Chase Elliott has the most NASCAR Cup Series wins of any driver in 2022.
Elliott took the lead from Corey Lajoie with less than two laps to go and was in first place when LaJoie hit the wall and caused a big crash on the final lap to take his third win of the season.
Elliott has won two of the last three Cup Series races and finished second a week ago at Road America. He deftly passed LaJoie just after crossing the start/finish line with two laps to go and LaJoie hit the wall while making a desperate move on the final lap as Elliott blocked his attempt.
LaJoie was looking for the first Cup Series win of his career in hopes of making the playoffs for the first time. He had the lead heading into the final restart of the race with three laps to go, but was no match for Elliott for the final three miles.
The win is the Georgia native’s first in Atlanta.
“Winning at home is very important for any race car driver,” Elliott said.
Elliott led 97 of the race’s 260 laps and was easily one of the strongest drivers throughout the race. He lamented finishing second to Tyler Reddick a week ago at Road America a week ago after Reddick passed him and left on the final stage. Had Elliott retained the lead at Road America, he would be looking at the first three-game winning streak of his career.
LaJoie may not have rocked the playoff field
There is no guarantee that LaJoie would have qualified for the playoffs with a victory Sunday in Atlanta.
A LaJoie victory would have been a huge upset. He drives for backmarker Spire Motorsports, a team that spends exponentially more time outside the top 25 than in the top five. And LaJoie entered Sunday’s race 31st in the points standings.
This is the key. Drivers can automatically qualify for the Cup Series playoffs with a win if they are in the top 30 in points. But LaJoie was 34 points behind 30th entering Atlanta and likely still would have been outside the top 30 even with a win.
If he doesn’t break into the top 30 by the regular season finale at Daytona, he won’t be eligible for the playoffs. Now that Elliott has taken his third win of the season, there are still 13 winners from the first 19 races of the season. Four winless drivers would need to win in the next seven races for a driver with a win to miss the 16-driver playoff field.
Ross Chastain continues to make contact
Ross Chastain found himself in the middle of two incidents on Sunday afternoon. And he still finished second behind Elliott.
Martin Truex Jr. lost Chastain’s bumper on the second leg of the race after the two riders contacted each other. It wasn’t easy to blame Chastain for this sinking. While he wasn’t directly lined up behind Truex, he also wasn’t near Truex’s bumper until Truex came loose and had to get off the gas.
The second incident, however, could come back to cost Chastain in the playoffs. He slid into Denny Hamlin with less than 10 laps to go and spun Hamlin. It was the second time in six weeks that Chastain had made contact with Hamlin as Hamlin had sworn revenge on Chastain after the first incident in St. Louis.
It’s no secret that Cup Series drivers and teams aren’t thrilled with Chastain’s aggressive ride. And they’re not going to cut him any slack in the playoffs. Chastain will likely be bumped and pushed around in the final 10 races of the season, so it’s hard to see him as a legitimate title contender. While Chastain and his Trackhouse team showed enough speed to compete for the Cup Series title, it’s far too easy to watch him take aggression from the other drivers in the playoffs.
Truex still looking for his first victory in 2022
Martin Truex Jr. looked like he could get his first win of the season until he pulled back after contact with LaJoie as he raced for the lead just after the final restart.
Truex fell from second to 11th after contact. He remains the second driver without a win in the points standings after Ryan Blaney.
Blaney finished fifth after entering the race second in the points standings behind Elliott.
Atlanta as a made-for-TV track
Sunday attendance in Atlanta was miserable. It was generous to say that the stands were half full on an 85 degree day in the metro area. Why?
It’s no secret that it’s hot in the southeast in the summer. NBC and NASCAR knew that with a 3 p.m. start time on Sunday afternoon. It could easily have been 10 degrees or warmer on Sunday. And it’s easy to see why fans might have been hesitant to go to the race because there was a chance of rain.
But did that chance of rain – it never rained – and summer highs really keep people off the trail? Or is there just not enough local interest in Atlanta?
The track has been reconfigured ahead of the 2022 season to produce pack races like Daytona and Talladega. This reconfiguration helped Atlanta score a second Cup Series race this season despite longstanding attendance struggles at its only annual race in recent years.
While the stands were fuller than they were on Sunday for the debut of the reconfigured track in March, there were still plenty of seats available. And it’s easy to wonder if Atlanta is the first made-for-TV reconfiguration in the modern era of NASCAR.
Otherwise, why would the track have been given a second race date after consistently failing to sell out its only race of the year? It’s no secret that far more people watch NASCAR on TV than in person on a weekly basis, and the ratings for races at Talladega and Daytona tend to be higher than for others. tracks.
Any increase in viewers nullifies Atlanta’s empty stands. And it’s hard to see how executives at NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports didn’t have that in mind when they thought about redesigning Atlanta. We’ll find out over the next few years if this increase actually happens, or if NASCAR fans aren’t too keen on adding a track designed to create pack races to the schedule.
Race results
1. Chase Elliott
2.Ross Chastain
3. Austin Cindric
4. Erik Jones
5.Ryan Blaney
6. Daniel Suarez
7. Justin Haley
8. Aric Almirola
9. Cole Custer
10. Harrison Burton
11. Martin Truex Jr.
12. Kevin Harvick
13. Kyle Larson
14. Bubba Wallace
15. Michael McDowell
16. Chasing Briscoe
17. Todd Gilliland
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Christopher Bell
20. Kyle Busch
21. Corey The Joy
22. Kurt Busch
23. Cody Ware
24. Landon Cassil
25. Denny Hamlin
26. Joey Logan
27. Garrett Smithley
28. Ty Dillon
29. Tyler Red Dick
30. William Byron
31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
32. Alex Bowman
33. Chris Buescher
34. Noah Gragson
35. Austin Dillon
36. BJ McLeod
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