2026 Autotrader 400
| Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 2 of 36 in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series | ||
 | ||
| Date | February 22, 2026 | |
| Location | EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia | |
| Course | Permanent racing facility | |
| Course length | 1.54 miles (2.48 km) | |
| Distance | 271 laps, 417.34 mi (672.08 km) | |
| Scheduled distance | 260 laps, 400.4 mi (644.4 km) | |
| Weather | Sunny with a temperature around 48 °F (9 °C); wind out of the northwest at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h). | |
| Average speed | 117.865 miles per hour (189.685 km/h) | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver | 23XI Racing | |
| Grid positions set by competition-based formula | ||
| Most laps led | ||
| Driver | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing |
| Laps | 53 | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver | Cole Custer | Haas Factory Team |
| Time | 29.715 | |
| Winner | ||
| No. 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing |
| Television in the United States | ||
| Network | Fox | |
| Announcers | Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Kevin Harvick | |
| Nielsen ratings | 4.487 million | |
| Radio in the United States | ||
| Radio | PRN | |
| Booth announcers | Brad Gillie and Nick Yeoman | |
| Turn announcers | Doug Turnbull (1 & 2) and Jack Johnson (3 & 4) |
The 2026 Autotrader 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on February 22, 2026, at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 271 laps on the 1.54-mile-long (2.48 km) asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway (with superspeedway rules), extended from the original 260 laps due to a overtime finish, it was the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Tyler Reddick won the race. Chase Briscoe finished 2nd, and Ross Chastain finished 3rd. Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suárez rounded out the top five, and Shane van Gisbergen, Zane Smith, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top ten.
Report
[edit]Background
[edit]
EchoPark Speedway (commonly referred to as 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.[7][8] The track has seating capacity of 71,000 to 125,000 people depending on the tracks configuration.
On June 3, 2025, SMI announced the track's renaming to EchoPark Speedway under a new seven-year sponsorship deal with the Smith family-owned business, EchoPark. The renaming ended a 35-year stint under the Atlanta Motor Speedway name.[9]
On August 20, 2025, when the schedule was unveiled, Autotrader was announced as the title sponsor for EchoPark's spring race, replacing Ambetter Health.[10]
Entry list
[edit]- (R) denotes rookie driver.
- (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Qualifying
[edit]Qualifying for the race was canceled due to inclement weather. Tyler Reddick was awarded the pole for the race as a result of NASCAR's pandemic formula with a score of 1.000.[11]
Starting lineup
[edit]Race
[edit]Race results
[edit]Stage Results
[edit]Stage One Laps: 60
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | 10 |
| 2 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 9 |
| 3 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 8 |
| 4 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 7 |
| 5 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 6 |
| 6 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 5 |
| 7 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 4 |
| 8 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 3 |
| 9 | 88 | Connor Zilisch (R) | Trackhouse Racing | Chevrolet | 2 |
| 10 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 1 |
Stage Two Laps: 100
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 10 |
| 2 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 3 | 19 | Chase Briscoe | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 8 |
| 4 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 7 |
| 5 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 6 |
| 6 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 5 |
| 7 | 60 | Ryan Preece | RFK Racing | Ford | 4 |
| 8 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 3 |
| 9 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Ford | 2 |
| 10 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Trackhouse Racing | Chevrolet | 1 |
Final Stage Results
[edit]Stage Three Laps: 100
| Pos | Grid | No | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 271 | 67 |
| 2 | 34 | 19 | Chase Briscoe | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 271 | 43 |
| 3 | 21 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing | Chevrolet | 271 | 34 |
| 4 | 15 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 271 | 38 |
| 5 | 12 | 7 | Daniel Suárez | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 271 | 32 |
| 6 | 28 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Trackhouse Racing | Chevrolet | 271 | 32 |
| 7 | 6 | 38 | Zane Smith | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 271 | 30 |
| 8 | 9 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 271 | 48 |
| 9 | 26 | 60 | Ryan Preece | RFK Racing | Ford | 271 | 32 |
| 10 | 22 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 271 | 31 |
| 11 | 4 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 271 | 38 |
| 12 | 19 | 16 | A. J. Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 271 | 25 |
| 13 | 29 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 271 | 24 |
| 14 | 11 | 4 | Noah Gragson | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 271 | 23 |
| 15 | 7 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | Ford | 271 | 22 |
| 16 | 17 | 10 | Ty Dillon | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 271 | 21 |
| 17 | 5 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Ford | 271 | 22 |
| 18 | 2 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 271 | 22 |
| 19 | 24 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Legacy Motor Club | Toyota | 271 | 18 |
| 20 | 20 | 71 | Michael McDowell | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 271 | 17 |
| 21 | 32 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 271 | 16 |
| 22 | 27 | 41 | Cole Custer | Haas Factory Team | Chevrolet | 270 | 16 |
| 23 | 36 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 269 | 14 |
| 24 | 23 | 43 | Erik Jones | Legacy Motor Club | Toyota | 269 | 13 |
| 25 | 35 | 34 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 258 | 12 |
| 26 | 30 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | 257 | 21 |
| 27 | 18 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | Chevrolet | 257 | 10 |
| 28 | 13 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 256 | 25 |
| 29 | 33 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 256 | 8 |
| 30 | 31 | 88 | Connor Zilisch (R) | Trackhouse Racing | Chevrolet | 223 | 9 |
| 31 | 38 | 44 | J. J. Yeley (i) | NY Racing Team | Chevrolet | 220 | 0 |
| 32 | 16 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 160 | 13 |
| 33 | 8 | 35 | Riley Herbst | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 157 | 4 |
| 34 | 14 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 124 | 7 |
| 35 | 37 | 78 | B. J. McLeod | Live Fast Motorsports | Chevrolet | 111 | 2 |
| 36 | 3 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Hyak Motorsports | Chevrolet | 103 | 1 |
| 37 | 25 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 81 | 1 |
| 38 | 10 | 21 | Josh Berry | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 81 | 1 |
| Official race results |
Race statistics
[edit]- Lead changes: 57 among 14 different drivers
- Cautions/Laps: 10 for 67 laps
- Red flags: 1 for 10 minutes and 31 seconds
- Time of race: 3 hours, 32 minutes and 27 seconds
- Average speed: 117.865 miles per hour (189.685 km/h)
Media
[edit]Television
[edit]NASCAR on Fox carried the race in the United States. Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and three-time Atlanta winner Kevin Harvick called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little, Regan Smith, and Josh Sims handled pit road for the television side, and Larry McReynolds provided insight on-site during the race.
| Fox | ||
|---|---|---|
| Booth announcers | Pit reporters | In-race analyst |
| Lap-by-lap: Mike Joy Color-commentator: Clint Bowyer Color-commentator: Kevin Harvick | Jamie Little Regan Smith Josh Sims | Larry McReynolds |
Radio
[edit]The race was broadcast on radio by the Performance Racing Network and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Brad Gillie and Nick Yeoman called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front stretch. Doug Turnbull called the race from atop a billboard outside of turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2, and Jack Johnson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. On pit road, PRN was manned by Brett McMillan, Andrew Kurland and Wendy Venturini.
| PRN | ||
|---|---|---|
| Booth announcers | Turn announcers | Pit reporters |
| Lead announcer: Brad Gillie Announcer: Nick Yeoman | Turns 1 & 2: Doug Turnbull Turns 3 & 4: Jack Johnson | Brett McMillan Andrew Kurland Wendy Venturini |
Standings after the race
[edit]
|
|
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "2026 schedule". Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. Retrieved October 25, 2025.
- ↑ "Atlanta Motor Speedway". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. January 3, 2013. Archived from the original on February 19, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
- ↑ "NASCAR releases 2026 schedule, adding Chicagoland and shifting All-Star to Dover". NASCAR. August 20, 2025. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
- ↑ "Entry List" (PDF). Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. February 16, 2025. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ↑ "Autotrader 400 Results". Racing-Reference. February 22, 2026. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
- ↑ "Points standings" (PDF). Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. February 22, 2026. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
- ↑ "Atlanta Motor Speedway to re-profile track in 2022 and drivers are expressing frustration with the changes". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
- ↑ "Atlanta Motor Speedway track reprofile begins | NASCAR". Official Site Of NASCAR. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
- ↑ Spanberg, Erik (June 3, 2025). "NASCAR track in Atlanta gets new name with Charlotte ties". Charlotte Business Journals. Retrieved June 3, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ↑ "Autotrader 400". EchoPark Speedway. July 21, 2025.
- ↑ DeGroot, Nick (February 21, 2026). "Atlanta NASCAR Cup qualifying cancelled, Tyler Reddick on pole". Motorsport.com. Hampton, Georgia: Motorsport Network. Retrieved February 21, 2026.
