HAMPTON, Ga.– With Speedweeks in the rearview, let’s turn our attention to “Hotlanta.”
This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolls into the greater Atlanta area for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The 325-lap event on the 1.54-mile quad-oval intermediate speedway will be the second race of the 2016 Sprint Cup season.
Opened in 1960, Atlanta Motor Speedway has been a site for many great moments in NASCAR history. From 1987 to 2001, it played host to the final race of the season. After a few schedule reshufflings, Atlanta found itself in the spot right after the Daytona 500.
There’s a number of factors that make this weekend’s race one to watch. The biggest of which is the return of the low-downforce package. This package is virtually the same that was used at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway last year.
Here’s an infographic that explains the changes courtesy of the folks at NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications.
While Kentucky and Darlington were two of the best races last year – I even put them at No. 3 and No.1 on my countdown of the 10 best races of 2015 – let’s set some realistic expectations. From what teams have told us, their engineers have worked all winter to reclaim some of the lost downforce. While I still expect a great race, I’m not expecting it to blow my socks off like the Southern 500.
As I said earlier, Atlanta has been home to some great finishes over the years. In my opinion, none will ever top the finish to the 2001 Cracker Barrel 500.
You had five cars battling for the win with 10 laps to go and it comes down to the rookie Kevin Harvick in his third career start against the then three-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon. By six-one-thousandths of a second, the driver who was tapped to replace the late Dale Earnhardt scored his first career victory in NASCAR’s highest level of competition.
Do you want to know how much that victory meant to the sport? Gordon himself said that he was fine with finishing second that day to the car that belonged to his late friend, business partner and rival.
Now let’s get to the drivers to watch for this weekend. Harvick is the odds-on favorite at 9/2 (Vegas Insider). While he’s a threat to win any given weekend and his performance here last year was dominant, his career at Atlanta has been more miss than hit. While he won in his first trip to the track and finished third in his second start, he went seven years before finishing in the top-10 again at Atlanta with a seventh in 2008. Since that race, he’s finished outside the top-10 just three times. In three of the last four trips here, he led over 100 laps. You can expect the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet to be in contention on Sunday.
Next at 11/2 is Joey Logano. His career stats at Atlanta during his Joe Gibbs Racing days are nothing to talk about. His three starts with Team Penske have shown his ability to have a winning car with a 6.7 average finish. He’s also led an average of 54 laps in the last three races. So I can expect the driver of the No. 22 Ford to be a factor on race day.
Finally, we have the defending race winner at 13/2, Jimmie Johnson. Besides leading active drivers in wins at Atlanta, he’s finished in both the top-five and top-10 in over 50 percent of his starts. With the low-downforce package and his experience at Atlanta, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will be a good pick to repeat on Sunday.
You can catch the race on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. on FOX. The radio broadcast will be carried by the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM (subscription required).
The weather is supposed to be around 70 degrees on Sunday with nothing but clear blue skies. If you’re within a few hours driving distance of Atlanta, hop in the car and come to the race on Sunday. Tickets are starting at 39-dollars.
