Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Snickers Almond Toyota, and Ryan Newman, driver of the #31 Liberty National Chevrolet, take the green flag to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25, 2018 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Clint Bowyer got the run he needed at Atlanta Motor Speedway

HAMPTON, Ga. – Clint Bowyer didn’t win Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, but he got the sort of run he needed in the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season.

Clint Bowyer, driver of the #14 Haas Automation Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25, 2018 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)

On a day when all the Stewart-Haas Racing Fords were fast, Bowyer finished third behind SHR teammate Kevin Harvick, who dominated the action, and fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski.

The third-place result was a welcome tonic for Bowyer, who suffered through an up-and-down campaign last year in his first season with SHR.

“I said it all offseason,” Bowyer said after the race. “What we have to do is get more consistent, know what I mean? Over the course of my career, kind of what’s kept me in the game is consistency, and last year we were spraying it all over the place. 

“We’d have a good run and back it up with a bad one or two bad ones and then a good one. We were all over the place.”

Bowyer managed a 15th-place run in the season-opening Daytona 500 despite an engine issue.

“We were at the big dance last weekend and dropped a cylinder, and everybody was dejected and bummed out, and we come here and unload four fast (Stewart-Haas) cars and did a great job as a company.

“That’s what it takes. You’ve got to be able to unload good cars and then work together to fine-tune them to make them good for the race and enjoy that strength in numbers, and that’s certainly what we had going on this weekend.”

Bowyer climbed to fifth in the series standings, 15 points behind leader Joey Logano.

CONTRARIAN STRATEGY GETS A SOLID FINISH FOR DENNY HAMLIN

When race leader – and eventual winner – Kevin Harvick came to pit road on Lap 212 of Sunday’s Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano stayed on the track.

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25, 2018 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)

Brad Keselowski inherited the lead two laps later, and still Hamlin and Logano stayed out. Not until Lap 226 did the two drivers come to pit road, after running laps at a far slower speed than those with fresh tires.

Staying on the track was a deliberate strategy play, designed to run the final 155-lap stage of the race on two pit stops, rather than the customary three. Indeed, Hamlin picked up the lead after Harvick pitted for the third time during the stage on Lap 288, but his stint at the point was short-lived.

Rocketing around the track on fresh tires, Harvick passed Hamlin for the lead on Lap 291 and regained control of the race.

Crew chief Mike Wheeler prepped Hamlin for the strategy before the start of the third stage.

“As soon as I left pit road, he said I was going to have to go 50 laps the first time, so I immediately knew he was going to break it up into two stops instead of three,” Hamlin said. “I wasn’t surprised at all about it. Worried about it, a little bit in the second stint, because I wasn’t running really fast lap times on new tires – I think 32 (seconds) flat or something like that.

“Other guys were able to run some 70s (31.70) and 80s (31.80), and it seemed like we got to the lap time of like 33 or whatever pretty quick, and I was just worried that the strategy… you need the lap times to be pretty linear for that strategy to work, and we kind of leveled off a little bit, and some of the field leveled off.

“I was worried a little bit, but I kept seeing it cycle around to where I was in a good position.”

Hamlin rolled home in fourth place and left Atlanta third in the series standings, 12 points behind Logano, who assumed the lead with a sixth-place run.

Brad Keselowski drives the #2 Autotrader Ford during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25, 2018 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

SHORT STROKES

A glance at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings reveals a real shocker. After finishes of 38th at Daytona and 27th on Sunday at Atlanta – both after crashes – seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson is 35th in the series standings, behind Mark Thompson and D. J. Kennington, neither of whom raced at Atlanta…

Brad Keselowski, the runner-up in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, couldn’t match the speed of race winner Kevin Harvick. “Nobody had anything for Kevin today,” Keselowski said. “Not that I’m aware of. Shoot, I think we all threw everything we had at him. He drove a great race and he had a really fast car, and that’s a potent combination. If he hadn’t had the pit road issue today (a malfunction of the front tire changer’s air gun), he probably would have led almost 300 some laps.” As it was, Harvick led 181.