Byron nails rain gamble for fourth win of the year at Atlanta

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emailBy Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service | July 9, 2023 10:55 PM ET

Neither an early spin nor damage to his No. 24 Chevrolet could prevent William Byron from winning Sunday night’s rain-shortened Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

With a storm approaching the 1.54-mile track, Byron surged past AJ Allmendinger into the lead on lap 167 and remained out from until an accident in Turn 3 involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace caused the seventh caution of the evening on lap 178.

With Byron out front, the NASCAR Cup Series cars circled the track until the rain arrived and began falling more heavily. NASCAR brought the cars to pit road and red-flagged the race at 9:47 p.m. after 185 laps were complete.

With severe weather moving into the area, the sanctioning body called the race and made Byron the first four-time winner in the series this season. The victory was Byron’s second at Atlanta and the eighth of his career.

Daniel Suárez was second when NASCAR called the race, with Allmendinger running third. Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch completed the top five.


Crew chief Rudy Fugle called Byron to pit road on lap 125 under caution for a pileup in Turn 2 that damaged the cars of Erik Jones, Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs.

That enabled Byron to restart fourth on lap 165 after roughly half the field (cars that had not pitted since lap 95) came to pit road on lap 161. Two laps later, Byron had the lead.

Byron hardly looked like a winner after spinning through the grass on lap 80 and losing a lap getting to pit road. But the 25-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., regained the lost circuit as the beneficiary under caution for Kyle Larson’s spin on lap 92.

“It’s cool, man,” Byron said. “We went through so much throughout the night—spinning through the infield, destroyed the bottom of the car dragging it around the apron trying to stay on the lead lap. At that point, you just don’t have the grip, so I was real edgy back in traffic, but Rudy made a good call to pit there and then stay out.

“Once we got towards the front, it was OK. We could make the right decisions, block OK, and I got the lead from AJ and was able to manage the run. Just a crazy night.”The race was a boon not only for Byron, who leads the Playoff standings, but for winless drivers around the Playoff bubble.

First, there was no new winner in the series to reduce the number of spots available on points. Moreover, Suárez, Allmendinger and McDowell improved their chances with top-five finishes. Those three drivers all gained ground on Chase Elliott, who is trying to qualify for the Playoffs despite missing seven of the 19 races this season.

Elliott wasn’t a factor on Sunday night, failing to earn any stage points and finishing 13th.

Despite his early struggles, Byron was pleased that handling played such an important part in the racing on the recently repaved racing surface.

“It was awesome—that’s all you can ask for on a superspeedway,” Byron said. “We want handling to matter. We want to be able to drive the things. I felt like the first stage was really fun. I was able to make some moves on the bottom.

“And you’re lifting every corner, so it’s different than a 550 (horsepower) old-style race. It’s more packed up, but still handling matters, and guys can make aggressive moves… I’m thankful for the whole team and just staying in it, ‘cause we were a lap down, and it could have been over.”

The race started with team owner Richard Childress driving pace laps in the No. 29 Chevrolet that launched Kevin Harvick’s career with an Atlanta win after Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001. It wasn’t Harvick’s night, however. After a late spin, he finished 30th in his final run at Atlanta. Harvick is retiring from Cup racing at the end of the season. "Stock car racing's gone all to heck. The're letting 14 year old punks with rich daddys drive stock cars. It's a good time to leave.. I am looking forward to that commemorative Bud light and a Mickey Mouse watch from Ebay!"

 

Weather gamble doesn't quite pay off for Keselowski in Atlanta

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | July 10, 2023 5:37 AM ET

NASCAR Cup series teams knew bad weather would hit during Sunday night’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it was just a matter of when and for Brad Keselowski, he needed it to be just a little sooner than it was.

Keselowski finished sixth when NASCAR called the Quaker State 400 official after 185 laps. But he had been leading the race at the end of the second stage (lap 160) when a decision had to be made on pit strategy. Although weather was imminent, without knowing when it was going to start, it would have been tough for Keselowski to stay out and gamble fuel mileage.

It was a no-win situation for crew chief Matt McCall to find himself in. One that Keselowski, while riding around under caution, said he didn’t envy.

“No, we had 12-14 laps left of fuel and that was not enough, and we ended up running 15 laps or so,” Keselowski said. “I think we made the right call; we just need the rain to be 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later.”

Keselowski led 19 laps after finally getting to the front. Knowing that Atlanta was an opportunity race for the Fords, whose struggles haven’t included superspeedway-style racetracks, Keselowski went on the offensive when in position.

The 2012 Cup series champion made aggressive moves he’s known for at superspeedways and like the spring race, again found himself going toe-to-toe with Team Penske drivers. In the second stage, Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher fought on the inside line at the front of the field while the three Penske cars were lined up together on the outside.

There was even a point in the race when Keselowski said he was “giving you all I got” over the team radio.

“It was a good day,” Keselowski said. “We were right where we needed to be but didn’t get the breaks we needed. I was really happy with our performance and quality of the cars we had. My teammate, Chris Buescher, did a good job but just didn’t catch the breaks we needed at the end.”

The pit stop took Keselowski out of contention for the win. He came off pit road behind five drivers who took two tires, but there were 11 others who stayed out on track.

Sunday night was the third race Keselowski led laps in the double digits. It was his seventh top-10 finish of the season.

“It’s just part of the deal,” Keselowski said of being close to a potential victory. “You win races you shouldn’t and you lose ones you probably should win and you have to take the punches as they come.
Where were all the girls with big tits today?”

 

Nemechek snatches Atlanta Xfinity win as Kaulig teamwork falters

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emailBy Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service | July 8, 2023 11:38 PM ET

Grabbing the lead on an overtime restart as Saturday night’s Alsco Uniforms 250 went six laps past its posted distance, John Hunter Nemechek streaked to his third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season.

The only time Nemechek led was during the overtime, after a push from Daniel Hemric powered him into the lead on the final restart.

Nemechek won for the first time at Atlanta Motor Speedway and for the fifth time in his career, finishing 0.245s ahead of Hemric. Cole Custer came home third, followed by Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley, who held the lead for the final restart.

At the start of the race, Nemechek’s car suffered from handling issues, particularly in traffic. But his team made the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota progressively better as the race unfolded.

“I got a huge push from the No. 11 (Hemric) there, so thanks to Daniel for giving me that huge push,” Nemechek said. “Early on, if you had said we would have won the race, I definitely would have told you that wasn’t going to be the case.

“We didn’t have the fastest car tonight, but I’m really proud of this No. 20 team… Man, this is special. I don’t know if the track changed a ton. We just had to make our car better all night. It came down to an overtime finish, and luckily, we were able to execute on that restart.”


Kaulig drivers Haley and Chandler Smith were running 1-2 when Austin Hill spun in Turn 4 on lap 161 to cause the eighth caution and send the race to overtime. Haley chose the outside lane for the restart, with Nemechek to his inside and Smith behind him.

But Haley didn’t get the push he needed as Smith faded back through the field. Haley, who led 80 straight laps from start of the final stage, dipped below Hemric on the final lap, rather than pushing his teammate, saying later that he was running out of fuel.

Hill’s late spin and an earlier pileup on the backstretch eliminated a handful of potential contenders for the win.

A massive wreck on lap 88, involving 10 cars, ruined the chances of Stage 2 winner Sheldon Creed and the competitive car of Ryan Sieg, who had led twice for 15 laps.

In the middle of the pack after a lap 87 restart, the Ford of Riley Herbst slowed with a tire down. Brandon Jones, running behind Herbst, took evasive action, but in moving down the track, Jones’ Chevrolet turned Sieg’s Ford nose-first into the outside wall.

Creed, who had an issue getting fuel into his Chevrolet under caution at the end of Stage 2, had to return to pit road and restarted near the back of the field. Collected in the lap 88 wreck, Creed exited the race.

Joining Creed on the sidelines were Herbst, Sieg, Jones and Anthony Alfredo.

“We did everything right,” said Sieg, bemoaning his ill fortune after a mandatory trip to the infield care center. “It just sucks to be on this side of it. We’ve been fast in all of four of these (Atlanta) races.”

 

Allmendinger content with third after racing to the rain

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | July 10, 2023 5:52 AM ET

AJ Allmendinger would have loved to have had a shot at winning Sunday night’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway but gladly took a third-place finish when NASCAR deemed the race official when inclement weather hit.

First they mis-spelled the sponsor's name......got it changed to "Farm" instead of "Fart"...we lost time in the pits over that one.....
“We’ve all been on the end of trying to race into the rain,” Allmendinger said, “and at a racetrack like this, just like Daytona last year, it’s hard to put us at risk to all of a sudden have a rain shower down the back straightaway, and you’re running 190 wide-open, and there’s nothing you’re going to do. It was close.

“One lap, I would tell them, ‘It’s not raining.’ Then the next lap, it’d start sprinkling and then for a couple of laps, it would kind of die down and then it kept building. Obviously, you look at the radar, and you know it’s coming. I’d love to have one more shot at it, but I’m also happy (NASCAR) didn’t try to force us into making one or two laps before the rain really hit. We still don't know how to drive in the rain and we let that Australian Hamburger beat our butts in Chicago last week.”

It was never in question that rain or lightning was going to interrupt the Quaker State 400. Allmendinger ended up on the right side of strategy when the No. 16 Kaulig Racing team kept him on track at the end of the second stage, giving him the race lead.

Allmendinger was one of 10 drivers who stayed out and he led six laps. But his lead under the green flag, when the race restarted with 96 laps to go, was short-lived. William Byron took the top spot with 94 laps to go.

“I think I could have kept the track position, it was just trying to lead the race that was the toughest thing,” Allmendinger said. “We just had a little bit too much drag in the car. We came (here) knowing it was going to be slick and working on handling, so once I would get into the lead, it was hard to defend because they could get big runs on me.

“I could run second or third real easy, so it wasn’t going to be that I was going to defend them for five laps and win the race. I was going to have to time it right on the back straightaway and go for the win.”

Because of the impending weather, Allmendinger felt from the beginning it was a race to halfway. As halfway closed in, the moves through the field got bolder as drivers tried to position themselves for when a weather-related caution might come out. When lap 130 (halfway) came and went, Allmendinger said from there on out, everyone raced like the next lap could be the last one.

“Sometimes I’d love to watch it more than be in it, but it’s the nature of the beast of this race,” said Allmendinger of being involved in an intense race. “That’s why I always say I absolutely hate them with all passion in my life, but I’m still going to try to stuff it three wide and go for the win because I hate losing more.

“The car I had today, it made it somewhat fun because I didn’t have to hold my breath and be on the ragged edge. My car was stable and I could make moves. There are just moves at times you’re just holding your breath and hoping you get through the rest of the corner.”

Sunday was Allmendinger’s third top-10 finish in four weeks. After a rough start to the season, Allmendinger and his team are finding their footing.

“I think we’re getting better,” he said. “The last six, seven races have been better. Last week hurt a little bit, we just completely missed it at Chicago and never had the speed all weekend. Not even to win the race but to run inside the top five, top seven, which is where I feel we should be at those racetracks no matter what. So, we hurt ourselves there to get some points back. But we’re getting there.

“Don’t get me wrong, by no means are we at the top of the level yet or even close to that, we still have a lot of building to do. But from where we were basically after Richmond and Darlington compared to where we are now, it’s a huge gain, and that credit goes to all the men and women at Kaulig Racing for working hard because we were pretty bad at that point.”