Week two of the series takes us to Atlanta for a race that began in 1960 when Fireball Roberts in car #22 took home the prize.
This race was originally run as a late season event for most of its history. From 1987 until 2001, the race was scheduled in November as the final race of the NASCAR season. From 2002 until 2008, the race was moved to October in favor of awarding the final race weekend to Homestead-Miami Speedway and became part of what is now the NASCAR Chase for the Championship in 2004.
In 2009, Atlanta swapped fall race dates with Auto Club Speedway and the race was moved to Labor Day weekend. From 2011 until now, this has been Atlanta's only race date and was moved to week two right after the Daytona 500.
Just as it was last week in Daytona the new rule changes make this a hard race to figure.
There are some things to look for, however, before deciding who to pick to win the race.
Kevin Harvick is the defending champ and the 4-1 favorite to win, Sunday. It’s not easy to go back-to-back, though. Jimmie Johnson did it in 2015 and 2016, but before that you have to go back to Bobby Labonte, who won here times in four years from 1996-99.
So Harvick, despite being the favorite, is bucking the odds just a bit.
Brad Keselowski, who won the race in 2017 and finished second to Harvick is 2018, was one of my top picks. But the 35-year-old Michigan native in car #2 has been battling the flu all week and could be replaced by Austin Cindric. So we’ll stay away from that.
Chevrolet has the most wins in the series with 22, five more than Ford. The Hendrick racing team also leads with nine wins, two more than Joe Gibbs’ seven wins.
Talking to my two “experts’’ Scott “Tobacco Road’’ Baker and Mike “Left Turn’’ Sweeney brought two separate opinions.
“TR’’ Baker is all about Gibbs’ Toyota team, while “LT’’ Sweeney likes Clint Bowyer (Ford) and Kyle Larson (Chevy). We’re going to go with a little bit of both.
Chase Elliott (10-1) — The 23-year-old Georgia native has always done well in his home state. He finished in the top 10 all three times he’s raced in Atlanta. And just might get his first win there Sunday. He’s part of the Hendrick team that also knows how to win in ATL. And at 10-1 is a pretty good price.
Martin Truex Jr. (8-1) — The Jersey boy finished fifth in Atlanta last year and has had six top eight finishes, so he knows the track. He had a disappointing Daytona last week and could make amends Sunday. He comes out of the Gibbs’ team that “TR’’ touted.
Clint Bowyer (15-1) — The 39-year-old from Kansas finished third last year in Atlanta and had a very good week here. He’s in the third position in car #14 and if “LT’’ likes him, you can’t leave him out.
Longshot Play: Eric Jones (20-1)