2021 Quaker State 400

Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Race 21 of 36 in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series
Date	July 11, 2021 (2021-07-11)
Location	Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km)
Distance	260 laps, 400.4 mi (644.244 km)
Average speed	147.207 miles per hour (236.907 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports
Grid positions set by competition-based formula
Most laps led
Driver	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing
Laps	144
Winner
No. 1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing
Television in the United States
Network	NBCSN
Announcers	Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Radio in the United States
Radio	PRN
Booth Announcers	Doug Rice and Mark Garrow
Turn Announcers	Rob Albright (1 & 2) and Brad Gillie (3 & 4)

The 2021 Quaker State 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 11, 2021, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 260 laps on the 1.54-mile-long (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway, it was the 21st race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Kurt Busch, driving the No. 1 car for Chip Ganassi Racing, held off his younger brother Kyle to secure what would ultimately be CGR's final win in NASCAR. This was also the last race held at the track before it was re-configured into a superspeedway in 2022.

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in Hampton, Georgia, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It is a 1.54-mile (2.48 km) quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) 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 1.5-mile (2.4 km) 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.

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Chase Elliott was awarded the pole for the race as determined by competition-based formula.^[4]

Chase Elliott was awarded the pole. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun into the wall and collected Daniel Suárez. Kyle Busch won the first stage while Kurt Busch won the second stage. The race went under a red flag for 20 minutes to repair damage to the track surface. Kurt and Kyle traded the lead with lapped traffic causing problems. After Kyle got into the wall, Kurt was able to pull away and win the race.

Stage One Laps: 80

Stage Two Laps: 80

Stage Three Laps: 100

• Lead changes: 10 among 7 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 4 for 21
• Red flags: 1 for 19 minutes and 4 seconds
• Time of race: 2 hours, 50 minutes and 8 seconds
• Average speed: 147.207 miles per hour (236.907 km/h)

NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and 2004 Atlanta winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. called the race from the broadcast booth. Dave Burns, Marty Snider and Dillon Welch handled the pit road duties from pit lane. Rutledge Wood handled the features from the track.

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 & Brad Gillie 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 Alan Cavanna, Brett McMillan and Doug Turnbull.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Denny Hamlin 836 2 Kyle Larson 826 (–10) 1 3 Kyle Busch 739 (–97) 1 4 William Byron 733 (–103) 1 5 Chase Elliott 704 (–132) 1 6 Joey Logano 700 (–136) 7 Martin Truex Jr. 671 (–165) 8 Ryan Blaney 639 (–197) 9 Kevin Harvick 626 (–210) 10 Brad Keselowski 623 (–213) 11 Alex Bowman 609 (–227) 12 Austin Dillon 571 (–265) 13 Tyler Reddick 563 (–273) 14 Kurt Busch 530 (–306) 15 Christopher Bell 492 (–344) 16 Chris Buescher 467 (–369) Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 782 1 2 Toyota 720 (–62) 1 3 Ford 718 (–64) Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings. . – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.