{"id":53080,"date":"2025-06-27T16:10:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=53080"},"modified":"2025-06-28T16:11:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T21:11:41","slug":"nascar-saturday-atlanta-notebook-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/nascar-saturday-atlanta-notebook-3\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Atlanta Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/a>Chase Briscoe vs. Noah Gragson: A matchup between close friends<\/b><\/p>\n

HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Before last Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series event at Pocono Raceway, Chase Briscoe was part of a small minority of drivers keeping a close eye on potential seeding for the In-Season Challenge, which starts Saturday night with the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Briscoe, driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 22, 2025 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The standings before the Pocono race would have paired Briscoe against fellow Toyota driver Tyler Reddick, a matchup the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota said he would prefer to avoid.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019d go against Tyler if it started this weekend,\u201d Briscoe said at the time. \u201cI\u2019m hoping that changes, because Tyler\u2026 I think he\u2019s seeded like 22nd right now, and he\u2019s one of the top five guys in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it would be a tough Round 1, but honestly, the seeding is tough because at Atlanta anybody could be hard to beat. I feel like at Atlanta you don\u2019t want to go against somebody in your manufacturer (group), because you\u2019re all normally on the same strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Briscoe, of course, claimed his first victory of the season later that afternoon and dramatically altered his position in the In-Season Challenge bracket. With the win, he earned the second seed behind Michigan winner Denny Hamlin and will face Front Row Motorsports\u2019 Noah Gragson in the first round of the inaugural tournament.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Gragson is the favorite driver of Briscoe\u2019s 3-year-old son Brooks.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also one of Briscoe\u2019s closest friends and may prove as formidable an opponent as Reddick would have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I feel like here at a superspeedway, we\u2019ve seen how good the Fords are, and going against a Ford here is certainly a hard challenge,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cThis is one of those race tracks that, no matter what team you are with, you kind of have a shot to go and win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret, right? Noah is not at one of the powerhouse teams, but when he comes here, he can be right here in the mix. Front Row (Motorsports) cars qualified on the front row here last year, so it will be a challenge.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/a>Brad Keselowski isn\u2019t satisfied with RFK\u2019s recent strong performances<\/b><\/p>\n

In last Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway, all three Roush Fenway Keselowski drivers finished in the top 10, with Chris Buescher leading the way in fourth and Ryan Preece and team co-owner Brad Keselowski running eighth and ninth, respectively.<\/p>\n

Two weeks earlier, at Michigan International Speedway, the three RFK drivers all posted top-10 results, with Buescher finishing second to Denny Hamlin, Preece running ninth and Keselowski 10th.<\/p>\n

Despite those recent consistent results, however, Keselowski isn\u2019t satisfied. Given the positions of the three drivers in the standings, there\u2019s no substitute for winning races.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some really strong races where you don\u2019t get the results, and it\u2019s kind of frustrating, but we\u2019re on a good path,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cWe want wins. Strong showings like that are great, and you\u2019d like to think that we\u2019re paying some dues in order to get the wins that we really need, but they\u2019re not wins. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very optimistic that we can turn that into something with the weeks we have in front of us, but until then it doesn\u2019t matter. With the way this format is we don\u2019t get any bonus for top 10s. It\u2019s all about the wins, but still it\u2019s not a bad problem to have. A lot of reasons for optimism. All three teams have shown some bright spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently 30th in the Cup Series standings, Keselowski almost certainly will need a win in the next nine races to qualify for the Playoffs. Buescher and Preece both are on the Playoff bubble\u2014Buescher 38 points above the current cut line and Preece 20 points below.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Christopher Bell is realistic about return to EchoPark Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

In the aftermath of his February victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway\u2014before the name change to EchoPark Speedway\u2014Christopher Bell was first to admit the win was unexpected.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, Atlanta Motor Speedway was not one we had circled,\u201d Bell said after ending a Joe Gibbs Racing dry spell that dated to June 2024 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

The Atlanta win was the first of three straight for the driver of the No. 20 Toyota, who followed with triumphs at the Circuit of the Americas road course and Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

Bell hasn\u2019t won since the race in Phoenix, and he\u2019s not brimming with confidence as the NASCAR Cup Series returns to EchoPark for Saturday night\u2019s Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cAtlanta\u2019s going to be tough,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to pick a favorite going through Atlanta with it being a superspeedway-style race. I think you\u2019re going to see a lot of upsets in week one of the in-season tournament. Get through that one and see who\u2019s left standing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m as optimistic as you can get. Atlanta\u2014you\u2019re going to Vegas. So, we\u2019ll go roll the dice and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell is seeded fourth in the In-Season Challenge and will face No. 29 seed Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the opening round at the 1.54-mile speedway. It\u2019s one of the first round\u2019s most intriguing matchups, given that Stenhouse is at his best on drafting tracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  Chase Briscoe vs. Noah Gragson: A matchup between close friends HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Before last Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series event at Pocono Raceway, Chase Briscoe was part of a small minority of drivers keeping a close eye on potential seeding for the In-Season Challenge, which starts Saturday night with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":53021,"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":[52,1107,16],"class_list":["post-53080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-atlanta-motor-speedway","tag-echopark-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2221556576-scaled.jpg?fit=1707%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dO8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53080","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=53080"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53096,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53080\/revisions\/53096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}