Partly cloudy skies in Atlanta. 36 cars in the field. Stage lengths 60-100-100. Competition caution on lap 25 of 260.
Chase Elliott (9) is on the pole after qualifying was rained out.
Competition caution.
Once again the PRN guys are calling a lively race. The television broadcast is bored, so we’re subjected to windscreen shots, blimp shots, a long split-screen of a driver driving and a car, shots of Kyle Larson who’s driving in the 20s, replays and a variety of other pretty useless shots.
Chase Elliott (9) wins stage one.
Caution on lap 78 of 260 for spins by Chris Buescher (17), Ty Dillon (42) and BJ McLeod (78).
Wendy Venturini of PRN is intermittently doing that weird voice thing again where it sounds like she’s imitating a male voice, then she lapses into her normal voice, then wanders back into that weird attempt at a deep voice. Bunny wondered if she wasn’t attempting to avoid sounding screechy like MRN’s Kim Coon.
NASCAR digital seems to not have posted anything to the timeline since lap 27 – the competition caution. We’re on lap 86 of 260 without an update. I checked multiple browsers – nada since competition caution.
Big crash on lap 90 of 260 involving Martin Truex Jr (19), Joey Logano (22), Ross Chastain (1), Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (18), Michael McDowell (34) (38), Kyle Larson (5), Austin Dillon (3), Noah Gragson (16), and Christopher Bell (20).
Chastain turned MTJ (19) in front of the field, McDowell (34) tried to stop and was hit from behind and sent spinning by Christopher Bell (20). Logano (22) also tried to slow down and his car turned into a skid with the back end going up over the 19 and then Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (18) t-boned Logano (22).
TV has become less bored and it actually showing the on-track action on lap 105 of 260.
Caution on lap 107 of 260 for Chris Buescher (17) who visited the wall with a flat right front.
The inside lane can stay alongside the outside lane if they’re door-to-door for a while, but, so far on lap 124 of 260, no one has been able to successfully drop into the lower lane and make much progress toward the front. I’m wondering if that’s due to too few cars in line on the bottom, or if the bottom lane is just not working with the ‘super speedway package’.
Caution on lap 136 of 260 for a spin by Chase Briscoe (14). His flapping right rear is laying down debris as he heads back to pit road.
On lap 138 of 260 NASCAR digital is back.
TV has gotten bored again and has a graphic and two race split screens. TMI so I don’t really know the relevance of the two boxes of racing.
Caution on lap 159 of 260 for Alex Bowman (48) hitting the outside wall with a flat right rear.
Stage two ends under caution with Chase Elliott (9) out front.
Stenhouse (47) and Bowman (48) have gone to the garage on lap 169 of 260
Caution on lap 170 of 260 for a crash involving Tyler Reddick (8), William Byron (24), Garrett Smithley (15), Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6), Ty Dillon (42), Todd Gilliland (38), Bubba Wallace (23).
Garrett Smithley (15) slowed, Ty Dillon (42) checked up to avoid him, but was hit from behind by Kyle Larson (5), sending Dillon into Smithley and into the wall in front of William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) and Tyler Reddick (8) and others.
Caution on lap 188 of 260 for spins by Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (18) and Cody Ware (51).
On lap 212 of 260 tv is bored so we have a split -screen of the front of the field and a car running in 11th plus a graphic. Overall the broadcast has been better than usual with them actually showing the field racing more than they’re showing the nonsense shots. The camera shots are still not quite right, often too tight or from the blimp, but better. They need to allow the viewer to see the car numbers. I know they’re handicapped by the smaller car numbers in the forward position, but they need to figure out how to make it work since the cars switch paint schemes frequently, leaving them unidentifiable, and the overhead shots are so far away the roof numbers are indistinguishable from the roof color.
On lap 226 of 260 the field is single-file behind Chase Elliott (9).
Caution on lap 235 of 260 for a spin by Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20).
CBell (20) tried to leave his pit stall and his left rear tire rolled ahead of him. A replay shows the tire-changer getting dragged as Christopher drove away. NBCSports says they’ve changed the rule about tires coming off to read if the tire stays on pit road then there won’t be an automatic suspension of the crew chief. PRN says that NASCAR says it has the discretion whether to penalize the 20 team or not if the tire doesn’t leave pit road.
Caution on lap 246 of 260 as Denny Hamalin gets turned by Chastain. Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (1) goes for a spin attempting to avoid the crash.
Caution on lap 252 of 260, shortly after the restart for a spin by Joey Logano (22). ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) loast a right front tire and turned into Joey Logano (22).
Restarting on lap 257 of 260.
Chase takes the white flag
Chase Elliott (9) wins under caution.
Corey LaJoie (7) got into the wall trying to make a pass for the lead on the outside of Chase Elliott. Chase blocked the pass. LaJoie bounced off the wall, tagged the 12 of Ryan Blaney then turned in front of Kurt ‘KuBu’ Busch (45) and Cole Custer (41).
After leading laps and running up front Corey LaJoie (7) finishes 21st unofficially. He said he was going for the win and would rather finish 21st going for the win than to finish second not trying to make the pass. He said he was going to school on a lot of it, because he hadn’t been in that position before. He believes he will be better prepared in super-speedway type races in the future. He said he was very happy to be up front for a change.
That was a pretty good race. It started kind of slow, though I’m not sure the race was slow or the television coverage was awful. The tv coverage was full of idiotic camera shots early on, but displayed more of the action on-track as the event continued. The race was competitive as evidenced by Corey LaJoie, Chase Elliott, and Martin Truex Jr racing each other for the lead on multiple restarts. The race was exciting since passes were possible and the leader didn’t run away from the field. The intensity was high as the cars that usually only have a legitimate shot at a win at super-speedways found themselves in that position and tried to make good on it. Since this was Chase Elliott’s first Cup win at his home-track, and the first race after the track reconfiguration, and it was an enjoyable race at Atlanta after a decade of mediocre (at best) races, I think this will be a memorable race.
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