Blaney Leads 171 Laps for Atlanta Win, Most Since 1964

Ryan Blaney crossed the line at EchoPark Speedway a fraction ahead of the field, his No. 12 Ford arriving first out of a three-wide overtime dash. The Quaker State 400 was his. He led 171 of the race's 263 laps. It is the most laps led by a winner on a drafting track since Richard Petty ruled the 1964 Daytona 500.

The night belonged to Blaney from the start. His dominance began when he won pole position while joined by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano on the front row. He then survived the long weather delay to answer every challenge while winning Stage 1 and Stage 2, and then surviving a three-wide battle on the final lap. The race was delayed 3 hours, 9 minutes by rain and lightning and ended at 1:45 a.m. early Monday morning.

Decided in the final lap

The lead changed hands, but never for long. Elliott, Gibbs, Hocevar and others powered past Blaney's Ford to take the lead at various junctures, but Blaney, in a car crew chief Jonathan Hassler called one of the best the team has built, bounced back to lead every time. He chose patience over risk. "Some moves are kind of unbeatable to defend as the leader," he said. "I would just let people get to my inside. If they passed me, great, I think I can probably develop a run to get them back."

Then came the scare. Blaney brushed the wall with 29 laps remaining. Blaney worried he felt a "terrible" vibration following the contact with the wall, but Hassler was able to quickly determine there was no serious damage. The crew kept him out. In overtime, with a nudge from Christopher Bell, Blaney held the front through the three-wide finish. His margin of victory was under a single tenth.

"I couldn't ask for a better weekend," Blaney said. "Sat on the pole, won both stages, and won the race."

A step in the trajectory

The scale of it sets the performance apart. No driver in the modern era of NASCAR, from 1972 onward, had ever led that many laps in a single drafting race, across 228 different races. The showing ranks second all-time on drafting tracks, eclipsed only by Richard Petty's 1964 Daytona 500 victory, when NASCAR's King led 184 of 200 laps.

For Blaney, the win carried weight beyond the record. It marked his second win of the season and first since Phoenix in March. The 32-year-old North Carolinian and 2023 series champion now counts 19 Cup victories. As a result, Blaney is third in the NASCAR points race, only 65 behind leader Denny Hamlin.

He drove like the King, and he raced until the sky cleared.