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The RAPTOR King of Tough 250 is a
NASCAR Xfinity Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...
stock car race Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It or ...
held 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 ...
in
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 ...
, a few miles 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 ...
. This race had been Atlanta's lone Busch/Nationwide/Xfinity Series date until 2021 when a second race was added in July. Although it has been shuffled around the schedule several times, most years, it has been held at the beginning of the season in February or March.


History

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 ...
, Mike Skinner,
Jamie McMurray James Christopher McMurray (born June 3, 1976), nicknamed Jamie Mac, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and currently an analyst for ''Fox NASCAR''. He raced in the NASCAR Cup Series on a full-time basis from 2003 to 2018 b ...
, and
Carl Edwards Carl Michael Edwards II (born August 15, 1979) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Prior to that, he drove the No. 9 ...
have gotten their first series wins in this race. Following the transfer of the season ending Cup series race from Atlanta to Homestead-Miami Speedway after the 2001 season (although due to the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
, the 2001 Atlanta fall race was the second-to-last race of the season when the race at New Hampshire was moved from September to November as the last race of the season), the then 312-mile race was moved to Atlanta's fall race weekend where it remained until Aaron's Rental, who was sponsoring the race, chose instead to sponsor the lone Busch event at Talladega. The race gained sponsorship from
GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the ten ...
through its
Nicorette Nicorette is the brand name of a number of products for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) that contain nicotine polacrilex. Developed in the late 1970s in Sweden by in the form of a chewing gum, Nicorette was the first nicotine replacement p ...
brand and moved back to its traditional spring date. In September 2008,
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 ...
officials announced that Nicorette would not renew its corporate sponsorship for race after the
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
season. On October 26, 2008 it was announced that
Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
's deodorant brand
Degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...
will take over sponsorship of this race starting in
2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
. It was later announced that the now-Degree V12 300 would be moving to September as part of the latest round of
NASCAR realignment "NASCAR realignment" refers to changes in the schedule of the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. First Cup schedule in 1949 The first season in 1949 consists of 8 races, exclusively on dirt tracks. The ...
, which resulted in the Pep Boys Auto 500, the
AMP Energy 500 The YellaWood 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama, hosting an event in the NASCAR playoffs. The race is one of four NASCAR Cup Series races currently run with tapered spacers, the others ...
at Talladega, and the
Pepsi 500 The Pepsi Max 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held annually at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. It was the second of two Sprint Cup Series races held at the Auto Club Speedway (the other being the Auto Club 500) a ...
at
Fontana Fontana may refer to: Places Italy *Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone *Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone *Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino *Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi * ...
/Auto Club Speedway trading places. The Degree V12 300 took the place of the Camping World RV Service 300 on NASCAR's Labor Day weekend race schedule and serves as an accompanying race to the AdvoCare 500. In 2015, the Xfinity race at Atlanta moved along with the Cup race (
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 ...
) to the second weekend of the season and ran as a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon along with the Truck Series. The race was also reduced to 250 miles in order to make the race a doubleheader on the same day.
EchoPark Automotive Sonic Automotive is a Fortune 500 company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the fifth largest automotive retailer in the United States as measured by total revenues. The company was founded by O Bruton Smith and completed its initial p ...
became the title sponsor of the race in 2020, replacing
Rinnai Rinnai Corporation is a Japanese multinational company based in Nagoya, Japan, that manufactures gas appliances, including energy-efficient tankless water heaters, home heating appliances, kitchen appliances, gas clothes dryers and commercial- ...
. That year, the race had been moved from being in February and the second race of the season and the first race before the three-race west coast swing to March and as the fifth race of the season as the first race after the west coast swing. However, the race was moved again from March to June due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. In 2021, the race returned to March. In 2022, Nalley Automotive Group replaced EchoPark as the title sponsor and the new name of the race was the Nalley Cars 250. In 2023, RAPTOR Coatings replaced Nalley as the title sponsor and the new name of the race was the RAPTOR King of Tough 250.


Past winners


Notes

*1993: Race postponed from March due to
blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling b ...
. *2004, 2008 and 2022: Races extended due to NASCAR overtime. *2020: Race postponed from March 14 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.


Track length notes

*1992-1997: 1.522 mile true oval *1998-present: 1.54 mile quad-oval


Multiple winners (drivers)


Multiple winners (teams)


Manufacturer wins


References


External links

*
"What's Behind The Aaron's 312?"
{{NASCAR Xfinity Series races, state=collapsed 1992 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) NASCAR Xfinity Series races Recurring sporting events established in 1992 Annual sporting events in the United States