atlanta motor speedway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – With wrecks erupting behind him, Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag in overtime under caution in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway—and then he remembered. Almost lost in the euphoria of Johnson’s second straight victory at the 1.54-mile track was the realization that, with his 76th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, he had tied the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all-time wins list. But as the No. 48 Chevrolet rolled around the track on itsRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After a disappointing start to the season at Daytona last Sunday, Hendrick Motorsports rolled into Atlanta for the first intermediate track race of the season and showed just how strong they could be with three of their four cars bringing home top-10 finishes. Jimmie Johnson led the way for the organization, taking the lead on the final round of green flag pit stops and holding off all comers to score his fifth win at Atlanta, as well as his 76th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win,Read More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor A 17th place finish summed an up and down first trip to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Cole Custer. Custer started the race in sixth place and immediately began to slip back around 12th place before the first caution clock yellow flew. He briefly moved up into the top ten on the restart but once again slipped back until the second caution for William Bryon’s engine failure. A quick pitstop by the Haas Automation pitcrew once again lifted Custer to the top ten butRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – In a wild race that saw some of the best trucks in the field destroyed before the finish, John Hunter Nemechek held off Cameron Hayley in a two-lap dash to the checkers to win Saturday’s Great Clips 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But it was a skull session with 2014 Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick the night before that was instrumental in guiding Nemechek to victory in his unsponsored No. 8 Chevrolet. “I’ve got toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Scratch another race track off Kyle Busch’s checklist. In what evolved into a two-man battle against Kyle Larson on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion continued his mastery in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, beating Kyle Larson to the finish line to win the Heads Up Georgia 250. The victory was Busch’s first at the 1.54-mile track and the 77th of his career, extending his own series record. But the outcome was far from a foregoneRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief It was just weeks ago that Jeb Burton was confirmed for a full season with Richard Petty Motorsports in the XFINITY Series, and in just their second race together the duo secured a 10th place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday. The finish didn’t fall on the luck of off-sequenced strategy either. Burton, 23, started in 15th and climbed into the top five early and hung around with the Sprint Cup regulars. As the race wore on the second-generation racer began to slide back some,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole winner Kurt Busch seems to have adapted to the 2016 low-downforce competition without missing a beat, but the same can’t be said for Team Penske driver Joey Logano, one of the preseason favorites to win the series title this year. Logano, who garnered the Coors Light Pole Award at Atlanta Motor Speedway last year, wasn’t close to having his No. 22 Ford dialed in when the series returned to the 1.54-mile track on Friday. The six-timeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – One of the most outspoken advocates for removing downforce from the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars, Carl Edwards expects the sanctioning body’s move in that direction with the 2016 rules package to have a profound effect in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET on FOX). The combination of low downforce and a bumpy, abrasive racing surface should be a recipe for exciting, strategic racing in the first open-motor event featuring the 2016 rules. “I thinkRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Stewart-Haas Racing’s blockbuster announcement of its impending move from Chevrolet to Ford in 2017 affects another NASCAR powerhouse — Hendrick Motorsports. Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is confident team owner Rick Hendrick will make the adjustment in the 10 months between Tuesday’s announcement and SHR’s departure from the engine and chassis deal that has been in place since Tony Stewart partnered with Gene Haas in 2009. “It was certainly a shock,” Johnson said on Friday at Atlanta MotorRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Ty Dillon’s work load tripled this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. With Dillon tabbed as the substitute driver for injured Tony Stewart for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event (1 p.m. ET on FOX), Dillon will be battling for 500 miles in addition to the 250 he’ll run in Saturday’s Heads Up Georgia 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1). But to Dillon, the opportunity to race in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas RacingRead More