HAMPTON, Ga. — Seizing the lead for the first time on Lap 152 of 163 of Saturday’s Focused Health 250, Austin Hill stayed out front the rest of the way to win his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his home track.
The 30-year-old driver from Winston, Georgia, won for the third time this season and completed a sweep of the two Atlanta races. Seven of Hill’s nine career series victories have come at drafting-style tracks.
“I’m speechless right now,” Hill said in Victory Lane. “Our Bennett Chevrolet had speed all day, but the handling just was not there the way that I would like. You come to these superspeedway-style events, and you want to have a car that’s trimmed out. You don’t worry too much about handling.
“But I thought handling was going to be an issue, and it definitely played a part today. We made some right moves at the right time between my spotter, Derek Kneeland, and me. We got up to second and when we had that restart (on Lap 150), I was contemplating ‘Do I go top, or do I go bottom?’
“We both agreed that we have to go bottom and try to get to the lead, and if the bottom didn’t work out, then so be it.”
Hill got help from an unexpected source. He expressed surprise that he got a decisive push on the final lap from Toyota driver Corey Heim, who was making his first superspeedway start in the Xfinity Series.
Toyota driver Chandler Smith was equally surprised–and frustrated. Smith dropped to the bottom to attempt to pass Hill on the final circuit and briefly nosed past the front bumper of Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Heim stayed with Hill on top.
“I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me, and he didn’t,” said Smith, who ultimately finished fourth in the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Supra. “I’m kind of speechless.”
Heim, who finished fifth behind Smith, thought his best chance to win the race was to stay with Hill.
“He (Smith) had no run and no momentum, so why go to the bottom?” Heim explained.
After he pushed Hill clear of Smith, Heim tried a pass at the top of the track but brushed the outside wall and lost momentum. Parker Kligerman swept past Heim into second place, with AJ Allmendinger following.
Hill beat Kligerman to the finish line by 0.340 seconds, with Allmendinger in third, just 0.004 seconds behind Kligerman.
“Congrats to Austin Hill — he’s the master of this place,” said Kligerman, who matched his career-best finish in the series.
A multicar crash on Lap 145 dramatically altered the complexion of the race. Contact between the competitive cars of Justin Allgaier and Cole Custer ignited a six-car incident that collected the machines of Taylor Gray, Ryan Sieg, Riley Herbst and pole winner Jesse Love.
The wreck was particularly detrimental to Sieg, who is chasing Sammy Smith for the final spot in the 12-driver Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Sieg was running in the top 10 after making up a two-lap deficit–the result of an electrical issue in the opening laps–when the wreck occurred. He dropped from 10 to 44 points behind Smith, who overcame a pit-road safety violation penalty to finish seventh.
The incident sidelined both Allgaier and Custer, who are battling for the Regular Season Championship. Allgaier maintains a 34-point margin over the reigning series champion, but both Smith (67 points behind) and Hill (71 points) now have outside chances to overtake the leader.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Austin Hill as the winner. The Nos. 26 and 31 will head to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further evaluation.
Michael McDowell roared to his second straight Atlanta Motor Speedway pole with a fast final-round lap of 179.267 mph in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. The 39-year-old driver went his first 466 Cup Series races without a pole position; now he has a harvest of five poles in his last 25 races.
Ford swept the top-five starting spots, with Kyle Larson in the fastest Chevrolet in sixth. Ty Gibbs mustered the fastest lap among Toyota drivers but will start 20th. Denny Hamlin qualified last, well off the pace in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He said later that his team was investigating a powertrain issue. | Full Saturday recap
Big story line
Fortunes of three drivers shift in an Atlanta blink
The last time the NASCAR Cup Series visited Atlanta Motor Speedway, the first three cars that crossed the start-finish line abreast at the checkered flag were separated by just 0.007 seconds. For the three drivers who pressed toward that micron-close finish, their fates took multiple twists between that February stop and Sunday’s return trip that opens the 10-race Cup Series Playoffs.
Daniel Suárez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet was the first car there as the Mexican-born driver secured his second Cup Series win, snapping up a postseason berth in the process. By the time he reached Wednesday’s Cup Series Playoffs Media Day, Suárez said he’d already seen the replay of the three-wide conclusion several times that morning, reaffirming the enduring link that he’ll have with that moment.
“People love talking about it,” Suárez said. “I think it was a great finish, and obviously something that people are going to talk about for a very, very long time every time that we go back to Atlanta. It’s going to be in the history books, and I’m just very happy that I was the one that won it, because if not, if I was Blaney or Busch, I would feel very bad about it.”
That’s Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch, who were the other competitors in contention, falling short by just a whisker. Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford was 0.003 seconds behind at the checkers, and it took the defending Cup Series champ nearly five months to make his playoff return official with a breakthrough win at Iowa Speedway. Contrary to what Suárez thought, Blaney didn’t “feel very bad,” and he enters Atlanta with four of his 12 Cup Series victories coming on superspeedway-style tracks.
“I didn’t feel upset about it,” said Blaney, who also has his two Team Penske teammates (Joey Logano and Austin Cindric) in the playoff mix as well. “It was pretty wild and I kind of put in my head like, ‘I’ve won them by that much, too.’ So, the fact that I lost one by half a foot, I can’t really be mad about it. I’ve won more than my fair share of what I honestly should have won, just by odds, by a foot or two. It was just a neat finish. I didn’t know who won. … Like I said, that’s like the only time I wasn’t upset about running second at all. It was like, ‘Oh, we didn’t win. Well, that was still a good night.'”
The driver 0.007 seconds behind was Busch, who languished through a dreadful summer slump before making two valiant late bids to make the playoff field. He ended up outside the postseason picture, with two runner-up finishes behind first-time 2024 winners Harrison Burton (Daytona) and Chase Briscoe (Darlington) to close the regular season.
He said seeing replays of the Atlanta photo finish still stings somewhat, and that his goals for the final 10 races of the season are twofold — extending his streak of seasons with a win to 20 consecutive years, and playing playoff spoiler from the outside looking in.
“Just another weekend, another race, nothing really,” Busch said, noting that with the nature of superspeedway events, “anything can happen in those styles of races. So we’ve been strong at them this year, though, like Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, so that gives you some optimism — added optimism maybe, more than, say, what I was used to for years of just dreading these places. So we’ll just see if we can’t score a win here this time.”
History tells us…
Manufacturers make their Atlanta moves. Since Atlanta Motor Speedway was reconfigured to an intermediate-sized track with higher banking in 2022, prompting a shift to superspeedway-style rules, Chevrolet drivers have won four of the five races. Three of those have been snatched up by Hendrick Motorsports drivers — with William Byron prevailing twice, and home-state favorite Chase Elliott once.
Despite those high marks on the results sheet, Ford flexed its muscle in Saturday’s Busch Pole Qualifying with seven Mustang Dark Horses among the top 10. It’s the seventh consecutive superspeedway-style event with a Ford on the pole.
He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…
AUSTIN CINDRIC. Since Atlanta’s reinvention, Cindric has been sneaky consistent with the third-best average finish here (12.4) in the Cup Series field. He’s led multiple laps in the last four Atlanta races and had a prime seat for February’s photo finish in fourth place.
The Team Penske driver starts fifth in Sunday’s 400-miler and sets off as an 18-1 pick. He broke a two-plus-year skid with his June victory at Gateway, but his only other Cup Series win was at a superspeedway in the 2022 Daytona 500. | Atlanta odds
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Compelling playoff topics: Five thought-starters as postseason dawns | Read article
• Title defense sets sail: Ryan Blaney rides confidence into Atlanta | Read article
• Sensing a shake-up: Larson counting on unpredictability | Read article
• 2025 reunion: Truex says Cole Pearn would be crew chief for potential Daytona 500 bid | Read article
• Bubble Watch: High risk, reward abound for postseason hopefuls | Photo gallery
• ‘Rare opportunity’: Playoff underdogs embracing the moment | Read article
• What they’re saying: Best driver quotes from Cup Series Playoffs Media Day | Photo gallery
• Penske’s pit-stop mix: From shark-attack survivor to playoffs, Joe Dilly blends with veteran crew | Read article
• Playoff programming: NASCAR Studios launches three new shows | Read article
• Get in the game: Join the Cup Series Playoffs Grid Challenge | How to play
• Computer modeling: Results of 10,000 simulations of title battle | Read article • Power Rankings: Paring down our list to the sweet 16 | Photo gallery
• Tier mentality: Categories, designations for all 16 playoff drivers | Photo gallery • Turning Point: Potential spoilers, favorites saddle up for Atlanta | Read article
• NASCAR Betting: Wait-and-see approach to championship odds | Read article
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s playoff opener | Read article • 36 for 36: Check out this week’s survivor pool picks | Read article
• Fantasy Fastlane: Turning to Team Penske for Atlanta lineup | Photo gallery
• Memorable moments: Races for the history books from Atlanta | Photo gallery
• Atlanta all-timers: Full list of Cup Series race winners | Photo gallery • NASCAR Classics: Rewind with three Atlanta all-timers from the vault | Read article
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs for Atlanta playoff opener | Pick your favorite
Fast facts ⏩
Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• The last two Cup Series winners at Atlanta started 18th or worse; the previous two were both pole winners. • The pole winner has also become the race winner just once this season, back when William Byron prevailed at Circuit of The Americas in March.
• February’s Atlanta event registered a track record of 48 lead changes, besting the previous mark of 46 in the spring of 2022.
HAMPTON, Ga. — Don’t put too much stock in William Byron’s spotty performance in the NASCAR Cup Series this summer.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet brushed off those concerns during a Saturday question-and-answer session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Quaker State 400 available at Walmart (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
After winning the season-opening Daytona 500, Byron picked up victories in two of the next seven races, at Circuit of The Americas and Martinsville Speedway, but the 26-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, hasn’t won since.
Nevertheless, Byron enters the 10-race playoffs with confidence.
“Well, I mean, yeah, we finished second two and a half weeks ago at Michigan, so I feel like we’ve been pretty good; hit or miss, though,” Byron said. “Some of those tracks during the summer aren’t as good for us as a team, but we’ve really circled all of the playoff tracks and worked really hard to have our best at the end of the year.
“So, yeah, I think once you win two or three races early in the season, like I said this week, the goal is to try and stack playoff points. If you can’t do that, then the goal is to try and position yourself well for the fall and all the tracks in the playoffs. So, I feel good about that.”
Byron has won two of the last five races at Atlanta, and he took the checkered flag last year at Watkins Glen, the second venue in the first round of the playoffs.
“We’ve had success here at Atlanta,” Byron said. “Although it can be unpredictable, I feel like, as I’ve studied and watched it back, a lot of times if you’re up in the front and making good decisions, you can kind of control your destiny here.
“I think that’s the goal for us … try to have a good day today in qualifying. Not quite sure what kind of speed we’re going to have in qualifying because you want to be able to have enough pace in the pack and everything like that — enough grip. Hopefully, we can make the top 10 and go from there.”
Byron did just that. One of six playoff drivers to make the final 10 in time trials, Byron will start ninth on Sunday.
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
HAMPTON, Ga. — For some drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series garage, Sunday’s playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway is the first step on the road that leads to championship glory as 16 of the sport’s best battle over the next 10 weeks for the Bill France Cup.
For others, the mindset shifts as they look to help their fellow teammates case the trophy at the season finale at Phoenix Raceway in November.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain is focused on being the ultimate team player as his teammate Daniel Suárez looks to chase the race team’s first championship in NASCAR national series competition.
“If there is an opportunity to push the No. 99, make a hole for him, do anything to help the No. 99, absolutely we are all in,” Chastain said Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “That starts with building the race cars at the shop, picking tire pressures, settings and setups.
“Daniel and I have our differences in the way we drive, and our teams have their differences in how they operate, but my crew chief made it clear to (Matt Swiderski), I’ve made it clear to Daniel and our leadership group at Trackhouse. The No. 1 team will help however we can.”
The same sentiment can be echoed across the street from the team’s shop in Concord, North Carolina, where RFK Racing also calls home, as Chris Buescher’s No. 17 missed out on the postseason festivities after a new winner was crowned at Darlington’s Southern 500 with Chase Briscoe taking the checkered flag. Though he still has aspirations to collect his first win of the season, Buescher says he’ll provide assistance for his title-eligible teammate and car owner, Brad Keselowski, in the 10 races that remain.
“It’s not so much of a mindset shift for us,” Buescher told media members following his qualifying run at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “We come to tracks like (Atlanta) and that’s what has made us so good at superspeedway races. The fact that we have been working so well together and can constantly grab stage points and be in the hunt for winning these things as long as we can stay out of trouble.
“It has been pretty typical with how we look at these sort of things. I obviously know if we can do anything throughout these playoffs to help the No. 6, without hurting yourself. I’m certainly aware of it and we will do what we can.”
For 23XI Racing, it is the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, felt simultaneously as Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 Toyota team delivered the team’s first Regular Season Championship while Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 team came up just short of racing for the ultimate prize at the end of the season.
As Wallace still processes what missing the 2024 postseason looks like, he is proud and eager to help his 23XI teammate in Reddick chase his first Cup Series title.
“It’s big for our team, putting down the ‘sob’ hat for a minute and putting on the ‘pumped and excited for the future,’ being able to win a Regular Season Championship in four years for a team is big,” Wallace stated. “Having people in the right place where it matters, having Tyler coming in, I knew from day one he would be fast and competitive and get the job done.
“On the outside looking in, it sucks, but at the same time, you’re happy for the team, and I can say that confidently, without blowing smoke. It’s cool to see how everyone is coming together to get to where we are.”
These drivers will look to keep the momentum progressing forward for their respective teams in the Cup Series playoffs as they kick off the 2024 postseason with Atlanta’s 400-mile event on Sunday.
HAMPTON, Ga. — In Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series time trials, Michael McDowell reaffirmed his mastery of qualifying on drafting tracks, winning the pole for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the first race in the Cup Series Playoffs (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
McDowell posted one of only two sub-31-second laps in the final round (30.926 seconds), touring the 1.54-mile speedway at 179.267 mph. He edged defending series champion Ryan Blaney (178.844 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.073 seconds.
McDowell was one of three non-playoff drivers who qualified in the top four. His Front Row Motorsports teammate Todd Gilliland was third at 178.770 mph, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry at 178.453 mph, as Ford drivers claimed the first five starting spots for Sunday’s race.
The Busch Light Pole Award was McDowell’s fifth of the season, second at Atlanta and fourth straight on a track that uses the superspeedway competition package. All five of McDowell’s career poles have come this year.
“I’m just so proud of everyone at Front Row [Motorsports],” McDowell said. “I knew we had a shot based on Daytona (where McDowell won the pole two races ago), and we sat on the pole here earlier.
“One thing I think we’ve done really well, we led a lot of laps and our car drove really well… sometimes you’ll trim them out and get a lot of speed, and when you get into the race, it’ll be just a handful. I don’t feel like we’re compromising anything going into the race with the speed that we have.”
Blaney was the fastest of six playoff drivers who qualified in the top 10. Austin Cindric earned the fifth starting spot, followed by Kyle Larson in the fastest Chevrolet (178.367 mph) and Ford driver Joey Logano.
Non-playoff driver Austin Dillon will start eighth, followed by playoff drivers William Byron and Chase Briscoe.
Notably absent from the final round were Toyota drivers. Of the five playoff drivers in Camrys, Ty Gibbs was the top qualifier in 20th. Martin Truex Jr. will start 22nd, Tyler Reddick 23rd, Christopher Bell 26th and Denny Hamlin 38th.
Hamlin was more than two seconds off the pole-winning pace in the first round with what appeared to be an engine issue.
“The engine made a funny noise when we were warming it up on pit road,” Hamlin radioed to his crew.
“They see a few red flags certainly, so they’ll dig into it tonight and get it fixed for tomorrow,” Hamlin told NBC Sports. “It means we start last and then we’ll just battle to the front. Our Mavis Camry I’m sure is going to be pretty good tomorrow. We feel good about what we brought. It’s just, we’ve got to get it to the finish.”
Other playoff drivers qualified as follows: Alex Bowman 11th, Harrison Burton 12th, Chase Elliott 16th, Brad Keselowski 19th and most recent Atlanta winner Daniel Suárez 30th.
Paul Goldsmith, who was as richly talented when racing stock cars as he was riding motorcycles, has died. He was 98.
Goldsmith won the last NASCAR premier-series race held on the Daytona Beach and road course in 1958. He also won the prestigious Daytona 200 motorcycle race in 1953, one of his five American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) national victories. The versatile Goldsmith also made six starts in the Indianapolis 500, finishing fifth in 1959 and a career-best third the following year.
Goldsmith notched nine wins and eight pole positions in what is now the NASCAR Cup Series. His success came primarily while connected to two legendary car owners — Smokey Yunick and Ray Nichels. It was Yunick — who ran the legendary “Best Damn Garage in Town” in Daytona Beach — who connected with him during Daytona’s motorcycle events and entered him in his first NASCAR races in 1956.
Goldsmith netted his first win in his eighth premier-series start that year, prevailing in an epic 300-miler to tame the dangerous and famed Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania. He had the rare distinction of also winning a motorcycle event at the circular Langhorne track.
“Paul Goldsmith had more natural talent than any driver I ever had anything to do with,” Yunick was quoted as saying in Peter Golenbock’s 1993 book, American Zoom. “He’s a very, very quiet, likable guy … good manners. A very, very fast race driver and had extremely quick reflexes. Inside of three or four races, he was as good as there was.”
Goldsmith was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, but moved with his family to Detroit during his teenage years. His motorcycle racing career began there, and he soon graduated from the barnstorming county-fair circuit to the AMA grand national ranks.
In AMA competition, Goldsmith recorded his first national win at the Milwaukee Mile in 1952. A year later, he netted his largest two-wheel triumph in the Daytona 200, ending a 13-year drought for Harley-Davidson in the event, riding a bike prepared in part by Yunick. Goldsmith balanced his racing career with a full-time job at the Chrysler factory in Detroit.
“I guess I was pretty businesslike compared to a lot of the guys back then,” Goldsmith told the AMA in his later years. “There was very little glamour in racing in those days. We all slept in our cars. It was tough, but we all had a great time as well.”
His distinction as the final winner on the Daytona shores and road circuit signaled the end of an era, with the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway the next year in 1959. Goldsmith led all 39 laps from the pole position in Yunick’s No. 3 Pontiac, but he fought off intense pressure from Hall of Famer Curtis Turner to win by five car lengths.
“It was difficult to get a car set up for both the beach and the highway,” Goldsmith told Autoweek in 2021. “And the highway was rough. The car wouldn’t handle unless you had the right suspension. Smokey helped me with that quite a bit. We went out on a back road there about four miles north of Daytona and worked on different shocks, tire pressures and suspensions. That’s where we learned how to do it. And I had raced motorcycles there, so that helped.”
Goldsmith also claimed 26 victories in the U.S. Auto Club (USAC) Stock Car Championship, a rival series to NASCAR’s top division. He was the series’ champion in consecutive years — 1961-62 — but later challenged USAC in court for rules that barred drivers from alternating between the two sanctioning bodies.
Though Goldsmith listed St. Clair Shores, Michigan as his hometown during his racing career and later lived in Indiana, he briefly claimed residence in Mexico City as a way to exploit a loophole in American auto racing bylaws, which relaxed suspensions against international drivers.
His focus shifted more toward NASCAR in 1964 through his partnership with Nichels. Goldsmith claimed his final three NASCAR Cup Series wins in the 1966 season — claiming a victory in a Daytona 500 qualifying race (which counted as an official win during that time), then prevailing at Rockingham and Bristol. He never competed in more than half of the races during a given season, but the 1966 campaign brought his highest finish in the final standings — fifth.
Getty Images
By 1969, Goldsmith had begun to grow weary of the demands of the racing circuit, telling the great Benny Phillips of the High Point (North Carolina) Enterprise in August that he intended to phase himself out of the cockpit. “I can’t simply say I’m quitting,” he said. “If I was quitting outright, I’d be off to some island resort instead of hanging around these race tracks. But I’ll put it this way, you’ll see me at fewer and fewer races in the future.”
One week later, Goldsmith competed in his final race. The engine of his No. 99 Dodge expired just minutes after he had taken the lead at Michigan International Speedway. “I’d just got tired of it, the traveling, being home two days a week if I was lucky,” Goldsmith told the Munster (Indiana) Times in 1998. “I was leading in that race, the engine blew and I said this is the last engine I’m gonna blow, and I quit.”
As a footnote to Goldsmith’s retirement, Nichels tapped Charlie Glotzbach as his successor. In the next race Nichels entered, Glotzbach joined the driver boycott of the inaugural Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. Nichels replaced Glotzbach with Richard Brickhouse, who claimed the first Talladega 500 in the No. 99 entry for his only big-league win.
Goldsmith filed to make his retirement official on Jan. 11, 1970, taking a front-office position as general manager of Nichels’ engineering group. He also left a legacy of innovation, credited with developing the water-circulating forerunner to the modern cool-suit technology and also an experimental warning system that featured a flashing caution light inside his race car.
His post-racing career was filled with numerous business interests, including a concentration on aviation. Goldsmith — known as one of the first drivers to fly his own private plane to each race — founded an aircraft engine business, trained pilots and owned a small airport in Griffith, Indiana. He also owned several Burger King franchises in the Indianapolis area and two Thoroughbred horse ranches in Florida.
Goldsmith returned to the shores of Daytona for a promotional appearance in August 2020, reuniting with one of his former cars on the beach and taking a lap around the 2.5-mile track with then-Daytona track president Chip Wile behind the wheel.
“He’s run at Indy. He drove for Smokey, who thought Goldsmith was the best driver he ever had because he knew more about a car than anybody,” said NASCAR historian Buz McKim. “He was a natural engineer. He is an aviator and raced Pikes Peak. Literally, anything with wheels and an engine, he was in to win.”
Goldsmith was recognized by induction into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2008 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 2016.
NASCAR.com’s 36 for 36 continues at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
With 36 races and 36 full-time Charter cars, our players select one car per race, but there’s a simple twist: once they’ve made the pick, they can’t choose that car again for the rest of the 36-race season. Yes, that means every car will be selected exactly once … a survivor pool, by another name.
Follow along weekly as our panel of pickers — Dustin Albino from Jayski, along with Steve Luvender and Cameron Richardson from NASCAR.com — embarks on a season-long journey to think like strategists and prove their picking prowess.
We’ll also feature a fourth “community” 36 for 36 pick each week, as decided by fan vote on the r/NASCAR subreddit. Can the collective vote topple our trio of full-timers?
Current Standings:
Steve Luvender: 667
r/NASCAR Community: -63
Dustin Albino: -83
Cameron Richardson: -123
Race 27 of 36: Atlanta
Welcome to the playoffs! Well, not for 36 for 36, which is a season-long challenge. Last week’s regular-season finale at Darlington wasn’t a stellar outing for our pickers. Erik Jones delivered just 13 points for Cameron Richardson and the r/NASCAR community, while William Byron’s late crash netted picker Dustin Albino 17 points — mostly from stage points. Steve Luvender extended his points lead with 32 more points resulting from Ross Chastain’s top-five finish.
Now, an Atlanta race as a playoff opener is bound for unpredictability. How will our pickers handle the challenge?
Jayski’s Dustin Albino: No. 47, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Dustin’s pick last week:No. 24, William Byron (17 points) Total season points: 584 (third place)
Dustin: Man, I’m sure glad summer is wrapping up soon. Aside from a Zane Smith top 10 at Michigan, it’s been a brutal few months of picks here. Most recently, William Byron had a top-five car all night at Darlington and was collected in a late wreck. But hey, that’s racing. This weekend, I’m rolling with Stenhouse, who has consecutive top-10 finishes at Atlanta and is a three-time winner on drafting tracks. While playoff drivers will be focused on points, the No. 47 team has one goal: win.
NASCAR.com’s Steve Luvender: No. 7, Corey LaJoie
Steve’s pick last week: No. 1, Ross Chastain (32 points) Total season points: 667 (first place)
Steve: Corey LaJoie won’t drive the No. 7 car in the Cup Series next year, and he hasn’t yet announced his plans for 2025. Given his past success at the superspeedway-configured Atlanta Motor Speedway, this could be one of LaJoie’s last chances for a victory driving for Spire Motorsports. It’s a lot of pressure, but it may be the race of his career.
Cameron’s pick last week:No. 43, Erik Jones (13 points) Total season points:544 (fourth place)
Cameron:There are two drafting tracks in the playoffs and Corey LaJoie could be a legitimate threat to win either of them. LaJoie owns two top fives at Atlanta and nearly broke through for this maiden Cup win in 2022 before contact with Chase Elliott on the final lap sent the No. 7 driver spinning. LaJoie could also take advantage of playoff drivers wanting to be more conservative early on and put the No. 7 up front early to nab stage points. Ten races to go and a healthy 100-plus point gap to make up for the lead. Wish me luck.
r/NASCAR Community: No. 38, Todd Gilliland
r/NASCAR’s pick last week:No. 43, Erik Jones (13 points)
Total season points: 604 (second place)
It’s Todd Time for the NASCAR subreddit! The community voted Driver No. 38 to get the job done in Atlanta. Here’s what Redditors had to say in this week’s voting thread:
u/FridgusDomin8or: “I say we go Todd this weekend. Usually qualifies up front (and runs up front) on these drafting style tracks and I don’t really see any better tracks to use him at — he and this team really seem to specialize on the drafting tracks.”
u/Extreme-Bite-9123: “Todd this week. He’s been really fast at the plates this year, and it’s our best shot at a good day with him.”
u/Dont-Hate-The-8: “This is tough. This is the best place to use Todd, but it’s the best place to use a few drivers. I say we go JHN here, because the 38 has shown far more speed on other tracks.”
(Narrator: But they did not go with John Hunter Nemechek.)
Check back next week to see how our pickers fared as the season-long 36 for 36 journey continues.
And, if you’ve got a competitive itch beyond meticulously managing your Fantasy Live lineup each week, feel free to save or print your own 36 for 36 sheet and see if you can beat our pickers and the Reddit community!
Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.
Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The following suggestions are Ken’s picks to watch before this Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The 1980 NASCAR Cup Series champion seemed poised to continue his dominance after asserting his name as a championship threat but that was not immediately the case. Earnhardt bounced around after leaving the Rod Osterlund owned team he won the title with before finding a permanent home with Richard Childress in 1984.
His new home at Richard Childress Racing proved to be the correct move, as Earnhardt finished fourth in points in 1984 and won two races. Both of those numbers were his best since his championship season in 1980.
Unfortunately, the 1985 season saw mechanical issues plague the still-fast Childress team. Earnhardt failed to finish nine of the first 20 races but still finished the season with four victories. The rest of the Cup Series was on notice that if the budding superstar and team could put things together, 1986 could be dominated by Earnhardt.
The season-opening Daytona 500 seemed like more of the same for Earnhardt, as his fast No. 3 Chevrolet led 34 laps but ran out of fuel at the end, leaving him with a 14th-place finish. What followed was a torrid stretch that saw him finish outside of the top 10 just once until the start of July, cementing himself at the top of the series standings.
He continued at the top of the standings as the season progressed, arriving at Atlanta with the chance to clinch with Riverside still remaining on the schedule.
Everything seemingly went right for Earnhardt at Atlanta and he officially clinched his second series title when Darrell Waltrip blew an engine less than 100 laps into the race.
It didn’t slow Earnhardt down, as he went on to lead 162 of the race’s 328 laps en route to his fifth victory of the season. Richard Petty finished second, an entire lap behind Earnhardt.
It seemed like everything aligned to ensure that the 1992 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Atlanta would go down as one of the most memorable races of all-time. That was before the green flag even waved.
The amount of storylines were immaculate, some of which were not even known for a handful of years after the event itself.
Richard Petty was set to wrap up his legendary career, with the race at Atlanta being the final stop of his “Fan Appreciation Tour.” The entire weekend saw eyes on Petty, including Alabama holding a concert honoring Petty the night before the race at the Georgia Dome.
Beyond Petty’s impending retirement, the race for the championship was tighter than ever. Six drivers were mathematically eligible to win the championship, with Davey Allison leading the way coming into the event after winning the previous week at Phoenix.
Allison was in the middle of a tough season, both on and off the track, so his resilience to even be in the hunt for the title was impressive. He was injured at Bristol in April. He won The Winston at Charlotte but by crashing across the line and ending the night in the hospital. July saw Allison’s car fly through the air at Pocono, leaving Allison with multiple injuries including a concussion and a broken arm. To top it all off, his brother Clifford tragically passed away in a practice crash at Michigan. Allison put his emotions aside and brought his car home with a fifth-place finish. It almost seemed inevitable that nothing could conquer Allison’s quest at capturing the Cup.
Alan Kulwicki, who owned the No. 7 car that he raced, sat 30 points behind Allison. Bill Elliott was 40 points behind in third, while Harry Gant, Kyle Petty and Mark Martin all were still capable of capturing the title, depending what happened to the other contenders.
On top of everything, the race marked the Cup Series debut of an up-and-coming Xfinity Series driver, Jeff Gordon. The impact of Gordon’s debut would not truly be felt for years but was noted during the broadcast.
When the green flag waved, things couldn’t have gone worse for Petty or Allison. Petty was involved in a multi-car accident on the 95th lap, which resulted in his car erupting into flames. He was not injured in the crash but it seemed like it might mark the end of his career, with his car looking all-but destroyed.
As the laps passed by, Allison looked like he was in control of his own destiny. That was until an accident involving Ernie Irvan saw Allison’s title hopes disappear when he slammed into Irvan’s No. 4 car.
The race for the title came down to Elliott and Kulwicki, with the title coming down to the final set of green flag pit-stops. Kulwicki took advantage of those stops, putting him in position to capture the title. Elliott took the checkered flag but Kulwicki led 103 laps to Elliott’s 102, giving Kulwicki the title by 10 points.
Little did the Labonte family know but the 1996 season finale would go down as quite possible the biggest day in their already successful family’s racing history.
Terry Labonte, the 1984 NASCAR Cup Series champion, found a bit of a career rejuvenation by signing to drive the No. 5 car for Rick Hendrick starting with the 1994 season. He visited Victory Lane three times that year, his first victories since 1989.
The next season saw Labonte win three more races in 1995, which was an incredible feat since Labonte had never plateaued above two victories throughout his first 15 seasons. He finished sixth in points, while his teammate Jeff Gordon captured the series title.
Labonte’s season in 1996 started rather uneventfully, despite winning from the pole at North Wilkesboro in the spring. As the races passed by, Labonte and the No. 5 team became stronger, notching eight straight top-seven finishes through the halfway point of the season. This put Labonte on top of the season standings.
He continued throughout the season with his consistency, setting himself up to race for the championship at Atlanta. He entered the race with a 47-point advantage over his teammate Gordon and a 99-point lead over third-place driver Dale Jarrett.
His brother Bobby Labonte, the 1991 Xfinity Series champion, was in his second season driving the No. 18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. He won the first four races of his career in that car, one that seemingly found speed towards the end of the 1996 season. Bobby Labonte didn’t have the finishes to back it up but he won the pole at Dover, Charlotte, Phoenix and Atlanta, giving him four poles over the final seven races of the season. It was a needed momentum boost for the No. 18 team.
The championship contenders hoped to finish their strong seasons by hoisting the Cup and backed it up in qualifying. Gordon qualified behind Bobby in second, while Terry followed in third and Jarrett was fifth.
The four drivers were the cars to beat on the final Sunday of the season, as they stayed up front throughout the race. In true storybook fashion, it was both of the Labontes coming out on top. Bobby led a race-high 147 laps for the fifth victory of his career, while Terry’s fifth-place finish was enough to finish 37 points ahead of Gordon to capture his second title. The two drivers celebrated on the track together with a victory lap and later took pictures together in Victory Lane.
