Five Georgia natives competed in the Alsco Uniforms 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 9. That’s approximately 13% of the Xfinity field, and none of them had previously won at their home track.
Until today, that is, when rookie Austin Hill claimed his second career Xfinity Series victory at his home track. Hill, a native of nearby Winston, Georgia, also won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, another superspeedway track.
Josh Berry finished runner-up, while Ryan Truex came home third. Rounding out the top-5 were Tyler Reddick and Daniel Hemric, in fourth and fifth, respectively.
The race was relatively calm, but there were still some storylines to follow.
The Winners
Kaulig Racing showed up – something that hasn’t been said in a while. Sure, AJ Allmendinger has two wins this year and is currently leading the regular-season championship standings, but I’m talking more about his two teammates, Hemric and Landon Cassill. Cassill ended up eighth on the day, just three spots behind the defending champion. In fact, Kaulig showed so much promise today that Allmendinger was the worst-finishing car, in tenth. All three cars finally had a good day, and with Cassill and Hemric riding near or on the cutline for the playoffs, both of them needed this race to go their way after both have had borderline abysmal races the past few weeks.
Reddick’s fourth-place finish gave Big Machine Racing another fantastic finish after a subpar 22nd-place qualifying effort. Scott Borchetta’s sudden “benching” of Jade Buford has proved to be the kick in the pants this team has needed, and it’s gotten the team a win and a top five out of it (and could have been more if it weren’t for incidents out of their control). The alliance with Richard Childress Racing certainly has helped the team improve from last year, but it’s no secret that the team has gained some confidence with the recent runs Reddick has provided for the team.
The Losers
Ty Gibbs’ pole run was all for naught, as he ended up retiring from the race after contact with the other Monster Energy-sponsored car, Riley Herbst, shortly after the beginning of stage three. The contact forced Gibbs into the wall and caused just enough damage to take the No. 54 out of the race, ending up 35th. Despite gathering some stage points thanks to finishing second and seventh in the two stages, the Joe Gibbs Racing team is leaving Atlanta with a big “what if?” on their shoulders.
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