2023 NASCAR Cup Series Race Nineteen Atlanta

Cars in the field: 37
Pole: Aric Almirola (10)
Outside pole: Ryan Blaney (12)
Stages: 60-100-100
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 86 degrees, feels like 91 degrees, 4 mph winds with 8 mph gusts. Rain is not in the forecast, but pop-up showers and thunderstorms are always an option during the afternoons and evening in Georgia in the summer.
PRN reports the teams are strategizing about rain – saying it’s 60-80 miles away and they believe they can get the first half of the race in before it hits.

Caution on lap 16 of 260 for a spin by Harrison Burton (21). TV was in commercial break when the incident occurred. PRN reported it almost two laps after the spin occurred. The broadcast just seems to be delayed.

Unfortunately PRN has Larry McReynolds in the booth, so listening to them has become less of an option than usual.

Restarting on lap 23 of 260.

TV is split screening the radar with a sizable band of rain heading toward the track. During summer AMS has a better chance of an uninterrupted race during the early day – plus the racing tends to be better earlier.

On lap 34 of 260 there are definitely dark clouds on the horizon. It’s also cloudy here on the opposite side of town. The radar seemed to indicate the weather was coming from the west.

Joey Logano (22) passes Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola (10) for the lead on lap 40 of 260. Almirola re-takes the lead on the next lap.

Logano (22) takes the lead from Almirola (10) again on lap 47 of 260.

Ryan Blaney (12) wins stage one. They decided to race on the final lap of the stage with Ryan Blaney holding off Kyle Larson (5) for the stage win. Blaney raced door-to-door with teammate Joey Logano until Larson passed Logano. After lap after lap of single-file racing, it was nice they raced one of the sixty laps of stage one.

Restarting on lap 66 of 260 with Kyle Larson (5) and Ryan Blaney (12) up front. Blaney gets the early lead.

On lap 76 of 260 the track lights are glowing brightly against the dark, cloudy skies.

Caution on lap 78 of 260 for a spin by William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) with help from Corey LaJoie (7). WilliB came down on Corey LaJoie’s nose.

PRN’s Doug Turnbull says the weather should arrive just at or a little after halfway. So the crew chiefs are expecting the race to end at that time. They report Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola’s (10) crew-chief Drew Blickensderfer believes rain is an hour and twenty minutes out.

Restarting on lap 85 of 260 with Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23) and Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) on the front row. MTJ gets the early lead.

Caution on lap 91 of 260 for an incident involving Chase Briscoe (14), Kyle Larson (5), and Austin Hill (62).

Erik Jones (43) got into the rear of Kyle Larson turning in in front of the field.

Restarting on lap 97 of 260 with Chris Buescher (17) and Justin Haley (31) on the front row. With the choose rule only one car on the front row indicates position at any given time.

Since they’re only expecting to race to halfway, they’re actually trying to race a little. PRN’s Doug Rice mentioned they spent most of stage one logging laps, then when the teams started talking weather they started racing at the end of the stage.

They’ve single-filed out on lap 107 of 260.

PRN reports Kyle Larson (5) has gone to the garage after tagging the wall.

Caution on lap 123 of 260 for an incident involving Ross Chastain Corey LaJoie Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr, Ty Gibbs and Todd Gilliland. Erik Jones (43) turned Corey LaJoie (7) in front of the field collecting Tyler Reddick (45), Ty Gibbs (54), Ross Chastain (1), and Todd Gilliland (38).

Erik Jones is a menace out there tonight.

TV showed the radar and the band of rain has grown considerably into a mass of rain and draws closer to the track.

Restarting on lap 128 of 260 with Chris Buescher (17) and Joey Logano (22) on the front row.

PRN says they now weather is imminent. They restart with 2 laps to the halfway mark which will make the race ‘official’.

It is really too hard to read the car numbers with the awful camera shots and the small size of the numbers. Since the television race call often misses calling incidents and the radio broadcasters often can’t see the numbers through the smoke of an incident I often find myself straining to see the numbers to determine whom is involved in incidents.

On lap 140 of 260 they’ve started racing. Theyr’e racing door-to-door on lap 145 of 260.

Blaney (12), Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6), Chris Buescher (17), Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19), and Austin Cindric (2) are racing door-to-door and trading the lead.

Caution on lap 154 of 260 as ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) goes for a spin after contact from Alex Bowman (48) who got a little squirrelly.

Stage two will end under caution with ‘It’ (6) out front.

PRN’s Wendy Venturini says the teams are saying the rain will reach the track before the lightning strikes cause a weather delay.

PRN says the teams feel like the rain is about 10 minutes away at 2121 eastern time on lap 161 of 260.

PRN says AJ ‘Dinger’ Allmendinger (16) has inherited the lead. PRN’s Doug Rice says, “[We’ve] seen lightning on the horizon, though that doesn’t mean anything. It can be 25 or 50 miles away”.

Restarting on lap 164 of 260 with ‘Dinger’ and McDowell (34) on the front row.

Bunny is enjoying the action, but vexed by her inability to tell who’s who due to the distant, and strange-angled camera shots during the spilt-screen for a commercial break and, the small numbers on the cars.

On lap 171 of 260 Kevin ‘Happy/KHarv’ Harvick (4) goes for a long spin with help from ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11), but he heads toward pit road as the race stays green.

Caution on lap 177 of 260 for a spin by Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23) and Ryan Preece (41).

PRN’s Wendy Venturini says Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) believes he may have broken the right rear toe-link on the car.

The radar looks ominous.

One of the PRN reporters says he’s felt a few light raindrops.

Because of the size of the rain cell they will likely call the race once the rain arrives. Doug Rice said he’s seen more lightning and it won’t surprise him if they get a lightning stoppage soon.

PRN says, “The pace car is reporting light rain in turn one and on the backstretch”.

PRN’s Doug Rice says this is one of the healthiest crowds he’s seen in a while. He thinks the word has gotten out that it’s a good show now and he believes it’s easier to sit outside at night rather than in the Georgia daytime heat.

NASCAR is bringing the cars down pit road on lap 185 of 260. Red flag is out at 2148 eastern.

PRN’s Wendy Venturini says put everything away and take cover because this is the arrival of the storm – the red in the cell on the radar.

Lots of folks milling around on pit road. The drivers may be out of the cars. The cars are being covered. The camera shot is too far away from pit road to see much more than the people milling and the lights flashing on the pace car.

2156 eastern PRN reports the rain has picked up at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

They’re showing video of Richard Childress driving the 29 car in which Kevin Harvick (4) won his first race for Richard Childress Racing (RCR) in 2001 after Dale Earnhardt Jr died. Dale Earnhardt’s 3 team became Kevin Harvick’s (29) team. Harvick rolled alongside RC during the pace laps. RC was Dale Earnhardt’s best friend.

NASCAR has called it. William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) is named the winner.

The event started out like a typical, boring Atlanta race, then they thought they were racing to halfway and they began to race. Once the weather was imminent they continued to try to race. While it was decent racing – for a change – it was also unsatisfying overall.

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Next Race: New Hampshire

GO 48 & 9!!!!