SB Nation Atlanta: All Posts by Aaron Rosser

Atlanta Motor Speedway loses Camping World Truck Series date for 2013

2012-11-28T21:12:32Z

NASCAR unveiled its highly-anticipated schedule for the 2013 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. As expected, big-time stock car racing's return to dirt was announced, as Eldora Speedway will host an event on June 24. The legendary Ohio oval, owned by three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, will host the first major race sanctioned by NASCAR on dirt since 1970.

In addition, the trucks will race on the Mosport circuit in Ontario on Labor Day Weekend. It is the first Truck Series race on road courses since 2000.

Obviously, with the Camping World Truck Series racing north of the border on September 1, they will not be joining the Sprint Cup and Nationwide tours in the Biggest Labor Day Weekend Party in the USA at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Ty Dillon, grandson of legendary team owner Richard Childress and son of former racer Mike Dillon, claimed the final truck checkered flag at Atlanta this past September after outdueling Cup superstar Kyle Busch.

The trucks first traveled to the venerable old Speedway in 2004. That inaugural event was won by the late Bobby Hamilton in a thrilling duel with Mike Skinner. The following season and for the three subsequent years, Atlanta hosted a pair of races for the division and built a reputation as one of the Trucks' best venues. The track returned to a once-annually spot on the circuit's schedule, where it remained through this season.

Busch led all drivers with four wins in the series at Atlanta, with Ron Hornaday Jr. winning twice. Skinner, Todd Bodine, Mike Bliss, Ryan Newman, and Kevin Harvick all claimed one win each in the 200-milers.

Brad Keselowski claims 2012 Sprint Cup championship, Jeff Gordon wins Ford 400

2012-11-19T00:27:26Z

Brad Keselowski is NASCAR's newest champion.

The native of Rochester Hills, MI, won the 2012 Sprint Cup Series championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, bringing home the first top-level stock car title for legendary car owner Roger Penske. The crown for the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge is the automaker's first title since Richard Petty's 1975 championship. It is also the first championship triumph for Miller Brewing Company since 1983, when Bobby Allison claimed his lone title in a Buick sponsored by their Miller High Life Brand.

At one point it seemed the title might go Jimmie Johnson's way. He made his final scheduled pit stop of the race with 54 laps remaining, within the window for him to reach the finish without another pit stop. Keselowski, meanwhile, would have needed another stop. Unfortunately for Johnson, his rear tire changer failed to get all the lug nuts on the left rear wheel, forcing him to make another pit stop. It wound up being a moot point, as Johnson's rear-end gear burned up soon-thereafter and ended his 2012 season.

With his DNF, Johnson fell to third in the final standings. Clint Bowyer, who finished second in the race, ended up with the runner-up ranking in points.

Jeff Gordon won the Ford Eco-Boost 400 on a fuel mileage strategy similar to the one Johnson was looking to employ. It capped off a tumultuous week for the four-time champ, who was under a storm of controversy after intentionally crashing Bowyer last Sunday in Phoenix. Many onlookers - including fellow drivers - called for Gordon's suspension from this weekend's race, but NASCAR chose only to fine him $100,000 and dock him 25 championship points.

The win is the first at Homestead not only for Gordon but for the entire Hendrick Motorsports operation.

Bowyer as stated took second. Ryan Newman finished third in his last race with the US Army as sponsor of his No. 39 Chevrolet. Kyle Busch absolutely dominated the night but was felled once again by fuel strategy and wound up fourth, with Greg Biffle taking fifth.

Martin Truex Jr., who battled Busch for much of the latter stages of the race, wound up sixth, with Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completing the top-10. Keselowski ended the race in 15th.

Ford Eco-Boost 400 Update: Kyle Busch still leads at lap 100, but electrical problems looming

2012-11-18T21:34:20Z

Through 100 laps of the Ford Eco-Boost 400, Kyle Busch still held the top spot as he had for much of the race to that point. Busch had led all but 15 circuits around the Homestead-Miami Speedway, but engine problems seemed to be creeping up with his No. 18 Toyota Camry. Busch reported to crew chief Dave Rogers that the engine had quit running, then started running again, several times in succession.

A similar issue plagued teammate Denny Hamlin at Martinsville Speedway last month, ultimately derailing a likely win for Hamlin and His No. 11 team when the master switch - installed improperly - shorted out.

Martin Truex Jr. held down the second-position at the century mark, while Matt Kenseth ran third in his last race for Jack Roush. Best friends Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon, fresh off their brouhaha last Sunday in Phoenix, rounded out the top-five. Gordon of course intentionally crashed Bowyer last Sunday as retaliation for several incidents earlier in the year. Their pit crews subsequently erupted in a fight, and Gordon wound up fined $100,000 and docked 25 championship points.

As far as the championship fight is concerned, Jimmie Johnson runs sixth, while Brad Keselowski sits eighth.

Ford Eco-Boost 400 Update: Kyle Busch shows early pace, Keselowski sixth

2012-11-18T20:41:47Z

After 30 laps, Kyle Busch holds the lead in the Ford-Eco Boost 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Closing out what he described following Saturday's Nationwide race as the worst season of his career, Busch has one more chance to break into the winner's circle for the second time this season. He won at Richmond in the spring in Sprint Cup, but went winless in both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series after dominating those divisions for years.

Carl Edwards, closing out a likewise frustrating season after losing the 2011 championship on a tie-breaker, holds down second spot. Marcos Ambrose, who announced this weekend that he will return to Richard Petty's No. 9 Ford in 2013, led the opening 14 circuits before giving way to Busch and now runs third. Clint Bowyer sits fourth, obviously looking for a much quieter evening than last Sunday's debacle in Phoenix. Matt Kenseth, making his last start in Jack Roush's No. 17 Ford, rounds out the top-five.

Sprint Cup point leader Brad Keselowski holds down the sixth position early on as he seeks the first-career championship in top-level stock car racing for legendary car owner Roger Penske. Keselowski can finish as low as 15th and be guaranteed the title no matter what Jimmie Johnson does. Johnson currently is shown in the 10th position.

NASCAR at Homestead-Miami: Brad Keselowski wins 2012 Sprint Cup championship; Gordon wins Ford 400

2012-11-18T20:15:20Z

Brad Keselowski won the 2012 Sprint Cup Series Championship Sunday, besting Clint Bowyer by 34 points. Jimmie Johnson fell out of the race and dropped to third. Jeff Gordon won the Ford 400 for his first win at Homestead and the 87th of his career.

My oh my, where has the season gone?

Wherever it went, the time has come to put the finishing touches on the 2012 edition of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Sunday's season-ending Ford Eco-Boost 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Of course, the number one order of business in South Florida is to crown this year's champion. Brad Keselowski holds a 20-point edge on Jimmie Johnson entering the final weekend of the year. That is a relatively comfortable position, far more so than in the previous two seasons when Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards led the standings into the last race. Hamlin spun early in 2010, damaging his Toyota and ruining his hopes of derailing Johnson's bid for a fifth-straight title.

Last season's final battle was an all-time classic, as Tony Stewart rallied twice from the rear of the field to win the race and tie Edwards - who finished second - in the standings. Stewart's win total - five to Edwards' one - gave him his third championship in the first tie-breaker in top-level stock car racing.

Keselowski's job is simple: he must finish 15th or better Sunday, and he will claim the title even if Johnson leads all 267 laps and laps the field a half-dozen times. A 15th-place finish in today's NASCAR might not be an accomplishment to celebrate, but it certainly isn't one to sneeze at either. Teams can't afford to have much trouble at all if they're going to finish 15th in a Sprint Cup race.

Finishing in the top-15 has been no issue for Keselowski and his No. 2 Penske Racing team this season. Through 35 races, he has finished outside those front 15 spots just six times. Most of those came early in the year, with a crash in the Daytona 500 and then a spate of races where his team fought issues with the new electronic fuel injection systems implemented this season.

Since the June 10 Pocono 400, Keselowski has just one non-top-15, a 30th at Bristol after an accident. His worst finish of the Chase is an 11th at Charlotte after he ran out of fuel while leading.

Johnson's job is also simple. He must do what he has done 60 times in his career but never once at Homestead-Miami: win the race. Even then, it will take a mistake by Keselowski, one much bigger than Hamlin's brain fade in 2010 that ruined his dream season, for the man known as "five-time" to become "six-time." In 11 previous races at Homestead, Johnson's best result are a pair of runner-up finishes in 2004 and again in that 2010 event.

There are plenty of other storylines entering the final weekend. Dodge makes its exit from the Sprint Cup ranks, potentially with its first championship since Richard Petty dominated the series in 1975. Former Sprint Cup champ Matt Kenseth makes his last appearance in Jack Roush's No. 17 Ford before moving over to Joe Gibbs Racing. He hops into the No. 20 Toyota co-sponsored by Atlanta-based Home Depot next season, pushing Joey Logano - once touted as the future of the sport and especially JGR - out the door. Stewart, the three-time and - for one more weekend - reigning champ, makes his 500th-career start.

And of course everyone will be watching and waiting to see if Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon tangle again following the brouhaha in Phoenix.

With 10,175 laps down, only 267 circuits remain in the 2012 campaign. We better enjoy them, because a bitterly cold and quiet winter awaits.

Tony Stewart at 500: A fan's view

2012-11-16T15:00:42Z

As SB Nation Atlanta's NASCAR contributor, I'm in the unique position of covering an entire racing series, rather than a single Atlanta or Georgia-based team. I enjoy it greatly, and I feel like I am very fair about not letting my personal allegiances show. It helps that I respect all the drivers and - most of the time - love them all for the entertainment they provide me on a weekly basis for 10 months out of a year. Still, like any racing fan - and that's what I am, a racing fan who's blessed to be able to write about the sport I love - I have my own favorite driver, the one I want to see win every week. That driver is three-time champ Tony Stewart, and with SBN Atlanta bossman Kris Willis' blessing, here is a fan-driven story about Stewart ahead of his 500th Sprint Cup start this Sunday at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Early in a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver's career, it seems there is always a counter on them. "This guy is making his fifth start, that guy has only run eight races," and so on. After a while, though, the counting stops and the races just seem to run together as the driver's career progresses along. He hits milestone starts - like his 500th - along the way, however, and it is always fun to think about how long that driver has been around and what he's accomplished and what is left to accomplish.

Particularly when it's your driver.

I've been a Tony Stewart fan since the Month of May in 1998. I capitalized the word "Month" there because it is an event all its own, the practice, qualifying, and other festivities leading up to the Indianapolis 500. I'd heard of Stewart before that month, but between reading an article about him in a magazine I'd only gotten because it had Bill Elliott on the cover and all the interviews he did with ESPN leading up to the race, something clicked. I found my new racing hero.

It's neat to be able to say you were a fan of a Sprint Cup superstar, a Sprint Cup champion, before he even ran his first race in the division. I'm far from alone with Stewart - his exploits in open wheel cars had already made him a huge star in his native Midwest and elsewhere long before the 1999 Daytona 500, or the '98 Month of May for that matter - but I like being able to say that I beat a lot of my fellow Stewart fans (the ones who latched onto him as a rookie) to the bandwagon by a year.

Looking back, I feel very fortunate that it was Stewart whom I picked as my first "true" favorite racer since Davey Allison's death in 1993. He has had a tremendous Sprint Cup career - three championships and 47 wins so far - and he has also established himself as perhaps the greatest pure racer of his generation with his successes in various other types of race cars.

It has been quite a ride over the last 499 Sprint Cup races, rooting for the man known as "Smoke." There have been plenty of highs and hopefully plenty more to come, but there have also been some points where proudly displaying support of the often mercurial Stewart has led to some headaches. Make no mistake, I've never once thought of hopping off the train and finding someone else - someone easier - to root for, but constantly bickering with other fans any time he let his temper get the best of him or insulted a reporter or didn't sign an autograph has been very annoying at times.

The 2004 season was perhaps most frustrating. Stewart went through a stretch of races where he seemed to always be in the middle of some sort of controversy with another driver. That would put that driver's fan base at war with those of us on Stewart's side, all the while the rest of the fans seemed to be on board with the Darrell Waltrip-led witch-hunt calling for Stewart's suspension every other week.

It eventually became comical and actually kind of fun. For instance, constantly battling - and belittling - the teenage girls who didn't know an axle from a tailpipe but claimed to have fallen in love with racing thanks to rosy-cheeked rookie Kasey Kahne became and has remained a favorite pastime of mine.

Those frustrations in 2004 are far and away overshadowed by the good times I've enjoyed a Stewart fan, though. The magical stretches during the summer of 2005 and the fall of 2011 stand atop the list.

Stewart began both stretches in a long winless spell, then ripped off five wins seemingly from out of nowhere to ascend to the top of the standings. In '05, those wins included his long-awaited, dream-come-true victory at Indianapolis and his first points-paying triumph at Daytona. Though he relinquished the point lead briefly in the Chase, he was on top when it counted at the end in Homestead.

Everyone remembers last year's Chase performance, where Stewart won half the races and tied Carl Edwards on points. His magical night in Miami a year ago that capped off an unlikely third championship run remains downright chill-inducing. Even if that title - his 12th in a variety of race cars - winds up being his last, the fashion in which he won it has provided enough fond memories to last a lifetime.

On the flipside, the Daytona 500 has nearly managed to drive me to drinking. It seems he went to the "Earnhardt and Waltrip Institute of Every Way on Earth To Lose the Great American Race." Those two legends eventually won the 500, as has every other driver with at least three championships beside his name. The day Tony finally wins that race, I'm liable to start a one-man riot in downtown Calhoun, GA that puts Detroit or Los Angeles after one of their teams' championships to shame.

As Stewart embarks on his 500th Sprint Cup start and concludes his 14th season at NASCAR's highest level, it is likely that he has already run more races than remain in his Hall of Fame career in top-tier stock car racing. Still, plenty remains to be accomplished. He is just three victories away from his 50th, one of many "magic milestones" in our sport, and he lacks wins at only Darlington and Kentucky before being able to lay claim to winning on all 23 active Sprint Cup venues.

No matter what he accomplishes from this point forward, though, it has already been a heck of a ride for this fan.

SR2 Motorsports Racing, Blake Koch competing in support of Tripp Halstead

2012-11-13T23:11:31Z

Tripp Halstead, the little boy who has captured the heart of the state and the country as he recovers from a falling tree limb last month, will have a presence in Saturday's Nationwide Series Ford Eco-Boost 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The No. 00 SR2 Motorsports Toyota, driven by Blake Koch, will carry the logos of the Team BOOM fundraiser set up in support of Tripp and his family.

As everyone knows, Tripp was injured on October 29 when high winds from Superstorm Sandy caused a tree limb to fall onto the little boy's head. Though a long road still awaits him, Tripp has already made miraculous progress after doctors' grim initial prognosis.

The black and red Camry Koch will drive is not the first NASCAR-related show of support for Tripp and his family. NASCAR icon Darrell Waltrip, who voiced an automobile version of himself in Tripp's favorite film "Cars," was the latest of the film's voice actors to offer up their support via Twitter. He joined Larry the Cable Guy (Mater) and Bonnie Hunt (Sally) in those who have sent tweets to Tripp's family as their characters, while the film's star Owen Wilson left a voice mail as his Lightning McQueen character.

See images of Koch's Toyota here.

NASCAR at Homestead-Miami Preview: So long, 2012

2012-11-13T16:33:50Z

My oh my, where has the season gone?

Wherever it went, the time has come to put the finishing touches on the 2012 edition of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Sunday's season-ending Ford Eco-Boost 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Since the June 10 Pocono 400, Keselowski has just one non-top-15, a 30th at Bristol after an accident. His worst finish of the Chase is an 11th at Charlotte after he ran out of fuel while leading.

And of course everyone will be watching and waiting to see if Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon tangle again following the brouhaha in Phoenix.

With 10,175 laps down, only 267 circuits remain in the 2012 campaign. We better enjoy them, because a bitterly cold and quiet winter awaits.