A total of 20 leaders. A whopping 46 lead changes. Both of them set records Sunday at an Atlanta Motor Speedway track that's been around since 1960.
A brand-new configuration turned this 1.5-mile oval into pack racing on steroids for its 2022 season debut. And boy, did the final product deliver, reigniting the fan base within the sport's largest southeastern market.
"I was shocked how crazy it was," said winner William Byron. "How big the runs were. My spotter... it was like you couldn't talk fast enough to get all the things you needed to say."
That's the result of NASCAR's lower-horsepower, stuck-together-like-glue superspeedway package running on a track one mile smaller than Daytona or Talladega. Atlanta's turns were shrunk from 55 to 40 feet in an offseason repaving project, making handling in the pack that much tougher. A tighter turn radius by over 200 feet made running wide open a question mark.
It all left a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the weekend. Would cars be able to run side-by-side? (Answer: the most competitive racing we've seen all year). What would passing look like? That turned into dramatic, exciting moments with slingshots reminiscent of 1980s-style competition. Drivers wound up planning their runs and shooting ahead of their rivals coming off turns.
Would crashes decimate the field and put drivers' safety at risk?
On this one, the jury is still out. Just like larger superspeedways, multi-car wrecks were littered throughout a 500-mile afternoon. Bubba Wallace called his last-lap crash the hardest hit he's taken in a race car. Cody Ware's No. 51 body-slammed into the inside wall after contact from Greg Biffle on the backstretch.
Kyle Busch was among a subset of drivers frustrated, feeling like the limited horsepower of superspeedway racing leaves a lot outside their control. Speedway Motorsports, Inc. CEO Marcus Smith referred to the new Atlanta racing as "sports entertainment," a poor choice of words for an athletic competition.
But it's hard to argue with the end result from a track that looked to be facing extinction just three years ago. One of the most competitive intermediates, fans had drifted away due to the old handling package that saw several races here turn into snoozers. Three of the last five Atlanta events produced a margin of victory of more than two seconds.
For most of Sunday's race, it felt like the margin would be two inches. There was so much action and adversity for almost every driver it made every lap a can't miss moment.
"It's what they were shooting for," driver and owner Denny Hamlin said afterwards. "So if you asked them, it was a success. The racing was obviously close, it's exciting, some crashes… so there's something for everyone."
Traffic Report
Green: William Byron -- The sins of a bumpy 2022 start are forgiven for a Hendrick Motorsports driver who all-but-clinched his playoff spot. Two of Byron's three wins are now at superspeedway-style tracks as he's developed a knack for this style of racing.
Credit was given after the race to new spotter Branden Lines and second-year crew chief Rudy Fugle, both of whom have long-term relationships with Byron and make him feel comfortable. The No. 24 team is building a strong support system around a young talent who's suddenly shot up to fourth in points.
Yellow: 23XI Racing -- Kurt Busch scored the second top-5 result for Michael Jordan's new second team Sunday. Combined with Bubba Wallace's Daytona 500 runner-up, that's three top-5 finishes overall -- as many as this organization had during a full season in 2021. The issues come with some hard wrecks (including Wallace's at Atlanta) and some pit road miscues that show the team still has room to grow.
Red: Christopher Bell -- Bell can't catch a break as a last-lap pass while battling for the lead sent him below the yellow line on the backstretch. That's a NASCAR no-no for superspeedway racing, a costly penalty that left Bell the last car on the lead lap in 23rd. 57 points behind the final playoff spot is a big hole to dig just five races in.
Speeding Ticket: Tires -- Several wrecks on Sunday were the cause of flat right-rear tires. It's not the first race we've seen these issues pop up with the Next Gen car and NASCAR was lucky these crashes weren't bigger. Among the victims: Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., both drivers with smaller teams who have shown above-average speed throughout the season.
"I don't know if with all the speed we have," Stenhouse said after his incident, "If the right rear can't hang on or what."
"The right rear is a little bit of an unpredictable thing," added Byron, "Because typically you're not on the right rear that hard on a repave because you can't be loose."
At least a wheel didn't pop loose in the middle of the pack this week. But NASCAR and Goodyear need to put their smartest minds together, do more testing and iron these issues out.
Oops!
One quirk to Atlanta superspeedway racing the drivers learned this weekend is just how sensitive these cars were to a push off the corner. Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, good friends off the track, became the poster child for how these went sour when they crashed coming off turn 4 at the end of stage two.
"[Denny Hamlin] was just trying to help me get a run down the frontstretch," Larson explained. "He just got to me in the corner and got me loose. I hate that happened, but it's a product of this racing and a product of pushing; trying to draft and get your lane going. Nothing is intentional."
"It's easy in retrospect to say I should have done this, and I should have done that," Hamlin added. "But in the moment, you are trying to battle for some stage points there and we've got good grip, and I'm pushing him, and everything is going well and then all of a sudden the car lifts up and he's gone. Just split-second decision making."
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