BRASELTON, Ga. — After 45 minutes of elbows-out racing, seven lead changes, and multiple intense restarts, it was Bobby Gossett (No. 44 BSI Racing) who raced to the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin Race 1 win on Thursday. His Road Atlanta victory helped to grow his lead in the championship fight.
The top three drivers in the championship battle, all fighting to secure the $250,000 prize from Mazda with just one race to go in the 2026 season, monopolized the podium as Justin Adakonis (No. 23 McCumbee McAleer Racing) finished in second and Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) came home third.
Gossett, who entered the race weekend leading the championship, grew his advantage over both Adakonis and Thomas in the standings after a remarkable run that started from 22nd on the grid to earn him the Penske “Shocking Performance” award for his huge push forward to victory.
Pole-sitting Frankie Barroso (No. 48 Spark Performance) led the field to green, but it was Ethan Goulart (No. 29 Saito Motorsports Group) into the lead on lap one. At the close of the opening lap, the first of two full-course cautions came out to remove Charlotte Traynor’s (No. 43 Parker DeLong Racing) stranded machine in Turn 10.
The restart saw Nathan Nicholson (No. 56 Advanced Autosports) move to the point, before Barroso retook the lead. Race officials were not too happy with the interaction the two drivers had in that lead change and issued Barroso a 10-second post-race penalty. Luckily for Barroso, the penalty and subsequent 18th-place finish did not harm his campaign for Rookie of the Year, which he mathematically clinched.
Goulart was back in the lead before the second full-course caution, but the real story was Gossett who was up to eighth and directly ahead of Adakonis for the restart.
Adakonis picked his way to the front quicker than Gossett and briefly took the lead, but it might have been too soon. Barroso and Goulart were determined to get back to the race lead and fought the MMR driver for it. This was exactly what Gossett needed to get around Adakonis and into the lead.
On the final lap, Adakonis was back in fourth, but made his way back to Gossett’s bumper with a brave move into Turn 10. It wasn’t enough though and Gossett held the advantage to the checkered flag, taking victory by 0.320-second.
“I think we got lucky there,” Gossett said.” I made quite a few mistakes, but there were some good passes in there too. I was just picking them off and I had a lot of friends out there,” said Gossett. “I think a lot of people know we are in the championship battle and they respect that. I’m glad to have a lot of friends out there-I can’t say that enough.”
After losing his championship advantage when a mechanical issue in Indianapolis cost him significant points, Adakonis is putting that out of his mind and looking to return to the points lead when it matters—after Friday’s final race. He’ll need to overcome a 120-point gap to Gossett.
“You know, it’s just another race in the schedule, and that was kind of our approach going into it is ‘whatever happens, happens,’ said Adakonis about his approach for the penultimate race. “You know, if I think about where Bobby’s [Gossett] at, thinking about where Jared’s at, but it’s not going to make any difference to me. I’m going 100 percent anyway and can only control what I can control, and I think we had a really great race.
“Overall, it’s really solid race, it’s obviously unfortunate that Bobby won as far as the points because I think we ran a really good race. But congrats to Bobby, man. He’s done great this year. So we’ll get him tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a close one for sure. I know the points say otherwise, but I think it’s going to be a tight race.”
Looking at potentially taking a break from racing in the Championship next year, the two-time champion Thomas put himself in the mix midway through the race, holding the lead and running in podium contention through the final stages to add yet another podium to his remarkable Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup career. Despite losing ground to both, he keeps his hat in the ring for the title with a 190-point deficit to Gossett.
“That’s really been the way it has been all year,” Thomas said of the hard-fought race all the way through the field. “That’s pretty standard operating for these guys. So, it was just about trying to keep your equipment under you and not get it wrecked too bad. I am not thinking about the points, but you have to just focus to do the best you can. That’s the goal, and the points come out, how they come out.”
