The Quik Trip 500 in Atlanta Sunday was one of the most exciting and competitive races of the 2022 NASCAR Season, thus far. William Byron took the checkered flag for his 1st win of the year. It marks the 5th different driver to win in the first 5 races of the season, which is an example of parity and the competitiveness the new generation car brings with it.
Byron was able to get around Bubba Wallace and take the lead on lap 316 of 325. Byron would not relinquish that lead, which was somewhat surprising given the nature of Sunday's race. The 500 had 46 lead changes with 20 different drivers having the lead at some point. Both are new track records in Atlanta, the lead change record breaks the previous one which held for 40 years. It was 1982 when the prior record was set in Atlanta, in a race that was one by Bobby Allison.
Their were 11 cautions in the race which has been a theme this year, as 2022 has set early season caution records as well. Notables like Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick were all involved in crashes. None of them were able to overcome those setbacks to drive their way into a top 10 finish.
Chevrolet ruled the day in Atlanta, as four Chevy drivers finished in the top 5 and 6 in the top 10. Ross Chastain finished 2nd behind Byron, Kurt Busch had a nice run to finish 3rd, the only Toyota in the top 5. Daniel Suarez continues to have an impressive early start to the season taking 4th. Corey Lajoie got his first Top 5 of the season thus far, finishing 5th. 6-10 in order, were Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher (one of two Ford drivers in the top 10), Martin Truex (the other Toyota in the top 10), Joey Logano (the other Ford driver) and Alex Bowman.