The NASCAR Cup Series made a giant stride towards completing its 2024 season in Darlington last Sunday. The 75th edition of the Southern 500 marked the end of the regular season and made way for the playoffs. 16 drivers have been shortlisted as the best of the year and will compete against each other for the title. And the first of their battles will go down at Atlanta this coming weekend.
Advertisement
The team haulers will move into the city on Saturday, September 7. Qualifying is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. (All Eastern Times) which will be followed by a press conference. The usual practice session has been terminated considering the superspeedway nature of the track. The main race, Quaker State 400, will fall at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 8.
Another press conference will officially conclude the weekend for the premier series. The Xfinity Series will also be a part of the schedule. Qualifying for the Focused Health 250 has been scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. The main race will fall later that evening at 3:00 p.m. Once winded, two more regular season races will remain for the second tier before it walks into its Round of 12.
Team USA rugby star Alex Sedrick has been given the honor of being the pace car driver for the Cup Series race. The Olympian is fresh off the games in Paris where he helped his team win a bronze medal. The track officials have also announced that the legendary NASCAR hero Bobby Labonte will serve as the grand marshal. An MH-47 Chinook will perform the pre-race flyover.
Ambitions run high ahead of the playoff-opening race in Atlanta
Chase Briscoe’s crew chief Richard Boswell admitted to the press in Darlington that Atlanta presents one of the best opportunities for the driver to get into the Round of 12. He touched upon how good Briscoe was there earlier this year and hoped for a repeat of the performance. He isn’t alone in this line of expectation.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott carries the advantage of going to his home track in Atlanta. He told the press last week, “I’m really looking forward to these last 10 races. Obviously starting in Atlanta is going to be wild. What that race has turned into is nuts.”
Kyle Larson goes into the game as the playoff points leader but is wary of the system’s dangers. He said, “That’s nice, especially when you go to a track as scary as Atlanta. But that could be wiped out in an instant and I could be below the cutline after Atlanta, that’s just the craziness of the system.”
After the first three races of the playoffs, the bottom four drivers will be eliminated. The strategy at this point for every driver is to minimize mistakes. But tracks like Atlanta specialize in counteracting that very intention.
