The 2021 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on March 21, 2021, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 325 laps on the asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway, it was the sixth race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Ryan Blaney won the race, driving a Ford. Kyle Larson led for 269 laps, but Blaney overtook him 8 laps from the end because Larson's tires were wearing out.
Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in Hampton, Georgia, south of Atlanta. It is a quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.
Denny Hamlin was awarded the pole for the race as determined by competition-based formula.
The green flag was waved at 2:19 PM ET, with pole sitter Denny Hamlin jumping to an early lead, along with Martin Truex Jr. starting on his outside.
On lap 8, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ross Chastain made slight contact while battling for 16th, as both were entering turn 3 off the back straightaway. Denny Hamlin would lead all 26 laps up until the competition caution waved on lap 26. Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney notably moved up several positions early. Quin Houff, who was 32nd, would receive the free pass, and Kyle Larson would win the race off pit road with Denny Hamlin behind him in 2nd and Kevin Harvick in 3rd.
The race restarted on lap 31; however, Kevin Harvick, who was in 3rd, had to come down pit road before the green flag due to a tire issue. As Kyle Larson pulled ahead to the lead on the restart, Kevin Harvick barely stayed on the lead lap as he rejoined the field. No cautions would come out for the rest of Stage 1 as Kyle Larson dominated. Larson would cycle out to the lead once again after green-flag pit stops around lap 63 and eventually lapped Kevin Harvick, who was now 26th, on lap 74. Larson would go on to lead the rest of the stage. He was able to lap up to 20th place but could not pass 19th-place Daniel Suárez before Stage 1 concluded on lap 105.
Aric Almirola would earn the free pass. Kyle Larson once again won the race off pit road with Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney following behind him in 2nd and 3rd before the start of Stage 2. Ross Chastain was penalized because of an uncontrolled tire.
Stage 2 started on lap 113 with Kyle Larson leading on the inside and Kyle Busch in 2nd on the outside. Kyle Busch spun his tires on the restart, backing up the outside lane and stacking up those behind him, including Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Chris Buescher, and Denny Hamlin. Denny Hamlin made contact with Kurt Busch's bumper, sending him into the outside wall and ending Kurt Busch's day, while bringing out a caution on lap 113. Michael McDowell, who was running 21st before Kurt Busch wrecked, received the free pass.
On the ensuing restart on lap 119, Ryan Blaney briefly took the lead from Kyle Larson to lead the lap, but Larson quickly overtook him to regain control of the race. On lap 123, Martin Truex Jr., running 10th, slid up the track entering turn 3 and made contact with Brad Keselowski, who was running 12th, damaging the front end of Keselowski's car.
Green-flag pit stops began on lap 160 and continued until Brad Keselowski, who had been lapped by Kyle Larson on lap 141 and was running with a damaged car, finally pitted on lap 171. Kyle Larson once again cycled to the lead, and Stage 2 remained green the rest of the way, with Kyle Larson leading every lap after the lap 114 restart. As Stage 2 came to a close on lap 210, Larson had lapped up to 15th place, which included usual Atlanta contenders such as Kevin Harvick, the damaged and several-laps-down Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano, who was running 15th and received the free pass.
Before the final stage, Kyle Larson narrowly won the race off pit road over Ryan Blaney in 2nd and Alex Bowman in 3rd. Both Blaney and Bowman chose the inside lane on the upcoming restart, setting William Byron up to lead the outside lane in 2nd.
On the lap 218 restart, Kyle Larson jumped out to another lead, bringing Ryan Blaney with him on the inside lane while William Byron and Matt DiBenedetto struggled to get a good jump on the outside lane. However, shortly after on lap 219, Chase Elliott's engine expired while running 14th, exiting turn 4 and bringing out a caution on lap 220, ending Elliott's day. Bubba Wallace received the free pass.
The leaders used the caution to pit on lap 221. This time, Ryan Blaney won the race off pit road ahead of Kyle Larson in 2nd and Alex Bowman in 3rd. Kyle Busch, who initially exited pit road 4th, was penalized for speeding on pit exit. 21 drivers waived their ability to pit and took the wave around. Cole Custer, Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, and Aric Almirola were the only ones among them able to get back onto the lead lap.
Ryan Blaney chose the inside lane to lead the restart while Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, and William Byron also rolled on the inside behind Blaney. Denny Hamlin elected to take Blaney's outside to restart in 2nd in front of Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Newman.
The final restart went green on lap 225 with 100 to go in the race. Blaney managed to hold off Larson and Hamlin on the restart, building a 0.25-second lead before Larson managed to get around Hamlin. With 89 laps to go (lap 237), Ryan Blaney ceded the lead to a hard-charging Kyle Larson, so he could tuck in behind Larson's car and use the airflow to dislodge debris from his grill that was causing his engine to run hot. Blaney managed to get the debris off, but at the expense of Kyle Larson recapturing his lead, and extending it to continue his dominant day.
Martin Truex Jr. kicked off the final cycle of green-flag pit stops on lap 267 with 59 to go. On lap 268, Daniel Suárez was penalized for speeding on pit-exit. Kyle Larson pitted from the lead shortly after on lap 269 along with Ryan Blaney in 2nd, who was 0.90 seconds behind Larson. Larson kept the lead on pit road and cycled to 2.25 seconds ahead of Ryan Blaney on lap 270. On the next lap, Anthony Alfredo, who was a lap down in 21st, spun fully around his box while pitting, almost hitting Aric Almirola's pit crew during the No. 10 team's pit stop, who were in 4th as they ran the last cycle long. No cars were damaged.
By lap 290, with 36 laps to go, Kyle Larson had extended his lead over Ryan Blaney to 3.1 seconds. However, by lap 296, Blaney had shrunken Larson's gap to only 2.1 seconds with 30 to go and continued to close in. Blaney's progress accelerated even more within the last twenty laps as Kyle Larson struggled to lap Ryan Blaney's Penske Racing teammate, Joey Logano, who was running in 15th. With 13 laps to go, Ryan Blaney was less than 0.85 seconds behind as Kyle Larson still couldn't find speed and remained five to six car lengths behind Logano. On lap 316 with 10 to go, Larson was hindered even more as he lost time navigating behind the lapped cars of Joey Gase and Timmy Hill, who were both running 35th and 36th. Blaney trailed Larson by just 0.45 seconds before reeling him in with 9 laps to go. Coming to the line with 8 laps remaining (lap 318), Blaney powered underneath Larson on the tri-oval to take the lead.
With 6 laps left, Corey LaJoie â running 29th â hit the wall entering Turn 1 but managed to bring his car down pit road without drawing a caution. Larson struggled to regain momentum, falling 0.97 seconds behind Blaney on worn tires, especially after getting held up by Blaney's Penske teammate Brad Keselowski, who was 28th and several laps down.
Ryan Blaney took the white flag and held off Kyle Larson by 2.083 seconds to capture the win. Despite leading a race-high 269 laps, Larson had to settle for 2nd, while Blaney secured his fifth career win after leading just 25 laps.
Stage One Laps: 105
Stage Two Laps: 105
Stage Three Laps: 115
The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was carried by Fox in the United States. Mike Joy, five-time Atlanta winner Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith handled pit road for the television side. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.
The race was broadcast on radio by the Performance Racing Network and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front stretch. Rob Albright called the race from atop a billboard outside of turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2 & Pat Patterson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. On pit road, PRN was manned by Brad Gillie, Doug Turnbull and Wendy Venturini.