FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: ATLANTA NOTES
Ford will be going for its fifth straight NASCAR Cup Series win at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend while Austin Cindric looks to continue a streak that has seen him win twice and finish in the top 5 of all five NASCAR XFINITY Series races. The weekend kicks off with a NASCAR Camping World/NASCAR XFINITY Series doubleheader on Saturday and concludes with the NASCAR Cup Series event on Sunday.
This Week’s Schedule:
Saturday, March 20 – NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, 2:30 p.m. (FS1)
Saturday, March 20 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 5 p.m. (FS1)
Sunday, March 21 – NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. (FOX)
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT AMS
· Ford has 34 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins at AMS.
· NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen won the Atlanta 500 three straight years (1962-64).
· Brad Keselowski (2017/2019) and Kevin Harvick (2018/2020) have Ford wins at the track.
· Georgia native Bill Elliott is Ford’s all-time leader at AMS with five wins.
· The Wood Brothers rank second with 12 series wins at AMS.
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT AMS
· Ford has 10 NASCAR XFINITY Series wins at AMS, all but two by Roush Fenway Racing.
· Kevin Harvick swept the NXS/Cup weekend in 2018.
· Jeff Gordon won his first series race, and the first one ever held at AMS, with Ford in 1992.
· Harvick leads all drivers with five series wins.
· Mark Martin has the most Ford wins with three while Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards have two each.
FORD IN THE CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES AT AMS
· Ford is the defending winner of this weekend’s NCWTS race at AMS.
· Grant Enfinger recorded Ford’s first series win at the track last season.
· Ford has 105 all-time series victories.
FORD GOING FOR FIVE CUP WINS IN A ROW AT ATLANTA
Ford goes to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend looking for its fifth straight NASCAR Cup Series victory as Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick have alternated wins the past four seasons. Keselowski had wins in 2017 and 2019 while Harvick won in 2018 and 2020. Ford has 34 all-time series victories at AMS, making it the fourth-most successful track for the manufacturer. Only Michigan (41), Bristol (39) and Daytona (38) have accounted for more Ford wins.
TWO STRAIGHT TOP TEN TEAM PENSKE FINISHES
All three Team Penske Ford Mustang’s finished in the top 10 for a second straight week as Joey Logano led the way with a second-place finish at Phoenix Raceway. Brad Keselowski finished fourth and Ryan Blaney was 10th. The trio also led a combined 197 of the 312 laps completed on Sunday while Blaney and Logano each won a stage. That marks the 28th time since the organization became a three-team unit in 2018 (113 combined starts). That means all three Team Penske Mustangs have finished in the top 10 of the same race 24.8 percent of the time.
HARVICK + ATLANTA = TOP 10 SUCCESS
Kevin Harvick has been the model of consistency at Atlanta Motor Speedway in recent years, having posted 13 top-10 finishes in the last 16 races. Included in that streak are victories in two of the last three seasons and seven top-5 results. Even more indicative of his dominance is the laps led category, which shows Harvick leading at least 100 circuits in 7 of the last 9 events. Since this hot streak started in 2008, Harvick has registered an average finish of 8.2.
CINDRIC STREAKING TO START 2021
Austin Cindric has shown no signs of slowing down after winning the 2020 NASCAR XFINITY Series championship. After clinching the season finale at Phoenix Raceway last year, Cindric has started the 2021 campaign by winning twice in five starts (Daytona and Phoenix) and has nothing lower than a fifth-place finish. He’s been on top of the point standings every week, thanks in large part to an average finish of 2.8.
KESELOWSKI GETS FIRST CUP WIN FOR MUSTANG
Brad Keselowski gave Mustang its first NASCAR Cup Series victory as he held off Martin Truex Jr. at the finish to win last year’s Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Keselowski, who was battling an illness all weekend and had Austin Cindric standing by in case he needed relief, led the final 33 laps to post his 28th career victory. In all, Ford led 177 of the 325 laps and won for the third straight year at the 1.5-mile track.
SNOW DAYS
Morgan Shepherd captured Ford’s 400th series victory in 1993 when snow delayed the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 for nearly a week. The original race date was Sunday, March 14, 1992, but a blizzard that would eventually be called the ‘Storm of the Century’ pounded the Atlanta area with 6-8 inches of snow. An estimated 82,000 fans came back the following Saturday, where they were greeted by souvenir rigs that sports t-shirts proclaiming ‘I Survived the Atlanta Blizzard 500.’ When the race started Mark Martin had the dominant car as he led 140 of the first 225 laps, but engine problems put him out of the running and Shepherd took advantage as he stretched his fuel mileage to the finish, leading the final 12 laps and winning by a whopping 23.50 seconds. The win for Shepherd, who was 51 at the time, was his fourth and final victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.
SWEEP DREAMS
Marvin Panch was the first driver to sweep both AMS races in a single season when he did it in 1965 with the Wood Brothers. Georgia native Bill Elliott posted a pair of season sweeps (1985 and 1992) and won five times overall while Carl Edwards registered the first win of his career at the speedway in 2005 and matched it later that fall.
LORENZEN LAPS THE FIELD
Ford went to victory lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the first time in 1961 when NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen captured the Festival 250 on July 9 while driving for Holman-Moody. He did it in dominating fashion as well by lapping the field. Lorenzen, who led 52 laps on the day, beat runner-up Bob Welborn by one lap in his 1961 Ford. Richard Petty finished third that afternoon, but was three laps down. That victory served as a springboard for Lorenzen’s future success at AMS, which included becoming the first driver to win the Atlanta 500 three straight years (1962-63-64).
FORD’S ATLANTA CUP WINNERS
1961 – Fred Lorenzen
1962 – Fred Lorenzen
1963 – Fred Lorenzen
1964 – Fred Lorenzen and Ned Jarrett
1965 – Marvin Panch (sweep)
1967 – Cale Yarborough and Dick Hutcherson
1968 – LeeRoy Yarbrough
1969 – LeeRoy Yarbrough
1975 – Buddy Baker
1978 – Bobby Allison
1981 – Neil Bonnett
1985 – Bill Elliott (sweep)
1987 – Ricky Rudd and Bill Elliott
1990 – Morgan Shepherd
1991 – Mark Martin
1992 – Bill Elliott (sweep)
1993 – Morgan Shepherd
1994 – Ernie Irvan and Mark Martin
1997 – Dale Jarrett
2002 – Kurt Busch
2005 – Carl Edwards (sweep)
2008 – Carl Edwards
2017 – Brad Keselowski
2018 – Kevin Harvick
2019 – Brad Keselowski
2020 – Kevin Harvick
FORD’S ATLANTA XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
1992 – Jeff Gordon
1997 – Mark Martin
1998 – Mark Martin
2000 – Mark Martin
2004 – Matt Kenseth
2005 – Carl Edwards
2008 – Matt Kenseth
2011 – Carl Edwards
2012 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2018 – Kevin Harvick
FORD’S ATLANTA TRUCK SERIES WINNERS
2020 – Grant Enfinger
