NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are finally starting and the first stop is the Atlanta Motor Speedway. If you remember the previous race on the Atlanta track, you know things are about to get intense! February’s Atlanta event registered a track record of 48 lead changes, besting the previous mark of 46 in the spring of 2022. That is proof enough of how uncertain it is winning on this track since it’s reconfiguration to a Superspeedway.

This has led to several challenges, including the handling of the car. How much do you think is handling going to play an effect on the draft this weekend? Racing is going to get more challenging, making it difficult to get up to the front. Defending champion, Ryan Blaney dwelled deeper into why it is ‘tricky’ to race on the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Anything can happen in Atlanta as the last two Cup Series winners started 18th or worse!

Ryan Blaney opens up about the challenging Atlanta

Between the 2021 and 2022 NASCAR seasons, Atlanta got a pretty big makeover. First, the track was repaved. Then they bumped up the banking in the turns from 24 to 28 degrees and tightened up the racing surface from 55 to 40 feet. This turned Atlanta into a drafting-style track, kind of like Daytona and Talladega, where you get that pack racing everyone loves. However, just in the three years since its pavement, the track surface has aged. This makes grip an issue and cars become difficult to handle.

In the recent qualifying, Michael McDowell got a back-to-back pole and Ryan Blaney will be starting from P2. Blaney in a recent interview dwelled on how it is to race on one of the fastest track in NASCAR. He said, “I feel like every year we come here, every race we come back, it’s just more handling. It’s funny like the colors changed in it you know every year we come back gets lighter um usually means loss of grip most of the time. So I think that’s good that’s kind of turning into a more handling race. I think that that makes it a little bit trickier when you have something like that.”

If you want to know how tough handling a car is in Atlanta, just watch the highlights of the last race. The race saw ten cautions and involved 28 out of 37 drivers in crashes. It concluded with a thrilling three-wide photo finish, with Daniel Suarez securing Trackhouse Racing’s sole win of the 2024 season. The track will make things interesting as we have many underdogs in this season and a track like Atlanta is anyone’s game.

According to Blaney, the track will lose more grip and after a good qualifying, he’s hopeful for a good performance. “So I think it’s good. Hopefully, it continues to lose more grip. I won’t be able to tell you after qualifying if it’s lost more grip or not until we get out there tomorrow in the race and you hope you hit it right,” he added.

The past performances of championship contenders of this season are enough proof to know the ‘trickiness’ of the race, as Blaney mentioned. Former Cup Series champions like Kyle Larson have never secured a win on a drafting track. Larson has a history of DNFs at Atlanta and hasn’t finished in the top 10 in his last 13 starts on drafting tracks. Similarly, Veteran Denny Hamlin is currently 32nd in points for the season on these types of tracks. On the other hand, regular season champion Tyler Reddick has an average finish of 24th at the reconfigured Atlanta. So, who’s winning at Atlanta race? Veteran, Kevin Harvick has made his pick.

Kevin Harvick’s Atlanta winner

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Last year’s edition of this race, was won by Hendrick Motorsports, William Byron. Since the introduction of the next-gen car in 2022, Byron has at least won once every season at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. However, in the Feb race this year, the #17 started from P2 but couldn’t end his race with a win, he finished in p17. Nonetheless, there is still one more chance to maintain the streak and Kevin Harvick is positive about him winning.

Harvick in his recent podcast episode of ‘Happy Hour’, said, “I think it needs to go right for William Byron. I am going to go with him two weeks in a row and they’ve run well there before. They’re like, I think it’s either going go super good or super bad for them.” Harvick has made the analysis based on his comparison between Chevy cars and Ford cars on the track. According to him, the Fords are going to be the fastest. But it’s that balance of downforce vs. speed and he just thinks that the Chevrolet seems to have a better handling vs. speed scenario.

However, since Atlanta now races like a Superspeedway, won’t it be like Daytona and Darlington? Recently, the Ford upgraded Dark Horse has dominated both tracks. Where Harrison Burton won the Daytona race and Chase Briscoe won the Darlington one with a splendid display of speed and skill.

Who do you think will win in Atlanta? Atlanta is crucial since it will help set the tone for the playoffs. Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.