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Nascar Mustangs Shine Early But Lose Late At 2022 Atlanta Race: Video

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.

Nascar Results, Atlanta Motor Speedway, March 20th, 2022
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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Alexandra is a Colorado-based journalist with a passion for all things involving horsepower, be it automotive or equestrian.

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Comments

  1. blksn8k

    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.

    Reply
  2. Michael

    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.

    Reply

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