HAMPTON, Georgia — Jimmie Johnson won the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday for his second straight win at the track and his 76th career victory, tying him with Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all-time wins list.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took runner-up honors to give Hendrick Motorsports a one-two finish. Kyle Busch finished third after starting last. Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.
Kevin Harvick dominated throughout the second half of the race until Johnson utilized a pit strategy of pitting early during the final cycle of green-flag pit stops to gain time on newer tires. Johnson made his final stop with 49 laps remaining, nine laps before Harvick.
Johnson had a lead of more than 14 seconds over Harvick by the time the cycle completed. Harvick was able to cut his deficit to between six and seven seconds before a late-race caution for Ryan Newman’s blown engine bunched up the field.
After taking tires, Johnson got off pit road first to maintain his lead and drive on to the win. Harvick restarted next to him on the front row, but dropped back to sixth by the finish.
Harvick took the lead on lap 136. Prior to Johnson’s race-winning pit strategy, most of the laps not led by Harvick in the second half were laps during green-flag cycles of stops. Martin Truex Jr. was the only driver able to pass Harvick on the race track, doing so twice, each time leading for about a lap.
After pole sitter Kurt Busch showed the way early in the race, Matt Kenseth took the lead on lap 64. Kenseth lost the lead to both Johnson and Harvick, but was the primary leader before a pit road miscue during a cycle of green flag pit stops on lap 121.
Kenseth’s No. 20 of Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team was assessed a penalty for improper fueling because the gas man laid a wrench on the deck lid of the car while the gas can was engaged. To make matters worse, after Kenseth was black-flagged for the penalty, his crew, preoccupied with arguing its case to a NASCAR official, failed to tell Kenseth to pit before NASCAR stopped scoring him. As a result, Kenseth went one lap down, running a lap without being scored, and then another lap when he finally served the penalty.
As David Ragan, Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney and Landon Cassill wrecked on the final lap, Truex finished seventh, Chase Elliott eighth, Brad Keselowski ninth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 10th.