At EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, most of the cars in the 40-car field passed pre-qualifying inspection smoothly, except for Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports, which failed twice before finally passing on the third attempt. Although they avoided a pass-through penalty, the team will face consequences for the inspection failures.
As a result, Larson’s car chief was ejected, and now the team has lost their pit stall selection. This means they will have to settle for whatever pit stall remains after other teams have made their choices. Apart from this issue, there were no other reported problems at the venue.
The qualifying session had to be shortened to just one round due to weather conditions and a lightning delay that caused a 30-minute delay. Larson, who historically had strong qualifying results in Atlanta, will be the 36th driver to hit the track. During the most recent race here, he qualified 17th, whereas his best position since the track reconfiguration has been third.
Furthermore, Hendrick Motorsports faced penalties after last weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity race at Pocono, following an issue with the No. 17 HMS Chevrolet driven by Chase Elliott. The part-time entry received a $40,000 fine, lost points, and their crew chief was suspended for three races as a result.
