Cup Series in need of another 'fantastic finish at Atlanta'

No race track did a better job last year with its racing product than Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the NASCAR Cup Series may be in for a repeat performance.

After last Sunday's Daytona 500 concluded with yet another crash-filled finish, race No. 2 on the 36-race schedule, Sunday's Ambetter Health 400, will begin the series' normal grind each week.

Last year's race at AMS was a thriller.

After taking the white flag, Daniel Suarez cruised the high side, while Kyle Busch shot into the middle lane above Ryan Blaney -- three drivers racing it out side-by-side off Turn 4, each seeking his first 2024 victory.

It ended with Trackhouse Racing's Suarez edging Blaney by .003 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Cup history.

Now, NASCAR arrives at the 1.54-mile venue in Hampton, Ga., after what it claims was maybe one of the best 500s ever -- at least from a numbers' standpoint.

The sanctioning body announced Thursday that the Great American Race had produced the most-ever Daytona green-flag passes (16,389), most passes under green for the lead (331) and fourth-most lead changes in Daytona 500 history (56).

Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin is not buying the data about the race run at fuel-saving speeds.

On his podcast Actions Detrimental Monday, the No. 11 Toyota driver expressed his concern about the direction NASCAR is taking at the high-banked, 2.5-mile iconic track.

According to Hamlin, who prefaced the episode by saying that he knew it would come off as sour grapes, something needs to be done to make it more about the racing than the wrecking.

He cited his own data: The past six 500s have ended with major crashes, with three of the past four unfolding in a green-white-checker overtime.

"I hate the fact of how much luck is involved in NASCAR now," said Hamlin, who was ahead while bidding to become the third driver to win at least four 500s. "It (should be about) making the moves at the end of the race to win. ... I feel like we've lost that. It's just a matter of wrecks at the superspeedway. I feel like the sport of it is going by the wayside for the sake of entertainment.

"The cars are way too easy to drive. They have way too much grip, way too much drag, and it creates a great optic on TV that these cars are two-by-two, three-by-three, but nobody is (really) passing nobody. We're just riding."

Hamlin, whose lone AMS victory was in 2012's Fall race, contrasted last year's thriller with what could have transpired last Sunday.

"We could've been three-wide, see who gets the biggest push here," said the Toyota driver of the incident with Cole Custer's No. 41 Ford. "That's why we had a fantastic finish at Atlanta. Everyone makes such a big deal about Atlanta -- three-wide, racing for the lead (off Turn 4). ... They raced it out to the finish."

If any speedway can get this sport pointed in the right direction with high-speed racing that perhaps will feature good action and a tight race to the checkers instead of a winner who was lucky to avoid a giant mess, AMS is surely that track.

The ultimate entertainment this Sunday should be at the AMS flagstand, not on the track's back side in a hail of carnage and possible airborne cars.

--Field Level Media