Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Brad Keselowski was battling flu-like symptoms all weekend but fought through to win his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season.

I had some observations on Sunday's race at Atlanta that I wish to share with the class.

Clint Bowyer has been one of the fastest cars all week, and he showed that again during Saturday's final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

For Sunday's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at the 1.5 mile (2.414-kilometer) high-banked Atlanta Motor Speedway, only 37 drivers will race the scheduled 325-lap distance.

McDowell said of Logano: “I just told him that my team doesn’t pay me to push Joey Logano to a win. That’s not what I get paid to do.

Rookie Ryan Preece wheeled his way to an eighth-place finish Sunday evening in overtime scoring a top-10 in his debut Daytona 500.

"I went winless in 2018," Hamlin said, "so naturally, I started to question myself. I also had other questions at Daytona, like 'When is this race going to start?' and 'When is this race going to end?'"

Before we turn our focus to Atlanta Motor Speedway and beyond, here's some thoughts I had on Sunday's Daytona 500.

It doesn't seem like that long ago where suspense was the name of the game in terms of the Daytona 500. Looking back at the 1998 Daytona 500 where Dale Earnhardt was leading late in the going, the CBS booth's tense commentary as the laps wound down was nothing short of memorable as the fans were on the edge of their seats watching Earnhardt, Bobby Labonte, Jeremy Mayfield, and Rusty Wallace all slice and dice for position while trying to oust that black No. 3.

Jeffrey Earnhardt will drive XCI Racing's No. 81 Toyota in both series, with the team's debut coming March 30 in the Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The event will serve as a precursor to XCI Racing's NASCAR Cup Series debut when it unloads for the April 28 race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.