From Brad Keselowski’s perspective, it was just a matter of things evening out.

Sure, he slipped away from Atlanta Motor Speedway with a victory that seemed downright improbable most of the day.

Then again, he’s been on other side, too.

“We’ve had races where we’ve led a bunch of laps and things fall apart at the end,” Keselowski said Sunday evening, savoring the 22nd victory of his career with his nearly 2-year-old daughter, Scarlett, crawling around on the floor of the media center. “That’s just part of how this sport works.”

Keselowski passed Kyle Larson for the lead with six laps to go and pulled away for a victory that, by all rights, should’ve gone to Kevin Harvick.

He won the pole. He easily led the first two 85-lap stages under NASCAR’s new format. He wound up running out front for a staggering 292 of 325 laps, usually ceding the lead only when he came into the pits.

In the end, though, Harvick went a little too fast on his last trip down pit road, leading to a penalty that dropped him to ninth place.