Ron Hornaday Jr. didn’t have the fastest truck in Friday’s Good Sam Club 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but he won anyway thanks to a gas-saving strategy. When the latter stages of the race went caution free, Hornaday, who had pitted just before the final restart, had plenty of fuel to make it to the finish.
His Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate Clint Bowyer, who led 97 laps, had to stop for fuel under green, as did Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.
Hornaday motored by the three Cup drivers to get his 49th career win.
“I’ll take them any way I can get them,” he said.
Bowyer, who finished second ahead of Busch, said there was no doubt who had the best truck.
“We were the fastest truck here,” he said.
No snub here
Kurt Busch said to scratch his name off the list of drivers who aren’t going to the White House to meet President Obama on Wednesday.
Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will be honored by the President, and the other Chase drivers from 2010 also are invited.
A NASCAR release indicated that five drivers could not attend because of scheduling conflicts: Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and Busch.
But Busch said he was able to work out his scheduling problems.
“Who would turn down an opportunity to go to the White House?” he said. “For me it’s an honor. It’s a privilege. ... I might not make the Chase every year, and I’ll miss out on those opportunities.”
Biffle bristled at the comments he had read about his situation. He said he was flattered to get the invitation and keeps a photo of himself and President Obama hanging behind his desk, but he already had committed to an appearance for his sponsor, 3M.
“This was very important to [3M] because the function is designed around me, and they really can’t have it if I don’t go,” he said.
Harvick said he also had a conflict, but wouldn’t say what his conflicting event was.
“I don’t think that is anyone’s business,” he said. “It is just one of those things where we have so many things going on that particular week leading up to the chase. It is just a bad week for us to be committed to more than one thing to go up the day before we have to be in Richmond.”
Sponsorship peril
David Ragan’s immediate future looked a bit uncertain Friday after a SportsBusiness Daily report indicated that his sponsor, UPS, planned to cut back on its support of the No. 6 Ford that Ragan drives for Roush Fenway Racing.
The publication, citing people familiar with the company’s plans, said UPS likely would drop back to sponsoring four to eight races at Roush Fenway next year and is trying to move its sponsorship to the No. 99 car driven by Edwards.
The parties involved all declined to comment.
Extra incentive
Four drivers in Sunday’s AdvoCare 500 can win $3 million from series sponsor Sprint by winning the race. If Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose or Paul Menard were to win, they would win $3 million to be split equally between their race team, the driver’s charity of choice and a fan chosen in a drawing.
Busch said that with that kind of money on the line, a driver might take a risk that could end up hurting his position in the Chase.
“I think there’s a line somewhere there in between,” he said. “It does sort of have that All-Star feel. When do you ever get a chance to race after three million bucks?”
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