A year after dominating the Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway only to lose to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the last lap, Kevin Harvick rolled to a relatively easy win in Saturday’s Great Clips/Grit Chips 300.
Harvick dominated the last half of the race and held off Kyle Busch in the closing laps to secure the victory.
Sam Hornish Jr. finished third ahead of Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson.
Joey Logano came back from a flat tire and a brush with the wall early to challenge Harvick later on, but he faded on the race’s last restart, which was brought about by Jeff Green’s hard crash on the frontstretch, and finished sixth.
Busch, the pole-sitter, said he gave it his best shot at the end, but was unable to wrestle the lead from Harvick, who blocked Busch’s best move in the closing laps.
“I was just too tight,” he said. “I fought hard and came up short.”
Allmendinger likes team: A.J. Allmendinger, whose racing career appeared to be in great jeopardy when he failed a drug test in the summer of 2012 and lost his ride with Penske Racing, will return to the Sprint Cup circuit full time next season as driver of the No. 47 Toyota, the same car he will drive in Sunday's AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
He said Saturday during a news conference at the speedway that the one-car JTG-Daugherty Racing team suits him fine.
“Everybody’s got such good family values, just a good values outlook on life,” he said. “It’s been great for me to be a part of the race team so far. It’s a good little race team. … I feel like we can really build this race team and make it stronger.”
Allmendinger has made three starts in the car this season, with a best finish of 10th at Watkins Glen. He starts 13th Sunday.
The hiring of Allmendinger means that the car’s long-time driver Bobby Labonte will look for a new ride in the future. He was set to drive the No. 51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet this weekend at AMS, but broke three ribs in a bicycling accident this week. He was set to share the No. 47 with Allmendinger in the remaining races this year, but whether he’ll return to the car is uncertain.
Allmendinger said he won’t be a part of pushing Labonte out of the car.
“That’s not my decision, and I’m not going to push for that either,” he said.
Martin likes AMS tires: Veteran driver Mark Martin, driving the No. 14 Chevrolet for the injured Tony Stewart, said he likes what he's seen of the dual-compound right-side tires that Goodyear has brought to Atlanta Motor Speedway in an effort to deal with the track's worn, abrasive asphalt.
“I thought the tire had exceptional grip (Friday) for the pavement,” Martin said. “We have really complained as drivers quite a bit about the grip level the last few years here. The combination of the Gen-6 and the tire seem to work pretty well.”
Martin said that what drivers, teams and Goodyear are looking for is a tire that will hold up under the increased speeds of the Gen-6 car.
“The biggest thing is that hopefully it gives us the durability that we really need for these high speeds and these long turns,” he said. “I think it’s probably a really good scenario because it pushes the teams to protect themselves by putting softer rubber on the outer part of the tire it pushes the teams to try to get out there on that instead of the fast inside shoulder, which is problematic.
“We certainly don’t need to abuse the inside shoulders here and fail right fronts at this race track with these speeds.”
Nemechek's ALS awareness: Driver-owner Joe Nemechek is making good use of the otherwise blank sides of his race cars in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series this weekend by carrying the logo of the ALS Association, which fights the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
“We hope the awareness generated through this partnership will have a tremendous impact on the organization and the patients and families whom it serves,” Nemechek said in announcing the arrangement.
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