July 11, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Kurt Busch comes out ahead in the latest installment of the battling Buschs

The best sibling rivalry in NASCAR ended with Kurt Busch getting the best of brother Kyle once again.

This time, the setting was Atlanta Motor Speedway—and the last time in its current configuration. Kyle led 68 of the first 83 laps and won the first stage, but Kurt was nearly flawless during the end game of the Quaker State 400.

The 42-year-old won the second stage and the battle off of pit road to maintain the point for the final segment. After green-flag stops, he seized the lead with 25 laps remaining. Despite a late-race challenge from Kyle, Kurt extended his lead to 1.237-seconds for his 33rd Cup win and his ninth-consecutive appearance in the NASCAR Playoffs.

“Hell, yeah, we beat Kyle,” said Kurt to the roar of the crowd. “I taught that kid everything he knows. He should be grateful.

“What a battle. What a genuine, awesome, old-school racetrack. And I asked the track today—last time here on your old asphalt—can I have the old guy win? And she answered. Thank you, Atlanta Motor Speedway!”

Kyle Busch was as happy as he could be for his brother’s success but not so thrilled with Kurt’s teammate Ross Chastain. Ben Beshore, Kyle’s crew chief, elected to pit the No. 18  Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on Lap 211 to get out ahead of then leader Kurt. Kyle cycled out to the lead on Lap 213 when the No. 1 Ganassi Racing Chevrolet pitted for service.

Kurt quickly closed in on Kyle, who held a .739-second lead before catching traffic. Fortunately for Kurt, one of the cars was his teammate Ross Chastain, who moved high into the No. 18 car’s line and allowed the No. 1 Chevy to go low and take the lead on Lap 236.

“We just don’t have enough front end with laps on tires,” Kyle Busch said. “I had everything I had there early and then just smoked it behind the 42 (Chastain). Shows you what kind of driver he is. And just tried to fight hard after that when I got passed and had one valiant effort off of 2 but didn’t have enough momentum to drag him down and make him go high in 3 and 4, and after that, the tires were smoked.

“Great effort. Guys gave me a great piece. We were fast. The No. 1 was better than us today. I just thought I had—and we did. But the racing just didn’t play out that way for us.”

For Kurt, Chastain provided the perfect pick between him and his brother.

“Shake and bake! Shake and bake! Yeah, and the 42, he did his job as a teammate,” Kurt said. “Ross is going to get a little flak for it, but that’s what it takes to be a good teammate at the right moment. So I couldn’t be more proud of Ross Chastain.

“I’ll pay him back eventually, but right now this is our No. 1 car in Victory Lane.”

Third-place Martin Truex Jr. battled from the rear of the field after the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team failed pre-race inspection twice. He was hoping for a bobble from his two fellow champions—but that never transpired.

"It’s funny you look at results and oh, you started fifth and finished third, that’s a pretty good day," Truex said. "We went through a lot today on our Auto Owners Toyota Camry. I’m excited to have them on board again and have a good run for them. We definitely had the speed to battle for the win at the end, just had to come from too far back. I’m proud of everyone at JGR, Toyota, TRD. Everyone at the shop is working really hard getting our stuff better. It just had the feel I was looking for today. We were good on the short runs and good on the long runs. I’m glad to be back running up front.”

Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Matt DiBenedetto and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

The race was red-flagged after NASCAR called a red flag for the track coming up in the dogleg near the middle restart zone following the conclusion of Stage 2. After a 19 minute delay for repairs, the race resumed without further issue.

Denny Hamlin retained the points lead by 10 over Kyle Larson, who was busted for speeding on Lap 211 and was forced to serve a pass-thru penalty. Larson finished 18th, the last car on the lead lap.