The final weekend of June will be one of “firsts” when it comes to NASCAR racing.
For the first time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series will race at a venue for the second time, though in the interim, Atlanta Motor Speedway has acquired new entitlement as EchoPark Speedway.
After a stellar five-race run on Amazon Prime Video, the Cup Series shifts to TNT Sports, though Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte and Adam Alexander will remain in the broadcast booth and bring continuity to TNT’s five races.
The move to TNT Sports coincides with the debut of the In-Season Challenge for the Cup Series, pitting 32 drivers in head-to-head matchups, starting with Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The In-Season Challenge continues throughout the TNT portion of the schedule, reducing the field by half each week until two drivers remain to compete for the $1-million winner’s prize in the Champions Round on July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Racing conditions on Saturday promise to be quite different from the 50-degree temperature that greeted drivers on Feb. 23, when race winner Christopher Bell nosed ahead of Carson Hocevar before caution froze the field on the final lap.
Though the Quaker State 400 will take place under the lights, temperatures are expected to remain in the 80s until nightfall, resulting in a hot, slick track that will challenge drivers to maintain order in a close-quarters draft—style of racing that’s a by-product of the superspeedway competition package in use at EchoPark Speedway since its repaving and reconfiguration in 2022.
With nine races left in the Cup Series’ regular season, Atlanta presents the opportunity for drivers to secure a spot in the postseason with a victory. Though conventional wisdom says the pool of potential winners expands in a superspeedway setting, certain drivers tend to appear consistently at the front of the field. One of those is Joey Logano, who won last year’s second race, which was held in September.
Another is two-time Daytona 500 champion William Byron, who won at EchoPark in both 2022 and 2023.
Byron, who hasn’t won since claiming his second straight Daytona 500 in February, could use some good fortune this week. He wrecked arguably the fastest car in the field at Pocono during qualifying and finished 27th in the race after repairs to the car.
“We had a rough weekend in Pocono, but I’m proud of how the team came together to have our car ready for Sunday,” Byron said. “The strategy just didn’t work out. We’ve put that behind us though, and we’ll be ready for this weekend in Atlanta.
“We’ve had success there in the past, but there is still an unknown element after the reconfiguration. The goal remains the same though, go for the win, and if that’s not the case, maximize our points day. We just have to be there at the end.”
Byron faces Ryan Preece, another adept speedway racer, in the opening round of the In-Season Challenge. Denny Hamlin, who has finished first and second in his last two starts, is the top seed in the bracket. He’s paired against 32nd seed Ty Dillon in the first round.
— NASCAR Wire Service —