2024 NASCAR Cup Series Race Twenty-Seven Atlanta

Cars in field: 38
Pole: Michael McDowell (34)
Outside Pole: Ryan Blaney (12)
Stages: 60-100-100
Weather: Partly sunny, 82°F, Feels like (sun) 85°, Feels like (shade) 80°, Wind E 6 mph, Wind Gusts 6 mph

Apparently the race began before we thought it would, so I tune in on lap 38 of 260.

Unfortunately PRN has Larry McReynolds in the booth with a microphone, so there’s a going to be some muting involved in trying to listen to the race broadcast.

While people paid by NASCAR seem overly thrilled with Leigh Diffey’s performance at Darlington, he’s not a new commodity for me – I’ve been listening to Diff for years on various broadcasts – and find him to be overly excitable and given to screaming over nothing. I was thrilled to hear that IndyCar is leaving NBC, partially in hopes of better broadcast coverage and partially relieved that I might be able to actually listen to the races on the television broadcast since I thought Diffey wouldn’t move with the series. I was dismayed that he moved over to provide aural pollution to the NASCAR broadcasts.

Caution on lap 55 of 260 for Kyle Larson (5) crashing into the outside wall. The car just suddenly turned right and shot into the outside wall. Larson is out of the car by the time the safety crews get to him. The car caught fire after the hit. I saw another car spinning near the wall at the outer edge of a camera shot Chase Briscoe (14) tagged Larson’s rear-end when the car was sitting across the track. That might have been the car I saw sliding. Hard to say with NBC’s crappy coverage. They miss so much.

As bad as PRN’s coverage can be, I’m reduced to listening to snippets of the television broadcast due to Larry McReynolds on PRN making a bad situation worse. Then again, with Diffey, Steve Letarte, and Jeff Burton in the NBC booth and Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett on their version of a broadcast desk, there’s nowhere to hide from the whine of voices with terrible timbre.

Ryan Blaney (12) wins stage one under caution.

Chase Briscoe (14) said he “k-o’ed him [Larson]”. Briscoe said it was a hard hit and his groin is hurting.

Restarting on lap 67 of 260 with teammates Ryan Blaney (12) and Austin Cindric (2) up front.

PRN’s Doug Rice said Larry McReynolds is joined for the partial broadcast. I hope that means he will be leaving soon, so I can at least listen to the radio broadcast since the television broadcast is more unlistenable than it is unwatchable and that’s saying a lot.

Doug Rice has Larry giving his two-cents on how enjoyable the racing is at Atlanta. It’s funny, if it were that enjoyable I don’t think you’d have to spend time each race trying to convince people it is enjoyable. In fact, I think if they wanted to convince someone they should start with the television folks who seem bound and determined to show everything but the on-track action wasting endless broadcast minutes with split-screen shots showing a driver’s helmet and gloves as they drive, interiors of cars, sides of cars, the track surface, bumpers of cars, hoods of cars, the sky, the track apron, the outside wall, and anything else that isn’t the actual race. When they choose to show the race from the exterior of a car it’s often so far away the viewer can’t see car numbers or paint schemes.

Apparently the second 2025 Atlanta race will be a night race. Night racing at Atlanta pretty much drove the fans away when they switched the event to Labor Day weekend. PRN had some guy in talking about the race and he mentioned the fans are starting to come back to the event, so it sounds like they’re getting ready to kill the momentum they have around the audience returning. I was considering attending the June 2025 event, since I miss spending the weekend at the track. I didn’t realize it would be a night race. That immediately kills the thought for me. The best races I saw at Atlanta Motor Speedway were daytime races. The February race isn’t an option because the weather is too unpredictable. The day races have been boring on television, but a trip to the track is fun, so I thought it would be worth a try to find out if the NBC coverage made the race look more boring than it is.

On lap 96 of 260 PRN’s Brad Gillie reports the cars are all saving fuel at this point which is why they’re mostly driving around in circles two-by-two behind Austin Cindric. Boring.

Caution on lap 114 of 260 for debris.

On lap 115 we’re actually looking at a split screen of a driving driving, a driver’s feet, and a car sitting some distance away. Now it’s a full-screen shot of a driver’s feet. What terrible television.

Restarting on lap 119 of 260 with Austin Cindric (2), Alex Bowman (48), Ryan Blaney (12), Daniel Suarez (99), William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) and Chase Elliott (9) up front.

Cindric gets the early lead from the inside lane with a strong push from teammate Ryan Blaney.

PRN continuously describes ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) not racing. They mention he started dead last in 38th position and passed about three cars, then settled in at the back of the field. They wondered why he didn’t attempt to move toward the front to possibly gain stage points. They went on to report on Hamlin (11) choosing to pit after the lead lap cars pitted to avoid the congestion and pit ‘casually’. Hamlin consistently proves himself not to display the characteristics of a NASCAR champion – avoiding racing and hiding whenever possible. He’s disgraceful overall. It’s funny that PRN keeps reporting on him, because it highlights that he isn’t racing and yet they’re talking about him, because he continually says this is his year to win the championship. He is doing everything but showing himself to be championship calibre, yet he’s confident he can gimmick his way into the championship. I know Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6) did it, but I would think a real racer would want to
do better than stealing the championship from people trying to race for it. Then again, Denny doesn’t seem to have the desire to win the right way, like the best driver in the series, like a true champion.

PRN keeps saying it’s time to make a move – with ten laps left in the stage – and the cars continually don’t make moves as the laps wind down in stage two.

On lap 158 of 260 again PRN says if there’s a move to be made they need to get busy as the cars remain mostly in formation.

Austin Cindric (2) easily wins stage two by 0.185 seconds as no one appears to try to make a move to catch him.

Restarting on lap 166 of 260 with Ross ‘WatermelonBoy’ Chastain (1), pole sitter Michael McDowell (34), and Ricky ‘Wrecky Spinhouse Jr’ Stenhouse Jr (47) up front.

Chastain gets the early lead.

On lap 169 of 260 PRN announced they needed to document ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) has joined the fray for the first time today at the rear of the lead pack.

On lap 173 of 260 Michael McDowell is falling back through the field.

Caution on lap 175 of 260 for John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (42) turning left and going for a spin into the inside wall.

PRN reports Corey LaJoie (7) ran into the door of Chase Elliott (9). Television showed Daniel Suarez (99), coming out of his pit, runs into Joey Logano (22) and runsn Joey into Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Wendy Venturini of PRN says the Stenhouse (47) team thinks they may have a broken toe-link after that contact.

Restarting on lap 181 of 260 with Ty ‘MyGrandfatherIsTeamOwnerJoeGibbs’ Gibbs (54), Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23), Ryan Blaney (12), Ross Chastain (1), and Alex Bowman (48) up front.

Neither Gibbs, nor Wallace can get the advantage for the lead. NBC continually shows weird split-screens so you can’t really see the door-to-door race up front. Randomly they’re showing the back end of the field. Now it’s a windscreen shot of some bumpers.

On lap 188 of 260 looks like Ross Chastain (1) has pushed Ty Gibbs (54) ahead of Bubba Wallace (23) for the lead finally. NBC keeps showing the middle to back of the field for no apparent reason.

On lap 191 of 260 PRN again feels the need to document that Denny Hamlin (11) has fallen out of the lead pack and may be in ‘max save mode’ preparing to race later in the event. They say he’s riding around in 34th position and hasn’t made an attempt the entire race to run up front.

A push puts ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23) in the lead on lap 198 of 260.

Caution on lap 204 of 260 for Chris Buescher (17) and Ryan Blaney (12) spin collecting Martin Truex Jr (19). PRN reports Buescher’s team says they’re out of the race.

Restarting on lap 211 of 260 with Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8), William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24), Ross Chastain (1), Chase Elliott (9), Michael McDowell (34), Alex Bowman (48), Daniel Suarez (99), Joey Logano (22), Corey Lajoie (7), Todd Gilliland (38) up front.

Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) gets the early lead.

On lap 216 of 260 PRN felt the need to document again that Denny Hamlin (11) is outside the lead pack running in 30th. Not sure why they feel the need to continually document that Hamlin isn’t really racing.

Okay, on lap 248 of 260, let’s see if it’s time to pay attention to this yet. Caution for debris on lap 249 of 260 for a Wal-Mart banner that blew off the fence. The race is called “Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart Race”, so that was one of the naming sponsor’s banners.

PRN is talking about ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) again. They’re coming to the conclusion that he doesn’t have the car to do anything. Useless.

PRN reports the safety crew took down another sign, while retrieving the one that brought out the debris caution, to avoid a repeat of this caution. Doug Rice was initially complaining about how long it took to pick up the sign. His co-host Mark Garrow explained they were taking down a different sign to avoid the same situation.

Restarting on lap 255 of 260 with Daniel Suarez (99), Ty ‘TeamOwnerJoeGibbsGrandstand’ Gibbs (54), Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8), Joey Logano (22), Ross ‘WatermelonBoy’ Chastain (1), William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24), Ryan Blaney (12), Christopher Bell (20), Tyler ‘TyRed’ Reddick (45), Chase Elliott (9) up front.

Gibbs gets the early lead.

Suarez takes the lead.

Kyle Busch takes them three wide for the lead.

Gibbs gets it back.

Suarez and Logano takes the three wide for the lead.

Suarez and Logano battle for the lead on lap 258 of 260.

Caution for Noah Gragson (10) spinning on lap 258 of 260 and hits the inside wall.

Restarting in overtime on lap 263 of 266 Joey Logano (22), Daniel Suarez (99), Ryan Blaney (12), Ross Chastain (1), Chase Elliott (9), Christopher Bell (20), Alex Bowman (48), Bubba Wallace (23), Ty Gibbs (54), and Kyle Busch (8) up front.

Logano gets the early lead off a push from Blaney.

Caution at the checkered flag as they’re wrecking behind Logano (22) as he crosses the finish line first. Harrison Burton (21), Bubba Wallace (23), Denny Hamlin (11), involved in the crash, as well as Cody Ware (15), Zane Smith (71), Todd Gilliland (38), BJ McLeod (78), Josh Berry (4), Erik Jones (43).

Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring race. The last dozen laps were the only laps worth watching. I’m okay with the finish. If NBC would’ve had a decent camera shot at the end we could’ve gotten a look at the finish and the crash simultaneously live. As usual the camera-work was less than optimal to put it mildly.

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GO Hendrick 48 & 9!!!!