HAMPTON, Ga. — Sunday’s starting grid at Atlanta Motor Speedway will include 16 drivers chasing a championship, including Dawsonville's Chase Elliott.
The upcoming Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart is the first race of NASCAR’s playoffs, bringing added pressure to those in title contention.
The 28-degree banked, 1.54-mile oval in Hampton will not provide any relief. Since its reconfiguration for the 2022 season, AMS has proven to be entertaining for fans and challenging for drivers.
“(Atlanta)’s very much turned into a speedway race since the repave,” said Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports and the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion. “It’s craziness and wild as everyone knows. We’re going to try to make the very most of it.”
Racing inches apart at over 190 mph, competitors are on the razor’s edge for 400 miles in Atlanta. With the added stakes of a championship run, the possibility of finding trouble and falling on the wrong side of the playoff cut line looms large.
“In our sport when you have 35 cars packed up all it takes is one driver making a mistake and it wipes a lot of the field out and sometimes you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Joey Logano, two-time series champion and driver of the No. 22 for Team Penske. “There’s definitely a part of that that goes through your mind. Those things can happen, sometimes you can’t control it, so all you can do is go out there, score as many stage points as you can, and make sure you get something out of the day.”
“Obviously if you’re in a position to win you would love to,” added William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. “The big thing at these races coming up is to try to position yourself in the points.
A victory Sunday by one of the 16 championship contenders guarantees them a spot in the next round of NASCAR’s playoffs. Here’s a look at the 16 drivers racing for a title:
The Playoff Grid:
1. Kyle Larson – With a series leading four victories this season, along with several stage wins and a second place result in the regular season standings, the 2021 champion enters this year’s playoffs with the most playoff points. That will afford him some more room for error in his quest for a second title.
2. Christopher Bell – Three times a winner in 2024, Bell is seeking to make the championship round of NASCAR’s playoffs for the third consecutive season.
3. Tyler Reddick – Reddick claimed the regular season championship by a single point over Larson after a gutsy drive in Darlington. Eliminated in the Round of 8 last year, he hopes to give 23XI its first championship four appearance this year.
4. William Byron – Since winning three of the first eight races (including the Daytona 500), Byron and his team have had an up-and-down summer stretch. They’ll be looking to recapture some of that early season magic starting at Atlanta, where he has two wins in the last five races.
5. Ryan Blaney – The defending series champion has not scored a top-10 finish since Indianapolis in July, however his Team Penske team has demonstrated an ability to get hot at the right time. That’s how his 2023 title materialized and he’ll look to repeat that with some positive momentum starting in Atlanta.
6. Denny Hamlin – The perennial contender enters the 2024 playoffs on solid footing, though missing some of the playoff points he had earned due to a penalty issued last month. Hamlin is a threat to win at every track in the 10-race playoffs; he hopes 2024 is the year he finally puts it all together to win the championship that has thus far eluded him.
7. Chase Elliott – The Dawsonville, Ga., native has been solid in a bounce-back season after missing last year’s playoffs. The 2020 champion will get to kick off his quest for a second championship at his home track this weekend.
8. Brad Keselowski – The 2012 champion snapped a three year winless streak earlier this season, earning his first victory driving for the team he co-owns. He would love nothing more than to deliver the organization its first title in 20 years.
9. Joey Logano – After a slow start this year, the two-time champion punched his ticket to the playoffs with a win in quintuple overtime in Nashville in June. After another cold spell in July and August, Logano scored a top-10 in the regular season finale to enter the playoffs with some momentum.
10. Austin Cindric – His win in Gateway was one of just two top-5s and three top-10s he scored during the regular season. However, his other top-5 was notched in Atlanta earlier this year. Another run like that could be the spark to an upset run through the playoffs.
11. Daniel Suárez – After winning the second race of the season in a thrilling, three-wide photo finish at Atlanta earlier this year, Suárez’s team has had a relatively quiet season. A Georgia sweep would change that in an instant and boost Trackhouse Racing’s odds of earning its first championship.
12. Alex Bowman – With his win on the streets of Chicago in July, Bowman ensured all four Hendrick Motorsports entries will contend for the title this fall. The Arizona native is hoping to enter the championship round with a chance to claim the title at his home track.
13. Chase Briscoe – Back against the wall with no options but to win at one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks to make the playoffs, that’s exactly what Briscoe did last weekend in Darlington. Racing with house money, he could make a deep run in these playoffs.
14. Harrison Burton – The 23-year-old pulled off the upset win at Daytona two weeks ago to give Wood Brothers Racing its 100th NASCAR Cup Series win and its first playoff berth since 2020.
15. Ty Gibbs – In just his second full-time season in NASCAR’s top division, the 21-year-old is making his first appearance in the Cup Series playoffs. Many believe he’s overdue to score his first Cup victory; if he can make it happen this fall, it could boost his chances of contending for the series title.
16. Martin Truex Jr. – Since announcing 2024 would be his last full-time season of NASCAR competition, the 2017 champion has had nothing but bad luck. Nonetheless, he scored enough points to earn a spot in the playoffs and has an opportunity to go out on top.
