Drivers anticipate chaos in Atlanta Cup race

HAMPTON, Ga. — No one knows what to expect in Sunday’s Cup race at a repaved and reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway.

But a sense of chaos is prevalent among drivers after a 50-minute practice session Saturday that featured pack racing common at Daytona and Talladega.

“That (50)-minute practice session was super intense,” Christopher Bell said. “I don’t think anybody expected the draft runs to be that big, and the pack to be that tight. It was full blown chaos, and we’ve got 500 miles of it (Sunday).”

Reigning Cup champion Kyle Larson told NBC Sports: “You don’t have a whole lot of time to relax … I think we’re going to crash at some point.”

Kyle Busch said after Saturday’s session: “There is no reason why we should crash, but we are going to. I just hope it’s not too hard.”

The concern about what could happen comes after Speedway Motorsports turned Atlanta Motor Speedway into a Frankenstein of a track, shaping and shifting the 1.54-mile track so it races more like a superspeedway. That encourages pack racing, something not seen at a track like Atlanta. The repave and higher banking in the corners (from 24 to 28 degrees) also promotes faster speeds.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. posted the fastest lap in Saturday’s practice session at 186.616 mph. That’s 6 mph faster than Cup cars ran in 2019, the last time the series had practice at Atlanta.

Drivers note that it’s hard to lose the draft at Atlanta. That was not the case at Daytona last month. One theory for the difference is that with Atlanta being 1 mile shorter and a more narrow track, the aerodynamic hole punched by cars is more concentrated than at Daytona. That can help the cars further in the back.

Drivers also said the runs seemed quicker. That could present challenges in