To put things in perspective, even if the finish to the Cup Series race on Sunday at Atlanta was between winner Daniel Suarez and third-place Kyle Busch, that 0.007 margin of victory would still be the ninth closest in NASCAR Cup Series history.
But Ryan Blaney was also there, losing to Suarez by just 0.003, which by itself was the third closest finish in series history. It certainly has a case for one of the best all-time, not only in official margin but also in terms of spectacle.
It’s one for the history books.
Suarez was the last to the party but the first to the line. Blaney took the white flag as the leader but got too far ahead of a side-by-side Busch and Suarez as the drove down the backstretch. Busch forced his way to the middle and Suarez joined them.
At this point, they are side-drafting each other, with no push from behind as Bubba Wallace lost the nose and drifted up the track towards Austin Cindric — stalling both out.
It’s a three-wide race to the finish line from here and it produced a photo finish. In real time, Trackhouse No. 99 crew chief Matt Swiderski looked at his scoring monitor atop the pit box and it showed them ahead.
But that’s when race director Jusan Hamilton keyed-up his microphone.
“The finish is under review.”
For a nearly a minute, all Swiderski and Jonathan Hassler could do was watch replays and wait for Hamilton to issue a verdict.
“When they showed the first slow-motion video as it started to come up, I started to get a little bit of doubt, and the angle I had, it didn’t look great,” Swiderski said. “But when they finally froze it there and showed it, I felt fairly confident that we had it.”
Then came Hamilton:
“Race winner is the 99.”
And Swiderski let it all in.
“I don’t know why sometimes I’m a bit of a pessimist, so I’m surprised that I was optimistic that we won that one,” he said.
Blaney didn’t see the replay until well after he had climbed out of the car and was doing his post-race media availabilities.
“Holy shit,” was all he could muster. “That close.”
“I thought I laid back enough in [Turns] 1 and 2 to kind of not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney said. “I did that the three laps before the end, and I was able to kind of manage it fairly well, but they just got both lanes shoving super hard. I just chose the bottom. It’s the safest place to be.
“What a cool finish. … That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that — race clean, three-wide finish to the end.”
Busch really thought he was ahead in real time.
“I got a little too far ahead of (Suarez) and he got a good side draft through the corner,” Busch said. “I didn’t think the outside would prevail but with the run down the frontstretch and the side draft, that’s what hurt us. I was looking at (Blaney) and I swore I was ahead of at least the 12, but I guess my eyes are bad. I need more powerful glasses, I guess.”
Busch credited Bubba Wallace for giving him the shove that propelled him to where he could even get side by side with Blaney in the first place.
“Getting alongside Blaney was a tight fit but if I don’t make that move, I push Blaney out too far in (Turns) 3 and 4 and he wins,” Busch said. “I’m glad to see a Chevy in victory lane.”
Suarez actually thought his chance to win was over because Austin Cindric wasn’t going to push him past Blaney in the other remaining Team Penske car.
“When we took the white flag, I knew we were going to have a good shot because (Cindric) was behind me and was giving me very, very good pushes,” Suarez said. “I drug the brake a little bit (in Turn 2) and I could see him coming with a push and I thought, ‘here he comes,’ but he slowed down and I thought ‘dammit’ because his teammate was in the lead.
“At that point, (Bubba Wallace) pushed (Busch) and I was able to side draft (Busch) and that’s when the three wide got started. It got a little crazy. Who knows what would have happened if (Cindric) had given me the push. Maybe I would have gotten the lead or maybe they would have passed me on the exit of 4. I’m just glad we’re here.”
Even in defeat, Blaney relished being part of the moment more than not winning.
“It was a fun night, fun racing,” Blaney said. “I didn’t think they’d get that big of a run on me. I thought I did a good job of getting close off of (Turn) 2 to where I kind of had some of their energy. I guess they just got hooked up super good and got a massive run, and I can’t block both lanes.
“It was fun racing, but just a couple inches short. I’m happy for Daniel, though. That was fun racing him and Kyle. That was fun.”
Trackhouse team owner Justin Marks is a little biased, of course, but he’s also a big picture guy who recognizes what a finish like this can do to grow the sport.
“I think from an entertainment value standpoint, I don’t know what more you could want from a race like tonight,” Marks said. “It was incredible. My heart rate was 150 just watching. All race long, I talked to my wife about this, the calmest people here are the guys driving the cars because we’re all just watching this just holding our breath. This is one of the most compelling races I think that you could want for a sport. It was an incredible thing to watch.”
Can it actually grow the sport?
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “We have to promote events like this as aggressively as we can because you can’t want anything more than what we had tonight. That was an incredible finish, an incredible race start to finish, which is why I’m a huge advocate of this sport. It’s why we’re finding ways to tap into the MotoGP program to promote NASCAR to the world because this is some of the best racing in the world, and I just — like I’m a race fan, first and foremost, and I think this was everything you could ever want from a race.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.