DRILLING DOWN WITH DRELLOS: Rising Star Demetrios Drellos Aiming High at Can-Am, BristolQUEENSBURY, NY – Demetrios Drellos has a firmly stated goal for 2021: to win the Super DIRTcar Series championship. After claiming the $10,000 prize and his first career win at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in 2019 – his hometown Hoosier Racing Tire Weekly Championship track – “Double D” will try to rekindle that success at the start of the 2021 season by trying to start off strong with a win at Can-Am Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway in April.“We are on target for chasing the Super DIRTcar Series championship in 2021,” Drellos said. “We’ve got some new ideas and I am hoping that comes with better finishes. We are operating at 110% going into the season.”Drellos, from Queensbury, NY, has proven himself to be a podium contender at every track his #111 Drellos Motorsports team enters. However, in two Series races at Can-Am Speedway, Drellos hasn’t broken the top 15, yet. He finished 17th in 2019 but picked up the Hard Charger award at 2020’s OktoberFAST event after starting 28th and finishing 19th. “You have to approach the first race at Can-Am a little different,” Drellos noted. “It’s so early in the season and that means the track is hard and slick from the cold and sun or it’s a little bit muddy. We are going to show up with our best guess as to what the weather is like that day. That’s all you can prepare for. It could be a slick track or completely opposite. You roll the dice.”Many long hours of wrenching are spent in the family-owned Drellos Motorsports shop in Queensbury, NY. The walls are now decorated with checks from some of his recent wins. He plans to add more to the decor in 2021. “Ninety percent of setting up a car for a race happens at the shop,” Drellos said. “For most places you want a baseline for what that track is going to be like. You can still do a 180 at the track with the way springs are now but you definitely prepare more in the shop than at the race track for your setup.”Once the Thunder in the Thousand Islands 100 points-paying opener is settled at Can-Am Speedway on Saturday, April 10, all eyes will be locked on the World of Outlaws Bristol Throwdown at Bristol Motor Speedway, April 22-24, for a pair of $10,000-to-win Super DIRTcar Series Features – which are also NAPA Super DIRT Week Qualifiers.“I feel very fortunate that I get to go to Bristol Motor Speedway,” Drellos said. “It feels great to be able to go to a NASCAR facility with my own race car. That right there is pretty cool. From what I have seen in the videos is that it’s going to be awesome. There’s no cons. It’s only good for us.”Drivers are working hard to determine the best way to prepare for Bristol. Some are thinking along the lines of the days of racing at the New York State Fairgrounds one-mile clay oval. The speeds were tremendous and cars were reinforced to handle the demanding nature of the unique race track. Others are comparing Bristol to contemporary tracks they’ve raced on like Lebanon Valley Speedway or Eldora Speedway to come up with a game plan. “I raced at The Mile once in a 358. They misspelled my name terribly but I was there,” Drellos said laughing. “I am thinking of other tracks compared to it though. It has the same clay as Port Royal and The Dirt Track at Charlotte with a long straightaway of Port Royal and the banking of Charlotte. With the red clay, you’ll have a lot of grip. With the banking, you’ll have a lot of grip, and the straightaways are going to give you a lot of speed so it’s going to be pretty fast. With that comes excitement for most people.” History will be made when the Series hits the Bristol banking for the first time during a special Hot Laps session on Thursday, April 22. Race fans can purchase tickets now for the World of Outlaws Bristol Throwdown by clicking here. The entire race weekend will be broadcast live on DIRTVision. Fans will be flocking to Can-Am Speedway on Saturday, April 10 to watch the Super DIRTcar Series kick off the 2021 championship season. Get more info at the track website. The race night will also include DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds and DIRTcar Pro Stocks competing for Hoosier Racing Tire Weekly Championship points with the added bonus of racing in front of the entire DIRTVision audience.Both events will set the stage for Drellos’ main goal: win the 2021 Super DIRTcar Series championship.Be sure to follow driver Demetrios Drellos on Facebook and Twitter as well as the Super DIRTcar Series on both Facebookand Twitter. Get the entire Series schedule, features, and more at SuperDIRTcarSeries.com. PHOTO: Joe Grabianowski

The Super DIRTcar Series is brought to fans by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider), VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel), Chevy Performance Parts, iRacing (Official Online Racing Game) and NAPA Auto Parts. Contingency sponsors include: ARP (Automotive Racing Products), ASI Race Wear, Bicknell Racing Products, Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux, Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Drydene, Fox Factory, MSD, and Wrisco (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including: FireAde, Intercomp, and Racing Electronics.

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WHAT TO WATCH FOR: World of Outlaws Start Missouri Trip at US-36 and Lake OzarkSaturday’s 3rd Annual Jason Johnson Classic Pays $15,000-To-WinOSBORN, MO – March 22, 2021 – Florida was fun, the Dirty South Swing was a blast, and the Texas Two-Step was thrilling.Now, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series is set for an exciting swing through the state of Missouri.The Greatest Show on Dirt gets back on track this Friday, March 26 with an appearance at US-36 Raceway in Osborn, MO. On Saturday, March 27, the third annual Jason Johnson Classic pres. by FK Rod Ends offers a $15,000-to-win purse at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, MO.US-36 TICKETS (3/26) LAKE OZARK TICKETS (3/27)Here are the top stories to follow this weekend:HAUD’S HOT: After a tough start to the 2021 season, Sheldon Haudenschild and his Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing team have found themselves in a solid rhythm. They started the year with finishes of 15th, 12th, 6th, and 11th, but have since recovered with runs of 1st, 5th, 1st, and 5th; that’s an average finish of 11.0 to 3.0. On back-to-back weekends, Haudenschild has parked the NOS Energy Drink #17 in victory lane with thrilling triumphs at Mississippi’s Magnolia Motor Speedway and Texas’ Cotton Bowl Speedway.The good news? Haudenschild enters Friday’s appearance at US-36 Raceway as the defending race winner. He won last August’s World of Outlaws show at the Osborn, MO 1/3rd-mile in spectacular fashion with a last-lap, last-corner pass on champion Brad Sweet. Another win on Friday night would make 27-year-old Sheldon the first driver to three victories this year, and it would match him with Joey Saldana as the only multi-time Outlaw winners at US-36.HOME TURF: For a pair of World of Outlaws organizations, a trip to Missouri means they’re racing close to home base. Although Carson Macedo of Lemoore, CA and Mason Daniel of Springville, CA are both left-coasters at heart, their new shops on the Outlaw tour are based out of the Show-Me State. For Daniel, his operation in Carrollton, MO is located just over an hour away from US-36, where the 20-year-old already owns a second-place result from ASCS Warrior Region competition.For Macedo, the new wheelman at Jason Johnson Racing, his shop is located in the heart of the Ozarks, officially in Rocky Mount, MO. It’s a short 20-minute jaunt over to Lake Ozark Speedway, where the 3rd annual Jason Johnson Classic commences on Saturday night. It’s an especially meaningful race for JJR, who won the inaugural event in 2019 with driver David Gravel. Macedo, who has three previous top tens at Lake Ozark, will try to deliver another $15,000 title to the #41.J-MAC’S TITLE DEFENSE: Hoping to stand in the way of Macedo’s JJR triumph is the defending Jason Johnson Classic champion, James McFadden. Fresh off a plane from down under, the Alice Springs, Northern Territory native has officially kicked off his stint as a full-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car driver in the Kasey Kahne Racing, Karavan Trailers #9.Last October, McFadden banked his second career World of Outlaws win in the second annual Jason Johnson Classic. Saturday’s trip to Lake Ozark will only be his fourth event of the 2021 season, following Friday’s show at US-36 and a pair of top ten finishes last weekend in Texas.TOUGH LOVE: A pair of Outlaws revealed their inner critic last weekend when victory slipped from their grasp. Aaron Reutzel and Jacob Allen want to win just as much as their competitors, and they proved that with their golden interviews last weekend. Reutzel was chasing his second win of the year on Friday at Cotton Bowl when Sweet and Haudenschild drove around him on the outside. Post-race, Reutzel simply said he “did a shitty job of driving” and mentioned “you have to run 35 perfect laps to win these [Outlaw] races.”On Saturday, Allen was the center of heartbreak once again. After passing Sweet for the lead on Lap 11, the Shark Racing #1A pilot made one mistake entering turn one and slammed into the outside wall, flipped upside down, and ended his shot at a second career win. Allen brought the Paige, TX crowd to life when he said “I stepped on it, that’s what I did.” The Drydene Performance Products driver admitted he “needed to take a chill pill” to start delivering the wins his team deserves. This weekend, we’ll see if either of them can return their passionate attitude to victory lane.THE BIG FOUR: The “Big Four” if you will, are the four winningest active Outlaw drivers and they’ve got the highest four point averages over the last four years. They’re currently 1-2-3-4 in this year’s championship standings and that’s thanks to the unrivaled consistency of each of them. All four drivers are averaging a top five finish through the first eight races.Leading the points is two-time winner and two-time Series champion, Brad Sweet. The Grass Valley, CA native is currently on a streak of five-straight podium finishes aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49.Trailing Sweet by -24 points is Logan Schuchart of Hanover, PA. The driver of the Shark Racing, Drydene Performance Products #1S is the only racer with a top ten finish in all eight World of Outlaws features this year.Behind those two is 10-time Series champion Donny Schatz (-38). Outside of an ignition box failure at Volusia, Schatz and his Tony Stewart Racing, Carquest #15 have a top-seven result at every race. A win this weekend would be the 300th of Schatz’s career.Along with Schatz at (-38) is Watertown, CT native David Gravel. Finding success in his new role at Big Game Motorsports, Gravel has six top-five finishes and seven top-ten runs to go along with his jaw-dropping win at The Rev.Anyone unable to make it to the track can watch all of the action live on DIRTVision with the annual Platinum FAST PASS subscription for $299/year or the monthly FAST PASS subscription for $39/month.Photo – Trent Gower

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink® Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Drydene (Official Motor Oil), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Morton Buildings (Official Building), NOS Energy (Official Energy Product), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider) and VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); contingency sponsors include ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, KSE Racing Products (Hard Charger Award), MSD and Slick Woody’s (Quick Time Award); manufacturer sponsors include FireAde, Intercomp, K1 Race Gear, and Racing Electronics.Founded in 1978, the World of Outlaws®, based in Concord, NC, is the premier national touring series for dirt track racing in North America, featuring the most powerful cars on dirt, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series. Annually, the two series race nearly 140 times at tracks across the United States and Canada. CBS Sports Network is the official broadcast partner of the World of Outlaws. DIRTVision® also broadcasts all World of Outlaws events over the Internet to fans around the world. Learn more about the World of Outlaws.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: World of Outlaws Late Models return to Cherokee for huge payout at Rock Gault Memorial Chris Madden, Brandon Sheppard, Ross Bailes and more ready to battle for $40K on SaturdayGAFFNEY, SC- MARCH 22, 2021 – The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series returns to “The Place Your Momma Warned You About” this weekend for the biggest event in Cherokee Speedway’s history.The Series is gearing up for two nights of action at the 3/8-mile track, including twin 25-lap Features –paying $5,000 each – on Friday, March 26, and a $40,000-to-win event Saturday, March 27 – also paying $15,000 to second and $10,000 to third.After six events this year, Series points leader and Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Strickler is currently the only driver with multiple wins; both coming at Volusia Speedway Park. The World of Outlaws Late Models have run five races at Cherokee Speedway, with four different winners. Brandon Overton is the most recent winner, taking the checkers in the October Mike Duvall Memorial.If you can’t make it to either event, watch all the action live on DIRTVision with the annual Platinum FAST PASS subscription for $299/year or the monthly FAST PASS Subscription for $39/month.Here are the top stories to follow this weekend: SMOKEY LOOKS TO STAY HOT: Chris “Smokey” Madden is on a bit of a hot streak lately, winning the “Tennessee Tip-Off” at Smoky Mountain earlier this month. But that’s not the only reason he has momentum. The Grey Court, SC driver already has a victory at Cherokee in 2021. He won the Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series event in February, leading him to his second consecutive championship with the Series.While Madden is still looking for the elusive first World of Outlaws Late Model win at Cherokee, he’s had a lot of success at the track, claiming 27 career wins overall. In five starts with the World of Outlaws at Cherokee, he’s earned four top-five finishes.MOVING UP THE LADDER: After DIRTcar Nationals in Volusia, three-time defending champion Brandon Sheppard was sitting sixth in the point standings without a top-five finish. While the New Berlin, IL native is still looking for his first top-five, his eighth-place finish at Smoky Mountain propelled him to second in points, just 66 points behind leader Kyle Strickler.Cherokee is a track where Sheppard is still looking for a win. He has four top-fives in five World of Outlaw starts there. In those five races, he’s also finished in the runner-up spot three times. If Sheppard can pull off a win this weekend, it’ll be his 70th career World of Outlaws victory.OVERTON LOOKS FOR THREE STRAIGHT: When the green flag flies this weekend at Cherokee Speedway, “Big Sexy” Brandon Overton will look for his third straight Series victory at Cherokee. The Appling, GA driver won the Mike Duvall Memorial in 2019 and 2020. He also picked up a win during the Blue Gray 100 at Cherokee to kick off the Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series last November.Overton already has a World of Outlaws win this year at DIRTcar Nationals. His next Series victory will be his 15th in his career.THE BOSS LOOKS FOR HOME STATE REBOUND: While Ross Bailes hasn’t had the start to the 2021 season he may have liked, he’s looking to rebound in his home state this weekend.So far, “The Boss” only has one top-10 finish in the 2021 season, but he’s returning to a track he’s won at 10 times in total. He won his only World of Outlaws Late Model event there in May of 2019. The Rookie of the Year contender currently sits in 10th in the standings.STRICKLER STILL ON TOP: Series point leader Kyle Strickler is another driver looking to rebound this weekend at Cherokee. While he had early season success at Volusia, Smoky Mountain didn’t go how the “High Side Tickler” planned. He had his first finish outside the top-10 in the 2021 World of Outlaws season there.The good news for the Pennsylvania campaigner is that his only start with the World of Outlaws at Cherokee resulted in a fourth-place finish last year. Strickler holds a 66-point lead over Sheppard heading into this weekend. A win would give him his third victory of the season, and his career.This Week at a GlanceWhen and Where March 26-27 at Cherokee Speedway for the Rock Gault MemorialAbout the Track Cherokee Speedway is a 3/8 high banked track Online: http://cherokeespeedwaysc.com Track Record: 14.568 set by Ross Bailes on January 26, 2020Cherokee Speedway Previous Winners 2020- Brandon Overton on Oct. 2 2019- Ross Bailes on May 3; Brandon Overton on Oct. 4 2018- Mike Marlar on May 4 2017- Shane Clanton on May 5On the Internet World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models Series Twitter – Twitter.com/WoOLateModels – @WoOLateModels Instagram – Instagram.com/WoOLateModels – @woolatemodels Facebook – Facebook.com/WorldofOutlawsLateModelSeries YouTube – Youtube.com/WorldofOutlaws DIRTVision – DIRTVision.com – Platinum annual FAST PASS for $299 or monthly FAST PASS for $39/monthAround the Turn: The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 1-3, returns to the Farmer City Raceway, in Farmer City, IL, for the Illini 100. CLICK HERE for tickets.Feature Winners: (5 Drivers) Rank- Driver- Hometown-WinsKyle Strickler, Sinking Springs, PA-2Kyle Bronson, Brandon, FL-1 Devin Moran, Dresden, OH-1 Brandon Overton, Evans, GA-1 Chris Madden, Grey Court, SC-1Drydene Heat Winners (18 Drivers) Rank- Driver- Hometown-WinsKyle Bronson, Brandon, FL-3 Tim McCreadie, Watertown, NY-3Kyle Strickler, Sinking Spring, PA-2 Devin Moran, Dresden, OH- 2 Tyler Bruening, Decorah, IA-2 Bobby Pierce, Oakwood, IL-2 Chris Madden, Grey Court, SC-2Dale Mcdowell, Chickamauga, GA- 1 Cade Dillard, Robeline, LA-1 Darell Lanigan, Union, KY-1 Parker Martin, Milledgeville, GA-1 Ross Bailes, Clover, SC- 1 Brandon Overton, Evans, Ga-1 Brent Larson, Lake Elmo, MN-1 Mike Marlar, Winfield, TN-1 Hudson O’Neal, Martinsville, IN-1 Ricky Thornton Jr., Chandler, AZ-1 Jonathan Davenport, Blairsville, GA-1Last Chance Showdown Winners (12 drivers) Rank- Driver- Hometown-WinsRicky Weiss, Headingly, MB -2 Dale Mcdowell, Chickamauga, GA-2Ross Robinson, Clover, SC- 1 Boom Briggs, Bear Lake, PA-1 Brent Larson, Lake Elmo, MN-1 Scott Bloomquist, Mooresburg, TN-1 Chase Junghans, Manhattan, KS-1 Brandon Overton, Evans, GA- 1 Dennis Erb, Jr., Carpentersville, IL-1 Mike Norris, Sarver, PA- 1 Stacy Boles, Clinton, TN-1 Kyle Strickler, Silver Springs, PA-1Podium Finishes (14 drivers) Rank – Driver, Hometown – PodiumsKyle Strickler, Sinking Spring, PA – 3Devin Moran, Dresden, OH – 2 Kyle Bronson, Brandon, FL – 2 Cade Dillard, Robeline, LA – 1 Scott Bloomquist, Moorseburg, TN – 1 Darrell Lanigan, Union, KY – 1 Hudson O’Neal, Martinsville, IN – 1 Ricky Thornton, Jr., Chandler, AZ – 1 Bobby Pierce, Oakwood, IL – 1 Dale McDowell, Chickamauga, GA – 1 Brandon Overton, Evans, GA – 1 Chris Madden, Grey Court, SC-1 Mike Marlar, Winfield, TN-1 Jonathan Davenport, Blairsville, GA-1Hard Charger Award (4 drivers) Rank – Driver, Hometown – H.C. AwardsRicky Weiss, Headingly, MB – 2 Chase Junghans, Manhattan, KS – 2Boom Briggs, Bear Lake, PA – 1 Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, IL – 1Slick Woody’s Quick Time Award (6 drivers) Rank – Driver, Hometown – QTsKyle Bronson, Brandon, FL – 1 Kyle Strickler, Sinking Spring, PA – 1 Brandon Overton, Evans, GA – 1 Devin Moran, Dresden, OH – 1 Bobby Pierce, Oakwood, IL – 1 Donald McIntosh, Dawsonville, GA- 12021 World of Outlaws Late Model Schedule & Winners No./ Day, Date / Track / Location / Winner (Total Wins) 1. Thursday, Jan. 14 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Kyle Bronson (1) 2. Saturday, Jan. 16 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Kyle Strickler (1) 3. Wednesday, Feb. 10 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Kyle Strickler (2) 4. Thursday, Feb. 11 / Voluisa Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Devin Moran (1) 5. Friday, Feb. 12 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Brandon Overton (1) 6. Saturday, Mar. 6/ Smoky Mountain Speedway/ Maryville, TN/ Chris Madden (1).

The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings® Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Drydene (Official Motor Oil), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Morton Buildings (Official Building), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider) VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors, including: Arizona Sport Shirts/Gotta Race, ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, MSD, Penske Racing Shocks, Quarter Master, Slick Woody’s (Quick Time Award), and Wrisco (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including: Capital Race Cars, FireAde, Integra Shocks, Intercomp, K1 Race Gear, Racing Electronics, Reliable Painting, and Rocket Chassis.

WAVERLY, OH (March 21, 2021) – Hudson O’Neal won the Buckeye Spring 50 on Sunday Night at Atomic Speedway for his second series win of 2021. For the first time in his career, the 20-year-old Indiana native is atop the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship Point Standings. O’Neal became the third and final leader of the race after he took the lead on lap nine from Devin Moran. He held off Tim McCreadie to win by .563 seconds. Moran came home in third followed by Jonathan Davenport and Kyle Bronson. Kyle Strickler started on the pole and took the lead at the start of the race as drivers were running two and three-wide around the 3/8ths mile high-banked track. Strickler led until Moran took over the point on lap five. The top three of Moran, Strickler, and O’Neal, were putting on a spectacular race for the lead when Strickler suffered a right rear flat tire, forcing a caution flag with 19 laps complete. Strickler exited to the pits, which meant that no driver on the series tour this year has won from the pole starting spot. A caution at the halfway mark set-up a long green-flag stretch of racing for 22 laps until a lap 48 caution set up a race to the finish. O’Neal was able to break away on the restart, and that was enough to send him to Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the ninth time in his career. O’Neal has now joined Tyler Erb as the only 2-time winner so far in LOLMDS competition this season. He previously went to Lucas Oil Victory Lane at East Bay back in January. “I can’t thank these guys enough for their work on this race car. We had one of the University of Northwestern Ohio students on board with us this weekend. Thanks to my family and everybody involved with the race team. This car was awesome from the start. I know McCreadie was all over me a couple of times and all it was going to take was one mistake and he [McCreadie] would get by me.” McCreadie stayed with O’Neal and was ready to pounce if O’Neal made a mistake, but settled for the second spot. “I didn’t need the yellow at the end. It looked like he [O’Neal] got lost on the track a little bit, which happens sometimes when you are leading. I moved around and found something that was really good. His guys told him that under the caution. We passed a lot of good cars. I wish I could have been a tick better, but it’s no shame finishing second to Hudson.” Moran was in the hunt for his first series win of the season for most of the race and rounded out the podium in third. “That was a heck of a race. Congratulations to Huddy. He capitalized when I messed up and I feel like we gave that one away. Good job to those guys for winning and to Timmy for second. I feel like we need to keep our heads up and we can get a lot of wins this year.”     The winner’s Roger Sellers owned, Double Down Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Lazydays RV, O’Neal’s Salvage and Recycling, Lucas Oil Products, 210 Enterprises, and WR1 Sim Chassis. Completing the top ten were Jimmy Owens, Tyler Erb, Josh Richards, Shane Clanton, and Mike Marlar. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Buckeye Spring 50Sunday, March 21st, 2021Atomic Speedway – Waverly, OH Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Jonathan Davenport / 13.938 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Devin Moran / 14.226 seconds  Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 8-Kyle Strickler[3]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 3. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[5]; 4. C9-Steve Casebolt[2]; 5. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 6. 14G-Joe Godsey[6]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[8]; 8. 21K-Kirk Phillips[7] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[5]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice[4]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 5. 4G-Kody Evans[6]; 6. 29-Clint Keenan[7]; 7. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[2] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 4. 14-Josh Richards[4]; 5. 25-Shane Clanton[7]; 6. 71R-Rod Conley[5]; 7. 16R-Rusty Griffaw[6] Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 5. 20B-Todd Brennan[7]; 6. 14R-Jeff Roth[6]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[5]

HAMPTON, GA – March 22, 2021 – Ryan Blaney scored his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the 2021 season at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday and recorded Ford’s fifth straight win in Atlanta. Blaney became the second Ford driver to drive a Ford Mustang to victory lane this season and sixth different Cup winner in as many races.

“Congratulations to Ryan, Todd, Roger, and the No. 12 team,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Ryan and the No. 12 crew executed throughout the day and they kept digging until the final lap. Thanks to Ford Performance and their employees that continue to provide our teams the tools needed to win races.”

Blaney and the No. 12 pit crew worked together throughout the entire race to get the No. 12 in position to challenge for the lead. Blaney was able to come from more than two seconds behind to chase down the No. 5 of Kyle Larson with just eight laps to go, then took the lead with a cross over pass. Blaney was able to stretch his lead and take the checkered flag to record his fifth career NASCAR Cup Series race win.

The No. 12 Ford Performance Mustang led the race three different times for a total of 25 laps, but none more important than the last eight. This marked the 80th win for Team Penske with Ford Performance and the 180th Cup win for Roush Yates Engines.

“Gosh, we had a great long run car all day,” commented Blaney in post-race interview. “It took us a little bit to get going. I was pretty free all day, so we made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it and it looked like Kyle was getting loose and I’m happy it worked in our favor that there was a couple long runs at the end that kind of let us get there. We’ve been good this year and had some bad breaks and it’s nice to close out a race like that. That was awesome.”

Roush Fenway’s Chris Buescher drove a strong race, finishing P7 and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick recovered from an earlier race tire issue to finish P10.

Two Ford Performance teams finished in the top-10 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Riley Herbst from Stewart-Haas Racing finished P6 and Ryan Sieg from RSS Racing in P10.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the first time ever dirt track race this weekend. It’s time to sling some dirt!    33 CHAMPIONSHIPS – 416 WINS – 376 POLES!

WAVERLY, OH (March 21, 2021) – Hudson O’Neal won the Buckeye Spring 50 on Sunday Night at Atomic Speedway for his second series win of 2021. For the first time in his career, the 20-year-old Indiana native is atop the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship Point Standings. O’Neal became the third and final leader of the race after he took the lead on lap nine from Devin Moran. He held off Tim McCreadie to win by .563 seconds. Moran came home in third followed by Jonathan Davenport and Kyle Bronson. Kyle Strickler started on the pole and took the lead at the start of the race as drivers were running two and three-wide around the 3/8ths mile high-banked track. Strickler led until Moran took over the point on lap five. The top three of Moran, Strickler, and O’Neal, were putting on a spectacular race for the lead when Strickler suffered a right rear flat tire, forcing a caution flag with 19 laps complete. Strickler exited to the pits, which meant that no driver on the series tour this year has won from the pole starting spot. A caution at the halfway mark set-up a long green-flag stretch of racing for 22 laps until a lap 48 caution set up a race to the finish. O’Neal was able to break away on the restart, and that was enough to send him to Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the ninth time in his career. O’Neal has now joined Tyler Erb as the only 2-time winner so far in LOLMDS competition this season. He previously went to Lucas Oil Victory Lane at East Bay back in January. “I can’t thank these guys enough for their work on this race car. We had one of the University of Northwestern Ohio students on board with us this weekend. Thanks to my family and everybody involved with the race team. This car was awesome from the start. I know McCreadie was all over me a couple of times and all it was going to take was one mistake and he [McCreadie] would get by me.” McCreadie stayed with O’Neal and was ready to pounce if O’Neal made a mistake, but settled for the second spot. “I didn’t need the yellow at the end. It looked like he [O’Neal] got lost on the track a little bit, which happens sometimes when you are leading. I moved around and found something that was really good. His guys told him that under the caution. We passed a lot of good cars. I wish I could have been a tick better, but it’s no shame finishing second to Hudson.” Moran was in the hunt for his first series win of the season for most of the race and rounded out the podium in third. “That was a heck of a race. Congratulations to Huddy. He capitalized when I messed up and I feel like we gave that one away. Good job to those guys for winning and to Timmy for second. I feel like we need to keep our heads up and we can get a lot of wins this year.”     The winner’s Roger Sellers owned, Double Down Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Lazydays RV, O’Neal’s Salvage and Recycling, Lucas Oil Products, 210 Enterprises, and WR1 Sim Chassis. Completing the top ten were Jimmy Owens, Tyler Erb, Josh Richards, Shane Clanton, and Mike Marlar. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Buckeye Spring 50Sunday, March 21st, 2021Atomic Speedway – Waverly, OH Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Jonathan Davenport / 13.938 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Devin Moran / 14.226 seconds  Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 8-Kyle Strickler[3]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 3. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[5]; 4. C9-Steve Casebolt[2]; 5. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 6. 14G-Joe Godsey[6]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[8]; 8. 21K-Kirk Phillips[7] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[5]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice[4]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 5. 4G-Kody Evans[6]; 6. 29-Clint Keenan[7]; 7. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[2] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 4. 14-Josh Richards[4]; 5. 25-Shane Clanton[7]; 6. 71R-Rod Conley[5]; 7. 16R-Rusty Griffaw[6] Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, All Transfer): 1. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 5. 20B-Todd Brennan[7]; 6. 14R-Jeff Roth[6]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[5]

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (50 Laps):

Race StatisticsEntrants: 29Lap Leaders: Kyle Strickler (Laps 1 – 3); Devin Moran (Laps 4 – 8); Hudson O’Neal (Laps 9 – 50)Wrisco Feature Winner: Hudson O’NealArizona Sport Shirts CJC – Presented by DirtOnDirt Feature Winner: n/aBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/aMargin of Victory: 0.563 secondsCautions: Josh Rice (Lap 8); Kyle Strickler (Lap 19); Clint Keenan (Lap 25); Ricky Thornton Jr. (Lap 47); Joe Godsey (Lap 48)Series Provisionals: n/aFast Time Provisional: n/aSeries Emergency Provisionals: n/aTrack Provisionals: n/aBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Hudson O’Neal, Tim McCreadie, Devin MoranPenske Shocks Top 5: Hudson O’Neal, Tim McCreadie, Devin Moran, Jonathan Davenport, Kyle BronsonOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Jimmy Owens (Advanced 19 Positions) Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: noneHot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Hudson O’Neal (42 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Jimmy OwensEibach Springs Rookie of the Race: n/aDirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Tim McCreadie (Lap #5 – 15.158 seconds)Fast Shafts Tough Break of the Race: Ricky Thornton Jr.Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Trevor Crittenden (Hudson O’Neal)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Tim McCreadieTime of Race: 33 minutes 44 seconds

March 21, 2021

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Maytag team had their best run of the 2021 season in Sunday’s Folds of Honor/QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, coming away with an 11th place finish.

DiBenedetto lined up 20th for the start of the 325-lap race and was on the move from the drop of the green flag. He had climbed to 12th place when the competition caution flag flew on Lap 25.

He cracked the top 10 for the first time on Lap 31 and raced around 10th place for the remainder of the first 105-lap Stage, finishing that segment of the race in 12th place.
 
At the start of Stage Two, he used some bold moves on restarts to work his way into the top five and ran as high as third before finishing that segment in sixth place, earning five Stage points.

In the third and final segment of the race, he ran in the top five early on, then lost a few spots in the latter stages, finally ending up 11th at the finish. 

“We had a solid race from start to finish with our Menards/Maytag Mustang,” DiBenedetto said. “Our pit crew did a great job keeping our track position, which took some hard work on their part, and we were able to get some Stage points, which was good.

“We got a little loose at the start of the third Stage, and that may have cost us a spot or two, but we had a 10th place car pretty much all day, then gained some track position that got us further up for a while. Overall, it was a solid day. I can’t complain.”

DiBenedetto also said the No. 21 team is steadily overcoming a slow start to the season.

“It started at Las Vegas,” he said. “We had a great car there. Since then we’ve had some well-prepared cars and some good, solid races.” 

On Sunday, DiBenedetto was one of six Ford drivers, led by race winner Ryan Blaney, to finish in the top 15. Blaney’s win extended Ford’s win streak in AMS Cup races to five. 

Eddie Wood said he was proud of the efforts of the Menards/Maytag team and the entire Ford contingent.

“Matt drove a good race and did a good job managing his tires,” Wood said. “[Crew chief] Greg Erwin made good strategy calls, and the pit crew had good stops all day.

“It was a really good day for us, and we’d like to congratulate our Ford teammates Ryan Blaney and his team on a big win.”

DiBenedetto and the No. 21 team now head to Bristol Motor Speedway, where the Cup Series will race on a dirt surface for the first time since 1970.
 

Strong Sixth-Place Result For Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet Team at Atlanta Motor Speedway

6th

13th

11th

“Today was a good little step in the right direction from where we’ve been the last few weeks. Everyone on the Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet team did a great job with adjustments throughout the race. During portions of the race, I couldn’t turn the wheel on entry, so I would just go in there straight. I made up time running some very weird lines. Justin Alexander and the team kept working on it and got it pretty good in Stage 3. I found some grip in the middle of track late in the race. If I would have found that earlier, we might have been better. We’ll keep working on it.” -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Team Push Through Tough Atlanta Motor Speedway Race

26th

29th

28th

“It has been a tough start to our season, but my No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet team stuck with it today at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I got into the wall early in the race, but my team did a great job making all the necessary repairs to keep us going. I had a lot of speed after that and ran some great lap times all race long, but we were just trapped a couple laps down for the majority of the day. We made some gains on handling today, which will be important to take note of when we come back to Atlanta later this summer. I struggled with a lack of rear lateral grip early on, but the adjustments made throughout the race really helped on that issue. I still wanted to be tighter at the end of the race, but this at least gives us some good notes to build off of for July.” -Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIES ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOLDS OF HONOR QUICKTRIP 500 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES MARCH 21, 2021

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER2nd     KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE 3rd     ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE6th      AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE8th      WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE12th    RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Ryan Blaney (Ford)2nd     Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)3rd     Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)4th      Denny Hamlin (Toyota)5th      Kyle Busch (Toyota)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City Dirt Race on Sunday, March 28, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.  TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2ndYOU WON TWO STAGES, LED 268 LAPS – WHAT A PERFORMANCE TODAY. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHERE YOUR CAR WENT THAT LAST RUN WHEN (RYAN) BLANEY WAS CLOSING?“I don’t know – I think he just got a lot better there that last Stage and it kind of changed up my flow of the race a little bit. I could get out to such a big lead and then I could take care of my stuff; and run the bottom, where it was maybe slower, but I could take care of my tires. He was fast there and I just wanted to maintain that gap that I had, so I had to run in the faster part of the racetrack and just use my stuff up. And then, he was just a lot better than me there late in the run.”
“Hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but we had a really good car that we brought to the track. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast there for a long time. I don’t really know; I don’t know if we got that much worse or he just got way better and, like I said, it just kind of changed up the flow of my race.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 3rd A STRONG THIRD-PLACE FINISH. IT SEEMED LIKE A PRETTY QUIET DAY; YOU WERE ALWAYS UP TOWARDS THE FRONT.“Yeah, for sure. It was a good day to come home third. Obviously wish the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) would have won there, but I’m proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports continually bringing really fast race cars to the race track. I feel like our Ally Camaro was pretty good. It was just a little bit off on the long-run stuff. But finally, a day where nothing bad happened. We’ll take a good solid day, a solid top-three, and move onto Bristol.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 6th“Today was a good little step in the right direction from where we’ve been the last few weeks. Everyone on the Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet team did a great job with adjustments throughout the race. During portions of the race, I couldn’t turn the wheel on entry, so I would just go in there straight. I made up time running some very weird lines. Justin Alexander and the team kept working on it and got it pretty good in Stage 3. I found some grip in the middle of track late in the race. If I would have found that earlier, we might have been better. We’ll keep working on it.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“Decent day for the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet team. We were up around the top-five for most of the day and just had a bad final run; a bad restart got us back there and we just never could really recover. We managed an eighth-place, which is decent, but definitely want a lot more than that. We’ll go to work and figure out where we can improve so we can get better for the next one.”  RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th “It was a really solid day for our No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet team at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Our biggest thing this season is to be consistent, and bringing home a fourth top-15 finish accomplishes that goal and it’s great to see us achieving that so early in the season. I had the speeding penalty early in the race, but our car had enough speed that we were able to keep working on it throughout the long runs and get back inside the top-10 and top-15. Something we’ve been working on is to keep hammering each week and not get stagnant in what we’re doing, and having this momentum heading into the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race is a huge advantage and I’m really looking forward to it.” ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 TUBI TV CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th “Fourteenth – it’s progress. This No. 42 Tubi TV Camaro was good. We got it freed up, finally, part-way through the race. We got our lap back and just ran fast lap times there at the end. We passed some really good cars and made some really good progress. We’ve made progress in the last two stops with Phoenix (Raceway). As crazy as it sounds, for me, it’s translated in the direction we’re going. It seems to be better for me.”
“I can’t thank all the boys and girls at Chip Ganassi Racing enough. They’re believing in me, even when I didn’t necessarily believe in myself. We were the last car on the lead lap. Fourteenth – good, long 500-miles at Atlanta (Motor Speedway). Proud of the effort; a lot of pit stops. Onto Bristol.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 17thYOU HAVE TO BE ENCOURAGED WITH HOW YOU RAN FOR MOST OF THE DAY“Yeah, it was good. I’m very proud of everyone in this group. They work very, very hard. They build a very fast car. It was a car capable of finishing in the Top 10, that’s for sure. I made a mistake on my part that kind of got us out of contention. But it’s something very good to build on.” YOUR FILL-IN CREW CHIEF, JOSE BLASCO-FIGUEROA, DID A GREAT JOB AND HE’S HAD A LOT OF EXPERIENCE IN THE NASCAR MEXICAN SERIES, CORRECT?“Yeah, he was good. Jose and I already know each other. So, it was good to have Jose today on the box, although we do miss Travis (Mack). Travis is very, very good and he already knows me. This was the first time ever working with Jose making the calls. I feel like, overall, it was a positive day. It’s just not the result that we deserve.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 PETTY’S GARAGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 24th “Just not a great day for the Petty’s Garage Chevrolet. Struggled with the speed for the most part and never got it much better. Learn from it and we’ll focus on Bristol (Motor Speedway) for next week.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 26th “It has been a tough start to our season, but my No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet team stuck with it today at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I got into the wall early in the race, but my team did a great job making all the necessary repairs to keep us going. I had a lot of speed after that and ran some great lap times all race long, but we were just trapped a couple laps down for the majority of the day. We made some gains on handling today, which will be important to take note of when we come back to Atlanta later this summer. I struggled with a lack of rear lateral grip early on, but the adjustments made throughout the race really helped on that issue. I still wanted to be tighter at the end of the race, but this at least gives us some good notes to build off of for July.” CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined with mechanical failure on lap 220; Finished 38th IT’S BEEN ONE OF THOSE DAYS FOR CHASE ELLIOTT. YOU GUYS JUST REPAIRED THE NOSE AND THEN, BOOM, THIS PROBLEM. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE HAPPENED?“Yeah, obviously we broke a motor there later on. We got some damage there on that restart. Kyle (Busch) kind of spun his tires and then I was pushing him and Kurt (Busch) was pushing me. We all just really jammed together hard and ended up hurting the nose some. So, I don’t know if that had something to do with breaking the engine or not.”“I hate it, for sure. I feel like our car was pretty decent. We drove up there – we got up to tenth, or so, at the Stage. I felt like we were in a decent position to work on it throughout the day. I appreciate all the effort. It’s great to be home in Georgia; home for me and home for NAPA Auto Parts. I wish we could have had a good result, but we’ll try again at Bristol.” KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 112; Finished 39th WAS IT JUST A PRODUCT OF WHEELSPIN AND GUYS HAVING TROUBLE GETTING GOING ON THE RESTART? “Yeah, I think the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) was the outside-lead car. The No. 9 (Chase Elliott) kind of checked-up, too. I checked up; the No. 17 (Chris Buescher) hit us from behind. It was just the accordion effect and then I jumped to the middle. I’m like ‘I’m here’; I positioned myself. It wasn’t like I re-arranged my lanes and made another block.”
“He didn’t do anything vicious or malicious there. It’s a 500-miler and these are the days that it hurts the worst. This absolutely hurts the worst because we had a top-five, winning, Monster Energy Chevy.”  

TWO-STEPPIN’: Brad Sweet Scores Second Win of Season at Cotton BowlJacob Allen Flips While Leading in Pursuit of Second Career WinPAIGE, TX – March 20, 2021 – Brad Sweet has made his mindset on World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championships very clear: win races, and the points will fall your way.On Saturday night at Cotton Bowl Speedway, Sweet got back to his winning ways with his 60th career victory and his second of the season aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49.The Big Cat led 28 of 30 laps and cruised to a 1.087-second advantage at the checkered flag. He joined Sheldon Haudenschild as the only two repeat winners of the 2021 World of Outlaws season through the opening eight races.”It’s pretty cool,” Sweet acknowledged on his 60th career win. “They’ve all come with Kasey Kahne Racing too, and we’ve got Kasey here with us tonight. I can’t thank him enough for the opportunity he’s given us. It’s been a fun ride so far, but it’s far from over. It’s always fun getting back in victory lane. These guys have been sticking by my side even through all my mistakes of late.”Sweet himself, however, admitted he didn’t feel like the #49 was the car to beat on Saturday. He thought that honor belonged to Jacob Allen of Shark Racing, who looked poised for a second career win in the Drydene Texas Two-Step pres. by American Lube Suppy.Pacing the opening 10 laps, Sweet was in command of the race lead until lap traffic halted his progress and allowed a hard charging Jacob Allen to close quickly. Taking advantage of the back markers, Allen picked off Sweet and took the Drydene Performance Products #1A to the top spot on Lap 11. He controlled two circuits before a mistake entering turn one sent him into the wall, flipping upside down, and eventually on fire.The lovable Hanover, PA native was heartbroken, dejected, and upset with himself, but he still won over all the fans in attendance and those watching at home on DIRTVision.”I stepped on it, that’s what I did,” Allen admitted. “The car felt phenomenal, I just screwed it up. There’s no need for that. That’s immature racing. I need to take a chill pill and finish these races to get myself a win. I’m racing with one of the very best in Brad Sweet and I need to capitalize, not end up on my lid.”Lap 12 offered the final restart of the race and Sweet promptly used the high-side to his advantage and checked out. Another bout with lap traffic made it interesting on Lap 19, but the two-time and defending Series champion prevailed and survived to run off with his second career win at the Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige, TX.”We’ve been knocking on the door lately,” Sweet spoke on his strings of five-straight podiums. “I think Jake had the better car there, but he just made that mistake in lap traffic. It shows us we’ve still got to get a little bit better. I still fought some things with the car that I’d like to get fixed.”Brent Marks of Myerstown, PA finished a season-high second aboard his CJB Motorsports #5.”We just needed lap traffic,” Marks mentioned, who almost snookered Sweet in traffic with ten to go. “We got too tight there at the end and I couldn’t run turns one and two like I needed to. All in all, a really great night. We’ve been struggling these last few races, so we needed this run. Make the 20+ hour drive back home a lot easier.”After a disappointing Friday night in the Last Chance Showdown, Cory Eliason and the Rudeen Racing #26 rebounded in a big way on Saturday with their second podium finish of the season.”After our embarrassment last night we changed a lot off things and got way better tonight. Things really went our way tonight except for that double file restart. A podium for this team is awesome to get our sponsors the exposure they deserve.”Closing out the top five at Cotton Bowl was David Gravel aboard the Big Game Motorsports #2 with a 12th-to-fifth run and Friday’s winner Sheldon Haudenschild in the Stenhouse Jr. Marshall Racing #17.Rounding out the top ten was Logan Schuchart of Hanover, PA, Donny Schatz of Fargo, ND, Aaron Reutzel of Clute, TX, Brock Zearfoss of Jonestown, PA, and James McFadden of Alice Springs, N.T., AUS.UP NEXT – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series heads off to Missouri for a Show-Me State doubleheader next weekend. On Friday, March 26, US-36 Raceway in Osborn, MO takes the spotlight. On Saturday, March 27, the Series heads to Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, MO for the $15,000/Win Jason Johnson Classic.NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps) – 1. 49-Brad Sweet [2][$10,000]; 2. 5-Brent Marks [4][$6,000]; 3. 26-Cory Eliason [1][$3,500]; 4. 2-David Gravel [12][$2,800]; 5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [5][$2,500]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart [9][$2,300]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz [13][$2,200]; 8. 83-Aaron Reutzel [14][$2,100]; 9. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [6][$2,050]; 10. 9-James McFadden [7][$2,000]; 11. 41-Carson Macedo [11][$1,600]; 12. 2C-Wayne Johnson [23][$1,400]; 13. 11-Ian Madsen [16][$1,200]; 14. 19-Parker Price-Miller [22][$1,100]; 15. 18-Gio Scelzi [8][$1,050]; 16. 21-Brian Brown [10][$1,000]; 17. 11K-Kraig Kinser [18][$1,000]; 18. 7S-Jason Sides [15][$1,000]; 19. 2B-Josh Baughman [17][$1,000]; 20. 8M-TJ Michael [19][$1,000]; 21. 33M-Mason Daniel [20][$1,000]; 22. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [21][$1,000]; 23. 42P-Preston Perlmutter [24][$1,000]; 24. 99X-Dalton Stevens [25][$1,000]; 25. 1A-Jacob Allen [3][$1,000]. Lap Leaders:Brad Sweet 1-10, 13-30; Jacob Allen 11-12. KSE Hard Charger Award: 2C-Wayne Johnson[+11]Photo – Trent Gower

(3/20/21) Jim Allen, Stockton, CA … Defending NARC King of the West Fujitsu Sprint Car Serieschampion DJ Netto took no prisoners on his way to a dominating green-to-checkered victory at Saturday’s Salute to LeRoy Van Conett 30-lap headliner at the Stockton Dirt Track.

Netto, piloting the potent Netto Ag/Penny Newman Grain KPC, started on the pole after winning the Sunnyvalley Bacon dash and quickly jumped to a straightaway lead over Dominic Scelzi, Mitchell Faccinto and Rico Abreu.  Netto encountered lap traffic five laps into the event but had absolutely no problems motoring in and out of slower cars.  By lap 12, he had already built up a four-lapped car interference, only to lose the advantage when the first of three caution flags appeared a circuit later for a stopped car.

On the restart, Netto quickly motored to the lead as Scelzi fought handling issues caused by a broken front wing and a pressing Abreu.  Abreu managed to move into the runner-up spot after a lap 21 restart but gained little ground on the leader until the final caution flag appeared with only three laps remaining.  However, at that point, Netto had no peer and cruised to a .846 second victory.

Abreu, who set the standard for the 23-car field in ARP qualifying, scored second aboard the Works Limited/Lucas Oil #57 sprint car.  Scelzi held on to a solid third in the Scelzi Enterprises Maxim.  Seventh started Shane Golobic was fourth, chased by Iowa driver Austin McCarl.

Netto credited his fourth career series to victory to his family and Drew Warner.  It ended a NARC King of the West winless streak dating back to June 24th, 2017 at Calistoga Speedway.

“Drew gave me a car that I could run anywhere I wanted,” said Netto.  “Lapped traffic wasn’t an issue and I did my job to get us here.”

The remainder of the top ten included Faccinto, Bud Kaeding, Tim Kaeding, Geoff Ensign, and Sean Becker.  Justin Sanders captured the Swift Metal Finishing Hardcharger Award with a 19th to 11th run.

Heat races were picked off by Golobic, Faccinto, and Becker.

FUJITSU FEATURE EVENT (30-laps):   88N-DJ Netto (Netto 88N), 57-Rico Abreu, 41-Dominic Scelzi, 17W-Shane Golobic, 21-Austin McCarl, 37-Mitchell Faccinto, 69-Bud Kaeding, 42X-Tim Kaeding, 01-Geoff Ensign, 83V-Sean Becker, 16A-Justin Sanders, 38B-Blake Carrick, 26-Billy Aton, 56-Willie Croft, 98-Sean Watts, 01X-Mitchell Moles, 14T-Tim Estenson, 76-Kenny Allen, 78-Mark Barroso, 88-Kyle Offill, 83-Kyle Hirst, 83T-Tanner Carrick, 46JR-Joel Myers Jr.

HOOSIER TIRE LAP LEADERS:  DJ Netto 1-30

SWIFT METAL FINISHING HARDCHARGER:  Justin Sanders: 19th to 11th

ARP FAST QUALIFIER :   Rico Abreu – 14.364 seconds (23-cars)

BROWN & MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS FIRST HEAT (8 laps):   Shane Golobic, DJ Netto, Dominic Scelzi, Rico Abreu, Billy Aton, Tanner Carrick, Willie Croft, Kenny Allen.

FUJITSU GENERAL USA SECOND HEAT (8 laps):   Mitchell Faccinto, Tim Kaeding, Kyle Hirst, Austin McCarl, Bud Kaeding, Justin Sanders, Joe Myer Jr.

FLORACING.COM THIRD HEAT (8 laps):  Sean Becker, Geoff Ensign, Sean Watts, Blake Carrick, Kyle Offill, Tim Estenson, Mark Barroso, Mitchell Moles.

SUNNYVALLEY BACON DASH (6 laps):  DJ Netto, Dominic Scelzi, Geoff Ensign, Mitchell Faccinto, Rico Abreu, Sean Becker.

Acura, Meyer Shank Racing scored third-place result at Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring
Wayne Taylor Racing perseveres mid-race contact, brings their Acura ARX-05 home fourth
Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT-3 also survives contact, finishes fourth in GTD

SEBRING, Fla. (March 20, 2021) – In a typically fraught and hard-fought Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, it was the Meyer Shank Racing trio of Dane Cameron, Olivier Pla and Juan Pablo Montoya leading the way for Acura at Sebring International Raceway, finishing third in their AutoNation/SiriusXM Acura ARX-05.

Today’s race was marked by multiple incidents and a trio of heavy crashes, but all without serious driver injury. When the green flag waved for the final restart with just under 30 minutes remaining, Cameron powered his Acura past the similar ARX-05 of Wayne Taylor Racing to claim third place and the first podium result for Meyer Shank Racing since the team returned to prototype competition after back-to-back GTD championships for Acura in 2019-20.

Earlier in the day, Wayne Taylor Racing appeared to be in contention for a second consecutive 2021 victory, but the season-opening Rolex 24 race winners Sebring hopes were dashed – four hours into the 12-hour contest – by contact with a GTD car, resulting in damage and a loss of coolant in the right-side intercooler of the ARX-05. The driver lineup of Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor and Alexander Rossi persevered despite the resulting loss of power, and their fourth place finish keeps them in the thick of the DPi championship battle.

Acura NSX GT3 Evo
In the production-based GTD division, the Magnus with Archangel’s NSX GT3 Evo driven by Andy Lally, John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly had a steady run through the first seven hours, then picked up pace as the circuit cooled in the later afternoon and into the night, beginning a long battle with the Porsche of Team Hardpoint-EBM for a possible podium result. In the final minutes, while fighting for third place, Katherine Legge in the Porsche made contact with Lally’s Acura, sending the NSX briefly off track and resulting in a fourth-place finish. Legge would finish fifth after being penalized for the contact.

Acura Rolex 24 Results
3rd overall – #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
Drivers Dane Cameron, Olivier Pla, Juan Pablo Montoya
4th overall – #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
Drivers Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi
4th GTD – Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo
Drivers Andy Lally, John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly

DPi Manufacturers’ Championship (unofficial, after 2 of 10 rounds)

1. Cadillac 740
2. Acura 712
3. Mazda 682

Acura Rolex 24 Fast Facts
Acura Motorsports and its performance arm, Honda Performance Development, have recorded a total of eight victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring, including three class wins for Acura, four LMP2 class wins under the HPD umbrella, and an overall win in 2016.
Tonight’s third-place result was the second consecutive podium finish for Acura at Sebring. Acura and drivers Taylor and Helio Castroneves secured the 2021 IMSA DPi championship here last November when, due to schedule changes as a result of the COVID pandemic, the Twelve Hours of Sebring served as the season finale.
Acura first entered IMSA competition in 1991, shortly after the company’s founding in 1986, and the 1991 Daytona race was the first major event for the company. Comptech Racing and drivers Parker Johnstone, Steve Cameron [uncle of current Acura racer Dane Cameron] and Bob Lesnett, driving a Spice Acura SE90P, claimed the victory that year in a class that compares to today’s LMP2 division.

Quotes
Dane Cameron (#60 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05) finished 3rd with co-drivers Olivier Pla and Juan Pablo Montoya: “There always seems to be a final lap ‘shootout’ under the lights at Sebring, and tonight was no exception. I had a good final restart and made up a position. But we were just a little bit off on the balance all race, and in the end didn’t have quite enough [for the victory]. We were kind of hanging on, so I think we got the most out of what we had in terms of pace, and the team did a really good job all day, really good strategy and quick pit stops throughout so, we made some good strides and it’s nice to get a podium here for Acura and Meyer Shank Racing in their return to prototypes.”

Ricky Taylor (#10 Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05) finished fourth with co-drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Alexander Rossi: “It was really looking like a good day until the damage we had [following contact with a GTD car]. I think the whole Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing team did a really nice job preparing the car with the end of the race in mind. Man, the car was handling so well at the end, it’s just a shame with the damage we sustained, we were fighting without a full-powered Acura after [the contact]. The bright side is we took away some decent [championship] points [for finishing fourth], and a lot of our main rivals were behind us. On that note, we can go back to Mid-Ohio, for Acura’s home-town race and try and go four-for-four for Acura.” [Acura teams and drivers have won the last three Acura Sports Car Challenge events at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.]

John Potter (#44 Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo) finished 4th in GTD with co-drivers Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly: “You know, we’re feeling great! We came here knowing that this track hasn’t always been favorable for the Acura NSX GT3, so we’re really excited to show the consistency this car has, to bring home a fourth-place finish, and survive all the carnage that claimed a lot of our competitors today. We were expecting just a ‘points-paying’ finish, but we got some really good championship points, so we’re really happy.”

David Salters (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s race at Sebring: “I guess it’s a good thing to be disappointed with third- and fourth-place results. But the competition at this level is so tight, that you have to have a perfect day to win. It was an exciting race at the end for the fans, and we’re pleased to see Acura take another podium in DPi here, and contest for a podium in GTD. It was a tricky race, in constantly changing conditions that presented a variety of challenges for our teams. Our teams and drivers gave it their all, as always, and even though we had some problems with contact in both classes, delivered the best possible results on the day.”

Next
After starting the 2021 season with a pair of endurance contests in Florida, the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship now takes an eight-week break before resuming with the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio, May 14-16 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

SEBRING, Fla. (March 20, 2021) – Corvette Racing ended an up-and-down day with fourth- and fifth-place class finishes in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts. Both Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs faced adversity throughout, and the team nearly won for the 13th time at Sebring International Raceway.  The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C8.R of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg placed fourth in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category after leading much of the day in the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Garcia began on the class pole position, and the trio controlled from the outset and led 211 of 334 laps. After winning the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, the No. 3 Corvette team appeared on its way to a Florida sweep before Garcia was spun from the lead with less than 10 minutes remaining. On the opposite side of the Corvette garage, the No. 4 Corvette C8.R trio of Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims had a day to forget. Beginning the race second in GTLM, the No. 4 C8.R developed an electrical problem from the outset that hampered the Corvette’s performance. Milner, Tandy and Sims – who finished second in GTLM at Daytona – were fifth in class Saturday at Sebring. Despite a couple of mid-race setbacks, the Garcia/Taylor/Catsburg trio re-established themselves as the race entered twilight with a mix of fuel savings and solid strategy. A fortunate pit stop before a full-course caution period with less than two hours to go allowed the No. 3 Corvette to take the lead, although never by more than three seconds. Garcia drove the final 2.5 hours and attempted to work his way through traffic when he was forcefully hit under braking by the second-place GTLM car and sent spinning out of the hairpin Turn 7.  The front-left of the C8.R was damaged, and Garcia had to pit with a flat tire. The damage was too great, and the No. 3 Corvette missed the podium.  The outcome spoiled a weekend in which Corvette Racing and Chevrolet celebrated a 25-year technology partnership with Mobil 1. Both of the Corvette C8.Rs sported liveries that matched the Mobil 1 brand. Corvette Racing’s next event is the Six Hours of Spa in the FIA World Endurance Championship on May 1.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FOURTH IN GTLM: “I don’t know what to say. I’m definitely disappointed in the whole situation. It was a very hard race for all of us. We managed to be up there, and with two stints to go we were both going flat-out. It definitely was between them (the No. 25) and us. Up to that point, it was fair. The whole thing was good. He was pushing hard, and I was pushing as hard as I could. I think we put on a good show but I’m disappointed with the way it ended. I’m sure we would have been super happy to bring home a real result. It’s a tough break, especially after such a long race. I’m disappointed for the guys, for Corvette, for Team Chevy and the fans. We all deserved a little bit better. We will just move on. My next stop is Spa and I’m looking forward to that and the rest of the season. Thank you to Jordan and Nicky… it’s just a tough break.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FOURTH IN GTLM: “It’s definitely a tough end to the day. We came back from some adversity mid-race which is good and got back in the race with strategy and good fuel mileage for the last few hours. We were able to jump everybody in the pits on that last yellow stop which was great. Then Antonio was able to build a small gap and maintain it. Unfortunately the race ended the way it did. But at least we were competitive. When we were here for the 12 Hours last year, we had our own issues we had to deal with. So taking some positives away, we ran a flawless race reliability-wise for our car with no issues, so I think that is one promising thing we can leave here with and only hope for better next time.”

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FOURTH IN GTLM: “It was crazy… up and down. We went from in the lead to being almost last to being in the lead and then being fourth. Honestly, there were too many mistakes from our side but we recovered and did really well. The Corvette held up really well even after my spin; the car was still in good shape. We managed to get back with good strategy and good pace. Then it looked like we were going for the win… we had the right man at the right moment in the car. This is typical Sebring, though. You see the same thing in Sebring every year. You win some and you lose some. This was very unfortunate, a bit of a divebomb from the 25. These things happen. We need to regroup, learn from the mistakes we made and try to improve for the next race.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIFTH IN GTLM: “Frustrating is probably the best word to describe it. It was a bit of a waste of a race for us unfortunately. I felt something wrong pretty much at the start and we were low on power. We drove the entire 12 hours like that. While I was out there, I didn’t know what was wrong and why we couldn’t fix it. I don’t know those answers. So yeah… it was pretty frustrating.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIFTH IN GTLM: “Obviously it was a tough race for the whole team. On the No. 4 side of the garage, to know we were going into the battle with one hand tied behind our back right from the very beginning was tough, but there was optimism. The guys did everything possible to try and figure out and resolve the issue. But in the end we took the view that it would be better to carry on and try to pick up pieces if anything happened rather than take time out and spend a lot of time in the garage. I’m proud of the people for the work they put in trying to get the car to the end. We accomplished that. It goes to show the vagaries of motorsports from the highs of Daytona to the lows of Sebring. This is how motorsport is sometimes.”

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIFTH IN GTLM: “It was a tough day for everyone on the whole team. Certainly on the 4 car, it was a long day. It was quite clear very quickly that we were going to be up against it to get anything from the race. We went into it seeing what we could salvage, and in the end we couldn’t salvage much. From a personal point of view, it was good to get more miles in the Corvette. I found a decent amount of performance in myself between first stint and second stint in the car. It was helpful to keep gaining miles. In practices this weekend, you only get 10 or 12 laps before the race starts, and that’s just not enough to get back into it. That’s the biggest positive from my side.”

Myatt Snider And The TaxSlayer Chevrolet Team Earn 11th-Place Finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway

11th

9th

7th

“We had a fast TaxSlayer Camaro all day. We had a little bit of an awkward race, getting shuffled around with track position. Our pit box spot was difficult with getting in and out, but the RCR guys did an amazing job posting fast times each stop. We just overall struggled to get forward, which is part of me still learning the track. We did our best to slay it and learned a lot to bring back next time here in the summer.”  -Myatt Snider

Haudenschild and NOS Energy Drink #17 are First Repeat Winners of Season

PAIGE, TX – March 19, 2021 – Much like his legendary father Jac Haudenschild, young Sheldon Haudenschild is continuing to thrill fans nationwide in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.

His latest act came in Friday’s opener to the Drydene Texas Two-Step pres. by American Lube Supply at Cotton Bowl Speedway.

Coming from sixth, Haudenschild braved the outside and bolted to the cushion at a time when his competitors were glued to the bottom. His risk paid off in a big way as the Wooster, OH native rocketed to the lead on Lap 25 and made his moves around Aaron Reutzel and Brad Sweet look like a breeze. The final 11 laps flew by as the 27-year-old star sliced and diced his way through a tricky run of lap traffic that included several close calls.

By topping his counterparts for the second-straight week, Haudenschild becomes the first repeat winner of the 2021 season. It’s his 16th career World of Outlaws win and continues to send the confidence of the Stenhouse Jr. Marshall Racing #17 through the roof.

“Winning these [Outlaw] races is a dream come true,” Haudenschild told a huge crowd in Paige, TX. “This NOS Energy Drink car is on rails right now. These guys Ripper, Drew, Nickolas, they all deserve these wins. We’re working real hard and the results just keep coming.”

Before Haudenschild wowed the crowd, Reutzel of Clute, TX was the talk of town. In his home state for the first time as a full-time World of Outlaws driver, Reutzel and the Roth Motorsports #83 looked unstoppable for much of Friday’s act at the Cotton Bowl 1/3-mile.

Reutzel, the leading Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year contender, set a New Track Record (13.356 seconds), won his Team Drydene Heat Race, drew the pole of the redraw, and won the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash all ahead of the 35-lap NOS Energy Drink Feature. He led the opening 12 laps before a restart allowed Sweet to lineup alongside him, and subsequently pass him around the outside.

Sweet ensued to lead his own share of 12 laps before Reutzel re-entered the picture and Haudenschild emerged to make it a three-way war the top spot. On Lap 25, Haudenschild followed Sweet down the backstretch but refused to follow the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49 to the bottom of turn three. Instead, he hauled it off into the corner and buried it deep into the cushion, finding the momentum and sweeping right around the outside of Sweet to take the lead away.

From there, Lil Haud maneuvered through lap traffic and ran off to a 0.571-second advantage at the checkered flag as he became the first repeat winner of the 2021 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car season.

“Ripper and I really haven’t had a lot of time together with this car,” Haudenschild noted on their hot streak. “Getting to work with him and the guys on developing a good base line setup for when we show up has helped a lot. Starting up front is huge too, you’re not gonna beat those guys starting behind them every night. We’ve been working on our qualifying too. We’re just making little strides everywhere. It’s great to be winning like this so early in the season.”

Closing out the podium behind Haudenschild was a dejected Aaron Reutzel in second and a consistent Brad Sweet in third.

“I’m actually really disappointed,” Reutzel said afterwards. “I just did a shitty job driving and you have to be a better driver to win these races. Car was fantastic, I think it was the winning car. These are hard to win. You have to run 35 perfect laps and I didn’t do that tonight. It’s good to get back on the podium after last weekend, though.”

Sweet, the two-time and defending World of Outlaws champion, re-claimed the early-season points lead with his fourth-straight podium appearance.

“The driver just needs to step up there,” Sweet admitted on his loss of the lead. “I knew I needed to move up, especially when you’re going that slow on the bottom. The top just didn’t look like it was there, though. I was trapped and got going slow, so I knew someone would find something. Didn’t surprise me when it was Sheldon that drove around me. I tried to keep up, but he was just a little better tonight.”

Ian Madsen recorded a season-high fourth-place finish in the McGhee #11. Donny Schatz earned his fifth consecutive top-five finish aboard the Tony Stewart Racing #15.

Gio Scelzi and KCP Racing recovered with a sixth-place finish, Kraig Kinser established a new season-best of seventh-place, James McFadden made his 2021 debut in the Kasey Kahne Racing #9 with an eighth-placed run, David Gravel put the Big Game Motorsports #2 in ninth-place, and Logan Schuchart extended his streak to seven top-tens in seven races with a tenth-place bid for the Drydene Performance Products #1S.

The perseverance of Jason Johnson Racing paid dividends with KSE Hard Charger honors for a 24th-to-13th run in the feature from Carson Macedo. It was a wild night to get to said result. The #41 was solid in qualifying and won a Team Drydene Heat Race, but a wicked flip in the Dash forced them to a backup car. Macedo flipped again on Lap six of the feature, but the never-say-die attitude in the work area led him back on track and allowed him to rise through the field again.

UP NEXT – The Drydene Texas Two-Step pres. by American Lube Supply wraps up on Saturday night at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige, TX. You can watch the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series event LIVE on DIRTVision.

NOS Energy Drink Feature (35 Laps) – 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [6][$10,000]; 2. 83-Aaron Reutzel [1][$5,500]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [2][$3,200]; 4. 11-Ian Madsen [3][$2,600]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz [10][$2,350]; 6. 18-Gio Scelzi [9][$2,150]; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser [8][$2,100]; 8. 9-James McFadden [15][$1,950]; 9. 2-David Gravel [7][$1,900]; 10. 1S-Logan Schuchart [16][$1,850]; 11. 21-Brian Brown [5][$1,400]; 12. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [22][$1,200]; 13. 41-Carson Macedo [24][$1,000]; 14. 7S-Jason Sides [11][$950]; 15. 15H-Sam Hafertepe [12][$900]; 16. 8M-TJ Michael [21][$900]; 17. 26-Cory Eliason [18][$900]; 18. 5-Brent Marks [13][$900]; 19. 33M-Mason Daniel [20][$900]; 20. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [17][$900]; 21. 19-Parker Price-Miller [14][$900]; 22. 1A-Jacob Allen [4][$900]; 23. 2B-Josh Baughman [23][$900]; 24. 2C-Wayne Johnson [19][$900]. Lap Leaders: Aaron Reutzel 1-12, Brad Sweet 13-24, Sheldon Haudenschild 25-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: Carson Macedo [+11]

NEW World of Outlaws Point Standings — 1. Brad Sweet (998); 2. Logan Schuchart (-12); 3. Donny Schatz (-24); 4. David Gravel (-30); 5. Sheldon Haudenschild (-46); 6. Carson Macedo (-58); 7. Aaron Reutzel (-62); 8. Cory Eliason (-80); 9. Kraig Kinser (-128); 10. Gio Scelzi (-130).

Photo – Trent Gower

LA Honda World Racing’s Mike LaMarra and Mat Pombo fight to finish second
Back-to-back poles for Atlanta Speedwerks
VGMC shows pace, perseveres following penalties in the two-hour race

SEBRING, Fla. (March 19, 2021) – It was a welcome return to the podium for the #73 LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R TCR pair of Mike LaMarra and Mat Pombo in today’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race from Sebring International Raceway.

Starting third in the Alan Jay Automotive Network 120, LaMarra moved into second at the start of the two-hour contest. Pushing hard during his stint, but keeping his nose clean, LaMarra handed the #73 Honda over to co-driver Pombo under yellow, just after the halfway mark of the event.

Pombo restarted sixth and was able to make his way through to second position in the closing stages of the contest. Pombo closed the gap to within a half second of the leader, challenging for the win before GS class traffic interfered with his passing attempts in the final laps. The LA Honda World team would cross the line in just one and a half seconds behind the TCR class winner, marking the second consecutive second place finish for Honda in IMPC competition.

Starting from pole, the first third of the race was dominated by the #84 Atlanta Speedwerks car, driven by Brian Henderson. Henderson maintained control of the field from the drop of the green flag until a brake line issue ultimately ended his, and teammate Robert Noaker’s, day early.

The sister Atlanta Speedwerks car stormed to a seventh-place finish in today’s event, after starting in 14th place. Ryan Eversley and Greg Strelzoff made the most of traffic and pit strategy, as well as a fast pit crew, to catapult themselves well into the top 10.

Rounding out the quartet of Honda Civic Type R TCRs was VGMC Racing, who came home with an 11th place result. Struggling with a throttle issue in qualifying, the VGMC team of Victor Gonzalez and Ruben Iglesias overcame their issue and at one point was the fastest TCR car on track. They made their way up to the top five before a pair of penalties dropped them back in the field.

Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 Race Results
2nd TCR – #73 Mat Pombo and Mike LaMarra, LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R TCR
7th TCR – #94 Ryan Eversley and Greg Strelzoff, Atlanta Speedwerks Honda Civic Type R TCR
11th TCR – #88 Victor Gonzalez and Ruben Iglesias, VGMC Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR
15th TCR – #84 Robert Noaker and Brian Henderson, Atlanta Speedwerks Honda Civic Type R TCR – not running

Quotes
Mike LaMarra (#73 LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R TCR), finished second: “It was great! We finally got the car handling better than we have before. We had a really strong engine, thanks to JAS and HPD this weekend, and it was fun out there! The team did a great job, Mat, of course, did a great job, we just needed a few more things to fall our way [to win]. Those didn’t happen, but we’re still incredibly happy to be here on the podium.”

Mat Pombo (#73 LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R TCR), finished second: “To be able to race and be up front and have a competitive car feels like a long time coming. Especially at Sebring – which is probably not one of our best track. To do well here is always exciting for the future and the next few races. I have to thank LA Honda World, HPD, JAS. They sent a motor over to do some testing with and flew over from Europe to help us troubleshoot some stuff. It was really a whole Honda team effort today. Mike drove a great stint. As he said, a couple of lapped cars at the end ended up hurting me instead of the [the leader]. I don’t know if I could have passed [the winning Road Shagger entry] without the help, but they didn’t make any mistakes so congratulations to the #61 guys. But, we feel really excited going into the next few races so hopefully we can get up on the top step here soon!”

Front Row Start for Acura at Sebring
Ricky Taylor, Wayne Taylor Racing qualifies second for Acura
Olivier Pla to start fourth in his Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05
John Potter, Andy Lally to start 13th in their Acura NSX GT3 Evo

SEBRING, Fla. (March 19, 2021) – Defending IMSA series champion and Rolex 24 winner Ricky Taylor secured a front-row start for Acura today at Sebring International Raceway for Saturday’s Mobil-1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, qualifying second fastest in his Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05.

The 15-minute session, to set the starting field for this weekend’s endurance classic, saw Olivier Pla also have a strong run, posting the fifth-fastest time in his Sirius XM Meyer Shank Racing Acura prototype, just a second off the pole around the nearly four-mile long Sebring circuit.

In the production-based GTD category, John Potter qualifying his Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo 11th; and will share driving duties tomorrow with Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly.

Twelve Hours of Sebring Qualifying Results
2nd overall – #10 Ricky Taylor, Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
5th overall – #60 Olivier Pla, Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
11th GTD – #44 John Potter, Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo

Quotes
Ricky Taylor (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing ARX-05) qualified 2nd; race co-drivers will include Filipe Albuquerque and Alexander Rossi: “Really happy with our Konica Minolta Acura. Everyone on the team has been working really hard since [the season opening race at] Daytona. Alex [Rossi] and Filipe [Albuquerque] are both really fast as well. Our plan for tomorrow is to really start to put the pressure on as we approach the night time and the track cools down. We’re really looking forward to a good race.”

Olivier Pla (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05): Qualified 5th; co-drivers will be Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya: “We worked a lot on the car balance yesterday. With good balance, we will be in a better position for the end of the race tomorrow. Our qualifying session was difficult and we aren’t in the position that we wanted to be, but now it is time to focus ahead on the race. The Meyer Shank Racing team will get the car setup for tomorrow so that we can race through the field and be in the front in the last few hours.”

David Salters (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s qualifying: “A reasonable day at Sebring, fighting for pole, the difference [0.110 seconds] is about as close as it gets in sports car racing. Well done to Ricky [Taylor] and the Wayne Taylor Racing organization, maintaining their momentum from the victory at the [season-opening] Daytona race. Looking forward to another great race tomorrow from our teams, all of whom know how to race well here, and another demonstration of Acura’s performance on track.”

Fast Facts
Acura comes to this year’s Twelve Hours of Sebring as two-time defending IMSA Manufacturers’ Champion in the premier DPi category with the Acura ARX-05 prototype, and defending Manufacturers’ Champion in the production-based GTD class with the Acura NSX GT3 Evo.
Following the Rolex 24 season-opening victory for Acura and Wayne Taylor Racing and fourth-place finish for Meyer Shank Racing, Acura leads the IMSA Manufacturer, Driver and Endurance Cup championships.
In the premier Manufacturers’ Title chase, Acura has 380 points to 335 for second-ranked Cadillac. Acura holds a two-point lead over Cadillac in the Endurance Cup standings. In the drivers’ points chase, Taylor, Albuquerque and Rossi have a 31-point advantage over Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller and Simon Pagenaud, in second with 345 points.
New for 2021 Type S graphics on the two ARX-05 prototypes are intended to reinforce the connection between Acura’s racing and productions vehicles, and our theme of Precision Crafted Performance.
Acura has recently announced production plans for Type S versions of the TLX performance sedan and MDX. Both models will be powered by turbocharged V6 engines, similar to the production-based engine used in the ARX-05 prototype.

Where to Watch the Rolex 24 at Daytona
Television coverage from Sebring begins at 10 a.m. ET Saturday on the NBC Sports Network. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on the NBC Sports App and TrackPass on NBC Gold.

Fans can listen to audio commentary via IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and Sirius XM Radio; and follow the race live via in-car cameras, IMSA Radio and timing & scoring available worldwide on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile device App.

Acura Motorsports social media content and video links from Sebring International Raceway can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).

CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Garcia Leads Corvette 1-2 Milner second in ultra-close GTLM qualifying between two Corvette C8.Rs

SEBRING, Fla. (March 19, 2021) – Antonio Garcia put Corvette Racing on the GT Le Mans (GTLM) pole position Friday for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts as the team looks to continue its strong opening to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Garcia, driving the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, set a GTLM record with a 1:54.910 (117.169 mph) around the 3.74-mile, 17-turn circuit for Saturday’s race in central Florida. He was a sliver quicker – by just 0.034 seconds – than teammate Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette. His time was a 1:54.944 (117.135 mph). Garcia was the GTLM pole-winner for November’s rescheduled 2020 Sebring 12 Hours, and he shared the GTLM Drivers Championship with teammate Jordan Taylor. The pairing, along with Nicky Catsburg, won the Rolex 24 At Daytona to open the 2021 season. Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims were second at the Rolex but were the GTLM pole-sitters there. Milner also won a two-hour, 40-minute sprint race at Sebring in July with Oliver Gavin. Corvette Racing and Chevrolet sit 1-2 in the early-season GTLM points standings. The No. 3 Corvette group leads over the No. 4 C8.R in full-season points, but the positions are switched in the Michelin Endurance Cup. The four-race championship is made of IMSA’s four long-distance races with Milner, Tandy and Sims claiming the most points at the pre-determined marks of the Rolex 24. Sebring serves as the second round of the MEC. All signs point toward Corvette Racing contending for its 13th victory at Sebring International Raceway and 12th in the annual 12-hour enduro. The program’s last two Rolex 24 victories in 2015 and 2016 led to race wins at Sebring only weeks later.  The mid-engine C8.R and Corvette Stingray street car were developed simultaneously, and the race car and production vehicle share more technology and parts than any previous-generation Corvette. When initial Corvette C8.R design and development work began more than six years ago, Corvette Racing engineers worked closely alongside Corvette production personnel with a heavy emphasis on wind tunnel and simulation testing. The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday. The race will air on NBCSN from 10 a.m.-noon and 7-10:30 p.m. ET. The full race will be streamed on TrackPass via NBC Sports Gold and the NBC Sports App. IMSA Radio will air full qualifying and race coverage at IMSA.comalong with Sirius 216, XM 392 and SiriusXM Online 992.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM POLE-WINNER: “It was very stressful! We are not used to qualifying together with the GTD cars, so initially it was very difficult for us to gauge how much room you had to fall back in order not to catch them. It seemed like no matter how much we were back, we were still catching them. I knew Tommy was coming from behind me, so I couldn’t really open a gap; I didn’t want to bother him. The first attempt was really bad. The second one I thought I had enough gap but had to dive for a pass going into Turn 17. I knew it was a good lap, so I had to go for it. I’m very happy for Corvette. It’s always good to have Corvette Racing up there 1-2 even if it is a long race. Let’s see if we can keep those positions like we did at Daytona.”ON QUALIFYING WITH GTD CARS: “We are just used to qualifying alone, so we need to get used to it. For the first race, it was a little bit of a shock for us because we didn’t know how to place ourselves on track not to interfere with them and for them to not interfere with us. That’s the key thing. They have 12-13 cars in that category so it’s always difficult around Sebring anyway. When it comes to shorter races, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Sebring is a long track. I think we all more or less got a clean lap but for sure it was stressful.”TELL US ABOUT THE POLE RUN WHICH IS A NEW TRACK RECORD AND BEING BACK WITH JORDAN AND NICKY AFTER WINNING THE ROLEX 24: “It is always good to be back at Sebring and always special to do qualifying with lighter tanks and going for it. I really enjoy doing that even though with the new rules this year we are sharing the track with the GTD category, so that brings a little more excitement into the qualifying because you need to place yourself in the right position not to catch them. It was very stressful and I didn’t know what the gap would be between the two categories. On my fast lap, I had to pass a car into (Turn) 17 but it didn’t seem to disturb me too much. I think it was (Earl) Bamber driving the other car. He didn’t block me or put me in a bad situation, so sorry if I destroyed his lap but I had to go. I’m pretty happy with that and a 1-2 for Corvette Racing. We will see if we can keep this for tomorrow’s race.”DO YOU FEEL LIKE THERE IS UNFINISHED BUSINESS HERE FOR THE C8.R?“I think so. Last year we were in position as we proved by setting the pole and then being up there fighting with the BMWs and Porsches. I think we had the pace at the end, but unfortunately we couldn’t fight for it. So tomorrow is just another race, and we need to focus on that… on trying to win this thing. It’s going to be tough as Sebring has always been. It’s different conditions. Hopefully it won’t be as hot as it was  yesterday. Maybe things will be a tiny bit easier. We will go through all three different conditions – cooler at the beginning, then very hot, then cooler again at night. We just need to survive out there and then when it gets to the last two hours, it’s game on. Let’s see how it goes, and as you said, unfinished business from last year so let’s see if we can take home this one.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED SECOND IN GTLM: “We can’t be unhappy with first and second. To be that close and not having scored a pole in IMSA competition is frustrating! But the cars were obviously super-quick today. The competition is also close, too. It looks like we will have a pretty tough race tomorrow. It’s tough no matter what at Sebring, but when you have three other cars that are going to be competitive for the whole race, that makes it trickier. We still have a little work to do with car setup and get it as good as we can for the whole 12 hours. We’re starting from a good spot in terms of position on the track but from a comfort standpoint, we’re in a good place too. We’ll do a little more in the warmup, and we have 12 hours to make little tweaks and tunes as we need.”EVOLUTION OF C8.R FROM FIRST TIME AT SEBRING IN 2020: “It’s hard to compare to our first time here. Every time we go to the track, the guys are taking lessons from data and from the simulator to improve things. If we went back to exactly how we ran for the first time here in February of last year, I’m sure the cars would feel significantly different. It’s being refined and evolving over time. Certainly we are going in the right direction.”

CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Antonio Garcia Pole-Winner Quote

SEBRING, Fla. (March 19, 2021) – Antonio Garcia put Corvette Racing on the GT Le Mans (GTLM) pole position Friday for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts as the team looks to continue its strong opening to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Garcia, driving the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, set a lap of 1:54.910 around the 3.74-mile, 17-turn circuit for Saturday’s race in central Florida. He was a sliver quicker – by just 0.034 seconds – than teammate Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette. Garcia was the GTLM pole-winner for November’s rescheduled 2020 Sebring 12 Hours. He also was part of the class-winning lineup for the Rolex 24 At Daytona with Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg. ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM POLE-WINNER: “It was very stressful! We are not used to qualifying together with the GTD cars, so initially it was very difficult for us to gauge how much room you had to fall back in order not to catch them. It seemed like no matter how much we were back, we were still catching them. I knew Tommy was coming from behind me, so I couldn’t really open a gap; I didn’t want to bother him. The first attempt was really bad. The second one I thought I had enough gap but had to dive for a pass going into Turn 17. I knew it was a good lap, so I had to go for it. I’m very happy for Corvette. It’s always good to have Corvette Racing up there 1-2 even if it is a long race. Let’s see if we can keep those positions like we did at Daytona.”ON QUALIFYING WITH GTD CARS: “We are just used to qualifying alone, so we need to get used to it. For the first race, it was a little bit of a shock for us because we didn’t know how to place ourselves on track not to interfere with them and for them to not interfere with us. That’s the key thing. They have 12-13 cars in that category so it’s always difficult around Sebring anyway. When it comes to shorter races, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Sebring is a long track. I think we all more or less got a clean lap but for sure it was stressful.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500 ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY HAMPTON, GEORGIA MARCH 21, 2021

RACE #6 – ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAYNASCAR’s three national series head back east this weekend for races on the 1.54-mile, 24-degree banked oval of Atlanta Motor Speedway. Chevrolet will aim for its 41st NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) victory at the track in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. FOX will telecast the 325-lap race at 3:00 p.m. ET Sunday, March 21.
Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, is one of two active drivers with three victories (2002, 2009, 2010) at the racetrack that has hosted 113 NCS races since July 1960 and was the site of the season finale from 1987 to 2000. In 29 starts, Busch has collected 15 top-10 finishes and led 803 laps.
AJ Allmendinger, who won the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2020, will seek to take the checkered flag again in the 163-lap Echo Park 250 that will be telecast on FS1 at 5:00 p.m. ET Saturday, March 20. Allmendinger, who will start on the inside of Row 2 in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Camaro SS, won the NXS race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this month. Brandon Brown, who posted a career-high third place at Phoenix Raceway last weekend, will start fourth in the No. 68 Brandonbilt Motorsports Camaro SS.
Chip Ganassi Racing Cup Series driver, Ross Chastain, will take on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) in the F8Auctions 200, piloting the No. 44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. FS1 will telecast the 130-lap race at 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday, March 20. 
FOUR IN THE TOP-10Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with four drivers in the top-10 of the points standings. Kyle Larson and Georgia native, Chase Elliott, both have 179 points, just one point out of fourth place. Their Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate, William Byron, currently sits in the ninth position, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s, Kurt Busch, rounds out the top-10. 
Larson, who won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, is among just three drivers with four top-10 finishes in the five races. He has a career-best finish of second at Atlanta Motors Speedway came in 2017.
LESSON IN RESILIENCYHendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and William Byron, who all had to start from the rear of the field at Phoenix, rallied to claim top-10 finishes. Larson, in particular, was resilient. After racing to eighth, he was sent to the rear of the lead lap because of a pit lane speed violation. He then weaved his way through the field to second, but again was assessed a pit lane speed violation. Larson again rose to second and eventually finished seventh.
ON THE WAY TO THE GREENWith no practice or qualifying for the race, the starting lineup is determined by NASCAR’s metrics system that was introduced to the series last year and incorporates results from both individual races and season-long results. Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters: 5th      Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE6th      Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 1LE9th      William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE11th    Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE12th    Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE13th    Austin Dillon, No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Off Road Camaro ZL1 1LE14th    Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
BOWTIE BULLETS·       Chevrolet is tied for the lead in the NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Points Standings and leads in top-10 finishes (22) after five races.
·       Chevrolet has registered four consecutive wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway on three occasions: sweeps in 1983-84, 1995-96 and 2003-04.
·       In addition to its 40 wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Bowtie Brand has recorded 25 poles, 190 top-five and 381 top-10 finishes.
·       Chevrolet has 797 NASCAR Cup Series wins to lead all manufacturers. ·       Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, are among just three drivers to complete all 1,116 laps through the five races. ·       JTG Daugherty Racing’s, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece, each have three top-15 finishes through five races. Last year, the team had one at the same point. ·       Rick Stenhouse Jr. Stenhouse claimed his first NCS pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September 2013.  ·       Chase Elliott (Daytona Road Course), William Byron (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and Kyle Larson (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) have captured stage wins thus far this season.
TUNE INFOX will telecast the 325-lap Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 live at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, March 21. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
QUOTABLE QUOTESKYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 5th IN STANDINGSLARSON ON RACING AT ATLANTA: “Atlanta is a fun place to race that many of us enjoy. The surface is so worn out that you have to manage your tires. The preferred line is the ‘Harvick’ line – on the bottom – and I’ve worked hard in the past to really get that line working in turns three and four. In turns one and two, you can run the top but it’s really hard on the tires. I’m looking forward to it because I think we’ll have a really fast car there.”
CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE DANIELS ON THE CHALLENGES AT ATLANTA: “Our focus is on setting up the car so that Kyle can run the line he wants to run – whether that is low or high or wherever in the turns. Another challenge there is tire wear and fall off. If you go one lap under green and then the caution comes out, everybody is probably putting on new tires. Hopefully, we don’t have so many cautions that you run out of tires. I don’t believe that will happen.”
DANIELS ON PREPARING FOR LATE-RACE PIT STOPS: “Calling a race is a little bit difficult under green, especially if the run goes long at the end of the race. Do you try to short pit which will guarantee you gain track position? Late in the run with 10 to go or less, newer tires with fewer laps, even if just a couple, can show speed. While you may leapfrog some early in the run, they can get you back at the end of that run. The challenge is defending against the opposite decision you made.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 6th IN STANDINGSELLIOTT ON THE CHALLENGING ATLANTA TRACK: “Atlanta is definitely a tough place. The racetrack has a lot of wear to it – the surface is one of the oldest that we go to – so finding grip is a challenge. The track has a lot of character and is very line sensitive to where you can and can’t run to find that. You really have to hit your marks well in Atlanta to have success. I think the track conditions this weekend will be pretty similar to last year in a lot of ways. The No. 9 team and I have talked a lot about last year’s event. That’s how we are going about the set up for Sunday is from last year and taking things away from how we did, what we did good and what we can improve on.”
ELLIOTT ON RETURNING TO ATLANTA:  “It’s always nice to race in Atlanta. I’ve been racing here for a long time, raced a lot of legend cars and bandolero races here, so it’s a special place to me. Atlanta is just a fun track to come to. I think anywhere that you run three or four laps and the lap times have fallen off significantly like they are here all the time, I think that makes it fun. It makes it fun from a strategy standpoint.”
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LEGUSTAFSON ON WHAT THE TEAM HAS LEARNED AT INTERMEDIATE TRACKS IN 2021: “As we head to another 1.5-mile track, we learned some deficiencies we had at Homestead and are certainly going to improve on that. At Las Vegas our NAPA Chevy was really fast, but we just had some execution issues so we need to clean those up. I really like Atlanta; it has always been a fun track and super difficult to get a hold of. I think we can take some things from those first two intermediate tracks and some of our past experience at Atlanta and try to put our best foot forward on Sunday.”
GUSTAFSON ON RACING AT ATLANTA:“We were at Atlanta in June last year and it was fairly sunny, it wasn’t a terribly hot day so I think that the hotter it is the less grip the track is going to have. I still think it will be a place that is difficult even though it is projected to be in the 60s when we are there. I think the truth is that it’s never the same no matter what you do. We could go race there a week later and it’s just never the same. You just have to piece together all the little experiences you have and ultimately try to hit on it.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 9th IN STANDINGSBYRON ON HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO RACE AT ATLANTA: “Atlanta is just a tough track. It’s a little bit easier at this time of the year because it’s a bit cooler, but it’s not easy to run there ever by any means. You’re going to need to have a car that can do all the right things throughout the entire race. Luckily, I feel like this Sunday’s race will be similar to Homestead, and it gives us a good idea of what we need in our car. We can use past Atlanta notes and pair them with our Homestead notes from this year to, hopefully, continue this stretch of good runs we have going.”
BYRON ON THE TIRE FALL-OFF AT ALTANTA:“You notice the tire fall-off really every corner at Atlanta. You may have a couple laps that the tires feel good, but after that with every corner you can feel the tires fall off and lose grip. It’s a challenge to keep the car straight at times. Add to that that you’re racing against other guys and if they take your lane away it becomes really hard to find another lane to be as fast in. It’s all really difficult to manage for that long of a period of time consistently.”
RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE FUGLE ON THE NO. 24 TEAM’S START TO 2021:  “I’m proud of what this team has accomplished so far this year. While we started off with a couple of hard races, we still had small victories along the way. This group never got down and worked on righting the ship to put together good solid races. Phoenix last week was a good example of that. It was just a solid mistake-free day all the way around. We need to continue to have more of those races and keep our foot on the gas.”
FUGLE ON RACING ATLANTA: “Atlanta is a track that I have a lot of laps at. It’s a track that we use to test at with rookie drivers in the truck series, which has been the majority of my career. I feel like I have a really good idea of what we can expect the track to do, not only at this time of year, but also throughout the entirety of the race. With Atlanta having such an old, worn out surface, consistency will be key Sunday. We need to make sure not to abuse the tires early on and maintain track position at the same time. If you can manage the track and your tires throughout the run, you’ll pick up positions when other cars begin to struggle. We were able to do that at Homestead, so hopefully that carries over to this weekend’s race as well.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 12th IN STANDINGSATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY IS ANOTHER TRACK WHERE THE ASPHALT THERE IS AMONG THE FAVORITE OF THE DRIVERS, AM I RIGHT? “It’s old, but I’m glad they’ve kept it the same. It’s a place that drivers love because you know it’s going to be slick and over time you might be able to find some grip by moving around or changing your line and being disciplined with the throttle.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th IN STANDINGSBOWMAN ON RACING AT ATLANTA:“Atlanta is a fun track. We haven’t had the results there that we should have, but it is a track where I think we can be really strong. The track is one that you can move around a lot and tire management is going to be key on Sunday. Our intermediate program at Hendrick Motorsports is definitely a strong one and I think we have a good notebook going into this weekend’s race.”
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE IVES ON BOUNCING BACK AFTER A DIFFICULT RACE:  “You always wish there was something that would invert the field or something like that following a tough week. Ultimately, it is up to us to perform and to get those finishes and move up in the points. It is a gift that you definitely don’t want to open every week if it is on the bad side. You look at Daytona and getting wrecked while running second, having a flat left-rear at Vegas and then getting wrecked on whatever lap last week (at Phoenix). Some of those things are in our control and some of them aren’t. We have to stay focused on the positives, work on the negatives and move forward.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 PETTY’S GARAGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 23rd IN STANDINGSTHOUGHTS LOOKING AHEAD AT ATLANTA WITH YOUR PAST EXPERIENCE AT THE TRACK. “Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of my favorite tracks with the way it wears out, how slick it is and how it wears out tires. I really enjoy that style of racing. It lends its hand to save some tire on the front side of a run and trying to be good on the second half of it. As a driver, that is fun. You want the options; you want the chance to go out and be better on old tires, be better than the guy in front of you and just manage your stuff better. That’s kind of the old-school feel of NASCAR for me, and how you grow up racing is managing that run and managing your tires to try and be there at the end of the race. I always look forward to the Atlanta race. It’s a really technical place for a 1.5-mile track and that’s what makes it fun.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 24th IN STANDINGSWHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACING AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY THIS WEEKEND? “Atlanta is a lot of fun. I can’t even remember exactly what happened the last time we were there, but I love that place. It has a lot of character. It’s very difficult. It has a lot of bumps. It’s very rough on tires. Every driver is going to be screaming for grip and for downforce. But it’s a fun place. I really enjoy it a lot and I’m looking forward to going back.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 27th IN STANDINGS“Tires will be very important to having a successful race at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. Even with the downforce package we have, tires still remain as a key to this track due to the extremely worn-out surface. Last year, I was still getting a feel for a Cup car when we raced at Atlanta and thought I had a tire going down during the first Stage, so now that I know what that feels like I know what to watch out for. We had some handling issues during last year’s race too where our Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE would swing from being way too loose to way too tight, so my team has looked back at last year’s notes a lot this week to prepare and have a better handling No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet this time around. I enjoy racing at Atlanta with its old track surface, so I’m excited for this weekend.”
COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 NFL ALUMNI/FOLDS OF HONOR CAMARO ZL1 1LE- 29th IN STANDINGS“Atlanta is the most worn-out track on the schedule, so it’s important the car is dialed in for the long runs. Our Crew Chief, Ryan Sparks, has a solid game plan together to get our NFL Alumni/Folds of Honor Camaro ZL1 1LE towards the front from a 30th starting position. The NFL Alumni does incredible work within their community. To have them integrate the Folds of Honor to support scholarship opportunities for veterans and their families is incredibly admirable. I’m proud to represent both organizations this weekend in the QuikTrip Folds of Honor 500.”