{"id":7084,"date":"2026-02-16T15:27:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/?p=7084"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:27:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:27:34","slug":"nascar-atlanta-sunda-february-15-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/nascar-atlanta-sunda-february-15-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Atlanta Sunda, February 15, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ATLANTA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year in this race Christopher Bell led only the final lap in what started as a 3-race winning streak that included Austin & Phoenix.  In the summer, most popular driver & Georgia native Chase Elliott ended a 44-race winless streak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Atlanta is like Daytona & Talladega on fast forward<\/p>\n\n\n\n

124th Atlanta NASCAR Cup Series race \u2013 First race: 1960 (66 Years ago)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 Different winners in 123 NASCAR Cup Series Atlanta races<\/p>\n\n\n\n

23 NASCAR Cup Series champions won at Atlanta \u2013 26 NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers won Atlanta<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Different winners in 8 races on reconfigured Atlanta track \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Byron 2, Chase Elliott 2, Joey Logano 2, Christopher Bell 1 & Daniel Su\u00e1rez 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrick Motorsports won 4 of 8 races on reconfigured Atlanta track<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Different winners last 5 Atlanta races \u2013 Byron, Su\u00e1rez, Logano, Bell & Elliott<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joey Logano only repeat winner last 7 Atlanta races (2 Wins last 6 races) \u2013 5 Others 1-win each<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joey Logano led most laps both Atlanta races last season \u2013 Finished 12th & 36th<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlanta 2\/25<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Bell winner \u2013 Started 32nd, finished 24th in Stage 1 & 26th in Stage 2, avg. running pos.: 16th, only final lap led<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of 3 straight wins last season<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead changes: 50 (Record)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Hendrick finisher: Kyle Larson 3rd (Other HMS drivers finished 20th or worse)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laps Led \u2013 Ford 195, Chevrolet 65, Toyota 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlanta 6\/25<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chase Elliott winner \u2013 Started 15th, finished 9th in Stage 1 & 2nd in Stage 2, last lap pass for win, ended 44-race winless streak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 Not involved in crashes \u2013 Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick & Zane Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lap 69 \u2013 25 Involved in crash (Largest Atlanta crash)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Finished top 10 both Atlanta races last season \u2013 Carson Hocevar (2nd & 10th) & Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (5th & 6th)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader of most laps failed to win last 5 Atlanta races<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 To go leader failed to win last 3 Atlanta races<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final lead change with 2 or fewer laps to go last 4 Atlanta races<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season, both Atlanta races settled by pass in the final lap<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 Atlanta races settled by last lap pass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrick Motorsports won 18 Atlanta races with 8 different drivers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 Won first career NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta including Kevin Harvick a quarter-century ago<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Won by 6 one-thousandths of a second over Jeff Gordon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Elliott & Chase Elliott only Georgia drivers to win Atlanta<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14 Times drivers won consecutive Atlanta races \u2013 Chase Elliott won last Atlanta race<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last back-to-back Atlanta winner: Jimmie Johnson 3\/15 & 2\/16 \u2013 Chase Elliott won last Atlanta race<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlanta hosted season finale for 14 years from 1987 through 2000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8\/1\/71 Atlanta win by Richard Petty was 5th consecutive win (Malta, Islip, Trenton, Nashville & Atlanta)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10\/28\/07 Atlanta win by Jimmie Johnson was 2nd win in 4-straight win streak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3\/9\/08 Kyle Busch wins first NASCAR Cup Series race for Toyota (First win for Kyle Busch with Joe Gibbs Racing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2\/28\/16 Jimmie Johnson 76th career win tying him with Dale Earnhardt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2\/25\/24 Daniel Su\u00e1rez over Ryan Blaney by 3 one-thousandths of a second<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top 3 separated by 7 one-thousandths of a second<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA Last year in this race Christopher Bell led only the final lap in what started as a 3-race winning streak that included Austin & Phoenix.  In the summer, most popular driver & Georgia native Chase Elliott ended a 44-race winless streak. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Atlanta is like Daytona & Talladega on fast forward…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,18,6,7,8,9,19],"class_list":["post-7084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-17","tag-broadcasting","tag-chris-myers","tag-chris-myers-sports","tag-fox-sports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}