atlanta motor speedway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In 2022, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to the Last Great Coliseum after visiting one of the first great coliseums for the first time. The series will make its first trip to the shores of the Mississippi under the shadow of the Gateway Arch. And the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will have a new look, with Homestead-Miami Speedway moving back into the postseason and each round featuring a shakeup of the participating tracks. For the first time in its history, the Clash, theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer On paper, Martin Truex, Jr. started fifth in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. That all changed during pre-race inspections when his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry failed twice. The first issue came from the deck lid, which NASCAR deemed to be too high. His Joe Gibbs Racing crew were able to fix the issue, but a new issue rose. The tail wasn’t compliant to the sanctioning body’s liking. By the rulebook, Truex had to give up his starting position and work hisRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kurt Busch out-dueled his younger brother Kyle Busch in the pair’s fourth career 1-2 finish to secure his 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs position and take his 33rd career victory in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart. Busch, 42, has been particularly good at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway. Sunday’s win was his fourth there, most among the current field, and the last trophy given before the historic NASCAR track is repaved and reconfigured going forward. More importantly Sunday’s work was a bigRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After Atlanta Motor Speedway announced earlier this week that it would be repaving and reconfiguring the 1.54-mile track for the 2022 season, a chorus of drivers and crew chiefs have come out in opposition to the changes planned to the oldest racing surface in NASCAR. Following his 102nd NASCAR Xfinity Series win Saturday at the track, you can add Kyle Busch to that growing list. “I sure am glad to win the final Xfinity Series race on a real Atlanta race track,” Busch said. “Because theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Busch earned his record 102nd NASCAR Xfinity Series race victory Saturday afternoon in the Credit Karma Money 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway – taking the checkered flag in overtime to top a perfect 5-for-5 record in Xfinity starts this season. The winningest driver in series history proclaimed Saturday’s work to be his final curtain call, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion saying he would no longer compete in the Xfinity Series. Ironically, in what should have been his biggest bow before the fansRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The end of an era. With the oldest track surface in NASCAR, having not been repaved since it’s 1997 reconfiguration, Atlanta Motor Speedway always gets rave reviews from drivers who enjoy slipping and sliding around on the worn-out surface. To come home victorious in Sunday’s Quaker State 400, drivers will have a war on two fronts to battle. First, tire management will play a big role in the final outcome of the race with the abrasiveness that the track offers over the course of a run.Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer If it wasn’t for a speeding penalty on the final green flag pit stop, Daniel Suarez’s day could’ve been different. During Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Suarez had a top-10 run going. Rather than being one of a couple of cars leading during pit stops again, Suarez showed tremendous pace. More so, during the tail end of Stage 2 where he got Trackhouse Racing’s first stage point in its team’s run thus far. He wasn’t done with just a 10th stageRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor On more than a few occasions in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Kyle Larson has dominated a race to the level he did on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway only to fall short in the end. Leading 269 laps and winning the first two stages of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, Larson seemed to be on cruise control toward his second win of the season, but as the laps wound down and tire management came into play, a confluence of events would keep Larson fromRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service You can call Ryan Blaney “The Spoiler.” With a pass for the lead with eight laps left in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Blaney took the air out of an otherwise dominating performance by Kyle Larson, who had to settle for second place after winning the first two stages and leading 269 of 325 laps. “Gosh, we had a great long-run car all day,” Blaney said after climbing from his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. “It took us aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service When Martin Truex Jr. made his only serious mistake on Saturday afternoon, Justin Allgaier took full advantage. Even so, Allgaier had to hold off Truex during a 26-lap, green-flag run to the finish to win the EchoPark 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “We didn’t start out the day like we wanted to—these guys persevered behind it,” said Allgaier, who picked up his first win of the season, his first at Atlanta and the 15th of his career. “They pushed andRead More