NASCAR at Atlanta live updates: William Byron wins crash-heavy race

Note: Live updates on this story are complete. For full race takeaways and results, we have you covered here.

NASCAR’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 race starts at 3 p.m. today on FOX. The green flag is scheduled for 3:17 p.m.

The race is 325 laps with stages ending on laps 105, 210 and 325 at a newly repaved and reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Refresh this page for the latest race updates. All times are Eastern.

NASCAR at Atlanta race results

Stage 3

CHECKERED FLAG: William Byron wins the race. We’ll have the full results and analysis posted here shortly.

6:55 p.m., Lap 300: Todd Gilliland and Cody Ware find trouble with 25 laps to go. Gilliland lost control near the wall with what looked like a cut tire. Trying to avoid the wreck ahead of him, Ware got sandwiched between two cars and then spun. His day is done. There have been 27 cars involved in crashes today. William Byron still holds the lead.

6:43 p.m., Lap 275: We’re at 50 laps to go and William Byron has the lead by about 0.10 seconds ahead of Bubba Wallace, with Ryan Blaney trailing not far behind. Almirola has talked on his radio asking if he can go the distance without refueling, which will be a tough task. He’s currently in fourth.

6:26 p.m., Lap 254: The ninth caution of the day in Atlanta with debris on track between turns Nos. 3 and 4. Chase Elliott is in the lead, followed by Daniel Suarez and Christopher Bell.

6:17 p.m., Lap 229: Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, who are now out of the race, spoke with Fox Sports after leaving the care center. Both described their crash the same way — Hamlin was trying to push Larson, but Larson got loose. Not bad blood between the two as Larson says what happened to him wasn’t intentional.

6:09 p.m., Lap 219: Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin park their cars in the garage after the earlier contact. “I’m not giving up, but I think we’re done,” Larson says to his crew chief, adding that if he goes any faster, he feels like the hood’s gonna blow off, and anticipates blowing a tire. “Straight to the garage. We’re done,” his crew chief responds. Daniel Suárez leads.

Stage 2

6:02 p.m., Lap 212: The race resumes, but only briefly before the caution comes out AGAIN, this time for Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson at the front, but not for a blown tire. Hamlin was pushing Larson, and Larson spun to the inside and into the right side of Chase Elliott’s car. Hamlin says their day is “done.” Larson’s team tries to work on it. Ryan Blaney wins the stage under caution with Blaney, Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suárez, Martin Truex, Bubba Wallace, William Byron and Ross Chastain in the top 10.

5:47 p.m., Lap 200: Rickey Stenhouse Jr. spins from the lead with an apparent cut tire! Austin Cindric, Erik Jones and Kevin Harvick are also involved.

5:37 p.m., Lap 185: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. moves ahead of Ryan Blaney to take the lead as Brad Keselowski works his way into the top five. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch has driven his car to the garage, moving down the track with an issue. He almost loses it, but is able to save his car from a spin. The running order is Stenhouse, Blaney, Bell, Larson, Suárez and Byron.

5:28 p.m., Lap 166: The race is back under green with Kevin Harvick in the lead followed by the Fords of Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola. Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott and Erik Jones follow, in that order.

5:15 p.m., Lap 156: Thirteen cars were involved in the last wreck, per FOX, but no teams in that wreck send their cars to the garage just yet. The racing barely resumes before a caution comes back out for debris. Kevin Harvick and William Byron lead.

5:04 p.m., Lap 145: Tyler Reddick was leading the top lane when his right rear tire blew, and he went spinning backwards, collecting multiple cars. Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Corey LaJoie and Christopher Bell are among the drivers involved. Logano has trouble re-firing his car and says that his “splitter is definitely screwed up.”

4:56 p.m., Lap 130: Kevin Harvick gets shuffled back, and Kurt Busch briefly leads. Joey Logano, in sixth, is told that “(Larson is) shuffling people off of (Turn) four.” Larson is sitting in 10th.

4:52 p.m., Lap 123: Kevin Harvick leads after the next green flag, moving by Christopher Bell and Joey Logano. The field looks like its going three-wide more frequently now, with more cars looking to create a third lane.

Stage 1

4:33 p.m., Lap 102: The caution is out after Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch crash on the frontstretch. “It’s killed,” Busch says. “I will not make minimum speed.” Dillon spun out with Busch on his bumper and they went into the outside wall. Dillon’s day is done. William Byron wins the stage under caution, followed by Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez, Ricky Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric.

4:24 p.m., Lap 95: Ross Chastain goes into the wall from the lead! It appears to be a tire issue, but it’s unclear which one went down to cause the crash, likely the right rear that first blew out. His left front is also down after hitting the wall and the caution is out. William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones follow Chastain.

4:16 p.m., Lap 85: PRN reports that Brad Keselowski is having persisting radio issues and can’t hear his spotter well, so he’s left the pack and is running 33rd.

4:11 p.m., Lap 70: Joey Logano was looking between lanes, but he gets passed on both sides by Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain and drops multiple spots through the middle. He says he needs clean air and is trying to climb him way back up to the front after falling to sixth.

4:05 p.m., Lap 65: Joey Logano moves to the front of the pack, driving by prior leaders Ross Chastain, who jumped to the front after the restart. Chastain falls to second, followed by Tyler Reddick, William Byron and Denny Hamlin.

3:50 p.m., Lap 45: At the competition caution, the front-running teams take two tires. Ryan Blaney is the first one off pit road, but his team doesn’t get enough fuel in it, and he makes another stop. Brad Keselowski also has trouble on pit road and slams on his brakes in traffic, so he makes a second stop for his team to take another look.

3:48 p.m., Lap 37: Chase Briscoe slaps the wall as he gets loose and taps the nose of his car into the outside wall. The Penske teammates of Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are linking up, with Blaney’s radio telling him that Logano will follow him. They sit in fifth and sixth.

3:35 p.m., Lap 24: The first caution is out for Noah Gragson’s spinning car. He said he “got loose” and apologizes to his team. Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney is the running order at the flag. Blaney says that he feels loose and that there’s a bit of a chatter. “Don’t feel fast,” Blaney says. “Feel slow...” So far, there have been four different leaders in this race: Busch, Elliott, Blany and Briscoe. Alex Bowman and Greg Biffle get a penalty for speeding on pit road during the yellow flag.

3:31 p.m., Lap 20: Kyle Busch leads the outside lane followed by Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin. On the inside lane, Chase Elliott is at the front but has lost momentum, followed by Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano. Blaney’s radio says that Logano is struggling to maintain speed in Turn 2.

3:25 p.m., Lap 7: Kyle Busch moves inside Chase Briscoe to take the lead. The field runs three-wide as Busch, Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano hold the top five spots in the running order.

3:20 p.m., Lap 4: Chase Briscoe keeps the lead after starting on the pole. The majority of the cars sit in the outside line as teammates work to push eachother and feel out the lanes. So far, there are only two clear lanes, but the track will likely widen out as the race continues, so we could see more agressive moves to form a third lane as the race goes on.

Pre-race

Keselowski joining Burton at the back

3:14 p.m.: Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford will also drop to the rear for unapproved adjustments before the race start. He was slated to start 24th. Drivers are in their cars and engines are fired. The competition caution will come on Lap 45.

Revamped Atlanta

NASCAR’s Cup stars compete for the first time at a newly repaved and reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway, which underwent a profiling project last summer after the last Cup race there in July. The changes include steeper banking in the turns, with the narrower corners going from 24 degrees to 28 degrees, as well as a widened frontstretch and a skinnier backstretch. Race officials said that they expect the racing product to more closely resemble that of a superspeedway like Daytona and Talladega. Drivers said after practice Saturday that they’re expecting chaos similar to those races.

“It’s going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. I can promise you that,” No. 20 Toyota driver Christopher Bell told reporters.

Burton to the rear, Briscoe on the pole

NASCAR has announces pre-race inspection updates, indicating that Harrison Burton’s car is the only one penalized for inspection failures. His No. 21 Ford twice failed technical inspection, meaning his car chief will be ejected for the race and he’ll drop to the rear prior to the green flag. Burton was slated to start 31st.

Phoenix race winner Chase Briscoe is starting on the pole based on NASCAR’s qualifying formula, which was used in lieu of standard qualifying after the session was canceled due to inclement weather that impacted NASCAR’s weekend track activity schedule. Ryan Blaney will start in the front row with Briscoe based on the same formula. The starting order is below.

NASCAR at Atlanta pre-race schedule

• Invocation: 3:00 p.m.
• National Anthem: 3:01 p.m.
• Command: 3:08 p.m.
• Green Flag: 3:17 p.m.
• Competition caution: Lap 45

How to watch NASCAR at Atlanta

• Race: Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
• Distance: 500 miles (325 laps) with stages ending on laps 105, 210 and 325
• Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway
• When: Sunday, March 20 at 3 p.m.
• TV: FOX at 2:30 p.m.
• Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Purse: $8,263,045
  
  

• 2021 Race Winner: Ryan Blaney

NASCAR at Atlanta Cup starting order

This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 2:01 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription