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Scott Steckly leads final practice for Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at CTMP

Photo Credit: Nedlaw Photos

Two-time series champion and current points leader Scott Steckly led the final practice for the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. He topped the charts with a lap of one minute and 23.271 seconds.

Steckly, who finished third at CTMP in May, currently holds a four point lead over D.J. Kennington. That marked his highest career finish at CTMP as he has yet to score a win on the Bowmanville, Ontario road course. Steckly has won four races so far this season.

L.P. Dumoulin, who led the first practice, was second quickest on the charts with a lap of one minute and 23.658 seconds. The driver of the No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge won the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park race in May and currently sits fourth in points.

Jeff Lapcevich was third quickest behind the wheel of his No. 23 Tim Hortons Dodge. Lapcevich has made five starts this season, with his best finish being second back in May at CTMP. In seven starts on the road course, he has yet to win a race, though has six top 10 finishes.

J.R. Fitzpatrick was fourth quickest on the charts and will be a favourite come Sunday as he has won three times at CTMP.

Andrew Ranger rounded out the top five, 0.911 seconds behind Steckly. Ranger has made two NCATs starts this year, finishing first at Circuit ICAR and second at Trois Rivieres. In five starts at CTMP, he has two wins with his worst finish being a sixth.

Martin Roy was sixth, followed by Jason Hathaway, Peter Klutt and D.J. Kennington.

Defending Camping World Truck Series Champion James Busecher was 10th quickest and is running the NCAT race to get more experience before Sunday’s truck race. He will be joined in the race by truck regulars Chad Hackenbracht, Ty Dillon and Jeb Burton, who were 13th, 14th and 17th respectively.

Qualifying will take place at 4pm EST with the race scheduled for Sunday morning at 11am EST.

Chase Elliott leads final practice for Chevrolet Silverado 250

Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images

In the final practice for the Chevrolet Silverado 250, it’d be 17-year-old Chase Elliott would top the charts with a lap of 81.045 seconds.

This past off-season, NASCAR changed the age limit for the truck series, allowing 17-year-olds to run on ovals lesser than a mile and road courses. Drivers must be 18 years of age or older to run ovals a mile or longer. Elliott, a development driver for Hendrick Motorsports, took advantage of the new rule right away with his truck series debut earlier this season. Elliott has four top fives and five top 10s in his five career starts so far this year.

“Canadian Motorsports Park is a different track and a place I’ve never been to before,” Elliott said coming into the weekend. “A lot of guys are in the same boat there, so I think the guy who can adapt the quickest is going to have an advantage.”

Mike Skeen led the pair of sessions yesterday and today, was second in the morning session. This final session he was second once again, 0.440 seconds off of Elliott’s quick time. Skeen,a driver in the Pirelli Wold Challenge GT Series, is making his Camping World Truck Series debut debut. In his past four Pirelli World Challenge GT Series starts at CTMP, he has four poles and four wins. Skeen currently sits sixth in the World Challenge GT Series standings after winning at Lime Rock earlier this year.

German Quiroga was third quickest once again as he has been throughout the weekend, 0.453 seconds off of Elliott in his No. 77 Otterbox Toyota Tundra.

Miguel Paludo was fourth quickest, followed by his teammate James Buescher. Buescher noted yesterday that with each session on the track, he continues to learn what he needs to do better and get quicker.

“I know a lot of areas that I can improve – probably about half the corners,” he said yesterday. “So it’s just going to be gaining experience lap after lap and following some guys is always helpful. Going back and watching the video is helpful too, and working on breaking down the corners with my teammates and stuff is going to be helpful. I feel there is a lot more to gain, but I feel pretty good about we’ve learned and our chances this weekend.”

Road course ace Max Papis was sixth quickest, followed by Ty Dillon, Joey Coulter, Jeb Burton and Ross Chastain.

Points leader Matt Crafton was 11th quickest, matching his position on the charts from the morning session.

Coming into the weekend, Crafton said the key for the weekend was surviving.

“That’s all its about,” he said. “Definitely you want to be fast, but at the same time, you want to keep all four tires on the black stuff. If you stay on the road and you’re there at the end, you’ll contend for the win or a top five without a doubt.”

Qualifying for the Chevrolet Silverado 250 will be at 5pm EST today with the race scheduled for Sunday at 2pm EST.

L.P. Dumoulin quickest in Printy’s presents the Clarington 200 first practice

Photo Credit: Nedlaw Photos

In the first practice for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, L.P. Dumoulin topped the speed charts with a lap of one minute and 24.2 seconds.

The driver of the No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge won the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park race in May and currently sits fourth in points.

Points leader Scott Steckly was second quickest, 0.083 seconds off of Dumoulin, in his No. 22 Canadian Tire Dodge as he looks for his fourth win of the season. Steckly, who finished third at CTMP in May, currently holds a four point lead over D.J. Kennington.

Rookie Alex Guenette was third quickest on the speed charts, 0.373 seconds off of Dumoulin’s quick time. Guenette is looking for his first NCATs win this weekend. The Quebec native didn’t fair well at CTMP in the spring as he finished 26th, though had a second place finish at St. Eustache about a month ago.

Fellow Quebec native and series past champion Andrew Ranger was fourth quickest, 0.459 seconds off of Dumoulin. Ranger has made two NCATs starts this year, finishing first at Circuit ICAR and second at Trois Rivieres. In five starts at CTMP, he has two wins with his worst finish being a sixth.

J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top five as he looks to turn his season around after blowing the motor the last time the NCATs were out in Antoganish. Fitzpatrick has been great at CTMP in the past, winning in his three of his seven starts.

D.J. Kennington was sixth quickest, followed by Gary Klutt, Jason Hathaway, Peter Klutt and Jeff Lapcevich.

Four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regulars are running the NCATs race this weekend for extra experience. Ty Dillon was the highest of them in practice, laying down the 15th quickest lap. Chad Hackenbracht was 21st, followed by James Buescher in 22nd and Jeb Burton in 23rd.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will have one more practice this afternoon before they qualify.

 

Chase Elliott tops morning practice at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park

Photo Credit: Getty Images

For the first time this weekend, someone other than Mike Skeen topped the speed charts at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park as Chase Elliott was quickest this morning. Elliott laid down a lap of 81.063 seconds behind the wheel of his No. 94 Aaron’s Dream Machine/Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet Silverado.

Elliott has a pair of road course ARCA starts under his belt this year with an average finish of 3.5 between them.

“Having two road course starts in the ARCA Racing Series earlier this year definitely won’t hurt,” Elliott said. “Having a chance to do some road racing this year is always going to be an advantage. However, Canadian Motorsports Park is a different track and a place I’ve never been to before. A lot of guys are in the same boat there, so I think the guy who can adapt the quickest is going to have an advantage.”

Skeen was second quickest behind the wheel of his No. 6 Hawk Performance Chevrolet Silverado, 0.351 seconds behind Elliott. Skeen,a driver in the Pirelli Wold Challenge GT Series, is making his Camping World Truck Series debut debut. In his past four Pirelli World Challenge GT Series starts at CTMP, he has four poles and four wins. Skeen currently sits sixth in the World Challenge GT Series standings after winning at Lime Rock earlier this year.

“Anytime you have that much success with a track you’re comfortable with it,” Skeen commented. “But this is a whole other world. I’ve had very little time in stock cars and not certainly any round here.”

Skeen says so far, it’s been learning about how far he can push the truck before it gets out of shape, and then learning his competition.

“I’ve only been watching these guys on TV so I don’t know have a good feel of who I am going up against,” he commented. “I think that’s a big thing when you’re in a new series – trying to get the personalities of the drivers you’re going to go up against. Certainly trying to learn that and probably won’t learn that till race time. That’s the biggest unknown for me, but certainly very confident.”

Ryan Blaney was third fastest behind the wheel of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford, with NASCAR Canadian Tire Series regular Alex Guenette finished fourth. Miguel Paludo was fifth quickest.

“I can’t wait to get on the road course and see what we’ve got,” Blaney said. “I know we’ll be fast. This team has been on a tear of late. I’m confident our Cooper Standard team will have a shot at winning Sunday afternoon which will put us right back in the championship hunt.”

Ty Dillon was sixth, followed by Max Papis, Darrell Wallace Jr., Chad Hackenbracht and German Quiroga.

Points leader Matt Crafton was 11th quickest.

The Camping World Truck Series will have another practice this afternoon followed by qualifying later today.

Matty’s Picks 2013 – Race 25 Advocare 500 – Atlanta Motor Speedway – September 1, 2013

Photo Credit: Kala Perkins

This week the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to a fast, wide track this week at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with the two twins in the series to Atlanta being Charlotte and Texas with the familiar 24 degrees of banking in the corners and 5 degrees on the straightaway’s.

It is fast, but it’s really known for producing some of the closest finishes in NASCAR History, including that first career win for Kevin Harvick over Jeff Gordon just a couple weeks after Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001. That famous finish, 0.006 of a second margin of victory between the two Chevy’s.

The Advocare 500 is a long race, 325 laps totaling 501 miles and there have been 105 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Atlanta since the first race there in 1960 so a ton of data to pull from this week to make my picks.

As far as qualifying goes this week, for once we’re not looking at the pole as being the most proficient starting position like most other circuits we visit each year. Believe it or not the 5th starting position has produced more Atlanta winners than any other starting position spot at 15 race-winners all-time starting from that 5th spot.

26 of the 105 races all-time have been won from the front row, 60 of the 105 have been won from the top 5 starting spots, and 83 of the 105 races ever at Atlanta Motor Speedway have been won from a top-10 starting position. Making a good lap yesterday in qualifying is very important, even more so recently with 19 of the last 20 races, the last 16 in a row, have been won from the top 11 starting spots.

 

Atlanta Picks

On Thursday when I previewed Sunday’s Advocare 500 with Greg on the Prime Sports Network, my picks were spread among 6 drivers, but have now been pared down to a winner pick and a dark horse based on the results of qualifying. A few guys I had picked to take home the crown on Sunday night could not put it all together Friday evening to start in those coveted top 10 starting spots, so I’ve scratched them off the list.
Two-time Atlanta winner and seven-time winner on the three twins (Atlanta, Charlotte, and Texas), Kasey Kahne split my number two spot on Thursday with the 2001 Spring Atlanta winner mentioned previously, Kevin Harvick. Well, both of which have qualified outside the top-10 spots, Kahne in 18th and Harvick in 30th so I’ve scratched those guys off my list this week.

As for my 4th pick, Brian Vickers, he came out and qualified 22nd so again, can’t go with him this week.

That leaves 3 guys from my preview Thursday with Greg that I still like for wins this week at Atlanta.

 

Winner Pick

This is a pick which I felt confident in on Thursday and solidified my confidence in him by qualifying 10th on Friday. Jimmie Johnson was the last guy to sweep the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Atlanta in 2007 which notched his second and third wins at the Hampton, Ga racetrack. It is really tough to not like Jimmie’s numbers at Atlanta because he leads the series in Average finish at 11.0, Average Running Position, Driver Rating at 108.3, Average Green Flag Speed, and Laps inside the top 15, so that’s 4 of the 6 loop categories, the other two, Fastest Laps and Quality Passes, Johnson second in both.

Here are my thoughts on Jimmie Johnson’s mentality going into this weekend’s Advocare 500. Matt Kenseth won last week at Bristol, so now Jimmie Johnson is not the top dog in the Chase anymore, so he’s got something to shoot for. I can’t go against the outstanding numbers this week, I have to go with Jimmie as my Winner and Top pick this week.

 

Dark Horse Pick

I had a few guys on Thursday who would have qualified as Dark Horses to win on Sunday. We’ve thrown Vickers out, so that still leaves two more picks which I consider solid sleeper picks this week.

The first is the guy sitting on the pole this weekend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He won the Nationwide series race here last season and finished 3rd in his rookie Nationwide season in 2011. He has never raced at Atlanta in the Cup series so not much to go off except what he’s done at Texas and Charlotte so far this season. He finished 40th at Texas so we’ll throw that out, but in Speedweeks in Charlotte, he finished 2nd in the NASCAR Sprint Showdown, qualifying for the All-Star race and hung around the big boys for a 16th place finish. In the longest race of the year, Stenhouse managed to stay out of trouble and finish 14th after starting 30th, so I like that he’s put his Ford on the front row for tomorrow night’s race.

The other guy I had penciled in for a Dark Horse win was Martin Truex Jr., broken wrist and all. Truex has managed to qualify his Toyota in 7th, a solid spot considering last year’s race-winner started from the 7th position.

Truex has gotten progressively better since his first 2 starts at Atlanta where he finished 40th and 37th and the last 3 races have shown a bit of hope for Truex at Atlanta as he was 4th last season after starting 28th.

What I like about Truex this week is that he’s finished 9th or better in all the Intermediate Tri-Ovals this season, (including Kansas and Las Vegas) most notably his runner up finish he had at Texas back in April when he led 142 laps. Truex is showing a bit more promise not only at Atlanta recently but this year on the tri-ovals, he is going to split my Dark Horse pick this week with Rick Stenhouse Jr.

That’s all for this week, and be sure to stay tuned the next couple weeks as we roll on to the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup, so until we head to the last regular-season race of the year…..You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!