HAMPTON, Ga. — A look at the winners and losers from Atlanta:
WINNERS
William Byron — Overcame a pit road penalty and involvement in an incident to win his series-high fourth race of the season. Even he was amazed at winning the rain-shortened race, saying: “Honestly I don’t completely understand this one. … Just a crazy night.”
JJ Yeley — Seventh-place finish was his first top 10 since the 2013 Daytona 500. He’s run select races for Rick Ware Racing this season. He says the plan is for him to do more. He just doesn’t which ones. Either way, he can walk away with the best finish of the season for the organization.
Michael McDowell — Gambled on fuel and finished fourth, giving him enough points to move into the final playoff transfer spot with seven races left in the regular season. He pitted on Lap 91 and said when the race ended on Lap 185 that he had probably “one or two more pace laps left” before he had to pit.
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN WINNER AND LOSER
Kyle Busch — He gets his own category this week after his fifth-place finish. It’s the third week in a row he’s had issues … but come back to score a top 10. He overcame a flat tire, speeding penalty and spin to finish ninth at Nashville and followed that by overcoming a shunt into the tire barrier that buried his car to his windshield to finish fifth at Chicago. Sunday, a slow pit stop put him at the back of the field and he hit the wall in an incident with Noah Gragson. Still, Busch scored his seventh consecutive top 10. Go figure.
LOSERS
Alex Bowman — His 26th-place finish continued his slide. In the six races since he returned from injury, Bowman has finished no better than 12th. He’s fallen from 16th to 22nd in the points. He’s only 16 points ahead of teammate Chase Elliott, who has run four fewer races.
Corey LaJoie — He entered Sunday’s race having scored top fives in two of the three races since Atlanta was reconfigured (Ross Chastain was the only other driver to match that). So, this was thought to be one of LaJoie’s best chances to win and earn a playoff spot. Instead, he was involved in an accident and finished 31st.
Kyle Larson — Finished 36th after a crash, ending his season-long streak of four consecutive top 10s. In the four speedway-style races this season, he’s finished 18th (Daytona 500), 31st (Atlanta I) and 33rd (Talladega I). He’s failed to finish all four speedway-style races this year.
