Why Several NASCAR Stars Are Desperate for Wins as Cup Series Takes on Atlanta

• The lucky 13 drivers already in the Playoffs by virtue of winning include five first-time winners.

• Among the notables still winless this year and under increasing pressure each weekend include former champions Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Brad Keselowski.

• Atlanta is the 19th race of the 26-race regular season and the last on a mile-and-a-half venue.

NASCAR returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend with a two-race Saturday/Sunday program that likely will create even more Playoff pressure for Cup Series drivers. Thirteen of the 16 Playoff spots have been claimed, leaving three spots available over the next eight races.

The lucky 13 already in the Playoffs by virtue of winning include five first-time winners: Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, and Tyler Reddick. The others are veterans Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, and Kurt Busch.

Among the notables still winless this year and under increasing pressure each weekend: former champions Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Brad Keselowski, plus frequent front-runners Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon, and Michael McDowell.

Atlanta is the 19th race of the 26-race regular season and the last on a “traditional” mile-and-a-half venue. After this weekend, teams will finish up the “regular season” on consecutive weekends at Loudon, N.H., Pocono, Pa., the Indianapolis road course, Michigan, Richmond, Va., Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Daytona Beach.

The four-round, 10-race Playoffs open Sept. 4 at Darlington, S.C. It continues non-stop at Kansas City, Bristol, Tenn., Forth Worth, Talladega, Ala., Charlotte, Las Vegas, Homestead, Fla., and Martinsville, Va. before the Nov. 4-5-6 championship weekend at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Az.

This weekend’s Quaker State 400 marks the first time this year that NASCAR has returned to a venue for the second time. The 62-year-old track had a facelift in the offseason, narrowing the racing surface and increasing the turn banking to 28 degrees. The spring race set track records with 20 different leaders, 46 lead changes, and 141 green flag passes for the lead.

Last year wasn’t the first time the speedway in Hampton, Ga., well south of downtown, has been redesigned. It was re-measured from 1.50 to 1.54 miles in the spring of 1970 and renamed from Atlanta International Raceway to Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1990, when the late Bruton Smith took ownership. It’s frontstretch/backstretch layout was reversed and the track was reconfigured to a 1.54-mile quad-oval between the two races in 1997.

Chastain, runner-up to Byron in the spring, is expecting another high-speed, close-quarters, down-to-the-wire race now that teams have experience with the Next Gen car on the “new” track that is radically different from the “old” one.

“It’s full superspeedway style of racing,” said Chastain. “Think of Daytona Beach and Talladega. You’re going to fight the handling because the corners are so much tighter than those two places. This is a place you’ll still need to handle well. Without practice, we need to handle good or we’ll be in trouble. If that’s the case, we’ll be swinging at it (frequent adjustments) in the race.”

Teams won’t get any practice time this weekend. Their first laps on the 1.52-mile track will be in Saturday qualifying from 11:35 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET.

The Xfinity Series is also at AMS for a 163-lap, 251-mile race at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday and the Camping World Truck Series has a 67-lap, 151-mile race on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.