By Roy J. Akers- Skyviewsports.net
Hampton, Ga. – The drivers know Atlanta is a wildcard race to open the 2024 Cup playoffs. The repave has taken shape several races into returns to the track and teams are adjusting their setups. They are cognizant of the “Big One” and potential for multicar set wrecks. Here is what they said going into the race.
William Byron’s Atlanta Strategy- They Said It…
Is there any advantage to staying in the back of the pack a little bit early on to see how things are developing in the race, or do you want to race up front the whole time?
“Yeah, I mean a lot of the wrecks happen in the middle. So, if you’re in the back, you’re in a bad spot. But yeah, I mean if you’re going to ride – like let’s say you’re really trying to avoid a wreck, you’re going to get way back. But no, I don’t think you will here because track position is important and handling matters. It takes a long time to get back to the front, so you’re going to spend most of your time in this race up in the front, if you can. If you can’t, you might try to save fuel and jump the strategy.”
Tyler Reddick’s thoughts on poor qualifying
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
With how daunting the first round is, how helpful are those Playoff points are that you earned for winning the regular season championship?
“Well our approach doesn’t change for the Playoffs or for the opening round for the Playoffs, but certainly having those Playoff points helps in case it does get a little bit out of hand with these first three races. There is just a lot of uncertainty. I feel like that this is a track that races like a superspeedway – handling comes into play and people, drivers do have issues in the car and spin and crashes happen. If you look at Watkins Glen, just with what the tire could do there, there is uncertainty there, but when I go through these first three, I feel good about the speed that we had. Granted here in the Spring, we wrecked here on lap two and we didn’t learn from that previous race, but we’ve been solid here and just seeing how fast the Toyotas were in Bristol – even though again, we were in an early wreck – I feel good about that one as well. We should have speed here at the first three, so we will just keep the approach that we’ve been having all summer long – just trying to score as many points as possible and stay in the top-five all day, and if we do that, we also, as a bonus, will have a shot at winning a race at the end of the day.”
Josh Berry on taking over for Harrison Burton on the 21 Machine in 2025
HAVE YOU HAD ANY CONVERSATION WITH HARRISON ABOUT TAKING OVER THE 21 NEXT YEAR? “Not specifically. Obviously, I reached out to all of those guys after the Daytona win and congratulated them, but we’re all professionals. We’ve all been doing this stuff a long time and there’s no awkwardness or hard feelings there. Obviously, I’m cheering for those guys. They’re in the Playoffs. They’re focused. I’m staying out of everything they have going on. They’re focused on their Playoff run these next few weeks and I’m gonna let them do their thing.”
Joey Logano on his chances in Atlanta
Penske had one-two-three on the pole for in 2023 and swept 1-2-3. What are your chances to repeat in 2024?
Logano “It won’t be simple or easy. It wasn’t then either. We have the super fast cars at the super speedways. The Ford teams are running really good. We hope to qualify fast in the Mustangs and put them out front. There is no telling what will happen at the (Quaker State 400)) end of this thing. We will try to put ourselves out front.”
Byron on racing at Atlanta vs Daytona and Talladega Superspeedways
How much more do you feel like is in the driver’s hands here at Atlanta, compared to the traditional superspeedway like Daytona and Talladega?
“Yeah, it’s kind of an old school race, in a sense. But I mean, I think we’ve seen it get two and three wide here. I feel like as you get down to the end of the race, it’s going to be two and three wide, just like it is at any other plate race once everybody gets their stuff handling a little better. We just have to see what the offset is from spring to fall here with the track. It looks a little bit grayer walking in, but you never know until you get out there kind of what the handling is like. It seems like every time we watch the Xfinity race here, we get a little bit fooled because their package has less downforce. So just not completely sure what to learn from today, other than try to go out there and have a good qualifying lap.”
Pole Award- Michael McDowell wants to play spoiler
“I don’t think you ever go into it (qualifying) like ‘oh, we got this’,” said McDowell when asked about his confidence going into the qualifying session for Race 1 of the Round of 16 Playoffs. “I knew that we’d have a shot at it. But when Blaney went faster than us that first round, even though it was only by a few hundredths (of a second), you know that it’s going to come down to executing everything perfectly.”
Top 10 Starters in Atlanta
The balance of the top 10 were: Todd Gilliland (No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford); Josh Berry (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford); Austin Cindric (No. 2 Team Penske Ford); Kyle Larson (No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet); Joey Logano (No. 22 Team Penske Ford); Austin Dillon (No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet); William Byron (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet); and Chase Briscoe (No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford).