TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
HAMPTON, GEORGIA
MARCH 21, 2021
RACE #6 – ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
NASCAR’s three national series head back east this weekend for races on the 1.54-mile, 24-degree banked oval of Atlanta Motor Speedway. Chevrolet will aim for its 41st NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) victory at the track in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. FOX will telecast the 325-lap race at 3:00 p.m. ET Sunday, March 21.
Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, is one of two active drivers with three victories (2002, 2009, 2010) at the racetrack that has hosted 113 NCS races since July 1960 and was the site of the season finale from 1987 to 2000. In 29 starts, Busch has collected 15 top-10 finishes and led 803 laps.
AJ Allmendinger, who won the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2020, will seek to take the checkered flag again in the 163-lap Echo Park 250 that will be telecast on FS1 at 5:00 p.m. ET Saturday, March 20. Allmendinger, who will start on the inside of Row 2 in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Camaro SS, won the NXS race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this month. Brandon Brown, who posted a career-high third place at Phoenix Raceway last weekend, will start fourth in the No. 68 Brandonbilt Motorsports Camaro SS.
Chip Ganassi Racing Cup Series driver, Ross Chastain, will take on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) in the F8Auctions 200, piloting the No. 44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. FS1 will telecast the 130-lap race at 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday, March 20.
FOUR IN THE TOP-10
Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with four drivers in the top-10 of the points standings. Kyle Larson and Georgia native, Chase Elliott, both have 179 points, just one point out of fourth place. Their Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate, William Byron, currently sits in the ninth position, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s, Kurt Busch, rounds out the top-10.
Larson, who won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, is among just three drivers with four top-10 finishes in the five races. He has a career-best finish of second at Atlanta Motors Speedway came in 2017.
LESSON IN RESILIENCY
Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and William Byron, who all had to start from the rear of the field at Phoenix, rallied to claim top-10 finishes. Larson, in particular, was resilient. After racing to eighth, he was sent to the rear of the lead lap because of a pit lane speed violation. He then weaved his way through the field to second, but again was assessed a pit lane speed violation. Larson again rose to second and eventually finished seventh.
ON THE WAY TO THE GREEN
With no practice or qualifying for the race, the starting lineup is determined by NASCAR’s metrics system that was introduced to the series last year and incorporates results from both individual races and season-long results.
Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters:
5th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE
6th Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 1LE
9th William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE
11th Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE
12th Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE
13th Austin Dillon, No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Off Road Camaro ZL1 1LE
14th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
BOWTIE BULLETS
· Chevrolet is tied for the lead in the NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Points Standings and leads in top-10 finishes (22) after five races.
· Chevrolet has registered four consecutive wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway on three occasions: sweeps in 1983-84, 1995-96 and 2003-04.
· In addition to its 40 wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Bowtie Brand has recorded 25 poles, 190 top-five and 381 top-10 finishes.
· Chevrolet has 797 NASCAR Cup Series wins to lead all manufacturers.
· Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, are among just three drivers to complete all 1,116 laps through the five races.
· JTG Daugherty Racing’s, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece, each have three top-15 finishes through five races. Last year, the team had one at the same point.
· Rick Stenhouse Jr. Stenhouse claimed his first NCS pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September 2013.
· Chase Elliott (Daytona Road Course), William Byron (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and Kyle Larson (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) have captured stage wins thus far this season.
TUNE IN
FOX will telecast the 325-lap Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 live at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, March 21. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 5th IN STANDINGS
LARSON ON RACING AT ATLANTA:
“Atlanta is a fun place to race that many of us enjoy. The surface is so worn out that you have to manage your tires. The preferred line is the ‘Harvick’ line – on the bottom – and I’ve worked hard in the past to really get that line working in turns three and four. In turns one and two, you can run the top but it’s really hard on the tires. I’m looking forward to it because I think we’ll have a really fast car there.”
CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
DANIELS ON THE CHALLENGES AT ATLANTA:
“Our focus is on setting up the car so that Kyle can run the line he wants to run – whether that is low or high or wherever in the turns. Another challenge there is tire wear and fall off. If you go one lap under green and then the caution comes out, everybody is probably putting on new tires. Hopefully, we don’t have so many cautions that you run out of tires. I don’t believe that will happen.”
DANIELS ON PREPARING FOR LATE-RACE PIT STOPS:
“Calling a race is a little bit difficult under green, especially if the run goes long at the end of the race. Do you try to short pit which will guarantee you gain track position? Late in the run with 10 to go or less, newer tires with fewer laps, even if just a couple, can show speed. While you may leapfrog some early in the run, they can get you back at the end of that run. The challenge is defending against the opposite decision you made.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 6th IN STANDINGS
ELLIOTT ON THE CHALLENGING ATLANTA TRACK:
“Atlanta is definitely a tough place. The racetrack has a lot of wear to it – the surface is one of the oldest that we go to – so finding grip is a challenge. The track has a lot of character and is very line sensitive to where you can and can’t run to find that. You really have to hit your marks well in Atlanta to have success. I think the track conditions this weekend will be pretty similar to last year in a lot of ways. The No. 9 team and I have talked a lot about last year’s event. That’s how we are going about the set up for Sunday is from last year and taking things away from how we did, what we did good and what we can improve on.”
ELLIOTT ON RETURNING TO ATLANTA:
“It’s always nice to race in Atlanta. I’ve been racing here for a long time, raced a lot of legend cars and bandolero races here, so it’s a special place to me. Atlanta is just a fun track to come to. I think anywhere that you run three or four laps and the lap times have fallen off significantly like they are here all the time, I think that makes it fun. It makes it fun from a strategy standpoint.”
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
GUSTAFSON ON WHAT THE TEAM HAS LEARNED AT INTERMEDIATE TRACKS IN 2021:
“As we head to another 1.5-mile track, we learned some deficiencies we had at Homestead and are certainly going to improve on that. At Las Vegas our NAPA Chevy was really fast, but we just had some execution issues so we need to clean those up. I really like Atlanta; it has always been a fun track and super difficult to get a hold of. I think we can take some things from those first two intermediate tracks and some of our past experience at Atlanta and try to put our best foot forward on Sunday.”
GUSTAFSON ON RACING AT ATLANTA:
“We were at Atlanta in June last year and it was fairly sunny, it wasn’t a terribly hot day so I think that the hotter it is the less grip the track is going to have. I still think it will be a place that is difficult even though it is projected to be in the 60s when we are there. I think the truth is that it’s never the same no matter what you do. We could go race there a week later and it’s just never the same. You just have to piece together all the little experiences you have and ultimately try to hit on it.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 9th IN STANDINGS
BYRON ON HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO RACE AT ATLANTA:
“Atlanta is just a tough track. It’s a little bit easier at this time of the year because it’s a bit cooler, but it’s not easy to run there ever by any means. You’re going to need to have a car that can do all the right things throughout the entire race. Luckily, I feel like this Sunday’s race will be similar to Homestead, and it gives us a good idea of what we need in our car. We can use past Atlanta notes and pair them with our Homestead notes from this year to, hopefully, continue this stretch of good runs we have going.”
BYRON ON THE TIRE FALL-OFF AT ALTANTA:
“You notice the tire fall-off really every corner at Atlanta. You may have a couple laps that the tires feel good, but after that with every corner you can feel the tires fall off and lose grip. It’s a challenge to keep the car straight at times. Add to that that you’re racing against other guys and if they take your lane away it becomes really hard to find another lane to be as fast in. It’s all really difficult to manage for that long of a period of time consistently.”
RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
FUGLE ON THE NO. 24 TEAM’S START TO 2021:
“I’m proud of what this team has accomplished so far this year. While we started off with a couple of hard races, we still had small victories along the way. This group never got down and worked on righting the ship to put together good solid races. Phoenix last week was a good example of that. It was just a solid mistake-free day all the way around. We need to continue to have more of those races and keep our foot on the gas.”
FUGLE ON RACING ATLANTA:
“Atlanta is a track that I have a lot of laps at. It’s a track that we use to test at with rookie drivers in the truck series, which has been the majority of my career. I feel like I have a really good idea of what we can expect the track to do, not only at this time of year, but also throughout the entirety of the race. With Atlanta having such an old, worn out surface, consistency will be key Sunday. We need to make sure not to abuse the tires early on and maintain track position at the same time. If you can manage the track and your tires throughout the run, you’ll pick up positions when other cars begin to struggle. We were able to do that at Homestead, so hopefully that carries over to this weekend’s race as well.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 12th IN STANDINGS
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY IS ANOTHER TRACK WHERE THE ASPHALT THERE IS AMONG THE FAVORITE OF THE DRIVERS, AM I RIGHT?
“It’s old, but I’m glad they’ve kept it the same. It’s a place that drivers love because you know it’s going to be slick and over time you might be able to find some grip by moving around or changing your line and being disciplined with the throttle.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th IN STANDINGS
BOWMAN ON RACING AT ATLANTA:
“Atlanta is a fun track. We haven’t had the results there that we should have, but it is a track where I think we can be really strong. The track is one that you can move around a lot and tire management is going to be key on Sunday. Our intermediate program at Hendrick Motorsports is definitely a strong one and I think we have a good notebook going into this weekend’s race.”
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
IVES ON BOUNCING BACK AFTER A DIFFICULT RACE:
“You always wish there was something that would invert the field or something like that following a tough week. Ultimately, it is up to us to perform and to get those finishes and move up in the points. It is a gift that you definitely don’t want to open every week if it is on the bad side. You look at Daytona and getting wrecked while running second, having a flat left-rear at Vegas and then getting wrecked on whatever lap last week (at Phoenix). Some of those things are in our control and some of them aren’t. We have to stay focused on the positives, work on the negatives and move forward.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 PETTY’S GARAGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 23rd IN STANDINGS
THOUGHTS LOOKING AHEAD AT ATLANTA WITH YOUR PAST EXPERIENCE AT THE TRACK.
“Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of my favorite tracks with the way it wears out, how slick it is and how it wears out tires. I really enjoy that style of racing. It lends its hand to save some tire on the front side of a run and trying to be good on the second half of it. As a driver, that is fun. You want the options; you want the chance to go out and be better on old tires, be better than the guy in front of you and just manage your stuff better. That’s kind of the old-school feel of NASCAR for me, and how you grow up racing is managing that run and managing your tires to try and be there at the end of the race. I always look forward to the Atlanta race. It’s a really technical place for a 1.5-mile track and that’s what makes it fun.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 24th IN STANDINGS
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACING AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY THIS WEEKEND?
“Atlanta is a lot of fun. I can’t even remember exactly what happened the last time we were there, but I love that place. It has a lot of character. It’s very difficult. It has a lot of bumps. It’s very rough on tires. Every driver is going to be screaming for grip and for downforce. But it’s a fun place. I really enjoy it a lot and I’m looking forward to going back.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 27th IN STANDINGS
“Tires will be very important to having a successful race at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. Even with the downforce package we have, tires still remain as a key to this track due to the extremely worn-out surface. Last year, I was still getting a feel for a Cup car when we raced at Atlanta and thought I had a tire going down during the first Stage, so now that I know what that feels like I know what to watch out for. We had some handling issues during last year’s race too where our Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE would swing from being way too loose to way too tight, so my team has looked back at last year’s notes a lot this week to prepare and have a better handling No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet this time around. I enjoy racing at Atlanta with its old track surface, so I’m excited for this weekend.”
COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 NFL ALUMNI/FOLDS OF HONOR CAMARO ZL1 1LE- 29th IN STANDINGS
“Atlanta is the most worn-out track on the schedule, so it’s important the car is dialed in for the long runs. Our Crew Chief, Ryan Sparks, has a solid game plan together to get our NFL Alumni/Folds of Honor Camaro ZL1 1LE towards the front from a 30th starting position. The NFL Alumni does incredible work within their community. To have them integrate the Folds of Honor to support scholarship opportunities for veterans and their families is incredibly admirable. I’m proud to represent both organizations this weekend in the QuikTrip Folds of Honor 500.”
Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturers Championships:
Total (1949-2020): 39
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)
Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Drivers Championships:
Total (1949-2020): 32
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)
Most Recent: Chase Elliott (2020)
Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020
Event Victories:
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)
2021 STATISTICS:
Wins: 2
Poles: 1
Laps Led: 367
Top-five finishes: 8
Top-10 finishes: 22
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 797 (1949 to date)
Poles won to date: 718
Laps led to date: 237,072
Top-five finishes to date: 4,073
Top-10 finishes to date: 8,424
Total NASCAR Cup wins by corporation, 1949 to date
General Motors: 1,131
Chevrolet: 797
Pontiac: 154
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 805
Ford: 705
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 191
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 154
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 75 countries with nearly 4 million cars and trucks sold in 2019. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found www.chevrolet.com.
