Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 6 Leidos Ford Mustang, recorded a sixth-place finish in the NASCAR XFINITY Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday after overcoming a loose-handling car for much of the afternoon.
On the heels of his win in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Ryan Reed earned a 10th-place starting spot in his No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang. Over the course of the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway the handling went from extremely tight to loose, resulting in an 18th-place finish.
DARRELL WALLACE JR. (No. 6 Leidos Ford Mustang) - Finished 6th “We like to lay low. I am all about that. I was frustrated as hell that first run but I told myself that this was exactly what we had talked about and we would come back. And we did. We have a new attitude at the shop and we are all about not giving up."
Ford and Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski was a very vocal proponent of the new aero package instituted by NASCAR for 2017 which reduces the downforce on the race cars. Ford Performance caught up with Keselowski to discuss his thoughts after hitting the track in Atlanta under the new rules.
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) -- WALK THROUGH THAT FINAL ROUND QUALIFYING LAP. “Yeah, that was the best our car had been and for me the most comfortable because I could see where I was going into turn one.
Ryan Newman led the charge for Team Chevy in qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) laying down a lap of 29.199 seconds/189.870 mph in the final round of knock-out qualifying for Sunday’s Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race, the second event of the 2017 campaign. Newman leads all active drivers with seven career poles at the 1.5-mile, Hampton, Georgia track. The driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS led a contingent of five Bowtie branded drivers in the final qualifying order.
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) - Qualified 1st “We have had two different styles of body on this chassis so I think that says a lot about our team. Rodney (Childers) and everybody on this No. 4 Jimmy John’s Busch Ford do a good job. We didn’t spend very much time at all on qualifying today."
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 2nd - WHEN WE’VE GOT DAYTONA BEHIND US AND YOU’VE GOT SPEED AT ATLANTA, HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS? “’Well, it’s big. I’m just proud of everybody at RCR and ECR with this Caterpillar Chevrolet. We were so close. I really wanted to beat my old buddy, Buddy Baker’s record there. Been tied with him for a while so that was kind of rough. But I’m just proud of the guys and proud of the effort. It is the litmus test for us for a lot of the rest of the season. It was a good start for sure.”
NASCAR veteran J.J. Yeley will drive the No. 5 Jobber Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Hettinger Racing in the Ag-Pro 300 Saturday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
One-point-one seconds made the difference for Alex Palou to exit pit lane ahead of Felix Rosenqvist and score the victory on the streets of Long Beach.
It was a challenging day for Josh Berry and the No. 21 DEX team at Kansas Speedway, ending in a 27th-place finish in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 after starting 30th.
