Hampton, Georgia, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Michael McDowell (34) battles with NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney (12) during the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Feb 25, 2024; Hampton, Georgia, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Michael McDowell (34) battles with NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney (12) during the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. David Yeazell USA TODAY Sports
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Atlanta Motor Speedway continues to be among the most action-packed tracks in NASCAR.
The 1.54-mile track reconfigured to run a superspeedway package produced another photo finish this weekend, roughly a year after the main event culminated with the top drivers racing three-wide for the win.
Kyle Busch, the 39-year-old Cup veteran, nipped Stewart Friesen by 0.017 seconds to win his second straight truck race at Atlanta. Both the lower-series races saw their share of wrecks and lead changes, building up to the anticipated Ambetter Health 400 at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Whether it ends in a typical crash-filled superspeedway finish, or viewers get to see another late green-flag run to the checkered flag, Atlanta continues proving itself as one of the most competitive tracks on the sport’s calendar.
“Speedway racing on the Cup side is the way it is: Three-wide, fuel saving until it’s time to go try to push, and when it’s time to push, it becomes too wide,” Busch said. “A lot of times the outside row can’t keep up, but it’s just bumper cars. It’s 200 mile-an-hour bumper cars. And the guy fourth in line doesn’t want to be fourth in line, he wants to be in the front.
“Championships come in certain different ways. It’s not always the same script each and every time. There’s not a perfect way to be able to write the book, but you just have to go out there and let the book be written.”
NASCAR wants championship rotation, and Atlanta sees yearly improvement
Atlanta was repaved four years ago, and the racing keeps improving.
Joey Logano earned his second victory as many seasons at Atlanta to open last year’s Cup playoffs, which sparked his championship run.
NASCAR chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell recently indicated that it’s essentially certain that the location of the end-of-season championship race will inevitably rotate. He ruled out superspeedways and road courses — but leaves the door open for intermediate tracks.
“It’s more complicated than just waving a checkered flag and say, ‘Let’s move the championship,’ but I do think a rotation is going to be really important for us,” O’Donnell said on the Hauler Talk podcast. “If (a driver has) won 45 Phoenix races in a row and the championship is there, it’s probably not a good look for the sport, right? And we’ve had a good mixture (of champions at Phoenix). But I think a rotation is what the fans would like.
“College football and the NFL (have) that rotation (of championship games) and anticipation of a new venue. I think you’ll see that with NASCAR as well.”
‘That’s going to make it for even better racing’
Both lower-series races Saturday saw the drivers who led the most reach Victory Lane.
Busch led 80 of the trucks’ 135 laps and held off Friesen, the 41-year-old veteran driver, in what is the series’ closest finish in nearly 20 years — since Ron Hornaday Jr. beat Bobby Labonte by 0.006 seconds in 2005.
Austin Hill maintained his dominance at Atlanta, winning his third in a row and fifth in his past six starts there. He led the most laps as well and drove off from the pack as a wreck ensued after he’d taken the white flag, which did not yield a caution and Hill raced to the checkered flag.
Compared to the pileups that often bookend races on 2.5-mile superspeedways, these races produced highlights throughout — and winners who were reflective of the race they ran.
“You have to handle a little bit better here than at Talladega or Daytona,” Ryan Blaney said. “I feel like we have a fairly decent idea of the balance — how much more handling we have to do without giving up speed — and that is just a product of working really hard with all the crew chiefs and engineers on the direction we’re going.
“Each year, this place gets a little bit worse as far as grip, which is good. That’s going to make it for even better racing.”
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