February 24, 2024 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Michael McDowell on NASCAR Cup Series pole at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. — Michael McDowell and Joey Logano performed their own version of “Trading Places” during NASCAR Cup Series time trials on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

After finishing second to Logano in qualifying for the season-opening DAYTONA 500, McDowell will start his 467th Cup race from a position he has never occupied before—first on the grid—with Logano beside him in second.

Having won the first Busch Light Pole Award of his career, McDowell will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at the 1.54-mile track (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

All told, seven Fords and three Chevrolets comprised the top 10 in the qualifying session.

The only driver to break the 31-second mark, McDowell posted a time of 30.999 seconds (178.844 mph) in the final round of time trials, beating second-place Logano (178.424 mph) by 0.073 seconds.

Kyle Busch (178.235 mph) earned the third starting position, with Todd Gilliland, McDowell’s teammate at Front Row Motorsports, claiming the fourth spot at 178.080 mph.

“That’s awesome,” McDowell said after topping the session. “Two weeks in a row we sat on the front row. We need to back that up with a good result (on Sunday). We’ve got both cars in the top five, so that’s awesome.”

Kyle Larson, defending series champion Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Austin Dillon will start the Ambetter Health 400 from fifth through 10th, respectively.

For the second straight race, no Toyotas advanced to the top 10 in qualifying, though Martin Truex’s 12th-place effort on Saturday was an improvement from Daytona, where Erik Jones was the fastest Camry driver in time trials at 22nd.

DAYTONA 500 winner William Byron missed the final round by 0.002 seconds (behind Hendrick teammate Larson) and will start 11th on Sunday.


At Atlanta, access to pit road under green is a complicated, tricky procedure

At most NASCAR race tracks, speeding on pit road draws a penalty that can be overcome with speed or ingenuity.

At Atlanta Motor Speedway, however, speeding under a green flag can be the equivalent to a death penalty, as far as a driver’s chances of winning the race are concerned.

The approach to a driver’s pit stall at Atlanta involves two distinct sections, 1) an access road through Turns 3 and 4, constituting pit road sections 1 and 2, with a 90-mph speed limit under green, and 2) pit road sections 3 through 18, from the yellow entrance line to the yellow exit line.

The speed limit in Sections 3 through 18 is 45 mph. Under caution the 45-mph limit applies to all sections.

Because of the long approach, speeding under green-flag conditions will cost a driver two laps and likely ruin the race.

But the process of maintaining pit road speed adds a layer of complication. Since the NASCAR Cup Series cars don’t have speedometers, typically that means more warning lights and/or additional pages on the digital dashboard.

“You’re not getting down to 45 mph… you’re getting down to 90 mph, so the gearing is a lot different,” said DAYTONA 500 champion William Byron, who has won two of the last four Atlanta races. “The lights are built way differently. I think we chose to go with third gear this time (in the 90-mph section). Last time, we were in fourth.

“So, I feel like just trying to understand the cadence there. My engineers sent me a bunch of stuff, some layouts to make sure I’m aware of what lights I need to run. But the biggest thing is don’t speed, because under green, that section is not that important in comparison to being a couple of laps down here. If you go a couple of laps down with how long that pit road is now, your race is ruined. So, you just have to not speed.”

Though drivers enter pit road at Turn 3, the process starts at the exit of Turn 2.

“The 90-mile-an-hour pit road speed is almost twice as fast as anywhere that we have,” said Christopher Bell. “So, we’re racing in fifth (gear). It’ll be a third-gear pit road speed whenever you hit the line, and you have to be mindful of not speeding, because if you speed, you’re going to lose multiple laps.

“So, it’s third-gear pit road, and then there will be another downshift when you approach Turn 4 to get down to 45. It’s very unique and very tricky and not one you want to play games with, for sure.”

Kyle Busch is one of the most accomplished drivers at getting on and off pit road. At Atlanta, there are a lot more variables than usual.

“We’ll likely have two pages (on the dashboard) – one for under green and one for under yellow that we’ll use for different lights and what we’ll look for in the
gearing, RPM ranges and whatnot,” Busch said. “If you’re under green and you’re coming off of Turn 2, you have to make sure you’re on page two – whatever page it is – and then you’ll slow down as quickly as you can, as late as you can, in order to make it to the 90-mph speed zone by the first line.

“Carry that around the corner and then you’ll slow down through your lights and then run your pit road lights. There are different colors (of lights) – you’ve got three different sets of colors that you can go through, so there’s a pretty wide range. You’ll probably run all reds… actually you’ll run probably four blues through the corner, and then you’ll run all reds on pit road. That’s typically what we do.”



John Hunter Nemechek relishes his time in a race car on Saturdays

Returning to full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition with Legacy Motor Club this season, John Hunter Nemechek nevertheless wants to maintain a presence in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, even though the race cars in the respective series drive quite differently.

Racing an Xfinity Series Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing last season, Nemechek won seven races and finished fourth in the final standings. He’s slated to run 10 Xfinity races this season with Gibbs as Legacy acclimates to the Toyota Camry after racing Chevrolets in the Cup Series last year.

“Why not? I like to race,” Nemechek said on Saturday morning at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “I like to be in race cars, and I think getting more laps is more beneficial for myself. Being able to work with the same group of guys at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) that are on the 20 car—besides two positions, I think, everyone is still the same.

“It’s big for me to come back this year and have fun and try to go win races, not really knowing what the Cup side has in store for the first few (races) as far as speed and other things. For myself, I wanted to put myself in a situation where I can gain confidence on Saturday and go into Sunday and be able to go out there and strive, learn some things from Saturday to try to apply to Sunday.

“I’m a race car driver. If we could run all three series every weekend, I’d be raising my hand to be into that.”


Starting Line Up by Row
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Ambetter Health 400

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 2/24/2024 @ 12:52 PM Eastern

Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: Dale Earnhardt  11/12/95 3:03:03 163.633

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed

Row 1: 1 34 Michael McDowell Benebone Ford 30.999 178.844
2 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 31.072 178.424

Row 2: 3 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 31.105 178.235
4 38 Todd Gilliland Georgia Peanuts Ford 31.132 178.080

Row 3: 5 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 31.176 177.829
6 12 Ryan Blaney BodyArmor Zero Sugar Ford 31.206 177.658

Row 4: 7 17 Chris Buescher BuildSubmarines.com Ford 31.291 177.176
8 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Knauf Insulation Ford 31.296 177.147

Row 5: 9 14 Chase Briscoe HighPoint.com Ford 31.300 177.125
10 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 31.304 177.102

Row 6: 11 24 William Byron Raptor High Heat Chevrolet 31.348 176.853
12 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 31.368 176.741

Row 7: 13 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Toyota 31.375 176.701
14 4 Josh Berry # Harrison's Ford 31.377 176.690

Row 8: 15 10 Noah Gragson Black Rifle Coffee/Ranger Boats Ford 31.385 176.645
16 21 Harrison Burton Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 31.397 176.577

Row 9: 17 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 31.423 176.431
18 23 Bubba Wallace MoneyLion Toyota 31.430 176.392

Row 10: 19 45 Tyler Reddick Xfinity Mobile Toyota 31.431 176.386
20 41 Ryan Preece HaasTooling.com Ford 31.444 176.313

Row 11: 21 1 Ross Chastain Moose Fraternity Chevrolet 31.467 176.185
22 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Toyota 31.475 176.140

Row 12: 23 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 31.476 176.134
24 6 Brad Keselowski King's Hawaiian Ford 31.479 176.117

Row 13: 25 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 31.484 176.089
26 31 Daniel Hemric Cirkul Chevrolet 31.506 175.966

Row 14: 27 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kroger/Blue Buffalo Chevrolet 31.514 175.922
28 9 Chase Elliott Hooters Chevrolet 31.519 175.894

Row 15: 29 71 Zane Smith # City of Refuge Chevrolet 31.636 175.243
30 16 Josh Williams(i) Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet 31.665 175.083

Row 16: 31 51 Justin Haley Grady Medical Centers Ford 31.671 175.050
32 7 Corey LaJoie Celsius Chevrolet 31.707 174.851

Row 17: 33 15 Kaz Grala # N29 Capital Partners Ford 31.718 174.790
34 42 John Hunter Nemechek Family Dollar Toyota 31.979 173.364

Row 18: 35 77 Carson Hocevar # Premier Security Chevrolet 32.003 173.234
36 78 BJ McLeod(i) Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet 32.384 171.196

Row 19: 37 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 33.691 164.554

Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 15 0 Ford 14 0
Toyota 8 0

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series