Ryan Blaney / Team Penske Capture Ford Racing’s 750th All-Time NASCAR Cup Win in Atlanta

EchoPark Speedway, Hampton, GA — July 12, 2026

Maybe this is the week Ford gets that elusive 750th NASCAR Cup Series win. EchoPark Speedway hosts NASCAR’s premier series for a night race at the track just south of the Atlanta metroplex. Ford has dominated the speedway in recent years. Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano start on the front row for tonight’s Quaker State 400.

• Ford has won the last seven NASCAR Cup Series poles at AMS (Joey Logano twice, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell twice, and Ryan Blaney twice).
• Ford has swept the front row in seven straight AMS qualifying sessions: Blaney/Logano (2026-2), Logano/Berry (2025-2), Blaney/Cindric (2025-1), McDowell/Blaney (2024-2), McDowell/Logano (2024-1), Almirola/Blaney (2023-2), Logano/Cindric (2023-1).
• Team Penske has had at least one driver start on the front row in each of the last six races (Blaney and Logano, 2026-2; Logano, 2025-2; Blaney and Cindric, 2025-1; Blaney, 2024-2; Logano, 2024-1; Blaney, 2023-2; Logano and Cindric, 2023-1)

This late in the season it is unusual for Ford to have only one Cup Series checkered flag, it came in March at Phoenix Raceway with Ryan Blaney behind the wheel.

What makes Atlanta special? On July 6, 2021, the Next Generation of Atlanta Motor Speedway (now EchoPark Speedway) was unveiled as the track was re-imagined and re-paved. The multi-million dollar project took six months to complete. The banking in the four turns at Atlanta were increased to 28 degrees in 2021, making them the steepest turns in NASCAR on a 1.5-mile track.

Today’s Race

After Tyler Reddick’s misfortune last week at Chicagoland Denny Hamlin now holds a 44 point lead in the regular season standings. He has gained 173 points on Reddick over the last seven races.

The other points battle is for the final spots into the postseason. Erik Jones currently holds the 16th and final position to advance to The Chase. Ryan Preece is in 17th, just four points back.

The 400 miles at Atlanta translates to 260 laps around the 1.54-mile track with Stages set for 60/100/100 laps. Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast and when that arrives the character of the race can take an unexpected turn.

Season Trends

• Only five of the 14 drivers with wins in 2025 have won in 2026
• Eight total races in 2026 were sold out including six of the last seven races
• The final green flag stretch was 39 laps or more in four of the last five races
• 19 different drivers won a stage in 2026, 19 drivers total won a stage in all of 2025
• The Stage 1 winner won just once in the last 15 races (Denny Hamlin – Pocono)
• Only one of the last 15 stage winners went on to win (Denny Hamlin – Stage 1 Pocono)
• Eight of the 19 races in 2026 were won by the driver starting first

Stage One

Ryan Blaney(12) and Joey Logano(22) took off right from the drop of the green flag. It did not take long for Austin Cindric(2) to make it a Team Penske runaway at the front of the pack as the three teammates separated themselves from the rest of the pack.

Kyle Larson(5) joined the trio and pulled others back into contact with the leaders. Carson Hocevar(77) joined the top five and Austin Dillon(3) ran in the six spot. Larson is still riding the longest winless streak of his career, it has reached 43 races and EchoPark is not one of his favorite tracks.

Tyler Reddick(45) drove to the front and was the first car to challenge the top three Fords. But it was Larson who broke up the top three moving to second behind Blaney.

Business picked up as the laps wound down to 10 to go in the Stage. Reddick moved past Larson for second and dropped Logano and Cindric back to fourth and fifth. Reddick got beside Blaney but could not make the pass before the green and white checkered flag waved.

Results of Stage One

Stage Two

If Blaney were to have all the positions back he has lost on pit road this year he might well be leading the points. Reddick was first off pit road followed by Larson, Blaney, A. Dillon and Christopher Bell(20).

Dillon pushed Reddick away from the pack but could not hang onto the draft. Blaney worked his way in behind Reddick and brought Larson with him. They both passed Reddick and began swapping the lead until Blaney finally pulled away.

Hocevar took a turn at the front. Bubba Wallace(23) moved into second and Erik Jones(43) made an appearance in the top five. Blaney was the only driver able to consistently to take command of the lead.

Rain began to fall and NASCAR was forced to display the red flag on lap 108, just 32 laps short of an official distance.

Reporters in the media room have raised the point that Sunday night racing is a challenge for fans that must get up early Monday morning and go to work. The same is true for those of us who cover the sports weekly. I apologize to our readers that this reporter fell victim to circumstances. With an early morning assignment for Monday I signed off at 11 pm EDT Sunday night while track drying continued at EchoPark Speedway. So this week’s race report is somewhat abbreviated.

Racing resumed just after midnight in the Quaker State 400 (a three hour plus delay) and ended at approximately 1:45 am EDT Monday morning.

Ryan Blaney continued his domination of the race by winning Stage Two and leading 184 laps including the last one.

Notable Race Particulars

• Blaney’s victory was the 750th win for Ford Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series.
• Christopher Bell’s second place finish matched last week’s result at Chicago, despite still recovering from a broken wrist suffered at Michigan.
• Carson Hocevar led the race under the white flag but was outrun to the checkers by clearly the fasted car in the field.
• Bubba Wallace finished second but was penalized for going below the double yellow line on the last lap of the race, the move cost him dearly as he was relegated to 29th place, the last car on the lead lap.
• A massive wreck collected Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe(19) and Riley Herbst(35) with five laps to go sent the race into overtime.
• Blaney, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, and Todd Gilliland advanced to the semifinal bracket of the NASCAR In-Season Tournament Challenge.
• Denny Hamlin maintained the regular-season points lead, all though Tyler Reddick cut the deficit to 24 points behind and Blaney climbed to within 65 points of the Regular Season Championship sitting in third.