After two spectacular finishes to end the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season, the real fun is set to start at Atlanta Motor Speedway with Sunday’s Quaker State 400 in Hampton, Ga.
But first, a larger look at the first three races that will eliminate four drivers and advance a dozen into the Round of 12 that begins Sept. 29 at Kansas Speedway.
NASCAR will kick it off in Atlanta, which was the site of the closest three-wide finish in the sport’s history on Feb. 25, arguably the most exciting side-by-side-by-side race to the checkers that fans have seen.
Daniel Suarez claimed victory that day, edging reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney by 0.003 seconds and non-playoff driver Kyle Busch (0.007 seconds) in 2024’s first real thriller.
Suarez, the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, set a high bar that day, joining William Byron as the only winners just two races into the campaign.
That dazzling triumph vaulted Suarez, of Mexico, into the postseason championship hunt, but it didn’t foreshadow any future success. He posted just one more top-five finish — at Texas in April — and was remembered more down the stretch for an awful fire that forced his Camaro out of the race at Daytona two weeks ago.
The second race on the three-stop circuit is at Watkins Glen, where the track will make its first appearance in the playoffs.
Having a road course right away is intriguing, though there are some concerns about the tire that NASCAR will take there — the same issues that arose in Bristol’s spring race that Denny Hamlin captured.
The famed Bristol night race also just happens to be the cutoff race after the snaking Watkins Glen layout in upstate New York, so watch for that tire degradation again.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell, a three-time winner thus far in 2024, said the three races are a crapshoot.
“With the expected tire degradation with the tire change that we’ve had, it could be a Bristol-style race where people are wearing tires out really early and struggling to make laps and having to pit all of the time. So, that could be another wild-card race,” said Bell, who was victorious at Phoenix, Charlotte’s 600-miler and New Hampshire in the first 26 events.
“And, then Bristol, I think everybody is expecting it to be more of the same as what we had in the spring,” added the No. 20 Toyota driver, who has nine top-five finishes. “So, the first round could be very different than what we’ve seen in the past.”
Added Team 23XI driver Tyler Reddick, the regular-season champ in his No. 45: “It is probably the most chaotic — that first round. … The nice thing is there are 16 of us in this first round, so even if you have a bad day, you have a good buffer.”
Ford leads the way with a series-best six entries among the 16 title-seeking competitors.
“We’ll go to Atlanta and try to steal another one,” said No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driver Chase Briscoe, who broke a 93-race winless streak and joined Harrison Burton as surprise winners of the past two stunning races.
It would also be shocking if the super-fast, narrow Atlanta loop was anything other than exciting on Sunday.
