2024 Raptor King of Tough 250

The 2024 Raptor King of Tough 250 was the 2nd stock car race of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the 33rd iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, a 1.54 mi permanent asphalt quad-oval shaped intermediate speedway (with superspeedway rules). The race was originally scheduled to be contested over 163 laps, but was increased to 169 laps due to a NASCAR overtime finish.Austin Hill, driving for Richard Childress Racing, took advantage of the lead on the final restart with two laps to go, and was able to stretch his fuel mileage to earn his 8th career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, his second of the season, and his second consecutive win. Hill's teammate, Jesse Love, was the most dominant driver of the race, winning both stages and leading a race-high 157 laps, before his car sputtered on the final restart. To fill out the podium, Chandler Smith, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, and Shane van Gisbergen, driving for Kaulig 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 Xfinity Series stock car races since 1992.

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 mi where before it was 1.522 mi. 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. 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.

Qualifying
Qualifying was held on Friday, February 23, at 5:00 PM EST. Since Atlanta Motor Speedway is an intermediate speedway with superspeedway rules, the qualifying system used is a single-car, single-lap system with two rounds. In the first round, drivers have one lap to set a time. The fastest ten drivers from the first round move on to the second round. Whoever sets the fastest time in Round 2 will win the pole.

Jesse Love, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would advance from the preliminary round and set the fastest time in Round 2, with a lap of 31.874, and a speed of 173.935 mph. He became the first driver in series history to earn two consecutive poles in his first two starts.

No drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results
Stage 1 Laps: 40 Stage 2 Laps: 40 Stage 3 Laps: 89

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings
 * Note: Only the first 12 positions are included for the driver standings.