NASCAR
Stratta’s Six: Who Can Excel in second trip to Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway?
The NASCAR calendar’s first repeat stop, Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway will see 40 drivers duel under the Saturday night lights. All of these competitors just ran on Georgia’s high banks four months ago in race two of the season. Who can stand tall as Peach State King in victory lane after 400 miles? Here are a few to watch out for in the Quaker State 400.
Ryan Blaney
Entering Saturday as the odds-on favorite is superspeedway savant Ryan Blaney. A four-time winner between Daytona and Talladega, driver 12 does have an Atlanta victory too, but from the old configuration. Penske cars are always among the fastest drafters for every Atlanta race. This is proven with Blaney’s impressive six-race top-10 streak here. Still looking to complete the speedway trifecta with that elusive win, Blaney knows a lot is up in the air.
“Just seeing where the track has gotten to grip-wise [will be key],” Blaney said. “That place has been unique that it changes every time we go there. It just loses a little bit of grip every time. Atlanta’s honestly gotten a lot better as it’s aged for sure. We’re not as tightly packed up, it spreads a lot more in the corners just because people are handling bad. You have to make the decision of how much downforce do you put in it or how much you want to take out of it for drag.”
“But you don’t really know how much the track has lost grip. So you just try to do your best guess and with having no practice it’s like ‘alright I hope we guessed right.’ And then you deal with it in the race and try to work around it. But I like it, it’s gotten to be really good racing there and you can see cars make moves and come from the back of the field to the front. Honestly you can do it a lot easier there than like a Daytona or Talladega just because the field spreads apart in the corners. And if your car is handling good you can kind of shoot the middle, stuff like that, slip someone to the outside, and those type of things. So yeah, I look forward to Saturday night it’s going to be fun. The track is still going to be really slick, and you’re going to have your hands full that’s for sure but it’s turned out to a good race. And yeah we’ve had some pretty good runs there. Hopefully we can be in another spot to try to win that.”
The stretch since 2022 has seen Blaney lead the series with a 6.7 Atlanta average finish. Not only does Blaney have six top-10s in seven drafting Atlanta races. He’s finished second, third, and fourth in the last three. If any Penske driver is seemingly due for a trip to Atlanta’s victory lane it’s the 12. Blaney’s push was pivotal to Joey Logano taking last fall’s Playoff win here. Maybe it’s time for fortune to smile upon the 2023 champion again.
William Byron
Another man who can never be counted out in Atlanta is points leader William Byron. A winner here in 2022 and 2023, the 24 has apparently figured out how to master this truncated superspeedway. Byron is still winless since his most recent drafting win at February’s Daytona 500. Perhaps the Hendrick. No. 24 can end Saturday night with similar results. Byron appears as a runaway regular season championship favorite. On the flip side though, Byron hopes to bounce back from a lackluster Pocono outing.
“We had a rough weekend in Pocono but I’m proud of how the team came together to have our car ready for Sunday, the strategy just didn’t work out,” Byron said. “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.”
As mentioned above, Byron is poised very nicely to be rewarded with maximum bonus Playoff points in nine weeks. At least five more can easily be earned this weekend, should the 24 take a third Atlanta checkered flag. With a win and a third at Talladega, Byron appears best in drafting class for 2025. Atlanta has been very feast or famine for the 24, however, with one top-10 since his July 2023 triumph. The man atop the standings will have a chance to reassert himself in title talks on Saturday.
Joey Logano
Tied with Byron as new Atlanta’s winningest is Joey Logano, who picked up trophies here in 2023 and the 2024 Playoffs. The latter victory helped propel the Penske No. 22 Ford team to their eventual championship. Yet another crafty superspeedway veteran, Logano should not be overlooked. Logano likes his chances of a second 2025 win this weekend.
“I feel really strong about Atlanta with our car,” Logano said. “With that said, anything can happen. Definitely a challenging racetrack, because it’s either ‘how fast do you want to go by yourself?’ or ‘how great do you want to handle in the pack?’ What place you are going to be running is going to answer that question in two different ways. If you’re leading, you want to be trimmed out. If you’re not leading, you’re gonna want a little extra downforce on it. Well, it’s not a knob that you can adjust throughout the race, wish you could, but you can’t. So it it makes it pretty challenging to make the right choices and what do you want to do and what’s going to be the best and what’s the temperature going to be like? Has the track given up a little bit more grip? Because those things, the bumps, are they getting worse. Like, those type of things that are that are definitely gonna happen over time, just how quickly. And this day and age, you don’t go out there and practice and go, ‘Oh, we definitely want to go the other way.’ Like, you qualify, you still don’t know what you got until the race starts, and then you’re obviously married to that.”
Logano’s only qualified worse than seventh once in drafting Atlanta’s young history. The 22 also has laps led in six of those seven races. Currently the sixth provisional Playoff seed, expect aggressive Logano to be on full tilt chasing stages and Saturday’s big prize. Logano has lacked a bit of the regular contending speed seen with his teammate Blaney. As a result, this race should be circled as a must-perform night for the 22.
Kyle Busch
Death, taxes, and Kyle Busch being painfully close to victory lane appear to be life’s three guarantees recently in Atlanta. The last five races here have all seen the No. 8 Chevrolet earn a top-10. This includes 2024’s famed three-wide photo finish. Busch’s new Atlanta average finish of 12.1 also approaches series-high marks, and dips to 6.5 since 2023. 72 laps led in this span shows that Busch is still very much a contender in the draft. Can Atlanta be the site where Busch finally breaks his long losing drought?
“Racing at EchoPark Speedway is intense, so I guess that would be exciting for us,” Busch said. “The race certainly brings a lot of adrenaline and action. There’s something happening all the time so you’re trying to figure out your next move and seeing what lanes are moving. What things are happening in order to get yourself further up front. It seems like there’s a lot of maneuvering in the middle of the pack from those ten spots between eighth and 18th. But at the same time it might seem like it’s dull up at the front. Although we’re all trying to get there, it just seems like it gets a little locked up because sometimes the track gets that one lane, that high lane moving in the bottom. It just doesn’t materialize”
“I enjoy night racing. It’s going to be fun, and it’s going to be an important race. There are so many things that can change in any given lap, let alone a whole race, with superspeedway style racing. Those two dynamics – night racing and speedway racing, are going to make Saturday night’s race at EchoPark Speedway one of the ones to remember.”
Winning at either Atlanta or Daytona in August may be Kyle Busch’s best remaining Playoff path forward. RCR’s Chevrolets are always some of the most stout competition on superspeedways, and Busch is essentially in must-win mode now. That being said, a care-free Busch going for it on Saturday may spell danger for the field.
Austin Cindric
Rounding out a Penske-perfect trio atop Atlanta’s odds sheet is Austin Cindric. Already a drafting winner this season from Talladega in April, many call Cindric the best Next Gen superspeedway driver. Similar to teammate Blaney, Cindric has found recent success at both Daytona and Talladega, but still chases Peach State glory. The 2 has been painfully close to being P1 in Atlanta, with almost 150 laps led across the last two races alone. If not for being ran into the fence by Kyle Larson in February, Cindric may have captured that flag.
The last three trips to Atlanta have seen Cindric collect three stage wins and almost 200 laps led. Last fall’s Playoff race was also a Penske-perfect split between both stages and the race win for all three drivers. Should Cindric not run into any unforced errors, he should be among the contending elite leading the pack late.
Carson Hocevar
Returning to the site of his first breakout run of 2025, can Carson Hocevar be one spot better than second? Had the final lap ran green until the finish line, the No. 77 Chevrolet may have done whatever it takes for an all-important win. The sophomore driver has managed to improve his result in each of three career Atlanta starts. Hocevar is confident that recent performance from Spire Motorsports can lead to another head-turning night in Atlanta.
“We’ve had some really strong runs and I hate that we haven’t had the finishes to show it,” Hocevar said. “Atlanta was the first time this year that we showed we were capable of being up front and running with the bigger teams. I don’t think anyone’s forgotten that and we’ve kinda reinforced that with the last few races. So, yeah, I think we can go back to what we were doing in that first race and take some things we’ve learned since then to maybe get up front sooner and be in the position to defend the win instead of fighting for it in overtime.”
Whether or not he makes the Playoffs, Carson Hocevar’s 2025 season will be looked back upon with many what ifs. Four of the last five races alone have seen the 77 lead or run well. This stretch has only led to one finish better than 18th, however. Hocevar remains as perhaps the best chance at a first-time Cup Series winner turning the postseason grid on its head. Don’t rule him out from a clutch run in Atlanta.
Only one of the seven drafting Atlanta races has seen a final lead change before the last 10 laps. Three of these winning moves were also last-lap passes, including February. With that all being said, who could capitalize and perhaps be a Playoff-spoiler may be in flux until the checkers. The Georgia green flag will fly Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
