Kurt Busch wins brother battle in Quaker State 400

Kurt and Kyle Busch are among the top sibling duos in NASCAR Cup Series history, and the racing deities decided in favour of the elder Kurt in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  The two battled each other throughout the final stage, but Kurt, with some help from Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Ross Chastain, was able to get it done and complete the Busch 1–2 finish.

Sunday’s race, the last on the current Atlanta configuration before it is redesigned ahead of the 2022 season, was dominated by the brothers as they led a combined 235 of 260 laps, with Kurt responsible for 144. Georgia native and pole-sitter Chase Elliott was the only non-Busch to lead double-digit laps as he had thirteen to begin the day.

Kyle began the Busch run when he took the lead from Elliott on lap 14 and went on to win the first stage ahead of Kurt, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. (who started at the back after failing pre-race inspection twice), and Kevin Harvick. The lone incident of the stage came on lap 32 when Cody Ware got loose in turn two while running four-abreast with Anthony Alfredo, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Daniel Suárez; Stenhouse and Suárez then made contact and spun into the inside wall on the backstretch, with Alfredo squeezing by to escape damage.

The older Busch dominated the second stage, only briefly surrendering the lead to Aric Almirola; as Almirola led, reports of rain hit the track but did not result in a red flag. Ironically, one would occur anyway at the end of the stage when the aging track surface, which had not been replaced since 1997 and was only changing in 2022 with the reconfiguration, broke off on the frontstretch and a delay was needed to fill it back in. After an approximately twenty-minute pause that incidentally coincided with the full duration of the Euro 2020 Final’s penalty kick shootout, the segment ended under yellow as Kurt took the stage win ahead of Kyle, Bowman, Larson, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, and Truex.

Stenhouse became the race’s lone retirement when he exited with a suspension failure shortly after the final stage began. Kurt and Kyle traded the lead throughout the segment before the two’s duel encountered lapped traffic; one of these cars was Kurt’s team-mate Chastain, who committed to the high line on lap 236 and blocked Kyle’s progress on Kurt. Kyle was miffed at Chastain’s action, saying in a post-race interview that it “shows you what kind of driver he is.”

In front of him, Kurt pulled away to score his thirty-third career win, first of 2021 to lock a playoff spot, and first at Atlanta since 2010. It is also Chip Ganassi’s first win since announcing in June that he would sell the team to Trackhouse Racing Team at the end of the year.

“Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of the top tracks for all the drivers based off of how we’re able to slide the car through the corners and choose which lane we want to race in,” said Busch, as the winner of the final race with Atlanta’s current design. “Like a raceability factor, Atlanta Motor Speedway was always at the top of the list. I came to respect her surface and to ask her for the right amount of grip today, and I could feel it. I could feel she was helping me pull through and come out on top. I really wanted to win this last race on the old surface. I was pushing hard, and really happy for our GearWrench team to win this last race here.

“It’s going to go through a facelift, going to have a lot of new feel and a lot of new action next year, but this was the last little bit of the old school, and I’m glad an older guy won the race today.”

Kyle finished runner-up for the brothers’ fourth 1–2 finish. The younger Busch won the first two instances at Sonoma in 2015 and 2019 Bristol spring, while Kurt topped Kyle at Atlanta and Kentucky in 2019.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	8	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	260	Running
2	2	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	Running
3	5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	Running
4	17	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
5	15	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	260	Running
6	7	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	260	Running
7	1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
8	4	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Chevrolet	260	Running
9	12	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	260	Running
10	14	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	260	Running
11	21	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
12	13	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	260	Running
13	3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	Running
14	24	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	260	Running
15	11	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
16	18	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	260	Running
17	23	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
18	6	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
19	10	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	259	Running
20	19	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	259	Running
21	9	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	259	Running
22	26	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	258	Running
23	20	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	258	Running
24	22	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	258	Running
25	34	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	258	Running
26	32	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	257	Running
27	25	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	256	Running
28	29	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	256	Running
29	28	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	255	Running
30	36	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	254	Running
31	37	53	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	253	Running
32	33	15	Bayley Currey*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	253	Running
33	31	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	253	Running
34	30	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	248	Running
35	35	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	248	Running
36	27	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	243	Running
37	16	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	178	Suspension

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Xfinity points