Lewandowski Breaks Drought, Wins Atlanta

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Jason Lofing

Strategy and hard-nosed driving got Lewandowski (16) to the stripe ahead of Conti (5).

Tom Lewandowski played the fuel mileage game perfectly at Atlanta Motor Speedway and held-off a charging Michael Conti, finally breaking a three-year winless drought in the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series Powered by iRacing. Lewandowski did not have the fastest car, but the caution-free race let him play the strategy game while Conti, Ray Alfalla and other contenders ran dry and needed an extra pit stop to go the distance.

Conti crossed the line in second ahead of Alfalla, while CBR/Virtual Performance Racing teammates Cody Byus and Adam Gilliland were strong all night and rounded-out the top five.

“(I) knew that if I lifted off that he would have the run to beat me to the line.” – Tom Lewandowski

Conti, who clearly had the fastest car and led 118 of 163 laps, nearly pulled-off a miraculous comeback. With 24 laps to go, he came down pit road for a splash of gas and two right side tires. Upon exiting Conti found himself just over 16 seconds back of Lewandowski’s Ford Fusion, but immediately got up on the wheel and started closing the gap, taking advantage of the leader being held-up by lapped traffic.

As the laps ticked down it became apparent that Conti was going to have a shot at the win regardless if Lewandowski had enough fuel. Conti was over half a second a lap quicker and pulled up on Lewandowski’s rear bumper with two laps to go. Despite his worn tires, Lewandowski played defense and used every trick he knew to keep Conti at bay.

The two took the white flag nose-to-tail, with Lewandowski still holding on. Conti tried to get a run down the backstretch but Lewandowski blocked the bottom and gave Conti no choice but to try the outside groove through Turns Three and Four. Conti drove his Chevy SS hard into Turn Three and pulled nearly even with Lewandowski as the two worked their ways to Turn Four. With the checkered flag in sight, Conti started to surge ahead off of Turn Four but Lewandowski, foot to the floor, slid up the track and made contact with Conti which sent the championship leader into the wall. The impact with the wall broke Conti’s momentum and he came up just .2 seconds short of picking up his fourth victory of the 2014 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series.

“I was pushing as hard as I could coming off Turn Four and knew that if I lifted off that he would have the run to beat me to the line,” said Lewandowski. “We made some contact coming off the corner and I managed to hold on for the win.”

Early in the going it looked as if no one had anything for Conti. He missed the line a bit on his qualifying run leading to a third place start but jumped into the lead on the first lap. Alfalla, who started fourth, followed Conti through and sat on his bumper for the first half of the opening fuel run. However, Alfalla could not match Conti’s long run speed and slowly started to fade as the #5 got smaller and smaller in his windshield.

By the time the first round of stops was complete, Conti’s lead had ballooned to more than five seconds and it looked as if he was a shoo-in for the victory . . . until Lewandowski and his miserly fuel strategy crashed the party. It seems strange for a driver to be disappointed with a second place finish but after a second straight dominating win it was frustrating for Conti not to close the deal and pick-up the four extra points in Victory Lane.

Even though Conti came up short he still slightly padded his point lead on Alfalla in the battle for the championship. With a two point gain, Conti is now 25 points ahead of Alfalla with three races remaining. Nick Ottinger struggled most of the night on his way to a tenth place finish and now is 35 points out of the series lead. Two other contenders, Chad Laughton and Chris Overland, also fell farther behind after sub-par runs and are now most likely out of the running unless both Conti and Alfalla falter down the stretch.

And we would be remiss if we didn’t give a special shout-out to Bryan Blackford for his gritty performance last night. Bryan was injured in a karting accident over the weekend, but still competed in the Atlanta race and came home P31 — all while driving with just his left hand. Well done Bryan!

With the championship battle basically narrowed to three drivers, the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series heads to Richmond International Raceway for this season’s final round of short track sim racing. RIR just happens to be one of Conti’s stronger tracks so Alfalla and Ottinger will have to be on top of their games if they hope to make any ground. Look for all three to be at the front in some combination but the pre-race edge is firmly with Conti. Can Alfalla, Ottinger, or someone else pull the upset or will Conti make a move to solidify his championship run? Find out in two weeks on iRacing Live and MRN.com!

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Staff Report

Keep tabs on all three national series races this weekend

This weekend brings the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series to Atlanta Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

The Sprint Cup Series Oral-B USA 500 is on Sunday, Aug. 31, at 7:30 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN.

The Nationwide Series Great Clips 300 to benefit Feed the Children is on Saturday, Aug. 30, at 7:30 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN2.

The Camping World Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado 250 is on Sunday, Aug. 31 at 1:30 p.m. ET with coverage on FOX Sports 1.

For more information on track times, press conferences and GarageCam, you can check out this weekend’s schedule. For TV times, see this week’s TV schedule.

We know you may not have the time to watch the race action without any interruptions, so if you’re on the go, here’s how to keep up at Atlanta and Canada.

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NASCAR.com’s live Sprint Cup Series leaderboard, Nationwide Series leaderboard and Camping World Truck Series leaderboard update in real-time and offer constant text updates of lead changes, cautions, strategies, strong runs and everything in between. On the go? Download the NASCAR Mobile app to follow the leaderboards live from your device.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Series RaceBuddy is back on NASCAR.com and NASCAR Mobile. Get 10 live high-definition feeds, including views of pit road and battle cams. The drivers featured for RaceBuddy this week are: Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

For the Nationwide Series RaceBuddy, Harvick, Regan Smith, Chase Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch will be the drivers featured.

Lap-by-Lap will keep you caught up even if you can take a peek here and there. Check in now and then to read back through all the laps you’ve missed, or keep an eye on the feed for real-time race updates.

We’ll also send race updates via Twitter through the official @NASCAR and @NASCARStats handles.

Haven’t tried RaceView yet? If you sign up, you’ll get virtual video of cars on the track from various angles and hear what your favorite team is saying over the radio. Use it as a second screen or as your only screen. Just want to scan the radios? You can have that too with RaceView Audio. On a mobile device? Get RaceView Mobile here.

If you want to be more involved in the on-track action, you can manage your fantasy team on NASCAR.com and follow your team’s performance in NASCAR Fantasy Live. Mobile users can also download NASCAR Connect, a game from OneUp Sports that allows users to play other fans with race predictions, for some off-track competition while drivers battle it out on the track.

Live Press Pass video streams will keep the NASCAR action rolling even after the winner goes in and out of Victory Lane. Catch interviews with the top finishers immediately following the checkered flag for the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series, and stay tuned to NASCAR.com throughout the week for the latest news.

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Posted on August 27, 2014 by Nascar

Title contender Hornaday Jr. is not scheduled to compete at Canada track

Turner Scott Motorsports, which fields three full-time entries in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, will send only two entries to this weekend’s race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The No. 31 Chevrolet of Ben Kennedy and the No. 32 of Cameron Hayley will be competing in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 (FOX Sports 1, 1:30 p.m. ET).

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Currently not scheduled to make the trek across the border is the No. 30 team of four-time series champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who is fourth in points following last week’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Turner Scott also fields teams in the Nationwide Series while Scott owns HScott Motorsports, a Sprint Cup team with driver Justin Allgaier.

It was reported earlier Wednesday that the organization, founded by Steve Turner and co-owned by Harry Scott Jr., had shuttered its entire NCWTS operation.

"Turner Scott Motorsports remains in operation and will compete in this weekend’s NASCAR events," Scott said in a statement issued by the team. "TSM’s Nationwide Series race teams represented by the No. 42 driven by Kyle Larson and the No. 31 driven by Dylan Kwasniewski will compete this weekend as scheduled at Atlanta Motor Speedway."

Scott said the entries of Kennedy and Hayley would compete, as scheduled, at Canadian Tire as well.

"My investment company, a co-owner of TSM, will continue to do all that it can to keep the team moving forward with or without our business partner Steve Turner," Scott said. "To all TSM employees, partners and fans I pledge we will continue to do what we can to keep the teams racing hard each and every week of the season."

The No. 30 entry of Hornaday, while a part of the TSM organization, is the responsibility of Turner, according to a team spokesperson.

Kennedy is currently ninth in points while Hayley, a product of NASCAR Next, will be making his series debut in the No. 32 entry. That team has had several drivers behind the wheel this season, including Sprint Cup driver Larson as well as Tayler Malsam and NASCAR Next driver Ben Rhodes.

Hayley is also scheduled to compete at New Hampshire and Texas with the team later this year.

Turner Scott has 11 victories in the Truck Series, but is winless thus far in 2014. James Buescher captured the series’ championship for the organization in 2012.

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