HAMPTON, Ga. – The second superspeedway race of the Cup Series season is complete and a second Chevrolet driver has secured a playoff spot.
Daniel Suarez won Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his first Cup victory on an oval track and his first win since Sonoma in 2022. He parked the No. 99 Chevrolet in the win streak after going red on the final restart followed, having taken control flag delay of 11 minutes and 25 seconds.
MORE: Atlanta Cup results
MORE: Cup Driver Points
Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top 10.
Sunday's race had 48 lead changes. This set a new Cup record at Atlanta Motor Speedway, surpassing 46 at the March 2022 race. There were 14 different leaders, marking the fifth straight Atlanta race where there were more than a dozen leaders.
After a race with ten cautions – eight of them for incidents on the track – 22 cars finished on the lead lap. There were eight DNFs and six cars that finished several laps behind the leaders.
The first and biggest accident occurred on lap 2 when the outside line closed behind Todd Gilliland. This started a chain reaction that saw 16 cars collected. Suarez's number 99 was involved but was able to continue the race.
Busch is at the top of the Cup standings. He is one point ahead of Daytona 500 winner William Byron and Austin Cindric. Suarez is seventh in the standings, 13 points behind Busch.
Two-time Cup champion Joey Logano sits 33rd in points after finishing 32nd and 28th in the first two races of the season. 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski sits 36th in points after finishing 33rd at both Daytona and Atlanta.
The Cup season continues on Sunday, March 3rd with the first intermediate leg of the season. The teams will compete at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 3:30 p.m. ET.