In a race that did not finish until early hours of Monday morning, Ryan Blaney put on a dominating performance in the NASCAR Cup Series at EchoPark Speedway.
The driver of the No. 12 led a race-high 171 of 263 laps and outdueled Carson Hocevar on the final lap to win the Quaker State 400 at the EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. Blaney secured his second win of 2026, 19th career victory, and first triumph at Atlanta.
Christopher Bell finished second, followed by Hocevar third, Ty Gibbs in fourth, and Erik Jones wound out the top five.
Bubba Wallace initially finished the race runner-up, but was penalized for advancing his position below the yellow line down the backstretch on the final lap. Because of this, Wallace finished 29th.
Blaney passes Hocevar on the final lap to win Atlanta
It all started with six laps remaining.
A multi-car crash involving Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Riley Herbst, Austin Hill, and others set up an overtime restart.
Hocevar started up front for the restart and had his No. 77 machine in prime position to take the win as the field took the white flag.
The Spire Motorsports driver had built a gap on the rest of the field. However, a push from Wallace propelled Blaney past Hocevar. The two ran side-by-side, which then opened the door for Wallace to dive three-wide underneath.
With one final push from Bell up top, Blaney crossed the finish line first and scored the win.
The thrilling victory capped a dominant performance for the North Carolina native.
Rain delayed NASCAR’s finish by over three hours
Blaney started on the pole and led the field to the green flag. The 2023 Cup champion led all 60 laps of the opening stage en route to the victory. Tyler Reddick was second and Kyle Larson was third.
Blaney continued to lead for the bulk of the second stage, but swapped the lead with Kyle Larson. At the red flag on lap 108, Blaney was in command with Bubba Wallace second and Reddick third.
The rain delay lasted three hours and nine minutes as the cars did not get re-fired until just after 11:30 p.m. Eastern time. At 12:01 a.m. Eastern time, the race resumed on lap 123.
In the waning laps of the second stage, Blaney held off challenges from Wallace, Joey Logano, and Hocevar to complete the stage sweep. Reddick finished second in stage two, followed by Logano in third.
Gibbs assumed the lead after a round of pit stops and was out front to start the final stage.
With just over 60 laps to go, A.J. Allmendinger’s single-car spin on the frontstretch brought out the fourth caution of the race.On the cycle of pit stops, Bell took over the lead, with Larson in second.
The fifth caution came out with just under 30 laps remaining after Allmendinger slapped the outside retaining wall.
With 23 laps to go, Wallace led the field back to green with Blaney alongside him. Blaney overtook Wallace and held the advantage with 19 laps remaining, when Larson spun through the infield grass and triggered the sixth caution.
With six races until The Chase, Denny Hamlin leads the points standings by 24 over Reddick.
Ryan Blaney Pulls Off Thrilling NASCAR Cup Series Victory at Atlanta