Martin Truex Jr. came within a handful of car-lengths of catching eventual race winner Brad Keselowski in the final laps Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In the end, he was left to lament being held up as he attempted a late-race charge.
“It was just lapped cars,” Truex told FOX Sports as he exited his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota with a second-place finish. “It was a shame we got put in that position on that last restart. But that’s the way the caution fell.”
Truex settled for his fifth straight top-five finish at Atlanta in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. He sprang into contention after a caution flag flew with 53 laps to go in the midst of a pit-stop cycle.
Truex, in his first season with JGR, gave chase to Keselowski’s Team Penske No. 2 Ford. But his path was blocked by a handful of off-the-pace cars, including the No. 17 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who placed 18th as the first driver one lap down.
“They built a great race car here, and man, I could taste that one. I really wanted that first Atlanta win,” Truex said. “Just the 17 rode there in front of us forever and ever running the bottom, and I kept telling him I needed the bottom, and these cars are just so bad in dirty air that he was holding me up really bad. Once I got around him, I drove — got to the 2 car in two laps. I just needed one more.
“Unfortunate we had a great car, and like I said, the guys did a great job. Just a little upset. We had the best car. We probably should have won that one.”
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’s first of the season and the first for the new Ford Mustang in the Cup series. The 2012 champion won for the second time at Atlanta and for the 60th in Roger Penske equipment (all series combined), breaking a tie with the late Mark Donohue.
Despite his illness, Keselowski reveled in the accomplishment.
“I think any win means a lot, but that’s a big number,” Keselowski said. “Now I get to wear that yellow Mark Donohue helmet, so here we go — we’re going to wear it next week.
“But what a tremendous honor. This day is … Wow, I don’t even know how to put it in words. I’m just excited for this team, first race with the new rules or whatever they’re called now, and to be able to win it, that’s really special.”
After he pulled out to a substantial lead after the final restart on Lap 283 — following a caution for a pit road accident involving Ryan Preece and B.J. McLeod — Keselowski had two concerns: an overheating engine and tire issues that had forced teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney to pit road for unscheduled stops late in the race.
As Keselowski was nursing his car toward the finish in the final 10 laps, Truex closed dramatically, cutting Keselowski’s advantage to .181 seconds with two circuits left. On Lap 324 Keselowski blocked Truex’s line off Turn 4 and hammered it to the finish line a lap later.
“We ran over a piece of debris with, I don’t know, probably 50 laps to go and overheated really bad, and I thought there was no way this engine would make it to the end,” Keselowski said. “But (engine builder) Doug Yates and his team, they do a great job.
“I’m pretty sure it’s all used up, Doug, but it’s in Victory Lane, so that’s OK, right?”
As he chased Keselowski, Truex grew frustrated with lapped traffic, particularly with outside front-row starter Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was running in the “lucky dog” position, hugging the bottom lane of the race track.
Because the fifth and final caution had interrupted a cycle of pit stops after all the lead-lap drivers save Logano and eventual third-place finisher Kurt Busch had come to pit road, Truex restarted behind lapped cars on Lap 283 after he and the majority of the field took wave-arounds.
“It was a shame we got put in that position on that last restart, but that’s the way the caution fell,” Truex said. “Man, I could taste that one. I really wanted that first Atlanta win. Just the 17 (Stenhouse) rode there in front of us forever and ever running the bottom, and I kept telling him I needed the bottom (through spotters), and these cars are just so bad in dirty air that he was holding me up really bad.
“Once I got around him, I got to the 2 car (Keselowski) in two laps. I just needed one more. Unfortunate we had a great car, and like I said, the guys did a great job. Just a little upset. We had the best car. We probably should have won that one.”
Stenhouse Jr. got a strong start from the top lane at the initial green flag and charged past pole winner Aric Almirola off Turn 4 to lead the first lap. Almirola got the spot back on Lap 2, but two lead changes in the first two laps was nevertheless a promising omen for the new higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package NASCAR introduced this year.
The second stage of the race produced a compelling battle for the lead between defending race winner Kevin Harvick and first stage winner Kyle Larson. Those two drivers swapped the top spot nine times between Laps 88 and 162, with Harvick prevailing in the second stage.
But the handling of Harvick’s Ford tightened up in the late going as shadows shrouded Turns 1 and 2, and the 2014 series champion rolled home in fourth place. Zapped with a pit road speeding penalty and sent to the back of the field for a restart on Lap 228—after Kyle Busch cut a right rear tire to cause the fourth caution—Larson struggled in traffic and finished 12th.
Clint Bowyer ran fifth, with Kyle Busch recovering to finish sixth. Erik Jones, Almirola, Chris Buescher and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.
Kevin Harvick sped past Kyle Larson on the low side of Atlanta Motor Speedway eight laps before the conclusion of Stage 2 to capture the stage win at Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.
Larson had comfortably led the field for 24 straight laps in Stage 2 before Harvick stalked down the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and finally passed it in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford on Lap 153.
Larson managed to reclaim the lead one lap later, but Harvick regained the front position eight laps later. It marked Harvick’s first stage win of the season when he led at the conclusion of the stage on Lap 170.
Harvick started the stage in the lead after his crew helped him off pit road first at the Stage 1 break, but Larson battled back to the front of the field by Lap 111 of the scheduled 325-lap race.
Finish
Driver
Team
Race Points
1
Kevin Harvick
Stewart-Haas Racing
10
2
Kyle Larson
Chip Ganassi Racing
9
3
Martin Truex Jr.
Joe Gibbs Racing
8
4
Ryan Blaney
Team Penske
7
5
Denny Hamlin
Joe Gibbs Racing
6
6
Joey Logano
Team Penske
5
7
Kurt Busch
Chip Ganassi Racing
4
8
Erik Jones
Joe Gibbs Racing
3
9
Kyle Busch
Joe Gibbs Racing
2
10
Clint Bowyer
Stewart-Haas Racing
1
STAGE 1
Kyle Larson cruised to his first stage win of the season when he took the lead following a competition caution Sunday in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Larson, who started the race seventh, had moved into second behind pole-sitter Aric Almirola by the time the mandatory caution flag came out on Lap 35 because of overnight rain.
But Larson was faster off pit road in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and maintained his lead until Stage 1 ended on Lap 85.
Kevin Harvick, a two-time winner at Atlanta, finished second in the stage in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, as Almirola dropped to third in his No. 10 SHR Ford.
Kyle Busch, who started at the rear of the field after going to a backup car following a crash in practice Saturday, was 12th in the stage after rising as high as fifth.
Brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch both reached milestones Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with Kurt making his 650th start in NASCAR’s top series and Kyle achieving a large round figure with start No. 500.
The brothers’ accomplishment came at the green flag of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Kurt Busch, a three-time Atlanta winner, started eighth in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet. Kyle Busch — who has won twice at the 1.54-mile Georgia track — qualified sixth in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota, but dropped to the rear of the field in pace laps after a crash in Saturday practice forced the team to use a reserve car.
The weekend has already been off to a solid start for Kyle Busch, who prevailed in Saturday’s Gander Outdoors Truck Series race. He has 51 career wins in NASCAR’s premier series. Kurt Busch is a 30-time winner in the Monster Energy Series. Both are former series champions.
The scratch-and-dent Daytona 500 is done and dusted, and now it’s time to go racing at the white-knuckle 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Erik Jones is ready. Coming off a remarkable third-place finish at NASCAR’s biggest race last week, Jones, who displayed plenty of grit and determination in the battered and bruised Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota Camry, will look to the remarkable rough and abrasive Georgia circuit as an opportunity to reach for a higher gear.
Cool, calm and quietly confident about both the race and season ahead, we caught up with the driver.
From the hype and madness of Daytona all the way over to round two at Atlanta. What a change, huh? Something of an emotional hangover for you?
(Laughter) “It’s a big change for sure. You know, we go from by far our biggest race of the year there at the 500 and then we go to Atlanta. It’s a big swing of things, but it’s kind of a signal, at least that’s how I look at it, of being in the new season. For some reason, and I don’t know if everybody feels this way, but when I’m at Daytona I don’t really feel like we’re in the season yet. It’s kind of its own race even though it’s a points-paying race. Even though it’s the first race of the season, it sort of feels like its own deal. Getting to Atlanta, at least for me, I finally feel like we’re getting the season rolling.”
The Daytona 500 was calamitous for both you and the entire No. 20 team. Nonetheless, and after all was said and done, you slotted-in at a remarkable third overall. It worked out pretty well for you, huh?
“Yeah, it worked out great at the end. We had a really fast car all through Speedweeks. Our Clash car was really good and our 500 car was fast by itself and drove really well, but it’s always tough to stay out of trouble there. Unfortunately, we had a fuel pressure issue while we were up front with 35 to go and that kind of put us behind. Ultimately, we ended up getting back on the lead lap and eventually got our damaged repaired from the first big crash and I avoided the others and ended up with a third-place finish. It was a great way to start the season.”
Atlanta Motor Speedway? What do you make of it? Old, fast, rough … and the place hasn’t been paved in 20-plus years.
“I like Atlanta. It’s tough. I think it’s close to being the oldest surface we go to on the schedule. That makes it tough, you know? It’s trying to find the balance of being fast at the front side of a run and the car being there 20 to 25 laps in when you really need to make time with the tires worn out. It’s hard to find that balance. … It’s been a learning experience each time we’ve been there, but it’s going to be changed up pretty good here with this new rules package. I think you’re going to see a pretty different Atlanta than what we’ve seen from the last five or 10 years now. We’ll see how it goes. I was fortunate to get to test there with the new rules package a few months back and see how everything played out.”
Perhaps compared to some of the other NASCAR circuits, do you get a real sensation of speed at Atlanta?
“I do. I don’t know what it is about it, but it is really fast. Even with as old as the surface is, it’s amazing the speed we can still carry around that track on fresh tires. It’s fun as a driver. You want to feel like you’re out there really getting all you can and Atlanta is definitely a place where it feels like you’re moving pretty good. It’s fun and it’s neat to see how fast that place still is.”
Erik, you’re now into your third year of the Monster Energy Series. You’re in a top car with a top team and the results have really been there. Your house really is in order. Can you make a genuine run at the championship in 2019?
“I really think we can. We’ve made some good changes on our team from the personnel standpoint and the pit crew standpoint and have gotten things pretty much where we want them to be. I feel really confident coming into this year. I feel like I know what I need to do at each track. I’ve been everywhere on the Cup schedule at least a couple of times and feel comfortable racing with the Cup guys, you know? It takes a while to learn how to race those guys and how these races play out and how to kind of manage a much longer race. I feel really good about the year.”
Driver odds to win Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway have jumped considerably all weekend for several drivers — most notably, three of Stewart-Haas Racing’s four drivers have leapt toward the top of the board.
This year’s first race on an intermediate track comes with a brand-new rules package — learn more about that here — and with it, plenty of learnings. Aric Almirola and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will start 1-2 Sunday, and unusual practice speeds led to odds movement.
• Aric Almirola, who won his first Busch Pole Award since 2012, opened at 25-1 odds. He enters Sunday at 10-1, a great value for those who plunked down a bet on him before the weekend began. Nine drivers are listed at 10-1 or better.
• Daniel Suarez showed plenty of speed in practice and qualifying in the No. 41 Ford, and his line reflects that. Opening at 55-1 odds, Suarez is one of the biggest movers and now sits at 25-1.
• Clint Bowyer, the third SHR driver on the list, led both practice sessions and appeared to be the favorite to win the Busch Pole. He qualified third, though. He’s gone from 16-1 odds to 8-1, the third highest in the field behind Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr., meanwhile, jumped from 66-1 odds to 20-1 after his No. 17 Roush Fenway Ford Mustang delivered a P2 qualifying position.
• Although the odd didn’t move significantly, it’s worth noting that Kevin Harvick — who has dominated at Atlanta the last five years — saw his odds as race favorite go from 4.5-1 to 6-1 after his slow Friday.
HAMPTON, Ga. – Johnny Sauter passed Kyle Busch mid-race in Saturday’s Gander Outdoors Truck Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But he couldn’t replicate the move in the waning laps, as Busch surged to his record-setting 52nd career victory in the Truck Series.
“Honestly, I was kinda trying to wreck him and I just couldn’t get there,” said Sauter, who finished second. “I was locked onto him and I was hoping he would spin out, but he did a great job of blocking.
“So, in hindsight, maybe (I’d) go to the top, but I just don’t feel like I would have had the momentum to get him off the corner. I might think differently after I watch the replay.”
While Sauter didn’t nab the checkered flag, the No. 13 driver was one of three ThorSport Racing drivers who finished in the top five in the 130-lap event, with Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes coming up third and fifth, respectively (the fourth driver Matt Crafton finished 14th). At one point, all four of the team’s drivers were running first through fourth, providing a strong showing for a group of drivers that was fully finalized just weeks ago.
“It’s great, obviously I’m a late addition to the party,” said Sauter, whose ride was announced Feb. 13. “Those guys have had a lot of speed toward the end of last year, I felt like. So, when the opportunity came back and (owner) Duke (Thorson) gave me the ring to come back, I was like, ‘Hell, yeah, let’s do it.’ … I feel like we’ll be able to carry this for a while.”
Rhodes’ No. 99 ride for this season was announced the same day as Sauter’s, with the 21-year-old driver having piloted ThorSport’s Nos. 27 and 41 entries in years prior. His strong run at Daytona International Speedway last week was interrupted by the “Big One,” so he appreciated a top-five finish this week.
“The funny thing is we were kind of running a little bit different packages to suit the drivers,” Rhodes said. “We were all different but we were different in a good way, so it showed strength, it showed unity with the team. The driver lineup at ThorSport, I think is pretty stout this year, between Grant and Crafton and Sauter. …
“I think as a team we can get better at some stuff back at the shop and that will just translate to some really good, raw speed off the hauler.”
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, earning his 52nd victory and breaking a tie for most all-time with NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr.
“It means a lot,” Busch said. “It’s a big deal for me and a big deal for this team.”
The win was Busch’s fifth in the Truck Series at Atlanta but the first since 2009. Of his 52 triumphs, 16 came in trucks fielded by Billy Ballew before Busch founded his own Kyle Busch Motorsports team and added 36 races to his total (and counting) as an owner/driver.
With Ballew in attendance at Atlanta, Busch’s Tundra carried the former owner’s name on board.
“I had Billy Ballew on board with us here today,” Busch said after climbing from his truck, with mist putting a wet sheen on Victory Lane. “And Billy’s right over here as well. It took putting Billy Ballew back on my truck to get me a win here, so we might have to make that an annual reoccurrence.
“I slipped getting out (of the truck). It’s a little wet out here, in case y’all didn’t notice.”
Busch, however rued the fact that the race wasn’t called as he sat on pit road under the red flag on Lap 121. His teammate and protégé, Harrison Burton, held the second position at the time, but when the race restarted, Burton had the slippery outside lane to deal with and fell to eighth at the finish.
“I wish we could have ended it (then),” Busch said. “I would have rather had Harrison finish second. I’m not sure how far he fell, but he ran a great race today. It was cool to see the No. 18 right up there as well.”
The victory was Busch’s 195 over all three of NASCAR’s national touring series combined, leaving him just five short of his stated goal of 200. With 92 NASCAR Xfinity victories, Busch also holds the career record in that series.
Sauter got to Busch’s rear bumper right after the final restart on Lap 128 but didn’t feel he could make a winning move.
“I just didn’t think I could get it there,” said Sauter, who returned to ThorSport Racing for the 2019 season. “I’m bummed, because I thought I timed it right, and I was pushing him, and he was doing a good job of blocking, and I just didn’t think I could get there.
“It’s a good start, though. I’m happy with the effort. We just need a little bit more. When I go back and watch the replay, I hope I’m not kicking myself in the butt for not making that move to the top, but honestly, at that point I didn’t feel like I could get it done.”
Grant Enfinger, Sauter’s ThorSport teammate, ran third, followed by reigning series champion Brett Moffitt and Ben Rhodes. Ross Chastain and last week’s Daytona winner, Austin Hill, came home sixth and seventh, respectively.
HAMPTON, Ga. – Bubba Wallace took his dad’s old Nikon camera to Greenville-Pickens Speedway in 2010. He was there to test a K&N Series car with Rev Racing, but ended up gaining more than racing data in that visit.
Sitting on the precarious pit wall of the South Carolina speedway as cars whirled around the track, Wallace’s love for photography was ignited.
“In between changes and whatnot, I would go grab my camera,” Wallace told NASCAR.com from the No. 43 hauler at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday. “At Greenville … you can stand here and touch the race car if you wanted to. It’s pretty cool. Little sketchy.
“I would sit there right by the wall – I’d have to see if I have a picture of that test, I don’t know if I do still – but you’re inches away. Before that, I was like, man, it would be kind of fun – you see the professional photographers at the track taking photos. I’m like, that would be cool to do. …
“Instead of taking somebody else’s picture, I was like, I want that to be my picture, you know?”
As Wallace began moving up through his NASCAR career, his camera came with him every weekend. He took a solid photo of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car a few years into his photography exploration and thought about printing it for Junior to sign. He never did; instead, he continued to work on his craft.
Courtesy Bubba Wallace
The race tracks, series and teams changed and Wallace’s cameras changed as he continued to upgrade to better models – “it’s like golf; the more expensive the clubs, the better you’re going to play, right?” he said lightheartedly.
And he soaked up knowledge from NASCAR photographers such as Nigel Kinrade and Russell LaBounty at the race track.
“Nigel and Russell were huge helps,” he recalled. “… They kind of took me under for a little bit and they would tell me things to look at and things to adjust and going from shooting on automatic to now shooting manual, all manual stuff except for the focus button. …
“I’m turning dials and stuff. So, I kind of self-taught myself those things. That’s one cool thing about it, you can spend days, weeks learning new things and you’re like, ‘Aha! Got it.’ ”
That camera was a constant for about five years in Wallace’s young life; but when his career began picking up, his camera started picking up dust.
“Rewind a year, year and a half, didn’t touch it … I bought one and used it for a little bit and I’m like I gotta pick up my camera, I got pick up my camera, I gotta pick it up,” he said. “And something just hit me – it was right before we went to Hawaii in the offseason. I started messing around with it again.”
Wallace’s offseason trip to Hawaii – which he did with a group that included fellow driver and friend Ryan Blaney – was the sight of his photography resurgence. His Instagram flooded with landscape photos of picturesque scenery. He would make the group stop for the ideal photo or – his personal favorite – time-lapse opportunities that he couldn’t pass up. He set up his tripod for Christmas photos with girlfriend Amanda Carter.
“I did feel like the dad, sitting there with my tripod,” he joked.
And when the racing calendar rolled back around in 2019 for the season-opening Daytona 500, the camera – this time, an upgraded Sony A7R3 – was back by his side.
“I’ve been trying to pick it back up … I’ve got a ton of equipment, a ton of lenses and some dollys and stuff. But it’s really time-consuming, so I do mostly time-lapse stuff,” he said.
Wallace won’t call himself a photographer, but he’s eager to continue learning; during NASCAR photoshoots, he’ll study the camera that the photographer is using. The 25-year-old driver’s passion is evident as he talks with his hands flying about his favorite aspects to shoot – stars and clouds – and his next photography goal; “A holy grail time-lapse, which is day, night, day or night, day, night. You get to go through all the clouds rolling and the stars come in at night … and you just get awesome colors.”
“… You’re like, man, if they can take that shot, I can take that shot,” he continued. “It might not be as good, but it might be better. You never know. So, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Beyond anything else, Wallace enjoys the challenge with photography. Fellow racer and friend Chase Elliott received a camera of his own for Christmas and texted Wallace. The No. 43 driver spent time tinkering with Elliott’s gift later, just trying to figure it out.
“I’ve been facing challenges all my life, so why not add it to the camera world?” he said. “Cameras, that’s all on me … If it turns out bad, they make delete buttons. Get rid of it and try again. So, I think it’s all trial and error. You can spend all the time in the world, you’re not on anybody’s schedule but your own.”
Down the road, photography could turn into more than a hobby for Wallace – he certainly thought about it when he was searching for a full-time NASCAR ride in 2017. And maybe someday, his photo will end up in a glossy magazine, like the ones he admires in National Geographic.
For now, he’ll continue shooting whatever inspires him – and will wait as long as it takes to get just the right time-lapse.
“I told Amanda if we go out to Iceland or whatever, you’re going to be sitting … for hours because you have to wait for those perfect moments,” he said.
