NASCAR is taking over Atlanta this weekend. The Quaker State 400 will take place at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, and it’s the second time this season a NASCAR Cup Series race has been held at the track, with the first being the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 in March. Sunday’s race will air on NBCSN at 3:30 p.m. ET.
This is a homecoming for Chase Elliott as he is from the state of Georgia. However, only one driver born in Georgia has ever won a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and that’s Chase’s father Bill Elliott. In fact, Bill has won at Atlanta Motor Speedway five times in his career. Chase does have a great chance to earn his first win at Atlanta Motor Speedway as he starts on the pole. He also comes into the race with momentum, winning at Road America last week.
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“We haven’t really had a very exciting – really, any exciting event there – thus far on the NASCAR front,” Elliott said to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week. “Hopefully this weekend will be a little different, and we can get something rolling down there. I would love nothing more than to have a good run at my home track.”
One driver that could prevent Elliott from winning his first race in Atlanta is his teammate Kyle Larson. According to NASCAR.com, in the last two races in Atlanta, Larson has led 411 laps, won three of the last four stages and finished runner-up in the March race, as Ryan Blaney earned the checkered flag. Like Elliott, Larson hasn’t won in Atlanta but is a heavy favorite to earn a big victory.
After Sunday’s race, Atlanta Motor Speedway will go through some renovations, which include an increase in banking in the turns from 24 to 28 degrees and decreasing the width of the track from “55 feet to 52 on the front stretch, 42 on the backstretch, and 40 on the turns,” according to Sportscasting. This does not sit well with Larson.
“I wish they would talk to everybody about it,” Larson said on a Zoom call. “We have more experience than the fans, you know. I’ve raced hundreds of different racetracks. I feel like we have a better understanding of what really makes good racing. But, you know, fans like crashing and a 40-foot wide surface is going to keep us tight together, so maybe that’s going to accomplish the good racing that we think it is.”
