Posted on by Sean Montgomery

Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway
(⏰ 3:30 p.m. ET | 📺 NBCSN | 📻 PRN, SiriusXM)

Everything you need to know for Sunday’s race, the 21st points-paying NASCAR Cup Series event of the 2021 season. 

Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.54-mile track located just south of Atlanta in Hampton, Georgia
Green flag: 3:48:30 p.m. ET
TV/Radio: NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Forecast: Showers and thunderstorms likely after 9 a.m. ET. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89 degrees. Chance of precipitation is 60%, according to NOAA.gov
Race Distance: 260 laps, 400 miles
Stages: Stage 1 – 80 laps | Stage 2 – 80 laps (ends at Lap 160) | Final Stage – 1oo laps (scheduled to end at Lap 260)
Pit-road speed: 45 mph
Caution car speed: 55 mph
Atlanta 101: Get the full lowdown
Starting lineup: See the full lineup
Pit-stall assignments: See who is pitting where | Expert breaks down pit selections

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Five to watch

Here are five big story lines we’ll be following at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

1. The last five races at Atlanta have been dominated by Ford drivers. Ryan Blaney reached Victory Lane in the last race here and Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski each have a pair of wins. As of late, Ford has taken a back seat to the Chevrolet dominance and the Toyota resurgence. Yet, this weekend could easily get their stable of experienced drivers back on track. Recent history says it will, for whatever that’s worth. Harvick’s first win of the season could come at any time and it wouldn’t be a surprise. He hasn’t had a winless season since 2009. The No. 4 wheelman has led the most laps in six of the last eight Atlanta races. Blaney, Keselowski and Joey Logano join Harvick with reasonable chances to take home this week’s trophy, according to the oddsmakers. How well they do as a manufacturer and individually is something to keep an eye on this Sunday.

2. A couple of months ago, it seemed like Denny Hamlin was going to run away with the regular-season championship. Then, Kyle Larson led Hendrick Motorsports on one of the best runs the sport has ever seen. And he’s shown no signs of cooling off anytime soon. Coming into this weekend within three points of Hamlin in the Cup Series points standings, Larson can take over the standings leaderboard for the first time this season. With 15 crucial playoff points on the line, a bonus that comes with the regular-season title, neither driver can afford to slip up in the next six races. While the favored bets are on Larson this weekend, Hamlin’s consistency is what’s got him this far — even without a win in 2021. Expect both drivers to have a solid showing as the pressure turns up.

3. Kyle Larson has been the most dominant driver of the season to this point. That’s undeniable. You could also argue that he’s been the most dominant driver at Atlanta in his last two starts at the track. Over that span, Larson has led 411 laps, won three of the last four stages and finished runner-up in the March race. But wait. Even with all the impressive stats, Larson has surprisingly never won here. Blaney outran the No. 5 driver in the closing laps earlier this season, and his other runner-up finish came all the way back in 2017. Still, he’s finished no worse than 12th in his last four races at Atlanta. The heavy favorite coming into the weekend, this time we will see if he can close the deal.

4. Only one Georgia-born driver has ever won a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and his name is Elliott. Bill Elliott, that is. That’s right, the NASCAR Hall of Famer and father of reigning Cup Series champion Chase Elliott. He won at Atlanta five times. Chase Elliott is still searching for his first win on his home turf after being winless in five career Cup starts there and only has one top five. This weekend, he starts on the pole and will have the early edge. Coming off an impressive, but not unexpected, win at Road America, the 25-year-old fan favorite might ride the momentum to his first-ever win in his home state. The Dawsonville Pool Room, located just under two hours away from the track, will certainly hope so.

5. The tale (not quite) as old as time. Tire wear at Atlanta. One of the older tracks on the current slate of tracks, Atlanta Motor Speedway is known for the high wear and tear on fresh Goodyear Eagle tires. Last resurfaced in 1997, the 1.5-mile asphalt oval tends to get the most out of driver ability. Over the course of the 400-mile marathon, tire strategy — especially on long, green runs — should play a factor in deciding the winner of the race.

Race-day staples

Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.Denny Powerrankings Hero 922x510

• Power Rankings: Denny Hamlin returns to early-season form | Scope the ranks
• Paint Scheme Preview:  Dazzling schemes for Atlanta, Knoxville | See the schemes
• Fantasy Fastlane: See which drivers to use, avoid | Full Fantasy advice | Set your roster
• Preview Show: Jonathan Merryman and Alex Weaver preview the race | Watch the show

Get in on the action

Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy.

• Betting odds for second Atlanta race | See the odds
• Colorado sports betting numbers show positive signs for motorsports | Find out why
• One-stop shop for NASCAR betting information | Check it out
• Take a shot at winning cash prizes with the free-to-play Jackpot Races app | Hit the jackpot
• Full guide to 2021 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ

Take two at Atlanta

ISC Archives via Getty Images

It’s the second race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Take a look at some track history and what happened last time out.

• Remember this?: Memorable moments from Atlanta | See the moments
• Reverse: Relive the iconic 1992 championship battle and Richard Petty’s final race | 1992 Hooters 500 breakdown
• Cale or Dale? See which Hall of Famer led the most laps at Atlanta | Find out here
• Winning is a habit: Most all-time wins at Atlanta | Take a look
• Blaney’s got the pace: Ryan Blaney passes Kyle Larson for the win in March | See how

Fast facts

Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.

• Atlanta Motor Speedway has held 114 Cup Series races and is the eighth oldest track on the current series schedule.
• Bill Elliott is the only Georgia-born driver to win a race at Atlanta, winning five times.
• Wood Brothers Racing has led the most laps by any team at Atlanta with 3407, 79 more than Hendrick Motorsports.
• Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. are tied for the most top 10s in the last nine races on 1.5-mile tracks with eight.
• Four active drivers have a sub-15 career average finish at Atlanta: Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Elliott.

Catch the pack

Read up on all the headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race.

• Live from Atlanta: NASCAR.com to stream pre-race show Sunday | See the details
• All square: Hendrick teammates Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman on good terms after Pocono | Read more
• Penalty report: No. 14 crew chief Johnny Klausmeier suspended for Road America lug-nut violation | See the details
• New television series: USA Network to team up with NASCAR for new docuseries | Read more
• Gearing up for 2022: Atlanta Motor Speedway bringing in next generation with track reprofile | See the details
• New partnership: United Rentals named Official Rental Equipment Partner of NASCAR | Check out the deal

Say what?

Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into Sunday’s race.

“Atlanta is a ton of fun to race at and a place where I have a couple of wins. I’m looking forward to having CRAFTSMAN Ace and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals represented on the car this weekend.  Some of the kids actually designed the car and get to join us at the track this weekend.  This is the 15th year Stanley Black & Decker has partnered on this program with CRAFTSMAN and Ace Hardware, they’ve donated $1.5 million over the years and I’m honored to be a part of the program this year. Hopefully, we can build on our strong finish in Road America and carry that momentum into Atlanta.” — Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

“I would say Atlanta is probably, to me at least, the hardest place to just go around by yourself.  It’s just extremely challenging to do the same thing twice. The grip level is literally different from lap one to lap two, quite drastically truthfully, and it’s just a lot of hard work from a standpoint of the car never wants to do what you’re wanting it to do. It’s not gonna have grip. It almost feels like you’re on ice at all times and it would be like taking an exit ramp in the middle of an ice storm and you’re trying to drive it at 150 miles an hour. It just doesn’t want to stick. It doesn’t want to do anything you want it to do, and it just wants to slide you right off of it and it’s the same at Atlanta.” — Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang. 

“Atlanta is a great racetrack with the worn-out surface and obviously it’s going to be hot this weekend. That should make the track slick and that’s fun for us as drivers. We weren’t quite as good as we wanted to be in that first Atlanta race, so hopefully we can improve on that this weekend and get back in the top five like we have been able to do the past few years there.” — Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry

“Atlanta is typically a track where you’re always fighting loose with really limited rear grip. You’ll also have some front grip issues, as well, with the way tires wear. It’s really about managing it all throughout the run. You want to be able to wrap that white line and be good down low for as long as possible in a run. Hopefully for us, we have that grip in the car that we need.” — William Byron, driver of the N0. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro
Posted on by Staff Report

John Hunter Nemechek clinched the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular-season championship a race early.

In the second-to-last event of the 15-race regular season, Nemechek finished 11th at Knoxville Raceway. That awarded him 26 points. He also placed 17th in Stage 1 and seventh in Stage 2, giving him four additional points. Those 31 points put him at 605 points on the season and 85 points ahead of second-place Ben Rhodes, making it impossible for Nemechek’s total to be beaten with just a single race left. The most a driver can score in a single race is 60 points by a max allocation of 40 for winning the race and 20 stage points.

RELATED: Official Knoxville results | Truck Series standings

The regular-season title gives Nemechek 15 additional playoff points. He has been locked into the 10-driver playoff field ever since the third race of the season, which will be officially set after the Aug. 7 finale at Watkins Glen International (12:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Round of 10 — the first of three postseason rounds — then begins Aug. 20 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. There will be four playoff races before the ultimate title battle Nov. 5 at Phoenix Raceway.

Nemechek has truly dominated this year, winning a career-best and series-high five times – Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway. He led laps in all but three races and boasts eight top-five and 11 top-10 runs. Nemechek has held the top spot of the standings ever since Week 3.

The 24-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina, has raced in the Camping World Truck Series since 2013, with previous full-time seasons in 2016 and 2017 (finished eighth overall both times; two wins in each). He currently drives for Kyle Busch Motorsports, piloting the No. 4 Toyota. Nemechek has 11 career wins in 116 starts.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

At the end of a remarkable race on an equally remarkable race track, Austin Hill took home the trophy in Friday night’s Corn Belt 150 presented by Premier Chevy Dealers at Knoxville Raceway.

After a fourth attempt at overtime in the inaugural NASCAR Truck Series event at the iconic .5-mile dirt track, Hill scored his first victory of the season in a race that featured 14 cautions and a 17-car pileup in Turn 1 that could rival even the biggest “Big One” at Talladega.

RELATED: Official results | The ‘Big One’ shakes up final stage

Moments after Hill took the checkered flag to end the fourth overtime, fireworks exploded in Turn 3, but they bore pale comparison with the pyrotechnics that punctuated a race that extended 29 laps past its scheduled distance of 150 circuits.

The decisive moment was much more subtle. After a Lap 171 restart—the third-overtime—Hill nosed ahead of Chandler Smith, who had done yeoman work on old tires and led seven times for a race-high 71 laps.

A four-car incident involving Tyler Ankrum, Stewart Friesen, Zane Smith and Johnny Sauter caused the final caution, with Hill having led at the previous scoring loop. That was all Hill needed to hold the point from the inside lane on the final overtime restart.

Two laps later, he crossed the finish line 1.207 seconds ahead of a disappointed Smith, who saw his chance to escape the NCWTS Playoffs bubble with a win evaporate in the last shootout.

The victory was the seventh of Hill’s career.

RELATED: Austin Hill reacts to ‘awesome’ win at Knoxville

“Man, I thought we were out of it,” said an elated Hill, who had shown speed throughout the race but fell back from the second position after a restart on Lap 73. “I thought we were out of it for a little bit. I had that restart outside of the 38 (Todd Gilliland) earlier in the race, and I fell back all the way to like 20th.

“I didn’t think we were going to make it back up. Track position was huge. It was really hard to get around people—you had to kind of rough ‘em up a little bit to get around ‘em. But we don’t stop, we don’t quit, even when we think we’re down and out.”

With the victory, Hill clinched a spot in the Playoffs. Smith, on the other hand, will have to sweat out the final regular-season race Aug. 7 at Watkins Glen, though he holds a relatively comfortable 40-point lead over Derek Kraus for the final playoff berth.

Kraus won the first and second stages Friday and finished fifth by avoiding most of the chaos at the end of the race.

The 17-truck crash ignited in Turn 1 seconds after the field took the green flag for the first overtime on Lap 154. Among the many victims was 10-time Knoxville Nationals winner and 10-time World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz, who was making his NCWTS debut.

RELATED: Truck Series standings | 2021 Truck Series schedule

“I had nowhere to go—I was just along for the ride,” Schatz said. “I thought I was going to have a top-10 finish.”

Schatz instead finished 32nd. The best result achieved by a dirt-track ace was eighth by Knoxville Raceway track champion Brian Brown, who fell two laps down after a pair of spins but regained the lead lap as the beneficiary under consecutive cautions and managed to escape the third-stage melees.

Grant Enfinger ran third, followed by Gilliland and Kraus. Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, Brown, Tate Fogleman and Danny Bohn completed the top 10.

Note: When Stewart and Jessica Friesen took the green flag on Friday night, it marked the first time since Elton Sawyer and Patty Moise raced together at Atlanta in 1998 that a husband and wife have competed in the same NASCAR national series event. They finished together—Jessica in 26th and Stewart in 27th.

NOTE: The race-winning No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota of Austin Hill passed NASCAR’s post-race inspection, confirming the victory. There were no issues.

Posted on by Staff Report

Four qualifying heats will set the starting lineup for Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Corn Belt 150 at Knoxville Raceway (9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). This running recap will keep track of the results in each qualifying race.

Qualifying Heat Race #4

Carson Hocevar wasted no time taking the lead away from Iowa native Brett Moffitt on the opening lap and then held off Chase Briscoe for the win in Qualifying Heat Race #4. Briscoe took second in the heat, while Moffitt placed third. Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed completed the top five.

Final running order: Hocevar, Briscoe, Moffitt, Hill, Creed, Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen, Andrew Gordon, Norm Benning and Jennifer Jo Cobb.

Qualifying Heat Race #3

Tyler Ankrum and Derek Kraus drove up from starting spots of fifth and 10th, respectively, to finish 1-2 in Qualifying Heat Race #3. Brian Brown took third, with Johnny Sauter and Jack Wood closing out the top five.

Jessica Friesen will be part of the field for the 40-truck event, making her and husband Stewart Friesen the first husband-wife to race against each other since the early 1990s when Elton Sawyer and Patty Moise then competed in several NASCAR races together.

Of note for the main 150-lap event, Chris Windom (No. 02, driver change) and John Hunter Nemechek (No. 4, backup truck) will start at the rear of the field. Both of those drivers were in the field for this particular heat. Nemechek ran three laps to shake down the truck before going to the garage since he will be starting at the back anyway.

Final running order: Ankrum, Kraus, Brown, Sauter, Wood, Jessica Friesen, Danny Bohn, Windom, Morgan Alexander and Nemechek.

Qualifying Heat Race #2

Kyle Strickler, known for his dirt-racing prowess, took the lead with four laps to go from Matt Crafton to win the Qualifying Heat Race #2. Zane Smith, who led the first 10 laps, finished second, while Crafton finished third. Todd Gilliland took fourth in the heat, and Ben Rhodes finished fifth.

Strickler’s two previous Truck Series starts both came at Eldora Speedway — a dirt track run in the Truck Series from 2013 to 2019..

Final running order: Strickler, Smith, Crafton, Gilliland, Rhodes, Donny Schatz, Chase Purdy, Ryan Truex, Jake Griffin and Codie Rohrbaugh.

Qualifying Heat Race #1

Josh Berry led for the entirety of the opening 15-lap qualifying heat race at Knoxville Raceway. Berry, making his fifth Truck Series start of the season, cruised to a heat win in the No. 25 Rackley W.A.R. Chevrolet.

Parker Price-Miller, who is driving the No. 3 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet in his Truck debut, took second. Hailie Deegan was third, followed by Chandler Smith and Austin Wayne Self.

Final running order: Berry, Price-Miller, Deegan, Smith, Self, Tanner Gray, Cody Erickson, Tate Fogleman, Jett Norland and Devon Rouse.

The starting lineup for Friday night’s Corn Belt 150 will be determined by a formula that weighs finishing position plus the number of positions gained during each heat. Drivers finishing first in their heats earn 10 points, second place earns nine, third place collects eight and so forth. Additionally, drivers earn one passing point for each position gained in their heat; there are no point deductions or “negative points” for drivers who lose positions in their heats. The points totals determine starting positions. Also, these points are only used to determine the starting lineup and do not count toward the season-long championship standings. Ties in these combined points totals will be broken by current team owner points.

Based on that formula, Kraus and Ankrum will unofficially be on the front row with Kraus earning the pole position.

Posted on by Press Release

When the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rolls into New York International Raceway Park to compete at Lancaster Speedway they will do so with the support of Nu-Way Auto Parts.  Headquartered in nearby Rochester, NY, Nu-Way Auto Parts is a member of the Hahn Automotive family with stores locally in Buffalo, Elmira, and Erie. The Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 is scheduled for Saturday, July 31, 2021.

“It really is a perfect fit,” said event promoter Mike Myers of Lancaster Raceway Park, “and it’s a sponsorship of which we can all be proud. Nu-Way has its roots here in western New York, they have supported racing here for many years and Mike Maggiore, who is the driving force of the partnership, is a former racer.”

Maggiore, Director of Operations at the Buffalo location, is a former competitor at Lancaster Dragway. Widely respected in the pit area, The Wookie, as he is known, was also a standout in the four-cylinder and street stock divisions on the oval for 10 seasons. The second generation driver remembers fondly growing up watching his father race at Lancaster.

Nuway150 Logo

“I know the drivers appreciate [the sponsorship]. I know the track appreciates it,” said Maggiore. “We are doing this for them.”

The talent-laden Modified Tour event will feature the likes of Justin and Kyle Bonsignore, Doug Coby, Woody Pitkat, Tommy Catalano, from nearby Ontario, NY, Eric Goodale, Jon McKennedy, Craig Lutz and Ron Silk. Local favorites like current Whelen Modified Tour point leader Patrick Emerling, Chuck Hossfeld and Tyler Rypkema could have a decided advantage with home track experience.

As rewarding as it is for Maggiore to give back, what is most gratifying has been the immediate interest by major national brands like ACDelco, Valvoline and Lucas Oil.

“As soon as we told our partners what we were doing to support the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and New York International Raceway Park, they wanted to be a part of it,” added Maggiore. “Large automotive brands appreciate the brand loyalty of racers and fans.”

Loyalty is important to Nu-Way Auto Parts as well.  Starting as a home-grown parts store in Western, NY, the Nu-Way philosophy remains focused on customer satisfaction and personalized service synonymous with a hometown auto parts store. All while providing pricing and supply chain benefits as part of the ACDelco national marketing program and the Hahn Automotive family.

“Our roots are here,” said Maggiore. “That is still critically important to us today. Helping to bring this prestigious racing series to Lancaster is meaningful.”

Hahn Automotive has been the premier auto parts supplier for the Midwest and Eastern US for over 60 years; providing millions of hard parts, accessories, supplies, chemicals and tools from our extensive inventory of more than 200 brands of parts supplied by the leading manufacturers in the industry.

Racing since 1959, New York International Raceway Park is home to the half-mile asphalt oval as well as a 1/8-mile drag strip featuring IHRA sanctioned drag racing.

In addition to the crown jewel of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Nu-Way Auto Parts 150, complete with celebrity announcers, fireworks and more scheduled for Saturday, July 31, the Speedway will run three (3) additional tour-type modified events in 2021 including the popular US Open on September 10-12.  Weekly divisions at Lancaster include Sportsman, 602 Sportsman, Late Models, Super Stocks, Street Stocks, 4 cylinders and TQ Midgets.

Posted on by Sponsored Content

This summer, Camping World and NASCAR have teamed up to bring adventure-seeking fans the chance to upgrade their camping game, no matter where the road leads them.

Fans can enter for a chance to win a 2021 Coleman RV — packed with features that make everything from camping at the track, to exploring a National Park, truly unforgettable.

It all comes together during the summer’s high-stakes NASCAR races, keeping fans connected to the on-track action as they lock in their chance to bring home the RV from Camping World.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR held a Next Gen crash test last week at Talladega, and following a preliminary review of the day has delivered the findings to an independent panel of safety experts for further review.

The panel consists of Dr. James Raddin, who took part in the investigation of the death of the late Dale Earnhardt; Dr. Jeff Crandall, who serves as an engineering consultant to the NFL; Dr. Barry Myers, a professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University; and Dr. Joel Stitzel, chair of biomedical engineering at Wake Forest Baptist Health.

The spec vehicle was driven by a robot and fitted with a crash dummy, giving biomechanical engineers the opportunity to study how the dummy reacted during a wreck.

NASCAR competition officials confirmed the data is being studied and will not comment on the test and its formal findings until complete.

The Next Gen car is scheduled to make its debut at the 2022 Daytona 500. NASCAR’s three automakers released their Next Gen models for Cup Series on May 5, ushering in a new era of the “Rebirth of Stock.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Qualifying heats will set the starting lineup for Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Corn Belt 150 at Knoxville Raceway. The first of four heats is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET with the 150-lap main event set for 9 p.m. ET — all broadcast on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. This is the Truck Series’ first race at the half-mile dirt track in Iowa.

RELATED: Atlanta, Knoxville schedule | How lineup is set for Knoxville

Four qualifying heats of 15 laps each will be held, with only green-flag laps counting. No overtime rule will be in effect, but free-pass and wave-around procedures will remain. Qualifying heat assignments and starting positions were determined by a random draw, conducted in order of team owner points standings. A total of 40 trucks are on the Knoxville entry list, so there are 10-truck fields for each heat. The main event’s field is capped at 40 trucks, so all trucks will qualify for the feature.

Qualifying Race #1

Starting spot Driver Truck Number Team
1 Josh Berry 25 Rackley W.A.R.
2 Austin Wayne Self 22 AM Racing
3 Devon Rouse 33 Reaume Brothers Racing
4 Parker Price-Miller 3 Jordan Anderson Racing
5 Jett Noland 45 Niece Motorsports
6 Tanner Gray 15 David Gilliland Racing
7 Chandler Smith 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports
8 Hailie Deegan 1 David Gilliland Racing
9 Cody Erickson 41 Cram Enterprises
10 Tate Fogleman 12 Young’s Motorsports

Qualifying Race #2

Starting spot Driver Truck Number Team
1 Zane Smith 21 GMS Racing
2 Kyle Strickler 20 Young’s Motorsports
3 Ben Rhodes 99 ThorSport Racing
4 Chase Purdy 23 GMS Racing
5 Matt Crafton 88 ThorSport Racing
6 Ryan Truex 40 Niece Motorsports
7 Donny Schatz 17 David Gilliland Racing
8 Codie Rohrbaugh 9 CR7 Motorsports
9 Jake Griffin 34 Reaume Brothers Racing
19 Todd Gilliland 38 Front Row Motorsports

Qualifying Race #3

Starting spot Driver Truck Number Team
1 Chris Windom 02 Young’s Motorsports
2 Jack Wood 24 GMS Racing
3 Brian Brown 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports
4 John Hunter Nemechek 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports
5 Tyler Ankrum 26 GMS Racing
6 Morgan Alexander 44 Niece Motorsports
7 Jessica Friesen 62 Halmar Friesen Racing
8 Johnny Sauter 13 ThorSport Racing
9 Danny Bohn 30 On Point Motorsports
10 Derek Kraus 19 McAnally Hilgemann Racing

Qualifying Race #4

Starting spot Driver Truck Number Team
1 Brett Moffitt 37 AM Racing
2 Carson Hocevar 42 Niece Motorsports
3 Chase Briscoe 04 Roper Racing
4 Norm Benning 6 Norm Benning Racing
5 Grant Enfinger 98 ThorSport Racing
6 Austin Hill 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises
7 Sheldon Creed 2 GMS Racing
8 Jennifer Jo Cobb 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing
9 Stewart Friesen 52 Halmar Friesen Racing
10 Andrew Gordon 49 CMI Motorsports

The starting lineup will be determined by a formula that weighs finishing position plus the number of positions gained during each heat. Drivers finishing first in their heats earn 10 points, second place earns nine, third place collects eight and so forth. Additionally, drivers earn one passing point for each position gained in their heat; there are no point deductions or “negative points” for drivers who lose positions in their heats. The points totals determine starting positions. Also, these points are only used to determine the starting lineup and do not count toward the season-long championship standings. Ties in these combined points totals will be broken by current team owner points.

Posted on by Marcus DiNitto

Bookmakers, like everyone else these days, are having a hard time keeping up with Kyle Larson, whose +175 opening odds at SuperBook USA to win Sunday’s Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart (3:30 p.m., NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) mark the shortest he’s been priced all season. Odds this short are a rarity in a NASCAR outright market.

Larson has been the betting favorite in every non-road course race on the Cup Series circuit since the Coca-Cola 600, where he opened as the 5/1 (+500) chalk at the SuperBook. A return to a price that long appears distant for the No. 5, as Larson continues to run up front and his numbers continue to tighten.

This weekend’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway is the first time, however, Larson has dipped below the +200 threshold. While he was exactly 2/1 in the anomalous Bristol dirt race, he was +400 in the All-Star Race on June 13, +250 in Nashville on June 20, and +225 for both races of the Pocono doubleheader on June 26 and 27.

RELATED: NASCAR BetCenter | Odds for Sunday’s Atlanta race

Larson is available for a more attractive +225 at a variety of sportsbooks around the country, including official NASCAR partners BetMGM, Barstool Sportsbook and WynnBET.

Larson is so far ahead of the field, at least from some oddsmakers’ perspective, that he is not listed in any head-to-head props offered at either the SuperBook or Barstool. BetMGM is dealing a matchup featuring Larson against Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott, pricing the No. 5 as a large -185 favorite (bet $185 to win $100), with the No. 9 coming back as the +150 underdog.

Piloting Chip Ganassi Racing equipment in six of his seven Cup starts in Atlanta, Larson’s 12.14 average finish at this track is the best of any active driver, per DriverAverages.com. At this season’s first race here, Larson led 269 of 325 laps and won Stages 1 and 2, before finishing second to Ryan Blaney.

Futures odds further illustrate Larson’s superiority, as his price to win the 2021 Cup title is skinny, ranging from +180 to +250 around the marketplace. There’s a sizable gap to the second betting choice, Elliott, who sees odds in the +500 to +700 range.

The ultra-tight pricing on Larson is justified — over the last six non-road course races, he has two wins, three runner-up finishes and a ninth, when he lost his lead on the last lap with a cut tire in Pocono. But there’s a point at which it becomes so prohibitive that bettors have to look elsewhere.

So let’s look elsewhere …

With plenty of current momentum and excellent history at 1.5-mile tracks in general and Atlanta Motor Speedway specifically, Kyle Busch is second on Sunday’s oddsboard, offered at a consensus +750. Busch rolls into Atlanta with three straight top-three finishes, including a win at Pocono, and has finished in the top five in five of the last six points races. His 7.71 average finish in the 45 races on 1.5-mile layouts since 2018 is tops in the series, and his 13.48 average finish in Atlanta is second best.

Chase Elliott is next on the oddsboard, hovering in the +800 to +900 range, although the SuperBook goes a bit longer at +1000. A victory at Road America last week broke Elliott’s string of three straight poor runs (finishes of 27th, 12th, 39th). Elliott is a short underdog (+110) vs. Kyle Busch (-130) in a matchup prop at the SuperBook, and many bettors will be enticed despite his unspectacular stats at Atlanta and 1.5s overall, and his recent performances on ovals.

Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. lurk at +1000 via BetMGM. Truex has three wins on the season, but since his most recent victory, on May 9 at Darlington, the No. 19 Toyota hasn’t finished in the top 10 on an oval. His solid past performances in Atlanta and on similar layouts, though, earn him the betting market’s respect. Hamlin clings to his points lead in the standings but is still searching for his first win of 2021.

Kevin Harvick’s season of disappointment continues, but oddsmakers give him a realistic shot at the checkers in Atlanta, one of his best tracks, with BetMGM hanging +900 odds on the No. 4 Ford. Harvick has won two of the four Atlanta races since 2018 with a series-best 122.7 average rating. On 1.5-mile tracks since 2018, his 111.5 rating is also tops in Cup, and his 8.02 average finish is second to Kyle Busch.

Team Penske, meanwhile, after battling toe-to-toe with Hendrick and Gibbs early in the season, has fallen off the pace. Blaney, whose lone win of 2021 came at Atlanta, is the shortest priced of Penske’s three Cup drivers around the market, offered at 12/1 (Barstool and SuperBook), while Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are a distant 16/1 and 20/1, respectively, at SuperBook.

For a shot at a fat payday, why not take a look at the “other” drivers in the Hendrick garage, with William Byron available at +1200 (BetMGM and Barstool) and Alex Bowman +1600  (Barstool and SuperBook) around the market? Byron has finished in the top four in five of the last six non-road course races. “The Showman” finished third in Atlanta in March and boasts three wins on the season.

Marcus DiNitto is a writer and editor living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has been covering sports for nearly two-and-a-half decades and sports betting for more than 10 years. His first NASCAR betting experience was in 1995 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he went 0-for-3 on his matchup picks. Read his articles and follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.

Posted on by Cara Cooper

Some people’s athletic careers are defined by wins and championships. Others are defined by longevity and contributions they made to the sport.

When it comes to longevity, Rick Pannell’s career at Kingsport Speedway is one for the history books.

The highlights of Pannell’s race career are his two top-five finishes, getting to start on the pole a handful of times, and even leading one race for about two laps. A few years ago, he finished in the top 300 late model drivers in the nation, despite not having a single top-five or top-10 finish that season.

But the biggest highlight of Pannell’s career came last month when he did something few – if any – drivers at Kingsport have ever done.

On June 4, Pannell made his 200th consecutive start in a late model race at Kingsport, a NASCAR-sanctioned 3/8-mile paved oval track in Kingsport, Tennessee.

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The 60-year-old driver has not missed a race at Kingsport in the last 10 and a half years. And he’s made sure that even if he isn’t always racing towards the front, he’s been on the track for just about all of those laps. Only once in that time has he had to do a start-and-park after suffering engine problems before the second race of a twin bill night.

“We’re just a small fish in a big pond,” Pannell said. “It’s a lot of good competition down here and there’s usually 6-9 pretty fast cars, and we try to finish every race and run every lap we can. We don’t do the start-and-park thing.”

Pannell has been going to races at Kingsport since the 1960s, starting when he was about four or five years old and the track was dirt.

“My parents, they were big race rans,” he said. “We never did go to the big races, the Cup or Grand National or anything. We didn’t do that back then but we were just about always on Friday and Saturday nights at the dirt track races. And Kingsport was one of the tracks we went to. I think they raced on Friday and another track in town, about three or four miles away… they ran dirt as well and they ran on Saturday nights. And we were usually at both tracks both nights.

“I kind of grew up around it. Always wanted to do it.”

Pannell was the promoter at Kingsport when it was still dirt in 1993. A year after the track went concrete in 1996, he bought a car and raced in the limited division. He raced in the limited and late model divisions until the track closed in 2002.

It was when the track reopened in 2011 that his streak began.

“It just kind of happened really, to be honest with you,” Pannell said of the streak.

When he hit 50 consecutive starts, Pannell felt that was pretty big. It was about 2-and-a-half years worth of racing without a failure or major issue on the car.

It was when he hit No. 150 that the number started to really feel big.

“When we made our 150th, that was about 2-and-a-half years ago, and somebody said, ‘When are you going to stop?’ and I said, ‘Well if I crash the car really hard,’” Pannell said. “I have had engine failures that cost me a few thousand to get ready and fix but I was able to handle that… I’ve threw some stuff together just to get to make a start at times. If I had an engine problem and I didn’t have an engine ready for it I would put a stock engine in it and go down there and run as many laps as I could or I would run until the leaders come up behind me to lap me and I would pull off.”

Pannell said he’s unsure if 200 straight starts is a track record. Those around Kingsport have taken to calling him “Iron Man,” a nickname borrowed from NASCAR Hall of Famer Jack Ingram, who won multiple track championships at Kingsport.

“I said, ‘Nah, he was the real Iron Man,’” Pannell said of Ingram. “He was the one who would race three or four times a week and always tough and always near the front. I just happen to always be there. I’m always at the racetrack.”

Pannell has had his own iron horse alongside him for nearly the entirety of his streak. His car, which he’s named Old Yeller, has been in 198 of his 200 races. Pannell estimates the late model is about 23 or 24 years old, and has never been in a bad crash.

“It was yellow when I got it and I thought I was going to hate it, but it’s kind of brought its own identity to the world now,” Pannell said of his car.

Old Yeller has also always carried No. 33, the same number as Pannell’s favorite driver, Harry Gant.

Being a really low-budget team, when he isn’t joined by his girlfriend, a lot of times Pannell brings the car to the track and works on it all by himself.

Doing the work isn’t too difficult. Pannell is an auto mechanic by trade, and owns a Mercedes shop in Kingsport. He’s been working on cars for 41 years.

Whatever work at the racetrack he isn’t able to do, Pannell knows there are other crew members who will jump in if he gets in a pinch. It’s that support he’s gotten from his fellow competitors and track employees that helped Pannell reach his most recent milestone.

“The 200 mark, everybody keeps asking me now, ‘How long are you going to go?’ and I said, well, I do want to support the race track… everybody there has always been really good to me so I always wanted to keep going and supporting them.”

Pannell keeps showing up to race every week as a way to repay Kingsport’s kindness back to the track and the fans. He’s seen the dwindling car count, not just at his home track but across the country, and said “I don’t want to be part of the responsible parties that keeps this racetrack from surviving and making it.”

“I tell people all the time, ‘We don’t need 20 fast cars, we just need 20 cars.’ It doesn’t matter if you’re racing for 8th or you’re racing for 15th or you’re racing for the lead. If you’re racing to race, and you love it then you’ll be out there. There just needs to be a few more cars out there. That would really help the excitement of the show. And that’s true of any track.

“Even if I crash out and I’m not able to race anymore, we’ll be in the grandstands over there watching or helping somebody.”

Reaching 200 consecutive starts was Pannell’s goal heading into this season. Now that he’s done that, he said he doesn’t have a next goal or anywhere he’d like to go from here.

But, rest assured, if there’s a race at Kingsport Speedway, Pannell will be there.

“Being a person in my position, you have to love it because a lot of people like it pretty good but they don’t love it enough to be there every week,” he said.

“I tell everybody, that’s kind of my stress relief… I get down there to the racetrack and I’ve basically got a second family down there. I’ve got some people that have been friends of mine for 25 or 30 years that have always been at the racetrack. They always come by and talk to me or congratulate me on 200.

“We try to get everybody to come that we can and try to have a good time… We may not be happy when we leave the racetrack, but we’ve always got a smile on our face. You’ve got to love it enough to enjoy it and have a good time even through the tough times. I’ve come out of there mad and frustrated but I still had a good time. At the end of the day I still had fun.”