Atlanta Race Review

 


    What a race. Chase Elliott gets his first win of the 2025 season and his first win since Texas in 2024. He led 41 laps today and contended up front for much of the race. I'll dive into my discussion of Chase Elliott, the top finishers, the big wrecks, and more in this review!

Chase Elliott

    Elliott has been really weird to gauge the last 3 seasons. He has these moments where he will finally be up front, and might snag a win here and there. That said, he's largely running 6th to 10th most weeks and the team just finds a way to get consistent top 20 finishes. Elliott has done that all season, with there only being a few tracks that he has had winning speed. I look at Kansas, Martinsville, Pocono, and the road courses as to where he has been quick at this year. He has been good, but often overshadowed by his teammates of William Byron and Kyle Larson.

    Even before the big one, Elliott was running alright around 10th, but Byron had already worked himself in the top 5. Elliott was leading at the time of the big one, and it meant that a lot of the contenders were taken out. That said, Elliott put on a show the last 200 laps of this race. He was not afraid to take the runs and was one of the most aggressive drivers, especially that final run. The pass he made for the lead was as textbook as it came, as he took the run he built off of 4 with the help of Bowman to pass Brad. Elliott deserved the win tonight and he was a treat to watch throughout it all.

    Elliott now moves into 2nd in the regular season standings, surpassing Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin. He now just sits 37 points behind William Byron for the regular season points lead. Elliott has some really good tracks coming up for him, including 3 road course races, Dover, and a couple short tracks. Elliott has a really good shot to be the regular season champion. Overall, a really great race from Chase Elliott and the 9 team.

The Big One

    I normally would talk about the top 5 finishers next, but I want to talk about the 2 big wrecks that happened early on this race. The first wreck was not super big, but did take out a couple of strong contenders. Christopher Bell got loose in turn 3 and 4 on lap 57, collecting Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, and more in this crash. Blaney took another head on hit into the outside wall, which he just seems to be the king of at superspeedways. Blaney, Wallace, and Bell were all guys that I thought would run well in this race, but they were taken out in this one. Wallace continued, but he was never the same after he crashed again later in the race on his own.


    The second wreck was the big one. There was roughly 20 cars or so involved in the crash with many who were involved, unable to continue. Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Josh Berry, Corey LaJoie, and Chase Briscoe were all unable to finish the race after this crash. There were a lot of favorites taken out including Team Penske, who qualified 1st through 4th (The 21 is a satellite team for Penske) in this race. Byron was my pick to win and that one did not age well at all. There were some other drivers that were able to continue on including Kyle Busch, Cole Custer, Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell, and Noah Gragson, but these drivers were never the same. The only drivers that got through and were still competitive were Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, and Alex Bowman who all finished in the top 5.

The Top 5

    Brad Keselowski was able to come home to finish 2nd after being involved in the big one. He had a shot to win the race at the end, but he did not have a teammate to come help him. Instead, Alex Bowman tried to pass Keselowski on the final lap instead of helping Brad, which allowed Elliott to win the race. Keselowski needed to win this race to make the playoffs, but his opportunities to win are quickly slipping away. Speaking of Bowman, he comes home to finish 3rd. Bowman was quick this race and was another driver making aggressive moves. He was the main reason why Elliott won this race on the final lap, as he chose to shove his teammate out front for the win. Tyler Reddick had an opportunity to make a move with two laps to go, but just didn't. Reddick did win a stage and had a good points day, but he needed to make that move with two to go. Instead, Reddick comes home 4th. Lastly in the top 5 is Erik Jones, who crashed during stage 3, but still came back to finish 5th. Legacy Motorclub is showing some decent speed as of late, so I'm interested how they will do the rest of the season.

Other Notable Finishers

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a speeding penalty late in this race, but still came back to finish 6th. He was in the lead there late, but got shuffled back just a bit. Still, this was a good result for one of the Cup series best superspeedway racers. Zane Smith and Ty Dillon are at the center of a lot of the action tonight. Dillon did spin out Justin Haley and walled Ty Gibbs so it was not the cleanest night, but he gets a good result of 8th. Smith was up in the top 3 late as well, but got shuffled back. Still, a good result for Smith in 7th. Chris Buescher had a shot to win this, but he was unable to get back up the front late. Buescher comes home to finish 9th and build his gap above the cutline. Rounding out the top 10 is Carson Hocevar, who was caught up in the big one and he looked really good there early in stage 3, driving up to fourth when he was a lap down. Hocevar lacked a bit of speed that final run but comes home 10th

    I want to give a few shoutouts to Connor Zilisch, Cody Ware, and B.J McLeod who all got top 16 finishes tonight. Zilisch had a particularly impressive performance, as he stayed out of trouble most of the night and ran in the front pack. Ware was quiet but stayed out of trouble to get a really solid finish. B.J McLeod mentioned that he was seven tenths faster this year in qualifying than in this same race last year, and he comes home with a solid 16th place finish. Good night for these drivers!

Full Results

  • 1. Chase Elliott
  • 2. Brad Keselowski
  • 3. Alex Bowman
  • 4. Tyler Reddick
  • 5. Erik Jones
  • 6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  • 7. Zane Smith 
  • 8. Ty Dillon
  • 9. Chris Buescher
  • 10. Carson Hocevar
  • 11. Connor Zilisch
  • 12. Aj Allmendinger
  • 13. Cody Ware
  • 14. Ty Gibbs
  • 15. Ryan Preece
  • 16. B.J McLeod
  • 17. Kyle Larson
  • 18. Michael McDowell
  • 19. Cole Custer
  • 20. Kyle Busch
  • 21. Austin Dillon
  • 22. Bubba Wallace
  • 23. Justin Haley
  • 24. Shane Van Gisbergen
  • 25. Noah Gragson
  • 26. John Hunter Nemechek
  • 27. Todd Gilliland
  • 28. Riley Herbst
  • 29. David Starr
  • 30. Christopher Bell
  • 31. Denny Hamlin
  • 32. Josh Berry 
  • 33. Ross Chastain
  • 34. Daniel Suarez
  • 35. Chase Briscoe
  • 36. Joey Logano
  • 37. William Byron
  • 38. Austin Cindric
  • 39. Corey LaJoie
  • 40. Ryan Blaney

The Playoff Cutline

    With Elliott win at Atlanta, that means there are 12 drivers now locked into the playoffs. Elliott's win, however, does not really shake up the playoff grid. Elliott was already over 140 points clear of the cutline heading into tonight, so that playoff cutline stays where it is at.

  • Tyler Reddick +128
  • Chris Buescher +52
  • Alex Bowman +39
  • Bubba Wallace +23
  • Ryan Preece -23
  • Erik Jones -49
  • Aj Allmendinger -59
  • Carson Hocevar -62
    I think there's still a good shot that we get a couple surprise winners that are below the cutline currently. I think Buescher on down have to be gunning for a win these next 8 weeks. Tyler Reddick is the only driver that I feel confident in right now to make it in the playoffs on points.

The In-Season Tournament 

    Well, my bracket is completely busted. Here are the results from each matchup below:

  • Ty Dillon (32) defeated Denny Hamlin (1)
  • Brad Keselowski (17) defeated Kyle Busch (16) 
  • Alex Bowman (8) defeated Joey Logano (25)
  • Bubba Wallace (9) defeated  Daniel Suarez (24) 
  • John Hunter Nemechek (12) defeated Josh Berry (21)
  • Chase Elliott (5) defeated Austin Dillon (28)
  • Erik Jones (20) defeated Ross Chastain (13)
  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr (29) defeated Christopher Bell (4)
  • Noah Gragson (31) defeated Chase Briscoe (2)
  • Ryan Preece (15) defeated William Byron (18)
  • Carson Hocevar (26) defeated Ryan Blaney (7)
  • Tyler Reddick (23) defeated Kyle Larson (10)
  • Aj Allmendinger (22) defeated Michael McDowell (11)
  • Ty Gibbs (6) defeated Justin Haley (27)
  • Zane Smith (14) defeated Austin Cindric (19)
  • Chris Buescher (3) defeated Todd Gilliland (30)

My Overall Thoughts

    Atlanta is the best superspeedway on the schedule and it is not close. Atlanta is how Daytona and Talladega were during the 2000s, when handling and team speed were super important. Tonight, we saw drivers be able to slingshot their way around one another quite a lot. The final stretch in stage 3 was some of the best superspeedway racing that this car has put on. Time and time again, Atlanta has shown to be amazing with how good cars can work their way through the field. I thought everything from the big wreck onwards was amazing. The only reason why I wouldn't give this a 10/10 race is because so many good cars were taken out early in this race. It soured my mood just a little bit, but the racing itself was great.

    I really do wish that Daytona and Talladega were more like Atlanta is currently. Drivers are going all out at Atlanta and there is no gridlock that occurs. Driver are able to go where they want to without being stuck in a box. Carson Hocevar in the first stage went from 30th to 7th. His car was fast and handled super well to where he could make those moves. That would not be possible as much at Daytona and Talladega, where drivers are stuck going two wide the entire time. I would give the race from last night a 9/10. It was really damn good. I look forward to seeing how Chicago plays out next weekend and if Mother Nature can stay away for once!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The In-Season Tournament

Image
      For the first time in NASCAR's history, NASCAR is having their own in season tournament. Similar to that of the NCAA March Madness tournament, 32 drivers will compete for a chance at winning a million dollars. The challenge spans over 5 races which includes Atlanta, Chicago, Sonoma, Dover, and Indianapolis. Fans are also able to participate to have a chance to win a million dollars too! Today, I want to dive into each matchup and give you all my predictions for the in-season tournament. The Round of 32     I'm not going to go super in depth into my picks for each matchup as there are a lot of matchups to get too. That said, the first round takes place at Atlanta, which is about as wild-card of a round as it gets. Atlanta, however, is not the most random  super speedway. Atlanta is more in the drivers control because of how important handling has become. It's refreshing to see Atlanta not be a random lottery as to who wins. As a result, ...
Read more

Phoenix Race Review

Image
     Ryan Blaney     Ryan Blaney is able to pick up his first win of the 2026 season at Phoenix Raceway after holding off Christopher Bell for the last 10 laps. Blaney ran up inside the top 5 for much of the race, but had multiple loose wheels that put up in the back, where he had to race his way back up to the front. An Austin Dillon caution with about 25 laps to go led to a split pit strategy, where guys like Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson, and more took just two tires. whereas Bell & Hamlin took 4 tires to try and be on the attack. That said, a caution on the next restart involving Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, and Ty Dillon hurt Bell and Hamlin's chances of catching Blaney who moved past Gibbs and Larson on the last restart.     Blaney's win at Phoenix adds to the elite resume that Blaney has built up at the track. Since 2021, he has just two finishes outside the top 5, which was a 10th at the Spring 2021 race and a 28th place finish in...
Read more

COTA Race Review

Image
     Tyler Reddick      Tyler Reddick has achieved something that hasn't been done since 1949 which is win the first 3 races of a NASCAR season. Everything has gone right so far for this 45 team, as he has a 70 point lead over his teammate Bubba Wallace in the points standings. Reddick is currently in his 4th season with 23XI, and he's already got 8 wins with the team. This is including his winless 2025 season, where he still finished 9th in the final standings. He's got a major lead in the standings, and with how well rounded he has become, I expect him to stay at the top for a while moving forward.     The most impressive thing to me with Reddick is that he's done this during the Next Gen Era, where parity is at its highest. The most wins a driver has had in a season with this car is 6 which was achieved by both William Byron and Denny Hamlin. That said, Reddick could realistically break that record because he's good at every trac...
Read more