See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Photos from Atlanta
William Byron, 24, is hopeful that this return visit to Atlanta Motor Speedway may kickstart another solid run to close out the regular season. His victory in March and a second at Martinsville Speedway only three weeks later made the Hendrick Motorsports driver the first multi-race winner of the 2022 season.
But after that April 9 win at Martinsville, Byron didn’t score another top-10 for eight weeks – a ninth-place run two months later on the Sonoma, Calif. road course. That finish – three weeks ago – is his only top-10 now in a span of 10 races.
RELATED: Elliott on pole after rainout | See full Atlanta lineup
A good showing this weekend at Atlanta would go a long way toward righting the ship for the No. 24 Chevrolet team. And there’s plenty of reasons to believe that’s possible. Byron says he’s become a student of big-track racing and concedes the right mindset really helps.
His results would indicate as much. Byron earned his first-career NASCAR Cup Series win at Daytona International Speedway in the August 2020 regular-season finale.
Seven of his 25 career top-five NASCAR Cup Series finishes – plus a pair of Xfinity Series wins – have come on tracks at least 2.5 miles (Daytona, Talladega, Ala., Pocono, Pa. and Indianapolis).
“When I was starting out, like going back to the first truck race on a superspeedway, I was really nervous, timid, didn’t make a lot of moves and I ended up getting into someone else’s crash,’’ Byron acknowledged Saturday.
“So I was just like, ‘man, this just doesn’t make any sense. I feel so timid. I feel so nervous the whole time’. So I just started to take a more aggressive approach to try and learn. Knowing that the outcome might be the same – maybe I’m going to crash or whatnot at the end of the race – but at least I’ve learned something throughout the race and don’t feel like I’m just a passenger in the pack.
“I hated that feeling of just feeling like I was going to ride around and hope for the best. That didn’t sit well for me so I just took a more aggressive approach.’’
HAMPTON, Ga. — When it was announced, it seemed one-sided.
The pit-crew unit for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was being separated, sending front tire changer Houston Stamper and tire carrier Joe Crossen from Christopher Bell’s crew to provide support to the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota of Bubba Wallace.
Wallace’s prevalent pit-crew struggles throughout the season have contributed to placing him in an insurmountable position from a points perspective. Not to say that his season has been perfect behind the wheel, but the late-race mishaps have been well documented.
WATCH: Wallace to ‘manage’ emotions after Nashville rant
“We’re trying to improve on all aspects of our race team,” Wallace told NASCAR.com. “[The changes are] out of my control, so I look at the vision we have as a team. We’re all trying to push the needle to be better and if this is a step in that direction, then I’m all for it.”
Wallace’s former front changer Jackson Gibbs and tire carrier Nick McBeath headed to Bell’s crew. And initially, the changes appeared to be favoring Wallace’s needs at the expense of Bell and the No. 20 team’s performance.
But Bell has a different take on the situation.
“I don’t wanna throw anybody under the bus, but it hasn’t been working what we’ve had,” Bell said in an interview Saturday. “Anybody that has paid attention to the 20 car this year would understand that the 20 car has not been amazing on pit road either.
“We have had pit-crew issues on the No. 20 as well. It hasn’t been all fun and games for us on the 20 group either. So, I think that both of us, the 23 and the 20 are looking for improvements and we have been saying what we’ve been looking for improvements … and this is a step to hopefully improve both teams.”
Bell sits eighth in the points standings, but without a win and with 13 different winners, he is the driver on the bubble and only 20 points above the cutline. The pressure to be more consistent and get the elusive win is rapidly increasing.
“Both of us have had our struggles for sure,” Bell said. “And [pit-road mishaps] cost both of us a lot of potential good finishes. I think mixing up the teams was their goal to try and obviously produce better pit stops, fewer mistakes and we’ll see if that turns out.”
ATLANTA: Weekend schedule | Starting lineup | Betting odds
Although Bell is comfortable on points, for now, Wallace is almost certainly in a must-win situation with eight races remaining in the regular season. But two of those feature superspeedway-style racing, a positive for the 2021 Talladega Superspeedway winner.
And as for his opinion on the chances at the revamped Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend, Wallace said: “It’s different. I struggled here at the old surface but it was a lot of fun to slip and slide around. It had a lot of character. But there’s two sides to it. We’re good here now, so I look at that as a good thing.”
Both restructured crews will have their first challenge Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Rain showers in the Atlanta area on Saturday ultimately canceled NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NASCAR’s metrics formula instead decided the grid order with Georgia native Chase Elliott starting his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the pole position, alongside Floridian Ross Chastain in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson – Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate – and Tyler Reddick will start from the second row, giving Chevrolet a lock on the top four positions on the grid.
MORE: Full starting lineup | Weekend schedule
23XI Racing’s Kurt Busch is the defending race winner. However, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron won in the March 2022 debut of the newly-configured 1.54-mile Atlanta high-banks.
Elliott is still racing for his first victory at his home track. He has an impressive six top-10 finishes in eight starts at Atlanta with a best showing of fifth in 2017. He was sixth in this season’s spring race.
“I would love to win here,’’ Elliott said. “That would be one of the best things to do, to win at your home track. I’ve watched guys do that over the years and you can tell that means a lot to them. I think it would be very much the same for me. It would be meaningful to be able to check that box.
“We’ve been okay here. We had one really good run, I would say and the rest of them, just kind of mediocre. Now the way that it is with speedway racing, it’s a bit of a toss-up. I think anybody has a shot this weekend the way the event is now.’’
Pre-qualifying inspection in the garage is complete before Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with the No. 15 Ford of Garrett Smithley and No. 78 Ford of BJ McLeod being the only two-time failures.
Each team will lose a crew member and pit-stall selection for the race (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports Live, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). There were no three-time failures.
RELATED: Atlanta weekend schedule | Entry list for Atlanta
With no practice, Saturday’s qualifying session is scheduled to be the series’ first on-track activity of the weekend. Qualifying is scheduled to begin at 11:35 p.m. ET (NBC Sports App, PRN) with coverage beginning on USA at noon.
Whether it’s in Illinois, Tennessee or Ohio, the Triple Truck Challenge in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returned for drivers to win bonus money as they make their final cross through the checkered flag.
The challenge started June 4 at World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis, continued at Nashville Superspeedway on June 24 and ended on July 9 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
RELATED: Truck standings | Full schedule
The prize fund is built to give race winners a $50,000 bonus per win. If a driver won two out of three races, he or she would have been awarded a total of $150,000. If a driver brought home the ultimate goal and won all three races, he or she would have been awarded a total of $500,000.
“The Trip” was created in 2019 and presents an opportunity for series regulars to gain attention and have extra incentive for race wins. John Hunter Nemechek, Todd Gilliland and Sheldon Creed were winners of the Triple Truck Challenge races last season.
RELATED: History of Triple Truck Challenge winners
2022 Triple Truck Challenge results
At Mid-Ohio: Part-time driver Parker Kligerman put on a dominant performance on the winding road course for his first series victory since 2017, fending off a late charge from Zane Smith. A late caution period led to a three-lap dash to the checkers, but Kligerman prevailed, leading 56 of 67 laps en route to his $50,000 bonus. Kligerman, who also serves as a pit reporter for NBC Sports’ television coverage, claimed the final prize of the 2022 Triple Truck Challenge.
Recap: Parker Kligerman holds off Zane Smith for Camping World Trucks win at Mid-Ohio
At Nashville: Wiley NASCAR veteran Ryan Preece emerged as the victor at Nashville Superspeedway, holding off a strong charge from rising stars Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar in the closing laps. Running a part-time schedule, Preece earned his second Truck Series win of his career and first of 2022 to cash in on the coveted bonus. Preece’s $50,000 payday is the penultimate of this season’s program and his second consecutive win at the Tennessee track.
Recap: Preece delivers late at Nashville, aces late restart
At Gateway: The first TTC bonus of the season went to 19-year-old Corey Heim, driver of the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota (part-time). Heim started on the pole, battled through issues early and worked his way back through the field to capitalize on the final restart in OT. Heim chose the inside lane, gifting him a starting spot on the front row, and teammate Chandler Smith lined up behind him to push Heim away to his second victory in just six starts this season (Atlanta Motor Speedway).
Recap: Heim powers to electric win at Gateway; wins first $50,000 bonus
Last year, his first full season racing, Jaylen Hardbarger performed well. He finished with two wins, six top fives, and eight top 10s in 13 races, and he ended up 43rd in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV national points standings.
It was a good season, but this year, he has been much, much better.
Racing at Salina Highbanks Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned dirt oval in Pryor, Oklahoma, Hardbarger has five wins and 10 top fives in 12 starts in the track’s S&J Plumbing Pure Stocks division. He is also currently ranked No. 1 in the national Division IV points standings.
Hardbarger didn’t know about his place in the national points until Friday, but he knew he was having a good season.
RELATED: Salina Highbanks’ complete 2022 schedule
“We’ve had a lot of good luck this year,” Hardbarger said. “We’ve found a lot of good speed with the car. Just been really grateful and thankful for what we’ve got. We’ve been doing really well this year and just hope to continue that.”
The 18-year-old driver raced a couple times in 2020 before competing for a full season last year. Even though he is new to being behind the wheel himself, Hardbarger has been around the track his whole life.
“My family has always done it,” he said. “My grandpa, my uncle and everybody has always raced, and I was always in the shop as a kid. It’s always something I wanted to do.”
Hardbarger’s family still helps him with the car. He also works closely with fellow Salina driver Logan Brown, who is from the same hometown of Hulbert, Oklahoma, and competes in the track’s Dawson Roofing Super Stocks division.
“He doesn’t live too far from us, so we’re constantly helping each other with each other’s stuff. Whatever the other needs done, he’ll help me and I’ll help him,” Hardbarger said of Brown. “And of course my dad. My dad is always there whenever we need him.”
Having family he can turn to in racing “helps out tremendously,” Hardbarger said.
“They help me out a lot. I can call them with anything and they’ll help me out the best they can,” he added. “Just having that background and them having the knowledge that they do is amazing. If I’m not for sure about something, I can call them or ask them, and they’ll try to point me in the right direction, tell me if it’s going to work or not going to work.”
The biggest difference from Year 1 to Year 2 for Hardbarger has been simple: more time in the car.
Practice and seat time has helped him learn more about track conditions and how the dirt changes, something that can only be learned with time.
“That’s the main thing right there is experience,” Hardbarger said. “It’s a lot of mental work… Just to know you can do it and also putting in a lot of time in the shop and just kind of feel out the car and know what it’s going to do, know track conditions, know where you need to be when you need to be there.”
Hardbarger came into the season with a goal of winning a track championship at Salina, and he currently has the points lead by a wide, 125-point margin.
He thought he might try to shoot for the national points, but now that he sees a national championship is in reach, his goals have grown. He plans to continue going for that title.
“Now that we’re leading the national points, obviously, we’re going to try to win that, and shoot for the championship and maybe get a few more wins at a couple other tracks this year,” he said.
The team will try to venture off to some other tracks in the south and Midwest on weekends when Salina isn’t racing — not just to try to get more points, but also to perfect their setup at new places.
Finding success away from Salina is what Hardbarger believes will be the key for him the rest of the season.
“Getting the car to work at different places is the main thing,” he said. “We kind of struggled with that here lately. Last year anyways, we’d go to different places and we just wouldn’t get the setup just right, and that would put us behind the eight ball all night.
“Then of course God, just him helping me and keeping me safe and helping our season.”
NASCAR racing will return to Salina Speedway on Saturday with six of the track’s divisions competing. Racing will begin at 7 p.m. CT.
Typically, “Game 7” is used in reference to a do-or-die contest in a sports league’s postseason already in progress.
But for a handful of drivers heading to Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the phrase should be in the minds of those needing a win to clinch a playoff berth.
RELATED: 2022 Cup runners-up | 2022 Cup postseason picture
No driver is arguably more in need to turn his season around than Bubba Wallace.
To say the least, it’s not the year the 28-year-old or 23XI Racing expected from the second-year No. 23 Toyota team.
Halfway through the 2022 season, Wallace has only compiled two top-10 finishes with his lone top-five result coming at the season-opening Daytona 500. In 10 of the 18 races this year, he’s finished outside the top 20.
Wallace’s average finish of 22.0 ranks 27th among full-timers, below that of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (21.4), Ty Dillon (21.2) and Justin Haley (18.9). Dillon returned to the Cup Series full-time with the newly-merged Petty GMS Racing while Haley is running his first full Cup season with Kaulig Racing.
The results trend is still going in the wrong direction for Wallace, as he’s DNF’d in four of the last seven races.
Combined with the poor finishes, there have been some hiccups with his pit crew.
Slow stops, tire issues and penalties have thwarted great runs for the No. 23 team at times and while Wallace recovered with a top 10 at Kansas Speedway and a 12th-place run at Nashville Superspeedway, it didn’t stop him from lashing out at the team over his radio after in-race mistakes.
RELATED: Wallace’s emotions | Kurt Busch on Wallace
The recent pit-crew criticisms have led to a swap of crew members between Wallace and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell.
This is Wallace’s fifth full year in the Cup Series and he’s yet to break through into the postseason. However, with his track record at superspeedways, Sunday provides Wallace with a golden opportunity to turn a so-far frustrating season into a fresh slate for the second half and playoff push.
It’s no secret that Wallace has a knack for running well on superspeedways.
Below is a breakdown of his superspeedway history.
| TRACK | STARTS | TOP FIVES | TOP 10s | LAPS LED | WINS |
| Daytona | 10 | 4 | 4 | 21 | 0 |
| Talladega | 9 | 1 | 1 | 53 | 1 |
| Atlanta (reconfigured) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Wallace owns two runner-up finishes in the Daytona 500 and was second to Ryan Blaney in last year’s regular-season finale at Daytona. Atlanta’s re-profiled 1.54-mile layout will use the same superspeedway rules configuration as the larger ovals at Daytona and Talladega.
While there’s not a large sample size on the reconfigured Atlanta oval, Wallace should be aggressive in working his way to the front of the pack as he spent more than two-thirds of the spring race inside the top 15, according to NASCAR’s loop data.
The reason why Wallace should view Sunday as a “do-or-die” for his playoff hopes is that the stretch of tracks coming up before the regular-season finale at Daytona don’t favor him, to put it kindly.
Two road courses are among the next six races after Atlanta — a style of track where Wallace has yet to find comfort.
Here is a breakdown of Wallace’s history at the six races following Atlanta.
| TRACK | STARTS | TOP 10s | LAPS LED | AVG. FINISH |
| New Hampshire | 4 | 0 | 0 | 23.8 |
| Pocono | 9 | 1 | 7 | 22.3 |
| Indy Road Course |
1 | 0 | 0 | 13.0 |
| Michigan | 8 | 1 | 0 | 20.6 |
| Richmond | 8 | 0 | 0 | 25.1 |
| Watkins Glen | 3 | 0 | 0 | 25.3 |
Of the eight races Wallace has participated in at Richmond, he’s only finished on the lead lap once and that came in the fall of 2019 where he scored his best finish at the 0.75-mile oval of 12th.
A winless Sunday wouldn’t be a complete loss of hope for the No. 23 team with several races still before Daytona closes out the regular season, but time is running out for Wallace if he and his team have a goal of reaching the playoffs. Now might be his best time to strike.
According to BetMGM, Wallace is a popular pick to win Atlanta with 6.8% of the handle, which is fourth-highest among all drivers.
Wallace enters Sunday 25th in the points standings — 177 points below the playoff cutline.
Brittney Zamora is one of NASCAR’s most dynamic rising stars. As a second-generation driver and one of the inaugural participants in the Busch Light Accelerate Her program, Zamora is just starting to rev her engine on her speedy path to success.
From early on, Zamora was encouraged by her family to pursue motorsports and follow her dream to become one of the all-time top drivers in NASCAR. Throughout her career, she has won various championships, broken track records and received a multitude of awards ranging from Rookie of the Year to the prestigious NASCAR Wendall Scott Trailblazer Award. Zamora currently races the No. 25 Pro Late Model for Rackley W.A.R., and is competing full-time in the Show Me The Money series at the Montgomery Motor Speedway.
By joining forces with Busch Light through the Accelerate Her program, Zamora aims to break the stereotypes that many women face in a male-dominated sport. She recalls having trouble securing meaningful brand support at the beginning of her career and facing more obstacles than her competitors. Ultimately, this pushed her to become an even stronger competitor, making a name for herself on and off the track.
“Throughout my career, I’ve struggled with exposure due to a lack of brand support, so having a brand like Busch Light that is so prominent in NASCAR backing me is huge,” Zamora said. “This support from Busch Light is helping to set me up for success in a way that I haven’t before. I’m excited to continue growing with this support and establish a long-lasting relationship with one of the biggest supporters of NASCAR — Busch Light.”
ABOUT THE BUSCH LIGHT ACCELERATE HER PROGRAM
The Busch Light Accelerate Her Program is a three-year commitment that takes aim at the inequity of resources available to women drivers by investing directly in every 21+ woman driver in NASCAR, providing brand-building opportunities to increase fan visibility of drivers and the sport. The Busch Light Accelerate Her program is the next step in a proud, 40-year partnership between Busch Light and NASCAR that has propelled the sport forward, bringing fans closer to the action and expanding NASCAR throughout the U.S. Busch Light asks that fans show their support by heading to Busch.com/accelerateher where they can learn more about the inaugural drivers, including Natalie, that are receiving this opportunity.
Dave Alpern, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, left no words minced: The team intends to have Kyle Busch back in the No. 18 Toyota for the 2023 Cup Series season along with Ty Gibbs back in the Xfinity Series.
What muddies those plans is the lack of signed contracts midway through the 2022 season.
RELATED: Atlanta weekend schedule | Cup points standings
Busch, the only active multi-time Cup champion on the circuit, is losing longtime sponsor Mars, Inc. at the end of the season. In a Thursday teleconference, Alpern noted the search for the two-time titlist’s replacement sponsor remains ongoing.
“We’ve been pretty consistent since the end of last season, which is we want Kyle to be in the (No.) 18 car and that’s our plan,” Alpern said. “We’re still working on sponsorship, and as much interest as there is in our sport, these take a long time. And admittedly, this one’s taking a little longer than we thought. It’s not for lack of interest. It’s just trying to get everything put together. So those will probably happen in parallel. And, again, we’re hoping to get something decided here in the very near future.”
Those discussions persist while Gibbs, the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, continues to impress in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he has amassed four wins this year, equalling last year’s total in two less series starts. Perhaps his most impressive triumph came July 2 at Road America, where he executed a clean, late pass on defending Cup champion Kyle Larson to claim the victory.
“Obviously, Ty’s done really, really, really good,” Alpern said. “This last weekend, I gotta be honest, was exciting to see him race against a Cup champion. Look, there’s a lot of interest in Ty for a number of reasons. He’s a great driver. He’s a great kid. It’s been fun. So I think the timetable for us is to continue. We don’t want to push him too fast. There are no specific plans beyond this year in reference to a Cup race or whatever. We’re just kind of trying to play out the year and see if he can go win or can compete for an Xfinity championship this year. And he’s got four wins and he’s doing really well.”
Asked more directly if the program’s intent is to keep Gibbs in the second-tiered Xfinity Series for 2023, Alpern said: “Yes, that would be the plan. That is Plan A.”
The only apparent opening for a Plan B — moving Gibbs to Cup — would be the No. 18 Toyota, which Busch has operated since 2008 and where he’s earned 56 of his 60 career Cup wins.
Alpern indicated no concern in getting Busch re-signed with the proper partners in place.
“What we do is get sponsors. I mean, we’ve been doing that for 30 years. We’re in the business,” Alpern said. “I think it’s not a matter of just slapping something on the car. It’s finding a partnership that makes sense. And so we’re just trying to find the right fit.”
But for now, the dotted line sits blank.
“We have every intention (of re-signing Busch),” Alpern said. “Pro sports — look, things happen. Carl Edwards retired on the week of Christmas one year, so trying to speculate what’s going to happen? Things happen. But the plan is we feel confident there’ll be a good partner on that car for next year.
“And, again, the hope is that Kyle Busch will be in it.”
MORE: Ty Gibbs on Stacking Pennies