2015 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
| Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 2 of 2015 in the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||
 Layout of the track | |||
| Date | March 1, 2015 | ||
| Location | Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia | ||
| Course |
Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km) | ||
| Distance | 325 laps, 500.5 mi (805.476 km) | ||
| Weather | Cloudy with a temperature of 44 °F (7 °C); wind out of the ESE at 4 mph (6.4 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 131.078 mph (210.950 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Team Penske | ||
| Time | 28.477 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | |
| Laps | 116 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Fox & PRN | ||
| Announcers |
Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip (Television) Doug Rice and Mark Garrow (Booth) Rob Albright (1 & 2) and Pat Patterson (3 & 4) (Turns) (Radio) | ||
The 2015 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on March 1, 2015, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 325 laps on the 1.54 miles (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval, it was the second race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Jimmie Johnson won the race, his first win of the season, while Kevin Harvick finished second and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished third.
Report
Background
Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in Hampton, Georgia, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It is a 1.54 miles (2.48 km) quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two 1.5 miles (2.4 km) ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit. Kasey Kahne is the defending race winner.
Joey Logano enters a race as the points leader for the first time in his career following his win in the Daytona 500.[9] Kevin Harvick, who dominated this race a year ago leading 195 of the 325 laps before finishing 19th following a late race crash, enters second in the points. Dale Earnhardt Jr. enters in third. Jeff Gordon, who made his first career Sprint Cup Series start at Atlanta in 1992, will make his 42nd and final start this weekend.
Entry list
The entry list for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was released on Monday, February 23, 2015 at 3:07 p.m. Eastern time. Forty-eight drivers are entered for the race. All of whom were entered in the previous week's Daytona 500. Mike Bliss will drive the No. 32 Ford for Go FAS Racing. Travis Kvapil will drive the No. 44 Chevrolet for Team XTREME Racing in place of Reed Sorenson who will drive the No. 29 Toyota for RAB Racing. Brendan Gaughan will drive the No. 62 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports. Matt DiBenedetto will drive the No. 83 Toyota for BK Racing. The No. 98 car for Phil Parsons Racing will be entered as a Chevrolet entry.
Substitute drivers
Several substitute drivers took part in the race. Brett Moffitt will drive the No. 55 Toyota in place of Brian Vickers, who is expected to return to the car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the series' next scheduled race. Regan Smith will once again drive the No. 41 Chevrolet in place of the suspended Kurt Busch.[12] David Ragan was entered to run the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, but was selected to run the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in place of the injured Kyle Busch.[10] Team owner Joe Gibbs stated that his team appreciated "being able to work with Front Row Motorsports and (sponsor) CSX for David's availability", while also adding that the team "are fortunate to be able to have someone of David's caliber behind the wheel while Kyle recovers".[10] On February 25, Front Row announced that Joe Nemechek will drive the No. 34 car in place of Ragan,[13] with plans beyond that still to be determined.[13]
Test sessions
This weekend was the first of five race weekends that included an open test session for any team that wished to participate in it.
First session
Jamie McMurray was the fastest in the first test session with a time of 28.943 and a speed of 191.549 mph (308.268 km/h).[14]
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 28.943 | 191.549 |
| 2 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 29.149 | 190.195 |
| 3 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 29.202 | 189.850 |
| Official first session results | ||||||
Second session
Jeff Gordon was the fastest in the second test session with a time of 29.423 and a speed of 188.424 mph (303.239 km/h).[15]
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 29.423 | 188.424 |
| 2 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 29.424 | 188.418 |
| 3 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 29.479 | 188.066 |
| Official second session results | ||||||
Missing car
Early Friday morning, a black Ford dually pulling a white trailer carrying the No. 44 Team XTREME Racing Chevrolet was stolen from the team's hotel in Morrow.[16] The team's hauler was at the race track having left their race shop in Statesville, North Carolina two days earlier.[16] The car was brought down separately to allow more work to be done on it at the shop.[16] "Sometimes what happens when thieves see trailers, they might just assume there's something in the trailer they can go off and sell," Morrow Police Sgt. Larry Oglesby told USA Today. "Sometimes when things like this occur, they will drop off the items in a parking lot somewhere – like a Walmart parking lot – once they realize what they have. They'll open it up and say, 'Oh my God, this is not what we thought it was. Let's get out of here.' And they'll take off and leave it sitting there. We're hoping that will be the situation so he can get back to his races this weekend, because they drove quite a distance to participate."[17] Since the team did not have a backup car, they were forced to withdraw from the race.[11] Ultimately, the car was found the following morning in Loganville,[18] around 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Morrow.
First practice
Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.727 and a speed of 192.989 mph (310.586 km/h).[19]
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 28.727 | 192.989 |
| 2 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 28.784 | 192.607 |
| 3 | 18 | David Ragan | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 28.793 | 192.547 |
| Official first practice results | ||||||
Qualifying
"When you have this many teams having issues going through, there's something wrong with this system or something wrong with the amount of time they allotted to get through. There's no way with this many good cars and talented people that they can't figure out how to get these cars through inspection. These guys are too smart and yeah, we're pushing limits, but there's something wrong here. It's ridiculous. The fans, they deserve an apology. I don't know how many cars are still back here that never got the chance to get on the track. I know we went through twice. When you have this many? I've seen five or six, maybe ten cars that have issues going with certain little things. But this many cars that didn't go? That's not on these teams. They deserve better than this, I can't believe how disappointing this is."
Jeff Gordon, commenting on the technical issues that dogged the qualifying session.[20]
Joey Logano won the pole with a time of 28.477 and a speed of 194.683 mph (313.312 km/h).[21] Logano felt that it was "such a great way to follow Daytona" and that his team "has a lot of momentum and we definitely want to keep it going".[21] The start of qualifying was delayed by 20 minutes because a number of cars had to go through NASCAR technical inspection more than once. Eventually, NASCAR decided to start the session anyway. As a result, 13 of the 47 cars never had a chance to post a lap time before the first round of qualifying ended.[20] The issues angered several drivers and team managers.[20]
Qualifying results
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | R1 | R2 | R3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 28.542 | 28.586 | 28.477 |
| 2 | 4 | Kevin Harvick[N 2] | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 28.957 | 28.560 | 28.608 |
| 3 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 28.754 | 28.673 | 28.633 |
| 4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 28.689 | 28.626 | 28.666 |
| 5 | 19 | Carl Edwards | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 28.719 | 28.756 | 28.705 |
| 6 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 28.727 | 28.732 | 28.733 |
| 7 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 28.864 | 28.776 | 28.734 |
| 8 | 9 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 28.997 | 28.799 | 28.828 |
| 9 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 28.880 | 28.683 | 28.844 |
| 10 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 28.760 | 28.805 | 28.854 |
| 11 | 47 | A. J. Allmendinger | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet | 28.989 | 28.811 | 28.953 |
| 12 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Team Penske | Ford | 28.894 | 28.821 | 28.965 |
| 13 | 27 | Paul Menard | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 28.915 | 28.826 | — |
| 14 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Furniture Row Racing | Chevrolet | 28.745 | 28.828 | — |
| 15 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 28.843 | 28.853 | — |
| 16 | 51 | Justin Allgaier | HScott Motorsports | Chevrolet | 28.999 | 28.870 | — |
| 17 | 18 | David Ragan | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 28.825 | 28.951 | — |
| 18 | 10 | Danica Patrick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 29.104 | 28.982 | — |
| 19 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 29.054 | 29.036 | — |
| 20 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 29.050 | 29.073 | — |
| 21 | 13 | Casey Mears | Germain Racing | Chevrolet | 28.963 | 29.079 | — |
| 22 | 55 | Brett Moffitt | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 28.955 | 29.080 | — |
| 23 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 29.141 | 29.114 | — |
| 24 | 95 | Michael McDowell | Leavine Family Racing | Ford | 29.220 | 29.247 | — |
| 25 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 29.254 | — | — |
| 26 | 38 | David Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 29.257 | — | — |
| 27 | 32 | Mike Bliss (i) | Go FAS Racing | Ford | 29.279 | — | — |
| 28 | 34 | Joe Nemechek (i) | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 29.305 | — | — |
| 29 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 29.348 | — | — |
| 30 | 23 | J. J. Yeley (i) | BK Racing | Toyota | 29.460 | — | — |
| 31 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan (i) | Premium Motorsports | Chevrolet | 29.471 | — | — |
| 32 | 33 | Brian Scott (i)[N 3] | Hillman-Circle Sport LLC | Chevrolet | 29.515 | — | — |
| 33 | 98 | Josh Wise | Phil Parsons Racing | Chevrolet | 30.150 | — | — |
| 34 | 30 | Ron Hornaday Jr. | The Motorsports Group | Chevrolet | 30.605 | — | — |
| 35 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| 36 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 0.000 | — | — |
| 37 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| 38 | 41 | Regan Smith (i) | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| 39 | 14 | Tony Stewart[N 4] | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| 40 | 26 | Jeb Burton (R) | BK Racing | Toyota | 0.000 | — | — |
| 41 | 35 | Cole Whitt | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 0.000 | — | — |
| 42 | 7 | Alex Bowman | Tommy Baldwin Racing | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| 43 | 40 | Landon Cassill (i) | Hillman-Circle Sport LLC | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| Did not qualify | |||||||
| 44 | 29 | Reed Sorenson | RAB Racing | Toyota | 0.000 | — | — |
| 45 | 46 | Michael Annett[N 5] | HScott Motorsports | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| 46 | 66 | Mike Wallace | Premium Motorsports | Chevrolet | 0.000 | — | — |
| 47 | 83 | Matt DiBenedetto | BK Racing | Toyota | 0.000 | — | — |
| Official qualifying results | |||||||
Driver change (post-qualifying)
Michael Annett, who originally failed to qualify for the race, will drive the No. 33 Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet in place of Brian Scott.[23] Scott, who regularly competes in the Xfinity Series, voluntarily gave up his spot because, unlike himself, Annett is running for drivers points in the Sprint Cup Series.[23] "It's a big deal," Annett said before Saturday's first practice. "I can't thank Mike Hillman and Brian Scott enough. We'd rather be in the (No.) 46 HScott Motorsport car, but we're running full-time and we need as many driver's points as we can get. Unfortunately, we won't get any owner's points for this, but being with a new crew chief, with Jay Guy, it's another hour-and-half of practice and another 500 miles (on Sunday) to work together. So looking back, we could have either gone home and watched this race or be able to work together so when we go to Las Vegas we're even stronger. I can't thank these guys enough for giving us this opportunity."[23]
Final practice
Kevin Harvick was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 29.018 and a speed of 191.054 mph (307.472 km/h).[22] During the session, Harvick's car blew an engine and meant that he would have to start from the rear of the field.[22] Harvick described the failure as "very rare" and that he was "glad that it happened today".[22]
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 29.018 | 191.054 |
| 2 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 29.209 | 189.805 |
| 3 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 29.218 | 189.746 |
| Official final practice results | ||||||
Race
First-half
Start
The race was scheduled to start at 1:16 p.m. on Sunday, but the start was delayed by overnight showers and track drying. The field rolled off pit road shortly after 1:45 p.m. and made a number of laps around the track and down pit road under caution speed. Finally, nearly an hour after the scheduled start time, Joey Logano lead the field to the green flag at 2:12 p.m. He pulled out to a four second lead until the first caution of the race flew on lap 26 for overnight showers. This caution was a saving grace for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who had a right-rear tire going down. Joe Nemechek stayed out to lead a lap before pitting and handing the lead back to Logano.
The race restarted on lap 32. Denny Hamlin tried to keep pace with Logano, but could not hang onto the point. Sam Hornish Jr. was forced to make an unscheduled stop on lap 42 to remove a windshield tear-off that was blocking the air intake of his car. The second caution of the race flew on lap 46 for Austin Dillon cutting down his right-rear tire and a piece of debris on the backstretch. Jeff Gordon hit a piece of the debris that created a hole 3 in (76 mm) in diameter.
Trouble for Austin Dillon
The race restarted on lap 52. The third caution of the race flew on lap 60 for Austin Dillon cutting another right-rear tire and spun out in turn 1. His car came to a halt in the wet grass and was covered in mud by the time he got it out. Opening of pit road was delayed as a piece of rubber was caught stuck on the top of the catch fencing on the backstretch. Mike Bliss stayed out to lead a lap before hitting pit road and handing the lead back to Joey Logano.
The race restarted on lap 71 and Logano just jumped out ahead with relative ease. Eleven laps into the run, Kevin Harvick narrowed the game to half a second. He eventually took the lead on lap 87 after Logano got loose exiting turn 4. The fourth caution of the race flew on lap 94 after Landon Cassill blew an engine in turn 3. David Gilliland stayed out to take the lead before hitting pit road and handing the lead back to Harvick.
Green flag stops
The race restarted on lap 100. Joey Logano began to fall back as Harvick pulled to a two second lead over Denny Hamlin. A number of cars started hitting pit road on lap 138 that triggered a rush of cars. Kevin Harvick gave up the lead on lap 140 to pit and handed the lead to to Denny Hamlin. He stopped the next lap and gave the lead to Brad Keselowski who stopped the next lap and the lead cycled to Matt Kenseth, who was one of the first cars to pit on lap 138. Mike Bliss and Ron Hornaday Jr. had to serve a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road. Eventually, Harvick took back the lead on lap 150.
Second-half
Matt Kenseth made an unscheduled stop on lap 168 for a possible vibration. He was running eighth at the time and exited pit road 28th and one lap down. To add insult to injury, he got trapped by the fifth caution of the race on lap 175 for debris on the front stretch. Kevin Harvick entered pit road as the race leader, but Denny Hamlin beat him off pit road to take the lead. The race restarted on lap 181, but did not make it more than a lap before debris brought out the sixth caution of the race. Matt Kenseth made it back onto the lead lap.
The race restarted on lap 187. Kevin Harvick spun the tires on the restart and fell back a bit, but quickly climbed back to the tail of Hamlin in less than a lap. By lap 191, Harvick took back the lead. Eight laps later, Jimmie Johnson took the lead for the first time in the race. Harvick began running down Johnson with 110 laps to go. A number of cars hit pit road with 102 laps to go starting a rush of green flag stops. Johnson gave up the lead with 101 laps to go to pit and handed the lead to Casey Mears. He did not lead a lap as he was pitted before the start/finish line. As a result, Kevin Harvick cycled to the lead.
Casey Mears slapped the wall exiting turn 4 right in front of the leader. This allowed Jimmie Johnson to reel in Kevin Harvick momentarily before the latter pulled away. Debris on the backstretch brought out the seventh caution of the race with 74 laps to go. Jimmie Johnson beat Harvick off pit road to take back the lead.
Trouble on the backstretch
"It wouldn't have been too bad, but I found that one spot where there is no SAFER barrier. I can't believe it. That's amazing to me. Anyway. Hopefully now that will get fixed. I don't think we can say anymore after Kyle's incident in Daytona. Everybody knows they've got to do something and it should have been done a long time ago, but all we can do now is hope they can do it as fast as they possibly can and get it done. I knew it was a hard hit; I didn't expect it to be that hard. I got out and I looked and I was like, 'Oh, big surprise, I found the one wall here on the back straightaway that doesn't have a SAFER barrier'."
Jeff Gordon, commenting on his crash and the safety issue stemming from Kyle Busch's crash at Daytona.[24]
The race restarted with 69 laps to go and caution flew for a multi-car wreck on the backstretch. It started when Denny Hamlin got loose exiting turn 2, turned down into Ryan Newman who turned into Jamie McMurray who clipped Jeff Gordon who hit the inside wall head on, just beyond the end of the SAFER barrier. The race restarted with 63 laps to go. Carl Edwards was running eighth when he had a left-rear tire go down.
Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski started the last pit stop sequence of the race with 33 laps to go. Jimmie Johnson surrendered the lead with 32 laps to go and handed the lead to Clint Bowyer. He gave up the lead to pit with 30 laps to go and Brett Moffitt assumed the lead. He gave up the lead the next lap and the lead cycled back to Johnson. Kasey Kahne was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for an uncontrolled tire. To make matters worse for him, the ninth caution of the race flew with 28 laps to go when Cole Whitt lost an engine in turn 1. Matt Kenseth, who at one point was two laps down, stayed out when Johnson pitted to take back the lead.
The race restarted with 21 laps to go, before a major multi-car wreck occurred in turn 3, involving an octet of cars.[25] The incident started when Greg Biffle made contact with Joe Nemechek entering Turn 3. Biffle dove to the inside of Nemechek and made contact, sending both cars sliding up the track.[25] Clint Bowyer, Sam Hornish Jr., Kyle Larson, Tony Stewart, Regan Smith and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were all involved.[25] "I don't know how he got me there in the left rear, that was messed up," Nemechek said of Biffle over the radio.[25] The race was red flagged with 20 laps to go. The race restarted with 14 laps to go and Jimmie Johnson held off Kevin Harvick to score his 71st career victory.[26] “It says a lot of good things,” Johnson said. “I’m just so excited that the guys could understand. We have new guys. So, this new team could understand what I was complaining about and things I didn’t like about my race car. We thought we were a top 10 car last night. We had a great race car, and unfortunately the way qualifying went yesterday, we didn't have a didn't have a good pit stall pick and it took us a long time to get in front of the No. 19 (Carl Edwards),” Johnson explained. “Once we did that we were able to utilize our awesome pit crew; get the stops done and race for the win and get the job done today. Just very, very thankful.”[26] “….I had one bad restart there where I spun the tires on the outside and we just never recovered from that one and then we got behind the No. 55 (Brett Moffitt) when he was kind of shooting for the moon there to go on the restart and he just didn’t go,” Harvick said. “And then we got passed again. But all in all, it was a great day. I’ve got to thank everybody on this car for everything they do.”[26]
Race results
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| Pos | Grid | No. | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 38 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 325 | 47 |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 325 | 44 |
| 3 | 9 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 325 | 42 |
| 4 | 1 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 325 | 41 |
| 5 | 36 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 325 | 40 |
| 6 | 14 | 78 | Martin Truex, Jr. | Furniture Row Racing | Chevrolet | 325 | 38 |
| 7 | 11 | 47 | A. J. Allmendinger | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet | 325 | 37 |
| 8 | 22 | 55 | Brett Moffitt | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 325 | 37 |
| 9 | 12 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Team Penske | Ford | 325 | 36 |
| 10 | 7 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 325 | 34 |
| 11 | 23 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 325 | 33 |
| 12 | 5 | 19 | Carl Edwards | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 325 | 32 |
| 13 | 13 | 27 | Paul Menard | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 325 | 31 |
| 14 | 10 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 324 | 30 |
| 15 | 21 | 13 | Casey Mears | Germain Racing | Chevrolet | 324 | 29 |
| 16 | 18 | 10 | Danica Patrick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 324 | 28 |
| 17 | 38 | 41 | Regan Smith | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 324 | 0 |
| 18 | 17 | 18 | David Ragan | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 323 | 26 |
| 19 | 29 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 323 | 25 |
| 20 | 16 | 51 | Justin Allgaier | HScott Motorsports | Chevrolet | 323 | 24 |
| 21 | 8 | 9 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 323 | 23 |
| 22 | 26 | 38 | David Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 322 | 23 |
| 23 | 42 | 7 | Alex Bowman | Tommy Baldwin Racing | Chevrolet | 322 | 21 |
| 24 | 25 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 321 | 21 |
| 25 | 19 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 320 | 19 |
| 26 | 6 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 320 | 18 |
| 27 | 24 | 95 | Michael McDowell | Leavine Family Racing | Ford | 320 | 17 |
| 28 | 31 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Premium Motorsports | Chevrolet | 320 | 0 |
| 29 | 32 | 33 | Michael Annett | HScott Motorsports | Chevrolet | 319 | 15 |
| 30 | 39 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Stewart Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 319 | 14 |
| 31 | 27 | 32 | Mike Bliss | Go FAS Racing | Ford | 318 | 0 |
| 32 | 33 | 98 | Josh Wise | Phil Parsons Racing | Ford | 318 | 12 |
| 33 | 28 | 34 | Joe Nemechek | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 318 | 0 |
| 34 | 30 | 23 | J. J. Yeley | BK Racing | Toyota | 316 | 0 |
| 35 | 40 | 26 | Jeb Burton | BK Racing | Toyota | 316 | 9 |
| 36 | 20 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 302 | 8 |
| 37 | 41 | 35 | Cole Whitt | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 295 | 7 |
| 38 | 4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 284 | 7 |
| 39 | 15 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 282 | 5 |
| 40 | 3 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 256 | 4 |
| 41 | 35 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 256 | 3 |
| 42 | 34 | 30 | Ron Hornaday Jr. | The Motorsports Group | Chevrolet | 187 | 2 |
| 43 | 43 | 40 | Landon Cassill | Hillman Smith Motorsports | Chevrolet | 92 | 0 |
Media
Television
Fox Sports will be covering their eleventh race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, and their first since 2010. Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip will have the call in the booth for the race. Jamie Little, Chris Neville, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum will handle the pit road duties for the television side.
| Fox Television | |
|---|---|
| Booth announcers | Pit reporters |
| Lap-by-lap: Mike Joy Color-commentator: Larry McReynolds Color commentator: Darrell Waltrip |
Matt Yocum Jamie Little Vince Welch Chris Neville |
Radio
PRN will have the radio call for the race which will also be simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow will call the race in the booth when the field is racing through the front stretch. Rob Albright will call the race from a billboard in turn 2 when the field is racing through turns 1 and 2 and halfway down the backstretch. Pat Patterson will call the race from atop the condos that lie outside of turn 4 when the field is racing through the other half of the backstretch and through turns 3 and 4. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Steve Richards and Wendy Venturini will work pit road for the radio side.
| PRN Radio | ||
|---|---|---|
| Booth announcers | Turn announcers | Pit reporters |
| Lead announcer: Doug Rice Announcer: Mark Garrow |
Turns 1 & 2: Rob Albright Turns 3 & 4: Pat Patterson |
Brett McMillan Steve Richards Brad Gillie Wendy Venturini |
Notes
- ^ Team XTREME Racing withdrew from the race after the trailer carrying their car was stolen from the team's hotel in the early hours of February 27, 2015.[11]
- ^ Kevin Harvick qualified second, but will start from the rear after losing an engine in the final practice session.[22]
- ^ Brian Scott, who qualified the car, gave up his seat to allow Michael Annett to race for drivers points.[23]
- ^ Tony Stewart will drop to the rear of the field for missing driver introductions.
- ^ Michael Annett, who originally failed to qualify for the race, will drive the No. 33 Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet in place of Brian Scott.[23]
References
- ^ "2015 NASCAR Schedule" (PDF). NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. August 26, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ "Atlanta Motor Speedway". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. January 3, 2013. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ "Entry list". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ "Test Session Results". MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. February 26, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ^ "First Practice Results". MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. February 27, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ^ "Qualifying Results". MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. February 27, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ^ "Final Practice Results". MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
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