2017 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 2 of 36 in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series | |||
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| Date | March 4, 2017 | ||
| Location | Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km) |
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| Distance | 325 laps, 500.5 mi (806 km) | ||
| Average speed | 184.278 miles per hour (296.567 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Stewart-Haas Racing | ||
| Time | 29.118 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | |
| Laps | 293 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 2 | Brad Keselowski | Team Penske | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Fox | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | PRN | ||
| Booth Announcers | Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini | ||
| Turn Announcers | Rob Albright (1 & 2) and Pat Patterson (3 & 4) | ||
The 2017 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 is a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race scheduled to be held on March 5, 2017, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 325 laps on the 1.54-mile-long (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway, it will be the second race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
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-mile (2.48 km) quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a 1.5-mile (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-mile (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.
Ryan Newman was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.509 seconds and a speed of 187.875 mph (302.356 km/h).
Kevin Harvick scored the pole for the race with a time of 29.118 and a speed of 190.398 mph (306.416 km/h). He said in his last qualifying run, he "was able to carry more speed and do some things with the car that I wasn't able to do in the first two runs. At that point I just didn't want to screw it up, because I felt like I'd gotten to the green, which I didn't do in the second round. I got to the green good, I got through (Turns) 1 and 2 good. I just needed to hit the bottom and get that left front on the line so that it would hook and get up off the corner. That was by far the best of the three laps, and we saved it perfectly for the end."
Derrike Cope, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Michael McDowell, Cody Ware and Cole Whitt failed to post a timed lap because their cars didn't pass pre-qualifying inspection in time. This was a result of new procedures that require cars that fail any station of inspection to return to the garage to make adjustments.
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