HAMPTON, Ga. — Two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch says for he and his team to make the playoffs, they need to do “what we’re paid to do and that’s to execute.”

Busch, who missed the playoffs last year and is winless in his last 74 Cup starts, said Friday that he sees a path to make the playoffs even without a victory.

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Busch enters Saturday night’s race at EchoPark Speedway 63 points below the cutline. Nine races remain in the regular season.

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Eleven drivers have won this season, leaving five playoff spots via points.

“I would say if you find another winner outside (a playoff spot), then I would say you’re in a must-win (situation),” Busch said Friday. “I would say right now, today, pointing your way in with no more new winners is certainly doable. Our biggest fault is just not being able to get stage points.”

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Busch has 19 stage points this season — 14 came at Circuit of the Americas in March. Busch’s stage point total ranks 26th among the 36 full-time drivers in the series.

Busch, who has one top-10 finish in the last nine races, noted that he and his team have to be strong the rest of the regular season to have a chance to make the playoffs.

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Kyle Busch has finished in the top 10 in all five races at Atlanta with Richard Childress Racing.

Busch starts Saturday night’s race 29th, but this has been his best track since joining Richard Childress Racing after the 2022 season. He has scored five consecutive top-10 finishes at Atlanta.

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Putting together a string of top-10 finishes is challenging. No driver has scored more than four top 10s in a row this season.

“I think it just boils down to all of us on our team being accountable,” Busch said. “Pit crew, myself, (crew chief) Randall (Burnett), engineers, everybody and being able to do what we know how to do and what we’re paid to do and that’s to execute. It starts here this weekend.”

HAMPTON, Ga. — The debut of NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge in Saturday night’s Cup Series race in Atlanta generated differing opinions and expectations from drivers.

After all, there’s a points race to attend to. Every team’s top priority is qualifying for the playoffs and trying to win the championship. Some drivers acknowledge they simply haven’t paid attention to the new race within the race.

Joey Logano says he sees no reason to view the new tournament as a distraction.

“If there’s something to win, you want to go win it,” Logano said Friday before winning the pole for Saturday night’s race in his Team Penske Ford.

Denny Hamlin is the No. 1 seed in the 32-driver In-Season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament. Chase Briscoe, who held off Hamlin for his first win for Joe Gibbs Racing last week at Pocono Raceway, is the No. 2 seed. A $1 million prize awaits the winner as part of a new media rights deal that includes TNT.

Briscoe said Friday he felt “definitely a sigh of relief, you know, just a weight off your shoulders” following last week’s win. He said that sense of relief was shortlived.

“I’m expected to win multiple races, not just one,” Briscoe said. “It’s a sense of relief, but also more pressure because now they know you can win.”

NASCAR hopes the tournament generates mid-season interest. The single-elimination format cuts the field to 16 at Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four at Dover and the final two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Many drivers expect their interest in the tournament will increase after Saturday night’s race.

“I think some of the drivers have been kind of dismissive over the bracket challenge,” said Brad Keselowski, who enters the race No. 30 in the points standings and in need of a win in Atlanta to earn a playoff spot in his RFK Racing Ford.

“I think it’ll become a lot more real, whether it be for the drivers or for the media or the fans, as it progresses into the later rounds over the next few weeks,” Keselowski said.

Added Ricky Stenhouse, who is 24th in the points race, of the new tournament: “It’s cool. I think after this weekend you’ll have a little better idea of what you have. Our main goal in Atlanta is winning and getting into the playoffs.”

Team Penske claimed four of the top five qualifying positions and Ford claimed all of the top five spots.

Logano was first at 178.960 mph, tying Josh Berry, who drives for Wood Brothers but has a technical alliance with Team Penske. Ryan Blaney qualified third and Austin Cindric was one spot back for Team Penske, while Ryan Preece, in another Ford for RFK Racing, was fifth.

“It definitely helps at the start for sure,” Logano said. “Being at the front and controlling the race is the thing for sure.”

Briscoe is facing No. 31 seed Noah Gragson in the first bracket. He says it’s a difficult matchup, in part because “he’s actually probably my best friend on the circuit … and my son’s favorite driver.”

Briscoe said his 3-year-old son, Brooks, thinks of Gragson “like that uncle that just you take your kid to, and he has Pop-Tarts and ice cream and everything else when he’s with them.”

Added Briscoe: “Hopefully I’ll win. If not I’ll never here the end of it from Noah or my son.”

Briscoe posted a photo on his X account of his son’s bracket. The photo shows the smiling Brooks holding a bracket with his father’s No. 19 winning every round of the tournament.

Chase Elliott has a special paint scheme on his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that was designed by 11-year-old cancer patient Rhealynn Mills. Elliott chose Mills’ design to highlight his foundation’s efforts to raise money for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Elliott said the “Design to Drive” program has raised $500,000 for the children’s hospital.

“The only bad thing is I feel like we’ve crashed every time we’ve done it,” Elliott said, adding his sponsor, NAPA Auto Parts, deserved credit “for giving up the car” so the paint scheme could instead feature Mills’ design.

EchoPark Speedway is the new name for the track that was still known as Atlanta Motor Speedway in February when Christopher Bell won while leading only the final lap in overtime. It’s the home track for Elliott, from Dawsonville, Georgia, and he acknowledged seeing the name change and the new green paint “was different for me. I think it’s fine.”

Ryan Blaney is the favorite (+800) to win the race, per BetMGM Sportsbook. Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, each at +1000, were next.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

HAMPTON, Ga. – The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second time in 2025.