Chaos reigns, William Byron wins at reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway
HAMPTON, Ga. — NASCAR wanted a spectacle at the repaved, reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. What resulted Sunday was speedway racing in all its glory and frustration, and after 500 miles, William Byron came home with the victory just ahead of spinning chaos.
Byron held the lead in the race's closing laps — part of his race-leading 111 laps led — even as Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez and Christopher Bell charged hard behind him. Wallace and Ryan Blaney took a run at Byron but were unable to close.
Byron, Chastain and Bell fought for the checkered flag even as Wallace, Chris Buescher and Justin Haley began wrecking behind them. NASCAR penalized Bell for going below the double-white line to pass Chastain, giving Chastain second place and dropping Bell to 23rd.
“We were on a different planet today with the draft and the way the cars raced," said Kurt Busch, who finished third. "Wow. I was catching air off of Turn Two.”
It was a common sentiment; drivers had fought for years to keep Atlanta's 1997-era asphalt, enjoying its abrasive surface and grip. But everyone other than the drivers was ready to kickstart a moribund Atlanta Motor Speedway, and this was the culmination of an effort announced in July 2021.
In an attempt to replicate the feel of a superspeedway on a mile-and-a-half track, Atlanta increased its banking from 24 to 28 degrees and narrowed the track all around, with turns tightening from 55 to 40 feet wide.
The result: a very superspeedway-esque afternoon of pack racing, with a track record number of lead changes at 46. Another result: some very superspeedway-esque wrecks, mini-Big Ones that took out huge swaths of the field. The race ended with a record-tying 11 cautions, and multiple big names — Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson — exiting the race early following wrecks.
NASCAR and Fox, naturally enough, loved the afternoon; on the Fox broadcast, Clint Bowyer sounded smitten enough to propose marriage to Atlanta Motor Speedway. But there were elements of the race that warrant a closer look:
-Both Noah Gragson and Cody Ware took hard hits, plowing almost head-on into the exterior and interior walls, respectively. The spins at AMS on Sunday were a marked difference from past racing at the track, and the tight pack racing contributed to the chaos.
-The narrow corners meant that passing was at a premium further back in the pack; there simply wasn't enough room to safely go more than two wide.
-Pushing allowed drivers to get to the front of the pack, but it just as easily sent them spinning either into the infield or back into the pack.
-Multiple Chevrolet drivers suffered right rear tire problems while in the lead. The problem was consistent enough that a Goodyear official addressed the media midway through the race, noting that all of the problems were happening to one manufacturer.
“It’s really hard to pass and you need help," said Ty Dillon, who exited the race after a wreck on lap 100. "Even if you were handling better, if somebody could just stay in the middle lane, you could hardly get around them unless you had a massive run and they messed up. Track position matters.”
The Atlanta redesign came with enough hype and promise that NASCAR awarded Atlanta a second date before it was even performed. One of the largest crowds in recent Atlanta history watched the race, a departure from the sparse crowds that had turned out for the cold February dates of recent years.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
