Atlanta I Event Info:
Track Info: Atlanta Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile Superspeedway
Date: Sunday, March 19
Time: 3 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Hampton, Georgia
Format: 260 laps, 400 miles, Stages: 60-100-100
TV: FOX
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 11:35 a.m. ET, Qualifying (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 3 p.m. ET, Race (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
6 Team Info:
Partner: King’s Hawaiian
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
17 Team Info:
Partner: Violet Defense
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Pace Laps:
- The NASCAR circuit returns to Atlanta this weekend for the first of two race weekends in 2023. This will be the second season on the repaved surface, the highest-banked intermediate track on the circuit.
- Jack Roush has 13 wins all-time in Atlanta including six Cup wins.
- With AMS now serving as essentially an additional Superspeedway race, more changes were made recently including backing the pit entry commitment line to the entrance to turn 3, as all drivers must maintain pit road speeds entering that turn.
Keselowski at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Starts: 16
Wins: 2 (2017, 2019)
Top-10s: 9
Poles: —
- Keselowski makes his 17th Cup start at Atlanta this weekend where he is a two-time winner with an average finish of 15.2.
- Keselowski won at the now Superspeedway first in 2017 after starting fifth and again in 2019. Overall he’s led laps in eight different Atlanta races and finished top-10 on nine occasions.
- Most recently Keselowski finished 12th last spring and 18th in the fall.
- He carries an average starting position of 15.8 into the weekend with a career-best effort of P2 in 2014. Overall he has five top-10 starts.
- He also made eight Xfinity Series starts with six top-10s including two P2 finishes. He also made four Truck starts.
Buescher at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Starts: 9
Wins: —
Top-10s: 3
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his 10th Cup start in Atlanta where he has three top-10s and a best finish of seventh (twice – 2021, 2022). He also finished ninth in 2019.
- Last season Buescher crossed the line seventh in an incident, and was also involved in a crash in the fall to finish 33rd.
- Buescher has an average qualifying position of 20.7 with a career-best effort of 11th last fall.
- He also finish fourth in the Xfinity Series in 2015.
RFK Historically in Atlanta
Cup Wins: 6 (Mark Martin, 1991, 1994; Kurt Busch, 2002; Carl Edwards, 2005, 2005, 2008)
RFK at Atlanta: RFK has 273 starts at AMS in NASCAR’s three major touring series totaling 13 wins, 59 top fives, 112 top-10s and nine poles while leading 3,154 laps and turning over 105,000 miles.
AMS/RFK History: RFK competed in its first NASCAR event at AMS on March 20, 1988, finishing 31st after getting involved in an early crash. Just three years later the organization claimed its first win there in the fall of ‘91 with the No. 6 Ford. RFK won its first of seven NXS races at the track in the spring of ’97. The team’s top outing at AMS came in the fall of 2005, when the organization placed four cars inside the top seven, with three cars finishing in the top five including race winner Carl Edwards. Altogether, in the two races at AMS in 2005, RFK posted six top-five finishes and two wins.
Spring Forward: All but one of RFK’s Cup wins at AMS came in the fall, with the only spring win coming in 2005. Three of RFK’s seven NXS wins came in the fall.
RFK Atlanta Wins
1991-2 Martin Cup
1994-2 Martin Cup
1997-1 Martin NXS
1998-2 Martin NXS
2000-1 Martin NXS
2002-2 Busch Cup
2005-1 Edwards Cup
2005-1 Edwards NXS
2005-2 Edwards Cup
2008-1 Kenseth NXS
2008-2 Edwards Cup
2011 Edwards NXS
2012 Stenhouse NXS
Last Time Out & Where They Stand
Phoenix: Brad Keselowski earned stage points in each of the two opening stages but unfortunately lost power on one of the race’s final restarts to finish 18th. Chris Buescher finished 15th.
Points Standings (6: 13th, 17: 14th): Both RFK cars are neck-and-neck in the standings as race five on the points schedule rolls on this weekend.
By the Numbers at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race Win T5 T10 Pole Laps Led AvSt AvFn Miles
192 6 38 73 4 56864 2083 17.9 17.9 85296
56 7 19 31 5 10362 961 10.8 11.3 15543
25 0 2 8 0 2988 110 12.6 17.3 4482
273 13 59 112 9 70214 3154 15.9 16.4 105321
