2023 RAPTOR King of Tough 250

Race details
Race 5 of 33 of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series
Date	March 18, 2023
Official name	32nd Annual RAPTOR King of Tough 250
Location	Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Georgia
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km)
Distance	163 laps, 251 mi (403 km)
Scheduled Distance	163 laps, 251 mi (403 km)
Average speed	91.382 mph (147.065 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing
Grid positions set by competition-based formula
Most laps led
Driver	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	103
Winner
No. 21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	FS1
Announcers	Adam Alexander, Daniel Suárez, and Joey Logano
Radio in the United States
Radio	MRN

The 2023 RAPTOR King of Tough was the 5th stock car race of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the 32nd iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, March 18, 2023, in Hampton, Georgia at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.54 miles (2.48 km) permanent tri-oval shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 163 laps to complete. In a chaotic finish, Austin Hill, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would hold off the field on the final restart, and earn his fifth career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, and his third of the season.^[1] Hill dominated the race as well, leading 103 laps. To fill out the podium, Daniel Hemric, driving for Kaulig Racing, and Ryan Truex, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Background

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 Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.

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.^[2][3] The track has seating capacity of 71,000 to 125,000 people depending on the tracks configuration.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Starting lineup

Qualifying was scheduled to be held on Friday, March 17, at 4:30 PM EST, but was cancelled due to constant rain showers.^[4] The starting lineup would be determined by a performance-based metric system. As a result, Sammy Smith, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would earn the pole.^[5] Dawson Cram would fail to qualify.

Race results

Stage 1 Laps: 40

Stage 2 Laps: 40

Stage 3 Laps: 83

Penalties

During the first stage, Josh Williams sustained heavy damage on lap 27. When debris from his repaired car caused another caution, NASCAR parked him under the Damaged Vehicle Policy. In response, Williams stopped his car on the start/finish line and walked back to pit road with the car behind.^[7] As a result, NASCAR handed Williams a one-race suspension for the next race.^[8]

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Austin Hill 248 2 John Hunter Nemechek 202 (-46) 2 3 Riley Herbst 202 (–46) 4 Chandler Smith 171 (–77) 2 5 Justin Allgaier 164 (–84) 1 6 Sam Mayer 156 (–92) 1 7 Sammy Smith 148 (–100) 1 8 Josh Berry 148 (–100) 1 9 Cole Custer 147 (–101) 10 Daniel Hemric 145 (–103) 1 11 Parker Kligerman 142 (–106) 1 12 Sheldon Creed 137 (–111) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 12 positions are included for the driver standings.