The Atlanta Motor Speedway, now known as the EchoPark Speedway, joined the ranks of the Daytona International Speedway and the Talladega Speedway as a superspeedway-style race track following its latest repave in 2021. The eighth Cup Series race in its new era went down on Saturday night and it delivered the most basic expectation out of a superspeedway: a big crash.
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Shortly after Stage 2 began in the 260-lap event, a failed push on Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin caused a massive pile-up. He spun his No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE and collected nearly half the field. NASCAR has unofficially counted the number of cars involved in the wreck as 23. If proven, this would be the largest wreck at a track not named Daytona or Talladega.
Even though it has been classified alongside the purebred superspeedways since being repaved, Atlanta was still an intermediate track in many ways. But this wreck has sent a loud message that it is leaning more and more towards the danger-filled front. Some of the most notable drivers involved in the wreck were Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, and Chase Briscoe.
Believing this to be something that fans would love, NASCAR posted a video of the sequence on X and captioned it, “They will be talking about this one for quite some time.” But the responses to the post gave quite the reality check.
One fan said, “This is the only thing SS racing delivers anymore. Literally nothing else. We won’t remember this in two weeks.” Another fan wrote, “This isn’t the flex you think it is.”
They will be talking about this one for quite some time. pic.twitter.com/iVCNGINxDy
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 29, 2025
Such responses from the fans need to be studied. What makes them even trickier is that many drivers seemed to enjoy the entire experience. Chase Elliott, for instance, was visibly thrilled with how things went down after he passed Brad Keselowski for the win on the final lap.
Connor Zilisch, making his third Cup Series start, called it the craziest race he has ever been in. NASCAR is bound to have a difficult time finding a balance between what fans want and what drivers seem to enjoy. Another fan commented, “Not your best look here.” One more doubled down, “This is not a good thing.”
Interestingly, nine of the 11 winners that the ongoing season has produced thus far were involved in this wreck or the Stage 1 wreck that preceded it. At the end of the day, when all the dust settled, it was Elliott who came out with the widest smile. It was his first win of the season and helped him punch his way into the upcoming playoffs.
