Winners and losers from the Atlanta Cup Series playoff race feat. Joey Logano

The first race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs saw Joey Logano go to victory lane at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and clinch a spot in the upcoming Round of 12. The two-time Cup champion held off defending Atlanta winner Daniel Suarez and defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney for the win.

Suarez came home second followed by Blaney in third, Christopher Bell fourth, and Alex Bowman placing fifth to round out an all-playoff driver top five. Regular-season champion Tyler Reddick came home sixth, Kyle Busch finished seventh, Georgia native Chase Elliott placed eighth, William Byron ninth, and Austin Cindric tenth.

However, not all playoff drivers left Atlanta on Sunday with a solid finish. For some, it put them in a decent points deficit with two races to go in the round. For others, a poor finish has made their points cushion prior to the playoffs dissipate.

So, who left Atlanta happy and who left disappointed? Let's take a look.

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2024 Quaker State 400

Winner

Joey Logano

It's hard to point to any bigger winner from Atlanta than the race winner itself. Yet, this wasn't any ordinary win for Logano, who won from the seventh starting position on Sunday.

The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford entered the playoffs with one win in the regular season at Nashville and only had a two-point separation above the cutline to advance to the Round of 12. After leading nine laps and fending off the field in overtime, Logano now has a guaranteed spot in the next round and doesn't have to worry about getting caught up in any trouble in the next two races in order to advance.

Loser

Denny Hamlin

After entering the playoffs 10 points above the cutline to advance to the next round, Denny Hamlin left Atlanta only two points above the cutoff. It was an uncharacteristic weekend for the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as he's often seen towards the front of the field.

The Chesterfield, Virginia native started Sunday's race from the 38th position and rode towards the back of the pack for most of the contest. As the laps wound down, the co-owner of 23XI Racing started to inch his way closer to the front, but an accident on the final lap left the Mavis Tires Toyota torn to bits as it crossed the finish line 24th.

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Winner

Daniel Suarez

While the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet might have been distraught that he didn't finish one spot higher, it was still a solid day for the former Xfinity Series champion. Thanks to racking up seven stage points in stage two and a second-place finish, Suarez bumped up to ninth in the standings heading into the latter two races of the first playoff round.

After entering the postseason one point above the cutline to advance, Suarez rides a 22-point cushion heading into Watkins Glen.

Loser

Kyle Larson

The 2021 Cup Series champion entered the playoffs as the top seed with a 35-point advantage over the cutline to advance to the Round of 12. However, on the 56th lap of Sunday's race, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was running in the third position when he nosed his car into the wall between turns 1 & 2, collecting fellow playoff driver Chase Briscoe in the process.

The incident came five laps before the end of stage one, and it ended the day of the 4-time winner this season. With two races left in the Round of 16, Larson now sits 10th in the standings with only a 15-point barrier between himself and the cutline.

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Winner

Alex Bowman

A fifth-place finish at Atlanta not only gave the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet his seventh top-five finish of the 2024 season, but it also gave him a huge boost in the playoff standings.

Entering the playoffs just above the cutline to advance to the Round of 12 on a tiebreaker, Bowman placed third in both stages which rewarded him a combined 16 points. To go along with finishing fifth, the strong day for this year's Chicago Street Race winner now has him 27 points above the cutline heading into the final two races of the Round of 16.

Loser

Chase Briscoe

Fresh off a win in last week's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington to clinch himself a spot in the playoffs, the finishing result in Sunday's race at Atlanta was the exact opposite for the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

After getting caught up in the lap 56 wreck with Larson, the two-time Cup Series race winner suffered a last-place finish of 38th in the opening race of the playoffs. With two more races to work his way back into the Round of 12, Briscoe now faces a 21-point deficit after entering the playoffs just under the cutoff on a tiebreaker.