NASCAR at Atlanta 2015: Winners and Losers from the QuikTrip 500

Things got ugly at the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. We didn’t see the "Big One" at Daytona, but we most certainly did at Atlanta.

And standing above them all, coming from way back, coming back from a poor pit stop, was Mr. Six-Time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. He snagged his fourth win in 24 starts at Atlanta and his 21st win at a 1.5-mile track, according to Fox.

Kevin Harvick took his second top-two in as many weeks as the field heads to Las Vegas.

“I had one bad restart where I spun the tires on the outside,” Harvick said during the Fox broadcast. “We just never recovered from that one.”

He couldn't. Not with how Johnson's car gained strength as the day grew long.

This race was a mess, with 10 cautions, one red flag and numerous four-tire pit stops.

Read on for the winners and losers from NASCAR’s second race of this young season.

Loser: Spinning Out in the Mud

John Raoux/Associated Press

Austin Dillon’s No. 3 car’s left rear tire caused a terrible ruckus about 60 laps into the race. Debris flew off his left quarter panel, causing damage to other cars.

Dillon spun out on the infield and struggled to gain traction. He sprayed mud and hit the throttle in an effort to reach the track.

It was a forgettable day for Dillon, who finished 39th in Atlanta. He had a better go of it at Daytona—where he finished a slick 14th in the Great American Race a week ago—a place where he had won the pole as a rookie in 2014.

Dillon hasn’t yet had that breakout performance in his young career. He lost out to Kyle Larson for the 2014 Rookie of the Year. But he has the support of his grandfather, Richard Childress, and drives the signature car and number.

He’ll get his, but it wasn’t to be at AMS.

Winner: Atlanta Second on the Schedule

Joe Sebo/Associated Press

Atlanta Motor Speedway's QuikTrip 500, despite the weather, is a big winner for one logistical reason: its place on the schedule.

“The change in the schedule with Atlanta second, it’s like Christmas for me,” Carl Edwards said during the Fox broadcast. Maybe he got coal in his stocking since he finished 12th in this year's race.

In the past, the circuit shipped west after Daytona. Instead, NASCAR drove north 413 miles to parlay that Daytona momentum to the Peach State.

Ed Clark, president of AMS, told NASCAR.com:

"

The thing that's different about this one is that in the past, the Daytona 500 kicked the season off, we came home and had two to three weeks of outstanding interest in the sport. The day after the 500 was always your biggest ticket sales day of the year. In this case the Daytona 500 is over Sunday afternoon and we’re into Atlanta's race week right then.

"

Sure, it was cold and a bit wet, but the timing and geography of this race make AMS a winner going forward.

Loser: Joey Logano's Grip on the Lead

Reinhold Matay/Associated Press

Joey Logano was straight powerful—until the halfway point in the race, until Harvick blew by.

Logano started Sunday’s race on the pole. He had a strong finish in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, proving that he carried that incredible momentum from his emphatic Daytona 500 win. For a time in Atlanta, he looked unbeatable.

Harvick, who finished second behind Logano in the Daytona 500, switched that position. Logano knew Harvick would be one of the drivers to beat, despite starting last of them all.

“He has been pretty good at Atlanta,” Logano said during the Fox pre-race broadcast. “We’ll do everything we can to knock him off his pedestal.”

There was nothing Logano could do. Once he lost his grip on the lead to Harvick, there was little he could do except slip farther and farther back.

"Everyone got better and we didn't. Everyone got faster and we stayed the same," Logano said during the Fox broadcast.

But here’s the thing: Logano’s in the Chase. Winning is no longer mandatory, but the way his car has been running through the first two races, he looks capable of winning three or four races before this season expires.

Winner: The 15 Championships in the Back Rows

John Bazemore/Associated Press

Several prominent drivers faced a good deal of frustration at the start of Sunday’s race. It dealt with cars failing to get through tech during qualifying inspections.

That had people like Jeff Gordon unhappy, according to FoxSports.com:

"

There is something wrong with this system, or there is something wrong with the time on the clock to get through. There's no way this many good cars, talented people, that they can't figure out how to get these cars through inspection. These guys are too smart. Yeah, we're pushing limits, but there's something wrong here. I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for this series right now that this just happened. ... This is just absolutely ridiculous.

"

Spoken like a man who’s retiring this year.

Also included in the snafu were Matt Kenseth, Johnson and Tony Stewart. Harvick lost an engine and had to drop back to 40th. That put 15 championships at the back of the bus.

It made for some great racing to see these powerful cars and drivers weave through traffic and get up into the top third.

That’s called video-game racing.

Loser: Tony Stewart

Reinhold Matay/Associated Press

Stewart was one of those former champions who started at the end of the line. The other champions—Kenseth, Johnson, Gordon and Harvick—all made significant moves up the field (although Gordon would suffer a race-ending crash with about 60 laps to go).

Stewart had no horse.

He didn’t even crack the top 30 until Lap 120.

This wasn’t the start to the season that Smoke wanted. He wrecked early in the Daytona 500 and was off the track watching his teammates drive. Having never won the race, he was pegged as a dark horse to win. Instead, he finished off the track.

Redemption wouldn’t come at Atlanta, either, and having to start at the back of the pack did little to inspire confidence. He was, for a time, in good company. But as those drivers pulled away and raced to the front of the pack, one couldn’t help but think of the symbolism of being left behind.

It could be that Stewart may be competitive but never wins again. He may be happy to take a backseat to Harvick, whose No. 4 car crushes these 1.5-mile tracks.

So long as Harvick wins, Stewart can still cash a check.

Winner: Matt Kenseth

Reinhold Matay/Associated Press

Kenseth snagged a fifth-place finish at Atlanta, were he was all over the track. He started at the back with four other champions and grinded his way to the front.

“It’s good to finish fifth with the kind of day we had,” he said during the Fox broadcast. “There were some good adjustments and some bad adjustments. Everyone worked hard and didn’t give up. We just had to gamble and try to get some track position.”

The No. 20 car had tire issues all day. He pitted early and gambled on cautions. Kenseth is close to winning, and bouncing back this way at Atlanta is very promising for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

Kenseth has three career wins at Las Vegas and could finally snap his losing streak that extends back to 2013, a year in which he won seven times.

Loser: Exposed Concrete Walls

Russell Norris/Associated Press

Seriously? Two weeks in a row.

Wasn’t the gruesome crash that put Kyle Busch in the hospital with a compound fracture to his lower leg enough?

In purely reactive fashion, Talladega and Kentucky added more SAFER barriers (better than nothing) to their exposed concrete walls.

When Denny Hamlin lost control of his Camry and spun out, the chain reaction sent Gordon into the exposed concrete wall and shredded his car. He walked out on his own power—unlike Busch a week ago—but pointed to the concrete wall with no SAFER barriers. Gordon’s body language said it all.

“I was along for the ride,” Gordon said during the Fox broadcast. “It wouldn’t have been too bad except I hit the one spot with no SAFER barrier. I can’t believe it. That’s amazing to me. Hopefully soon it will get fixed. It was a pretty big impact.”

NASCAR dodged a bullet here. One of NASCAR’s most popular drivers finished off the track with his No. 24 Chevy torn down to bits. This happened a week after Busch totaled his car at Daytona.

If this keeps up, a driver could end up paralyzed or, worse, dead.

Tom Jensen, a writer for FoxSports.com, tweeted after the crash, “And this is why we need SAFER barriers everywhere. Period.”

Though, as an aside, this may not be as easy as it sounds.

Winner: Bad Fast Jimmie Johnson

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Johnson started 37th and finished first. He did it after not getting a chance to qualify. He did it after a horribly botched pit stop.

When it came time to restart with about a dozen laps to go, Johnson fended off teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. and peeled the paint off the walls the rest of the way, fending off Harvick.

It took him until the end of May to win his first race in 2014, but now he’s locked up a bid in the Chase with 24 races to go until the postseason.

“We thought we were a top-10 car last night,” Johnson said during the Fox broadcast. “We had some troubles on pit road, but once we got by the No. 19 [Carl Edwards], we got track position and didn’t get tripped up on pit stops. We were just bad fast.”

He went on to say he had a blast racing with Harvick. The two battled during restarts and for the late green-flag runs. Watching two heavyweights go at it was a reward for enduring what was nearly a four-hour race.

Johnson has won four times at Las Vegas, and there’s no reason to think he can’t keep the momentum going in Sin City.