The 2026 Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway

     So, we're here at my personal favorite track, EchoPark Speedway. Let's be honest though, nobody calls it that. Atlanta was remodeled in 2022, turning it into a superspeedway pretty much. Last year's race proved to be pretty thrilling, so let's see how it goes this year.

     I really can't say much about the first stage, because nothing happened. Not even any lead changes, Blaney won the first stage from pole, and that's about it.

     During stage two, Tyler Reddick would be the one to lead them to green. Eventually, pole sitter Blaney made it back into the lead, although on lap 108 the yellow came out for lighting in the area. Then they red flagged it. Then it poured like crazy. We finally went green the next day, technically. The green waved at 12:01 pm/et, and Blaney remained in the lead. Carson Hocevar had a tire go down at the end of the stage, but that was about it as Ryan Blaney would win the second stage as well. 

     Ty Gibbs led the field to green to start the third and final stage, and soon enough he would form a strong lead with his teammates behind him. The yellow eventually came out again on lap 194 for AJ Allmendinger spinning out on the frontstretch. Blaney got back up front and had a battle for the lead with Wallace, but then there was another caution for Allmendinger again, as he had lost a tire and went into the outside wall. Wallace led on the restart, but Blaney took the lead back as we had another caution for the 5 car of Kyle Larson spinning on the frontstretch. With ten to go, it was Hocevar in the lead, but right behind him the one who had been dominate throughout the whole race: the 12 of Ryan Blaney. The 12 took the lead from the 77, although right after we saw the yellow flag fly for an incident that occurred on the backstretch. Kyle Larson, Austin Hill, Chase Briscoe, and Riley Herbst got the most of it. This meant that we were going into overtime.

     Hocevar led the field to green, and there was a good battle for the lead, but as it turned out, no one could stop the hard charging 12 car of Ryan Blaney.

     But there's more. Bubba Wallace ended up getting second place, although he was scored 29th because he passed a car bellow the line on the backstretch. Well, that's about all the action from The Peach State. Tune in next week for the Window World 450 at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway.