Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – It was superspeedway racing with all the trimmings. “New” Atlanta Motor Speedway produced a fifth different 2022 winner—William Byron, who managed to keep an angry pack of drafting cars behind him for the final 10 laps of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. In a race that produced 46 lead changes among 20 drivers—both track records—Byron crossed the finish line .109 seconds ahead of Christopher Bell and .145 seconds ahead of Ross Chastain. Bell, however, was penalized for passing below the boundaryRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice answered a lot of questions about the nature of racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway. With NASCAR’s superspeedway competition package in place for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at the 1.54-mile track  (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)., Cup drivers quickly gravitated toward drafting in large, organized packs. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. topped the speed chart with a lap at 186.616 mph, edging Kyle Busch (186.390 mph) and Christopher Bell (186.321 mph). “WhatRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When the NASCAR Cup Series takes the green flag in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta, it will also be taking a step off into the unknown. Atlanta’s aging racing surface, which had been in place since 1997, held together as long as possible, but the 260 laps around the 1.5-mile track last July were the last on that particular surface as the track underwent a repave and reconfiguration for the 2022 season. Almost as soon as Kurt Busch crossed the line to takeRead 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 David Morgan, Associate Editor A year after the COVID-19 pandemic threw the brakes on the 2020 season, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to the epicenter of where it all came to a screeching halt – Atlanta Motor Speedway. The series would return to the 1.5-mile quad oval later in the year to make up the rescheduled Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, albeit without spectators. Fast forward to this Sunday and NASCAR’s best will have a limited number of fans in the stands to cheer them on as they tackle Atlanta’sRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Kurt Busch extended his top-10 streak to four straight following a valiant sixth-place finish in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The road towards a top-10 finish began well before the 325-lap race began when Kurt’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE had to give up the 12th starting position due to his car failing pre-race inspection three times. Not only Kurt had to start at the rear of the field, but he had to serve a pass-thru penalty onceRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kevin Harvick has had an exceptional relationship with Atlanta Motor Speedway and the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion showed that again Sunday afternoon winning the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, his third victory at the historic track. Harvick led a race high 151 of 325 laps en route to his 51st career win, prevailing in a valiant contest with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who finished second and third. Truex led 62 laps, won the opening two stages of theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The front running Martin Truex, Jr. fans come to know of returned in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, winning the first two stages and scored a race-high 54 points, but wound up third for his first top-five all season. Truex led six times for 59 of 325 laps to get his first two playoff points and the first couple for crew chief James Small. Over the radio, the No. 19 Auto Owners Insurance Toyota Camry squad were satisfied of getting stageRead More