Atlanta Marks The End Of The Beginning For Gordon

Jeff Gordon made his first career NASCAR Cup race in the Hooters 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on November 15, 1992. Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images

Jeff Gordon goes back to where it all began this weekend for perhaps his final race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Gordon made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in the 1992 season finale at AMS, sprouting a storied career highlighted by four championships and 92 wins entering his last full-time campaign. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver placed 29th in the Hooters 500 that November afternoon, a finish he has rarely replicated since.
Gordon leads all active full-time drivers with five wins in his 41 starts at AMS. He also boasts 16 top fives (39%). 26 top 10s (63.4%) and two poles.

The 43-year-old last won at Atlanta in 2011.

Back To the Future: History Meets Present At Atlanta
It’s known as one of the greatest races in NASCAR history, and for good reason.

The 1992 season-ending Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway was the final race for NASCAR icon and inaugural NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty – and the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race for sure-fire NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon.

Between those two subplots was the six-way championship battle that went down to the final lap. Local hero, and 2015 Hall of Fame inductee, Bill Elliott won the race, but couldn’t gain enough points to win his second championship. Instead, underdog Alan Kulwicki drove his self-owned Ford to a runner-up finish and his only championship. Last Friday, Kulwicki was voted as a new nominee for possible induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016.

Logano Aims For Rare 2-fer
Joey Logano followed up his career-year of 2014 with a stirring win in the Daytona 500, becoming the second youngest driver to win the Great American Race at 24 years old.

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Logano has a fair chance at joining that group. Though he’s struggled at Atlanta in Sprint Cup competition (one top 10 in eight starts – a second in 2013), he has excelled at 1.5-mile tracks lately. Last year, two of his five wins came on tracks of that length (Texas and Kansas).

Bounce-back Race For Keselowski?
A rare blown engine ended Brad Keselowski’s Daytona 500 after 160 of 203 laps.

There’s good news and bad news. The good news: Engine issues are incredibly rare for the Roush-Yates Engines that power Team Penske’s No. 2. This was only the second blown engine for Keselowski since joining Penske fulltime in 2010. The bad news: The first one came in 2013 at Atlanta, site of this weekend’s race.

Still, here’s the only news that really matters for Keselowski: A win cures everything under the new format that sets the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field. Atlanta might not be the best bet, however. He’s suffered DNFs in each of the last two races, and in three of his six starts.

Stewart’s Early Wreck? Meh
Clearly, this wasn’t the finish that Tony Stewart wanted.

An early-race wreck relegated Stewart to a 42nd-place finish and extended his winless streak in the Daytona 500 to 17 races. Still, it wasn’t his worst finish ever in the Great American Race (he’s finished last, twice). And, in all likelihood, he’s never going to catch Dave Marcis’ record of 33 Daytona 500 starts without a win. There are bright sides all over the place.

And though he wrecked out of last year’s Atlanta race and finished 41st, that’s just one blip in an otherwise strong career for Stewart at Atlanta. In 27 starts, Stewart has three wins and 15 top 10s.