ATLANTA RACE REVIEW

Midnight Train to Georgia!

Date: 3-20-2022.
Name of the race: Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.
Track: Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Laps: 325.
Pole winner: Chase Briscoe.
Outside pole: Ryan Blaney.
Stage 1 winner: William Byron.
Stage 2 winner: Ryan Blaney.
Stage 3 winner (won the race): William Byron.
Top 5: William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, and Corey Lajoie.
FYI: The fifth stop on the Cup schedule stopped in the heart of the south aka Georgia. No this was not the same Atlanta Motor Speedway that we all knew and loved last year, this was the new and reconfigured surface. The 1.5-mile track got upgraded to look like a superspeedway but on a smaller scale. The racing was intense all day just a superspeedway race with a new record of forty-six lead changes, which is the most in the track's history since it opened in 1960! Side-by-side racing was the keyword that every fan and announcer used when talking about during the race and boy did it not disappoint. No one knew who was going to win until the checkered flag flew because no one truly dominated the race. The word accident was also another keyword that was used during the race since drivers got together and some took harder hits than others. One driver that took the hardest hit was Bubba Wallace who took two hard hits. And the most notable feud during the race was Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch who spun the #3 car on the front stretch while both drivers were running in the top 5, resulting in Dillon and Busch both hitting the wall and ending their days. In the end, William Byron earned his victory of the 2022 season and will now join Bobby Labonte and Fireball Roberts as drivers who have won the first race at the track or on the new track configuration. 
Next race: Circuit of the Americas on Sunday (3-27-2022).