Nicorette 300 News and Notes

Driver to win the Nationwide Series Nicorette 300

Kyle Busch +285
Jeff Burton +465
Matt Kenseth +525
Dale Earnhardt Jr +685
Kasey Kahne +885
Kevin Harvick +955
Clint Bowyer +1150
Brian Vickers +1350
Bobby Labonte +1485
David Reutimann +1615
Jason Leffler +2150
Reed Sorenson +2350
Jamie McMurray +2350
David Stremme +4000
Field +650

TheGreek

Burton Back for More
Racingone.com

Atlanta Motor Speedway has been very good to Jeff Burton

The veteran driver has won two times in five career NASCAR Nationwide Series starts at the high-banked, 1.5-mile speedway and is looking for his third straight Nicorette 300 win on Saturday.

Burton drove the Richard Childress Racing Holiday Inn Chevrolet to victory in the 2007 edition of the race and is looking forward to shooting for a three-peat this weekend.

"The Holiday Inn Racing team won that race last year and it is always cool to go back and try to defend the win," Burton said. "Actually, we are trying to make it three-in-a-row. We will go there and aggressively try to win the Nationwide race."

Burton is scheduled to make 12 starts in the No. 29 entry this season and is hoping to get some consistency together in these early-year starts.

"The more I can race early in the season then the more I can get into the sync of things," he said. I love running Richard’s (car owner Richard Childress) Nationwide car. It has been fast pretty much everywhere we have gone with it and, hopefully, we will have a chance to win."

Burton is confident the cars out of the RCR stable will give him a solid chance at winning again in Atlanta.

However Burton knows there will be competition this weekend.

"RCR’s race cars have been really fast," he said. "I’ve been able to run them anywhere I’ve wanted to run them and be in the throttle a lot. I thought we had the fastest car last week at Vegas but we’re gonna have to find a way to step it up if we are going to do three in a row."

"I think the Gibbs cars have shown a lot of speed this season. They go through the corners exceptionally well and they go down the straightaway exceptionally well too. I think they have a little bit of a horsepower advantage over there. When you add that with how well they go through the corners then they’re going to be hard to guard.”

One of Burton's RCR teammates will be trying to derail his plans for winning again. Clint Bowyer, who came home third last week in Las Vegas, feels confident about his chances in the team's No. 2 Chevrolet come Saturday.

"It hasn’t been too bad but we certainly hoped for a win by now," Bowyer said of his early-season runs. "The BB&T Chevrolet ran very well at Daytona but I made a mistake and got in the fence and cost us a top-five finish. We’ve had the speed and shown the poise, we just have to put it all together. There are a lot of new faces on this team but once we start gelling better, I think we’ll be just fine."

Busch Leads Only Nationwide Practice in Atlanta

Due to morning rain at the track, the Nationwide Series held only one practice session at Atlanta Friday afternoon. #20-Kyle Busch led the session with a top speed of 179.406mph. He was followed by #2-Clint Bowyer, #29-Jeff Burton, #38-Jason Leffler, and #5-Dale Earnhardt, Jr. #41-Bryan Clauson suffered some right front damage from contact with the wall late in the session but the team will make repairs to the car. There are only 43 cars at the track so everyone will make the race.

Jayski.com

Qualifying Snowed Out: Snow at the track Saturday morning forced NASCAR to cancel Nationwide qualifying. The starting lineup will be set according to last year's points. Weather should move out of the area in time for the race today.

Jayski.com

Starting Line Up Nicorette 300

1 29 Jeff Burton
2 20 Kyle Busch
3 60 Carl Edwards
4 2 Clint Bowyer
5 99 David Reutimann
6 33 Kevin Harvick
7 9 Kasey Kahne
8 38 Jason Leffler Gre
9 5 Dale Earnhardt Jr
10 17 Matt Kenseth
11 22 Mike Bliss
12 6 David Ragan
13 16 Jamie McMurray
14 25 Bobby Hamilton Jr
15 77 Cale Gale
16 32 Brian Vickers
17 88 Brad Keselowski
18 41 Bryan Clauson
19 7 Mike Wallace GEIC
20 59 Marcos Ambrose
21 4 Robert Richardson Jr
22 27 Brad Coleman
23 37 Greg Biffle
24 40 Dario Franchitti
25 1 Johnny Sauter
26 47 Kelly Bires
27 21 Bobby Labonte Che
28 64 David Stremme
29 66 Steve Wallace
30 24 Eric McClure
31 11 Jason Keller
32 36 Kenny Wallace
33 61 Kevin Lepage
34 81 D.J. Kennington
35 01 Kertus Davis
36 28 Brian Keselowski
37 05 Brett Rowe Certa
38 52 Derrike Cope
39 89 Morgan Shepherd
40 90 Johnny Chapman
41 91 Larry Gunselman
42 84 Mike Harmon
43 0 Dwayne Leik

Kenseth delivers in Atlanta
Sat 8th, March 2008

Hampton, GA (Sports Network) - Matt Kenseth captured Saturday afternoon's Nicorette 300 Nationwide Series race at the chilly Atlanta Motor Speedway. The No.17 Ford driver crossed the finish line 0.159 seconds ahead of Kevin Harvick.

The victory was Kenseth's first of the season and 24th of his Nationwide career.

The race was almost a repeat of last year when Kyle Busch dominated leading 143 laps before a late incident ruined his day. Two-time defending Nicorette 300 champion Jeff Burton only led twice for a total of 29 laps, but it included the final 26, as he clipped Harvick by 1.064 seconds for his 24th Nationwide Series win.

In today's race, Busch was again in a league of his own as he led 153 of 198 laps. But with 25 laps to go Busch's right-front tire went flat causing him to crash into the first-turn wall to ruin another great performance. Busch finished the race in a disappointing 24th place.

Under a caution period, the last pit stops of the afternoon took place. David Ragan and Marcos Ambrose decided to go with a fuel-only stop, giving them the top-two spots, respectively. Carl Edwards, Burton and Kenseth followed behind.

With 20 laps remaining the race got restarted. Ragan and Ambrose fell through the field quickly on their old tires. Burton took the lead as Kenseth, Edwards and Harvick battled just behind him.

The excitement started to build when Kenseth made a push for the lead. Burton was able to hold him off though. But with nine laps left Kenseth made his way around Burton for first. Burton lost another spot when Harvick passed him for second.

With seven laps to go Dale Earnhardt Jr. clipped Eric McClure's car and sent him into the wall. Bryan Clauson got caught up in the mess and wrecked his car when he hit McClure. NASCAR officials put the red flag out to clean up the debris on the track.

Kenseth led Harvick, Burton, Edwards and Bobby Labonte to the restart with three laps to go. Before any action could take place the last caution flag came out for debris. This set up a green-white-checkered finish.

On the restart Kenseth and Harvick pulled away from the rest of the field. Kenseth doggedly held onto a one-car length lead throughout the final laps to give him the victory.

Burton, Edwards and Labonte completed the top-five.

After qualifying was snowed out, Burton brought the field to the green flag under sunny, but cool and windy 42-degree weather.

It took Busch just three turns to take the first spot away from Burton. Burton quickly dropped back to third as Clint Bowyer took over second.

After an early caution flag, Burton fought his way back to second place due to a bad restart by Bowyer. Harvick also took advantage by moving up to third. But Busch continued to dominate the race.

After a caution flag came out on lap 29, Busch led the leaders down pit road for their first pit stops of the afternoon. Busch maintained his lead after the stops with Burton and David Reutimann following behind.

Busch and Burton pulled away from the rest of the field. Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Harvick completed the top-five but trailed the leader by more than five seconds.

The gap was erased on lap 48 when a caution flag was brought for a crash between some drivers in the back of the field.

On the lap 53 restart the battle for the lead went four-wide due to Busch spinning his tires. Harvick won the fight to take the top-spot and Kenseth settled behind Harvick for second. But a confident Busch didn't panic as he sliced his way back to first just a few laps later.

With Busch building another big lead, Kenseth and Harvick battled for second. Burton and Bowyer rounded out the top-five.

With 80 laps in the books, Busch's margin was just over three seconds. His lead was near four seconds when he gave up his lead on lap 88 during a round of green flag pit stops.

A few mistakes occurred for two of the top-five drivers during the stops. Busch's pit crew had problems with the lug nut on his left-rear tire. But the most costly was a drive-through penalty for Bowyer.

Despite the slow pit stop, Busch was able to drive his way back to the front of the pack. Kenseth and Harvick followed behind in second and third when Brad Coleman brought out the caution flag.

The race went back to green flag conditions on lap 107. A great restart by Busch allowed him to create another gap. Harvick eventually took second away from Kenseth. Meanwhile, Burton and Edwards drove in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Busch's 2.197 lead was erased on lap 142 when Brett Rowe crashed to bring out the fifth caution flag of the day. Under the caution period the leaders came down pit road for pit stops.

When the stops were complete Busch led Harvick, Kenseth, Edwards and Earnhardt Jr. Busch pulled away again on the restart on lap 148. Harvick, Burton, Kenseth and Edwards trailed Busch.

With Busch in complete control of the race, he had his sights on a big win. But the blown tire on lap 172 ended his chance for the win and gave the other guys a shot at was all but unreachable.

Harvick's runner-up finish gives him a 25-point edge over Edwards heading into next week's race (605-580). Busch fell to third place, 74 points behind Harvick.

The next race is scheduled for Saturday, March 15th at the Bristol Motor Speedway.