A NASCAR Tie? What if Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, and Daniel Suarez Finished at the Same Time?

Sunday’s race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway held one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history. With Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, and Daniel Suarez running three-wide toward the culmination of the final lap, Suarez trumped Blaney and Busch by a margin of 0.003 and 0.007 seconds respectively. Now, this begs an interesting question: What if all three had crossed the line at the same time?

Since NASCAR introduced its electric scoring mechanism in 1993, there haven’t been any unbreakable time ties. But the promotion does have its base covered in the event it happens in the future. According to the section “17.5.1.2.2 Race Finish” in the NASCAR rule book, there are three ways to break such a draw.

First, the driver who led the most laps in the race will be declared winner. In the scenario that all the tied drivers led an equal number of laps, the greatest number of laps led in second place, third place, and so on will be used similarly until the tie is broken. In the extremely odd scenario that this doesn’t resolve things, the driver who scored the highest position at the earliest point in the race will prevail.

The closest recorded finish for first place in NASCAR came in 2003 when Ricky Craven beat Kurt Busch in Darlington by 0.002 seconds. Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer too finished within 0.002 seconds of each other at Talladega in 2011. The finish at Atlanta on Sunday ranks third in the Cup Series’ most enthralling results.

The comparisons that the Atlanta finish has drawn with Pixar’s Cars

Following the race declaration in Atlanta, millions of fans were quick to note the similarities between the finish and the famous scene in Pixar’s Cars where the animated lead character Lightning McQueen wins by a narrow margin. The victory for Suarez was the second in his Cup Series career. He said of the narrow finish, “It was a very special moment. I was just hoping. I saw the tower and thought I was first. I thought I had it but then they said there was a review.”

The Atlanta track was recently reconfigured to suit superspeedway-style racing. Before the movie-inspired race finish, there were 42 changes in the lead position, nine cautions, one red flag, and a bizarre “glove” penalty. These incidents made Sunday’s race truly memorable in the 1.54-mile track’s long history.