March 20, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

William Byron wins a wild one at Atlanta Motor Speedway

HAMPTON, Ga.—William Byron won a wild race that left him breathless at the newly configured Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Byron seized the point for the eighth and final time on Lap 316—setting a record for 46 lead changes on the 1.5-mile track—and held off Ross Chastain by 145-seconds at the finish as drivers wrecked behind him.

The 24-year-old racer extended the under-30 winner streak to 11-straight races with his third Cup win.

“Oh, that was fun,” Byron yelled before breaking out into a burnout in front of a full house of fans. “Pretty wild, you know. Just kind of a hybrid between a superspeedway and intermediate. So I'm out of breath. That's crazy.”

Kurt Busch finished third followed by Daniel Suarez, Corey LaJoie, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Alex Bowman. 

Christopher Bell crossed the line second but was penalized for going below the double line on the backstretch during the white-flag lap to advance his position.

The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 featured a record number of 20 different leaders for Atlanta in a race that more resembled a superspeedway rather than a traditional intermediate track. Twenty-eight of 37 drivers were involved in wrecks throughout the course of the 500-mile race and 23 drivers finished on the lead lap after 11 cautions—including the last lap that collected Buescher and Bubba Wallace, who finished 13th after leading three laps.

The new car continues to be a game-changer as well for the less established teams with LaJoie scoring his first top-five after 169 starts. Despite wrecking on the last lap, Buescher posted back-to-back top 10s. But Trackhouse Racing continues to be the shining star placing both drivers in the top 10 the past two weeks—this race in the top five for Chastain and Suarez.

For the second week, Chastain finished second. Early on, he led five times for 42 laps before cutting a right rear tire on Lap 95, then rallied from the rear of the field for his third-consecutive podium finish.

“That’s the fight, that’s the fight in Trackhouse,” Chastain said. “This Gen 7 car to take a lick like that, blow a tire out of nowhere leading. Just cruising, blow a right rear, slam the wall, I thought our day was over. Our guys went underneath the car, got the tow closer and we got the balance back where I could drive it and this Advent Health Chevy was fast. It was so fast. I mean we were fighting with William there at the beginning.

“So cool to race with buddies again. I only have a few, but the last two weeks I’ve been able to race with buddies. Can’t thank everybody at Trackhouse, the Moose, Advent Health, everybody that’s been on this car. Justin Marks and his family for what they do for me and Daniel Suarez. What a teammate to push me there at the end.”

The first two stages ended under caution with Byron winning the first on Lap 105. Moments prior, Denny Hamlin slid up to the high lane coming out of Turn 4 for second-place and got Austin Dillon loose in the process. Dillon spun and collected Kyle Busch and Ty Dillon to trigger the fourth caution.

The “Big One” occurred on Lap 146 when Reddick lost control of his car coming off of the high lane in Turn 4 and spun into Kurt Busch while running second. Contact with Busch turned the No. 8 Chevy back into traffic. Logano ended up in the frontstretch grass. Kyle Larson slammed into LaJoie. Denny Hamlin, Bell, Bowman, Cole Custer, Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland sustained some damage in the crash.

To add insult to Reddick’s injured car, the No. 8 team received a two-lap penalty for having too many men over the wall and dropped to 32nd on the Lap 154 restart. When his spoiler fell off three laps later, NASCAR called the sixth caution for debris. He finished 28th.

Stenhouse led 22 laps before his right front blew entering Turn 4 on Lap 201. When he went around, he collected Austin Cindric. Erik Jones slowed to miss the accident and was hit by Harvick from behind.

While racing for the second stage win, Hamlin gave Larson a push coming out of Turn 4 into the tri-oval. Both drivers became unstable, wrecked and retired.

“We were just coming to the end of the stage," Larson said. "He (Hamlin) was just trying to help me get a run down the front stretch. He just got to me in the corner and got me loose. I hate that happened, but it’s a product of this racing and product of pushing; trying to draft and get your lane going. Nothing is intentional."

Ryan Blaney went on to win Stage 2 on Lap 210. With 23 laps remaining, Todd Gilliland lost control of his car coming off of Turn 2. Cody Ware slowed and was punted by Greg Biffle. Byron remained on the track with the lead along with Wallace, Blaney, Almirola, Jones, Chastain, Elliott, Suarez, Briscoe, Bell and Buescher. Truex was the first driver to come off of pit road and lined up 12th when the race returned to green on Lap 307.

Just as the field completed a lap, Chastain pushed Almirola coming through the tri-oval and the No. 10 Ford shot off into the grass on the front stretch Almirola, who was running third before the incident, lined up 21st after multiple stops for repairs.

Suarez assumed the lead on the Lap 313 restart but Byron regained the lead two laps later and held off the field to the finish. Blaney, who was running third on the white-flag lap, hit the wall in Turn 2 and finished 17th.

“Thanks to this whole team,” Byron said. “They've done a great job this year. Lots of changes with the Next Gen car. The Chevrolet was awesome there. Worked hard overnight. Had a pretty rough practice and worked hard on it and got it handling well. It was kind of an intermediate style with a little bit of speedway into it, so a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, and super exciting.

“These fans saw one heck of a race. It was certainly long from my seat. Lots of mentally taxing. Just thanks to all the fans for coming out. It's been an awesome weekend. I got a win in the late model too, last night (Hickory Speedway), so it’s been a lot of fun.”

Hendrick scored its third win in the first five races of 2022 with three different drivers--Byron, Larson and Bowman. While Elliott assumed the points lead by seven over Logano.

“It was crazy, for sure," said Elliott, who led 29 laps. "Hopefully, it was fun to watch because I felt like it was wild from my seat. It was very much so like a Daytona or Talladega. Just trying to position yourself there at the right spot and hope it goes your way.”