Written by Gabriel Tsui, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
After an exhilarating Daytona 500, when we witnessed William Byron take the win after multiple late lap dramas, it’s a short turnaround before we head to Henry County, Georgia for the Atlanta 400.
Hendricks and Byron started off the season with a bang, but could they continue their momentum with yet another race win, or would the Fords and Toyotas who missed out on a prime opportunity in Daytona get one back in Atlanta?
Daytona 500 Race Debrief
The race started with a crash on lap five, when John Hunter Nemechek gave Harrison Burton a little bump, setting off a chain reaction that took out multiple cars, including the #77 of Carson Hocevar, and the #3 of Austin Dillon. Once the field returned to green flag running, regular racing resumed for the rest of stage one and two.
Late in the race, with around nine laps to go, a mistimed bump draft led to a wobbly William Byron, who tagged the rear quarter panel of the #6 of Brad Keselowski, and chaos ensued immediately after, taking out a large chunk of the runners, including Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin who had been at the front of the pack for the late laps of stage three.
After the red flag, they returned to racing with eight laps remaining, with Ross Chastain and Byron leading the way.
Approaching the start-finish line for the final lap of the race, Corey Lajoie tagged Austin Cindric in the rear panel, causing Cindric to lose control and take out Chastain. As the yellow flag was lit after the cars crossed the white flag, Byron was the race winner, and officially took the first win of the season.
Track Preview
The Atlanta Motor Speedway is the race track located in Henry County, Georgia, around a 40-minute drive down the I-75 from downtown Atlanta. The race will run on the quad-oval layout, with a length of 1.540 miles (2.478 kilometres), with a steep banking of 28 degrees on both turns.
Historically, this race has been run in the later months of the year, mainly September and October. As of 2015, however, the race has been moved to the earlier months, slated for February or mid-March. Also, as of 2023, the race went from 500 miles to 400 miles, shortening the length of the event significantly.
Current ongoing forecasts show that there will be clear skies on the race weekend, with temperatures between 15-17 degrees Celsius, tyre temperature could be an issue during the weekend. The race will start at 15:00 ET (12:00 PT, 21:00 CET).
Race Predictions
In recent years, Ford has been absolutely dominating at the track, winning six out of seven races since 2017.
The Fords proved dominant around Daytona, only losing out due to an unlucky incident they had no control over. It was a devastating first race for Ford, but they would certainly be looking to make a comeback immediately, and what better place to do it than Atlanta?
Blaney, Logano, and Keselowski are all past winners here in Atlanta, so they have the experience to win here. On the other hand, racers like Chris Buescher and Austin Cindric absolutely have a chance at winning with the performances they put up in Daytona.
It will be no less of a dogfight than it was in Daytona, but the track record speaks for itself, so the prediction would be the Ford racers getting back at the Chevys in the second race of the season.
After an exhilarating Daytona 500, when we witnessed William Byron take the win after multiple late lap dramas, it’s a short turnaround before we head to Henry County, Georgia for the Atlanta 400.
Hendricks and Byron started off the season with a bang, but could they continue their momentum with yet another race win, or would the Fords and Toyotas who missed out on a prime opportunity in Daytona get one back in Atlanta?
Daytona 500 Race Debrief
The race started with a crash on lap five, when John Hunter Nemechek gave Harrison Burton a little bump, setting off a chain reaction that took out multiple cars, including the #77 of Carson Hocevar, and the #3 of Austin Dillon. Once the field returned to green flag running, regular racing resumed for the rest of stage one and two.
Late in the race, with around nine laps to go, a mistimed bump draft led to a wobbly William Byron, who tagged the rear quarter panel of the #6 of Brad Keselowski, and chaos ensued immediately after, taking out a large chunk of the runners, including Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin who had been at the front of the pack for the late laps of stage three.
After the red flag, they returned to racing with eight laps remaining, with Ross Chastain and Byron leading the way.
Approaching the start-finish line for the final lap of the race, Corey Lajoie tagged Austin Cindric in the rear panel, causing Cindric to lose control and take out Chastain. As the yellow flag was lit after the cars crossed the white flag, Byron was the race winner, and officially took the first win of the season.
Track Preview
The Atlanta Motor Speedway is the race track located in Henry County, Georgia, around a 40-minute drive down the I-75 from downtown Atlanta. The race will run on the quad-oval layout, with a length of 1.540 miles (2.478 kilometres), with a steep banking of 28 degrees on both turns.
Historically, this race has been run in the later months of the year, mainly September and October. As of 2015, however, the race has been moved to the earlier months, slated for February or mid-March. Also, as of 2023, the race went from 500 miles to 400 miles, shortening the length of the event significantly.
Current ongoing forecasts show that there will be clear skies on the race weekend, with temperatures between 15-17 degrees Celsius, tyre temperature could be an issue during the weekend. The race will start at 15:00 ET (12:00 PT, 21:00 CET).
Race Predictions
In recent years, Ford has been absolutely dominating at the track, winning six out of seven races since 2017.
The Fords proved dominant around Daytona, only losing out due to an unlucky incident they had no control over. It was a devastating first race for Ford, but they would certainly be looking to make a comeback immediately, and what better place to do it than Atlanta?
Blaney, Logano, and Keselowski are all past winners here in Atlanta, so they have the experience to win here. On the other hand, racers like Chris Buescher and Austin Cindric absolutely have a chance at winning with the performances they put up in Daytona.
It will be no less of a dogfight than it was in Daytona, but the track record speaks for itself, so the prediction would be the Ford racers getting back at the Chevys in the second race of the season.
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