Posted on by Sean Montgomery

Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway
(⏰ 3 p.m. ET | 📺 USA Network, NBC Sports App | 📻 PRN, SiriusXM)

Everything you need to know for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the 19th regular-season event of the 2022 campaign.

Race-day info 📝

Where: Hampton, Georgia
Approximate start time: 3 p.m. ET | Full weekend schedule
TV/Radio: USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio | Full TV schedule
The purse: $7,034,869
Forecast: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 2 p.m. ET, according to NOAA.gov | Weather tracker
Race distance: 260 laps | 400 miles
Stages: 60 | 160 | 260
Pit-road speed: 45 mph
Caution car speed: 55 mph
Atlanta 101: Get the full lowdown
Starting lineup: Where drivers will start | Cup qualifying rained out
Pit stalls: Where drivers will pit

Key things to watch 🔑

Big story line

Is Atlanta another wild-card race? If it is, then a handful of drivers with only one win this season have cause to be concerned. There are already 13 winners. Throw in a revamped Atlanta, two road courses (which have proven parity this season) and the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, and the current playoff standings could look completely different before the Round of 16. So for drivers teetering on the right side of the bubble, Sunday’s race presents an incredible opportunity to set their destiny in stone. Get a second win and it is virtually a guaranteed playoff berth. Miss out on the chance and a driver winning below the cut line just adds to the increasing pressure down the stretch. | Playoff outlook, so far

Who’s hot? Who’s not? 

Suddenly, Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric has been steadily improving the consistency he has struggled to find in his rookie year. Cindric enters Atlanta on a three-race streak of top-seven finishes and only has one sub-11 result since Darlington Raceway on May 8. We all know how prominent Team Penske’s superspeedway program has been over the years, with Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney being serial contenders. Cindric should be more comfortable this time around, despite crashing out here in the spring race. With a host of new winners shaking up the rankings, that elusive second Cup win could not come at a better time than Sunday.

On the flip side, Austin Dillon is almost certainly in a must-win situation 219 points below the playoff cutline. A moderately promising start to the season had the No. 3 car right in the mix for a handful of races. But lately, that has not been the case. Dillon has six-consecutive finishes of 11th or worse and has only one top-10 finish at Atlanta in 11 starts. Like Cindric, Dillon was also an early exit due to a wreck and will need a completely different result this time around. With the No. 8 car locked into a provisional playoff spot, the focus shifts on getting the No. 3 to join it.

Driving under the radar

Despite dominating the spring race, William Byron is not the outright favorite this weekend. Even being one of only five multi-race winners this season, Byron’s story still feels underdog-ish. Sure, his blistering pace to start the season has cooled off in recent weeks. But he has one significant advantage on his side this weekend: no practice. Only a spring notebook will give teams a chance to work out any kinks from the earlier race — one in which Byron led 111 laps. The 24 car was the one to beat from start to finish, and though the trends have favored others lately, Byron is a solid bet to be first to three wins.

Cars racing on the track.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Race-day staples ✅

Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.

• Paint Scheme Preview: Denny Hamlin brings out the Coca-Cola scheme | Pick a favorite
• Power Rankings: Is Kyle Larson rounding into his 2021 form? | Latest Cup Series driver rankings
• Fantasy Fastlane: Bubba Wallace is a must-have for your lineup | Top plays, sleepers
• NASCAR betting: Which driver is the favorite for Sunday? | BetMGM betting odds
• Backseat Drivers: How far does Tyler Reddick go in the playoffs? | Watch the debate
• Playoff Watch: How the 2022 Cup Series playoff picture is shaping up | Bubble battles, playoff locks

Catch the pack 💨

Read up on the top headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race.

• Inspection: Two cars lose crew member, pit-stall selection | Full report
• Joe Gibbs Racing: Organization gives update on Kyle Busch’s status | Read more
• Crucial race: Analyzing why Bubba Wallace needs to treat Sunday like Game 7 | Read more
• Crew changes: Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace swap crew members for Sunday | Drivers give insight | More details
• Denny Hamlin: No. 11 Toyota Camry will sport Coca-Cola scheme this weekend | Read more
• 10 things: What to pack when preparing to camp out for a NASCAR race | Learn more
• Corey Lajoie: No. 7 Spire Motorsports driver aiming for Hail Mary at Atlanta | Read more
• Why Tyler Reddick?: Richard Childress explains faith in the No. 8 driver | Full story
• Backseat Drivers: Is Ty Gibbs ready for the Cup Series? | Watch the show
• eNASCAR: Steven Wilson aces Road America | Results, recap
• Stacking Pennies: Corey LaJoie recaps a wild race at Road America, Ty Gibbs joins the show | Listen here
• Garage 56: Hendrick Motorsports offers insight after visiting endurance classic last month | Read more
• Winless, for now: 2022 Cup Series runners-up still searching for first win | Full list
• Speed Sport rankings: Chase Elliott stands out on another list | Read more

Get in on the action 💰

Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy.

• The Action Network: Why you should bet Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Sunday | Read more
• BetMGM: No clear favorite with wild, unpredictable Atlanta on the horizon | Which drivers to bet
• Featured matchup: How to bet Michael McDowell vs. Bubba Wallace | Expert’s insight
• Play it LIVE: Full guide to 2022 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ
• Going all the way: 2022 Cup Series championship odds | See them here

New track layout, same storied history ⏳

Home of the Varsity and Braves country, let’s see what storied history NASCAR has in the “Peach State.”

• Do you remember?: Listing the most memorable moments at Atlanta | Relive them
• Winner, winner: All-time Cup Series winners at Atlanta | Full list
• Last season: Kurt Busch outduels Kyle in a summertime showdown for the ages | Race recap
• Race Rewind: Best 2021 video highlights from a jam-packed race on the old layout | Watch now

Fast facts ⏩

Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.

• Six Atlanta races ended in overtime with the most recent coming in 2016.
• The race winner led over 100 laps in four of the last six Atlanta races.
• Nine of the last 10 Atlanta winners got their first win of the season.
• Joey Logano was passed for the win in three of the last six Atlanta races.
• The last five Atlanta races were won by five different drivers.

Say what? 🎙

Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into Sunday’s race.

• “Atlanta was a really good race for us in the spring. Our team performed well on the new superspeedway track surface and with no practice this time around I think that should play into our hands.” — Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

• “Making the playoffs is the goal. You can’t run for a championship if you don’t make the playoffs, so we start every year before we leave to go to Daytona with a list of goals and priority number one is to do everything you can for the regular season to put yourself in a position to make the playoffs. Whether that’s on points or by winning races, we’ve done a good job throughout the year of scoring points and putting ourself in a position that typically would have had us racing our way in on points but this is a very untypical year.” — Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

• “Old Atlanta versus new, it’s quite a different change. But now, after getting to run a race here earlier this year, I think it helps kind of transition and you see that with the weekend schedule now with qualifying and racing. Where before, we had full practice sessions. The cars have probably evolved some since [the first Atlanta race], setups and engines and aero packages and stuff within the team. So, it could be a totally different race.” — Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Posted on by Holly Cain

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.’’

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

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).

Posted on by Holly Cain

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.’’

Posted on by Staff Report

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.

Posted on by Staff Report

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

Posted on by Cara Cooper

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.”

Jaylen Hardbarger

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.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

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.

Posted on by Sponsored Content

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.