atlanta motor speedway Tag

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 Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent The momentum from winning the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series season-opener continued for Austin Hill with a top-10 finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Hill ran inside the top-10 throughout the entire Ultimate Tailgating 200. Hill’s No. 16 AM Ortega / United Rentals Toyota Tundra was ahead of the carnage on a restart with 13 laps to go. He lined up sixth on the final restart of the night, with six laps to go, after a brief delay for rain. In the final six laps, theRead 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 Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent The first NASCAR Xfinity Series top-10 finish for Jeffrey Earnhardt was a decade in the making. Earnhardt had a chance at a better finish in the Rinnai due to a late-race caution, but the worn racing surface of Atlanta Motor Speedway prevented him from capitalizing. Earnhardt’s No. 18 Extreme Concepts / iK9 Toyota Supra had been running inside the top-five when John Hunter Nemechek spun off turn two with seven laps to go. He exited pit road second on and restarted on the outside onRead 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 Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent After the events of Daytona International Speedway, the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series is ready to get running at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Austin Hill earned his first-career victory last weekend and locked himself into the Playoffs. Daytona set two records, fewest trucks to finish, and the longest race for the Truck Series in mileage. Drivers playing catch up, an old, worn racing surface, inclement weather, and tire wear are just some of the storylines heading into the Ultimate Tailgating 200. Coverage for the Ultimate TailgatingRead 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