Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Aric Almirola (Started 22nd, Finished 8th / Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 18th, Finished 9th / Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)
● Kevin Harvick (Started 10th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 14th, Finished 16th / Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)
SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (11th with 504 points, 180 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (12th with 481 points, 203 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (18th with 443 points, 241 out of first)
● Cole Custer (26th with 323 points, 361 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Almirola earned his sixth top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in 14 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Atlanta.
● Almirola’s eighth-place result equaled his previous best finish at Atlanta, He finished eighth in February 2019.
● Custer earned his first top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in five career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Atlanta.
● Custer’s ninth-place result bettered his previous best finish of the season – 11th, earned in February at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. His previous best finish at Atlanta was 17th, earned last July.
Race Notes:
● Chase Elliott won the Atlanta 400 to score his 16th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season and his first at Atlanta. He crossed the finish line under caution ahead of second-place Ross Chastain.
● There were 13 caution periods for a total of 64 laps.
● Only 21 of the 36 drivers in the Atlanta 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Elliott remains the championship leader after Atlanta with a 47-point advantage over second-place Ryan Blaney.
Sound Bites:
“We just didn’t have the speed we needed to go up and compete. That one restart where I was leading the bottom lane, we didn’t have what we needed to keep up. Our car was pretty good. We got it driving good there at the end, but we couldn’t muster up the speed we needed to go hang with those Chevrolets. The Chevrolets were really, really fast. I didn’t think it was better racing (than the Atlanta race in March). I thought the racetrack was a little more narrow. We couldn’t run the top up against the fence like we could in the spring. That kind of limited the options and kind of choked everybody down to two-wide.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Ford Pro Ford Mustang
“We got the car way better. The guys worked really hard and made great adjustments throughout the day. By the end, I thought we were just as good as anybody. We could’ve had a shot to win there. I think we were running in the top-five on the last lap, but somebody wrecked in front of us and we got knocked back a little bit, but overall it was a good day of hopefully finding a direction, and I think it was nice to go up there and run with those guys and show that we can have some speed.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang
“I just couldn’t do anything in traffic. The car was really tight in traffic, which made it hard to race close to anybody. When they were side-by-side, I would lose the nose really bad. We hung around and finished the race. Sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do at these places.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang
“I felt like balance was definitely more of an issue than the first (Atlanta) race, for sure, with the hotter temperatures. I felt like we got it to where we were pretty decent and I was able to start working the wall a little more than a couple of other guys. I went to pass the 10 and as soon as I did, I guess I just got too high and got to where it was dirty still and killed the right-rear quarterpanel and everything else, so that kind of affected the rest of our day. I’m happy we were able to somewhat salvage a 16th, but I felt like if we didn’t have the damage, it would’ve been a lot better day. We’ll go on to New Hampshire next week and see if we can improve on it.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers / Cummins Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Ambetter 301 on Sunday, July 17 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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