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The 2024 Raptor King of Tough 250 was the 2nd stock car race of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the 33rd iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, a 1.54 miles (2.48 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval shaped intermediate speedway (with superspeedway rules). The race was originally scheduled to be contested over 163 laps, but was increased to 169 laps due to a NASCAR overtime finish.Austin Hill, driving for Richard Childress Racing, took advantage of the lead on the final restart with two laps to go, and was able to stretch his fuel mileage to earn his 8th career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, his second of the season, and his second consecutive win.[8] Hill's teammate, Jesse Love, was the most dominant driver of the race, winning both stages and leading a race-high 157 laps, before his car sputtered on the final restart.[9] To fill out the podium, Chandler Smith, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, and Shane van Gisbergen, driving for Kaulig Racing, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
| Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 2 of 33 of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series | |||
 | |||
| Date | February 24, 2024 | ||
| Official name | 33rd Annual Raptor King of Tough 250 | ||
| Location | Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia | ||
| Course |
Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km) | ||
| Distance | 169 laps, 260 mi (418 km) | ||
| Scheduled Distance | 163 laps, 251 mi (404 km) | ||
| Average speed | 135.474 mph (218.024 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Richard Childress Racing | ||
| Time | 31.874 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Jesse Love | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Laps | 157 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 21 | Austin Hill | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | FS1 | ||
| Announcers | Adam Alexander, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | PRN | ||
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Background
Atlanta Motor Speedway is a 1.54-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Xfinity Series stock car races since 1992.
The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate 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, with a new official length of 1.54-mile (2.48 km) where before it was 1.522-mile (2.449 km). The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit. In July 2021 NASCAR announced that the track would be reprofiled for the 2022 season to have 28 degrees of banking and would be narrowed from 55 to 40 feet which the track claims will turn racing at the track similar to restrictor plate superspeedways. Despite the reprofiling being criticized by drivers, construction began in August 2021 and wrapped up in December 2021.[10][11] The track has seating capacity of 71,000 to 125,000 people depending on the tracks configuration.
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
- (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
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Qualifying was held on Friday, February 23, at 5:00 PM EST.[12] Since Atlanta Motor Speedway is an intermediate speedway with superspeedway rules, the qualifying system used is a single-car, single-lap system with two rounds. In the first round, drivers have one lap to set a time. The fastest ten drivers from the first round move on to the second round. Whoever sets the fastest time in Round 2 will win the pole.[13]
Jesse Love, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would advance from the preliminary round and set the fastest time in Round 2, with a lap of 31.874, and a speed of 173.935 mph (279.921 km/h). He became the first driver in series history to earn two consecutive poles in his first two starts.[14]
No drivers would fail to qualify.
Qualifying results
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Stage 1 Laps: 40
| Pos. | # | Driver | Team | Make | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Jesse Love (R) | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 2 | 98 | Riley Herbst | Stewart–Haas Racing | Ford | 9 |
| 3 | 1 | Sam Mayer | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 8 |
| 4 | 19 | Ryan Truex | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 7 |
| 5 | 48 | Parker Kligerman | Big Machine Racing | Chevrolet | 6 |
| 6 | 16 | A. J. Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 5 |
| 7 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 4 |
| 8 | 18 | Sheldon Creed | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 3 |
| 9 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | RSS Racing | Ford | 2 |
| 10 | 8 | Sammy Smith | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 1 |
Stage 2 Laps: 40
| Pos. | # | Driver | Team | Make | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Jesse Love (R) | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 2 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 3 | 98 | Riley Herbst | Stewart–Haas Racing | Ford | 8 |
| 4 | 19 | Ryan Truex | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 7 |
| 5 | 8 | Sammy Smith | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 6 |
| 6 | 81 | Chandler Smith | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 5 |
| 7 | 00 | Cole Custer | Stewart–Haas Racing | Ford | 4 |
| 8 | 21 | Austin Hill | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 3 |
| 9 | 16 | A. J. Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 2 |
| 10 | 18 | Sheldon Creed | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 1 |
Stage 3 Laps: 89
| Fin[15] | St | # | Driver | Team | Make | Laps | Led | Status | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 21 | Austin Hill | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 169 | 2 | Running | 43 |
| 2 | 12 | 81 | Chandler Smith | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 169 | 0 | Running | 40 |
| 3 | 13 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen (R) | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 169 | 0 | Running | 34 |
| 4 | 10 | 18 | Sheldon Creed | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 169 | 0 | Running | 37 |
| 5 | 24 | 31 | Parker Retzlaff | Jordan Anderson Racing | Chevrolet | 169 | 0 | Running | 32 |
| 6 | 23 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Jeremy Clements Racing | Chevrolet | 169 | 0 | Running | 31 |
| 7 | 15 | 5 | Anthony Alfredo | Our Motorsports | Chevrolet | 169 | 0 | Running | 30 |
| 8 | 22 | 26 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Sam Hunt Racing | Toyota | 169 | 0 | Running | 29 |
| 9 | 8 | 19 | Ryan Truex | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 169 | 0 | Running | 42 |
| 10 | 14 | 8 | Sammy Smith | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 169 | 0 | Running | 34 |
| 11 | 6 | 1 | Sam Mayer | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 169 | 0 | Running | 34 |
| 12 | 1 | 2 | Jesse Love (R) | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 169 | 157 | Running | 45 |
| 13 | 7 | 16 | A. J. Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 169 | 8 | Running | 31 |
| 14 | 18 | 9 | Brandon Jones | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 169 | 0 | Running | 23 |
| 15 | 4 | 98 | Riley Herbst | Stewart–Haas Racing | Ford | 168 | 0 | Running | 39 |
| 16 | 11 | 00 | Cole Custer | Stewart–Haas Racing | Ford | 168 | 0 | Running | 25 |
| 17 | 17 | 91 | Kyle Weatherman | DGM Racing | Chevrolet | 168 | 0 | Running | 20 |
| 18 | 21 | 78 | B. J. McLeod | B. J. McLeod Motorsports | Chevrolet | 168 | 0 | Running | 19 |
| 19 | 5 | 48 | Parker Kligerman | Big Machine Racing | Chevrolet | 168 | 1 | Running | 24 |
| 20 | 30 | 44 | Brennan Poole | Alpha Prime Racing | Chevrolet | 167 | 0 | Running | 17 |
| 21 | 35 | 42 | Leland Honeyman (R) | Young's Motorsports | Chevrolet | 167 | 0 | Running | 16 |
| 22 | 20 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | RSS Racing | Ford | 167 | 0 | Running | 17 |
| 23 | 25 | 27 | Jeb Burton | Jordan Anderson Racing | Chevrolet | 167 | 0 | Running | 14 |
| 24 | 36 | 14 | J. J. Yeley | SS-Green Light Racing | Chevrolet | 167 | 0 | Running | 13 |
| 25 | 34 | 43 | Ryan Ellis | Alpha Prime Racing | Chevrolet | 167 | 0 | Running | 12 |
| 26 | 31 | 92 | Nick Leitz | DGM Racing | Chevrolet | 167 | 0 | Running | 11 |
| 27 | 19 | 15 | Hailie Deegan (R) | AM Racing | Ford | 167 | 0 | Running | 10 |
| 28 | 9 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 167 | 0 | Running | 22 |
| 29 | 33 | 35 | Joey Gase | Joey Gase Motorsports | Chevrolet | 166 | 0 | Running | 8 |
| 30 | 28 | 29 | Blaine Perkins | RSS Racing | Ford | 166 | 0 | Running | 7 |
| 31 | 29 | 4 | Dawson Cram (R) | JD Motorsports | Chevrolet | 166 | 0 | Running | 6 |
| 32 | 3 | 20 | John Hunter Nemechek (i) | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 165 | 0 | Running | 0 |
| 33 | 37 | 07 | Patrick Emerling | SS-Green Light Racing | Chevrolet | 165 | 0 | Running | 4 |
| 34 | 32 | 6 | Garrett Smithley | JD Motorsports | Chevrolet | 165 | 0 | Running | 3 |
| 35 | 27 | 38 | C. J. McLaughlin | RSS Racing | Ford | 164 | 0 | Running | 2 |
| 36 | 26 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | RSS Racing | Ford | 164 | 1 | Running | 1 |
| 37 | 16 | 11 | Josh Williams | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 159 | 0 | Running | 1 |
| 38 | 38 | 32 | Jordan Anderson | Jordan Anderson Racing | Chevrolet | 98 | 0 | Steering | 1 |
| Official race results | |||||||||
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