Information By: BRANDON LEE / RFK RACING – CONCORD, NC
Atlanta II Event Info:
Date: Sunday, Sept. 8
Time: 3 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Hampton, Georgia
Format: 260 Laps, 400.4 Miles, Stages: 60-100-100
TV: USA
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)
Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 12:30 p.m. ET, Qualifying (USA, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 3 p.m. ET, Race (USA, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Pace Laps:
- The NASCAR Playoffs get underway this weekend as Atlanta Motor Speedway hosts race No. 1 in the 10-race schedule.
- RFK has led a combined 113 laps in the last three Atlanta races as Keselowski average a 4.0 finish in last season’s events in Georgia.
- Jack Roush has six Cup wins all-time at Atlanta, and 13 overall.
6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: King’s Hawaiian Pretzel Bites
17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: Fastenal
Keselowski at Atlanta
- Starts: 19
- Wins: 2 (2017, 2019)
- Top-10s: 11
- Poles: —
- Keselowski makes his 20th Cup start at Atlanta this weekend where he is a two-time winner with an average finish of 14.9.
- Keselowski won at the now Superspeedway first in 2017 after starting fifth and again in 2019.
- Most recently, he finished 33rd in the spring after crashing at lap 218. Last season, he led a combined 66 laps in the two races and finished second (spring) and sixth (fall).
- Overall he’s led laps in 11 different Atlanta races and finished top-10 11 times.
- He carries an average starting position of 15.4 into the weekend with a career-best effort of P2 in 2014. Overall he has six top-10 starts, including a P4 starting spot last spring.
- He also made eight Xfinity Series starts with six top-10s including two P2 finishes. He also made four Truck starts.
Buescher at Atlanta
Starts: 12
Wins: —
Top-10s: 4
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his 13th Cup start in Atlanta where he has four top-10s and a best finish of seventh (twice – 2021, 2022). He finished ninth in 2019, and ninth in the most recent race there this spring.
- Buescher has an average qualifying position of 17.9 with a career-best effort of seventh, which he matched this spring.
- He also finish fourth in the Xfinity Series in 2015.
RFK Historically at Atlanta
Cup Wins: 6 (Mark Martin, 1991, 1994; Kurt Busch, 2002; Carl Edwards, 2005, 2005, 2008)
- RFK at Atlanta: RFK has 279 starts at AMS in NASCAR’s three major touring series totaling 13 wins, 60 top fives, 115 top-10s and nine poles while leading 3,267 laps and turning over 109,000 miles.
- AMS/RFK History: RFK competed in its first NASCAR event at AMS on March 20, 1988, finishing 31st after getting involved in an early crash. Just three years later the organization claimed its first win there in the fall of ‘91 with the No. 6 Ford. RFK won its first of seven NXS races at the track in the spring of ’97. The team’s top outing at AMS came in the fall of 2005, when the organization placed four cars inside the top seven, with three cars finishing in the top five including race winner Carl Edwards. Altogether, in the two races at AMS in 2005, RFK posted six top-five finishes and two wins.
- Spring Forward: All but one of RFK’s Cup wins at AMS came in the fall, with the only spring win coming in 2005. Three of RFK’s seven NXS wins came in the fall.
RFK Atlanta Wins
1991-2 Martin Cup
1994-2 Martin Cup
1997-1 Martin NXS
1998-2 Martin NXS
2000-1 Martin NXS
2002-2 Busch Cup
2005-1 Edwards Cup
2005-1 Edwards NXS
2005-2 Edwards Cup
2008-1 Kenseth NXS
2008-2 Edwards Cup
2011 Edwards NXS
2012 Stenhouse NXS
Last Time Out & Where They Stand
Darlington: Chris Buescher did everything needed to put himself into the playoffs, but another new winner negated that as Buescher finished sixth and ultimately did not qualify for the playoffs. Keselowski finished 14th.
Points Standings (6: 8th, 17: 17th): Keselowski is re-seeded to eighth entering the playoffs.