Event statistics
following the second race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season,
the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton,
Georgia.
Kevin Harvick
dominated the race, leading 181 laps for his first victory of the season and
38th of his career. Harvick won the race’s first stage, and led the most laps
at Atlanta for the fifth consecutive event.
Folds of Honor QuikTrip
500
Atlanta Motor Speedway –
Hampton, Georgia
- Winner
(starting position): Kevin Harvick (3rd)
- Top Five: Kevin
Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr.
- Full
Results: Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Martin
Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott,
Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Ricky
Stenhouse Jr., Paul Menard, William Byron, Jamie McMurray, Alex Bowman, Kasey
Kahne, Ryan Newman, David Ragan, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Ty Dillon,
Jimmie Johnson, Cole Whitt, A.J. Allmendinger, Ross Chastain, Matt DiBenedetto,
Darrel Wallace Jr., Harrison Rhodes, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Trevor Bayne, Gray
Gaulding
- Laps
Completed: 325
- Race Leaders:
8
- Laps Led: Kevin
Harvick (181), Kurt Busch (52), Brad Keselowski (38), Denny Hamlin (26), Ryan
Newman (17), Kyle Busch (9), Martin Truex Jr. (1), Joey Logano (1)
- Pole Position: Kyle Busch (184.652 mph; 30.024 seconds)
- Hard
Charger: Martin Truex Jr. (+30; 35th to 5th)
- Margin of
Victory: 2.690 seconds
- Car Count: 36
- Cars
Entered: 36
- Cars
Running at Finish: 34 (of 36; or 94 percent of the field)
- Drivers to
Finish on Lead Lap: 13
- Cautions: 5
for 28 laps
- Average
Speed: 143.068 mph
- Lead
Changes: 24
- Stage
Winners: Kevin Harvick (1), Brad Keselowski (2)
- Weather at
Start of Race: 66 degrees Fahrenheit, cloudy, winds SW 5 mph
- Weather at
End of Race: 63 degrees Fahrenheit, cloudy, winds W 1 mph
-
Manufacturer Breakdown: Chevrolet (17); Ford (13); Toyota (6)
Notes of Interest – Race/Weekend
Recap
- This is
Kevin Harvick’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season
and the 38th of his career. It marks his second at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
- Harvick led
a race-high 181 laps in the race, and has now led 915 laps in the last five
races at Atlanta (out of 1630; 56.1 percent of total laps contested). He has
led the most laps in each of the last five races at Atlanta, but this is his
first victory.
- This is the
second consecutive race that Harvick has won from the third starting position
and third all-time. He also won from the third position in the 2014 fall race
at ISM Raceway (Phoenix) and the 2017 fall race at Texas Motor Speedway.
- This marks
the first time any driver has won from third at Atlanta since the 2007 spring
race, won by Jimmie Johnson.
- Harvick has
now won races in each of the last nine Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series
seasons.
- This is
Harvick’s 15th victory with Stewart Haas Racing. He is one victory behind team
owner Tony Stewart (16) for most team victories. Stewart Haas Racing now has 40
MENSC wins.
- Harvick
becomes the second driver to win the NASCAR Cup Series race and NASCAR Xfinity
Series race at Atlanta in the same weekend. Carl Edwards won both races in
2005.
- This is
Harvick’s eighth victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway across all three national
NASCAR series. He owns two in the Cup Series, five in the Xfinity Series and
one in the Camping World Truck Series. He now has 99 NASCAR national series
wins (38 MENSC; 47 NXS; and 14 NCWTS).
- Ford swept
the top three positions, with Brad Keselowski second and Clint Bowyer third. It
marked the first time since last year’s race at Sonoma Raceway that Ford swept
the top three positions, and the first race on an oval since spring race at
Bristol Motor Speedway in 2014.
- Defending
race winner Brad Keselowski finished second after leading 38 laps. Keselowski
has led in six of his 10 races at Atlanta.
- Clint
Bowyer finished third, giving Stewart Haas Racing a 1-3 finish. It marked
Bowyer’s best finish in 18 races at Atlanta.
- Denny
Hamlin finished fourth in the highest-finishing Toyota. It marks his first
top-five finish in at Atlanta since 2014, when he finished third. Hamlin is the
only driver to finish in the top-five in every race this season.
- Martin Truex
Jr. finished fifth, his first top-five finish at Atlanta since 2013, but his
sixth top-10 finish at Atlanta in the last seven races. In those six races, he’s
finished third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, with the lone finish
outside the top-10 a 23rd-place result in 2014. Truex also led one lap, and is the only driver to lead a lap in each of the last three races (Homestead-Miami, Daytona and Atlanta).
-
Polesitter Kyle Busch finished seventh in the race. It was Busch’s 28th career
pole position. He now has at least one pole in each of the last 11 MENSC
seasons and 13 of the last 14 seasons.
-
Busch’s brother Kurt Busch finished eighth. It marked the second consecutive
week the two have finished in consecutive positions, with Kyle finishing 25th
in the Daytona 500 and Kurt in 26th.
-
Kyle Larson finished ninth in the highest-finishing Chevrolet.
- Chase
Elliott was the highest-finishing Georgia-born driver, notching 10th. He was
also the highest-finish driver from the Hendricks Motorsports camp – William Byron
was 18th; Alex Bowman was 20th; and Jimmie Johnson was 27th.
- David
Ragan, the other Georgia-born driver, finished 23rd in his 400th career MENSC
race.
- Gray
Gaulding, the youngest driver in the field at 20 years of age, finished last,
completing 99 laps before retiring with engine problems.
- Jimmie
Johnson (27th) has not finished in the top 10 in eight consecutive races, dating back
to last year. That marks the longest of his career, surpassing six-race
droughts without a top 10 on three separate occasions. He has now gone 25
consecutive races without a victory, the longest of his Cup Series career.
- Cole Whitt
(28th), Ross Chastain (30th) and Harrison Rhodes (33rd) were all making their
season-debuts this weekend. For Rhodes, it was his NASCAR Cup Series debut.
- This marked
the first NASCAR Cup Series race without Danica Patrick since the 2012
season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
- A total of 15
drivers improved on their starting position in the race.
- The next
race will be Sunday, March 4, with the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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