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Blaney perseveres late for a Cup victory at Atlanta

By
Andrew Kim
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Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images.

In a late turn of events, Ryan Blaney overtook a dominating Kyle Larson and surged ahead under the final 10 laps to win the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 21, and claim his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2021 season.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Denny Hamlin, the regular-season points leader, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin’s teammate and winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Phoenix Raceway.

Prior to the race, Chase Elliott and Timmy Hill dropped to the rear of the field due to multiple pre-race inspection failures. For Hill, he was also assessed a pass-through penalty through pit road and his car chief was ejected due to his car failing pre-race inspection three times. Quin Houff also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments. 

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin pulled away with a strong start followed by Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick while Truex fell back to fourth. Behind, the field fanned out through two lanes.

Following the first lap, Hamlin was out in front while Harvick and Logano battled for the runner-up spot. Through Turn 2, Truex gained a run on both Harvick and Logano, but Harvick blocked and stalled Truex’s momentum. 

Through the first five laps of the event, Hamlin continued to lead by a narrow margin over Harvick with Logano trailing by less than half a second. Kyle Larson, making his 350th NASCAR national touring series start and who started sixth, moved up to fourth followed by teammate William Byron. Truex, meanwhile, fell back to sixth while Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski were in the top 10.

Over the next two laps, Larson advanced to third place over Logano, who was also pressured by Byron, who started ninth, for position. Behind, Truex was in sixth ahead of Blaney, Kurt Busch and Austin Dillon, all of whom were locked in a heated battle for position.

By Lap 10, Hamlin was ahead by half a second over Larson, who continued to muscle his way to the front with Harvick behind by a second. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick made an unscheduled pit stop after making early contact with the outside wall. 

While Hamlin and Larson pulled away from the field and by nearly two seconds over third-place Harvick, teammates Logano and Ryan Blaney battled for fifth place, Kyle Busch, winner of the Truck Series event at Atlanta and who started 19th, moved up into seventh place while Truex continued to lose positions. By Lap 16, he was in 10th after being overtaken by the Busch brothers and Austin Dillon.

By Lap 20, Hamlin extended his advantage to more than a second over Larson with Harvick trailing by more than three seconds. Byron and Blaney, who started 10th, were in the top five followed by Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Logano, Austin Dillon and Truex. Brad Keselowski, meanwhile, was back in 12th behind Alex Bowman, who was making his 250th NASCAR national touring series start. Chase Elliott, on the other hand, was up in 16th after starting at the rear of the field.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 25, Hamlin remained in the lead by more than half a second over Larson with Harvick, Blaney and Kyle Busch in the top five, thus dropping Byron to sixth place. By then, 31 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap. 

Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Larson emerged with the lead over Hamlin followed by Harvick, Blaney and Kyle Busch. Following the pit stops, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Corey LaJoie were sent to the rear of the field after both were busted for speeding on pit road.

Prior to the restart, Harvick returned to pit road after his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang suffered a flat left-rear tire.

When the race restarted on Lap 30, Larson and Hamlin were locked in a heated battle for the lead through the first two turns. Hamlin received a push from Blaney to squeak ahead on the outside lane entering Turn 3, but Larson fought back on the inside lane to retain the lead when the field returned to the start/finish line.

Shortly after, Blaney overtook Hamlin for second, who was also pressured by Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. While Kurt Busch and Hamlin battled for third place, Kyle Busch battled Logano for fifth place. 

By Lap 35, Larson continued to lead by nearly half a second over Blaney. Behind, Kurt Bush and Hamlin continued to battle for third place.

Five laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than a second over Blaney with Hamlin, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch in the top five. Bowman, teammate Byron, Logano, Truex and Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Elliott was up in 11th ahead of Matt DiBenedetto, Cole Custer, teammate Aric Almirola and Ryan Newman. Christopher Bell was in 16th, Austin Dillon was back in 18th, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez were in 21st and 22nd ahead of Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric, making his second Cup career start, was in 24th ahead of Erik Jones. Rookies Chase Briscoe and Anthony Alfredo were in 28th and 29th while Harvick was back in 32nd place, the final car on the lead lap. Tyler Reddick was in 33rd, two laps behind the leaders.

By Lap 50, the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE piloted by Larson was out in front of the field and by more than two seconds over Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry. Blaney, racing in the BODYARMOR Ford Mustang, continued to run in third place ahead of a charging No. 18 M&M’s Messages Toyota Camry driven by Kyle Busch. Brother Kurt was in fifth ahead of Bowman, Truex, Byron, Keselowski and Elliott.

Ten laps later, Larson continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by over three seconds over Hamlin with teammate Kyle Busch trailing in third place by less than four seconds. While Blaney and Kurt Busch continued to run in the top five, Elliott moved up to eighth place ahead of teammate Byron and Keselowski.

Another four laps later, pit stops under green commenced as Hamlin pitted followed by race leader Larson, DiBenedetto, Almirola, Blaney, Bowman, Kurt Busch, Logano, Harvick, Keselowski, Truex, Elliott, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Byron, Bubba Wallace and others. 

By Lap 67 and with most of the leaders pitting under green, Larson was back out in front by more than a second over Hamlin with teammate Kyle Busch retaining third place. Meanwhile, Harvick, who was in 27th, was able to remain ahead of leader Larson and on the lead lap. 

Through the first 75 laps of the event and with the leaders mired around lapped traffic, Larson was the leader by more than three seconds over Hamlin with teammate Kyle Busch behind by four seconds. Blaney was in fourth while Bowman, racing in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, moved up to fifth place. By then, Harvick, who tried to remain in front of leader Larson, was lapped, thus making Austin Cindric the final competitor on the lead lap.

Fifteen laps later, Larson remained as the leader by six seconds over Kyle Busch, who earlier overtook teammate Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Blaney also moved up to third place while Hamlin and Kurt Busch were in the top five. Bowman, Truex, Elliott, Keselowski and Byron rounded out the top 10.

By Lap 100 and in the final laps of the first stage, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than seven seconds over Kyle Busch with Blaney trailing by more than nine seconds, Kurt Busch by nearly 11 seconds, Hamlin by more than 12 seconds and Bowman by more than 13 seconds.

With a fast car in the early stages of the event, Larson was able to cruise to the first stage victory on Lap 105 and with a seven-second advantage over Kyle Busch. Blaney settled in third followed by Kurt Busch and Hamlin while Bowman, Truex, Elliott, Chris Buescher and Byron were scored in the top 10. By then, 19 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap, with names like Aric Almirola, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, McDowell, Harvick, Cindric, Erik Jones and Briscoe pinned a lap behind.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road with the top spot followed by Kyle Busch, Blaney, Elliott, teammate Bowman and Kurt Busch. Following the pit stops, Chastain was penalized for an uncontrolled tire.

The second stage started on Lap 112 with the two Kyles on the front row. At the start, Larson pulled away on the inside lane while Kyle Busch struggled to go on the outside lane and caused a stack up with Elliott running into the rear bumper of Busch’s No. 18 Toyota. Behind, Kurt Busch, who was behind Elliott, was bumped and turned by Hamlin as Busch’s No. 1 Chevrolet made hard contact against the outside wall entering Turn 1. Though Busch limped his car back to pit road, the damage was enough to end his strong run early.

Under caution, some like Hamlin, Logano, Suarez and Almirola pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

The race restarted on Lap 118 with teammates Larson and Byron on the front row. At the start, Blaney muscled his way into the lead over the Hendrick teammates. While Blaney led himself a lap, Larson, with a strong, fast car, was able to reassume the advantage by Lap 120. Behind, Keselowski sustained damage to his fender and hood as a result of running into the back of Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry.

By Lap 130, Larson was leading by nearly three seconds over Blaney, who had Bowman closing in for position. DiBenedetto and Byron were in the top five followed by Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Buescher, Elliott and Stenhouse.

Twenty laps later, Larson increased his advantage to six seconds over Blaney. By then, Suarez was scored in the top 10 as he was in 10th place behind Buescher.

Nearing the Lap 160 mark, a second round of pit stops under green occurred as the leaders pitted. When the field cycled through following the pit stops and the race reaching the halfway mark, Larson was back out in front by more than five seconds over teammate Bowman with Blaney, DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch in the top five.

By Lap 175, Larson continued to lead by more than seven seconds over teammate Bowman with Blaney trailing by more than eight seconds. DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch continued to run in the top five followed by Byron, Austin Dillon, Hamlin, Buescher and Truex. Suarez, Elliott and Logano were 11th, 14th and 15th while Wallace was in 17th. Harvick, meanwhile, was mired back in 20th, two laps behind the leaders, while Keselowski was in 29th, three laps behind.

Fifteen laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than nine seconds over teammate Bowman as he continued to set sail with a fast car.

By Lap 200 and in the final laps of the second stage, Larson was leading by nearly 11 seconds over Blaney with third-place Bowman trailing by more than 12 seconds.

With no challengers lurking close behind, Larson was able to cruise to the second stage victory on Lap 210. Blaney crossed the line in second place, trailing by less than eight seconds, followed by Bowman, Kyle Busch and Byron while DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Hamlin and Suarez settled in the top 10 and with stage points. By then, 14 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap. While Ryan Newman and Elliott remained on the lead lap at the time of caution, names like Logano, Cole Custer, Bubba Wallace, Almirola, McDowell, Harvick, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Cindric, Briscoe, Jones, Reddick and Keselowski were pinned at least a lap behind. Logano, though, received the free pass to return on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road with the lead by a narrow nose over Blaney followed by Bowman, teammate Byron, Kyle Busch and DiBenedetto.

With 108 laps remaining, the final stage commenced with teammates Larson and Byron on the front row. At the start, Larson retained the lead followed by Blaney, Bowman, Kyle Busch and Byron while Hamlin made a run alongside DiBenedetto and Suarez behind.

Two laps later, the caution returned due to fluid on the track when smoke started billowing out of Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE entering Turn 4. Though Elliott was able to limp his car back to his pit stall, his crew ended up taking the car to the garage as Elliott’s race came to an end at his home track due to a mechanical failure.

Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and this time, Blaney exited the pits with the lead over Larson followed by Bowman, Kyle Busch and Byron. Following the pit stops, however, Kyle Busch was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road.

Prior to the restart, 21 competitor opted for the wave around, with five returning on the lead lap, including Harvick. With than, 20 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap.

With 101 laps remaining, the race restarted with Blaney and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Blaney retained the lead while Larson and Hamlin battled for the runner-up spot along with DiBenedetto.

Six laps later, Blaney was the leader by less than two-tenths of a second over Larson, who worked his way back into the runner-up spot, while Hamlin, Bowman and DiBenedetto were in the top five.

With 90 laps remaining, Blaney stabilized his advantage by four-tenths of a second over Larson with Hamlin, Bowman and Austin Dillon in the top five. By then, names like DiBenedetto, Suarez, Buescher, Newman and Truex were in the top 10 while Byron, Kyle Busch, Logano and Harvick were in 11th, 13th, 15th and 16th.

Two laps later, Larson reassumed the lead over Blaney, who had debris on the front grille of his car.

With 75 laps remaining, Larson was out in front by more than two seconds over Blaney while Hamlin, Bowman and Austin Dillon continued to run in the top five. By then, Suarez, in his sixth race with the newly formed Trackhouse Racing Team, moved up to sixth place ahead of Buescher and DiBenedetto. Behind, Truex and Byron were in the top 10 followed by Kyle Busch.

While Daniel Suarez and Trackhouse Racing Team were in sixth, Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing were inside the top 15. B.J. McLeod, driving for the newly formed Live Fast Motorsports, was in 34th.

Fifteen laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to a second over Blaney, with the latter starting to decrease the deficit to himself and the leader. Hamlin, Bowman and Austin Dillon remained in the top five while Suarez, Buescher, DiBenedetto, Truex and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10. Byron fell back to 11th followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Wallace, Harvick, Newman and Logano.

A lap later, another round of pit stops under green occurred, starting with Truex pitting followed by others, with the teams filling the cars with enough fuel to get to the finish. During the pit stops, rookie Anthony Alfredo spun on pit road and nearly collided against Almirola and his pit crew during Almirola’s service. Despite the incident, the race continued under green.

With 50 laps remaining and the pit stops completed, Larson was back out in front by more than two seconds over Blaney. Bowman was in third followed by Hamlin and Austin Dillon. Teammates Truex and Kyle Busch were in sixth and seventh followed by Byron, Buescher and DiBenedetto. Suarez, who was running in the top 10, was back in 19th, a lap down, after speeding while exiting pit road.

Ten laps later, Larson continued to dominate with an advantage of three seconds over Blaney. Bowman trailed by less than seven seconds in third place while Hamlin and Austin Dillon continued to run in the top five. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, moved up to sixth place over teammate Truex while Byron, Buescher and DiBenedetto continued to run in the top 10.

With 25 laps remaining and the field reaching the Lap 300 mark, Larson was still leading by more than two seconds over Blaney with third-place Bowman trailing by more than eight seconds and fourth-place Hamlin trailing by less than 10 seconds. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, was in fifth place, trailing the lead by less than 15 seconds, following an earlier pass on Austin Dillon.

Five laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Blaney with third-place Bowman trailing by more than nine seconds. By then, 15 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap, with Logano running in 15th place while Wallace was lapped in 16th place.

With the laps winding down and the race transitioning to night conditions, Blaney started to narrow the deficit between himself and Larson, with the former behind by less than a second.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson was leading by four-tenths of a second over Blaney, who continued to close on Larson with a fast car. By then, Larson was mired behind Logano, who was trying to remain on the lead lap, and was having his large advantage slipping away.

Two laps later, Blaney emerged with the lead in Turn 4 following a battle with Larson and following his late surge for the lead. Shortly after, he pulled away with a four-tenths of a second advantage over Larson, with both overtaking Logano and putting him a lap behind.

Shortly after, Corey LaJoie made contact with the wall, but the race remained under green as LaJoie limped back to pit road.

With five laps remaining, Blaney pulled away by more than a second over Larson with Bowman trailing by less than nine seconds.

Not long after and when the final race started, Blaney continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Larson. With no challengers mounting behind, Blaney was able to come back around following his late surge and grab the checkered flag by two seconds over Larson.

With his victory, Blaney became the sixth different winner through the first six races of the 2021 season as he also claimed his fifth Cup career victory and first since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in June 2020. He also recorded the first Cup victory of the season for Team Penske.

“Gosh, we had a great long run car all day,” Blaney said on FOX. “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. He got slowed up behind some lap traffic, but I’m really proud of this whole BodyArmor, Menards No. 12 group. 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.”

Larson, who led a race-high 269 of 325 laps, finished in second place for the second time at Atlanta and for his third top-five result in four races this season.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Larson said. “I think [Blaney] 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.”

Bowman finished in third place for his first top-five result of the season while teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch finished in the top five.

Austin Dillon, Buescher, Byron, Truex and Harvick finished in the top 10 on the track. 

DiBenedetto finished 11th, Logano settled in 15th ahead of Wallace and Suarez, Cindric finished 22nd in his second Cup career start, Briscoe was the highest-finishing rookie in 23rd and Keselowski ended his run in 28th.

There were 11 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 25 laps. 

Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 43 points over Larson, 63 over Logano, 65 over Truex, 71 over Keselowski and 74 over Harvick.

Results.

1. Ryan Blaney, 25 laps led

2. Kyle Larson, 269 laps led, Stage 1 and 2 winner

3. Alex Bowman

4. Denny Hamlin, 27 laps led

5. Kyle Busch

6. Austin Dillon

7. Chris Buescher

8. William Byron, two laps led

9. Martin Truex Jr. 

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Matt DiBenedetto

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. Ryan Newman

14. Ross Chastain

15. Joey Logano, one lap down

16. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

17. Daniel Suarez, one lap down, one lap led

18. Cole Custer, one lap down

19. Michael McDowell, one lap down

20. Aric Almirola, one lap down

21. Christopher Bell, two laps down

22. Austin Cindric, two laps down

23. Chase Briscoe, two laps down

24. Erik Jones, two laps down

25. Ryan Preece, two laps down

26. Tyler Reddick, two laps down

27. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down

28. Brad Keselowski, four laps down

29. Corey LaJoie, six laps down

30. Justin Haley, six laps down

31. Cody Ware, nine laps down

32. James Davison, nine laps down

33. Quin Houff, 11 laps down

34. B.J. McLeod, 12 laps down

35. Joey Gase, 17 laps down

36. Timmy Hill, 20 laps down

37. Josh Bilicki, 40 laps down

38. Chase Elliott – OUT, Engine

39. Kurt Busch – OUT, Accident, one lap led

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the highly anticipated Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course on Sunday, March 28, which will mark the series’ first event on dirt since 1970. The event is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

RCR Post Race Report – Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

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

Finish: 6th
Start: 13th
Points: 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

Finish: 26th
Start: 29th
Points: 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

CHEVY NCS AT ATLANTA: Post-Race Notes and Quotes

By
Official Release
-

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. DRIVER
2nd KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
3rd ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
6th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE
8th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st 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 2nd
YOU 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 17th
YOU 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.”

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 75 countries with nearly 4 million cars and trucks sold in 2019. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found www.chevrolet.com.

Ryan Blaney Wins the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

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HAMPTON, Ga. (Sept. 20, 2018) – All of Ryan Blaney’s NASCAR Cup Series wins have come with a move in the final 10 laps of a race.

The 27-year-old did it for a fifth time Sunday, ripping the victory away from Kyle Larson with eight laps to go in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Blaney’s previous best finish at the 1.5-mile quad-oval track was fourth. He started 10th and lurked until he found an opening to pounce.

“Gosh, we had a great long-run car all day,” Blaney said. “It took us a little bit to get going, but I was pretty free all day. We made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it and it looked like Kyle was getting loose.

“I’m happy it worked in our favor that there were a couple long runs at the end that helped us get there. We’re been good this year and had some bad breaks so it’s nice to close out a race like that. That was awesome.”

Larson led 269 of the 325 laps, but quickly lost touch with Blaney once the pass was executed. He was bidding to become the first repeat winner this season. Instead, Blaney became the sixth driver to take a checkered flag.

Blaney briefly edged ahead coming out of a caution on Lap 221, but trash caught in the grill caused the third-generation driver to cede the lead back to Larson 15 laps later.

Larson, who used a quick pit to take the lead coming out of the competition caution on Lap 31, won Stage 1 by nearly seven seconds.

He also claimed Stage 2 by eight seconds and only 14 cars remained on the lead lap.

“I think (Blaney) just got a lot better there in that last stage and it changed up my flow of the race,” Larson said. “He was fast there and I just wanted to maintain that gap I had. So I had to run on the faster part of the race track and use my stuff up.

“I hate to lead a lot of laps and lose. It was a really good car we brought to the track. Our Hendricks Cars.com Chevy was stupid fast there for a long time. I don’t know if we got that much worse or he got that much better.”

Alex Bowman finished third. Denny Hamlin, the series points leader, put together his fifth top-five finish in the first six races. Hamlin was fourth.

Kyle Busch was fifth after quite a few ups and downs.

He and Chase Elliott were the big movers early.

Busch, who won the Camping World Truck Series race Saturday, started 19th and marched his way into the top five by the time the competition caution came out. Halfway through Stage 1, Busch was third. He slid past series points leader and pole sitter Denny Hamlin for second place before the stage ended.

Busch fell back to seventh following the crash of his brother, Kurt, on Lap 113. He worked his way back to fourth by the end of Stage 2 before a speeding penalty on pit row dropped him to 20th.

Elliott, the hometown star and defending Cup champion, had to start from the back of the field after failures during pre-race inspection. The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy was slated to start fifth.

Similar issues last week in Phoenix forced the 25-year-old from Dawsonville to work his way through the field and Elliott finished fifth.

He chipped away at the pack, getting to the middle in just eight laps and cracking the top 10 on Lap 37.

But Elliott had to battle to remain on the lead lap as Stage 2 ended and, on Lap 220, a blown motor ended his day.

“I hate it for sure,” Elliott said. “We feel like our car was pretty decent. We drove up there and got up in the top 10. So I felt like we were in a decent position to work on it throughout the day.

“But I appreciate all the effort. It was great to be home in Georgia. I wish we could have had a good result. We’ll try again at Bristol.”

Kurt Busch was knocked out on Lap 113 when the first four rows got bunched up going to green. Elliot, who had gained four spots under caution to move into fourth, and Hamlin had minor abrasions. Kurt Busch got the worst of it, by far, spinning up into the wall and sustaining day-ended damage.

“This hurts the worst because we had a top-5 car,” Kurt Busch said. “Like, dude, it’s a restart. Chill.”

Kevin Harvick, who had won two of the last three Atlanta races, and Kurt Busch also suffered some tough luck.

Harvick was the defending champ, winning with no fans in the stands due to the pandemic last June, but a flat tire during the competition caution spoiled his day. Harvick battled to stay on the lead lap until Larson scooted past him on Lap 74.

He got an opening late in the race to get the lap back and fought his way to a 10th-place finish.

Also among the top 10 were Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, William Byron and Martin Truex Jr.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway July 11th for the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart. Tickets are available online at atlantamotorspeedway.com.

Ford Performance NASCAR: Blaney Drive Ford to Fifth Straight Atlanta Cup Win

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Ford Performance Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series – Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
Atlanta Motor Speedway | Sunday, March 21, 2021

FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
1st — Ryan Blaney
7th — Chris Buescher
10th — Kevin Harvick
11th — Matt DiBenedetto
13th — Ryan Newman
15th — Joey Logano
18th — Cole Custer
19th — Michael McDowell
20th — Aric Almirola
22nd — Austin Cindric
23rd — Chase Briscoe
27th — Anthony Alfredo
28th — Brad Keselowski
34th — BJ McLeod
36th — Timmy Hill
37th — Josh Bilicki

BLANEY GIVES FORD FIFTH STRAIGHT CUP WIN AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

  • Ryan Blaney piloted his No. 12 Ford to victory today at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
  • The victory marks his fifth career NCS win and gives Ford its fifth straight Cup win at AMS.
  • Today’s win is Ford’s 706th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
  • Of Team Penske’s 80 NCS wins with Ford, 53 have come since rejoining Ford in 2013.

FORD PERFORMANCE QUOTES

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang — VICTORY LANE QUOTES

YOUR CAR CAME TO LIFE AT THE END. “Gosh, we had a great long run car all day. 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. He got slowed up behind some lap traffic, but I’m really proud of this whole BodyArmor, Menards No. 12 group. 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.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN THE BOOTH YESTERDAY THAT HELPED TODAY? “Definitely. I might have to start doing it every week I guess now, but thank you to all the fans for coming out. It’s awesome to see fans again. It’s really cool. Thank you BodyArmor, Menards, Ford, DEX Imaging. We couldn’t do it without them and looking forward to sliding around a little bit more next week at Bristol.”

IT LOOKED LIKE THE 5 WAS THE CAR TO BEAT. “The 5 was crazy fast there the whole race and then we started closing in. Our car got a lot better there. I think towards the end of stage two it was starting to get there and then before that last green flag stop it really came to life and he was starting to struggle getting really free. I don’t know if the track changed or what, but we were just tightening it up all day. I’m happy there were a couple long runs at the end. That’s where our strong suit was and we capitalized on it. I can’t thank BodyArmor, Menards, DEX, Advance Auto Parts enough for what they do and Ford. It’s cool to get a win at Atlanta. I love this place. It’s nice to have a good run here and win.”

HOW NICE TO WIN IN FRONT OF FANS HERE TODAY? “It’s great. I was able to see them in the Fox booth yesterday to look down on them and it’s just awesome. It’s great that fans are finally able to come back and I’m looking forward to when they can be in the garage again and we can interact with them, but just the energy getting out of your car. That’s the big thing that I miss and thank you to everybody who came out on this beautiful Sunday.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang

“It was a good day. I’m pretty happy with that from start to finish. We were able to fire off and make some progress and head forward and stay with it all day. We didn’t really have to work on much. This car has a lot of similar characteristics to our Homestead car and definitely feel pretty good about these low grip racetracks. We’ll keep working on it and try to tweak on that a little bit and get it to a top five and ultimately winning a race.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang

“Not the day we were looking for with our Shell-Pennzoil Mustang. We fought the handling most of the race and kept adjusting on it. We’ll keep working on the 550 tracks and we’ll get stronger. Congrats to Blaney and the 12 team, that’s a great win.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 33 Pirtek Ford Mustang

“I would say that having all the fenders on here and getting as much green flag running as I did today definitely taught me a lot and learned a lot. That was my goal, picking this race, getting long green and learning all I can about these cars in tough situations. I feel like our strength was definitely on the long run and we just lacked track position and went too many laps down too early. We had to fight that a lot of the day and just little things here and there and that’s where it counts in this series. I’m looking forward to the next one. Hopefully, we’ll find some track position and try and get closer to the top 10.”

DID YOU TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO FOLLOW SOME VETERANS AND LEARN AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE RACE? “I’d say whenever I was getting lapped I was learning how slow I was. I don’t know how much I learned or not. Early in the runs I feel like our biggest weakness was we just seemed to be too slow with as much on-throttle time as I was getting. I definitely seemed to learn some things there. It paid dividends for me on the long run, but just not enough to overcome where we started.”

Toyota Racing NCS Post-Race Recap — Atlanta 3.21.21

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HAMLIN, BUSCH SCORE TOP-FIVE FINISHES IN ATLANTA
Denny Hamlin continues strong start to the season with a fourth-place finish

ATLANTA (March 21, 2021) – Denny Hamlin (fourth) and Kyle Busch (fifth) drove their Camrys to top-five finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday evening.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race 6 of 36 – 500.5 miles, 325 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ryan Blaney*
2nd, Kyle Larson*
3rd, Alex Bowman*
4th, DENNY HAMLIN
5th, KYLE BUSCH
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
16th, BUBBA WALLACE
21st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th

What more did you need to break into the top-three for the finish today?

“Just not fast enough. It’s kind of the story so far. We’re getting our balance decently close, but just not enough speed, not enough balance, handling – not enough grip. Just need more speed. We’ll go to work on it. Just trying to gather a notebook. I just hate that we’re having these clean races and everything, but there’s always just one or two cars that are a little bit faster.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Messaging Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th

Did your race car come back to life as the temperatures cooled off late in the race?

“I thought we were good all day. The M&M’s Messages Camry was fast. Every time I would log my way and claw my way up to the front, we would have a problem. I had a restart issue that sent us back seven spots. Got back up to third and then we sped on pit road. Got back up to fifth. That’s all it is, all day long is just a claw and that’s all you can do. There’s not enough separation in speed between cars and fall-off and all that sort of stuff. Great job by the guys. We definitely improved our car. It was good in the early stages and even better in the late stages, but everybody else was better too. That’s all we had.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th

What did you struggle with throughout the race with the handling of the car?

“For us, we struggled a bit all day honestly with the Bass Pro Camry. Never could get it to do what I wanted and needed it to do. Really fought not having good front grip and then really losing the front tires on the long runs. We couldn’t really loosen the car up because I was sliding the backend all over the place at the same time. Just not a good setup, not a good day. Battled all day and came home with a top-10, which is okay, but nothing like we would normally run here. Have to go back and figure out where we messed up and what we changed that made it so much worse than what we’ve had here the last two trips.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit ToyotaNewsroom.com

Era Motorsport Finishes Second in Sebring Twelve Hour Debut

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., (March 21, 2021) – In their first attempt at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, Era Motorsport earned a second-place finish on Saturday in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event. The No. 18 Oreca of Kyle Tilley, Dwight Merriman, and Ryan Dalziel started third and endured a long twelve hours of racing to earn the coveted podium position, two months after celebrating victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

After one of his better runs to date, Dwight Merriman put in an impressive qualifying session on Friday afternoon, setting the team up to start third on the grid for Saturday’s big race. True to her usual form, Sebring International Raceway provided a race full of excitement, calamity, and incredible racing over the course of the twelve hours. A series of bad timing on full course cautions interrupted the team’s strategy, eventually putting the blue Oreca down a lap, though still in second place. The team never gave up, working consistently to maintain position in hopes that another caution period would grant the passaround needed to get back on the lead lap, sure enough, with less than 30 minutes to go, another incident brought the No. 18 back on the lead lap for a brief 20-minute sprint to the checker flag. Despite the effort, the team finished second, securing a strong podium result in a grueling race, and valuable points to go towards the championship.

The second-place finish marks the end of the team’s winning streak in 2021, having scored class victories in five races before last weekend’s festivities. However, with the podium result, the team now stands second in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship LMP2 full-season standings, as well as the Michelin Endurance Cup. Up next, the team heads to Barcelona in April 12-13 for a European Le Mans Series test before competing in the opening round of the season, the 4 Hours of Barcelona, on April 17-18.

Kyle Tilley
“If you had told us at the start of the race that we’d be finishing second, we’d probably be pretty happy with the result, but now with seeing what a strong performance we put in and how close we were to first position at the end, its hard to be completely satisfied. We were really aiming to have our sixth straight win this weekend, and it would have been nice to win the double of Daytona and Sebring. It came down to it at the end. We’ll go home, have a think and see what we can do better next time. Onto Barcelona.”

Dwight Merriman
“While everyone is a little disappointed that we didn’t earn our sixth win in six races today, I’m still very proud of our second-place finish in our first Twelve Hours of Sebring. This track is legendary, and this race is incredibly demanding.”

Ryan Dalziel
“That was definitely an exciting race. Obviously, everybody wants to win, but considering where we were with a couple of hours to go, second place is still a little disappointing. We just got caught with a couple of bad yellows that put us a lap down. We got thrown a good luck charm there at the end and it put us back on the lead lap. It was an exciting last 30 minutes. The 52 car had the legs on us throughout the race, so to be as close as we were is a personal victory for us.”

About Era Motorsport
Era Motorsport was formed in 2018 with the idea of providing unmatched excellence in historic racing. Just two years later, the team expanded to the world of professional sport car racing, fielding an Oreca 07 in the prolific IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Motorsport isn’t just a hobby, it is a way of life: a passion that is in the team’s blood. Whether you find us in the IMSA WeatherTech paddock with modern prototypes or chasing down lap records in our fully restored classic sports cars, or even globetrotting to experience historic F1 at some of the world’s most iconic circuits, Era Motorsport has something for everyone. In 2021, the team will return to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for limited events and also contest in the full season of the Asian Le Mans championship.

Oscar Teran Takes Trans Am Victory at Charlotte

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Sam Mayer and Mark Brummond claim class wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA (21 March 2021)- After a 21-year hiatus, Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli returned to Charlotte Motor Speedway for 100-miles of all green-flag racing on the track’s legendary Roval on Sunday.

Breathless Racing driver Oscar Teran drove the No. 3 Ford Mustang from pole to claim his first victory in the inaugural Trans Am ProAm Challenge race. Teran started his motorsport career in 1997, earning championships in multiple disciplines across Central America. The Panama native has three Trans Am starts since 2015 and made the third one count with his run to victory lane.

“This is the first Trans Am race I finished, and to finish in the first position is great,” said Teran. “Sebring was a nightmare race for me and between races, the Breathless team took care of all the little details on the car and now I have a winning car. Thank you to the Breathless Racing team for putting in the hard work to get me on the top step.”

It wasn’t a straightforward run from pole to the top of the podium though as Teran had is work cut out for him on a very heated final circuit. Crossing the stripe with nearly a four-second lead, Teran hit mixed-class traffic on the last lap, allowing TA2® class drivers Sam Mayer and Ty Gibbs to close the gap on the more powerful Trans Am car.

On the final straight, once again Teran had to navigate around a slower class car, but was able to hold off the prowling future NASCAR stars, claiming the checkered just .246-seconds ahead of Mayer in the No. 8 M1-SLR/Fields Chevrolet Camaro.

Mayer edged out Gibbs by .222-seconds for a second-place overall finish and his first class victory. Gibbs in the No. 26 Mike Cope Race Cars finished third overall, and second in class.

“We were trying to conserve tires the whole time to stay up with the TA car which was really fast,” explained Mayer. “I am really proud of our performance and I learned a lot from driving on this Roval. Ty (Gibbs) and I will be here later this year for the Xfinity playoffs, so he and I will have another fun battle doing that. Hopefully I will win again.”

Conner Mosak (NicTailor/IFS M1-SLR/Fields Chevrolet Camaro) did not turn any qualifying laps on Saturday and started in nearly last place. Charging through the field, Mosak made up 11 positions to finish fourth overall and third in class for TA2®.

Simon Gregg (No. 59 ThePeterGreggFoundation Chevrolet Camaro) and Ken Thwaits in his brand-new No. 5 Franklin Road Apparel Chevrolet Camaro rounded out the TA class podium.

Charlotte local Mark Brummond out-wheeled Natalie Decker, who was piloting Brummond’s old Audi R8, to finish first in the SGT class. Brummond decided to enter the race last minute to shake down his newly rebuilt No. 24 GarageDoorDoctor/DynamicAutoTune BMW M4 GT for next weekend’s Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta round.

“This car got wrapped up at CoTA last season so we wanted to get some laps in before next week’s round at Road Atlanta,” said Brummond. “We decided not to run on stickers, these Pirelli tires have about five hours of race wear. The car held together and the racing was fun, and that’s what we came here to do.”

NASCAR Xfinity drivers Harrison Burton and Brandon Jones returned after missing qualifying on Saturday due to the Xfinity race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Burton finished third.

Both driving for Silver Hare Racing this weekend, Burton and Jones started from the back of the field since they did not turn qualifying laps. Running in tandem, the pair cut through the field, making up a collective 19 positions to finish fifth (Burton) and sixth (Jones) overall.

With a quick turnaround, the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli returns to action next weekend (March 26-28) for Round 2 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The weekend will be live-streamed exclusively on the Trans Am by Pirelli Racing App. Download and subscribe: https://bit.ly/2Z9IJKq

Fourth Place Finish for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 Team at the 12 Hours of Sebring

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Sebring, Fla. (March 21, 2021) – The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 finished in the fourth position for the 69th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring after battling adversity despite showing strong speed for the majority of the historic race event.

Ricky Taylor took the green flag at 10:10 a.m. ET and immediately started on the front foot, demonstrating excellent speed throughout the opening stints. Teammates Filipe Albuquerque and Alexander Rossi were in a similar mood, as they too continued to maneuver the blue and black No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 at the sharp end of the field. However, misfortune struck with 3 hours and 46 minutes remaining when Albuquerque was involved in an unfortunate incident with a GTD car at Turn 7.

As a result of the incident, the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05’s speed was compromised for the remainder of the race and despite the setback, the team soldiered on to the finish to secure important points in the championship chase.

“We came away today with some decent championship points,” said Ricky Taylor. “The entire team did a great job today. We had a fantastic car all weekend. The car was so strong and it’s such a shame that we were fighting a bit wounded at the end of the race. Filipe and Alex did an awesome job and all the calls throughout the day were great. Our main rivals, the No. 31 and the No. 01, had more misfortune than we did, so we have a little bit of a buffer going into the remainder of the season. There are so many good cars and we’re going to have to continue to fight in Mid-Ohio.”

“Sebring was being Sebring tonight,” said Filipe Albuquerque. “Chaotic, crazy, unpredictable. There were so many ups and downs for everyone. We finished fourth and we couldn’t do any better, we had two penalties and a lot happened to us. We were still in contention, but then we had a problem on track which enabled us not to fight with fair tools. Alex did what we could with what he had. So, fourth is okay in the championship when a couple other teams had bigger problems than us. It’s a shame not to win again when we were looking so good today.”

“The day was really promising at times,” mused Alexander Rossi. “At various stages the No. 10 Konica Minolta car was the car to beat. Everything was looking really good for the first eight hours of the race, but with these endurance races there are a lot of variables and things that can happen. We seemed to have some sort of mechanical issue that prevented some straight-line and acceleration performance. It lasted for the final three and a half hours of the race, so it made our job really difficult. We were in good position when we could run by ourselves, but as soon as we stacked up with restarts it exacerbated the issue that we had, but such is racing. The car is home in one piece, and I think everyone on the team did a great job.”

“It was a bit of a rough day,” said Wayne Taylor. “Our guys never gave up as usually. The drivers did a good job, and we had a good strategy. We really had a good car, but we just had an unfortunate incident and then got two drive through penalties. With that incident we broke an engine component, so we were a bit down on power. We still got some solid points as we look to the first sprint race of the season in May.”

The 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to action May 14-16 for the Acura Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio which is the first sprint race of the season. Full time drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will be on hand as the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 look to continue their quest for the championship.

About Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. is reshaping and revolutionizing the Workplace of the Future™ with its expansive smart office product portfolio from IT Services (All Covered), ECM, Managed Print Services and industrial and commercial print solutions. Konica Minolta has been recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for thirteen consecutive years, and the World Technology Awards recently named the company a finalist in the IT Software category. Konica Minolta, Inc. has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for nine consecutive years and has spent three years on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list. Konica Minolta partners with its clients to give shape to ideas and work to bring value to our society. For more information, please visit us online and follow Konica Minolta on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. Wayne Taylor Racing’s existing lineup of partners that also features Harrison Contracting, Acura Motorsports, Hammer Nutrition and CIT.

CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: What Might Have Been

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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.”

About Chevrolet
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