HAMPTON, Ga. – Joey Logano held off the field to kick off the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs with a win in the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

On the final restart of the afternoon in NASCAR Overtime, Logano and Team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney restarted on the bottom lane, and Daniel Suarez with Trackhouse Racing teammate, Ross Chastain restarted on the high lane. The four drivers were even heading down the backstreatch, but as they came around to take the white flag, it was the Team Penske drivers in command. Chastain was pushed up the track in Turn 3, and it opened the door for Logano to commandeer the race and win.

“Man, incredible execution from the team,” Logano said. “When it’s Playoff time, it’s our time. As I said, we got to always get the level up when it comes Playoff time.”

The NASCAR Overtime win marked Logano’s second of the season, and now he’ll advance to the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Playoffs.

“It’s always special,” Logano said. “But here, I mean, I lived right there in 805 (condo in Turn 4) for about six years. It was a lot of time looking at this racetrack, dreaming about going down into turn one.”

Suarez, the driver who prevailed in the three-wide photo finish in February has the best average finish over the last four races, but he came up short to finish second on Sunday. That being said, the runner-up effort is a great start to the NASCAR Playoffs for the team. He now sits ninth in the standings, 22 points above the Round of 12 cutline.

“A little painful,” Suarez said. “I feel like we were in position. Sometimes it’s very difficult to predict who is going to get the best push, for how long you’re going to get it. It’s part of the game, right? We were in contention. The team did an amazing job.”

Blaney finished third and is now second in the standings, 45 points above the cutline, so it was a strong day for Team Penske. Blaney however, had a difficult journey to the end. On Lap 206, he sustained fairly heavy damage, but the team fixed the No. 12 Dent Wizard Ford, and Blaney drove his way to the front.

“Yeah, honestly I can’t believe we got back up where we did,” Blaney said. “The 12 boys did a really good job fixing it. I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than what it did.

“From my seat, I got drilled in the left rear, the door I guess is where it hit me. The right rear got off the fence. I didn’t know how damaged we were. I was kind of able to carve up through traffic, could kind of get through the middle pretty good.”

NASCAR Playoff contenders, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five. Tyler Reddick finished sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Austin Cindric.

Team Penske swept the stages. Blaney won Stage 1, and Austin Cindric won Stage 2.

The caution flew on eight occasions for 44 laps.

Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe crashed hard on Lap 56 to bring out the first caution of the day. Larson lost control while running third and slammed extremely hard into the outside wall. With nowhere to go, Briscoe plowed into the back of him.

STORY: Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe Take Massive Hits In Stage 1 At Atlanta Motor Speedway

The largest crash of the day occurred on the final lap. Bubba Wallace spun in the middle of the pack in the final turn and collected 10 drivers.

The second race of the Round of 16 will take place at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, Sept. 15. Live coverage of the Go Bowling at The Glen will broadcast on USA at 3 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com