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HAMPTON, Ga. -- Anyone who has ever made their way into Atlanta's metro area will tell you that driving through the city is an absolutely maddening experience. With its dense volume and bumper-to-bumper nature, Atlanta traffic has become just as famous and synonymous with the area as peaches, hip hop and Coca-Cola. And to sit in it as a motorist is to long to get out of it and get back to putting the gas pedal down -- Or at least to have it all go faster.

Thankfully, the city has an outlet: For the second time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Atlanta for the Quaker State 400 at the newly-renamed EchoPark Speedway, which has quickly become the sport's new action track thanks to the combination of its 2022 reconfiguration and the way its asphalt has since aged. As the track's surface has become rougher and more abrasive, EchoPark Speedway has come to combine superspeedway-style racing with an emphasis on handling and balance, allowing drivers with a good handling car to make bold and daring moves in the draft. The sort of which put on a thrilling race back in February that saw 50 lead changes and ended with Christopher Bell earning his first win of the season.

Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Atlanta

When: Saturday, June 28 at 7 p.m. ET
Where: EchoPark Speedway -- Hampton, Georgia
TV: TNT
Stream: fubo (try for free)

Starting lineup

Joey Logano won the pole at EchoPark Speedway in qualifying on Friday, with both he and Josh Berry running a 30.979 (178.960 MPH) to tie for the fastest speed in time trials. Logano won the tiebreaker based on points, giving the defending Cup champion his first pole of the 2025 season.

  1. #22 - Joey Logano
  2. #21 - Josh Berry
  3. #12 - Ryan Blaney
  4. #2 - Austin Cindric
  5. #60 - Ryan Preece
  6. #6 - Brad Keselowski
  7. #41 - Cole Custer
  8. #38 - Zane Smith
  9. #48 - Alex Bowman
  10. #19 - Chase Briscoe
  11. #5 - Kyle Larson
  12. #3 - Austin Dillon
  13. #17 - Chris Buescher
  14. #10 - Ty Dillon
  15. #9 - Chase Elliott
  16. #54 - Ty Gibbs
  17. #34 - Todd Gilliland
  18. #24 - William Byron
  19. #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
  20. #35 - Riley Herbst (R)
  21. #16 - A.J. Allmendinger
  22. #7 - Justin Haley
  23. #45 - Tyler Reddick
  24. #23 - Bubba Wallace
  25. #01 - Corey LaJoie
  26. #43 - Erik Jones
  27. #4 - Noah Gragson
  28. #20 - Christopher Bell
  29. #8 - Kyle Busch
  30. #77 - Carson Hocevar
  31. #99 - Daniel Suarez
  32. #71 - Michael McDowell
  33. #11 - Denny Hamlin
  34. #1 - Ross Chastain
  35. #88 - Shane van Gisbergen (R)
  36. #87 - Connor Zilisch
  37. #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  38. #78 - B.J. McLeod
  39. #51 - Cody Ware
  40. #66 - David Starr

Storyline to watch

Will the NASCAR In-Season Tournament work? Ricky Stenhouse Jr. weighs in on sport's gamble
Jeff Kerr
Will the NASCAR In-Season Tournament work? Ricky Stenhouse Jr. weighs in on sport's gamble

This weekend's race marks the beginning of NASCAR's first In-Season Challenge, a new five race tournament to add excitement and intrigue to the middle of the season. The top 32 drivers in the Cup Series points standings following Nashville qualified for the In-Season Challenge, with seeding determined over the next three races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono.

The In-Season Challenge is a single elimination tournament, with drivers going head-to-head over the next five races with the highest finishing driver in each matchup advancing. The In-Season Challenge will culminate in a champion's round in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, with the winner of the tournament receiving $1 million.

Here is the seeding and matchups for Round One of the In-Season Challenge this weekend at Atlanta. The drivers listed earlier here make up the left side of the In-Season Challenge bracket, while the latter drivers make up the right side of the bracket.

  • No. 1 Denny Hamlin vs. No. 32 Ty Dillon
  • No. 16 Kyle Busch vs. No. 17 Brad Keselowski
  • No. 8 Alex Bowman vs. No. 25 Joey Logano
  • No. 9 Bubba Wallace vs. No. 24 Daniel Suarez
  • No. 12 John Hunter Nemechek vs. No. 21 Josh Berry
  • No. 5 Chase Elliott vs. No. 28 Austin Dillon
  • No. 13 Ross Chastain vs. No. 20 Erik Jones
  • No. 4 Christopher Bell vs. No. 29 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  • No. 2 Chase Briscoe vs. No. 31 Noah Gragson
  • No. 15 Ryan Preece vs. No. 18 William Byron
  • No. 7 Ryan Blaney vs. No. 26 Carson Hocevar
  • No. 10 Kyle Larson vs. No. 23 Tyler Reddick
  • No. 11 Michael McDowell vs. No. 22 A.J. Allmendinger
  • No. 6 Ty Gibbs vs. No. 27 Justin Haley
  • No. 14 Zane Smith vs. No. 19 Austin Cindric
  • No. 3 Chris Buescher vs. No. 30 Todd Gilliland

NASCAR news of the week

  • The Associated Press reports that former Spire Motorsports co-owner T.J. Puchyr reached an agreement to purchase Rick Ware Racing next season, with plans to expand to a three-car team by 2027. Rick Ware will remain a partner in the team as part of the agreement, with his son Cody Ware continuing as the driver of the family's No. 51. Puchyr, who was a co-founder of Spire Motorsports alongside Jeff Dickerson, sold his shares of Spire last year to TWG Motorsports.
  • Joe Gibbs Racing hired Tab Boyd as the new spotter for Christopher Bell, returning Boyd to the Cup Series spotter's stand shortly after his firing by Hyak Motorsports after he made public comments about allegedly being swindled out of money on the streets of Mexico City. Boyd takes over as Bell's eye in the sky just over a month after longtime spotter Stevie Reeves left the team following the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro.
  • Sports Business Journal reports that Joey Logano was the top driver in NASCAR's new Driver Ambassador Program in the first period of 2025, earning Logano a $1 million bonus for his efforts in interviews, appearancesn and other actions to promote the sport. Kyle Larson finished second in the DAP's first period, followed by Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez.
  • NASCAR penalized Hendrick Motorsports' Xfinity Series team for illegal main frame rail conical receivers found in last weekend's race at Pocono. The team has been fined $40,000, been docked 40 owner points and 10 playoff points, and crew chief Adam Wall has been given a three-race suspension. Hendrick's No. 17 was driven last week by Chase Elliott, who is not eligible for Xfinity points as a full-time Cup Series driver.
  • Larry McClure, the longtime co-owner of the Morgan-McClure Motorsports known for fielding the No. 4 Kodak Chevrolet, died Wednesday at the age of 81. Morgan-McClure's team won 14 times in the Cup Series, and became known as a dominant force on superspeedways in the 1990s with three wins in the Daytona 500 between 1991 and 1995 with drivers Ernie Irvan and Sterling Marlin. Out of Morgan-McClure's 14 wins, nine came on the superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega.
  • A federal judge ruled that twelve of NASCAR's chartered teams will only have to disclose a limited part of their financial records to NASCAR as part of the sport's ongoing antitrust lawsuit, a development which came one day after the 12 teams argued against being required to fully disclose their financials. An attorney for the teams argued that NASCAR's efforts to gain access to every detail relating to team's finances as a "fishing expedition", which would've given the sanctioning body information including driver and team member salaries, research & development expenses, and specific earnings from sponsorship and manufacturer partnerships.

    Per the judge's ruling, teams will reportedly only be required to disclose "annual top-line financial data (total revenue, total costs, and net profits/losses) on an anonymized, average per-car basis for each year dating back to 2014."
Larry McClure, longtime NASCAR car owner with three Daytona 500 wins, dies at 81
Steven Taranto
Larry McClure, longtime NASCAR car owner with three Daytona 500 wins, dies at 81

Pick to win

Austin Cindric (+900) -- While each of the three Team Penske drivers should be placed at the top of the list among contenders at Atlanta, Austin Cindric is especially worth mentioning, as he won the last speedway race at Talladega and could easily have won all three so far this year – Including Atlanta, where he led 47 laps and was going for the win when he got taken out by contact with Kyle Larson.