“It reminded me of old-school Daytona”: Insiders deliver an honest take on one of the best tracks in NASCAR

NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi has praised the Atlanta Motor Speedway as one of NASCAR’s best tracks. He recently drew parallels between the current racing dynamics at the Atlanta track and the old Daytona International Speedway. The second race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season was just concluded at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday (February 23).

The Atlanta Motor Speedway was reconfigured in 2021 to produce superspeedway-style racing on the 1.54-mile track. As Atlanta’s surface has aged, it has begun to emulate the characteristics of the old Daytona, particularly in terms of handling and excitement.

Veteran NASCAR reporters Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck, in the latest episode of ‘The Teardown,” discussed the Atlanta track. Bianchi talked about how Atlanta has become one of the best tracks on the calendar, highlighting its exciting, old-school style of racing reminiscent of old Daytona, where drivers could make moves, handling mattered, and the field wasn’t entirely bunched up.

On the podcast, here’s what Bianchi said:

“Atlanta is one of the best tracks in NASCAR, and it's one of those tracks where you're like, Man, they're going to Atlanta, and it excites you, and for the majority of this race, it was really good. It was, the guys could make moves, everything you said, it was, it reminded me of old-school Daytona, you know, where you had a little bit of separation of time, the guys could make moves, handling was important”

“The focus shouldn't be like, oh my goodness, like we had another caution, like it sucks, like that happens, that's racing, like there's nothing you can do about that, you can't, you only can worry about what you can control, and guys are going to have these moments. It happens, unfortunately; that's the rules they've written.” [16:36]

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Christopher Bell wins on the last lap of this year’s NASCAR Atlanta Spring race

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell won Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta after prevailing in overtime. It was the second race of the season and served its stature splendidly.

Bell led only the final lap ahead of Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson while battling for the lead when a caution flag came out on the last lap to end the race and declared the #20 driver as the winner.

The Atlanta race produced 50 lead changes among 15 different drivers.

Catch Cup Series drivers and teams next at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday, March 2, 2025.