gettyimages-1474700666.jpg
Getty Images

The NASCAR Cup Series makes its second trip of the year to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Quaker State 400, which has now become a Sunday night race after two years of being held in the heat of the daytime. While the evening and nighttime conditions should make fans and drivers much more comfortable, the high banks of Hotlanta are still set to burn bright with a playoff battle that is becoming increasingly tense as the regular season begins to wind down.

How to watch the Quaker State 400

  • Date: Sun., July 9
  • Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway -- Hampton, Ga.
  • Time: 7 p.m. ET
  • TV: USA Network
  • Stream: fuboTV (try for free)

What to watch

  • Chase Elliott returns to Atlanta as the defending winner of this race, and the timing of Elliott coming back to Atlanta after missing the spring race with a leg fracture aligns well with his efforts to make the playoffs.

    Having received a playoff waiver two different times -- once for missing six races due to injury and once after being parked for one race for intentionally wrecking another competitor -- Elliott can erase the points hole he's in by winning a race and automatically earning a spot on the playoff grid. However, the 2020 Cup champion has been digging himself out of his hole at such a rate that getting back to the plus side of the playoff cut line is currently far from out of the question.

    After finishing third at Chicago, Elliott moved up to 24th in the points standings and currently sits 55 points back of the playoff cut line. With eight races left before the playoffs and Elliott having earned four top five finishes in his last five starts, there seems to be plenty of time for NASCAR's most popular driver to storm his way through the regular season points standings and into position to make the playoffs on points alone.

  • With the reconfigured Atlanta making drafting and pack racing of key importance -- and subsequently increasing the risk of high-speed impacts  -- this weekend marks the debut of several updates to the Next Gen car designed to make the front of the car softer and have a larger crush zone to dissipate more energy upon impact. These changes were developed in response to a crash in the last speedway race at Talladega, where the front end of Ryan Preece's car pierced the passenger side door of Kyle Larson's car and caused massive damage to the rollcage.

    Among the changes to the chassis include front bumper strut softening through modifications to existing parts, the mandating of an empty front ballast box, and a modified cross brace. In addition, teams will now be mandated to run a steel plate along the right side door bars extending towards the rear clip. These changes build upon adjustments to the Next Gen chassis that were implemented for the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

  • With an abrupt transition from the exit of Atlanta's turn four to pit road presenting an issue in the event of green flag stops, NASCAR introduced a new pit road entry in the springtime that placed the commitment line at the entry to turn three in order to offer drivers a much safer and straighter transition during green flag stops. The change was a necessary one, but it wasn't without its warts: With drivers having to putt around at pit road speed (45 MPH) through the apron of turns three and four, it became impossible to pit under green flag conditions without going one or more laps down, with any mistakes on pit road likely dooming any driver's hopes of competing again.

    This weekend, NASCAR has addressed that by making a notable change: Under green flag conditions, sections one and two of pit road (encompassing the apron of turns three and four) will now have a 90 MPH speed limit, with the usual 45 MPH speed limit beginning at the start of section three all the way through section 18 of pit road itself. Under caution, all sections of pit road will have a 45 MPH speed limit.

Pick to win

(Odds via Caesars Sportsbook)

Martin Truex Jr. (+2500): We're now on our fourth race since Atlanta's reconfiguration, but it feels like trying to handicap things and pick a winner has only gotten harder instead of easier -- there are so many variables that this track offers, all while not being at all analogous to Daytona or Talladega. But if I'm pressed to pick a winner, I'm going to go with Martin Truex Jr.

In the three Atlanta races since the spring of 2022, Truex has one top 10 finish and was in contention to win last year's July race before getting shuffled out of line in the final laps. But what's even more important than that is that Truex has been running at the finish, and on the lead lap no less, in each race thus far. Considering just how much is out of a driver's control at this track, the ability to be there at the finish and give yourself a chance is worth a lot -- and this weekend, it's worth my pick.