Xfinity Series readies for Atlanta, Dash 4 Cash kickoff

Highspeed action this season has the NASCAR Xfinity Series ready for some more intense racing this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway as part of a double-header Saturday that will feature the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race, the Vet Tix Camping World 200, at 1 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) directly followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, the EchoPark 250, at 4:30 p.m. ET (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). As a bonus, this weekend is the kickoff for the Dash 4 Cash initiative for the Xfinity Series, too.

Atlanta Motor Speedway has hosted 28 NASCAR Xfinity Series races dating back to the inaugural event in 1992 (won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon). The 28 Xfinity races have produced 17 different pole winners and 17 different race winners. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch leads the Xfinity Series in poles at Atlanta Motor Speedway with six. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick leads the series in wins (five), top fives (11), top 10s (13) and laps led (973) at the 1.54-mile track. Joe Nemechek is the only former Atlanta race winner (2001) entered in this weekend’s race, and fans will be guaranteed to see a new Xfinity Atlanta pole winner this weekend as none of the former series pole winners are entered.

Atlanta Motor Speedway has the oldest surface the NASCAR Xfinity Series competes on all season, which has made for great racing and has several drivers excited about this weekend’s challenge.

“The old age and grittiness of the surface in Atlanta makes for great racing because the tires fall off and the cars will start slipping and sliding around,” said JR Motorsports Noah Gragson heading into this weekend at Atlanta.

“It’s another one of those places that’s kind of slick and worn out, and I love that type of track,” said Chase Briscoe. “It plays into my dirt-racing background, and it’s just a lot of fun to be on those low-grip tracks.”

This season’s Xfinity race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the EchoPark 250, will be 163 total laps that will be broken up into three stages. The first stage will end on Lap 40, the second stage will end on Lap 80 and the final stage is scheduled to end on Lap 163.

Atlanta Motor Speedway has been the home to four drivers getting their first NASCAR Xfinity Series win – NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon (1992), Mike Skinner (1999), Jamie McMurray (2002) and Carl Edwards (2005). Twenty-six of the 36 drivers entered this weekend are looking for their first series win. Atlanta has also been the track four Xfinity drivers got their first series career pole, including the first pole by a female competitor in NASCAR national series history – Shawna Robinson (March 12, 1994), Tim Bender (1997), Ryan Newman (2001) and Chase Elliott (2014). 

Burton continues breakthrough season

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Harrison Burton is just the second Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender to finish inside the top 10 through the first seven races of the season, joining Carl Edwards – who in 2005 while driving for Roush Fenway Racing also accomplished the feat. Edwards holds the NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie record for the most consecutive top-10 finishes to start their rookie season with nine (2005).

Overall, Burton, driver of the No. 20 Toyota, is the 10th different driver to finish in the top 10 in the opening seven races of the season. Elliott Sadler is the most recent driver to do this in 2018. Sam Ard continues to hold the record for the most consecutive top-10 finishes to start a season with 23 in 1984. 

As for average finish, in the history of the Xfinity Series, only five drivers have produced an average finish under 5.0 in the first seven races of a season and Burton is the only Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender to accomplish the feat.

Rank	Drivers	Avg. Finish	Season
1.	Kyle Busch	2.429	2014
2.	Carl Edwards	3.286	2007
3.	Sam Ard	3.571	1984
4.	Kyle Larson	4.143	2014
t-5.	Harrison Burton	4.571	2020
t-5	Johnny Benson	4.571	1995
7.	Brad Keselowski	4.857	2010

This weekend will be Burton’s series track debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and though Burton is off to a record pace, adding a little extra pressure this weekend is the fact the No. 20 JGR team won this race at Atlanta last season with driver Christopher Bell. Bell dominated the event, leading 142 of the 163 laps (87%). Burton is currently sitting in third place in the series standings, 26 points back from leader Chase Briscoe.

On the bright side, Burton isn’t a complete stranger to Atlanta Motor Speedway, he made his NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series debut at the 1.54-mile facility for Kyle Busch Motorsports last season – starting second and finishing in the top 10 (eighth).

Georgia On My Mind: Sieg and Jones are amped to compete at their home track

Two drivers from Georgia entered in this weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, the EchoPark 250 (4:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), are extra revved-up about racing at their home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway – RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg from Tucker and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones from Atlanta.

The 32-year-old driver Ryan Sieg and his family-owned organization, RSS Racing, are based in Tucker, Georgia, Sieg’s hometown. The team is run by Ryan’s father, Rod Sieg, and the duo have competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2013 when they made their series debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This season Sieg is having a career-best start to the season, in seven races he has gathered two top fives, four top 10s and an average finish of 11.1.

“It definitely makes you feel good to get some top fives early in the season,” said Sieg. “We’re super excited to get to Atlanta and race there.”

Sieg heads to Georgia this weekend ninth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver standings, 85 points back from Chase Briscoe in the standings lead. Sieg has made six series starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway posting a best finish of 11th in last season’s race. 

Atlanta’s own Brandon Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing, much like Sieg, is having a career best start to his season posting a win, three top fives, four top 10s, one pole and an average finish of 13.0. Not to mention, he won at Phoenix by out-racing arguably one of the best to ever compete in the series, his JGR teammate Kyle Busch.

Jones has made four series starts at Atlanta posting an average finish of 11.5; including his career best finish of fourth at the track last season.

Kaulig Racing chasing first win of 2020

After earning a pair of wins last year with then-part-time drivers Ross Chastain (Daytona-2) and AJ Allmendinger (Charlotte Roval), Kaulig Racing has shown that they are in the hunt this year.

Kaulig had a rough start to the season in which Chastain didn’t qualify for the opener at Daytona (but ran in the No. 38 for RSS Racing, instead). But now with Chastain and Justin Haley running full-time, and Allmendinger running occasionally for the outfit, Kaulig has put together 10 top-10 results between the trio of drivers in the opening seven races.

Chastain has five top 10s in the six races he’s contested in Kaulig equipment while Haley has four top 10s in seven races. Allmendinger has made one start – at Bristol last week – and finished in the top 10.

Haley (two) and Chastain (one) have also paired up for three top fives.

Allmendinger will be making his Xfinity Series track debut at Atlanta this weekend, although he has 13 starts at the track in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Haley holds Kaulig’s best finish at Atlanta, an eighth-place result at the track last year.

Stay in the loop on Dash 4 Cash
The Dash 4 Cash program is back for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and this time the schedule is a little different compared to past years due to a revised 2020 schedule as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dash 4 Cash will kick off this weekend with the EchoPark 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 6 (4:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Monday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway was the qualifier race. The top four Xfinity Series regulars in the race qualified for the money in Atlanta.

The first of the four competitors to finish at Atlanta will win the $100,000 bonus. The Atlanta bonus winner and the top three highest finishing drivers (who have declared points in the series) will qualify for the next Dash 4 Cash event at Homestead-Miami Speedway – which will take place in the second of two Xfinity Series races being run in South Florida that weekend.

In addition, Xfinity is planning to make donations in each Dash 4 Cash race market to continue showing their companywide commitment of connecting families, veterans and seniors to necessary digital tools during this difficult time.

Dash 4 Cash Qualifiers for Atlanta: 

• Noah Gragson (No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet) – Gragson has one Xfinity Series start at Atlanta, a ninth-place finish last year. He’s also raced there twice in the Gander Trucks, finishing 14^th in his debut and runner-up in the second race in 2018.
• Chase Briscoe (No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford) – Briscoe has two Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta and put together 15^th-place results in both races. He finished 25^th in his one Gander Trucks race at the track in 2017.
• Brandon Jones (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) – Jones has the most Xfinity Series experience at Atlanta of the four Dash 4 Cash contenders, with four starts. He has an average finish of 11.5 with his best finish coming last year, placing fourth. He has not competed at the track in the Gander Trucks.
• Harrison Burton (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) – While this will be Burton’s Xfinity Series debut at Atlanta, he did finish eighth there last year in the Gander Trucks.

“That’s a big opportunity. There is a lot of things you could do with that money. There is a lot of people in need right now, and a lot of situations that I feel like that could be used for which is a really cool opportunity for me. Obviously, you have to treat your guys with some of that as well if you get it,” said Burton. “No different than any other race, other than it’s a bigger payday in the end, which is obviously amazing, and we are pumped that Xfinity is doing that. The biggest thing for us is to just treat it like any other race and be aggressive and go and try to win.”

NASCAR Xfinity Series, Etc.

Getting to know EchoPark –  Earlier this season, Atlanta Motor Speedway announced EchoPark Automotive (“EchoPark”) as the proud sponsor of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, June 6, 2020 (originally slated for Saturday, March 14, 2020) at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio as part of a double-header with the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series.

“It takes great partners to do what we do, so we’re beyond thrilled to have EchoPark as our title sponsor,” said AMS Executive Vice President and General Manager Brandon Hutchison.

Launched in the fall of 2014, EchoPark currently has nine locations and has transformed how consumers buy pre-owned cars, offering one to four-year old vehicles priced 20-40 percent below new car pricing. All vehicles come with a clean CarFax history report and 190-point inspection.

“We’ve been a member of the Atlanta community for years with several Sonic Automotive dealerships and look forward to sharing our EchoPark experience with guests when we open our doors later this year,” said David Smith, CEO of Sonic Automotive, Inc. and EchoPark Automotive, Inc. “We are excited to be the title sponsor of this NASCAR Xfinity Series race and believe fans will thoroughly enjoy the race weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.”