2022 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

2022 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Race 5 of 36 in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series
Date	March 20, 2022 (2022-03-20)
Location	Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km)
Distance	325 laps, 500.5 mi (806 km)
Average speed	126.584 miles per hour (203.717 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing
Time	2.850 Score (Pandemic formula)
Most laps led
Driver	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	111
Winner
No. 24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	Fox
Announcers	Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Jeff Gordon
Nielsen Ratings	2.36, 4.003 Million Viewers
Radio in the United States
Radio	PRN
Booth Announcers	Doug Rice and Mark Garrow
Turn Announcers	Rob Albright (1 & 2) and Pat Patterson (3 & 4)

The 2022 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on March 20, 2022 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 325 laps on the 1.54-mile-long (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway, it was the fifth race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. It was the first race at Atlanta to use superspeedway rules (in line with the traditional restrictor plate tracks with a reduced horsepower package and track limits rules), with the new reconfiguration increasing the banking from 24 degrees to 28 degrees and new pavement.

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in Hampton, Georgia, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It is a 1.54-mile (2.48 km) quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two 1.5-mile (2.4 km) ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The front stretch and back stretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Friday's practice session was canceled due to inclement weather. Practice replaced qualifying Saturday.^[8] Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 29.708 seconds and a speed of 186.616 mph (300.329 km/h).^[9]

Qualifying was cancelled because of a need to add additional practice to the reconfigured circuit. Chase Briscoe was awarded the pole for the race as a result of the pandemic formula with a score of 2.850.^[10]

Stage One Laps: 105

Stage Two Laps: 105

Stage Three Laps: 115

• Lead changes: 46 among 20 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 11 for 65
• Red flags: 0
• Time of race: 3 hours, 57 minutes and 14 seconds
• Average speed: 126.584 miles per hour (203.717 km/h)

Brad Keselowski, who finished 12th, was penalized 100 playoff points when an illegally modified body part was found on his car during a post-race inspection. In addition, Matt McCall, his crew chief, was fined $100,000 and suspended for the next four races. The penalty dropped Keselowski from 6th in the point standings to 35th.^[11]

The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was carried by Fox in the United States. Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and five-time Atlanta winner Jeff Gordon called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith handled pit road for the television side, and Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

The race was broadcast on radio by the Performance Racing Network and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front stretch. Rob Albright called the race from atop a billboard outside of turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2, and Pat Patterson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. On pit road, PRN was manned by Brad Gillie, Doug Turnbull, and Wendy Venturini.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 2 1 Chase Elliott 171 1 2 Joey Logano 164 (–7) 2 3 Chase Briscoe 156 (–15) 11 4 William Byron 150 (–21) 7 5 Kurt Busch 148 (–23) 1 6 Ryan Blaney 148 (–23) 1 7 Aric Almirola 144 (–27) 5 8 Martin Truex Jr. 142 (–29) 2 9 Alex Bowman 140 (–31) 4 10 Ross Chastain 137 (–34) 9 11 Kyle Busch 136 (–35) 8 12 Kyle Larson 135 (–36) 9 13 Daniel Suárez 127 (–44) 4 14 Kevin Harvick 127 (–44) 6 15 Tyler Reddick 126 (–45) 8 16 Austin Cindric 121 (–50) Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 1 Chevrolet 182 1 2 Ford 173 (–9) 3 Toyota 163 (–19) Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.