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RELATED: Race results | Standings | Detailed breakdown

HAMPTON, Ga. – Christopher Bell unquestionably had the dominant truck in Saturday’s Active Pest Control 200, but, in the end, the driver of the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra had to work hard for the third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of his career.

 

In the nightcap of a NASCAR doubleheader at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bell held off fellow Tundra driver Matt Crafton in a two-lap shootout to the finish for his first win of the 2017 season.

 

Austin Cindric’s spin on Lap 124 of 130 brought out the eighth and final caution of the race and set up the final two-lap dash. Bell restarted on the inside on Lap 129, with Crafton in the outside lane. Crafton held his own through the first two corners, but Bell pulled ahead on the backstretch and finally cleared Crafton’s No. 88 Toyota off Turn 4.

 

One lap later, Bell crossed the finish line .447 seconds ahead of Crafton, with defending series champion Johnny Sauter trailing the lead pair in third place. Ben Rhodes ran fourth, followed by Chase Elliott.

 

“I was just trying to do everything I could to get the best restart I could,” Bell said. “I didn’t want to get my momentum broken. These Truck races are really tough to get restarts going, because it’s so aero-dependent.

 

“You can get all sorts of momentum or you can get all sorts of momentum taken away from you. That happened to me there in the middle section of the race.”

 

But the truck was there when it counted.

 

“It was just a dream machine. It was really, really good.”

 

Clearly, that was an understatement. Bell edged his team owner for the pole position in Saturday morning’s qualifying session and proceeded to lead the first 83 laps, claiming both the first and second 40-lap stage wins in the process.

 

In fact, Bell was so dominant in the second stage that crossed the stripe 8.030 seconds ahead of Busch, who nevertheless took the lead with an excellent pit stop, putting Bell in the outside lane for the start of Stage 3 on Lap 88.

 

Bell subsequently fell back to fifth in the running order, but after two cautions, he restarted from the inside lane on the third row on Lap 113 and one lap later passed Crafton for the lead.

 

Busch, who won the NASCAR XFINITY Series race earlier in the day, fell back with a cut tire on the Lap 113 restart and finished 26th, but he could take solace from the quality of Bell’s effort – not to mention the progress the 22-year-old has made since Busch signed the open-wheel star to a full-time ride last year.

 

“We’re still trying to get the Sprint Car out of him,” Busch quipped after the race. “This kid grows up running 30-lap features, and after 30 laps his tires are worn out.”

 

On Saturday, however, Bell decisively overcame the “Days of Thunder” mentality Busch described, and with the race win and two stage victories, came away with all seven available playoff points in the process.

 

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RELATED: Race recap from Atlanta | Race results

HAMPTON, Ga. — Kyle Busch’s race-winning entry in Saturday’s Rinnai 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race failed post-race inspection for a height violation, according to NASCAR officials.

 

Busch’s car measured too low on both the right and left front.

 

The winning car, as well as the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of fifth-place Elliott Sadler, which was the random car, will be taken back to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, for final inspection.

 

"I don’t know. I didn’t feel anything happen … over the course of the day," Busch said after joining Camping World Truck Series race winner Christopher Bell in the media center afterward. Bell competes for Busch’s Kyle Busch Motorsports organization.


RELATED: Bell wins Truck Series race at Atlanta

"I don’t remember what kind of adjustments we were making; I know we were going track bar down and wedge out so that should actually kind of lifted the front a little bit maybe, but I don’t know how low it was or anything like that," Busch said. "I haven’t heard anything. I don’t even know what the penalty is now."

 

Busch said the No. 18 entry is scheduled to run the entire XFINITY schedule with a variety of drivers, "so I guess I’ll have to figure out who I’m working with next week."

 

He is scheduled to compete in 10 of this year’s XFINITY races, including next week when the series travels to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Boyd Gaming 300 on March 11.

 

Busch led twice for 26 laps in the 163-lap event, the second stop for XFINITY Series teams this season, but beat the field off pit road late for the final lead change of the race. He led the final 19 laps.

 

The win was his 87th in the XFINITY Series and the 171st overall among NASCAR’s three national series (Monster Energy NASCAR Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck).

 

Any penalty or penalties as a result of the infraction are expected to be announced mid-week.

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RELATED: Race results | Standings | Detailed breakdown

HAMPTON, Ga. — The fire that forced a midseason rebuilding effort at ThorSport Racing last year impacted all of its four teams in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. From a results standpoint, ThorSport driver Ben Rhodes was not immune.
That’s why Saturday’s showing at Atlanta Motor Speedway gave Rhodes reason for optimism as he dives into his second full season in the series. Rhodes finished fourth in the Active Pest Control 200, finishing just behind race winner Christopher Bell of Kyle Busch Motorsports, Rhodes’ ThorSport teammate, runner-up Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter.

RELATED: Bell takes Atlanta Truck Series race

The top-five effort helped soothe some of the hardships Rhodes & Co. endured over the latter part of 2016. The strength he showed in the opening nine races of the year gave way to four DNFs and just one top-10 over the final 14 events.

Saturday, things started looking up.

“I had a really tough year, so it’s really encouraging that we can come out here and get a good finish like this and see that we can run strong,” Rhodes said after emerging from his No. 27 Toyota. “And now that the truck’s all in one piece, that’s an added bonus because all last year, it seemed like no matter what we did, something would happen and we would get caught up in somebody’s mess. Tire would blow, engine would blow … something would happen. So it’s really, really nice to put a good finish together.”

After a rookie season that held so much promise, Rhodes and his crew have made the earliest steps toward a rebirth. The 20-year-old driver has a new crew chief in Eddie Troconis, a new car number based on sponsor Safelite’s preference, and a new, reconstructed shop in their Sandusky, Ohio, home.

RELATED: ThorSport rebuilds after devastating fire

 

“Ever since the shop’s been rebuilt, these guys have worked their tails off over the wintertime, working 80 hours a week to get these trucks built and build some fast Tundras at that,” Rhodes said. “I really think that we’re going to be a contender for many, many, many wins throughout the season.”

Said Troconis: “We came here and we showed that ThorSport regrouped over the offseason and worked really hard all December and January, and now we’re trying to beat the KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) trucks. They were the dominant team last year, and we’re right there with them. We showed that it’s not just one truck with Crafton that has a lot of experience, but also the young rookie guns.

“So Ben’s second year, we have a lot of work to do still, but I feel like definitely we’re going to have a lot of potential. We’re going to give a run at KBM.”

Rhodes battled back from a pair of hurdles during Saturday’s 200-miler. He first made progress from a 15th-place qualifying effort that left him with a midpack start. And he also found himself at a disadvantage in a series of late-race restarts, mired in the treacherous outside lane and at a higher risk of wheel spin.

The lineup shuffle for the final two restarts gave him the preferred inside lane and kept him in victory contention. Though he settled for fourth, he still managed a grin when asked about the race’s possibilities.

“If a couple things play out a little bit differently, I think we could be on the frontstretch doing donuts right now,” Rhodes said.

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2018 DAYTONA 500 VIP Ticket Packages are now available from PrimeSport! As the Official Ticket Exchange of Daytona International Speedway, PrimeSport has your access to all the action at the World Center of Racing! Receive $50 off per reservation when you book your 2018 DAYTONA package by Saturday March 4th. Use code DAYTONA18 at checkout. Coupon code DAYTONA18 is active now through Saturday March, 4th. | GO HERE

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Editor’s note: Every Friday during the season, "Tweets You Might Have Missed" presents eight of the best NASCAR-related tweets from the week. 

 

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RELATED: Full schedule for Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. — NASCAR’s 2017 rules package will be put to the test for the first time in race conditions when Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams hit the track for this weekend’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.



Practice and qualifying for the series’ second stop of the season gets underway today at the 1.54-mile track, with Sunday’s race scheduled for a 2:46 p.m. ET green flag (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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RELATED: See Martinsville under the lights

2018 DAYTONA 500 VIP Ticket Packages are now available from PrimeSport! As the Official Ticket Exchange of Daytona International Speedway, PrimeSport has your access to all the action at the World Center of Racing! Receive $50 off per reservation when you book your 2018 DAYTONA package by Saturday March 4th. Use code DAYTONA18 at checkout. Coupon code DAYTONA18 is active now through Saturday March, 4th. | GO HERE

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RELATED: Read more Inside Groove


Many benefits come along with winning a Daytona 500, but there’s one that no other winner of the "Great American Race" could enjoy other than Kurt Busch.


Partying into the wee hours of the morning with New England Patriots tight end — and notorious party rocker — Rob Gronkowski. 


Busch, who shares a sponsor with "Gronk" in Monster Energy, talked about his wild and crazy night following his epic win to open the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season in a press conference at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday morning.


"My phone was blowing up with Monster people," Busch said. "They were down at Razzle’s (Nightclub) and I was like, ‘Razzle’s, I remember that place, let’s go.’ Gronk was down there and had the VIP area so we went. 


RELATED: Gronk brings the Monter Energy party to Daytona


"I was there partying with Gronk and that is a cool stamp to put down to say that you did that. Mark Hull and Mitch Covington, all the top Monster people were there. All the top SHR people were there … Those are the celebrations you don’t forget about. … I left there about 3:15 or 3:30 a.m. and that is what it takes to pace yourself to make it to the breakfast event with Daytona pushing our car into the Hall of Fame museum the proper way on Monday morning."


While the vodka and Monsters were flowing and madness ensuing, however, there was a jewelry mixup that had yet to be resolved as of Friday morning.


Busch entered the media center and quipped about how there was an interesting story about the giant Daytona 500 winner’s ring, but didn’t expand.


RELATED: All of Kurt Busch’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories


Naturally, he was asked about it pretty quickly and the story was worth the (short) wait.


"So, there are three rings for winning the Daytona 500. Driver, crew chief and owner," said Busch, aiming for his fourth win at AMS on Sunday. "As we gathered to take the picture, I have two owners, Gene Haas and Tony Stewart. So, Tony Gibson, he got his and we moved him off to the side with his and I gave my ring to Tony Stewart. I figured I will get mine later on when they do a ring ceremony with all the crew guys. 


"I told Tony to take my ring. At Razzle’s later on that evening, the ring is floating around with all the crew guys taking pictures and I am like, ‘Whose ring is that?’ I thought Stewart had mine and Gene was already off to Barcelona for the F1 test and Gibson had his on. 


"So, Tony Stewart’s ring was floating around all the crew guys and one guy shows up at the breakfast deal the next morning, and he was pretty lit up, and we were like, ‘There it is, get it off his finger.’ 


"He had gotten a bit too drunk and didn’t remember to pass it to the next guy. So, this is Tony Stewart’s ring and I am going to give it back to him today and all the crew guys will get theirs later on."



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RELATED: Full practice results | Best 10-lap consecutive averages

Ryan Newman topped the leaderboard in Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway at 187.875 mph in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.


Right behind him was Jamie McMurray in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet at 187.735 mph.


Rounding out the top five were: Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 187.595 mph, Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 187.494 mph and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford at 187.487 mph.


Coors Light Pole Qualifying is the next scheduled Monster Energy Series event at 5:45 p.m. ET (FS1). 

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HAMPTON, Ga. — Daniel Suarez has NASCAR national series experience at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but his notebook for navigating the 1.54-mile track in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is relatively bare.



A devoted student of the sport, Suarez religiously pores over race footage, especially at venues where his experience level could use a boost. But with his first premier-series start on an intermediate-sized track looming, Suarez has called in an expert tutor for an early season cram session.



Carl Edwards, a three-time Atlanta winner over the course of his career, was back in the garage area Friday, making the rounds ahead of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Edwards’ surprise decision to step away from racing in January turned the seat of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota to Suarez, the 2016 XFINITY Series champion who’s making the big leap to NASCAR’s top division this year.


RELATED: Suarez takes over the No. 19 Toyota from Edwards


Edwards’ return to the track isn’t a first. The 37-year-old veteran also attended an offseason organizational test at Phoenix Raceway, lending a hand both to Suarez and the Gibbs-owned team. But the 25-year-old Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate says this weekend’s visit stems as much from their personal connection as it does their working relationship.



"He’s a great guy, a very good friend," Suarez said before Friday’s first practice at the 1.54-mile track. "He just asked me, ‘Hey, Daniel, do you want me to go over there? Do you think it would be helpful?’ I said, ‘Man, to have a driver like you who has a bunch of wins here in Atlanta, it’s a big deal.’ Yeah, he’s going to be here to help me out, help the team out. It’s a team he knows very well. It’s going to be good to have him just to watch and to tell us what’s going on from his view."


RELATED: Edwards attends Phoenix test to guide rookie Suarez


Suarez consulted with Edwards early in the 85-minute opening practice, moments after a 14-lap first run to prep for Sunday’s 500-miler, the second race of the season. FOX Sports was quick to note in its broadcast that Edwards has some experience as a substitute teacher on his resume, something that he said may or may not come in handy.



"I didn’t teach much Spanish and that’s coming back to haunt me," joked Edwards, who also told FS1 that he had a hard time staying away from the site of so many successes, including his breakthrough Cup win. "But no, it’s really neat to see a guy like Daniel, he’s a self-made guy and he’s doing a great job. He really cares. To help him a little bit is really cool."



Besides learning the nuances of the well-worn Georgia asphalt from a master, Suarez is also getting a preliminary feel for the ebbs and flows of the NASCAR schedule in the big leagues. His season-long workload has gone up, as have his obligations — both at the track and away.



He’s just one race in, after a 29th-place series debut in the season-opening Daytona 500, but he already has an early sense of what the year may hold.



"I think it’s definitely more busy than the XFINITY Series, more going on," Suarez said. "You have more time in the race track than when you are home, but it’s good. I really enjoy a lot to spend time in the race track with my team, working hard to become a better person, a better driver. So far, I’m really enjoying this a lot."