Three Nascar Next Gen Ford Mustangs led the field to green for Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 20th, 2022. But their dominance didn’t last for long, as a wild racing event eventually gave the day over to the Chevrolets. Sunday’s race was the first at the reconfigured and repaved Atlanta racetrack, and it produced superspeedway-like action.
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford Mustang, and polesitter Chase Briscoe in the No. 14 Mustang showed the way when the green flag dropped on the freshly reconfigured and repaved Atlanta Motor Speedway. Joey Logano, in the No. 22 Mustang, gave Blaney a big push to the lead. However, they quickly found themselves under fire from the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 of Ross Chastain and eventual winner, the No. 24 Camaro, William Byron, who took the first stage win.
During Stage Two, Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Ford Mustang charged to the front of the field and held the lead with the help of Blaney in the No. 12 Ford. However, late in the stage, Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Camaro set his sights on the Ford duo and eventually got around them for the Stage Two win.
For much of Stage Three, there weren’t any Mustangs in the picture, as the No. 9 Camaro of Chase Elliott and the No. 19 Toyota TRD Camry of Martin Truex Jr. traded the lead back and forth for several laps. Aric Almirola in the No. 10 Mustang took advantage of a debris caution to advance his position and vie for the win. When the green flag dropped, Blaney in the No. 12 Mustang and Byron in the no. 24 Camaro battled back and forth for the lead, while the top 10 cars fell into single file. However, as the laps wound down, once again the Fords faded from the picture at the front of the pack.
It was all about the No. 24 Camaro of William Byron at the front. He did battle with the No. 23 Camry of Bubba Wallace and made the pass with less than 10 laps left in the race. Byron led Christopher Bell in the No. 20 Camry and the No. 1 Camaro of Ross Chastain across the finish line. However, Nascar ruled that Bell had made an illegal pass below the yellow line on the last lap, and took away his second-place finish. Chastain was credited with second and Bell 23rd.
Chris Buescher in the No. 17 Mustang was the highest-finishing Ford, despite being involved in an incident on the last lap. Interestingly, 28 out of 37 race cars were involved in some sort of collision on track.
| Finish | Start | Car Number | Driver | Team | Laps Run | Laps Led | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | 24 | William Byron | Liberty University Chevrolet | 325 | 111 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 2 | 7 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Advent Health Chevrolet | 325 | 42 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 3 | 9 | 45 | Kurt Busch | Monster Energy Toyota | 325 | 4 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 4 | 13 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | CommScope Chevrolet | 325 | 13 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 5 | 33 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet | 325 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 6 | 6 | 9 | Chase Elliott | NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet | 325 | 29 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 7 | 14 | 17 | Chris Buescher | ITsavvy Ford | 325 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 8 | 26 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 325 | 5 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 9 | 3 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 325 | 12 | Ford Mustang |
| 10 | 11 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 325 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 11 | 22 | 31 | Justin Haley | LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet | 325 | 1 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 12 | 24 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Kohler Generators Ford | 325 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 13 | 19 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | McDonald's Toyota | 325 | 3 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 14 | 23 | 43 | Erik Jones | FOCUSfactor Chevrolet | 325 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 15 | 1 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | HighPoint.com Ford | 325 | 5 | Ford Mustang |
| 16 | 36 | 77 | Josh Bilicki(i) | Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet | 325 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 17 | 2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | BodyArmor Ford | 325 | 15 | Ford Mustang |
| 18 | 35 | 15 | David Ragan | Select Blinds Ford | 325 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 19 | 34 | 78 | BJ McLeod | Celsius Ford | 325 | 2 | Ford Mustang |
| 20 | 37 | 44 | * Greg Biffle | Stillman College Chevrolet | 325 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 21 | 8 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Mobil 1 Ford | 325 | 11 | Ford Mustang |
| 22 | 10 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Ford | 325 | 6 | Ford Mustang |
| 23 | 27 | 20 | Christopher Bell | DeWalt Toyota | 325 | 16 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 24 | 29 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Fr8Auctions.com Ford | 321 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 25 | 31 | 21 | Harrison Burton # | DEX Imaging Ford | 321 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 26 | 32 | 51 | Cody Ware | Nurtec ODT Ford | 300 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 27 | 25 | 38 | Todd Gilliland # | Georgia Peanuts Ford | 297 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 28 | 5 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | 3CHI Chevrolet | 245 | 5 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 29 | 15 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | FedEx Ground Toyota | 212 | 1 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 30 | 21 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 212 | 1 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 31 | 28 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Kroger/SweetLeaf Chevrolet | 200 | 22 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 32 | 16 | 2 | Austin Cindric # | Menards/Knauf Ford | 200 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 33 | 4 | 18 | Kyle Busch | M&M's Toyota | 171 | 21 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 34 | 20 | 41 | Cole Custer | Dixie Vodka Ford | 150 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 35 | 17 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Off Road Chevrolet | 101 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 36 | 18 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet | 101 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 37 | 30 | 16 | Noah Gragson(i) | chevyliners.com Chevrolet | 23 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
- # – Rookie
- i – Points ineligible
- * – Part-time driver
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Comments
This is not real racing. I get it that a majority of fans like to see multi-car wrecks but I find it amazing that car owners are willing to put up with this high dollar carnage. They may not want us to call it “plate racing” anymore but that’s essentially what it is. They just use a smaller tapered spacer in lieu of the restrictor plate but the results are still the same. A huge pack of cars that don’t have enough power to get out of each other’s way running around in circles waiting for someone to screw up and cause “The Big One”. As if two tracks like that weren’t already more than enough. Ridiculous.
I use to be a Nascar fan, but after restrictor plates, stage races and points, new car, etc., they killed it for me. So I moved on to F1, but after the disastrous finish of last season, and the introduction of new rules this year, not impressed with F1 either. Guess I will I have to find some other sport that is not tainted to watch, but that is highly unlikely.