HAMPTON, Ga. — NASCAR courted chaos by scheduling two superspeedway races back-to-back to start out the 2024 season and, on Sunday, chaos dropped in and made itself at dwelling.
In a literal photograph end, Daniel Suarez edged Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney on the line to win the Ambetter Well being 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The three-wide end, the third-closest in NASCAR Cup Sequence historical past, capped a frenetic, wreck-and-spin-filled affair the place it was simpler to determine drivers who hadn’t been in a wreck than all of the literal dozens of drivers who had.
After the race, Blaney stood alongside pit highway, trying up at a large-screen replay of the nearness of the end — he is the highest automotive within the photograph above — and shook his head on the missed alternative. A number of toes away, Busch referred to as it a “Lightning McQueen” end, a reference to the race within the film “Automobiles” the place three automobiles end in a lifeless warmth.
“It has been a shock celebration each nook,” Martin Truex Jr. informed Fox Sports activities’ Kevin Harvick throughout a late-race red-flag cease. “As loopy as it’s, it has been sort of enjoyable, too.”
Two years in the past, Atlanta Motor Speedway gave itself a makeover to stage up and be a part of Daytona and Talladega within the superspeedway class. AMS’ banks grew from 24 to twenty-eight levels whereas the observe’s width shrunk from 55 toes to 40 toes. That generated tighter, sooner racing — and likewise created the proper situations for a wrecking fiesta. The place Daytona and Talladega are greater than 2½ miles apiece, Atlanta is simply 1½ miles, a a lot tighter and fewer forgiving observe. Add the truth that the February sundown hits drivers proper within the eyes halfway by means of Flip 1 for the ultimate third of the race, and also you’ve received the makings of pandemonium.
The troubles started virtually instantly, as a wreck on lap 2 snarled up 16 automobiles, together with Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott. The wreck despatched Josh Williams to the showers early, and he wasn’t happy with both his fellow drivers or the observe as an entire.
“That is alleged to be Cup racing,” he stated after the wreck. “Man, it’s simply insane. I had like 5 guys cross me whereas we had been nonetheless wrecking.” Requested the place he would subsequent race for Kaulig Racing, he replied, “Hopefully it’s not at a observe like this. Hopefully it’s someplace the place expertise means one thing.”
Expertise could or could not imply one thing at Atlanta, however a metal backbone positively does. Spins and collisions caught up notables like Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano, and nonetheless the pack rolled on. With 50 laps remaining, drivers simply adopted a hell-with-it mentality, stacking 4 vast — door to door, the width of the observe — for greater than a full lap.
The invoice got here due just a few laps later, when a wreck collected Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Corey LaJoie and John Hunter Nemechek, taking them from the entrance of the pack to the again — or to the storage — throughout the house of some yards. On lap 239, with 21 to go, Chase Briscoe received aggressive weaving his approach by means of the pack and spun, accumulating Hamlin, ending his afternoon and red-flagging the race. Extra cautions adopted, with the race going again to its remaining inexperienced with simply 5 laps remaining.
From there, with the solar under the horizon and the lights on, the drivers nonetheless rolling started a frantic sprint to the end. Over the course of the race, the lead modified arms 48 instances, most within the observe’s historical past. The ultimate lead change got here with solely inches remaining within the race, as Suarez edged out Busch and Blaney.
Suarez beat Blaney by 0.003 seconds, and Busch by 0.007 seconds. For reference, the blink of a watch is about 0.1 seconds … that means Suarez received by 3/a centesimal of an eyeblink.
In most years, drivers — notably those that wrecked out of the race — would put Atlanta within the rear-view mirror and head to Vegas with eyes ahead. However this yr, Atlanta would be the first race of the playoffs, and meaning its threats, and alternatives, will loom over the NASCAR season all by means of the summer time.
