NASCAR heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for a full weekend of racing with all three series set to compete. Please check below for the complete schedule of events.
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Chase Elliott won the pole for the Daytona 500, won his qualifying race, led 39 laps and was in the lead in the closing laps of the Daytona 500. Unfortunately, destiny was not in his favor.
A.J. Allmendinger is riding an upward trajectory into the new season, hoping to dominate the road courses where he performs best and possibly grab a win at another track along the way. His third place finish in the Daytona 500 is proof of his relevance in 2017.
Now that the dust has cleared and a Daytona 500 Champion has been crowned, it’s time to look back at that race and see where we are with the changes made by NASCAR. First, we must understand that Daytona (and its sister track, Talladega) are different animals than the rest of the tracks that the drivers will visit the rest of the races.
Undoubtedly, this year's edition of Speedweeks had everything a race fan could ask for. There were Cinderella stories, with Kaz Grala the titular belle of the ball Friday night when he won a wild Camping World Truck Series season opener.
The 59th running of the Daytona 500, with first-time winner, Kurt Busch, included eight cautions for 40 laps and saw only 15 drivers complete all 200 laps. Was this typical restrictor-plate racing or a result of the new race format that NASCAR implemented this season?
On Sunday, 16 cars retired from the Daytona 500 due to an accident. On Saturday, 23 cars retired from the XFINITY Series race due to an accident. On Friday night, 11 trucks retired from the Camping World Truck Series race due to an accident. And those numbers don't include the vehicles that also received damage as a result of these wrecks.
Kurt Busch now adds a Harley J Earl Trophy to his collection and résumé, alongside his 2004 championship, after winning the 59th running of the Daytona 500.
