In a battle between Chevrolet and Ford, it’s almost poetic that when the dust settled at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday, a Toyota was sitting in Victory Lane.
Christopher Bell led only the last overtime lap, winning under caution as calamity erupted behind him. Just as he entered Turn 3, seemingly setting up for yet another three-wide photo finish, the caution flew, and that was that.
“I’ll tell you what, that right there is what you dream of,” a slightly stunned Bell said. “To be able to restart on the first or second row in a green/white checkered at a speedway. You never know how those things are going to play out, but I’ll be the first to tell you, I love superspeedways (laughing).”
Carson Hocevar, who had charged up the middle in a desperate bid for glory, finished second, while Kyle Larson, so close to finally breaking his superspeedway drought, came home third.
“Yeah, just a little bit of a lazy kind of up the track,” Larson admitted. “He (Bell) got there a little bit quicker than I thought he would. I thought he was going to pick me up on the exit at two. Yeah, that was probably my fault. I haven’t seen a replay, but I’m sure that was my fault.”
In reality, though, Hocevar was the one taking the blame.
“Apologies to Larson and HMS, Mr. H, everybody,” Hocevar said. “They help us out a lot, and I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line. The last two nights were kind of that way. I hit the 20 to get him out of the way and fill the middle. A little bit longer, maybe we win the race.”
Ryan Blaney came home fourth, a valiant effort that came after he was punted from contention and sent spinning on lap 235.
“It was a good comeback,” Blaney said. “I just fell back from getting spun there and I was able to pick our way through and ended up scrounging a good finish out of it, so not a bad recovery.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. quietly rounded out the top five.
The overtime chaos came at the expense of Austin Cindric. The Penske driver had the race in hand, leading 47 laps—third most of the day—until Larson took over with three to go. Cindric made a desperate move to the outside, but Larson drifted up, made contact, and sent him clattering into the outside wall, collecting William Byron along the way.
“It was unfortunate,” Cindric lamented. “As a team, as Fords, we had the best cars here this weekend. We put ourselves into position to win the race and got used up and into the fence and didn’t win the race. It’s a shame. Two weeks in a row I feel like we have had the car to beat and haven’t done it. One way or another it is disappointing.”
On the overtime restart, Bell inched ahead of Larson to take the white flag. It became a Bell-Larson drag race down the backstretch until Hocevar gave Bell a shove on the outside and tried to split the middle. But chaos was brewing behind them. Josh Berry found himself wedged in a three-wide battle with Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin. Just as Hocevar made his move, Berry was sent spinning, and NASCAR threw the caution, freezing the field and robbing the fans of another highlight-reel finish.
For much of the race’s 266 laps, it had been a Chevrolet versus Ford showdown, with Team Penske and their satellite driver, Berry in the Wood Brothers Ford, leading the way.
Stage 1 was almost peaceful—by superspeedway standards—allowing Berry to score just his second career Stage win. Then, Team Penske took control, Joey Logano looking poised to seize another trophy. But on Lap 149, polesitter Chase Briscoe drifted up into Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who clipped Chase Elliott. Elliott slapped the wall, got sideways, and collected Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie. Only Keselowski was done for the day, but the damage was done.
That caution set up a mad dash for the Stage 2 win, which saw Larson snatch a rare drafting-track Stage victory.
Lap 183 spelled disaster for last year’s winner, Daniel Suárez. Stuck on the outside of a three-wide mess, he came down into Ty Gibbs and was sent skidding across the frontstretch. When the carnage was cleared, Cole Custer, Noah Gragson, Cody Ware, JJ Yeley, and Todd Gilliland—who had even led earlier—were left picking up the pieces.
Then, on Lap 204, Briscoe nearly went four-wide while fighting for position. He got squeezed into the outside wall, and before the field made it back to the frontstretch, Chris Buescher was spinning, Alex Bowman slammed into him, and Ty Gibbs shredded a tire before needing a tow to the garage.
A three-wide finish was denied, but the numbers tell the tale: 50 lead changes, breaking last spring’s record of 48.
Atlanta Motor Speedway, once a heartbreaking repave story, has aged like a fine Chardonnay, becoming a crown jewel of the NASCAR schedule.
Next up? The series heads to its first road course of the season—Circuit of the Americas, just outside Austin, Texas. This year’s Daytona 500 champ, William Byron, is the defending winner. And after last week’s Daytona triumph, he wouldn’t mind another victory lap.
RACE RESULTS
Photos: NASCAR at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday Feb. 23,2025
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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