atlanta motor speedway Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Kyle Busch may not have been having any fun in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver sure did make a show out of his misfortunes on the 1.5-mile track. A day after crashing his primary car in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, Busch would have to start the 334-lap event at the back of the field in a car that he had yet to turn a lap in. Despite the setback, Busch made theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Too sick to start practice on Saturday, Brad Keselowski found the cure to what ailed him in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Still suffering from the effects of stomach flu, Keselowski held off a charging—and frustrated—Martin  Truex Jr. in the closing circuits of the 325-lap Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and powered his No. 2 Team Penske Ford across the finish line .218 seconds ahead of Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The victory was Keselowski’sRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer A complete afterthought in last week’s Daytona 500, Martin Truex, Jr. showed up to race with a strong, but disgruntling runner-up effort during Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, leading 4 of 325 laps. The thought of scoring his first top-five at Joe Gibbs Racing was irrelevant to Truex, who voiced his displeasure about lapped cars, specifically Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, who he felt that by running the preferred bottom line, it cost him from beating Brad Keselowski, who went on to becomeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – As darkness enveloped Atlanta Motor Speedway, and rain pelted the windshield of his No. 51 Toyota, Kyle Busch patiently waited for word he had sole possession of the all-time victory lead in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. The record-setting win wouldn’t be quite that easy. After the red flag for rain, NASCAR restarted the race, rather than calling it. Five laps later, after parrying a determined charge from former series champion Johnny Sauter, Busch took the checkered Saturday’s Ultimate Tailgating 200,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Johnny Sauter’s short run mastery didn’t panned out when it counted most during Saturday’s Ultimate Tailgating 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing second to Kyle Busch, who surpassed Ron Hornaday, Jr. as the all-time winner in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. Just barely over a week into his second stint at ThorSport Racing, the series fifth-winningest driver pushed No. 13 Tendal Heal Ford F-150 to its limit throughout the mist-plagued 130-lap race, even capitalizing on Busch’s loose wheel to take the lead on Lap 54Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – To hear Christopher Bell describe his race in Victory Lane, you’d never know that he had just won it. “I felt pretty sloppy there as a driver sometimes,” Bell said after leading 143 of 163 laps in winning Saturday’s Rinnai 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “Running the yellow line (at the bottom of the track) is so hard. “I don’t know, I would just struggle on the longer runs there.” Struggling, of course, is a relative thing. AfterRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Air hose woes proved to be costly for Tyler Reddick, who was just getting the run on eventual race winner Christopher Bell before the final caution came out, and had to settle for fifth in Saturday’s Rinnai 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In the closing laps, Reddick’s No. 2 Pinnacle Financial Partners Chevrolet Camaro was making a hard charge on the bottom, to the point of clipping the apron in the corners at times, just to catch the dominant Bell and started looking like Reddick wasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Clint Bowyer was on the doorstep of securing his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole position since 2007, but teammate Aric Almirola and fellow Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had the last say. Almirola powered his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to the fastest lap of the day in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, claiming the second Busch Pole Award of his career—and his first since winning the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 in 2012.Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After last Sunday’s barn burner of a finish in the Daytona 500, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series packs up and heads to Georgia for this weekend’s running of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. With a track surface that is old and worn, having not been repaved since its reconfiguration in 1997, Atlanta always gets rave reviews from drivers who enjoy slipping and sliding around on the worn out asphalt. The track has been unpredictable when it comes to which driverRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor There have been great brother duos to race in NASCAR over the years, but one of the best was the combination of Bobby and Terry Labonte. Back in November 1996, the two got to showcase their talents in the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Terry entered the race with a slim 47-point advantage over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon after finishing third at Phoenix the week prior. He had done so while nursing a broken left hand that was injured in a practice crash. WhenRead More