Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Focused Health 250 at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET on the CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) completes the day’s unique two-venue race doubleheader after an early afternoon NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on the Lime Rock Park road course in Connecticut.
And judging by the last two series races on Atlanta’s high-banked 1.5-miler, there is every reason to believe the day may end with an exclamation point. First-time race winners have claimed the last two races there. Nick Sanchez is the defending race winner and this February, Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed earned his first trophy.
The most dominant driver, however, is the home state favorite – five-time winner Austin Hill. A sixth victory this weekend would give the driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet the all-time mark – breaking a tie with NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Harvick. Hill’s 11 wins and 925 laps led on drafting tracks is tops in each category. For comparative sakes, Jeb Burton is second on the list with two wins (both at Talladega, Ala.)
Hill’s RCR teammate, Jesse Love is the only driver with top-10 finishes at all the drafting tracks in 2026. The driver of the No. 2 RCR Chevrolet is ranked second to the season’s most dominating racer, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier. Yet Love is still racing for his first win of the season – the only driver ranked among the top-six in the standings without a victory.
The 21-year-old – who recently announced he’ll move into the NASCAR Cup Series’ No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford fulltime next year – has had three runner-up finishes (at Phoenix, Watkins Glen and Charlotte) and led the most laps at Nashville last month, only to finish 16th after a mechanical issue. He’s on a streak of three straight top-10 finishes coming to Atlanta and finished fifth after leading 31 laps at Atlanta in February.
Allgaier’s absolute domination continues to be the storyline for the series. His five wins lead all drivers, but the 2024 series champ has endured a couple recent “off days” by his standards with sub-25th place showings in two (at the San Diego and Sonoma road courses) of the last three races.
His laps led (457), top-five (12) and top-10 (15) finishes have all contributed mightily to that unprecedented 195-point lead he holds over Love and the field. That gap is bigger than the points-difference from Love to 12th place, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews.
Hill, Love and Allgaier all expect to be challenged again by the defending race winner Creed, who is looking to gain points after a steady, but otherwise non-noteworthy couple months. He hasn’t led a lap since Talladega in April but has three top-10 finishes in the last four races.
Only four races remain to set the 12-driver field for The Chase. And although Allgaier has secured the top seed, there is still a lot of movement possible on the other end of eligibility. Crews holds a 44-point lead over his JGR teammate William Sawalich for that 12th and final Chase position. Rajah Caruth is 48-points off Crews’ pace.
Kennametal Pole Qualifying is 11 a.m. ET on Saturday (The CW App). Carson Kvapil started from pole position last year and finished runner-up to Sanchez.
— NASCAR Wire Service —