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Flag-by-flag, relive the races on and off of pit road that led to Kyle Busch’s win

First caution: Lap 27-30
Not long before the race was supposed to start, rain washed the 1.54-mile track clean. Officials called for a competition caution, giving teams the chance to examine tire wear on a track that had changed from the one on which the teams had practiced. Coors Light Pole Award winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. told his crew chief his No. 17 had zero front grip. By the time the caution flag waved, Stenhouse had fallen to 22nd. Initial adjustments were made during the stop. The leaders took four Goodyear tires and Sunoco Green E15 fuel, some with additional adjustments, making the speed of the pit crews even more important. Joey Logano lost five positions on the stop, falling to sixth, while Brad Keselowski gained three, putting him in the top 10 after starting 23rd. Juan Pablo Montoya held on to first going to the green flag.

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Second caution: Lap 32-39
With little rubber on the track, the outside line was a hurdle on restarts. Jeff Gordon couldn’t get any grip on the restart and took a hit from Matt Kenseth’s No. 20, leading to a chain reaction and slowing cars behind him. Three Hendrick Motorsports cars bore the brunt of the domino effect as Jimmie Johnson got into the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne got into the back of Johnson. Kahne was sent back to the garage for repairs to his radiator, while Jeff Burton and Mark Martin — who were also caught up in the wreck — joined the No. 48 on pit road for repairs. Gordon would restart fifth on the inside, with Johnson, Martin and Burton falling to 38th-40th, respectively. Carl Edwards would survive the outside line with a push from Clint Bowyer to take the lead on the restart. Kahne would return to the track on Lap 63, 31 laps down. See video of the chain reaction below:

Third caution: Lap 59-63
Lack of grip would continue to give drivers trouble on the track. Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 wobbled, and Denny Hamlin pinched Paul Menard into the wall. Resulting debris on the track would bring out a caution. It was good timing for Hamlin, who had told his team to get ready, saying "Something’s going on, don’t know what." When the flag came out, he would say "I can’t believe this luck." After leaving pit road, the team realized the issue wasn’t fixed, leading the No. 11 to require a second stop that also didn’t result in any solution, but did result in a pass-through penalty, as Hamlin pitted out of the pit stall. The penalties would put him in 40th place. See Hamlin’s struggles below:

Gordon was able to get back up to second before pitting and would leave pit road with the lead and Edwards in second. All drivers in the top 10 would take four tires and fuel, with Harvick gaining a spot even with another track bar adjustment. Kurt Busch, who would leave pit road in 15th, was not happy with his spot on pit road, saying over the radio, "We’re officially in the world’s worst pit box." The No. 78 had the second stall on pit road. Check out the pit stall assignments here.

Fourth caution: Lap 77-81
The damage from Menard’s earlier incident with Hamlin reared its head again, as the tire carcass came loose from the No. 27. Johnson would hit that tire and head down pit road for repairs, earning a penalty for pitting too soon. See video of the incident below:

Once pit road opened, the leaders would come down for four tires and fuel. Carl Edwards beat former leader Jeff Gordon off pit road. Kyle Busch gained two spots on the stop, while Martin Truex Jr. would lose two. Joey Logano would have a slight improvement this time around, not losing or gaining any spots. Gordon would again lead the outside lane on restart, falling to fifth at the drop of the green flag.

Fifth caution: Lap 194-198
Leader Bowyer lost his engine after leading 48 laps, sending up smoke and sending the No. 15 to the garage for good. The team had concerns about the engine after fellow Toyota driver Hamlin’s engine had problems in practice, leading the team to switch out the engine on the No. 11 car, which put Hamlin to the rear of the field at the start. See how Bowyer saved his car from further damage below.

The caution was good news from Logano, who lost the lead on old tires and was hoping for a yellow flag to come out to get back in sequence with the rest of the field. He had gone 51 laps, just inside the track’s fuel window of 50-55 laps. The top five all traveled down pit road with Logano, all taking four tires. Logano again lost two spots trying to get around the No. 78, with Edwards and Gordon each moving up a spot on the race off pit road. Gordon was just ahead of Logano, putting him on the outside yet again for the restart. This time, Gordon would hold on to his position on the restart, but Logano would take advantage of his fresh tires, taking the lead for the fifth time shortly after the restart.

Sixth caution: Lap 207-212
Hamlin was running 21st and a lap down when his day continued to go downhill as Menard tapped the No. 11. The two had made contact earlier in the race. Hamlin was trying to recover from the earlier penalty when he sustained more damage from the incident, losing his right front tire. See the bump from Menard below. Hamlin would not return to the race.

Logano had just gotten in sequence with the rest of the field, but decided to stay out with second-place Edwards under this yellow. Edwards, starting on the outside line, would tell his crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, that his car was too tight to be competitive. On the restart, Edwards’ old tires and tight car would send him back to 10th; by Lap 235, he would be back in 18th. Gordon, who pitted with the rest of the leaders, lost several positions in the race off pit road, restarting eighth. Greg Biffle, needing a good points nigh to secure a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, took the free pass on the caution, becoming the 18th car on the lead lap. 

Out of sequence, Edwards would pit on Lap 248 as the last car on the lead lap. Logano would stretch it to Lap 251, pit while in the lead, join teammate Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Earnhardt and bring the rest of the field onto his race-leading sequence.

Seventh caution: Lap 289-292
Johnson’s day didn’t get any better as the race came to a close. Johnson ran into the back of Burton as Burton slowed to hit pit road — just after Edwards made a green flag pit stop. Logano’s strategy of stretching out his pit window continued to pay off, as the race leader was able to pit under yellow with the rest of the field. Even with the field taking four tires, Logano couldn’t keep his top position in the race off pit road, falling to third as Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman made it back onto the track in front of him. Matt Kenseth would get the free pass back as the 17th driver on the lead lap. Johnson, on the other hand, would fall back to 29th after the incident. See the spin — and save — below.

Eighth caution: Lap 294-297
Brian Vickers took a spin through the grass as traffic got bunched up on the restart. He wouldn’t come into contact with any other cars and was able to get himself turned around on pit road. See video of his trip through the grass and over the NASCAR RaceView logo below.

Keselowski would take the opportunity to have his team check under the hood of the No. 2 as the team battled engine issues — a move that would prove fruitless, as the No. 2 lost all speed with 15 laps to go in the race. None of the leaders would pit, and Vickers was able to keep his No. 55 on the lead lap. Pole-sitter Stenhouse Jr. would return to the lead lap as the beneficiary of the free pass. Kyle Busch and brother Kurt Busch were one and two on the restart.

Ninth caution: Lap 299-304
Burton had a tire go down, sending him into the No. 33 of Austin Dillon. Dillon was pinched into the wall, while Burton spun through the infield, gaining even more damage to his No. 31. See the action below.

While Burton would pit, Dillon was able to stay out. Earnhardt Jr., Biffle, Gordon and Jamie McMurray would pit for fresh tires with 25 laps to go. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. would battle for first on the restart, but the No. 18 would come out in front of the No. 56.

See full race results here, and explore all video from the race here.

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Sends Dillon spinning on final lap; Dillon finishes 17th

Related: Full results | Updated standings

Chase Elliott took his first win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series after sending a low-on-fuel Ty Dillon spinning on the final turn of the final lap of the first-ever Chevrolet Silverado 250.

The ensuing chaos on the track made for a dramatic finish for the series’ inaugural trip to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, with several teams — including those of James Buescher, German Quiroga Jr., Max Papis and Dillon — exchanging harsh words with fellow competitors.

In just his sixth career start, Elliott became the youngest winner in series history at the age of 17 years, 9 months and 4 days, eclipsing the record of fellow truck rookie Ryan Blaney, who was 18 years, 8 months and 15 days old when he first prevailed at Iowa Speedway last season.

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“Obviously, happy to get to Victory Lane,” said Elliott, who led 22 of the event’s 64 laps. “Like I told everybody else, I hate to do it like that, but not very often do you have trucks as fast as what we had today and have the day go as good as it did for us today.”

After the race, Dillon confronted Elliott on his way to Victory Lane. In a post-race interview, the driver of the No. 3 truck sounded like the man who once drove a car with the same number.

“He just doesn’t have any respect,” said Dillon, who finished 17th after leading the most laps (25). “It was going to be an awesome points day for us, and I was racing hard, but man, you don’t just go through the grass and wreck somebody. Killed our truck. Killed our day. It’s just, here’s the point: You gotta be smarter than that when you run these races. You gotta earn respect. Next time, I hope he runs Iowa ‘cause he won’t finish the race.”

Elliott, who is scheduled to enter the Iowa Speedway event next Sunday, chalked some of the contact up to tight racing on the last lap, but he also said he knows he has fallen out of grace with Dillon.

“Everything comes full circle, and I’m sure it’s going to come back to me one day,” Elliott said. “I hope it doesn’t. I’ve learned that I’ve lost really, really close races; I’ve won really, really close races. Eventually things like that are going to come full circle.”

The veteran Papis, Dillon’s RCR teammate, got into a last-lap battle with road-racing ace Mike Skeen as the two raced for a podium finish. Contact between the two in the same corner dropped them to sixth and 13th respectively.

"It was just an amateur move," Papis said. "I don’t have time for guys like that."

As Papis walked away from a post-race interview with FOX Sports 1, a woman identifying herself as Mike Skeen’s girlfriend slapped Papis, reminiscent of Papis’ smack of Billy Johnson after Papis and the Roush Fenway Racing driver got into it on the track and then on pit road after June’s Road America race for the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Chad Hackenbracht drove through the carnage to take second place, his best career finish in the truck series. Miguel Paludo finished third with Darrell Wallace Jr. and Ron Hornaday Jr. completing the top five.

A caution came out with six laps to go as Johnny Sauter slowed to a halt on the Andretti straightaway. The caution laps helped Dillon try to stretch his final fuel run, but even then his truck began to sputter in the next-to-last lap.

Pole-sitter James Buescher, the defending series champion, lost the lead to Elliott on Lap 3 and was unable to get it back, finishing the race in ninth. Series leader Matt Crafton finished 10th, losing just two points to Buescher and emerging with a 47-point lead with eight races left in the season.

Instead of gaining on Buescher, Dillon stayed in third place in the standings, now 63 points off the lead. Jeb Burton, who finished 22nd in the 30-truck field after his truck experienced gear trouble, remained fourth, but dropped to 65 points behind Crafton.

Besides Sauter’s late-race yellow, there were only three other caution flags thrown, two others for slowed trucks as Max Gresham and Alex Guenette lost speed on the track and one as Jennifer Jo Cobb‘s No. 10 took a trip through the grass off the 2.459-mile road course.

Quiroga went into the wall with three laps to go, but the race stayed green as he was able to re-fire his engine and continue on the track. Quiroga finished 15th after being involved in another incident as Hornaday tried to make it three-wide.

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Dillon-Elliott, Papis-Skeen skirmishes add to late-race drama

BOWMANVILLE, Canada — NASCAR did its best old-time hockey impersonation in the Great White North on Sunday afternoon, with drivers dropping the gloves and bracing to square off after a tense final few laps at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Ty Dillon vowed retaliation against first-time winner Chase Elliott as their crews engaged in a tense standoff. German Quiroga Jr. and James Buescher made cool-down lap contact. Max Papis and Mike Skeen took that act one step further, with Skeen’s girlfriend smacking Papis on the post-race walk back to the garage. Papis later said on his Twitter account that he had a dislocated jaw from the slap.

Sunday’s inaugural Chevrolet Silverado 250 was a rousing debut for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in Canada with a dramatic finish, a fresh face in Victory Lane, boiling tempers and plenty of on-track contact in the late stages which could act as kindling wood to ignite rivalries down the season’s home stretch.

The Dillon-Elliott skirmish ranks first and foremost in the made-for-TV drama that road course races seem to produce on a fairly regular basis. When Dillon’s low-on-gas truck began to sputter in the next-to-last lap, his nearly two-second lead vanished, allowing Elliott to close in on the final time around the 2.459-mile track. By the final turn, Elliott’s look to the inside resulted in contact and Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Chevrolet looping helplessly into the outer tire barrier.

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The RCR crew left its pit stall, marching up pit road to meet the Elliott’s No. 94 Hendrick Motorsports team. When Elliott entered pit lane in the opposite direction, Dillon turned a quick about-face and leaned into the winner’s truck for pointed words and a promise for payback.

“I got wrecked by a kid who just comes in and runs a couple races a year, trying to get experience and he wrecks point contenders,” said Dillon, who led a race-high 25 of 64 laps but had just a 17th-place finish to show for it. “I told him that he ain’t going to finish Iowa if he runs it. Whichever race he’s in, he ain’t going to finish it. So, pretty unhappy with him. He does it to a lot of people. He did it to my brother at the last road course race. Try to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s going to race you clean, but he don’t know how to, I guess. We’ll give it back.”

Elliott, who celebrated as the truck series’ youngest winner at age 17 and change, said he could see how Dillon would cry foul.

“He obviously wasn’t happy. He’s got a right not to be happy,” Elliott said. “I wouldn’t have been happy either, but at the same time, like we all three said, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. … He just told me I was better than that, and we’re probably going to have some problems next week at Iowa, so we’ll just have to play it by ear when we get there.”

The tangle between the two newly minted young rivals happened just ahead of another fracas that was about to erupt. Papis, the road-racing veteran, and Skeen, a young driver with a history of recent success at the former Mosport track, tangled twice in the final two laps through the same Turn 8 through 10 complex that completes the course.

Both drivers wound up in the tires in sight of the checkered flag, setting off a maelstrom of post-race bumps, finger-pointing and angry words between the two. But that was nothing compared to the flush, open-handed slap delivered by a woman who identified herself as Skeen’s girlfriend, yelling, “That’s what you deserve!” at the Italian driver.

“It was just a very inexperienced guy moved me, you know,” said Papis, who was on the delivering end of the most recent slap in a NASCAR national series post-race, issued to Billy Johnson after the Nationwide event in June at Road America. “We drove really well, nice and clean and the guy just … it was just disappointing. He should have not done that to me.”

Skeen, who was blazing fast in every practice leading up to the series’ first international event, shrugged off the contact.

“I can certainly see his anger,” Skeen said after placing 13th in his first truck series start. “The pass that I pulled off earlier in the race, I was going to try to do it again and didn’t think he was going to come down on me as much, didn’t think I would wheel-hop it, and two bad situations got worse. I feel bad for him. I feel bad for us.”

Papis and Skeen are unlikely to be on the same entry list for the series’ next race, next Sunday at Iowa Speedway, but Dillon and Elliott will be. Dillon’s golden chance to advance on series leader Matt Crafton, who finished 10th, evaporated with his last-lap spin but gaining or losing points was far from his mind in the immediate aftermath.

“It doesn’t matter any more,” Dillon said. “I’m going out winning races or wrecking trucks. It doesn’t matter any more.”

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Led AdvoCare 500 for 48 laps

HAMPTON, Ga. – A dominant run by Clint Bowyer came to an inglorious end here at Atlanta Motor Speedway when the engine in the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota expired on lap 193 of the Advocare 500.
 
Bowyer had been dominant, leading 48 laps and enjoying a comfortable advantage before the problem.
 
“That was a super big bummer right there,” Bowyer said. “Our … car was so fast. Why did it have to happen this weekend. That’s the biggest thing.”

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Bowyer’s wasn’t the only Toyota entry to endure engine problems. Engine changes for Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing) and MWR teammate Brian Vickers prior to the start of the race erased their respective qualifying efforts and relegated both to the back of the field for the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
 
MWR and Joe Gibbs Racing obtain engines from Toyota Racing Development.
 
“It’s been such a rough weekend for TRD but they do such a great job,” said Bowyer. “There’s a reason we’re up front, it’s because they’re building big horsepower. We’re pushing for the Chase and trying to learn as much as we can.
 
“We learned a lot with this car. We were off a little bit in practice, and real proud of (Brian) Pattie (crew chief) for making some adjustments and getting me where I needed to be. It’s a shame.”
 
With five-time champion Jimmie Johnson struggling at Atlanta, Bowyer had moved ahead of the Hendrick Motorsports driver in the points standings. But that advantage went up in smoke when Bowyer was forced to make the hard left turn into the garage with the race still under way.
 
“It was our race to lose and unfortunately we found a way to lose it,” he said.
 
While his team wasn’t convinced the engine was beginning to go away, Bowyer said he was “pretty sure what I was hearing.”
 
“That tractor was getting sick, and she just expired,” he said. “(It’s) part of racing. Kind of sucks, though.”
 
Bowyer was unaware he was ahead of Johnson in the standings. He entered the race trailing by 15.
 
“No (crap)?” he said. “Yeah, it matters, dammit. But what do you do? The engine blew up. I was trying.”
 
Problems earlier this year forced TRD officials to step back and regroup, opting for slightly less horsepower but more durability after a rash of engine failures. Those issues seemed to have been solved until this weekend’s failures.
 
It had been 11 races without an engine-related issue for the group, according to officials.
 
Unofficially, Bowyer finished 39th. He maintained his second-place position in the points standings, however, and has already clinched a berth in this year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.

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No. 30, 32 Turner Scott Motorsports teams face potential points penalty

Related: Race results | Standings

HAMPTON, Ga. — The cars of fifth-place finisher Kyle Larson and 12th-place Nelson Piquet Jr. failed post-race inspection following Saturday night’s Great Clips/Grit Chips 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, according to NASCAR officials.

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The two Chevrolet entries, which are fielded by Turner Scott Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, measured too low on the front end, according to officials.

Resulting penalties for the infractions would likely be announced Sept. 3.

Both drivers are competing for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the series with Larson seventh in points and Piquet Jr. 11th.

On Aug. 30, it was announced that Larson would become the driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next season.

Saturday night’s fifth-place finish was his 14th in 24 starts this year.

Similar infractions previously announced in the series have resulted in the loss of six championship driver and owner points. Such a penalty would drop Larson from seventh to ninth in the standings, while Piquet Jr. would lose one points position, falling from 11th to 12th.

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Check back often for the latest stories from this weekend’s NASCAR action

Sprint Cup Series

AdvoCare 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway, 7:30 p.m. ET, Sunday, ESPN, on air at 7 p.m. ET. | RESULTS | WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Featured Story

Busch rides to victory

Kyle Busch locks up a spot in the Chase with a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the AdvoCare 500. | Read the full story | Busch takes lead on restart | Busch takes the flag | Final laps | 1-on-1 | Victory lane

MORE NEWS:
— Keselowski now a Chase long shot
— Gordon, Edwards disagree at Atlanta
— Standings Shuffle: Logano stays on a hot streak
— Caution report: Clean track causes many messes
— Bowyer out with engine failure
— Busch and Truex battle for the lead
— Johnson spins at Atlanta
— Vickers gets loose
— Burton and Dillon wreck late
— Kahne collects damage on restart
— Hamlin penalized for pit stop
— Multiple problems for Menard
— Menard gives Hamlin some payback
— Allmendinger back in Cup ride
— EGR tabs Larson for No. 42 in 2014
— Ganassi’s door remains open to Montoya
— Newman responds to Stewart-Haas growth

Nationwide Series

Great Clips-Grit Chips 300, Atlanta Motor Speedway, 7:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, ESPN2, on air at 7 p.m. ET. | RESULTS | WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Featured Story

Harvick takes Atlanta

Richard Childress Racing driver holds off Kyle Busch to lead 132 laps for first Nationwide win of season. | Read the full story

MORE NEWS:
— Logano has run-in with the wall
— Larson builds steam in rookie race
— Final Laps: Harvick fights off Busch
— Kahne makes great save
— Heavy damage for Green

Camping World Truck Series

Chevrolet Silverado 250, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, 1:30 p.m. ET, Sunday, FOX Sports 1, on air at 1 p.m. ET. | RESULTS | WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Featured Story

Elliott takes first Truck Series win

There were a lot of unhappy drivers after the Truck Series’ first trip to Canada. Among them was Ty Dillon, the driver in the way of Chase Elliott as the checkered flag approached. | Read the full story | Watch: Final Laps | Victory Lane

MORE NEWS:
— Truck tempers overflow in Canada
— Dillon, Papis react to post-race incidents
— Papis slapped by Skeen’s girlfriend
— Quiroga spins late
— Coulter spins in Canada
— Growth curve in trucks continues for Wallace
— Fellows on sidelines as co-owner in Canada

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Will pilot the No. 47 currently driven by Bobby Labonte in 2014

HAMPTON, Ga. — Tad Geschickter just wanted a second opinion. AJ Allmendinger just wanted to get back behind the wheel.

At the time, neither one of them thought any more of it than that.

“I didn’t know AJ Allmendinger very well before that,” admitted Geschickter, primary owner of the JTG Daugherty team that fields the No. 47 car on NASCAR’s premier series.

“I didn’t think anything would come of it. I just wanted to get in the car,” Allmendinger added.

It was a relationship of convenience, a driver with experience in a host of different vehicles and an owner looking for reasons why his vehicle was 30th in points. So JTG Daugherty decided to put Allmendinger in the car for a handful of races as a comparative measure to regular driver Bobby Labonte, whose streak of 704 consecutive starts at the sport’s highest level — third-longest all-time — came to an end as a result.

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It was supposed to be temporary. But as it progressed, Allmendinger and Geschickter began talking about making it permanent. And that path ultimately led both men to Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Allmendinger was formally named to replace Labonte as the new driver of JTD Daugherty’s No. 47 car beginning next season.

“He’s a phenomenal person,” Geschickter said. “I was very impressed with his talent and enthusiasm and the way he interacted with the sponsors and everyone, and the relationship kind of evolved over the three races we’ve done. I’ll tell you, halfway through this two months we’ve been working together, we started talking more and more about well, maybe it’s time.”

For Allmendinger, the announcement capped a tumultuous 13 months. He lost his ride in Penske Racing’s No. 22 Sprint Cup Series car last July, following a failed substance abuse test and subsequent suspension for what the driver later admitted was the prescription drug Adderall. Following completion of NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program, Allmendinger gradually rebuilt his career, running some races in the No. 51 car formerly owned by James Finch, some for his former boss Roger Penske, and some for JTG Daugherty.

Beginning with next year’s Daytona 500, he’ll be back at NASCAR’s top level full-time.

“Things just kind of kept falling into place,” said Allmendinger, 31. “I don’t feel like I’ve ever deserved it, that I deserved the second chance. But I worked really hard to get there. I felt like I was more ready than I’ve ever been. If any opportunity came up, I was more prepared mentally, physically, emotionally, to get in there and give it my full effort. Things just kind of kept evolving.”

Saturday’s announcement came as Labonte was at home nursing three broken ribs he suffered Wednesday in a bicycling accident, which forced him to spend a night in a hospital and miss this weekend’s event. The 2000 NASCAR champion was scheduled to drive the No. 51 car, and was replaced by Mike Bliss. Atlanta is one of three remaining starts Allmendinger has scheduled for the remainder of this year in the No. 47 car — although the unknowns surrounding Labonte’s recovery time could mean a head start on next season.

“Bobby’s pretty banged up right now,” Geschickter said. “He has another doctor’s appointment on Monday, and I guess as a football head coach says, it may be a game-time decision. But Bobby still has a burning passion to drive the race car and see his contract through the end. But having said that, we obviously don’t want him to risk further injury or push the issue. So more to come. … That’s Bobby’s decision with his doctors, and we’ll just take it a day at a time on that.”

Allmendinger is ready if needed.

“I in no way want to try to do anything to get more races to push him out,” he said of Labonte. “He’s a Hall of Famer. I’m here for whatever Tad wants, if that’s next week or a race here or there. Of course, I want to be in the race car and drive it. But I’m not doing that at the will of somebody else. I’ll be ready to go. I have those races and that’s what’s left on my schedule anyway, but obviously I’m free if any more races need to be driven. That’s not my decision, and I’m not going to push for that, either.”

JTG Daugherty, a single-car operation which currently fields a Toyota, did not announce a manufacturer for next season — that decision will be evaluated, co-owner Brad Daugherty said. The vehicle is 30th in Sprint Cup owners’ points, but competition director Bobby Hutchens said Allmendinger has already tested some in the car in preparation for next year.

“Our race team has adapted around AJ and what he needs in a race car,” Hutchens said. “Our single-car team from here, I feel, is only going to go forward. He’s gotten along great with our guys, has put a lot of energy into our race team. And at the end of the day, AJ likes to go fast, and that’s what we like to do.”

Allmendinger said he spoke with some other teams, but what helped sell him on JTG Daugherty was the faith Penske has in the organization. Allmendinger has grown closer to the reigning Sprint Cup championship owner since the turmoil of last year, winning two Nationwide Series races on road courses this season for Penske, as well as starting the Indianapolis 500.

“He has a high regard for this this race team, for Tad especially … the way they go about their business,” said Allmendinger, who added that his new ride would not preclude another Indy 500 effort for Penske next year. “For me that was something that really hit home, that Roger was really in high regard of what he thought this race team was, and what he thought it could be if all the right things happen and we do the right things. That was something that made me feel great.”

What now for Labonte, who has been the regular driver of the No. 47 car since 2011? The 21-time race winner on NASCAR’s top series is 49, and hasn’t been to Victory Lane since 2003. Like Allmendinger, Geschickter called Labonte “a Hall of Famer,” adding the Texas native has been mulling his next step. The No. 78 car of Furniture Row Racing is the only current opening for 2014.

“Bobby and I have had long talks, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning in the motor home about what’s next in his career, and I think he’s trying to decide that,” Geschickter said. “But he was in favor of us getting our here and announcing what we’re doing next year, too, so he could see what his options are as well.”

Meanwhile, Allmendinger prepares for a second chance he once never thought possible. The Northern California native opened this year with just one race on his schedule — the Rolex 24 at Daytona sports-car event. With some help from Finch and Penske along the way, he’s rebuilt his NASCAR career to the point where he’s returning to the Sprint Cup ranks full-time — and perhaps better off for the experience.

“It’s been a long journey over the last 12 months. But in a strange way, I’d never change it,” he said. “As weird as that sounds, with the hell I had to go through initially, the place that I’m at now as a person, I feel so much better about it.”

 

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Former phenom looks forward to helping young star at EGR

HAMPTON, Ga. — Jamie McMurray has been there.

The Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver knows what it’s like to be a phenom bursting onto the NASCAR scene — he was just that a decade ago, when he won in only his second career start in the sport’s premier series. That background makes McMurray well-suited to act as teammate and mentor to Kyle Larson, who will take over EGR’s other Sprint Cup Series car beginning next year.

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Larson will succeed Juan Pablo Montoya, whose contract at EGR was not renewed. McMurray recently signed an extension, and will work beginning next season with a 21-year-old who has 29 national-series starts — none yet at the Sprint Cup level — entering this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

McMurray knows something about making that kind of leap. He was a 26-year-old Nationwide Series driver for Clarence Brewer’s former team when Cup championship leader Sterling Marlin injured his neck in a crash and had to step out of Ganassi’s No. 40 car in the fall of 2002. Ganassi called on McMurray, who stunned the racing world by winning at Charlotte in his second start.

Personally and professionally, it’s been quite a journey in the years since. McMurray left Ganassi’s team for Roush Fenway before returning to the rebranded EGR outfit for the 2010 campaign. He’s won five more times since that night in Charlotte, including the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard. And he’s now a married 37-year-old father of two children.

When it comes to competition, McMurray doesn’t think Larson will need much help. When it comes to everything else involved in making the transition from Nationwide to Sprint Cup, he’s ready and willing to lend advice.

“As a driver, he has that part. We might go to certain tracks that he would ask you stuff about. But I think more than anything where I can help Kyle is everything else that comes along with running Cup versus Nationwide — the amount of people, the sponsorship commitments, the lifestyle change. There’s a lot that goes with that that I don’t know if people recognize,” McMurray said.

“I feel like my lifestyle would be a really good example for Kyle to see, certainly my life from when I started Cup to now. It’s a lot different with kids and being married. But I’ve lived all of that, and I’ve learned from things I did. I think I would be really good in guiding Kyle in the right direction.”

Direction is one reason McMurray is staying at EGR. Ganassi has revamped his organization in recent years, replacing some members of the executive team, in an effort to improve a program that bottomed out with points finishes in the 20s for both cars in 2011 and 2012. Progress has been slow in coming, but McMurray — currently 16th in the Sprint Cup standings — has seen enough to make him want to stay on board.

“I really enjoy my relationship with Chip, and with the whole organization,” McMurray said. “I really like this team, and I feel like it’s just going to continue to get better. I feel like this new (Generation-6) car has been better for our organization, I feel like the Hendrick engines have been better. Chip’s made every commitment to get our team better, and I’m 100 percent behind him.”

Even Montoya’s team has shown improvement in recent weeks, although not enough for him to remain with the organization following this season. The Colombian still lingers 22nd in points. Ganassi believes things are on the upswing, and the team has advanced to the point where it can support a young driver like Larson for next season.

“I think we’ve made some steps since the inception of our team. Some were solid steps. Looking back, some were not so solid,” the car owner said. “But it’s a building process. I think we made a big step this past year. Our cars are a lot better. They seem to run at the front a lot more. You know, we led some races. We’ve been running at the front a lot. Having the right drivers certainly doesn’t hurt. Are we there yet? Do I think I’m there yet? You’re never there. You’re never there. Until we can win on a consistent basis and win championships consistently, we’re not there, you know.”

From an on-track standpoint, McMurray is looking forward to the chance to work with Larson, whom he said “has no bad habits yet.” He and Montoya have worked together for so long, that they know one another’s tendencies and driving styles from memory. Next season brings the opportunity to compare himself against someone different.

“At Roush, I had five teammates. So definitely you have good and bad ones along the way, and there are guys you think are better teammates to you than others,” McMurray said. “And I’m going to try my hardest to be a really good teammate to Kyle, and share as much as you can, and you hope the same comes in return.”

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Leads 132 laps for first Nationwide win of season

Related: Race results

HAMPTON, Ga.–Perhaps it was appropriate, on the first weekend of college football this year, that solid team fundamentals and deft blocking should play such an integral part in Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR Nationwide Series victory over Kyle Busch.

In a battle of Sprint Cup regulars, Harvick edged Busch for the win in Saturday night’s Great Clips/Grit Chips 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, after the drivers waged a scintillating battle over the final seven laps of the 195-lap race.

Harvick beat Busch to the finish line by .579 seconds after clearing his rival’s No. 54 Toyota with five laps left. The narrow loss kept Busch winless in the Nationwide Series at the 1.54-mile speedway and broke a streak of wins from the pole by the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

Busch had been six-for-six this season in converting poles into victories before Saturday’s race

And though the drivers have had issues in the past, they respect each other’s tenacity on the track.

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Harvick summed it up after the race: "Kyle Busch isn’t my favorite person, but I enjoy racing with him."

Series leader Sam Hornish Jr. ran third, extending his advantage over eighth-place finisher Austin Dillon to 10 points. Kasey Kahne rallied from an early spin to come home fourth, and rookie Kyle Larson placed fifth–his seventh top five in 24 starts this season.

The win was Harvick’s first of the season in seven starts, his second at Atlanta and the 40th of his career, but it took a flawless pit stop on lap 182–which got Harvick out first with lane choice for the lap 189 restart–and all of Harvick’s consummate driving skill to achieve it. 

After Harvick cleared Busch on lap 190, Busch mustered two promising runs before succumbing. 

On lap 192, Busch had huge momentum in the outside lane off Turn 2, but Harvick left his customary line on the bottom of the track to block. Busch slowed to avoid contact with the outside wall.

"I was just tight, and at that point, I wasn’t going to let off the throttle unless (the spotter) said ‘Outside,’" Harvick explained. "He said ‘Clear,’ and I kept coming up, and at that point in the race, you’ve just got to do what you have to do to maintain it, especially when you feel like you might be at a small disadvantage like we were for a few laps."

Harvick’s tactics had the desired effect of keeping Busch behind him.

"I had a run on him one time, and he blocked my air and put me in the fence," Busch said. "I had to stop and check up before I got to the fence. But that’s part of it. It is what it is…

"I could have driven through him and knocked him out of the way, but I try not to do those things, although my reputation doesn’t really get perceived that way." 

On the final circuit, Busch slipped slightly through Turns 1 and 2 as Harvick open the winning margin.

"Aero-loose," Busch said simply. "You get in behind somebody, and you get aero-loose." 

A caution on lap 104 for debris on the backstretch erased a seven-second lead Harvick had built through a cycle of green-flag pit stops around the race’s midpoint. Undeterred, Harvick pulled away after the ensuing restart on lap 109 and owned a lead of more than five seconds when the next cycle of green-flag stops began on lap 143.

Harvick was the last of the top three to come to pit road (lap 148), and by the time the field cycled through, his advantage over Joey Logano, then running second, had dwindled to .9 seconds. 

Stretching his margin to as much as 1.9 seconds, Harvick was comfortably ahead when Jeff Green’s hard crash into the outside wall in the tri-oval on Lap 182 caused the fourth caution of the night.

That set up the final seven-lap green-flag run, after four-tire pit stops for the leaders, with Busch surging into second moments after the restart and battling side-by-side with Harvick before the driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet finally pulled ahead. 

Larson and Nelson Piquet Jr.’s cars both failed the post-race inspection for being too low on the front. Larson and Michael Annett‘s cars will be heading to the Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C.

 

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