for the remainder of the race A blistered right-rear forced him down pit road, again, for an extra stop with 13 laps remaining.
Kurt Busch finished sixth after having to drop to the back for the initial green flag and serving a pit-road, pass-through penalty at the start of the race, because his car failed pre-race inspection three times. The pass-through penalty put Busch a lap down, but he got back on the lead lap during the competition caution and was, ultimately, the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver.
Finishing seventh through 10th were Jimmie Johnson, Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Logano.
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