HAMPTON, Ga. — Joey Logano’s start at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday makes him the new longest consecutive start streak in the NASCAR Cup Series, with the previous holder of that mark, Martin Truex Jr. ending his own at 685 straight starts — sixth on the all-time list.
Truex, the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion, retired from full-time competition at the end of 2024 but started last week’s season-opening Daytona 500. His mark began with the 2006 Daytona 500.
“It’s obviously a long way to go to catch those guys, but it’s kind of cool it’s happening at Atlanta because I grew up racing Legends cars here,” said Logano, who made his 578th start and remembers parking his Legends Series car outside Atlanta’s media center as a kid hoping to race in the NASCAR Cup Series one day.
“That was the dream and now pretty cool to see that come full circle here in Atlanta.”
Logano’s former Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski, now an owner driver with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, is next behind Logano at 546 consecutive starts.
While the Daytona 500 may be in the books, I’m approaching NASCAR odds for Atlanta Motor Speedway in a very similar fashion.
My personal betting strategy is to have lighter cards for superspeedway races due to the sheer unpredictability of tracks like Atlanta, Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, and that’s exactly how I’m making my NASCAR picks for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Action Network’s Nick Giffen has already laid out a handful of bets I like, and I’m tacking on one more long-shot pick for Sunday’s race.
NASCAR Odds, Best Bet Pick for Atlanta
*Odds as of Saturday night
I’m quite surprised to see a driver like Tyler Reddick available at 40-1 odds (ESPN BET) heading into Sunday’s race.
Yes, Reddick and the entire Toyota organization struggled in qualifying but likely sacrificed one-lap speed for handling, which could very well give them an advantage on older tires at Atlanta.
Does qualifying matter? Sure. But at a track like Atlanta, it’s not as important as non-superspeedway tracks, especially for cars set up to race well as opposed to posting one fast lap for starting position.
Reddick is also no slouch on superspeedways, notching a win at Talladega and a sixth-place finish at Atlanta in 2024, as well as a runner-up finish in last weekend’s Daytona 500.
To be frank, I’m looking for reasons to talk myself out of this bet but simply cannot pass on a driver with Reddick’s talent, in very fast 23XI Racing equipment and with recent success on superspeedways at a long-shot price of 40-1.
NASCAR Pick: Tyler Reddick (40-1) to Win — ESPN Bet
23XI Racing announced Sunday that Craftsman Truck Series regular Corey Heim will drive for the organization in a part-time NASCAR Cup Series schedule this season.
The announcement came in the hours before Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the 1.54-mile track that’s roughly an hour’s drive from Heim’s hometown of Atlanta suburb Marietta.
Heim is set to drive the No. 67 Toyota for the organization co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Cup Series veteran Denny Hamlin. Fellow veteran Robert “Bootie” Barker will serve as the crew chief for the part-time effort. Barker was crew chief for 23XI driver Bubba Wallace on the No. 23 team for the last three seasons before taking a new role in the organization’s competition department.
The rising star will also compete in multiple Xfinity Series races with Sam Hunt Racing (SHR) in a Toyota GR Supra supported by 23XI. Last season, Heim competed in 13 races with SHR and has 17 total starts in the Xfinity Series, earning three top-five and five top-10 finishes. Heim’s first race with SHR will be at Circuit of The Americas, where he will compete in his first road-course event in the Xfinity Series.
“It’s a dream come true to be a part of 23XI, and I’m excited for the opportunity to race more Cup and Xfinity races this year,” Heim said in a team release. “I’m blessed to have the chance to compete in all three series as I continue to set my sights on full-time Cup racing when that time comes. The success that 23XI has shown in only a few short years has been impressive and I’m excited to learn from the organization. I’m also grateful to everyone at Toyota for their ongoing support in my development both on and off the track, and I look forward to strengthening that relationship for years to come.”
Heim has impressed in his short Craftsman Truck Series career, winning 12 times in 66 starts and reaching the Championship 4 round of the playoffs the last two seasons. The 22-year-old driver’s most recent victory with his Tricon Garage team came in the season-opening event nine days ago at Daytona International Speedway.
Heim made the first three Cup Series starts of his career last season — two as a substitute for Toyota affiliate Legacy Motor Club after Erik Jones suffered a broken vertebra in a crash, and another for 23XI’s No. 50 team later in the 2024 campaign.
“Our team was fortunate to work with Corey last year, and we look forward to growing our relationship with him as our development driver starting in 2025,” said Steve Lauletta, president of 23XI Racing. “Corey continues to prove he is a talented, hard-working driver, and we plan to make all the resources of 23XI available to support his development within the Toyota family as he progresses in NASCAR.”
Heim believes now was the opportune time to progress his trajectory as a young star within the NASCAR ranks.
“I don’t know if there’s any one specific thing that has made me feel like this is the right time to advance my career, but I know I’ve worked very hard over the last couple years to develop myself and get better and continue to grow as a race car driver,” Heim said. “I feel like a lot of people have seen some drivers maybe be rushed up and kind of struggle. I don’t want to be that guy, you know. I feel like I’m on the right career path to grow and get better. And you know, when I’m ready, the time will come, sort of deal. So, yeah, I feel like this structure and this development for me is the right plan for me. … Just really feels comfortable, you know, just being a part of the family and the opportunities that have been granted over the last couple years, I’ve felt confident in my career path, and I continue to do so.”
23XI Racing is in its first Cup Series season as a newly expanded three-car team. The organization added the No. 35 Toyota for rookie Riley Herbst in the offseason, teaming him with incumbents Bubba Wallace (No. 23) and Tyler Reddick (No. 45) for the 2025 campaign.
Steve Andrews has always been a fan of racing, and he hoped to one day be involved in the sport he loved so much.
That’s why Andrews couldn’t resist the opportunity to lease and later buy Missouri’s Monett Motor Speedway.
“I’ve just grown to love it,” he said. “My friends and I would leave a race, and we’d say, ‘The experience would be so much better if they just did this or they just did that.’ We joked one day we’d buy a track.
“Low and behold, a year ago, Monett Motor Speedway was available, so I decided to just take a leap of faith. These tracks are kind of dying, so it was an opportunity to keep a track alive. I leased it for a year with the option to buy it, and I executed that option in the last year, and now we’re all in.”
Andrews has managed operations at Monett since his lease began. He officially purchased the 3/8-mile red clay oval in January, just in time for the track to celebrate its 55th anniversary season.
B Mods will serve as the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I class at Monett Motor Speedway during the 2025 season. (Photo: Monett Motor Speedway)
The shift in ownership is one of many changes coming to Monett, known in Missouri as ‘The Grand Ol’ Lady.’ Another major development is the track joining the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series this year.
“We looked at what we were doing and what everybody else was doing, and the sanctions that were out there just didn’t seem to benefit the racers, let alone the track, as much as we felt the opportunities that NASCAR presented (did),” Andrews said. “We wanted something this year that was going to set us apart from everybody else, and we really felt NASCAR was the right direction.”
In advance of Monett’s first season under the NASCAR banner, plans are well underway to make several major improvements.
Among them are a new racing surface thanks to 150 loads of fresh clay, a concession stand remodel, a new announcer’s booth and scoring tower, an updated tech area and an updated pit entrance.
Andrews has also brought in some familiar faces to help whip the facility into shape.
Jesse Stovall, a veteran dirt racer and multi-time feature winner at Monett, has been named general manager. Dan Robinson, who previously worked at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, has been brought on as a transformation consultant.
Stovall will be directly involved in the day-to-day operations at the track, specifically preparing the racing surface for each night of racing. His goal is simple: Give racers and fans the best track possible to put on a good show.
“I went over there one day because I have a friend who races, and I went over to watch him,” said Stovall, who retired from full-time racing a few years ago after suffering a head injury. “The track was a little dusty, and they were having some issues trying to get the track right. Next thing you know, the guy that was doing the track work decided it was too much for him.
“Steve called me, and we worked out a deal to get the track ready each week, and it kind of morphed into … he learned that I was pretty knowledgeable about racing in all aspects and he leans on me pretty hard at this point.”
Monett Motor Speedway opened in 1970 and is considered the oldest operating dirt track in the state of Missouri. (Photo: Monett Motor Speedway)
Andrews has already announced a handful of major events for Monett’s 2025 season, including the second running of the Larry Phillips Memorial on June 27-28.
The event is held in honor of the late five-time Weekly Series national champion from Springfield, Missouri. Phillips passed away in 2004 at age 62 after a battle with lung cancer.
“Larry was just such a big part of this community up here, and he’s so well known,” Andrews said. “The response we received from the community when we held the inaugural (race) last year was just overwhelming. We had Mark Martin there. It was just a spectacular event. It was an honor to be able to honor him.
“Unlike last year, this year, it is going to be a two-day event. I would liken that to the Super Bowl of our season.”
Monett will host Weekly Series racing on Friday nights throughout the season starting April 4. B Mods will serve as the track’s Division I class. Other NASCAR-sanctioned Weekly divisions will include Midwest modifieds, pure stocks and bombers.
Stovall has seen many promoters come and go from race tracks around the Midwest, but he believes Andrews is committed to making Monett one of the region’s premier dirt-racing facilities.
That commitment is what Stovall hopes will attract racers and fans to ‘The Grand Ol’ Lady’ in 2025.
“I used to tell everybody, if you could go win a race at Monett, you could pretty much go anywhere and win a race,” Stovall said. “It’s just unique in shape, and the shape of the race track is just absolutely wonderful.
“We’re doing everything we can to make this place like it once was and have the best quality shows that we can possibly have.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — Nick Sanchez made a note to check the damage his No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet received immediately following Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The damage wasn’t marginal by any stretch. Sanchez summed it up after his self-scanning: “Pretty bad.” Throughout Saturday’s 163-lap affair, the 23-year-old rookie was involved in multiple incidents, receiving front-end damage in addition to the usual scrapes suffered from late-race action at the reconfigured 1.54-miler. Bumps, bruises and a frantic last-lap wreck aside, the Miami, Florida native secured a fifth-place finish, his best result to date in the Xfinity Series.
“You just go with momentum,” Sanchez said after the race. “Obviously, I had tires there, but if you look at the front end of my car, I don’t know how much they helped. Went with momentum, took runs and obviously, I saw the wreck happening there before it happened. Luckily, I caught that and just hung left and ran the apron all the way to the finish.
“Just really proud of my whole team, keeping it rolling, keeping it in the race because there was a time where I thought we were either going to blow up, water was pegged, oil was pegged. You know, we almost got lapped there in the first stage. So, we fought back, we kept it rolling and got enough speed to jump to double the draft and made something happen.”
Starting Saturday’s Xfinity contest in 15th, in addition to finishes of 29th and 11th in Stages 1 and 2, respectively, was only the start for Sanchez, who got loose on Lap 142, leading to Sam Mayer’s No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford smashing into the outside wall.
A loose No. 48 car was the least of Sanchez’s concerns, who pitted seven times throughout the race. And while the outside line worked wonders for race winner Austin Hill, it was the bottom lane that Sanchez utilized en route to his battle to the front.
“I mean, I had damage, right, but I felt like the bottom for my car was better, you know, just cutting distance and everything was just primo, in my opinion,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez’s fifth-place finish acts as a much-needed rebound for the rookie, who tallied a 35th-place result at Daytona International Speedway in the 2025 Xfinity Series opener last weekend. The finish eclipses Sanchez’s seventh-place result he completed with the team in 2022 at Martinsville Speedway, and for a driver looking to make noise in his first full-time Xfinity Series season, the finish is a positive one pointing in the right direction.
“I guess it’s important, right when, when you have damage like that and you finish fifth, it’s not supposed to happen,” Sanchez explained. “So, it was a struggle. We grinded. So, hopefully, from here on out, it gets a little bit easier. I want to start running up front a lot more, control the races. So, excited to get to COTA (Circuit of The Americas).”
Sanchez now sits 15th in the driver standings, a 15-spot leap from last week’s positioning. Such is the case following a grind-it-out top five, Sanchez is yearning for more next Saturday at Circuit of The Americas (2:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In two career starts at COTA in the Craftsman Truck Series, Sanchez has one career top-10 finish (2023).
While the young driver is no longer racing full-time in the Truck Series, Sanchez believes he has what it takes to continue the upward trajectory, bumps and bruises aside. A quick congratulatory phone call from Big Machine Racing owner Scott Borchetta emphasized such themes from Saturday’s exhilarating result.
“Thank you,” Sanchez said to Borchetta. “Hopefully, we’ll keep it cleaner next week.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — The Atlanta Motor Speedway is Austin Hill’s home track after all — and the Georgia native proved again Saturday night that he absolutely “owns it.”
Hill dominated the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 on the Atlanta high banks — leading 146 of the 163 laps to claim his first victory of the early 2025 season, driving the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet sponsored by the race’s title partner.
Hill has won four of the last six Atlanta races — the last three consecutively and five in all — including a sweep of both events last year. And although his laps-led total is impressive, he clawed for this trophy after losing the lead briefly on a restart with three laps to go.
With a timely tap on Hill’s Chevrolet’s rear bumper from Parker Retzlaff, Hill was able to push forward and take the lead entering the first turn on the final lap. He held on to the win by a slight 0.216-second margin, having to fend off reigning series champion, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier and Joe Gibbs Racing’s veteran Aric Almirola — who both previously led at various times on that final restart.
“Thank you to Parker Retzlaff for giving me that push, and then once I got clear and into [Turn] 1, I was just wide open and I was hoping they weren’t going to build up momentum,””Hill said, adding, “To be able to do this is something special.”
Hill’s five Xfinity Series wins at Atlanta ties a record set by former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick. His eight-win total at drafting tracks ties a series record with a pair of NASCAR Hall of Famers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart.
Hill swept the two stage wins — for the second time in as many races this year, giving him a 100% mark in 2025.
With his teammate Jesse Love winning the pole position for the race, it gives the RCR team a weekend sweep of pole and race wins for the second time. No other team has won a pole position or hoisted a trophy in 2025. It also marks the 99th Xfinity Series victory for the NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Childress’s team. Hill and Love led all but four laps in the race.
This is Hill’s 11th career win and after holding the point for the vast majority of the race, he ultimately earned it the hard way — a last-lap pass.
“He definitely had the dominant car but I thought we might snooker one away,” Almirola said of racing Hill in those final three laps. “But it just wasn’t meant to be.”
JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith and Big Machine Racing’s rookie Nick Sanchez rounded out the top five. A final-lap accident on the backstretch created chaos for several of the night’s most consistent top-10 front-runners.
Jeb Burton, rookie Daniel Dye, Leland Honeyman, rookie William Sawalich and Harrison Burton ultimately rounded out the top 10 at the checkered flag. Kaulig Racing rookie Christian Eckes earned the Fastest Lap Bonus point.
With the victory, Hill takes a one-point lead over Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed, who was eliminated from a top-10 finish in that multicar accident on the last lap and scored 14th. Hill’s teammate, last week’s Daytona winner Love, finished 16th.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to competition next Saturday, March 1 in the Focused Health 250 (2:30 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the Circuit of The Americas road course.
Contributing: Staff reports
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue, confirming Hill as the race winner. The Nos. 00 and 48 cars were both found with one lug nut not secure, which will result in a monetary fine to the respective teams.
HAMPTON, Ga. — Photo finishes and Atlanta Motor Speedway continue to be a sweet pairing, but the bitter taste of being on the losing side of a thrilling battle to the checkered flag never lightens up.
Saturday afternoon, Stewart Friesen was snakebitten in the Peach State as Kyle Busch outdueled the Craftsman Truck Series mainstay by 0.017 seconds when the two crossed the start/finish line.
Even with Busch on the final lap, Friesen edged slightly ahead of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet coming off Turn 4 and that gave Busch a chance to side draft off Friesen’s No. 52 Toyota and sneak ahead just a couple hundred yards before the finish.
“We had a shot. I’ll have to re-watch and see what 18 things I did wrong,” Friesen said with a chuckle after the race. “I tried to control him the best I could. Got to the top and tried to pack air on him and I just knew when we surged ahead there into three I went ‘ah man … he’s gonna be able to pack back on me and come back,’ and that’s what happened.”
With the cold temperatures this weekend, the grip of the rapidly aging track surface was apparent throughout the 135-lap matinee. Drivers were able to race tightly in a two-wide pack but could also run single-file and slingshot around each other on the bottom by themselves.
In the closing laps of the race, the battles for the lead crescendoed as six different drivers grabbed prime real estate in the final 20 laps. Even Daniel Hemric, with an exposed left-front tire after an earlier multitruck incident, had a quick taste of a potential victory before getting shuffled to the back of the lead pack.
However, Friesen stayed within the top five as the race wound down, and unlike years past, the finish didn’t come down to who was leading a single-file freight train to the end, but a battle of two competitive lanes duking it out for supremacy.
“I think it was just some guys making some smarter decisions and being aggressive when they needed to be and not when they didn’t need to be,” Friesen said of the tightly-contested racing. “We saw the train, but if you had the right guys, you could make some hay on the bottom.”
The last two years have not been nice for Friesen and his family-owned, single-truck team in the series. His last win came at Texas Motor Speedway in the spring of 2022, and since the 2023 campaign, Friesen owned just six top fives entering Saturday’s race.
Running up front and getting a top five on the board early in the season means a lot for Friesen, whose team works in vintage fashion to get to the track weekly.
“It’s just a product of a lot of hard work,” Friesen said. “We’re building our own chassis and bodies and not because we want to, but just because it’s kind of a necessity within the series right now. You can’t just go down the road and pick up a frame or body. It’s really old school the way this series is. It’s hand-fabricated, cheap metal bodies and hand-built chassis, and it’s cool to see our guys take it from the tubing rack to the race track and have good results.”
Earning his first series top five since Charlotte Motor Speedway last season, Friesen said he’s grateful to continue being competitive in the Truck Series. At 41 years old, Friesen knows there are more years behind them than ahead, but the hunger remains as strong as ever to return to Victory Lane.
“It was cool just to be racing up front again,” Friesen said. “Just a big shot in the arm for our race team to be up front where we belong and racing for wins. It takes a village to keep this deal going down the road and I’m proud to have at least a top three out of it.”
Track: Atlanta Motor Speedway
Location: Hampton, Georgia Track length: 1.54 miles When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET Where to tune in: FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,055,250 Race distance: 260 laps | 400.4 miles Stages: 60 | 160 | 260 Defending winner:Daniel Suárez, February 2024 Starting lineup: Ryan Blaney won the pole
Maximize your points now before the field spreads out
The only driver satisfied with his points position right now? William Byron — your two-time defending Daytona 500 winner.
After his “Great American Race” win to open the season on Feb. 16, Byron not only cemented his status as one of just 14 drivers to win the most prestigious race of the year multiple times, but he’s the first — and only — Cup driver guaranteed a spot in this year’s playoffs.
With superspeedways Daytona and Atlanta kicking off the season with the road course at Circuit of The Americas to follow, the door is open for plenty of drivers to punch their postseason ticket and not have to sweat their points situation going into the more traditional tracks on the schedule like Phoenix Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway next month.
In 2024, both Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher were on the wrong side of the playoff picture when the checkered flag waved at Darlington Raceway in the regular-season finale. Wallace, who enters Sunday’s race 21st in points, has emphasized the need to start on the right foot early in the season.
“It’s crucial. I mean, Denny [Hamlin, 23XI Racing co-owner] has said since day one of this new team that every point matters,” Wallace said. “I win a duel and I get 10 points, and I finished 29th in the 500 and I still get 10 points. So … damn. We got 20 points at least so that’s good. The season’s fully underway. You can’t give up the little things because you’ll get down to the last three or four races and be scrapping and clawing for everything. We’ve been in the bubble spot for the last two years, three years, whatever it is.
“I’m ready to be locked in early so we’ve got to do everything we can right early to make that happen.”
Buescher weaved around the final-lap calamity last Sunday to bring home a top-10 finish in the Daytona 500. While he went winless in the regular season last year, the driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford is much more confident at every type of track rather than banking on a superspeedway or road course to find Victory Lane.
“These tracks have been very strong for us, but I think the high note for us as an organization has been the fact that most race tracks have been very good for us,” said Buescher, a winner at the Watkins Glen road course in 2024. “We haven’t really had to depend on one style of race track the last two years I’d call it, which has been a huge step in the right direction for us. So when we look at this season, no, we didn’t really circle these as ‘got to make it happen here.’
“On the flip side of that, it is a big goal for us this season to win early and I think we’ve had a lot of discussion about the first eight [races]. How do we make the first eight races better than they’ve been in the past? It’s not as much about the style of race track or what track it is as much it’s about just getting the momentum started right for us quicker. It seems to have been our miss the last couple years and where we’ve given up too much ground too early in the season, and that’s been the goal for us is ‘how do we make this stronger to fire off.'”
Atlanta will need to be a big points day for some of the perennial playoff drivers as Kyle Larson, Hamlin and Christopher Bell all find themselves below the top 16 in the standings entering Sunday’s race.
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
While qualifying isn’t a point of emphasis on drafting tracks with the ability to maneuver through a pack, crews are still going to want a good pit stall to minimize potential issues on a very narrow pit road at Atlanta. Along with a tight navigation from pit entry to exit, the route to pit road is different than other tracks.
The entrance to pit road begins toward the end of the backstretch into Turn 3 where drivers have a 90-mph speed limit to wrap around the corner before coming to a 45-mph crawl on the frontstretch. Under caution, the limit is 45 mph around the whole pit-lane route.
Logan Riely | Getty Images
Adam Stevens, crew chief of Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, said a key aspect Sunday will be limiting green flag pit stops if possible.
“There’s a couple different ways to look at it. The opportunity for mistake is probably amplified with the quirky pit road,” Stevens told NASCAR.com on Friday. “We got to run 90 [mph] through the corner and getting that right and maximizing that … there’s a risk with that. You just lose so much time that if you made a mistake on a green-flag stop and had to do a pass-through, it could pretty much ruin your whole day. So you’re going to try not to make a green-flag stop. That’s going to be the goal, which means taking opportunities to fill it full of fuel and maximizing the length of the runs.”
Having a drama-free pit entry will also be a point of emphasis on Sunday. In last year’s race, multiple drivers made contact or spun trying to get slowed down off Turn 2 to get to the pit-road limit. Michael McDowell, who led 27 laps in that event, spun after getting together with William Byron, and it ultimately took McDowell out of contention for the race win despite recovering for an eighth-place result.
Matt Swiderski, crew chief of defending Atlanta spring winner Daniel Suárez and the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing team, highlighted the importance of pit-stall selection that could aid in minimizing run-ins with the competition.
“We actually talked a lot about pit road and where we want to be for pit stalls,” Swiderski told NASCAR.com. “There were so many cars just knocking fenders in, and it’s a tough pit road. It’s really crowded and the stalls are pretty small and slippery. [We] actually put a little bit more focus on qualifying, and it really has more to do with getting a better pit stall than actual starting position, because we think we can race our way back up through the field.”
Suárez qualified 29th for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 and will pit from stall No. 39.
Don’t be the Pied Piper in the closing laps. According to Racing Insights, the pass for the win came in the final two laps in four of the last five races at Atlanta. Winner of two of the last four races in Georgia, Joey Logano made the pass for the victory on the final lap, and most recently in September, led the last three miles that catapulted his run to championship No. 3.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
TODD GILLILAND. On paper, a 26th-place result in last year’s spring Atlanta race doesn’t look appealing but Front Row Motorsports had two rockets in that race with both Gilliland and then-FRM driver Michael McDowell (now with Spire Motorsports) leading a combined 85 laps. With three cars now in the organization’s stable, Gilliland has an extra teammate to work with, and after a poor showing in the Daytona 500 for all three cars, the Front Row trio of Gilliland, Zane Smith and Noah Gragson will look to get on the right track around the 1.5-mile oval.
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the Speedweeks — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 | Read article
• NASCAR’s newest Harvick: Is William Byron NASCAR’s best closer? | Read article
• No. 19 team penalized: Briscoe, JGR No. 19 team found to have modified spoiler at Daytona; full details | Read article • As fast as …: 23XI re-ups with Xfinity, bolsters war room at Airspeed | Read article
• Back in the saddle: Byron’s 2024 Daytona 500-winning car might be raced again | Watch video • NASCAR Classics: Revisit some of the best races in Atlanta’s decorated history | Visit NASCAR Classics
• Paint Scheme Preview: These cars are feeling peachy for the weekend | Pick your favorite
HAMPTON, Ga. – With seven previous Atlanta Motor Speedway trophies in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series already on his mantel, Kyle Busch was the odds-on favorite for Saturday’s Fr8 Racing 208. The veteran did not disappoint.
Pulling ahead of Stewart Friesen about 20 yards from the finish line, Busch’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet held on for a slight .017-second win as the two passed side-by-side under the checkered flag. It was Busch’s record eighth series victory at the track. He led a race-high 80 of the 135 laps but definitely earned his hardware this weekend with a half-dozen trucks going door-to-door with the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion in the closing 20 laps.
“Awesome run for this Spire Chevrolet and everybody at [sponsor] Gainbridge,” Busch said, thanking the fans in the grandstands for coming out in the cloudy 50-degree Atlanta weather.
“Just trying to make sure I stayed as far forward as I possibly could,” Busch said of how he held off the field in the closing laps. “Those guys would cycle to me and get to the next one in front, next one in front of me and I just made sure to keep battling back and got back to the front so I could control it the best I could. That inside [lane] was good, they were rolling forward so it made for a heck of a race.”
“I’m proud we had a heck of a race there to the finish and it wasn’t single-file. There was some mixing it up for these fans out here to see a cool show.”
As elated as Busch was in claiming his record 67th NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win – and record 232nd national series win – Friesen could only muster a slight smile conceding he gave it his best in the thrilling finish.
“Just proud of my race team here,” the Canadian owner-driver of the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota said. “We had a shot. This is my favorite truck and we’ll keep digging with it. We had a shot and I guess I got too far off my help there coming off the back on my last lap. I thought I could pack some more air on him coming out of three and surge ahead, but just had the surge at the wrong time and he came back.”
With Busch and Friesen ultimately the pair fighting for the checkered flag, Tyler Ankrum and Bayley Currey crossed the finish line side-by-side just behind, a mere .001-second separating the two. Georgia native Chandler Smith finished fifth – all of these drivers giving Busch a challenge in those last laps.
Kaden Honeycutt, two-time series champion Ben Rhodes, reigning series champion Ty Majeski, Jake Garcia and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top 10 in a race with 19 lead changes among 11 drivers and only a pair of caution flags beyond the scheduled stage breaks.
Of note, championship favorite Corey Heim ran out of gas while running third, one lap before the Stage 2 break. He was never able to make up the three laps he lost to that miscue and finished 23rd. It was also a rough ending for 25-year-old rookie Connor Mosack, who earned his first series pole position and led 30 laps, but was involved in a late-race incident and finished 25th.
A red flag came out on Lap 78 after Rajah Caruth spun on the bottom of Turn 4, collecting multiple trucks. William Sawalich, Daniel Hemric and Andrés Pérez de Lara were among the drivers who were swept up in this incident.
Jack Wood won the opening stage, and Busch claimed the second stage win. Giovanni Ruggiero was the top-finishing rookie in 11th place. Tanner Gray earned an additional championship point for claiming the Fastest Lap Bonus.
Enfinger takes a one-point advantage over Majeski into the series’ next race, Friday, March 14 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Busch as the Atlanta winner.
HAMPTON, Ga. — Almost 365 days since the three-wide photo finish at the track, Daniel Suárez looks ahead to the 2025 spring bout at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a chance to build on last season’s thrilling victory.
The finish, which saw Suárez, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch race neck and neck to the line, resulted in the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet prevailing in what was Suárez’s second career Cup Series victory. The 0.003-second conclusion currently stands as the fourth-closest Cup Series finish in the circuit’s history.
The 33-year-old Monterrey, Mexico native believes he and his team have learned plenty since the electric finish.
“A lot. I think I have got better, and the team has got better,” Suárez said. “We still have things that we have to continue to work on, as always. You know, you can’t always stand still, you have to continue to get better. But I think we’re in a good spot. In my opinion, we were stronger in the fall, second race at Atlanta last year than the first Atlanta when we won, and that, for me, was very important, you know, just to continue to get better. We didn’t win that one, but I think that we could have won that one. I think we’re playing a little bit different. But overall, I’m very excited for the opportunity once again here. We’re gonna have another fast car and looking forward to mix it up with the rest of the guys.”
Since Atlanta’s reconfiguration to begin the 2022 Cup campaign, Suárez has tallied efficient — and consistent — results at the 1.54-mile facility. Suárez has finished inside the top 10 in five of the six Cup contests at the track since its reconfiguration and has collected a runner-up result — or win — in three consecutive Atlanta contests, dating back to July 2023. Suárez’s 7.33 average finish at the reconfigured Atlanta additionally ranks second among all Cup Series drivers, with 2023 Cup Series champion Blaney the only driver standing higher (7.17).
“I mean, I liked this place even before the configuration. I was always strong here,” Suárez said when speaking about Atlanta. “It was always a good place for me, for some reason, and I have a good vibe for this place. And I love racing here. A lot of Mexicans always show up here. I love racing here, and already, since the configuration, the results have been extremely good.”
Suárez starts Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in 29th. Suárez finished 13th in the 2025 Daytona 500 and currently sits 12th in the Cup Series standings.
