ATLANTA 1
Saturday, Feb. 24 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 2 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, Feb. 24 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 5 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, Feb. 25 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FOX)
All three of NASCAR’s top touring series will be in action for the second straight week to start the 2024 season as Atlanta Motor Speedway plays host to three races in two days, highlighted by the Cup Series event on Sunday afternoon.
LOGANO LOOKING TO DEFEND
Joey Logano passed Brad Keselowski on the final lap to win last year’s Ambetter Health 400, giving Ford its first NASCAR Cup Series win of the 2023 season. Ford dominated the weekend as Logano won the pole and led all 60 laps to win Stage 1. After Austin Cindric won Stage 2, it turned into the Keselowski and Logano show as the two drivers took turns trading the lead over the final 52 laps. Logano got alongside Keselowski coming off turn two and made the winning pass going into turn three to complete a banner day that saw eight Ford drivers lead for a combined 221-of-260 laps.
JOEY LOGANO: “I call it (Atlanta) kind of a confused racetrack. It doesn’t know if it wants to be a superspeedway or a mile-and-a-half. It seems like you’re wide-open all the way around it most of the time. If you’re leading, for sure, but there are other times where you’re hanging on and you’re in the back and you’re lifting and all that stuff. Honestly, it’s similar to what Daytona was like before they repaved it years and years and years ago, where it had some bumps and some character and the tires would fall off to where you had to kind of hang on and handling came into play. The same thing can happen there.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “I think it is the most mentally draining racetrack we have on the schedule. Daytona and Talladega have always been mentally draining at the end of the day, but you go to Atlanta and things happen four times the speed because you lose a mile with that racetrack. It’s an interesting track because it races like a superspeedway, but it’s still an intermediate. The corners didn’t change. The radius of the corners, all of that is still the same that we’ve always had, so it’s not like a Daytona or a Talladega where your car goes around there wide-open super easy. You’re manhandling the car at all times, so Atlanta is a very challenging racetrack and by far the most mentally draining with just how much your brain is trying to process and listen to your spotter, but then actually applying what your spotter is saying is hard because things happen so fast there. It’s a tough one for sure.”
RYAN PREECE: “The runs that we get at Atlanta are far greater than any other superspeedway runs that we get, but the handling in Atlanta means so much more. It is actually tricky. Some teams concentrate on trimming out, and I think a lot of it is weather-oriented, but you need to have a really good handling car at Atlanta.”
KESELOWSKI GETS FIRST CUP WIN FOR MUSTANG
Brad Keselowski gave Mustang its first NASCAR Cup Series victory as he held off Martin Truex Jr. at the finish line to win the Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2019. Keselowski, who was battling an illness all weekend and had Austin Cindric standing by in case he needed relief, led the final 33 laps to post his 28th career victory. In all, Ford led 177 of the 325 laps and won for the third straight year at the 1.5-mile track.
SWEEP DREAMS
Marvin Panch was the first driver to sweep both AMS races in a single season when he did it in 1965 with the Wood Brothers. Georgia native Bill Elliott posted a pair of season sweeps (1985 and 1992) and won five times overall while Carl Edwards registered the first win of his career at the speedway in 2005 and matched it later that fall.
LORENZEN LAPS THE FIELD
Ford went to victory lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the first time in 1961 when NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen captured the Festival 250 on July 9 while driving for Holman-Moody. He did it in dominating fashion as well by lapping the field. Lorenzen, who led 52 laps on the day, beat runner-up Bob Welborn by one lap in his 1961 Ford. Richard Petty finished third that afternoon, but was three laps down. That victory served as a springboard for Lorenzen’s future success at AMS, which included becoming the first driver to win the Atlanta 500 three straight years (1962-63-64).
HERBST PICKING UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF
Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing, finished the 2023 season on a roll as he netted his first victory and posted five straight top-five runs. The 2024 campaign started in much the same fashion as he led eight laps in Monday’s rain-delayed United Rentals 300 before finishing sixth to lead all Ford drivers. This will mark Herbst’s eighth career NXS start at Atlanta, where he has four top-10 and a pair of top-5 efforts.
ATLANTA ALREADY ON CRAFTON’S WIN LIST
Matt Crafton, driver of the No. 88 Menards Ford F-150, led Ford last week in Daytona with a seventh-place finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season opener, and he comes into Saturday’s scheduled race looking for his second victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Crafton, who has 15 career series wins on 11 different tracks, went to Victory Lane at AMS in 2015 after leading 85-of-130 laps.
FORD’S ATLANTA CUP SERIES WINNERS
1961 – Fred Lorenzen
1962 – Fred Lorenzen
1963 – Fred Lorenzen
1964 – Fred Lorenzen and Ned Jarrett
1965 – Marvin Panch (Sweep)
1967 – Cale Yarborough and Dick Hutcherson
1968 – LeeRoy Yarbrough
1969 – LeeRoy Yarbrough
1975 – Buddy Baker
1978 – Bobby Allison
1981 – Neil Bonnett
1985 – Bill Elliott (Sweep)
1987 – Ricky Rudd and Bill Elliott
1990 – Morgan Shepherd
1991 – Mark Martin
1992 – Bill Elliott (Sweep)
1993 – Morgan Shepherd
1994 – Ernie Irvan and Mark Martin
1997 – Dale Jarrett
2002 – Kurt Busch
2005 – Carl Edwards (Sweep)
2008 – Carl Edwards
2017 – Brad Keselowski
2018 – Kevin Harvick
2019 – Brad Keselowski
2020 – Kevin Harvick
2021 – Ryan Blaney (1)
2023 – Joey Logano (1)
