HAMPTON, Ga. — A sense of relief pervaded over pit road for many after Sunday’s playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Because, quite frankly, it could have been worse.
They could have been Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Briscoe. All three finished 35th or worse.
While Joey Logano — who entered the playoffs seeded ninth — celebrated the victory and moved on to the second round of the playoffs, even Ty Gibbs could crack a brief smile after watching a chance to win turn into a 17th-place finish.
Gibbs holds the final transfer spot with races left at Watkins Glen and Bristol in the first round. Those are viewed by many as wildcard races because of the tire wear that is expected at both events.
Even sitting on the cutline is a move up for Gibbs. He had entered the race last among the 16 playoff drivers in the standings.
Gibbs led with four laps to go to the scheduled distance and was in position to give the series its second first-time in the past three weeks.
But one wrong move changed everything.
“I was a little frustrated in myself because I didn’t block and just kind of put myself to the back,” Gibbs said. “So it’s my fault. Frustrated about that, but I’m just glad that we got good points and finished the race, honestly.”
Gibbs left the track with a one-point lead on Brad Keselowski, the first driver below the cutline.
Daniel Suarez was in position to sweep the Atlanta Cup races but finished second. After celebrating at this track in February, standing on pit road didn’t feel as good. Still, he went from 11th in the standings entering the race to ninth. He’s 22 points ahead of Keselowski.
“Honestly, right now, I don’t care about points,” Suarez said. “It’s just hard that we’re not in Victory Lane, but that’s part of it. Maybe there is a couple of things I could have done better.”
Ryan Blaney finished third, scoring a race-high 53 points and went from fifth in the points entering the event to first afterward.
“Even though we don’t advance automatically, we had a great day,” he said. “Winning a stage, second in the other, running … third today. That’s a really good day.”
It was much better than others. Larson entered as the points leader because he had more playoff points than anybody else. But he finished 37th after an early crash and fell to 10th in the points. He’s 15 points ahead of Keselowski.
Chase Briscoe couldn’t avoid Larson and damaged his car beyond repair. Briscoe finished last in the 38-car field and fell to last in the playoff standings. He’s 21 points behind Gibbs.
“We just have to go win,” Briscoe said. “That’s what we had to do at Darlington and I know we’re capable of doing it again, so we’ll just have to go to Watkins Glen and Bristol and try to do the same.”
Truex is in a similar position after an awful day. He is 19 points behind Gibbs after finishing 35th. Truex was among three Joe Gibbs Racing cars that started at the rear after changing plug wires before the race. He had a pit road speeding penalty and his car was damaged when he hit Ryan Blaney’s car after Chris Buescher had hit Blaney on Lap 206.