Joey Logano won his first race of the season with today’s victory.
8 Ford drivers led a combined 221 of the 260 laps with Logano leading a race-high 140.
Ford swept all three stages: Logano winning 1 and 3, and Austin Cindric taking Stage 2.
The win today is the 32nd of his Cup Series career and 30th with Ford.
Those 30 wins put him in a tie with Dale Jarrett for 4th on the all-time Ford win list.
Today’s win is Ford’s 721st all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW
“We lost our track position there for a minute, but was able to just stay patient and work on it and this amazing fast race car allowed me to really make some great moves on the racetrack and getting the push there on the last lap to get to the outside of Brad. Just getting to break the plane of his back bumper was gonna be my only chance there and I was able to get him there and get the push from the 20 on the backstretch. Overall, just a really fast Ford Mustang is what it came down to. It’s nice to win with Autotrader on the car. I don’t think I’ve ever won a race without Shell on the car. It means a lot to get this one in Victory Lane. It’s been a lot of years coming. Atlanta, this means so much to me to win here. So many memories of driving my Legends car right here where we’re standing when I was 9 years old. This is a really special one and a dream come true.”
YOU WERE ABLE TO CONTROL THE FIELD MUCH OF THE DAY, BUT HOW DID IT CHANGE THE FINAL STAGE? “The intensity ratcheted up, obviously. I’ve got great teammates and I wanted to stick with them. There were plenty of times I could have moved up, but I didn’t want to leave my teammates down there. I wanted them behind me. I knew how fast their cars were. If I could pick one, that’s the one I want, so I was able to try to keep them with me. I thought with two to go the outside lane got three cars, four cars clear and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna make it here,’ but I got a good push – enough to get to the outside of the 6 and that was the big difference.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 King’s Hawaiian Ford Mustang – “The bottom row came with a huge run. I don’t know how and I thought I had it blocked and Joey just kept shaking and his car didn’t stall out. I couldn’t get the push down the back. I thought, ‘I’ll just get a push down the back,’ and the 20 car just hauled down there. A great run all-in-all for our RFK King’s Hawaiian Ford Mustang. We were right there. I’m glad a Ford won. It was a heck of a battle. The coolest thing about this is two veterans showed that you can run a race here side-by-side bump drafting and not wreck the field. It can happen if you race respectfully and I thought everybody did a great job. We were right there. I’m proud of my team and the effort, just not much we could do there.”
YOUR TEAM HAS COME SO FAR. “It’s night and day from where we were a year ago, 100 percent. You just keep running like this with good finishes and the wins will come.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Knauf Ford Mustang – “Certainly a really solid day, a great points day for our Menards/Knauf Ford Mustang. It’s great to get a car in Victory Lane. I felt like we brought three of the best cars in Georgia and I think we showed it being able to string along the bottom line better than anyone else between myself and Ryan and Joey. It was just a perfect visual representation of teamwork all the way through the weekend, so congratulations to everyone at the shop and everyone on the 22 team, Autotrader. It’s cool to get the win and try and come back here during the summer and do the same.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Violet Defense Ford Mustang – “First off, our Violet Defense Ford Mustang was really fast and I’m proud of everybody for that. I made a mistake on pit road by getting a speeding penalty and that put us back in the field. We drove back up to third. The speed was there and we were doing it without unnecessary pushes in the center of the corner. I haven’t seen a replay to know exactly what happened, but I’ve got a pretty good feeling.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang – “I think he just caught me so quick right there in the middle of the corner and then he kind of was up on the right rear part of the corner and he came back down and when he came back down it just spun the thing out. I don’t think he actually even hit me, but it started chattering the rear tires and then I was just along for the ride.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – “I don’t even know what caused our wreck. I was looking back and forth between the windshield and the mirror trying to block people from being aggressive and taking you in the middle of three-wide. I looked back and forth and by the time I looked back they were wrecking in front of me. It’s just one of those deals. It was such a frustrating deal. I feel like our qualifying effort was not very good, obviously. I about crashed in qualifying, but I felt really good about our car in the race, but I just could not gain track position to maintain it. It’s really, really hard to leapfrog your way forward a lot of spots. It’s just frustrating how that worked out. Once you’re back there, you’re bound to get pushed into all the wrecks for sure.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “I’m OK. It knocked the wind out of me, mostly because it caught me by surprise, but I’m OK. I blew a tire. I just blew a tire. I have no idea why. We had way less laps on that set of tires than we had earlier, so I don’t know.”
