This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will make their second visit of the year to Atlanta
Motor Speedway for the final race on the current configuration. Coverage of the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart will start at 1 p.m. Sunday with NASCAR RaceDay on FOX Sports 1. NBC Sports coverage will begin with Countdown to Green at 3 p.m. on NBCSN. Race coverage follows at 3:30 and the green flag is scheduled to drop around 3:45. In addition, the event can also be heard on your local PRN affiliate or SiriusXM
Channel 90. Drivers will compete for 260 laps (400.4 miles) en route to the checkered flag.
Records and facts
The Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart was run last year at Kentucky Speedway. The race ended up being dominated by Aric Almirola, who led 128 laps. A spin for Matt Kenseth brought out the yellow with five laps to go, setting up a two-lap
shootout.
On the restart, Cole Custer restarted sixth and swept up to the outside. Coming to the white flag, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney were battling hard. Custer went to the far outside and made it four-wide at the white flag. Harvick and Blaney had significant contact that allowed Custer to sweep into the lead. From there, he held on to take his first and only Cup Series victory to
this point.
Truex ended up second, followed by Matt DiBenedetto. Harvick had a significant tire rub after his contact and ended up fourth, while Kurt Busch was fifth. Blaney ended up
sixth
Among active drivers, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick are tied for the most wins with three. Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch each have two. All-time, the late Dale Earnhardt tops the win charts with nine wins, while Cale Yarborough has seven. Richard Petty and Bobby Allison have six wins
each.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.54-mile quad-oval, 260 laps (400.4 miles)
Banking: 24 degrees
Frontstretch: 2,332 ft, banked 5
degrees
Backstretch: 1,800 ft., banked 5
degrees
Grandstand Seating: 75,000
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 1960
Website: http://www.atlantamotorspeedway.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atlmotorspeedway
Twitter: http://twitter.com/amsupdates
Say What?!
"Atlanta is typically a track where you’re always fighting loose with really limited rear grip. You’ll also have some front grip issues, as well, with the way tires wear. It’s really about managing it all throughout the run. You want to be able to wrap that white line and be good down low
for as long as possible in a run. Hopefully for us, we have that grip in the car that we need." - William Byron
"Atlanta is one of those places where anything can happen and we’ll definitely have to be on our toes there this weekend with our SKITTLES Gummies Camry. You have to have good grip there, you have to have good [tire] fall-off – you have to be fast to start a run,
yet you don’t want to fall off more than anybody else. So you have to take care of your stuff and bide your time a little bit. That lends itself to options by the driver to either push hard early (in the run) or save a little and be there late." - Kyle
Busch
"I love when it gets hot at racetracks. The hotter it gets, the slicker the track surface gets, so I’m really looking forward to racing on Atlanta’s old surface this weekend. We had a really good car during our first trip to Atlanta in the spring. I just unfortunately got into the wall a little bit early on in that race, and that really set us
behind a little bit. But we had really good speed that weekend, just lacked the cautions to get back on the lead lap. I’m looking forward to having some redemption this weekend. I know we can run well at Atlanta and am looking forward to continuing our momentum with the No. 8 Okuma Chevrolet this weekend." - Tyler
Reddick
"I would say Atlanta is probably, to me at least, the hardest place to just go around by yourself. It’s just extremely challenging to do the same thing twice. The grip level is literally different from lap one to lap two, quite drastically truthfully, and it’s just a lot of hard work from a standpoint of the car never wants to do what you’re wanting
it to do. It’s not gonna have grip. It almost feels like you’re on ice at all times and it would be like taking an exit ramp in the middle of an ice storm and you’re trying to drive it at 150 miles an hour. It just doesn’t want to stick. It doesn’t want to do anything you want it to do, and it just wants to slide you right off of it and it’s the same at
Atlanta.
"It’s bittersweet that we’re not gonna have that anymore. It’s a great racetrack from a driver’s standpoint because it is so challenging and as a driver when you go to Atlanta you feel like you can make a difference, where some of these places we go you’re kind of stuck at what your car is, where Atlanta you can normally pick off a couple more spots
if your car is off just by being able to kind of hang it out and find speed. So, it’s a really challenging place. Obviously, in the heat it’s even tough, just a lot less grip. From a physical side, I would say for all the ovals it’s for sure probably the hardest just because you are constantly working the wheel. It’s back and forth and you’re countersteering almost more than you’re turning left there, so it’s just a lot of work from the steering side of things and also the pedals — how much
you’re on the gas, out of the gas, on the brake, it’s unlike any other mile-and-a-half we have and obviously going forward it’s gonna be unlike any other mile-and-a-half we have, but on a totally different spectrum, so it’ll definitely be a bittersweet weekend knowing that we aren’t gonna have that anymore, but I think fans and drivers alike are really gonna appreciate this weekend just knowing that it’ll be the last time we’re gonna be able to slip and slide around at Atlanta like we have in
the past." - Chase Briscoe
