Kurt Busch Wins, Busch Brothers Duel in Atlanta

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kurt Busch won the Quaker State 400 from Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first win of the season and lock himself into the Playoffs.

It was a dominant performance by both Busch brothers, as Kurt and Kyle combined to lead 235 of 260 laps.

Kurt led a race-high 144 laps, but he found himself behind his brother following the final green-flag pit stop.  It looked as thought Kyle would run away with the victory, but he struggled to get through lapped traffic.

Ross Chastain, Kurt’s teammate, was able to hold Kyle up through Turn 4.  Kurt took the lead for good and was able to hold off Kyle to pick up the victory.

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Kurt said he enjoyed winning on Atlanta’s old surface one last time before a repave begins in the coming weeks.

“What a genuine, awesome, old-school racetrack,” Kurt said.  “I just asked the track today, ‘last time today on your old asphalt if I could have an old guy win.’”

The victory locks Kurt into the Playoffs and moves him off of the cutline.

Kurt said he was glad to get a victory during a season where they haven’t had the fastest car every weekend.

“This has been one of those years,” Kurt said.  “I knew we’d have our back up against the wall with trying to get above the cutoff line and race hard and race smart.”

Kyle said the handling went away on his car as the final run went on, and that allowed his brother to pull away.

“We just didn’t have enough front end with laps on tires,” Kyle said.  “Had everything I had there early, then just smoked it behind the 42 [of Chastain].”

“Had one valiant effort off of 2, but just didn’t have enough momentum to drag him down and make him go high in 3 and 4.  After that, the tires were smoked.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kurt Busch

2. Kyle Busch

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Alex Bowman

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Chase Elliott

8. Christopher Bell

9. Matt DiBenedetto

10. Brad Keselowski

11. Kevin Harvick

12. Austin Dillon

13. Denny Hamlin

14. Bubba Wallace

15. Chase Briscoe

16. Chris Buescher

17. Cole Custer

18. Kyle Larson

19. Joey Logano

20. William Byron

21. Ross Chastain

22. Corey LaJoie

23. Aric Almirola

24. Erik Jones

25. Ryan Preece

26. Anthony Alfredo

27. Michael McDowell

28. Ryan Newman

29. Justin Haley

30. BJ McLeod

31. Garrett Smithley

32. Bayley Currey

33. Cody Ware

34. Josh Bilicki

35. Quin Houff

36. Daniel Suarez

37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

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