2021 Quaker State 400 Explained

Type:	CUST
Description:	Race 21 of 36 in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series
Race Name:	Quaker State 400
Details Ref:	^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6]
Year:	2021
Location:	Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
Course Mi:	1.54
Course Km:	2.48
Distance Laps:	260
Distance Mi:	400.4
Distance Km:	644.244
Avg:	147.207mph
Pole Driver:	Chase Elliott
Pole Team:	Hendrick Motorsports
Grid From Prev Perf:	yes
Most Driver:	Kurt Busch
Most Team:	Chip Ganassi Racing
Most Laps:	144
Car:	1
First Driver:	Kurt Busch
First Team:	Chip Ganassi Racing
Network:	NBCSN
Announcers:	Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Radio:	PRN
Booth Ann:	Doug Rice and Mark Garrow
Turn Ann:	Rob Albright (1 & 2) and Brad Gillie (3 & 4)

The 2021 Quaker State 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 11, 2021, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 260 laps on the 1.54-mile-long (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway, it was the 21st race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Kurt Busch, driving the No. 1 car for Chip Ganassi Racing, held off his younger brother Kyle to secure what would ultimately be CGR's final win in NASCAR. This was also the last race held at the track before it was re-configured into a superspeedway in 2022.

Report

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in Hampton, Georgia, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It is a 1.54miles quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a 1.5miles standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two 1.5miles ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Entry list

(R) denotes rookie driver.
(i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

	Driver	Manufacturer
00		Chevrolet
1		Chevrolet
2		Ford
3		Chevrolet
4		Ford
5		Chevrolet
6		Ford
7		Chevrolet
8		Chevrolet
9		Chevrolet
10		Ford
11		Toyota
12		Ford
14	Chase Briscoe (R)	Ford
15	Bayley Currey (i)	Chevrolet
17		Ford
18		Toyota
19		Toyota
20		Toyota
21		Ford
22		Ford
23		Toyota
24		Chevrolet
34		Ford
37		Chevrolet
38	Anthony Alfredo (R)	Ford
41		Ford
42		Chevrolet
43		Chevrolet
47		Chevrolet
48		Chevrolet
51	Cody Ware (i)	Chevrolet
52		Ford
53	Garrett Smithley (i)	Chevrolet
77	Justin Haley (i)	Chevrolet
78	B. J. McLeod (i)	Ford
99		Chevrolet
Official entry list

Qualifying

Chase Elliott was awarded the pole for the race as determined by competition-based formula.

Starting Lineup

Pos		Driver	Manufacturer
1	9		Chevrolet
2	18		Toyota
3	11		Toyota
4	20		Toyota
5	19		Toyota
6	5		Chevrolet
7	1		Chevrolet
8	8		Chevrolet
9	42		Chevrolet
10	22		Ford
11	14	Chase Briscoe (R)	Ford
12	21		Ford
13	3		Chevrolet
14	2		Ford
15	12		Ford
16	47		Chevrolet
17	48		Chevrolet
18	17		Ford
19	24		Chevrolet
20	10		Ford
21	4		Ford
22	43		Chevrolet
23	41		Ford
24	23		Toyota
25	34		Ford
26	7		Chevrolet
27	99		Chevrolet
28	77	Justin Haley (i)	Chevrolet
29	6		Ford
30	52		Ford
31	51	Cody Ware (i)	Chevrolet
32	38	Anthony Alfredo (R)	Ford
33	15	Bayley Currey (i)	Chevrolet
34	37		Chevrolet
35	00		Chevrolet
36	78	B. J. McLeod (i)
37	53	Garrett Smithley (i)	Chevrolet
Official starting lineup

Race

Chase Elliott was awarded the pole. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun into the wall and collected Daniel Suárez. Kyle Busch won the first stage while Kurt Busch won the second stage. The race went under a red flag for 20 minutes to repair damage to the track surface. Kurt and Kyle traded the lead with lapped traffic causing problems. After Kyle got into the wall, Kurt was able to pull away and win the race.

Stage Results

Stage OneLaps: 80

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	9
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	8
4	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	7
5	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	6
6	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	5
7	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	4
8	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	3
9	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	2
10	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	1
Official stage one results

Stage TwoLaps: 80

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	10
2	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	9
3	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	8
4	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	7
5	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	6
6	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	5
7	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	4
8	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	3
9	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	2
10	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage two results

Final Stage Results

Stage ThreeLaps: 100

Pos	Grid		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	8	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	260	59
2	2	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	54
3	5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	37
4	17	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	48
5	15	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	260	36
6	7	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	260	42
7	1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	30
8	4	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	29
9	12	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	260	28
10	14	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	260	30
11	21	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	27
12	13	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	260	27
13	3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	38
14	24	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	260	23
15	11	14	Chase Briscoe (R)	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	22
16	18	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	260	21
17	23	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	20
18	6	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	31
19	10	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	259	22
20	19	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	259	20
21	9	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	259	16
22	26	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	258	15
23	20	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	258	14
24	22	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	258	13
25	34	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	258	12
26	32	38	Anthony Alfredo (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	257	11
27	25	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	256	10
28	29	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	256	9
29	28	77	Justin Haley (i)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	255	0
30	36	78	B.J. McLeod (i)	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	254	0
31	37	53	Garrett Smithley (i)	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	253	0
32	33	15	Bayley Currey (i)	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	253	0
33	31	51	Cody Ware (i)	Petty Ware Racing	Chevrolet	253	0
34	30	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	248	3
35	35	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	248	2
36	27	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	243	1
37	16	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	178	1
Official race results

Race statistics

Lead changes: 10 among 7 different drivers
Cautions/Laps: 4 for 21
Red flags: 1 for 19 minutes and 4 seconds
Time of race: 2 hours, 50 minutes and 8 seconds
Average speed: 147.207mph

Media

Television

NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and 2004 Atlanta winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. called the race from the broadcast booth. Dave Burns, Marty Snider and Dillon Welch handled the pit road duties from pit lane. Rutledge Wood handled the features from the track.

Radio

The race was broadcast on radio by the Performance Racing Network and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front stretch. Rob Albright called the race from atop a billboard outside of turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2 & Brad Gillie called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. On pit road, PRN was manned by Alan Cavanna, Brett McMillan and Doug Turnbull.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Denny Hamlin	836
	2	Kyle Larson	826 (–10)
1	3	Kyle Busch	739 (–97)
1	4	William Byron	733 (–103)
1	5	Chase Elliott	704 (–132)
1	6	Joey Logano	700 (–136)
	7	Martin Truex Jr.	671 (–165)
	8	Ryan Blaney	639 (–197)
	9	Kevin Harvick	626 (–210)
	10	Brad Keselowski	623 (–213)
	11	Alex Bowman	609 (–227)
	12	Austin Dillon	571 (–265)
	13	Tyler Reddick	563 (–273)
	14	Kurt Busch	530 (–306)
	15	Christopher Bell	492 (–344)
	16	Chris Buescher	467 (–369)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1	Chevrolet	782
1	2	Toyota	720 (–62)
1	3	Ford	718 (–64)

Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

. – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Notes and References

Web site: 2021 schedule . Jayski.com. . June 1, 2021.
Web site: Atlanta Motor Speedway. NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC.. June 1, 2021. January 3, 2013. February 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160219053741/http://www.nascar.com/en_us/nascar-tracks/atlanta-motor-speedway.html. dead.
Web site: Entry List. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. July 6, 2021. July 6, 2021.
Web site: Starting Lineup. NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC.. July 7, 2021. July 7, 2021.
Web site: Quaker State 400 Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. July 11, 2021. July 11, 2021.
Web site: Points standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. July 11, 2021. July 11, 2021.