Atlanta Motor Speedway promised madness, and boy, did it deliver. With the in-season challenge ramping up, tension was already crackling through the field when Mother Nature made her presence known. A red flag paused the race and drenched the track, but once the skies and track cleared, it was as if the chaos had been waiting in the wings.

And right in the middle of it? A certain Joe Gibbs Racing star made his presence known in the most dramatic way possible. It started as a bold move and quickly turned into the kind of wreck that leaves crew chiefs shaking their heads and playoff dreams in pieces. Atlanta under these skies turned into a high-speed pressure cooker, and it didn’t take long for things to boil over.

Christopher Bell unleashes chaos at EchoPark

After the weather gods stormed the racetrack and forced a red flag, it didn’t take long for the skies to clear and chaos to follow. On lap 56, Christopher Bell made a bold dive to the inside of Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Junior, creating a three-wide scramble for seventh. Upfront, Carson Hocevar went full send under pole man Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski for a second. With the final few laps in the stage, everyone was going elbows out.

And then all of a sudden, boom. On lap 57, Brad Keselowski surged to the lead on the high lane, side-drafting Austin Cindric. But in Turn 3, Christopher Bell, still fighting hard near eighth, got tagged and spun. The spin turned into a demolition derby. Christopher’s No. 20 Toyota swept across the track like a pinball, collecting Team Penske star Ryan Blaney among Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, and Bubba Wallace in one fell swoop.

The No. 20 spun in front of the field and took no prisoners. NASCAR’s official account said it best: The No. 20 spins in front of the field and collects @Blaney and @austindillon3! Huge In-Season Challenge implications here!

Ryan Blaney? Already taken out of the race and done for the day. He said that he had zero water pressure and was told to shut it down by the No. 12 team. Christopher Bell? Told to park it and hit the garage for repairs. And Wallace? Still limping around, hoping Pitt Road magic can save the day.

And admit the smoke and twisted sheet metal? Austin Cindric rose from the wreckage to snag his fourth stage one win, with Keselowski, Logano, Byron, and Hocevar chasing close behind. As for Christopher, he didn’t just spin. He set off the big one and took half the playoff bracket with him. This has already caused an upset for Ryan Blaney, as he is now out of contention for the $1 million in-season challenge.

The No. 12 driver, clearly disappointed, told TNT, in his short-lived post-race interview, saying, ” It’s the story of our year. Getting caught up in other people’s garbage. Just when we seem to get things going and have some momentum, things never seem to go our way.”

However, it wasn’t the only thing going downright bad for Team Penske.

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Team Penske’s Atlanta nightmare

Saturday night started like a dream for Team Penske. Joey Logano, rolling off from the pole, led all 36 opening laps with clinical precision. Austin Cindric wasn’t far behind either, slicing through the pack and muscling his way into the lead just before snagging the stage one victory. For a moment, it felt like Atlanta belonged to Penske.

And then, as Atlanta so often does, it turned the tide. Just one lap after Cindric’s stage 1 win, everything unraveled. He got swept into the carnage moments after Brad Keselowski took the lead. The No. 2 car’s day quickly got overturned, undoing all of his early momentum. And then there was Joey Logano. After leading the opening laps and battling hard through traffic, he too became collateral damage. The No. 22 was just another victim in a pileup that didn’t discriminate.

From the front row to the garage in under 100 laps, team Penske’s Atlanta campaign didn’t end with checkered flags but with bent denders and busted dreams.