A Chip Ganassi Racing operation that’s about to transform next season showed it still has some teamwork left in the tank Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, much to Kyle Busch’s dismay.
Kurt Busch outlasted Kyle in a battle of brothers in Sunday’s Quaker State 400, helped by a late-race traffic jam that gave him the lead to stay in the 236th of 260 laps. Central to that traffic delay was Ganassi teammate Ross Chastain, whose No. 42 Chevrolet slowed the progress of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and allowed Kurt Busch to pull alongside in the No. 1 Chevy. Kurt Busch drove on to his first Cup Series win of the season, and his brother was left in second place — just shy of securing his 60th Cup Series win.
“Would’ve been a hell of a lot better if it wasn’t for some butthead. But it is what it is,” Kyle Busch told PRN Radio. “It was ours to lose and we lost it.”
The victory sealed a provisional playoff spot in Chip Ganassi’s final season as owner of the two-car effort. Trackhouse Racing announced June 30 that it had purchased Ganassi’s organization and assets, setting a course for a two-car team with Daniel Suarez and another driver to be named later.
The futures of Kurt Busch and Chastain may be uncertain for now, but their late-race cooperation equaled quite the farewell gift for Ganassi’s final campaign.
“Shake and bake! Yeah, and the 42, he did his job as a teammate,” Kurt Busch told NBC Sports post-race. “Ross is going to get a little flak for it, but that’s what it takes to be a good teammate at the right moment, so I couldn’t be more proud of Ross Chastain. I’ll pay him back eventually, but right now this is our No. 1 car in Victory Lane.”
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Chastain’s 21st-place finish in his 100th Cup Series start was more eventful than the stat sheet would imply. He was fighting to remain on the lead lap when the two brothers — who had been dominant all day — closed on his No. 42 entry in their late-race contest for the lead.
Chastain didn’t clear a path for Kyle Busch as he led down the stretch, and that decision allowed Kurt Busch to snatch the inside lane away. The three drivers eventually worked through Turns 1 and 2 three-wide before Kurt Busch seized an advantage he would not relinquish down the stretch.
Chastain deflected when asked about Kyle Busch’s lot in their late-race scrum, but acknowledged lending a helping hand to his teammate.
“Kurt asked for the bottom so I gave him that lane,” said Chastain, who joined Chip Ganassi Racing full-time just this season. “I was racing to stay on the lead lap. I’m very aware of what’s going on on the track around me. Kurt asked me for the bottom and I gave it to him. …
“To see a Chip Ganassi car in Victory Lane with all that’s happened the last couple of weeks and all this year, there is nothing I want more. One team, one goal and that’s to win.”
There was little consolation to the No. 18 group, which stood out as the lone reliable contender to the elder Busch’s efforts with the No. 1 car. The Busch brothers split the stage wins, and Kyle Busch led 91 laps — second only to Kurt Busch’s 144. No other driver led more than 15 laps.
“Good car all day,” No. 18 spotter Tony Hirschman said on the cool-down lap. “Just got teamed up on there, dirtied up.” Kyle Busch seconded that assessment in his post-race remarks with NBC Sports, saying that his tires were burned up late in that run, but adding: “It shows you what kind of driver he is.”
Kyle Busch did drop in on the No. 1 team’s celebration to provide compulsory congratulations on his brother’s win, a brotherly 1-2 result that Kurt said he hoped would not linger with any sore feelings.
“He did stop by Victory Lane and do the Kyle Busch grumpy. That’s what I expected,” Kurt Busch said. Yeah, again, what happened on track was the perfect scenario for a teammate to do the work that he needed to do. If I’m running third, Ross isn’t part of the equation. That was exactly what a teammate needs to do, and Ross did that in a way that gave me a sense of pride on the education and the mentorship that I have helped Ross with this year. It was a perfect give-back.
“Can we do that in the playoffs? No. Can you do that in a regular season where one guy has won and one guy is trying to run hard? Today was a perfect scenario for that to unfold, and Kyle will get over it pretty quick. … Yeah, I believe that no line was crossed, and it was that right finesse to make it happen.”
Kurt Busch outdueled his younger brother Kyle Busch in the pair’s fourth career 1-2 finish to secure his 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs position and take his 33rd career victory in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart.
Busch, 42, has been particularly good at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway. Sunday’s win was his fourth there, most among the current field, and the last trophy given before the historic NASCAR track is repaved and reconfigured going forward.
More importantly Sunday’s work was a big statement for Busch, who started the race with only a 25-point buffer in the championship standings with six races left to set the 16-driver playoffs field. Now with the win, he’s “in,” and his emotions climbing out of Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 1 Chevrolet certainly reflected the relief and joy.
He simultaneously earned a playoffs position and evened the score with his brother — each has won two races in the four times they have finished first and second.
“Hell yeah, we beat Kyle,” a smiling Kurt Busch said after climbing out of his car, putting his fists in the air and turning toward the cheering crowd in the grandstands.
“What a battle on an old-school race track,” Kurt Busch said. “It’s been one of those years where I knew we were going to have our back against the wall, just above the (playoffs) cut-off line and needed to race hard and race smart.”
Not too surprisingly, Kyle Busch’s mood standing by his car on pit lane was markedly different than his brother’s. He felt like Kurt’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Ross Chastain interfered a bit as the two brothers were fighting for the race lead while navigating lapped traffic.
Kurt led a race high 144 of the 267 laps — the most he’s led in a single race since 2015 (291 laps at Richmond) and the two each won a stage. Kurt came out behind his brother on track when the final round of pit stops cycled out, but ultimately passed Kyle for good with 25 laps remaining and crossed the finish line 1.237 seconds ahead of his brother. Kyle was able to pull alongside Kurt with seven to go, but unable to make the pass in lapped traffic.
“I gave everything I had there early and then just smoked it behind the 42 (Chastain) obviously, shows you what kind of driver he is,” Kyle Busch said. “Just trying to fight hard after that when I got passed.
“Great effort, the guys gave me a great piece,’’ Kyle continued. “The 1 (Kurt Busch) was definitely better than us today, I just thought I had him.”
Kyle’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. finished third, rallying from a 37th-place starting position. Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman was fourth followed by Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney, who won at Atlanta this March.
Tyler Reddick, Georgia native Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Matt DiBenedetto and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.
Noticeably absent from that group is the series’ only four-race winner Kyle Larson. He ran among the top five for most of the race but was penalized for speeding on pit road during his final pit stop. He instead finished 18th.
Championship points leader Denny Hamlin, who is still looking for his first win of 2021, finished 13th. He also was handed a pit road penalty early in the race, which was red-flagged for about 20 minutes just after the completion of Stage 2 so track workers could repair the track surface.
With five races remaining to set the 16-driver playoffs field, 12 drivers have now earned automatic bids with a race victory. Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, who rallied to an 11th-place finish Sunday, Austin Dillon and Reddick are the four highest-ranked drivers on points.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ next race is the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, scheduled next Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Notes: Post-race inspection was completed without major issue in the Cup Series garage, confirming Busch as the winner. Four teams were found with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check: No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (driver Christopher Bell), No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford (Matt DiBenedetto), No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota (Bubba Wallace), No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Alex Bowman). … NASCAR officials also announced that four cars would be taken to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C., for engine dynamometer testing and a full teardown. Competition officials periodically conduct more thorough post-race inspections, but to monitor trends and developments without any penalties stemming from those analyses.
Martin Truex Jr. will start at the rear of the field for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports app, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after failing pre-race inspection twice.
“Coming from the back is never easy but a place like this if you have to go the back, you want it to be a place where its multiple grooves,” Truex said regarding the penalty during a pre-race availability at Atlanta. “A wide race track where you can move around on. If we hit it right, if our car’s good, we should be able to do it. It might take awhile, but we should get there.”
In 20 races this season, Truex owns three wins, six top fives and 10 top 10s, but only has two top 10s in the last eight races, including a ninth-place finish at Road America last Sunday.
While Kyle Busch soared to his 102nd win in the Xfinity Series on Saturday afternoon, Daniel Hemric was left wanting for his first. The two were connected as teammates under the Joe Gibbs Racing umbrella, but also by the late-race contact that altered the fates of both at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hemric’s strong bid for a breakthrough win was foiled by a crash during a restart just seven laps from the end in Saturday’s Credit Karma Money 250. A forceful push in the low lane by Busch’s No. 54 Toyota turned Hemric’s No. 18 entry sideways into the No. 16 car of AJ Allmendinger and eventually the Turn 1 retaining wall.
Hemric had led 45 of the 164 laps — second only to Busch’s 97 — but was dropped to a 30th-place finish. Neither party said the contact was intentional.
“All he was literally doing was trying to keep our row moving,” said Hemric, who was making his 105th Xfinity Series start. “Just an odd, off-timed location and ended up in the fence.”
Busch apologized over the team radio after the contact, then again after capturing the checkered flag — going so far as to call the victory “somber.”
“People would say I did it on purpose, but what do I need to do it on purpose for,” he said. “Kid’s going for his first win. I’m going for 102. I’ve been there, done that. I don’t need it. It would certainly help him a hell of a lot more than it’s going to help me and give the perception that now I have on that.”
Hemric was a fixture among the top five through the first two stages — both won by Busch — but didn’t rise into serious contention until the final segment of the race. He was able to keep Busch at bay until a caution flag for Carson Ware’s incident on the backstraight triggered a series of late restarts.
Hemric kept the lead after a round of pit stops and a chaotic first restart, but the pivotal reset with Busch thwarted his bid.
The outcome was emblematic of the hard luck that has followed Hemric in his Xfinity Series career. He’s finished among the top three 23 times — a runner-up on nine occasions — without a win. He struck an upbeat note in post-race interviews, adding “our day will come” as a punctuation mark to his air time with NBC Sports.
“What could’ve been, right?” Hemric said. “It’s all you can think about. On the flip side of it, you can’t change it. Obviously, I know it wasn’t intentional by no means. I did spin the tires a little bit, we were on scuffed tires there and thought we got rolling there the best we could, and Kyle just went to push me to help our momentum in the bottom lane. Right when he went to hook on my back bumper, there’s a swell there right before you turn into (Turn) 1. The way the car loads up there, I think it just laid on the left-rear tire and the bumpers didn’t align and it shot me right.
“I know it wasn’t intentional but at the end of the day, I’m sitting here talking to you guys with a torn-up race car.”
Kyle Busch earned his record 102nd NASCAR Xfinity Series race victory Saturday afternoon in the Credit Karma Money 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway – taking the checkered flag in overtime to top a perfect 5-for-5 record in Xfinity starts this season.
The winningest driver in series history proclaimed Saturday’s work to be his final curtain call, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion saying he would no longer compete in the Xfinity Series.
Ironically, in what should have been his biggest bow before the fans – his traditional victory celebration – Busch, 36, opted for a more subdued acknowledgement of the win. He placed the flag inside his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota and conceded the win wasn’t exactly how he wanted to add to his historic victory tally.
On the previous restart with only six laps remaining in regulation, Busch was behind his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Hemric and gave him a bumper-push forward to help the two get in front of the field. But Hemric’s No. 18 JGR Toyota instead wiggled sideways, made contact with another car and hooked into the outside wall; the wreck forcing the overtime finish.
It had looked as if Busch, who led a race-best 97 laps, and Hemric were going to settle the trophy between themselves. A victory for the 30-year-old Hemric, would have been his first in any of NASCAR’s national series. He now has 105 Xfinity Series starts and nine runner-up finishes. On Saturday, he finished 30th.
“Not quite the win we were hoping for,’’ Busch said, “a little bit of a somber win, I guess, not just for it being it the last one, but for the way it kind of happened.
“Really hate it for my teammate Daniel Hemric there on the frontstretch. Just trying to get to him, trying to push him, trying to hit him and get him moving forward. We hit that bump there on the track at the same time and it kind of juked his car and he was across traffic, I guess. Ended up wrecked, which was not all how I foresaw that all going.
“But we were able to push our way through and get on to Victory Lane.”
Added Busch, who won both stages and now has led an Xfinity Series record 20,088 laps, “He probably was going to have us beat, you know. Whoever got ahead off of Turn 2 on a restart was probably going to circle back around and take the checkered.”
For his part, an obviously disappointed Hemric had very little to say on the team radio when the incident happened on-track, but spoke to reporters on pit road after the race and remained upbeat despite the frustrating situation.
“What could have been, right, that’s all you can think about,’’ Hemric told NBCSN on pit road. “On the flipside, you can’t change it. Obviously, I know it wasn’t intentional by no means. I did spin the tires a little bit, we were on scuffed tires there.
“I thought we got rolling there the best we could, and Kyle just went to push me and help out momentum in the bottom lane. Right when he went to hook on my back bumper, there’s a swell there right before you turn into Turn 1. The way the car loads there, and the bumpers didn’t align and it shot me right there. I know it wasn’t intentional but at the end of the day, I’m talking to you guys with a torn-up race car. This sucks.
“I don’t know if I should have been expecting something different than what happened,’’ Hemric continued. “But as soon as he touched me I never had a chance. That’s a product of taking off in a restart zone on older tires and we’re all doing all we can. Just unfortunate, but congrats to those guys they’ve been on top of it and our day will come.”
Kaulig Racing’s Jeb Burton finished second to Busch by .550 seconds, followed by JR Motorsports driver Noah Gragson, who was leading the field to green after a caution period in the middle of the race only to have to drop into the pits to repair a punctured tire just before a restart. He was 31st at the time and rallied all the way to third. It was his best showing since a runner-up finish at Martinsville in early April – 12 races ago.
Burton’s Kaulig teammate Justin Haley finished fourth and Ty Dillon earned his best showing of the season with a fifth-place run. Brett Moffitt, Justin Allgaier, Jeremy Clements, rookie Sam Mayer and championship leader Austin Cindric rounded out the top 10.
“It was a particularly impressive run to 11th placefor Austin Dillon, who got the call to substitute for Michael Annett in the JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevrolet only minutes before the race started. He was on the team radio asking for the name of his crew chief and his spotter just after the field took the green flag.
With only eight races remaining to set the 12-driver Xfinity Series Playoffs field, Cindric, a four-race winner, continues to lead the championship standings by 74 points over Allmendinger and Hemric is third.
The series races next in the Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: The race-winning No. 54 Toyota of Kyle Busch passed NASCAR’s post-race inspection without major issue, confirming the victory. Both the No. 54 car and the No. 22 Ford of Austin Cindric were found to have one lug nut not safe and secure, which should result in a fine for the crew chief according to guidelines in the NASCAR Rule Book.
Austin Dillon drove to an 11th-place finish as a last-minute substitute for Michael Annett in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Credit Karma Money 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
JRM announced just moments before the race that Annett would be sidelined by injury. Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. later revealed on NBCSN that Annett had a leg injury that was keeping him out of the race. Annett was also forced to be replaced in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Knoxville Raceway.
Dillon, a Cup Series regular, was hastily fitted for the No. 1 Chevrolet on the grid. He was in unfamiliar surroundings from the get-go, asking the team over radio communications how to start the car and what the names of his spotter (Jason Jarrett) and crew chief (Mike Bumgarner) were.
Dillon said a pre-race phone call with Earnhardt confirmed the late-hour start.
Austin Dillon says when he heard JR Motorsports needed a driver, he called Dale Earnhardt Jr. to see if he could drive.
Dillon had one other Xfinity Series start this season, finishing 13th at Circuit of The Americas. He won the 2013 Xfinity Series championship before making the jump to NASCAR’s top division.
Despite missing the race, Annett remained 10th in the Xfinity Series points standings. He has one top five and eight top 10s in 17 races this season. His lone series win came in 2019 in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway.
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
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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.
•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
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“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
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
