Auto Racing Capsules: Atlanta gets ready to become a one-race town
HAMPTON, Ga. — This isn’t the way Atlanta Motor Speedway wanted to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
The high-banked track has traditionally hosted two NASCAR Sprint Cup races each year, but that’s changing in 2011. Track owner Speedway Motorsports Inc. decided to shift the attendance-challenged spring date to another of its facilities, Kentucky Motor Speedway.
As amazing as it may seem, Atlanta is about to become a one-race town — despite being one of the largest markets on the circuit and right in the heart of traditional NASCAR country.
“I started coming here in the 1980s,” said 51-year-old Mark Martin, the oldest regular driver in the series. “I love this place. I hate to see it come to that.”
He’s not the only one. The 1.54-mile quad-oval has long been one of the most popular in the series among the drivers, who love its hair-raising speed and multiple passing grooves.
“I wish we raced Atlanta every other week, maybe three times a month,” Carl Edwards said. “I really, really like this place.”
But there’s more to racing than just racing.
The spring event at Atlanta was traditionally plagued by poor weather and struggled to draw fans. Track officials tried all sorts of marketing gimmicks and even slashed ticket prices, but nothing helped. Finally, SMI owner Bruton Smith had to make a hard business decision: If he wanted a Cup race at Kentucky, it would have to come at the expense of another of his tracks.
Atlanta was the most logical candidate, despite its long, proud Cup history.
“There’s no way you’re going to convince me this decisions was done because we’re the worst market,” track president Ed Clark said. “It was simply who owned what, and a choice had to be made. Bruton ran out of options. There was no other thing he could do.”
Still, there’s no denying all those empty seats. Even the race Sunday night, the Labor Day weekend event that Atlanta will be keeping in 2011, isn’t expected to be a sellout.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s necessary,” Kyle Busch said. “When you can’t sell seats, you don’t deserve to go to that race track twice. It’s all about getting butts in the seats.”
NASCAR has juggled its schedule dramatically over the past decade, delving into new markets that go beyond its Southern roots. Darlington, the most historic track on the circuit, lost one of its two races in 2005. North Wilkesboro and Rockingham were kicked off the circuit altogether.
The newer tracks aren’t guaranteed their events either. As part of the scheduling shake-up for 2011, NASCAR also took away a race from California Speedway near Los Angeles, plagued by thousands of empty seats despite being the second-largest market in the country, and gave it to Kansas Speedway.
“We go to some places that might not be so exciting of a race,” Busch said. “But the infield looks great because there’s a lot of people there. The grandstands look good because there’s a lot of people sitting there. That’s why racetracks keep their races. If you don’t have support in a given area of the country, it ain’t going to last. California’s in the same boat. How many million people live around California? But they can’t fill the race track.”
Atlanta International Raceway, located about 20 miles south of its namesake city, opened on July 31, 1960, as a 1½-mile oval. Fireball Roberts won the very first race, the Dixie 300. The inaugural Atlanta 500 was held later that year and a tradition was born.
There were actually three races in 1961 — a 500-miler, a 400-miler and a 250-miler — but by 1967, the track had settled into its tradition of hosting two 500-mile races each year. That included the coveted final race of the season and the crowning of the Cup champion.
“The sad part in all this is that so much of what our sport is started right here in north Georgia,” Clark said. “At one time, Atlanta was the hub — not Charlotte. That got away, and now this race date is getting away.”
He wonders if the sport is losing something by turning away from its traditional base, and he’s heard from plenty of disgruntled fans who feel that way.
“Based on some of the conversations I’ve had, there’s some ill feelings about that,” Clark said. “I don’t think it’s being directed at us, because I certainly hope nobody thinks Atlanta Motor Speedway wanted to lose a date. But it seems like the base of events and tracks has eroded over time in the Southeast. You can call that progress, you can call that whatever ... but it’s hard for fans to take.”
Clark said he’s determined to build the Labor Day race into a coveted ticket that shows Atlanta is still one of NASCAR’s top markets. Next year, there will be three races held on successive nights covering all of NASCAR’s series: trucks, Nationwide and Sprint Cup.
He’s also pursuing a major event to fill the springtime void. Atlanta was a stop on the Indy Racing League schedule from 1998-2001 but never built up much of a fan base. With the merger in open-wheel racing and a new president running that series, Clark said he might take another look at IndyCar.
“I don’t even know if it’s an option. I haven’t had any conversations with them,” he said. “But they’ve got a good product, and they do well in some of their other venues. We haven’t had them in eight or nine years, and everything has changed over there since they were here.”
Clark said he might also consider a non-motorsports event, such as music festival or hot air balloon race.
Of course, he would love nothing more than for NASCAR to decide there is a place for a second Atlanta race on the schedule.
“That’s certainly not something we will ever turn our back on,” Clark said. “Our hope is that if we did get our race back, it would be on a better date so we could really show our potential.”
Hamlin wins pole for Atlanta Cup race
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Denny Hamlin started chasing the championship during qualifying Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Mired in a bit of a midseason slump, Hamlin showed signs of turning things around by claiming the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race with a speed of 187.380 mph. He edged traditionally strong qualifier Ryan Newman, who'll start from the outside of the front row after a lap of 187.070.
The rest of the top five for the Emory Healthcare 500 was Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.
"I'm a very bad qualifier," Hamlin said, "so I'll take it."
He claimed the eighth pole of his career and the 50th for Joe Gibbs Racing, which won its first pole with Bobby Labonte at Martinsville in 1995.
Hamlin has five wins this season, but it's been nearly three months since his last victory. He's coming off a 34th-place finish at Bristol and is fifth in the point standings.
While that's still safely within the 12-driver Chase for the Championship, which will be set at Richmond next week, Hamlin wants to recapture the dominance he showed over a 10-race stretch that included five wins and two other top-five finishes.
"I feel like the last 10 races have definitely been up and down for our team," he said. "We were on such a hot streak there. We kind of got spoiled. The regular season was kind of irrelevant at that point because we knew we were going to get in the Chase."
Hamlin said the team started racing for victories instead of points.
"We're going to treat these next two weeks as if we're Chase racing," he said. "We found ourselves going for wins so much, going all-out for wins, that it probably hurt us in the long run. These next two weeks, we're going back to points racing."
Hamlin wanted to get that new attitude started with a strong qualifying run, and that's just what he got from his No. 11 Toyota Camry.
"We brought our best stuff," he said. "I'm trying to get cautiously optimistic, but that's the fastest car I've ever had on the race track. It was very, very, very good."
If all goes according to plan, Hamlin will have a couple of high finishes — maybe even another win or two — heading into the 10-race Chase.
"I'm trying to do the best I can to pretend the Chase starts here," he said. "Hopefully, we can start some momentum now, so we're really hitting our stride when the Chase starts."
Failing to make the 43-car field were Jason Leffler, Landon Cassill, Scott Riggs and Todd Bodine.
-- Paul Newberry
Notebook: Hendrick sees hopeful signs in sponsorship game
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Rick Hendrick sees hopeful signs in the sponsorship game. He hopes that will lead to more dollar signs.
The NASCAR team owner announced Saturday that Quaker State, already an associate sponsor on all four of his cars, is bumping up to a full sponsor on Mark Martin's No. 5 team for four races in 2011.
While that may not sound like much, Hendrick said it's a sign that companies are starting to look for marketing opportunities even as the U.S. economy struggles to recover from a deep recession.
"We're having a tremendous amount of discussions," he said. "In the first half of 2009, nobody was talking about anything. Now a lot of people are talking. Things are happening. In general, I think the feeling is much better. People are now looking beyond what they've been through. They're not looking backward. They're looking forward."
That's not to say the situation has totally turned.
Hendrick has yet to announce the sponsorship package for four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, though the car owner conceded that talks with WalMart failed to yield a deal for 2011.
"We got down the road a bit, but timing is one of those things," Hendrick said. "I think it's possible we'll do something down the road with them, but it won't be next year.
"But," he added, "it's good to see companies have interest. At the end of 2008 and the 2009, it was pretty dismal. If somebody wasn't already out here on a car, you weren't talking to anybody. Now, there's interest from people who haven't been in the sport. It's kind of moving around a bit."
Even an owner with as much success as Hendrick — his roster of drivers also includes four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and the popular Dale Earnhardt Jr. — has been forced to scramble for a hodgepodge of sponsorship deals.
Hendrick said he expects to have most of his backing lined up by November, though it's still possible that some cars might be unsponsored for a handful of races next year. In those cases, he'll put his own moniker — Hendrickcars.com — on the side.
"The economy is still right," he said. "People are still trying to stretch their dollars. You've got to be fairly creative to make it work for everyone."
KEEP AN EYE ON JIMMIE: Four-time champion Jimmie Johnson hardly looks like the driver to beat with only two races left before the Sprint Cup playoff begins.
Not that anybody's counting him out.
Johnson is only ninth in the standings heading into Sunday's Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but the only driver ever to win four straight titles has shown there's no one better when it gets down to those final 10 races.
"They are a contender until they lose one," Kyle Busch said. "You can't count them out at all. I know Chad (Knaus, the crew chief) is a very smart individual and I know Jimmie is a very good race car driver. They will not be dumb when they get to the Chase. They'll be pretty good. I hope we've got the package to beat them throughout the Chase. But you definitely can't discount them."
Johnson said he's been in this position before, "where we were looking for a little speed for the Chase and we found it. I'm not too concerned about where we are."
That said, he figures points leader Kevin Harvick will be the man to beat in the playoff.
"He's had consistency at all the different tracks throughout the season," Johnson said. "He's really turned it around from where he was last season and where he's at this year. I give him a lot of credit."
NEW BUSINESS: David Ragan now has his name on more than just the side of the No. 6 car.
Ragan has taken over a Ford dealership in Perry, Ga., not far from his hometown of Unadilla. He won't be directly involved in David Ragan Ford, leaving that to his father, who's moving back home to care for his elderly parents and will run the day-to-day operations.
Ragan said he'll likely return in the next month of two for a formal grand opening. But all the heavy lifting has been done, so to speak.
"I spent the off week moving furniture," he said.
Ragan's race weekend got off to a good start when he won a late-model race on Friday night, his first victory at the track since his days racing Legends cars.
LUG NUTS: Jeff Gordon's 3-year-old daughter, Ella, helped design the paint scheme that will be on the No. 24 car at this week's race. Known as "My Papa's Car," the brightly colored scheme is designed to raise awareness for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. ... Denny Hamlin's top qualifying speed (187.380) was more than 5 mph slower than Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s pole-winning effort (192.761) for the spring race. Much warmer temperatures led to the slower times.
Smith blasts NASCAR for ending season at Homestead
SPARTA, Ky. — Speedway Motorsports Inc. owner Bruton Smith isn’t a fan of NASCAR’s insistence on ending the season in South Florida.
Smith likened Homestead Miami Speedway to “North Cuba,” arguing it is not the “proper place” for the Sprint Cup series to end the Chase for the championship.
The longtime track owner says he’d prefer NASCAR to run its final Cup race at SMI-owned Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Smith said he expects IndyCar to end the 2011 season at the 1.5-mile oval next October.
Despite his protests, SMI did not make a formal request for NASCAR to add a second Las Vegas race to the 2011 schedule. Smith said it’s because he doesn’t believe it would make a difference.
Nationwide
McMurray holds off Busch to win Nationwide race
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Jamie McMurray believed he had the fastest car from the first practice to the last lap Saturday night.
McMurray proved the point by taking the lead for good on the final restart and holding off Kyle Busch to win the Great Clips 300 Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch, trying to become the first driver in the 28-year history of the Nationwide Series to win 11 races in a season, fell short in his late attempt to catch McMurray.
Busch dropped from first to third as McMurray took the lead coming out of pit row following the final caution flag on the 167th of 195 laps.
"He definitely wanted to get in front on the restart," said McMurray's crew chief, Tony Eury Sr. "He got out in the middle and got in front. That's the kind of move you have to make to win the race."
Busch led the most laps in the race but finished second, less than a second behind McMurray. Carl Edwards was third.
Busch was slowly cutting into McMurray's lead before running out of laps at the end of the race.
McMurray, who raced to his first Nationwide Series win in Atlanta in 2002, won for the first time since 2004 in Darlington. He has two Sprint Cup wins this year.
"I think Jamie is showing everybody how good he is this year," Edwards said.
McMurray started seventh but said "We unloaded as the fastest car here on the first practice."
"We just had a really good day," McMurray said. "At the end we just had tons of speed and certainly getting out in front on that last restart was critical. ... Fortunately we got a jump there and got ahead of Kyle. The clean air out front is huge."
Kevin Harvick finished fourth, followed by Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano. Jason Leffler, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10.
Busch will have to try another week for his record 11th win of the season.
Sam Ard won 10 Nationwide races in 1983. Busch matched that mark in 2008. Busch's 10th win this season came on Aug. 20 in Bristol, Tenn.
Busch also finished second to Harvick in the 2009 Atlanta Nationwide race. In each case he said he was hurt by late caution flags.
"We just didn't quite have enough there on the short run to keep up with (McMurray)," Busch said.
Harvick's tire strategy helped him look like the driver to beat in the middle of the race.
Harvick left the second caution of the race on lap 60 in 14th place after taking on fresh tires while Busch and most other leaders remained on the track.
The fresh tread made an immediate dramatic difference as Harvick began passing cars with ease. Harvick took the lead from McMurray on lap 70. As he neared the midpoint of the race, Harvick had pushed his lead over the second-place Busch to a bewildering margin of 11 seconds.
Harvick led by about 13 seconds before he finally took his turn on pit row for gas and tires on lap 122 of the 195-lap race, giving Busch an opening to reclaim the lead.
"Harvick, with that little show he put on in the middle of the race, we knew tires would be big at the end," Eury said.
Pole-sitter Kasey Kahne was in the top 10 after the third caution before his hopes of winning ended when a problem with his right front fender forced him off the track. He was three laps down when he left pit row and finished 19th.
Soon after Kahne's problem, Reed Sorenson's day ended with his nose-first crash into the wall, forcing the final yellow flag that set up McMurray's decisive move. Sorenson was checked and released from the infield care center.
-- Charles Odum
IndyCar
Castroneves stretches fuel to win Indy 300
SPARTA, Ky. (AP) — Helio Castroneves crossed the finish line in front.
This time it counted.
The IndyCar star won the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night, squeezing the last 53 laps out of one tank of fuel and then taking advantage when the leaders were forced to make last-second pit stops to fill up.
It was the second victory of the season for Castroneves, at least officially.
Unofficially, he considers it his third. He led the field to the wire at Edmonton in July, but was dropped back to 10th after officials penalized him for blocking with a couple of laps to go.
Castroneves was fined $60,000 and placed on probation. He's over it. Almost.
When he was introduced to the media after getting a fist-bump from Cincinnati Bengals star Terrell Owens in Victory Lane, Castroneves couldn't help but tweak the moderator.
"Just a little correction, it was the third win," he said, laughing.
He also considers it a bit of redemption. Castroneves was yards away from winning at the 1.5-mile oval two years ago only to run out of fuel exiting Turn 4, allowing Scott Dixon to steal the win.
Not this time. While the leaders zipped around the track at 220 mph, Castroneves slowed down after pitting on lap 147 when race strategist Tim Cindric suggested he could win if he went a little easy on the throttle.
Castroneves was skeptical at first, but with 20 laps to go the math started to get easier. When the leaders took turns heading down pit road for splash-and-go stops with a handful of laps left, Castroneves steadily made up ground.
In the end, he had more than enough to ease past pole-sitter Ed Carpenter, who matched a career-best second place finish. Dan Wheldon was third, followed by Tony Kannan and Dario Franchitti.
Points leader Will Power led 83 laps but slipped to eighth after a late-race slip. The bobble allowed Franchitti to draw within 17 points with two races remaining. The series races in Japan on Sept. 19.
"We finished ahead of Will, which was one of the things we needed to achieve, but it would have been nice to have finished a little further up," Franchitti said.
Castroneves' shot at the title is long gone, thanks in part to his meltdown at Edmonton.
He was leading with a handful of laps left when officials ruled he illegally blocked Power during a late restart. Castroneves was ordered to the back of the lead lap but refused and stayed in front instead. He crossed the finish line first even as the flagman withheld the checkers until Dixon hit the line moments later.
The normally ebullient Castroneves lost his cool in the aftermath, grabbing IndyCar director of security Charles Burns. He later apologized, but the uncharacteristic outburst cost him a chunk of change.
The two have since made up, and Castroneves and Burns hugged after the driver collected the 24th victory of his IndyCar career.
"I thought I grabbed his shirt, but I'm on probation," Castroneves said, smiling.
A week after a pit road gaffe cost Power a chance at his first oval victory, a slight bobble while getting up to speed shortly after exiting the pits cost him in the Bluegrass.
Power dominated the middle of the race but briefly got loose while heading into Turn 3. He narrowly missed the wall, but the break in momentum prevented him from making inroads on the leaders, meaning the road-racing star will have to wait a little longer to breakthrough when forced to turn left instead of left and right.
"I'm going to get it one day," Power said. "We led plenty of laps. We'll get there."
Ultimately it wasn't speed, but strategy that mattered. Castroneves led three laps, but they were the final three, allowing him to do his trademark fence climb in celebration.
Carpenter's finish matched the best of his career. Not bad for a driver making just his third start of the season. He drove at Indianapolis then signed a three-race deal last month to drive the No. 20 as part of a collaboration between Vision Racing and Panther Racing.
"I think Dan and I can say we probably had the best cars in the race, but the best car doesn't always win," Carpenter said. "That's racing ... it was (Castroneves') night. It was meant to be. But I am a little bummed out."
Danica Patrick was ninth. Defending race champion Ryan Briscoe, who edged Carpenter by 0.0162 seconds last year, finished 24th after getting collected in a three-car pileup with Vitor Meira and Simona de Silvestro.
-- Will Graves
Mann becomes 2nd woman to win Indy Lights race
SPARTA, Ky. (AP) — Pippa Mann became the second female driver to win an Indy Lights race, dominating the 100-mile event at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night.
Mann started from the pole and led all 67 laps to pick up her first career win, beating James Hinchcliffe by 6.83 seconds. Series points leader J.K. Vernay was third.
The 27-year-old driver from England joins Ana Beatriz as the only female drivers to win in IndyCar's main development series. Beatriz won at Iowa and Nashville in 2009.
"I joked yesterday that I hoped to run away and hide (but) I didn't think that was going to happen," Mann said. "I just got my legs underneath me and started running and started pedaling and I guess nobody could catch me."
Mann nearly won at Chicagoland last week but was nosed out at the finish by Hinchcliffe.
"I was really disappointed, but you know, Hinch beat me fair and square," Mann said. "I was like 'OK, I'm going to come back and I'm going to beat you.'"
Danica Patrick is the only female driver to win an IndyCar race, taking the checkered flag at Motegi in 2008.
NHRA
Dixon leads Top Fuel qualifying
CLERMONT, Ind. (AP) — Larry Dixon took the Top Fuel qualifying lead in the U.S. Nationals on Saturday, capping a record-setting day at historic O'Reilly Raceway Park.
Dixon, the winner of nine races and the top seed entering the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship, had a track-record run of 3.776 seconds at 324.36 mph.
Matt Hagan, Jeg Coughlin and Andrew Hines also led their divisions in the first of six playoff events.
Hagan powered his Dodge Charger to the top of the Funny Car order with a track-record time of 4.039 at 277.89.
Three-time U.S. Nationals winner Coughlin moved to the front of the Pro Stock field with a track-record time of 6.580 at 209.39 in a Chevy Cobalt.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Hines set a national record with a 6.815-second run at a track-record speed of 195.17 mph on a Harley-Davidson.
