HAMPTON, Ga. — Brad Keselowski passed Kyle Larson six laps to go to win in Atlanta, but it’s nothing compared to Kevin Harvick blowing another dominant performance for the fourth straight year at Atlanta.
Harvick was the dominant car from the start of the race to the final caution of the race, leading 292 of 325 laps. There was a potential obstacle in his way when Keselowski beat him off pit road under the fourth caution, but Keselowski’s crew didn’t get all the lug nuts tightened on his car and he surrendered the lead to come back down to get them tightened.
The critical moment came with 17 to go when Austin Dillon’s car lost power and he missed the entrance to pit road. The No. 3 came to a rest on the apron in Turn 2 and brought out the sixth caution with 16 to go. After the leaders made their stops, the call came in from Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Director David Hoots.
“4, too fast on pit road.”
Larson assumed the race lead for the final restart with 11 to go. Keselowski reeled him in, passed him on the backstretch with six to go and took the checkered flag.
When asked if he thought he had a chance to catch Harvick with all he had to overcome, Keselowski said you just “never know. That’s how these races are.”
“We had a lot of adversity today there’s not doubt about that. These races aren’t easy,” he added. “They’re 500 miles and a lot can happen and when you think you’ve got it they slip away. I know how it goes. This one kind of fell in our lap at the end and my team put it all together when it counted. They gave me a great Autotrader Ford Fusion and we were able to get by Kyle there at the end. I knew that he wasn’t going to be easy to pass. His car was great and I was able to make the right moves to get by him.”
It’s his 22nd career victory in 271 Cup Series starts.
Larson led seven laps on his way to a runner-up finish.
“I raced around Brad a lot throughout the day, Larson said. “Any time I was in front of him on short runs, he’s drive around me up top. And so, I knew I was going to have to take his line away on that start there for a couple of laps and try it. I just didn’t have enough grip or not as much as I’d hoped. He did a good job being a lane lower than me and getting to my inside. So, it was disappointing not to get the win, but I’m happy about our second place run at a 1.5-mile where I struggle at. I can’t thank everybody at the shop enough for building great race cars, and Hendrick engines for supplying us with some great engines, I had a blast today. The Target Chevy was good. I ran the bottom a lot, which is not typically something I do. So, it was a lot of fun to learn how to kind of use both feet to get around the bottom and to do a good job with that.”
Matt Kenseth rallied past two speeding penalties to round out the podium.
The Hendrick Motorsports teammates of Kasey Kahne and Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five.
Harvick came home to a ninth-place finish.
“Ya, this place, for whatever reason, I just feel like I’m snake bitten,” Harvick said. “It’s my own doing today. I really didn’t think I was even close on pit lane. It gets to bouncing around, I thought I was being conservative, apparently I wasn’t. I want to thank everyone on our Jimmy Johns Ford for everything they did this weekend. I was just pushing it too hard.
“I just made a mistake that I preach all the time that you don’t need to make and beat yourself and then you go out and make it yourself instead of following all the things you preach. That part is hard for me to swallow. The good part about it is our Ford has been really fast. We didn’t know what we were going to have when we got here and we had a great weekend the whole time. Man, I just, one way or another I have figured out how to lose races here at Atlanta after being so dominant. We will pick ‘em up and start again next week.”
The only two times the caution flew in the first 170 laps of the race was at the conclusion of the stages.
In the final stage, the cautions started occurring more frequently.
The third of the race flew with 86 to go for debris in Turn 4, the fourth flew with 63 to go for Gray Gaulding blowing an engine in Turn 4, the fifth flew with 47 to go for Clint Bowyer blowing a left-front tire and slamming the wall in Turn 1 and the final caution flew with 16 to go for Dillon stalling in Turn 2.
Thirteen speeding penalties were issued to 11 different drivers in today’s race, a result of increased timing lines.
The race lasted three hours, 33 minutes and eight seconds at an average speed of 140.898 mph. There were nine lead changes among five different drivers and six cautions for 32 laps.
Harvick leaves with a four-point lead over teammate Kurt Busch.
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