The 2015 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on March 1, 2015, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The series was named after co-sponsors, QuikTrip and the nonprofit, Folds of Honor, and it helped raise funds to provide educational assistance to families of U.S. service members killed or disabled in the line of duty. Contested over 325 laps on the asphalt quad-oval, it was the second race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Jimmie Johnson won the race, his first win of the season, while Kevin Harvick finished second. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.

Logano won the pole for the race in a qualifying session that saw 13 cars not post a single timed lap in the first of three rounds. Harvick led a race high of 116 laps on his way to a runner-up finish and his fifth of eight consecutive races finishing first or second. The race had 28 lead changes among 12 different drivers, as well as 10 caution flag periods for 54 laps. There was one red flag for a multi-car wreck in the closing laps of the race that lasted for nine minutes and one second.

Johnson's 71st career victory was his 4th at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the 13th at the track for Hendrick Motorsports. Despite the win, he left Atlanta trailing Logano by one point in the drivers' standings. Chevrolet took over the lead in the manufacturer standings by one over Ford.

The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was carried by Fox Sports on the broadcast Fox network for the American television audience. The radio broadcast for the race was carried by the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Report

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a track in Hampton, Georgia, south of Atlanta. It is a quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 86,000. It opened in 1960 as a 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 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.

Joey Logano entered the race as the points leader for the first time in his career following his win in the Daytona 500. Kevin Harvick, who dominated the race a year ago – leading 195 of the 325 laps before finishing 19th following a late race crash – entered second in the points five back of Logano, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. also entered five points back in third place. Jeff Gordon, who made his first career Sprint Cup Series start at Atlanta in 1992, made his 42nd and final start at the track.

Entry list The entry list for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was released on Monday, February 23, 2015, at 3:07 p.m. Eastern time. Forty-eight drivers were entered for the race, all of whom were entered in the previous week's Daytona 500. Mike Bliss drove the No. 32 Ford for Go FAS Racing. Travis Kvapil drove the No. 44 Chevrolet for Team XTREME Racing in place of Reed Sorenson, who took over the No. 29 Toyota for RAB Racing. Brendan Gaughan drove the No. 62 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports. Matt DiBenedetto ran the No. 83 Toyota for BK Racing. The No. 98 car for Phil Parsons Racing was entered as a Chevrolet entry.

Driver Team Manufacturer 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 2 Brad Keselowski (PC3) Team Penske Ford 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 4 Kevin Harvick (PC1) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 7 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 14 Tony Stewart (PC4) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 18 David Ragan Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 20 Matt Kenseth (PC5) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 23 J. J. Yeley (i) BK Racing Toyota 24 Jeff Gordon (PC6) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 26 Jeb Burton (R) BK Racing Toyota 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29 Reed Sorenson RAB Racing Toyota 30 Ron Hornaday Jr. The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 32 Mike Bliss Go FAS Racing Ford 33 Brian Scott (i) Hillman–Circle Sport Chevrolet 34 Joe Nemechek (i) Front Row Motorsports Ford 35 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford 38 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 40 Landon Cassill (i) Hillman–Circle Sport Chevrolet 41 Regan Smith (i) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 44 Travis Kvapil (i) Team XTREME Racing Chevrolet 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 48 Jimmie Johnson (PC2) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 55 Brett Moffitt (R) Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 62 Brendan Gaughan (i) Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 66 Mike Wallace Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 83 Matt DiBenedetto (R) BK Racing Toyota 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 95 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Ford 98 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Ford Official initial entry listOfficial updated entry list Key Meaning (R) Rookie (i) Ineligible for points (PC#) Past champions provisional

Substitute drivers Several substitute drivers took part in the race. Brett Moffitt drove the No. 55 Toyota in place of Brian Vickers, who would return to the car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the series' next scheduled race. Regan Smith once again drove the No. 41 Chevrolet in place of the suspended Kurt Busch. David Ragan was entered to run the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, but was selected to run the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in place of the injured Kyle Busch. Team owner Joe Gibbs stated that his team appreciated "being able to work with Front Row Motorsports and (sponsor) CSX for David's availability", while also adding that the team "are fortunate to be able to have someone of David's caliber behind the wheel while Kyle recovers". On February 25, Front Row announced that Joe Nemechek would drive the No. 34 car in place of Ragan, with plans beyond that to be determined.

Test sessions This weekend was the first of five race weekends that included an open test session for any team that wished to participate in it.

First session Jamie McMurray was the fastest in the first test session with a time of 28.943 and a speed of .

Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.943 191.549 2 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 29.149 190.195 3 4 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 29.202 189.850Official first session results

Second session Jeff Gordon was the fastest in the second test session with a time of 29.423 and a speed of .

Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.423 188.424 2 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 29.424 188.418 3 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 29.479 188.066Official second session results

Missing car

Early Friday morning, a black Ford dually pulling a white trailer carrying the No. 44 Team XTREME Racing Chevrolet was stolen from the team's hotel in Morrow, Georgia. The team's hauler was at the race track having left their race shop in Statesville, North Carolina two days earlier. The car was brought down separately to allow more work to be done on it at the shop. Since the team did not have a backup car, they were forced to withdraw from the race. Ultimately, the car was found the following morning in Loganville, around northeast of Morrow.

On August 3, 2015, Jason Terry pleaded guilty to the theft of the truck and trailer carrying the team car. The team tweeted about the guilty plea and "[h]ow bad this affected this race team."

First practice Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.727 and a speed of .

Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.727 192.989 2 4 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 28.784 192.607 3 18 David Ragan Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.793 192.547Official first practice results

Qualifying

Joey Logano won the pole with a time of 28.477 and a speed of . Logano felt that it was "such a great way to follow Daytona" and that his team "ha[d] a lot of momentum and [they] definitely want to keep it going". The start of qualifying was delayed by 20 minutes because a number of cars had to go through NASCAR technical inspection more than once. Eventually, NASCAR decided to start the session anyway. As a result, 13 of the 47 cars never had a chance to post a lap time before the first round of qualifying ended. The issues angered several drivers and team managers.

Qualifying results