At a family duel, Kurt Busch wins his first race of 2021 in Atlanta

Kurt Busch defeated his younger brother Kyle Busch in the Quaker State 400 on Sunday, securing his spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for 2021 and winning his 33rd career race. Walmart is the sponsor of this event.

Busch, 42, has excelled at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile track. Sunday’s victory was his fourth at the historic NASCAR track, the most among the current field, and  the last trophy given before the historic NASCAR track is repaved and reconfigured going forward.

More importantly, Busch’s work on Sunday was a big statement for him, given he entered the race with only a 25-point lead in the championship standings and six races remaining to set the 16-driver Playoffs field. He’s “in” now he’s won, and his relief and excitement were palpable as he climbed out of Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 1 Chevrolet.

He earned a Playoffs spot while also matching the score with his brother, who has won two races in the four times they have finished first and second, respectively.

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“Hell yeah, we beat Kyle,’’ a smiling Kurt Busch said after climbing out of his car, putting his fists in the air, and turning toward the cheering crowd in the grandstands.

“What a battle on an old-school race track,’’ said Busch, who has 33 career NASCAR Cup Series wins.

“It’s been one of those years where I knew we were going to have our back against the wall, just above the [Playoffs] cut-off line and needed to race hard and race smart.’’

Not surprisingly, Kyle Busch was in a much better mood than his brother as he stood by his car on pit lane. As the two brothers battled for the race lead while navigating lapped traffic, he felt Kurt’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Ross Chastain interfered a little.

Kurt led 144 of the 267 laps, the most in a single race since 2015 (291 laps in Richmond, Va.), and the two shared a Stage win. When the final set of pit stops cycled out, Kurt fell behind his brother on the track, but with 25 laps to go, he passed Kyle for good and crossed the finish line 1.237 seconds ahead of his brother. Kyle was able to catch up to Kurt with seven minutes to go, but was unable to pass due to lapped traffic.

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“I gave everything I had there early and then just smoked it behind the 42 [Chastain] obviously, shows you what kind of driver he is,’’ Kyle Busch said. “Just trying to fight hard after that when I got passed.

“Great effort, the guys gave me a great piece,’’ Kyle continued. “The 1 (Kurt Busch) was definitely better than us today, I just thought I had him.’’

Martin Truex Jr., Kyle’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, finished third after rallying from a 37th-place starting position. Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports was fourth, followed by Ryan Blaney of Penske Racing, who won at Atlanta in March.

The Top-10 was completed by Tyler Reddick, Georgia native Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Matt DiBenedetto, and Brad Keselowski.

Kyle Larson, the series’ sole four-race winner, is conspicuously absent from that group. For the majority of the race, he was in the top five, but was penalized for speeding on pit road during his final pit stop. Instead, he came in 18th place.

Denny Hamlin, who leads the championship points standings but has yet to win in 2021, finished 13th. He was also given a pit road penalty early in the race, which was red-flagged for about 20 minutes shortly after Stage 2 completed to enable track workers to repair the track surface.

Next week, the series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Foxwood Resort Casino 301. (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With five races remaining to set the 16-driver Playoffs field, 12 drivers have now earned automatic bids with a race victory. Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, who rallied to an 11th place finish Sunday, Austin Dillon, and Reddick are the four highest-ranked drivers on points.

The uniforms of NASCAR racing drivers are currently available at the following websites for a reasonable price:

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