Survival of the Fittest: Byron wins at the new Atlanta

The NASCAR Cup Series entered unknown territory at a track that they’ve been racing at since 1960, Atlanta Motor Speedway, for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. The track had the feel of a 1.5-mile superspeedway with its new reconfiguration. It was something that NASCAR fans have never seen before and many wondered with the new NextGen car how the race was going to go.

In front of a packed crowd, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney led the field to the green flag to begin the race. Immediately there was pushing and pack racing just like what you would see at Daytona and Talladega. The first caution came out for Noah Gragson losing control on lap 25, who was making his second cup start in the No. 16 for Kaulig Racing. A few Chevrolet teams had tire issues while running up front, with the first instance coming from Ross Chastain while he was leading with 11 laps left in stage one. Chastain blew a right rear and went into the wall in turns one and two. Then with five laps left in stage one, Austin Dillon lost control coming off of turn four and came back up on Kyle Busch as they both went into the front stretch wall. Ty Dillon also went into the wall, as well as Chase Briscoe went spinning. William Byron went on to win Stage One. Kyle Busch later would DNF in the race and had a rather short, but to-the-point interview.

“Can you talk about what happened with the 3 (Austin Dillion?)”

Kyle: I don’t know, he got loose.

“This type of racing, is it making you more an entertainer than a driver?”

Kyle: Yep.

“Do you like this version better than the Old Atlanta?”

Kyle” Nope.

That was the interview.

The next Chevrolet driver to cut a right rear tire was Tyler Reddick that sent the field into mayhem. It collected a lot of cars like Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Corey Lajoie, Christopher Bell, and others. Then with then laps left in stage two, the same thing happened to Ricky Stenhouse Jr as he was leading. As the pack came to the final lap of stage two, Kyle Larson got loose from a push from Denny Hamlin and went right back up into Hamlin to bring out the caution. Ryan Blaney took home stage two. Things began to heat up with under 20 to go after Aric Almirola got turned after Ross Chastain gave Almirola a hard push. Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, among others were all fighting to catch the leader William Byron. On the final lap, Chastain got past Wallace for second but got broken up by Christopher Bell as he attempted three wide and did so going under the double white line. William Byron held off everyone as they were wrecking behind him to win the race at Atlanta. Byron earned his third career Cup Series victory and gave Hendrick Motorsports their third win in the first five races in the season.

“It was so different. Honestly, the last few laps there and trying to manage the gap to Bubba and trying to not get too far out front,” Byron, 24, said. “You know, my spotter Brandon (Lines), his first win, so congrats to him. “Thanks to this whole team. They’ve done a great job this year. Lots of changes with the Next-Gen car. The Chevrolet was awesome there. Worked hard overnight. Had a pretty rough practice (Saturday) and worked hard on it and got it handling well.”

Records for Atlanta Motor Speedway were also shattered as there were 46 lead changes among 20 different leaders. 25 of the 37 cars entered were also involved in a wreck, which is also a track record, and that is more than the Daytona 500 back in February. The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to the Circuit of the Americas for the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix next Sunday.