Joey Logano started on the pole and led 140 of 260 laps to win at Atlanta Motor Speedway. That sounds like a boring race, but Logano went from third to first on the final lap, passing Brad Keselowski for the win.
Logano’s win caps off an incredible weekend where he also won the pole, in a 1-2-3 Penske and 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 Ford start. There weren’t as many Fords up front at the end of the race, but one of them won. Keselowski finished second, and Christopher Bell ended up third. Corey LaJoie put together a very strong effort in his Spire Motorsports Chevy to finish fourth, while Tyler Reddick finished fifth.
What’s shocking about this race was that not only did the end of the race finish caution-free, it was green for the final 44 laps. A Daytona/Talladega/Atlanta race without a late race caution is as rare as someone winning those races by more than a second, but it happened.
There were some crashes earlier in the race. Bubba Wallace hit the wall early in the race, while big crashes in Stage 3 took out drivers like Kevin Harvick, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola, and Daniel Suárez.
We got another crash. Leaders Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson crash, along with a few others. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/KPqTEKXhKh
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) March 19, 2023
Many were impressed with the clean run at the end of the race.
Atlanta weekend was very disappointing until the last green-flag run of the NASCAR Cup Series race.
Clean, respectful superspeedway racing that did not end up with any wrecks. Really fun at the end!
— Austin Konenski (@AustinKonenski) March 19, 2023
Expected a massive pile-up and another race ending under caution, but instead got a great finish between two veteran champions. Very nice to see. #NASCAR https://t.co/YIY8mTxdwX
— Nick DeGroot (@ndegroot89) March 19, 2023