Fresh off winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway a week earlier, Chase Elliott drew the pole starting spot for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the home track for the Dawsonville, Ga., native.
“The track hasn’t changed a ton these past few years,” Elliott said. It has a lot of wear to it, a lot of character and a lot of bumps. There is a fine line of getting your car right. I’m excited about that. As a team, we’ve had a lot of dialogue in trying to get our NAPA Chevy dialed in without having any practice, which is tough. I have a lot of confidence in my guys being able to get us close and giving us enough adjustability to where if we do miss it, one way or the other, we can work on it throughout the race. I’m just looking forward to the race, obviously; it’s my home track, and any time you go to your home track you want to do good.”
He’ll share the front row for the start of Sunday’s race with Aric Almirola.
“We have shown such great speed almost every weekend since we’ve returned to racing, but nothing has gone our way,” Almirola said. “I think I saw a fan even tweet me that, every time I have the opportunity to start on the preferred lane, a car in front of me gets a penalty and puts me in the other lane. We’ve had loose wheels, been caught up in wrecks, started in the rear at Charlotte and even ran over a piece of metal on the pace laps. You can’t find much more bad luck than that. If we just had a few more things go our way, we would be contending for top-five finishes each weekend. Sometimes it’s out of our hands, but I know it’s going to come back around soon.”
Almirola is one of three Ford drivers slated to start in the top-five for the Atlanta race, with Joey Logano in third and Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer in fifth and one of six Ford drivers in the top-10, including all three Team Penske teammates. Logano’s Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney drew sxith and seventh starting positions, and a third SHR driver, Kevin Harvick, drew the ninth starting spot.
“I just love the abrasiveness of the racetrack,” Harvick said. “It still has a lot of speed for the first three or four laps, but then, it has a lot of fall-off and a lot of bumps that give it character. As a driver, you just love the challenge that comes with racing at Atlanta. This is always one that I circle on my calendar as a favorite, and I look forward to racing in Atlanta this weekend.”
Other top-10 starters include Kyle Busch in fourth, Alex Bowman in eighth and Denny Hamlin in 10th.
