The 2018 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was a

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

held on February 25, 2018, at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

Hampton, Georgia Hampton is a city in southwestern Henry County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,987, up from 3,857 at the 2000 census. By 2018 the estimated population was 7,922. "Hampton" mailing addresses outside t ...

. Contested over 325 laps on the 1.54-mile-long (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway, it was the second race of the

2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was the 70th season of NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States, and the 47th modern-era Cup series season. The season began at Daytona International Speedway with the Advance Auto ...

season.

Report

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in

, 20 miles (32 km) south of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. It is a quad-oval track with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a standard oval. In 1994, 46

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

s were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval. The project made the track one of the fastest on the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

circuit.

Entry list

First practice

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.745 seconds and a speed of .

Qualifying

Kyle Busch Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing and part-t ...

scored the pole for the race with a time of 30.024 and a speed of .

Qualifying results

Final practice

Ryan Newman was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 29.989 seconds and a speed of .

Race

Morning rain delayed the start of the race by 2.5 hours, The race was originally to start at 2:00 p.m. but the race was pushed to 1:00 p.m. because of rain, Track drying allowed the start of the race to begin at 3:30 pm EST. Because of track lights they were able to complete the race in its entirety.

Stage 1

Start

Once racing began,

led the field to the green flag, but Ryan Newman took the lead on lap 1 and led 17 laps, but then

took the lead from Newman on lap 18 and led 2 laps, but then

Kevin Harvick Kevin Michael Harvick (born December 8, 1975) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick is the 2014 Cup Series champio ...

took the lead on lap 21 and led 11 laps, but then the first caution of the race flew on lap 32 for a scheduled competition caution for rain, so

retook the lead once the caution came out and led one lap and

took the lead of the race on lap 33. Racing resumed on lap 35.

led 64 laps en route to his stage one victory, finishing 6.5 seconds in front of second place

Clint Bowyer Clinton Edward Bowyer (born May 30, 1979) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and commentator for ''NASCAR on Fox''. He competed in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2005 to 2020, driving for Richard Childress Racing for eight yea ...

. Also in the top five was

Brad Keselowski Bradley Aaron Keselowski (; born February 12, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing, a team he also ...

Martin Truex Jr. Martin Lee Truex Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serie ...

, and

Aric Almirola Aric Michael Almirola (born March 14, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 10 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. A graduate of Hillsborough High School in T ...

. The second caution of the race came out on lap 87 for conclusion of the first stage, and

took the lead on lap 89 and led one lap, but then

took the lead from Truex on lap 90.

Stage 2

Back to green on lap 93.

Kurt Busch Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American professional auto racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. He is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and the ...

took the lead on lap 101 and led 25 laps and

took the lead on lap 126 and led two laps, and

took the lead on lap 127. Caution flew for the third time on lap 160 for a single car spin in turn 2.

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...

got through the second turn and spun out. He was lapped by leader

. Racing restarted on lap 164.

outran

to win the second stage. Following were

Joey Logano Joseph Thomas Logano (born May 24, 1990), is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske, and part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Seri ...

and

. Caution #4 flew on lap 172 for conclusion of the second stage.

Final stage

Back to green on lap 178.

took the lead with 101 laps to go and rain threatened to end the race with about 100 laps to go, as three drivers including

and

wrestled to take the lead. Crew chiefs were concerned about watching the weather. The final stage developed in strategies as the teams of

Denny Hamlin James Dennis Alan Hamlin (born November 18, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver and NASCAR team owner. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He co-owns and oper ...

and

ran in green flag pit stops than other leaders, attempting to use one less stop as the other cars. With 27 laps to go, the fifth caution of the race came out when

Trevor Bayne Trevor Mitchell Bayne (born February 19, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver, dirt racing driver, team owner, and businessman. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 18 Toyota Supra for Joe ...

blew an engine in Turn 2, creating a plume of smoke behind him.

Darrell Wallace Jr. William Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. (born October 8, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 23 Toyota Camry for 23XI Racing and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity ...

slammed in the back of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. which caused damage to Wallace Jr.'s car. Racing restarted with 20 laps to go, and

led 173 of 325 laps and drove on to score his second career Atlanta victory since 2001.

Post race

"To be able to pay tribute to

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr. (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional stock car driver and team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably dri ...

was cool, been waiting a long time to do that" Harvick said.

Stage Results

Stage 1 ''Laps:'' 85 Stage 2 ''Laps:'' 85

Final Stage Results

Stage 3 ''Laps:'' 155

Race statistics

* 24 lead changes among 8 drivers * 5 cautions for 28 laps * Time of race: 3 hours, 29 minutes and 54 seconds * Average speed: * Margin of victory: 2.690 seconds

Media

Television

The

Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 The Ambetter Health 400 is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. William Byron is the defending race winner. This race was originally Atlanta's second race of the season and was run as a late-se ...

was carried by

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

in the United States.

Mike Joy Michael Joy (born November 25, 1949) is an American TV sports announcer and who currently serves as the lap-by-lap voice of Fox Sports' coverage of NASCAR. His color analyst is Clint Bowyer. Counting 2022, Joy has been part of the live broadcast ...

, five-time Atlanta winner

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

and three-time Atlanta winner

Darrell Waltrip Darrell Lee Waltrip (born February 5, 1947) is an American motorsports analyst, author, former national television broadcaster, and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series (known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series dur ...

worked the race from the booth. Pit road was manned by

Jamie Little Jamie Little (born April 9, 1978) is an American pit reporter for NASCAR coverage on Fox. Little is a former pit reporter for ESPN/ABC coverage of the Indy Racing League, although she returned to her pit reporting duty for the 2007 and 2008 In ...

Vince Welch Vincent Welch (born August 4, 1964) is an American radio and television personality most recently for Fox Sports. Until 2022, Welch was the play-by-play commentator for NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and occasionally, a pit reporter for FOX ...

and

Matt Yocum Matthew Yocum (born April 8, 1968) is a long-standing reporter in motorsports, best known for being a NASCAR pit reporter. He works for CBS as a pit reporter to cover the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) as of 2021. He most recently worked in tha ...

Radio

The race was broadcast on radio by the

Performance Racing Network The Performance Racing Network (PRN) is a radio syndication network controlled by Speedway Motorsports (SMI) founded in 1981. PRN airs NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series events held at Speedway Motorsports and Penske Corporation-owned and manag ...

and simulcast on

Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Since 2008, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separate services ...

. Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and

Wendy Venturini Wendy Venturini (born January 30, 1979 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American reporter for the Performance Racing Network (PRN). She works as broadcaster for NASCAR Cup Series races and sometimes as a pit reporter for races on PRN. She had been a ...

called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front stretch. Rob Albright called the race from atop a billboard outside of turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2. Pat Patterson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. On pit road, PRN was manned by Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Jim Noble and Doug Turnbull.

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Manufacturers' Championship standings *Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, 2018 2018 in sports in Georgia (U.S. state) 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series NASCAR races at Atlanta Motor Speedway February 2018 sports events in the United States