Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. was the hot topic even as Kyle Busch won the pole Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton.

Busch will start in front Sunday in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, the second race of the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup season, after edging Ryan Newman. Busch won the pole with a lap of 184.652 mph.

Wallace will start 19th, in the middle of the 36-car field. Much of the talk Friday remained on his second-place finish in last week's Daytona 500 .

Wallace was the first black driver in the Daytona 500 field since 1969 . The second-place finish was the highest for a black driver and any rookie.

"It was just crazy, awesome," Wallace said Friday.

On Sunday, he'll be the first black Cup racer in an Atlanta race since Bill Lester finished 38th in 2006.

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Rose Scott signals as "Closer Look" goes on the air in the WABE studio. An Atlanta resident left WABE a $3 million donation, a boost after WABE lost $1.9 million in annual funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. (Ben Gray for the AJC 2023)

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