Atlanta is a popular city for NASCAR as it hosts two Cup Series races per season. On Sunday, the NASCAR drivers competed in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 and PopCulture.com was there to witness the action. When the race was all said and done, 24-year old William Byron took home the checkered flag. While Bryon winning the race was big, the talk was the challenges the race tack presented since it was revamped and renovated for 2022 and beyond.
“Yeah, certainly a lot to learn this weekend,” Byron told PopCulture.com and other media during the post-race press conference. “I think that through all the things that we did to prepare like nothing came close to what practice ended up being like, so I was shocked how crazy it was, how big the runs were. My spotter, we talked overnight. It was like you couldn’t talk fast enough to get all the things you needed to say. I thought he really worked hard overnight and got a clear idea of the kind of what needed to be said so we could work on that.”
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NASCAR experts have called Atlanta Motor Speedway the newest superspeedway because of the changes made despite it being smaller than the superspeedway in Daytona and Talladega. The changes led to a history-making race as there were 46 lead changes among 20 drivers, which are both track records. Byron, who won the third race of his Cup Series career, took the lead for Bubba Wallace on Lap 316 of 325 and never looked back.
“Daytona and Talladega, when you get single file, can you relax,” Byron said. “Today when you were single-file, you were constantly working to stay single file so you didn’t lose the lead. I think that was a lot different. I’m not used to that.” The next time NASCAR is back in Atlanta is July 10 for the Quaker State 400. With the drivers experiencing the new Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, the race in July should not be as chaotic.
“It’s a little bit different, though, when you have a nice lead or you’ve got a dominant car all day, but when you come to a speedway, you really don’t know you’re going to win until you come on to the front stretch and if you are by yourself,” Byron said. “So it’s just a crazy, exhilarating feeling when you win at a kind of superspeedway style race because you’re constantly working, and you never — it’s never really guaranteed. That was where the excitement I think came from. But, yeah, I think it was a lot of fun.”
