NASCAR: 5 Lessons Learned From the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta

The first 1.5 mile race was this past Sunday at Atlanta and while Kevin Harvick dominated the race, it would be Brad Keselowski who ended up in Victory Lane. Here are five lessons learned from the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

NASCAR made one last stop on the east coast this weekend before they head west, but if the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway is any indication of what fans can expect from 1.5 mile tracks in the future, races on these cookie cutter tracks are going to lack a lot of excitement.

One of the biggest things fans where watching heading into Atlanta were the new stages NASCAR has implemented for each race and if they would have the same impact that they did at Daytona.

Unfortunately stages only slowed down the race and did not change the race leader, who was Kevin Harvick throughout the start of all three stages. In fact Harvick only lost the lead at the end of the race because of his own mistake, as he was caught speeding on pit road when he went in during the final caution of the race.

Harvick wasn’t the only driver with issues on pit road though. Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott and Matt Kenseth also had issues with speeding on pit road. Speeding issues were the biggest factor at Atlanta and ended up impacting the finish of the race and let Brad Keselowski get out in front and win his first race of the season.

The first 1.5 mile track of the year gave fans a preview of what they can expect at other cookie cutter tracks this season.

Here are five lessons learned from the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta.