2016 Heads Up Georgia 250

Race details
Race 2 of 33 in the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series
Date	February 27, 2016
Official name	25th annual Heads Up Georgia 250
Location	Hampton, Georgia, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km)
Distance	163 laps, 251.02 mi (403.98 km)
Scheduled Distance	163 laps, 251.02 mi (403.98 km)
Average speed	137.065 miles per hour (220.585 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing
Time	29.887
Most laps led
Driver	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing
Laps	119
Winner
No. 18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing
Television in the United States
Network	FS1
Announcers	Adam Alexander, Clint Bowyer, and Michael Waltrip
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The 2016 Heads Up Georgia 250 was the 2nd stock car race of the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and the 25th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, February 27, 2016, in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta Motor Speedway a 1.54 miles (2.48 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 163 laps to complete. Kyle Busch, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing led a dominating 119 laps, holding off Kyle Larson late to earn his 77th career NASCAR Xfinity Series win and his first of the season.^[1] To fill out the podium, Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing and Erik Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in Hampton, Georgia, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It is a 1.54-mile (2.48 km) quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two 1.5-mile (2.4 km) 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. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Practice

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Saturday, February 20, at 8:30 AM EST. Since Atlanta Motor Speedway is under 2 miles (3.2 km), the qualifying system was a multi-car system that included three rounds. The first round was 15 minutes, where every driver would be able to set a lap within the 15 minutes. Then, the second round would consist of the fastest 24 cars in Round 1, and drivers would have 10 minutes to set a lap. Round 3 consisted of the fastest 12 drivers from Round 2, and the drivers would have 5 minutes to set a time. Whoever was fastest in Round 3 would win the pole.^[5]

Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing would win the pole after advancing from the preliminary round and setting the fastest lap in Round 3, with a time of 29.887 and an average speed of 185.499 mph (298.532 km/h).^[6]

Nobody failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Elliott Sadler 70 2 Daniel Suarez 67 (-3) 3 Ty Dillon 65 (–5) 4 Brandon Jones 64 (–6) 5 Justin Allgaier 63 (–7) 6 Brendan Gaughan 60 (-10) 7 Bubba Wallace 58 (-12) 8 Blake Koch 53 (-17) 9 Ryan Reed 51 (-19) 10 Jeremy Clements 50 (-20) 11 Erik Jones (R) 48 (-22) 11 Jeb Burton 48 (-22) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 12 positions are included for the driver standings.

References