A close call
Daniel Suárez has won the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway by a scarcely believable 0.003 seconds with the top three crossing the line in a photo finish.
The photo finish saw Suárez pull slightly in front of Team Penske's #12 Ryan Blaney and the Richard Childress Racing #8 of Kyle Busch.
The Mexican driver won his second race in his 253rd start, and it's his first victory on an oval after his win at Sonoma Raceway in 2022.
Suárez said: “It was so damn close, man. It was so damn close.
“Ryan Blaney there, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric also was doing a great job giving pushes.
“We wrecked lap 2. The guys did an amazing job fixing this car. I can’t thank everyone enough … all the amazing fans here. Let’s go!”
Problems halt several race leaders
Five drivers who led laps during the race eventually finished outside the top 20, including three ex-champions.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin led a fifteen-lap stretch in the last stage before getting involved in a collision with Chase Briscoe.
Briscoe had attempted to go four-wide but there was no space for such manoeuvres and Hamlin was left with nowhere to go.
The other lap leaders on the day were the #38 of Todd Gilliland, the 2018 and 2022 Cup Series champion Joey Logano, the #6 of Brad Keselowski and 2021 champion Kyle Larson in the #5.
High marks for the new configuration
Since the Atlanta circuit was remodelled to make it narrower with four degrees higher banking, drivers have criticised the changes.
However now it has produced one of the best finishes in modern NASCAR history, it's probable that the reconfiguration will grow in popularity as years progress.
When the change was originally announced in July 2021, some drivers and crew chiefs were very vocal about their distaste.
Kevin Harvick's crew chief at the time, Rodney Childers said: "It’s going to make the racing horrible.
"It’s going to be one lane and nobody is going to pass anybody.
"That part sucks. … The new pavement, the Next Gen car with having less downforce – I mean you’re going to run wide-open all the way around.
"It’s going to be like racing at Talladega and you’ll be drafting a lot and kind of become a speedway race in a way.
"The cars will stay tightly packed together, probably more wrecks and all those things that it seems everybody wants to see these days."
A bad start for championship hopefuls
Six drivers who qualified for last season's playoffs are currently outside of the top 16 positions in the drivers championship.
Brad Keselowski hasn't broken into the top 30 in either of his two starts this season, while Joey Logano's best result was 28th and five laps down in Atlanta.
Two Round of 8 contenders from last year, Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin, have only one top 20 between them from the first two races of 2024.
However those four along with Michael McDowell in the #34 and Ricky Stenhouse Jr in the #47 have still got plenty of time to win their way into the Round of 16 and challenge for this year's title.