The regular season ended in dramatic fashion at Darlington, with Chase Briscoe securing his first win of the season and punching his playoff ticket in the process. Now, NASCAR begins the postseason at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the 2024 Quaker State 400.
Atlanta provided one of the wildest finishes of the season earlier this year as Daniel Suarez narrowly claimed a victory in a photo finish. Suarez will be looking to repeat to advance to the next round while the rest of the field also hopes to taste victory at AMS. Will Sunday’s winner be a playoff driver or someone else?
Let’s start by diving into the playoff picture.
Playoff Picture Heading Into 2024 Quaker State 400
- Kyle Larson +35
- Christopher Bell +27
- Tyler Reddick +23
- William Byron +17
- Ryan Blaney + 13
- Denny Hamlin +10
- Chase Elliott +9
- Brad Keselowski +3
- Joey Logano +2
- Austin Cindric +2
- Daniel Suarez +1
- Alex Bowman +0
- Chase Briscoe +0
- Harrison Burton +0
- Ty Gibbs -1
- Martin Truex Jr. -1
The start to the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs is an extremely stressful one as Atlanta Motor Speedway is a drafting-style track where chaos reigns supreme and anyone can find themselves in Victory Lane.
After this, NASCAR heads to Watkins Glen and Bristol where surprise results are a little less common.
The #NASCARPlayoffs are ready to roar into @ATLMotorSpdwy. 🔊 pic.twitter.com/4AI2TwIJCX
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 6, 2024
While Harrison Burton’s Daytona win was an emotional triumph that I enjoyed seeing, I don’t see the #21 posing any real threat in the playoffs and I expect him to be among the first group of four eliminated. After Burton, it gets a little more difficult but I think Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman, and Ty Gibbs join Burton in elimination.
Bowman and Cindric have consistently run behind their teammates all year and while Gibbs has shown flashes, he’s faded a bit late in the season. Suarez and Briscoe could easily find themselves below the cutline as well but I think Atlanta and Watkins Glen favor Suarez and Briscoe has shown speed in the #14 at various points throughout the year.
2024 Quaker State 400 Entry List
It’s exciting to see Shane Van Gisbergen behind the wheel of a Cup car on an oval once again as he looks to garner more experience ahead of making the jump up from Xfinity. He’ll be behind the wheel of the #16 for Kaulig Racing for the second straight week.
Part-timers BJ McLeod and JJ Yeley will also join the field for Sunday’s race. We might see a little more variety next week at the Glen with it being a road course.
2024 Quaker State 400 Race Odds and Predictions
As always with drafting style tracks, your guess for the winner here will likely be as good as mine. Atlanta differs from Daytona and Talladega as it is only 1.5 miles around as opposed to 2.5 miles. Additionally, I talked about this earlier in the year but I think as the surface wears down this track will race more and more like a true 1.5-mile track. For now, though it’s still pack racing and close finishes.
Ryan Blaney represents the favorite at +850 with Kyle Busch next in line at +1000. Kyle Larson and William Byron trail just behind Busch at +1100 each.
The spring Atlanta winner, Daniel Suarez, comes in at +2000.
Big moves in big moments.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 5, 2024
That's what @ATLMotorSpdwy is all about. pic.twitter.com/pbBp3a0Vsa
I’m going to go with a different Chevrolet driver for my prediction, however. I’m taking the hometown kid Chase Elliott at +1400. The Georgia native has won at Atlanta before and will look to return to Victory Lane once more.
Ryan Blaney +330 as top Ford also feels like a great pick, though again, anything can happen.
Be sure to check out the schedule below so you don’t miss any on-track action from the weekend.
Saturday 09/07
NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying – 10:00 a.m. CT on USA
NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – 11:30 a.m. CT on USA
Focused Health 250 (NASCAR Xfinity Series) – 2:00 p.m. CT on USA
Sunday 09/08
Quaker State 400 (NASCAR Cup Series) – 2:00 p.m. CT on USA
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