Atlanta weekend

“ATLANTA 300”

HAMPTON, GEORGIA- the Nationwide Series has entered the final ten races of the season. A 1.5 mile fast track was the location of a 195 lap race. The Pole position was won by Kyle Busch (54) over Austin Dillon (3). In opening ceremonies, a pastor provided the Invocation. Candy Nicole sang the National Anthem. Greg Thomas, from Great Clips was the Grand Marshall. The In-Race Reporter was Joey Lagono (22). 

There were four cup drivers in this race, Kevin Harvick (33), Kyle Busch (54), Kasey Kahne (5) and Joey Lagono (22). One of three biggest issues for this race was the fact that the teams only had four sets of tires to race the near two-hundred laps. If they pit every forty laps, would give them even time on each set. 

On lap 35, Alex bowman (99) had troubles with a lame engine. His luck in the second half of the season has really gone downhill quickly.

On lap 37, the first caution came out for Robert Richardson (23) spinning out. Just after the pit stops, Kasey Kahne (5) spun out on fresh tires; bring the second caution out on lap 43. Kahne was given an additional set of tires after his spin, due to the minimal laps he ran, before he had issues. This could be viewed as a poor choice by NASCAR, the spin could have been the drivers fault, and they awarded him another set of tires. During his spin, Nelson Piquet Jr. (30) ran up and into the front end of Travis Pastrana (60), sending Pastrana very close to hitting the wall. Piquet Jr. did have rear damage that sent him to pit road for repairs.

On lap 58, Kyle Busch (54) had his lead taken away by a fast charging Kevin Harvick (33), who started in twentieth position. On lap 86, Joey Lagono (22) had a tire fail and that sent him into the outside wall. He then went to pit road for repairs, without any caution coming out. The rest of the field began hitting pit road in just a few laps afterwards, allowing Lagono to be right back where he was running in second place when his tire sent him into the wall. On lap 91, when the leader made his pit stop, Harvick had nearly a seven second lead.

At the halfway mark of the race, the top ten were: Harvick, Lagono, Dillon, Bayne, Larson, Hornish Jr., Kahne and Patrana.

The third caution came out on lap 104, for debris. Once again, this Debris was never shown to viewers. None of the drivers made pit stops on the caution, as they just finished making green flag stops.

On lap 165, Harvick reported trouble with his “Bad Boys Buggies” Chevrolet. He felt a vibration that was getting worse as he went along. His crew chief told him to keep running the car and feel it out, before bringing it into pit road. Harvick has won a race in Atlanta in the Nationwide Series prior, and he has lost the last two years, after leading the most laps in both races. With less than thirty laps in 2011, he was overtaken for the victory, and last year with the win being only a lap away, he fell victim to lap traffic and was passed by Stenhouse Jr. and Keselowski for the win. For the third straight year, Harvick dominated the race and felt the win was not coming his way.

On lap 179, the fourth and final caution flew when Jeff Green (14) attempted to slide up in front of Ken Butler (24), without being clear. He ran into Butler and the two cars crashed hard into the outside wall. Green’s car was destroyed as he slapped the wall a couple times with both ends of the race car. With only seven laps left after pit stops were made, everyone put on four new tires to challenge Harvick for the win. Kyle Busch (54) raced Harvick (33) hard for every one of the final laps, but was not able to overtake Harvick on this night. Reporters attempted to speak to Busch as he was storming away from the track, and he was as “pissy” as he usually gets, when he does not win. This is still the same behavior that everyone claims Busch has matured from. In this fans opinion, Busch has not changed any over the years. If he does not take the victory, he storms away and refuses to speak to the media in a decent fashion. 

The rest of the top ten were: Sam Hornish Jr. (12), Kasey Kahne (5), Kyle Larson (32), Joey Lagono (22), Trevor Bayne (6), Austin Dillon (3), Regan Smith (7) and Brian Scott (2). Both Lagono and Dillon started on row two at the restart, but both were shuffled backwards quickly as they did not get good restarts. Travis Pastrana (60) also finished the race, sliding through the infield past the start/finish line.

The next race will be at Richmond next Friday night at 7 PM EST on ESPN.

Chase Elliott just won his first NASCAR Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park!

Chase is now the youngest winner/Pole Setter in NASCAR Truck Series history, at 17 years of age.

“ADVOCARE 500”

HAMPTON, GEORGIA- the Sprint Cup Series still has twelve races left of the season. In news this week, Bobby Labonte (51) will miss the race, after falling off his bike and breaking three ribs at an event. After last week’s wreck at Bristol, both Martin Truex Jr. (56) and Denny Hamlin (11) have broken wrists. They both still plan on racing this week’s race. Jeff Gordon (24) was in the news, as his bus started on fire and burned on a Georgia Highway. Gordon was not on the bus at the time of the incident. In big news, Kyle Larson has been hired to drive the (42) Earnhardt-Genassi Racing “Target” car next year, as Juan Montoya has been released from the team at season end. Talk around NASCAR has Montoya returning to INDY Racing. Larson is a very strong “Rookie of the Year” contender in the Nationwide Series, and EGR believes he is plenty ready to move up to the Cup Series next year. He will drive a few Cup races before this season ends. AJ Allmendinger reclaimed a full-time ride in the Sprint Cup Series. JTG Daugherty Racing announced Saturday that Allmendinger will take over the No. 47 car from Bobby Labonte next season, capping his comeback from a positive drug test in July 2012 that resulted in a NASCAR suspension and losing his job with Roger Penske's Sprint Cup team. Rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17) has taken his first “Pole” of his season, beating teammate Carl Edwards (99). The race was scheduled for 325 laps. A new tire compound was brought to this race by Goodyear. It is called Zone Tread Technology, the tire is put together in three sections from the outside edge to the inside edge. The outside edge, for nearly three inches is a hardest compound to wear down. Then a second section near the same width is a softer, but still strong compound. The rest of the tire is the softest compound for normal race wear.

A “Competition Caution” was scheduled for lap 25, due to rains that fell earlier in the day. In Opening Ceremonies, Chappy Kevin Hynes provided the Invocation. Chappy is a Georgia Bulldogs Chaplain. Ernie Hass and the Signature Sound belted out a great rendition of the National Anthem, as a Cessna Citation X flew over the track. The Grand Marshall’s were Sherry and Richard Wright. The In-Race Reporter was Kevin Harvick (29) who won last night’s race.

Joey Lagono (22) took over the lead from Juan Montoya (42) on lap 25, just before the “Competition Caution” was thrown. Montoya led every lap from the start, before having the night go downhill from there. The Caution was flown, and everyone took that opportunity to change all four tires.

On lap 30, an accordion style accident happened, after Jeff Gordon (24) had a slow start from the outside lane. Matt Kenseth (20) tried to push Gordon to get him going, and instead lifted the rear of Gordon’s car. This caused everyone in the outside lane to check up. Numerous cars received front and rear end damage. Kasey Kahne (5), Jeff Burton (31), Mark Martin (14) and Jimmie Johnson (48) were damaged. Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) both received rear end damages. While leaving pit road, Ryan Newman (39) got together with Mark Martin, creating some damage to the front of his car.

On lap 55, Denny Hamlin (11) tried to make a slide job on Paul Menard (27) and he missed badly, as he ran Menard and himself into the outside wall. A Debris caution then came out on lap 58. During this round of pit stops, Hamlin had repairs being done on his car, as he was outside his pit box. He was penalized for this, and fell a couple laps down. 

The fourth caution of the night came on lap 76, when Paul Menard had a tire fall apart on track. Jimmie Johnson’s night did not get any better, as he ran over the husk of the tire. Near lap 106, Joey Lagono (22) had a tire issue that forced him to make a green flag stop. He dropped a lap down to the leader. Matt Kenseth had nearly the same issues, just a few laps later and also had to make an unscheduled stop that put him a lap down too.

At the midpoint of the race, Lagono was the leader, with Clint Bowyer (15), Carl Edwards (99), Jeff Gordon (24), Kevin Harvick (29), Jamie McMurray (1), Matt Kenseth (20), Brad Keselowski (2) and Ryan Newman (39).

On lap 193, Clint Bowyer was running away with the race, as his engine blew up. MWR was running a special engine to see how it would perform. It was doing great, just before the engine let go. Bowyer led 48 laps on the night, and was a strong contender for a victory. This was his second race in a row that he was leading when an engine failed in his race car.

On lap 206, Menard gave Hamlin a bump from behind, that sent Hamlin into a slide as he spun out from the contact. This was clearly payback from the earlier incident in the race. During the round of pit stops, the two leaders stayed on track. Lagono and Edwards decided to stay on track, while the rest of the 17 lead lap cars made their stops for four fresh tires and fuel.

Near lap 244, Leader Brad Keselowski began having trouble with his engine, claiming he felt the car had lost a cylinder. He began falling back quickly, as he tried to baby the car to the end of the race. He was not able to keep it on track, as the engine failed completely short of the races completion.

Jimmie Johnson’s night continued to give him issues, as on lap 289, he brought out the seventh caution when he ran up on Jeff Burton to fast. He tried to check up as he spun out near pit road entry.

On lap 293, Brian Vickers spun out and into the infield during the restart. His car came to rest on pit road, after a extremely long slide through the grassy infield.

Another caution flew right away after the restart once again on lap 298, when Jeff Burton had a tire fail, sending him into the wall and collecting teammate Austin Dillon (33) on the way. After the pit stops were all made, Kyle Busch (18) was the new leader.
Busch was able to hold off a hard charging Martin Truex Jr. (56), who had a win taken away last year after a late caution.

The rest of the top ten were: Kurt Busch (78), Joey Lagono (22), Ryan Newman (39), Juan Montoya (42), Kevin Harvick (29), Jeff Gordon (24), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) and Marcus Ambrose (9). Danica Patrick (10) finished in 21^st spot, running well all evening.
The next race will be on Saturday Night in Richmond, VA on ABC at 7 PM EST.