2022 Quaker State 400 Explained

The 2022 Quaker State 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 10, 2022, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 260 laps on the 1.54-mile-long (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway (with superspeedway rules), it was the 19th race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Report

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway is a track in Hampton, Georgia, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It is a 1.54miles quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a 1.5miles standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two 1.5miles 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 circuit.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1			Chevrolet
2	Austin Cindric (R)		Ford
3			Chevrolet
4			Ford
5			Chevrolet
6			Ford
7			Chevrolet
8			Chevrolet
9			Chevrolet
10			Ford
11			Toyota
12			Ford
14			Ford
15	Garrett Smithley (i)		Ford
16	Noah Gragson (i)		Chevrolet
17			Ford
18			Toyota
19			Toyota
20			Toyota
21	Harrison Burton (R)		Ford
22			Ford
23			Toyota
24			Chevrolet
31			Chevrolet
34			Ford
38	Todd Gilliland (R)		Ford
41			Ford
42			Chevrolet
43			Chevrolet
45			Toyota
47			Chevrolet
48			Chevrolet
51			Ford
77	Landon Cassill (i)		Chevrolet
78	B. J. McLeod (i)		Ford
99			Chevrolet
Official entry list

Rule Change

On June 14, Bob Pockrass reported NASCAR will use the superspeedway format for Atlanta, with no practice session. Teams will qualify after inspection.^[7]

Qualifying

Qualifying for Saturday was cancelled due to rain and Chase Elliott, the point leader, was awarded the pole as a result.^[8]

Starting lineup

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	9			Chevrolet
2	1			Chevrolet
3	5			Chevrolet
4	8			Chevrolet
5	2	Austin Cindric (R)		Ford
6	12			Ford
7	99			Chevrolet
8	48			Chevrolet
9	19			Toyota
10	4			Ford
11	17			Ford
12	34			Ford
13	24			Chevrolet
14	14			Ford
15	20			Toyota
16	11			Toyota
17	22			Ford
18	41			Ford
19	18			Toyota
20	47			Chevrolet
21	45			Toyota
22	10			Ford
23	42			Chevrolet
24	31			Chevrolet
25	43			Chevrolet
26	3			Chevrolet
27	21	Harrison Burton (R)		Ford
28	38	Todd Gilliland (R)		Ford
29	16	Noah Gragson (i)		Chevrolet
30	7			Chevrolet
31	6			Ford
32	23			Toyota
33	15	Garrett Smithley (i)		Ford
34	51			Ford
35	78	B. J. McLeod (i)		Ford
36	77	Landon Cassill (i)		Chevrolet
Official starting lineup

Race

Stage Results

Stage OneLaps: 60

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	10
2	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	9
3	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	8
4	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	7
5	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	6
6	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	5
7	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	4
8	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	3
9	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	2
10	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage one results

Stage TwoLaps: 100

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	10
2	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	9
3	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	8
4	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	7
5	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	6
6	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	5
7	21	Harrison Burton (R)	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	4
8	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	3
9	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	2
10	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	1
Official stage two results

Final Stage Results

Stage ThreeLaps: 100

Pos	Grid		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	60
2	2	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	260	45
3	5	2	Austin Cindric (R)	Team Penske	Ford	260	34
4	25	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	33
5	6	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	260	46
6	7	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	260	31
7	24	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	260	30
8	22	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	29
9	18	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	28
10	27	21	Harrison Burton (R)	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	260	31
11	9	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	26
12	10	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	25
13	3	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	26
14	32	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	260	23
15	12	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	260	22
16	14	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	21
17	28	38	Todd Gilliland (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	260	20
18	31	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	260	27
19	15	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	24
20	19	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	260	22
21	30	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	17
22	21	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	259	25
23	34	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	259	14
24	36	77	Landon Cassill (i)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	259	0
25	16	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	259	15
26	17	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	252	11
27	33	15	Garrett Smithley (i)	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	252	0
28	23	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	174	9
29	4	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	170	17
30	13	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	170	16
31	20	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	162	6
32	8	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	160	14
33	11	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	107	4
34	29	16	Noah Gragson (i)	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	91	0
35	26	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	90	2
36	35	78	B. J. McLeod (i)	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	77	0
Official race results

Race statistics

• Lead changes: 27 among 12 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 13 for 64
• Red flags: 0
• Time of race: 3 hours, 22 minutes and 18 seconds
• Average speed: 118.754mph

Media

Television

USA covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte, and 2004 Atlanta winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. called the race from the broadcast booth. Dave Burns, Kim Coon and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane. Rutledge Wood served as a “CityView” reporter and share stories from the famed Dawsonville Pool Room and Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.

Radio

The race was broadcast on radio by the Performance Racing Network and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front stretch. Doug Turnbull 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 and Wendy Venturini.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Chase Elliott	684
	2	Ryan Blaney	637 (–47)
	3	Ross Chastain	634 (–50)
	4	Kyle Larson	579 (–105)
1	5	Kyle Busch	569 (–115)
1	6	Martin Truex Jr.	566 (–118)
2	7	Joey Logano	562 (–122)
	8	Christopher Bell	523 (–161)
	9	Alex Bowman	508 (–176)
	10	William Byron	505 (–179)
	11	Kevin Harvick	504 (–180)
	12	Aric Almirola	481 (–203)
1	13	Austin Cindric	465 (–219)
1	14	Tyler Reddick	458 (–226)
2	15	Daniel Suárez	451 (–233)
1	16	Kurt Busch	449 (–235)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1	Chevrolet	702
	2	Ford	640 (–62)
	3	Toyota	625 (–77)

• Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

. – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2022 schedule . Jayski.com. . May 30, 2022.
2. Web site: Atlanta Motor Speedway. NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC.. May 30, 2022. January 3, 2013. February 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160219053741/http://www.nascar.com/en_us/nascar-tracks/atlanta-motor-speedway.html. dead.
3. Web site: Entry List. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. July 5, 2022. July 5, 2022.
4. Web site: Starting Lineup. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. July 9, 2022. July 9, 2022.
5. Web site: Quaker State 400 Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. July 10, 2022. July 10, 2022.
6. Web site: Points standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. July 10, 2022. July 10, 2022.
7. 1536680602241363968. bobpockrass. With Atlanta racing like Daytona/Talladega, NASCAR has revised the schedule for the race next month to eliminate pr…. 14 June 2022.
8. Web site: Utter. Jim. Atlanta Cup qualifying canceled, Chase Elliott on pole. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. July 9, 2022. Hampton, Georgia. July 9, 2022.