HAMPTON, Ga. -- A photo finish at the line on Saturday afternoon capped off an exhilarating final stage of the Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This was not the standard event featuring wrecks and a caution on the white-flag lap.
According to drivers in the Truck Series field, Atlanta delivered an old-school feel that delighted them.
AT THE LINE. Kyle Busch WINS the Truck Series race at Atlanta! #NASCARonFS1 pic.twitter.com/9nfv83HGhf
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 22, 2025
"(It) kind of reminded me of being able to race in the late 2000s, early 2010s, and actually speedway race," race-winner Kyle Busch said in response to a question from AltDriver. "That was pretty fun."
Busch, who has eight Truck wins at Atlanta, said this after a race in which he sliced and diced his way through the field.
He received pushes from fellow competitors at times -- including the race-winning shove from Bayley Currey -- but he also made numerous moves on his own.
Of course, not every moment of the race had an old-school feel.
Saturday's Truck race started like a modern superspeedway race. The top line was dominant and drivers could not make moves without any help. This left them running single-file during the early stages.
"I was the first guy trying to get the bottom to work when the race started, and I lost all my track positions," Ben Rhodes told AltDriver after a seventh-place finish.
"I had no help, which sucked. So then we go to the back, and eventually, the track takes rubber, and then the bottom got a lot of help, and that started surging and being more prominent."
To Rhodes' point, the bottom line became a factor during the final stage of the race. Busch was in control on the top at multiple points, but drivers on the bottom kept clearing him for the lead as the end approached.
The series' winningest driver had to regain the top spot by diving to the bottom and sliding back up in front of them. He did this to such drivers as Grant Enfinger and Chandler Smith. He then used another aggressive move to get beside Stewart Friesen for the final drag race to the finish line.
And while Busch says the gaps were not as big as they were during his early days of superspeedway racing, they were good enough for him to make the moves he needed to win for the eighth time at Atlanta.
Yet Busch was not the only driver making these leapfrog moves throughout the final stage. Others did so while putting themselves in position for top-10 finishes.
"It's the closest thing we have to old-school speedway racing left and you can make single-car speed here," Tyler Ankrum told AltDriver after finishing third.
"You can suck guys back and leapfrog and do the slide jobs. You've just got to be really, really smart."
Having the ability to pull slide jobs on the mini-superspeedway is a welcome change for Truck Series competitors. They want to be in control of their destinies instead of simply riding around in a pack.
According to multiple drivers, Saturday's race was a step in the right direction. They expect this to only continue as the surface aggressively ages, which only makes them more excited about the future.
"I feel like in the next year or two, it's going to be in its golden era," Ankrum said.