HAMPTON, Ga.: It’s unusual for the NASCAR Cup Series to run six races to start a season without seeing a repeat winner.
Not since 2014, when Kevin Harvick became the first multiple winner in the eighth event of the season, has the series produced six different winners in the first six races.
Last year, there were two duplicate winners in the first six races—Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick. That was the harbinger of a spectacular season for those two drivers, who combined to win 16 of the 36 points races.
Five different drivers have taken checkered flags to start the 2021 season, and that streak is likely to continue at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Folds of honor QuikTrip 500 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Harvick and Keselowski have dominated Atlanta in the recent past, each winning two of the last four events. Neither driver has won a race so far this season. Neither has Keselowski’s Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano, who won two of the first four races in 2020.
And though two of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates—William Byron and Kyle Larson—already have tasted victory this year, reigning champion Chase Elliott has not. Current Cup Series leader Hamlin, a seven-time winner in 2020, likewise has yet to visit Victory Lane.
In fact, the top three drivers in the point standings—Hamlin, Keselowski and Logano—all have achieved their current ranks without winning.
Atlanta Motor Speedway hasn’t been repaved since 1997, and the old, abrasive asphalt at the 1.54-mile track favors veteran drivers who can manage their equipment and preserve tire life over the course of a fuel run.
“Atlanta is definitely a tough place,” says Elliott, who finished eighth in last year’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. “The race track has a lot of wear to it—the surface is one of the oldest that we go to—so finding grip is a challenge. The track has a lot of character and is very line-sensitive to where you can and can’t run to find that.
“You really have to hit your marks in Atlanta to have success. I think the track conditions this weekend will be pretty similar to last year in a lot of ways. The No. 9 team and I have talked a lot about last year’s event. That’s how we’re going about the setup for Sunday is from last year and taking things away from how we did—what we did good and what we can improve on.”
If form holds, Elliott will have to improve to beat Harvick, who led 151 of the 325 laps last year, including the final 55 circuits during a 108-lap green-flag run to the finish.
Given Harvick’s strength at Atlanta—not to mention the sizable group of as-yet-winless powerhouse drivers who will start Sunday’s race—it’s likely the streak of different winners will reach six this weekend
Source: Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
