Monitor: Atlanta Motor SpeedwayLocation: Hampton, Georgia Monitor size: 1.54 milesWhen: Sunday, 3 p.m. ETWhere to tune in: FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR RadioRace purse: $11,055,250 Race distance: 260 laps | 400.4 miles Levels: 60 | 160 | 260Defending winner: Beginning lineup:
Maximize your factors now earlier than the sector spreads out
The one driver glad together with his factors place proper now? William Byron — your two-time defending Daytona 500 winner.
After his “Nice American Race” win to open the season on Feb. 16, Byron not solely cemented his standing as certainly one of simply 14 drivers to win probably the most prestigious race of the 12 months a number of instances, however he’s the primary — and solely — Cup driver assured a spot on this 12 months’s playoffs.
With superspeedways Daytona and Atlanta kicking off the season with the street course at Circuit of The Americas to comply with, the door is open for loads of drivers to punch their postseason ticket and never must sweat their factors scenario going into the extra conventional tracks on the schedule like Phoenix Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway subsequent month.
In 2024, each Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher had been on the improper facet of the playoff image when the checkered flag waved at Darlington Raceway within the regular-season finale. Wallace, who enters Sunday’s race twenty first in factors, has emphasised the necessity to begin on the correct foot early within the season.
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“It’s essential. I imply, Denny [Hamlin, 23XI Racing co-owner] has mentioned since day certainly one of this new workforce that each level issues,” Wallace mentioned. “I win a duel and I get 10 factors, and I completed twenty ninth within the 500 and I nonetheless get 10 factors. So … rattling. We bought 20 factors at the very least in order that’s good. The season’s totally underway. You’ll be able to’t surrender the little issues since you’ll get all the way down to the final three or 4 races and be scrapping and clawing for every thing. We’ve been within the bubble spot for the final two years, three years, no matter it’s.
“I’m able to be locked in early so we’ve bought to do every thing we will proper early to make that occur.”
Buescher weaved across the final-lap calamity final Sunday to convey residence a top-10 end within the Daytona 500. Whereas he went winless within the common season final 12 months, the motive force of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford is way more assured at each kind of monitor relatively than banking on a superspeedway or street course to seek out Victory Lane.
“These tracks have been very sturdy for us, however I feel the excessive observe for us as a corporation has been the truth that most race tracks have been superb for us,” mentioned Buescher, a winner on the Watkins Glen street course in 2024. “We haven’t actually needed to rely upon one type of race monitor the final two years I’d name it, which has been an enormous step in the correct path for us. So after we have a look at this season, no, we didn’t actually circle these as ‘bought to make it occur right here.’
“On the flip facet of that, it’s a massive aim for us this season to win early and I feel we’ve had plenty of dialogue concerning the first eight [races]. How can we make the primary eight races higher than they’ve been up to now? It’s not as a lot concerning the type of race monitor or what monitor it’s as a lot it’s about simply getting the momentum began proper for us faster. It appears to have been our miss the final couple years and the place we’ve given up an excessive amount of floor too early within the season, and that’s been the aim for us is ‘how can we make this stronger to fireside off.””
Atlanta will have to be a giant factors day for among the perennial playoff drivers as Kyle Larson, Hamlin and Christopher Bell all discover themselves under the highest 16 within the standings coming into Sunday’s race.
From atop the pit field …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Whereas qualifying isn’t a degree of emphasis on drafting tracks with the power to maneuver by a pack, crews are nonetheless going to need a good pit stall to reduce potential points on a really slender pit street at Atlanta. Together with a good navigation from pit entry to exit, the path to pit street is totally different than different tracks.
The begins towards the top of the backstretch into Flip 3 the place drivers have a 90-mph pace restrict to wrap across the nook earlier than coming to a 45-mph crawl on the frontstretch. Underneath warning, the restrict is 45 mph round the entire pit-lane route.
Adam Stevens, crew chief of Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, mentioned a key side Sunday will probably be limiting inexperienced flag pit stops if potential.
“There’s a pair alternative ways to take a look at it. The chance for mistake might be amplified with the quirky pit street,” Stevens informed NASCAR.com on Friday. “We bought to run 90 [mph] by the nook and getting that proper and maximizing that … there’s a threat with that. You simply lose a lot time that if you happen to made a mistake on a green-flag cease and needed to do a pass-through, it may just about break your complete day. So that you’re going to strive to not make a green-flag cease. That’s going to be the aim, which suggests taking alternatives to fill it stuffed with gasoline and maximizing the size of the runs.”
Having a drama-free pit entry may also be a degree of emphasis on Sunday. In final 12 months’s race, a number of drivers made contact or spun attempting to get slowed down off Flip 2 to get to the pit-road restrict. Michael McDowell, who led 27 laps in that occasion, spun after getting along with William Byron, and it finally took McDowell out of competition for the race win regardless of recovering for an eighth-place end result.
Matt Swiderski, crew chief of defending Atlanta spring winner Daniel Suárez and the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing workforce, highlighted the significance of pit-stall choice that would support in minimizing run-ins with the competitors.
“We really talked quite a bit about pit street and the place we wish to be for pit stalls,” Swiderski informed NASCAR.com. “There have been so many vehicles simply knocking fenders in, and it’s a troublesome pit street. It’s actually crowded and the stalls are fairly small and slippery. [We] really put a bit of bit extra concentrate on qualifying, and it actually has extra to do with getting a greater pit stall than precise beginning place, as a result of we predict we will race our means again up by the sector.”
Suárez certified twenty ninth for Sunday’s Ambetter Well being 400 and can pit from stall No. 39.
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Historical past tells us…
Don’t be the Pied Piper within the closing laps. In line with Racing Insights, the move for the win got here within the closing two laps in 4 of the final 5 races at Atlanta. Winner of two of the final 4 races in Georgia, Joey Logano made the move for the victory on the ultimate lap, and most not too long ago in September, led the final three miles that catapulted his run to championship No. 3.
He might not be the favourite to win, however be careful for …
TODD GILLILAND. On paper, a Twenty sixth-place lead to final 12 months’s spring Atlanta race doesn’t look interesting however Entrance Row Motorsports had two rockets in that race with each Gilliland and then-FRM driver Michael McDowell (now with Spire Motorsports) main a mixed 85 laps. With three vehicles now within the group’s steady, Gilliland has an additional teammate to work with, and after a poor displaying within the Daytona 500 for all three vehicles, the Entrance Row trio of Gilliland, Zane Smith and Noah Gragson will look to get heading in the right direction across the 1.5-mile oval.
Pace reads
Our largest items of the Speedweeks — get coated for race day from all angles.
• Racing Insights: Full ending order projections for Sunday’s Ambetter Well being 400 | • NASCAR’s latest Harvick: Is William Byron NASCAR’s greatest nearer? | • No. 19 workforce penalized: Briscoe, JGR No. 19 workforce discovered to have modified spoiler at Daytona; full particulars | • As quick as …: 23XI re-ups with Xfinity, bolsters warfare room at Airspeed | • Again within the saddle: Byron’s 2024 Daytona 500-winning automotive is perhaps raced once more | • NASCAR Classics: Revisit among the greatest races in Atlanta’s embellished historical past | • Paint Scheme Preview: These vehicles are feeling peachy for the weekend |
