{"id":41769,"date":"2023-03-17T13:45:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T18:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=41769"},"modified":"2023-03-20T20:30:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T01:30:01","slug":"nascar-weekend-notebook-atlanta-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/17\/nascar-weekend-notebook-atlanta-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Notebook: Atlanta Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Autotrader Ford, poses for photos after winning the pole award
during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 18, 2023 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/b>By Reid Spencer <\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Joey Logano leads Ford dominance in NASCAR Cup qualifying at Atlanta <\/b><\/p>\n

HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Joey Logano added another memory at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, and seven other Ford drivers followed behind him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Autotrader Ford, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 18, 2023 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Covering the 1.540-mile distance in 31.256 seconds (177.374 mph), Logano won the pole for Sunday\u2019s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and led a parade of eight Ford drivers into the top eight starting positions. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the first time since 1965 at Beltsville (Md.) that Fords have qualified for the top eight spots on the grid. Saturday\u2019s result is even more impressive, given that no Chevrolets attempted to qualify for the Beltsville race, where Fords took positions one through 10. <\/p>\n

Logano\u2019s pole-winning run was .006 seconds faster than that of Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric (177.340 mph). Ryan Blaney qualified third at 177.215 mph, giving Penske the second 1-2-3 qualifying effort in the organization\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski was fourth fastest, followed by Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe. Kyle Larson (176.213 mph) was ninth in the fastest Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Autotrader Ford, waits on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 18, 2023 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Christopher Bell was the only Toyota driver to qualify for the final round, but he spun during his money lap and failed to post a time. <\/p>\n

The Busch Light Pole Award was Logano\u2019s second of the season, second at Atlanta (but first with NASCAR\u2019s superspeedway competition package) and 28th<\/sup> of his career. Inevitably, Logano\u2019s success on the big track brought back memories of his early days in racing, when he competed in Legends cars at Atlanta. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been on the front row at a superspeedway\u2014forget a pole,\u201d Logano said. \u201cDoing it here at Atlanta for me is special. So many memories here. I lived up in one of those condos for five years and raced Legends cars out here for six years. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust the memories of walking into Victory Lane a minute ago to get the pole award and thinking about driving my Legend car in there, with my dad and how cool that was, and always dreaming about being on the big track when I was running the quarter-mile all the time\u2026 <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I try to keep those thoughts up front in my mind.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski gives new short-track package high marks for \u201chard to drive\u201d<\/b><\/span> <\/b><\/p>\n

Owner\/driver Brad Keselowski firmly believes NASCAR Cup Series cars should be difficult to drive, and from his experience last Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, he feels NASCAR accomplished that objective with the new competition package for short tracks and road courses. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed the race last week from the perspective of how hard the car was to drive,\u201d Keselowski said Saturday morning before Cup qualifying at Atlanta. \u201cI thought that was a massive gain here in the Cup Series. When I first came in the Cup Series these were some of the hardest cars I ever drove in my life. In fact, they were the hardest car I\u2019d ever driven in my life.   <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou would come off the corners and they would wiggle and they would wobble, and you would really be out of control and you\u2019d spin the tires and then drive back down into the next corner and you\u2019d about back it into the fence. And then over time the cars have gotten easier to drive. I think some of that was gaining experience as a driver, but the reality is that most of it was the cars over time developing into a series where they were easier to drive by the specs that NASCAR allowed us to utilize.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

After racing at Phoenix, however, Keselowski applauded the new rules package, which features significantly reduced downforce. The most obvious change is the rear spoiler, with its height halved from four inches to two. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe car that we raced last week, if I put a local short track vet in it from anywhere in America, he would probably have struggled to drive,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cHe would probably spin out on corner exit. He would probably have a handful of problems with it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe cars that we had with the downforce package before that, I feel like I could take any local short track driver in the country, put them in there and they\u2019d probably get in a good car and run pretty well. That\u2019s not what we want at this level. That\u2019s not what I think is indicative of what our fans and our sport has as an interest for what drivers should be at this level. So, I think in that sense, last week was a significant gain that we can hang our hat on.\u201d  <\/span> <\/p>\n

Penalties won\u2019t change William Byron\u2019s approach to competition <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

William Byron, winner of the last two NASCAR Cup Series races, doesn\u2019t think the penalties he suffered for his team\u2019s unauthorized modifications to the hood louvers on his No. 24 Chevrolet will have an effect on the way he races. <\/span><\/p>\n

True, Byron lost 100 driver championship points and 10 of the 13 Playoff points he accumulated in his two wins at Las Vegas and Phoenix\u2014pending Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 appeal\u2014but his early success hasn\u2019t dulled his motivation to win more races.   <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, certainly the points is something that we just adjust to,\u201d Byron said. \u201cIt\u2019s early in the season. The cars are extremely fast. We obviously had the pace last week to win regardless, so I think that\u2019s going to continue. I think with that pace, we\u2019re just going to use that to our advantage to make up points.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t intend on really relaxing after a win anyways this year. So I think, going into the next however many weeks that we\u2019ve got until the playoffs, we\u2019re going to push really hard. I think we\u2019re just going to give it everything, every week. We had a good week of preparation; lots of time in the sim (simulator), lots of time at the shop. Just excited for all of that to continue.\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   By Reid Spencer  NASCAR Wire Service Joey Logano leads Ford dominance in NASCAR Cup qualifying at Atlanta  HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Joey Logano added another memory at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, and seven other Ford drivers followed behind him. Covering the 1.540-mile distance in 31.256 seconds (177.374 mph), Logano won the pole for Sunday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":41816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[52,16],"class_list":["post-41769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-atlanta-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1474385904-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1708&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-aRH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41818,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41769\/revisions\/41818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}