William Byron wins inaugural Cup race on new Atlanta

After decades of being an intermediate track, Atlanta Motor Speedway is now an oddity on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule: it is still an intermediate circuit length-wise at 1.5 miles, but its greatly elevated 28-degree banking—the result of an offseason reconfiguration project—has transformed it into a superspeedway. William Byron, whose first career Cup win came at a superspeedway (Daytona in 2020), is the first premier series winner on the new layout after holding off a late scramble by the field.

A rainout placed Phoenix winner Chase Briscoe on the pole while Harrison Burton was sent to the rear for two failed pre-race inspections.

Stages #1 and 2

Briscoe and Kyle Busch led the early laps before Noah Gragson crashed to bring out the first caution on lap 24. Ross Chastain became the leader on the ensuing restart and continued to lead through the lap 45 competition caution before being responsible for one himself when his right-rear tyre went down and sent him into the wall on lap 94.

The first stage ended under another yellow flag when a larger wreck occurred on lap 100, triggered by Austin Dillon getting clipped by Busch on the tri-oval and collecting Briscoe and Ty Dillon; both Dillon brothers retired from a Cup race for the first time since the 2017 Bristol Night Race. Byron was the leader when the crash happened and therefore received the stage win, with Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Erik Jones, Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, and Austin Cindric behind him.

The second stage commenced with Christopher Bell leading Cindric, though Kevin Harvick passed him for first on lap 122. Owing to the more superspeedway nature of the new course, the lead traded hands multiple times as Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Justin Haley, Stenhouse, and Byron worked their way to the front with drafting help.

On lap 145, chaos broke when Reddick got loose in turn four from a flat tyre and spun, ricocheting off Busch and into the outside wall. Larson went sideways and clipped Corey LaJoie, who went airbourne through the tri-oval grass, and other casualties included Cindric, Hamlin, Logano, and Cole Custer. Custer explained shortly after that “the track is so narrow here that they got together up front and everybody stacked up with nowhere to go, so we hit the wall. We didn’t really hit that hard, but it broke some of the right-rear suspension and put us out.”

The next restart led to two laps of racing before a caution for debris.

Byron lost the lead to Stenhouse on lap 185. However, Stenhouse’s day came to an end as the race crossed the 200-lap mark when a flat tyre caused him to spin down the track before being hit by a sliding Cindric; Harvick and Erik Jones also suffered damage in the crash. Ten laps later, Larson and Hamlin wrecked together across the start/finish line.

“I was just trying to help Kyle there and I just needed to let him go off turn four,” commented Hamlin. “The track gets light there, the car starts to lift up and that’s where I needed to back off of him and I just didn’t and spun him out. It is a shame. Our car was really fast. We definitely slowed after the first part of the damage—we were involved in that first wreck.”

The Hamlin/Larson accident ended the second stage under yellow. Blaney won the segment ahead of Elliott, Briscoe, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Suárez, Truex, Bubba Wallace, Byron, and Chastain.

Stage #3

Suárez and Truex paced the field to the start of the final stage. The former led the first twelve laps before Truex and Elliott spent time in front. A debris caution on lap 253 led to Almirola spending time in front before Byron cleared him on lap 262.

As the race entered the 300s, Todd Gilliland hit the wall and Greg Biffle turned Cody Ware as the group bunched up. Ware briefly went into the air, which prevented him from using his brakes as he slammed into the inside wall on the backstretch. Another restart on lap 306 saw just one lap before Almirola was spun through the tri-oval following a strong push from Trackhouse Racing Team‘s Chastain and Suárez.

The final restart came with thirteen laps remaining as Byron and Jones lined up on the inside while best friends Wallace and Blaney led the outside. The latter duo cleared the field which allowed Wallace to begin blocking both lanes for three circuits before Byron found a run on the inside groove to shoot to the lead at the ten-to-go mark.

The leaders organised into single file, though some drivers like Elliott tried to break formation and get a run to no avail. As they began the final lap, Wallace received a strong enough push from Blaney to keep pace with Byron while Chastain attempted his own move on the inside that shuffled Blaney back.

With two rows once again, Wallace’s hopes of winning disappeared when he got loose while trying to reconnect with Blaney on the outside which caused the two to brush the wall with Briscoe in tow. In the opposite lane, Bell dove down Chastain’s inside but went below the white line separating the track and apron, resulting in a penalty. With Bell and Chastain battling each other, Byron developed enough of a cushion to take his third career victory.

As the field reached the finish, Chris Buescher was hit by Haley while vying for sixth, causing him to shoot up into the pack while Haley collided with Wallace, with all three drivers slamming into the outside wall.

Although Bell beat Chastain for second, the penalty relegated him to twenty-third and the last car on the lead lap. Consequently, Chastain secured his third straight top-three finish. Kurt Busch, the last pre-reconfiguration Atlanta winner, was third and LaJoie secured a career-best fifth while sliding backwards after being caught in the wreck.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	12	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
2	7	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	325	Running
3	9	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	325	Running
4	13	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	325	Running
5	33	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
6	6	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
7	14	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	325	Running
8	26	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	325	Running
9	3	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	325	Running
10	11	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
11	22	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	325	Running
12	24	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	325	Running
13	19	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	325	Running
14	23	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
15	1	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	325	Running
16	36	77	Josh Bilicki*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	Running
17	2	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	325	Running
18	35	15	David Ragan	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	325	Running
19	34	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	325	Running
20	37	44	Greg Biffle	NY Racing Team	Chevrolet	325	Running
21	8	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	325	Running
22	10	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	325	Running
23	27	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	325	Running
24	29	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	321	Running
25	31	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	321	Running
26	32	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	300	Accident
27	25	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	297	DVP
28	5	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	245	Accident
29	15	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	212	Accident
30	21	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	212	Accident
31	28	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	200	Accident
32	16	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	200	Accident
33	4	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	171	Accident
34	20	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	150	Accident
35	17	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	101	Accident
36	18	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	101	Accident
37	30	16	Noah Gragson*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	23	Accident