NASCAR decided that rather than running its weekend triple header over three days like usual, it would run both the Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series races on the same day. Both races started with a wreck in the first two laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday.
The Xfinity race started the day in Atlanta, with Ty Dillon’s No. 3 car spinning right on into the No. 11 of Blake Koch on the second lap. The wreck ended the day for Koch since he went straight to the garage, and under NASCAR’s new rules, a trip to the garage is one you can’t return from.
Dillon’s Xfinity team, on the other hand, fixed up his car within NASCAR’s new five-minute time limit and got the car back on track. The rest of the race was pretty tame, and Dillon finished 17th. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch won the race ahead of four other Cup Series drivers (of course).
The Camping World Truck Series race went green less than an hour after that win, and it kicked off with a spin by the No. 18 truck of Noah Gragson. The spin collected the No. 7 of Brett Moffitt, but both drivers were able to stay in the race and were on the lead lap at the time of this writing during the second stage.
This is the last race weekend on Atlanta’s current surface—the old, tire-wear causing, beautiful current surface—before a repave that not many people want to happen, so let’s just blame these spins on the racing surface. That’ll make the wound less deep when we have to say goodbye.
