AdvoCare 500 - Atlanta Motor Speedway

[HDT05]

AdvoCare 500

NASCAR Sprint Cup Race #25 of 36 for the 2012 season
Race Analysis
Track Length: 1.54 mile quad oval
Race Length: 500.5 miles /325 laps
Pit Road Speed: 45mph
September 2011 Pole Sitter: #4-Kasey Kahne, 186.196mph, finished 34th
September 2011 Race Winner: #24-Jeff Gordon, 124.823mph, started 5th

TV Team:
In the Booth: Allen Bestwick, Dale Jarrett, Andy Petree
Pit Reporters: Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Dr. Jerry Punch, Vince Welch
NASCAR Countdown: Nicole Briscoe, Brad Daugherty, Rusty Wallace, Ray Evernham

2012 Sprint Cup Driver Championship Points Standings:
[after Bristol, race 24 of 36]
1) #16-Greg Biffle [2 wins], 849, +119 over 11th
2) #48-Jimmie Johnson [3 wins], 838, -11, +108
3) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. [1 win], 834, -15, +104
4) #17-Matt Kenseth [1 win], 823, -26, +93
5) #56-Martin Truex Jr. [0 wins], 797, -52, +67
6) #15-Clint Bowyer [1 wins], 794, -55, +64
7) #2-Brad Keselowski [3 wins], 790, -59, +60
8) #11-Denny Hamlin [3 wins], 774, -75, +44
9) #29-Kevin Harvick [0 wins], 767, -82, +24
10) #14-Tony Stewart [3 wins], 746, -103, +16 over 11th
Current wild card Chase drivers:
WC1) #5-Kasey Kahne [2 wins, 11th in points]
WC2) #18-Kyle Busch [1 win, 13th in points]
(ties broken by 1sts, 2nds, 3rd, etc)
See drivers championship points standings on the Drivers Points Standings (pdf).(8-25-2012)




2012 Sprint Cup Driver Chase Wild-Card Race:
[after Bristol, race 24 of 36]
A look at the race for the two wild-card positions for the Chase based on wins and being inside the top 20 in points.
Driver [wins] standings, behind 10th
first two would make the chase as wild cards:
#5-Kasey Kahne [2 wins] 11th -16 points out of 10th
#18-Kyle Busch [1 win] 14th -39
eight other drivers currently in the running for the wild cards:
#24-Jeff Gordon [1 win] 16th -55
#39-Ryan Newman [1 win] 13th -58
#9-Marcos Ambrose [1 win] 17th -67
#20-Joey Logano [1 win] 18th -108
these drivers have no wins but are in the top-20
#99-Carl Edwards 12th -34
#27-Paul Menard 17th -72
#1-Jamie McMurray 19th -148
#31-Jeff Burton 20th -169
(ties broken by 1sts, 2nds, 3rd, etc)
The Chase: The top-10 drivers will make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Positions 11 and 12 in the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup are Wild Cards, and will go to drivers outside the top 10 with the most wins, as long as they are ranked in the top 20 in points. If multiple drivers outside the top 10 tie for wins, the tie-breaker will go to the race winner with the highest points position.
See drivers championship points standings on the Drivers Points Standings (pdf).(8-25-2012)

jayski.com/stats/2012/pdfs/24bms2012points.pdf

Chase Spots Up For Grabs At Atlanta, scenarios: #16-Greg Biffle, #48-Jimmie Johnson, #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. and #17-Matt Kenseth have locked up spots in the 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup going into Sunday's race in Atlanta, the penultimate race in the regular season. Eight other drivers can join them in donning the black-and-yellow Chase-clinching hat after Sunday's race.
Mathematically, every top-10 Chase spot could be clinched. This week's magic number is 49. Any driver 49 points ahead of 11th-place leaving Atlanta (48 points for some, depending on the tie-breaker of wins) clinches a top-10 spot in the Chase.
Four drivers control their own top-10 destiny: Kenseth (who already owns AT LEAST a Wild Card spot), #56-Martin Truex Jr., #15-Clint Bowyer and #2-Brad Keselowski.
Regardless of what any other driver does, Kenseth clinches a top-10 spot by finishing 40th or better, 41st and at least one lap led or 42nd and the most laps led.
Truex guarantees himself a top-10 Chase spot with a 14th-place finish or better, a 15th and at least one lap led or a 16th and the most laps led.
Bowyer needs an 11th, 12th and at least one lap led or 13th and the most laps led.
Keselowski lands a top-10 spot with a seventh-place finish or better, an eighth and at least one lap led or a ninth and the most laps led.
#11-Denny Hamlin, 29-Kevin Harvick and #14-Tony Stewart could also lock up top-10 spots, but would need help. A win would lock up at least a Wild Card spot for Hamlin, Harvick and Stewart. Depending on the final results from Sunday, Bowyer, Keselowski, Hamlin, Stewart, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch could clinch at least a Wild Card spot.(NASCAR)(8-29-2012)

www.jayski.com/news/races/2012/story/_/page/25-Atlanta-NASCAR-Race-Info

[HDT05]

Stewart wins pole at Atlanta: #14-Tony Stewart won the Coors Light pole for the AdvoCare 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a speed of 186.121mph for his 1st pole of 2012, 1st at AMS (Stewart started 1st in Nov 2002 when the field was set on points due to qualifying being canceled) and 14th career pole.
#16-Biffle will start 2nd followed by #18-Busch, #17-Kenseth, #24-Gordon, #55-Martin, #11-Hamlin, #48-Johnson, #20-Logano and #9-Ambrose.
#10-Danica Patrick qualified 23rd, her best starting spot in her 5th start. #88-Earnhardt Jr. will start 35th.
The go-or-go homers who made the race (8): #30-Stremme, #21-Bayne, #49-Leffler, #95-Speed, #87-Nemechek, #91-Sorenson, #23-Riggs and #37-Yeley.
The go-or-go homers who failed to qualify for the race (4): #98-McDowell, #33-Leicht, #26-Wise and #19-Bliss.
See the Starting Lineup, Qualifying results, pole progression, go-or-go homers. qualifying order on the Atlanta Qualifying Page

[HDT05]

Watched the race today on SPEED and I got to say a Special mention to my Truck series driver I support on winning his first race, The #3 truck Ty Dillon!! Well done! - just to get that championship now, and Austin Dillon to do the double and win the Title in the Nationwide series!!

Here's the results from the truck race, good to see that #3 back in victory lane first time since last year, when Austin was driving...hopefully it's destiny is the same as where the #3 ended up at the end of the 2011 season!

[HDT05]

Shame about Harvick not winning the Nationwide race as he was absolutely blitzen them on every restart and had over 15 second lead at one stage, if not more...he gave up the lead after a late race caution that NASCAR threw for apparently debri, even though Brad Keselowski threw out a bottle NASCAR said it wasn't for that. So Harvick lost the race he should've won after leading over 150 laps, that's pretty gut wrenching. Not the best result either for Austin Dillon.

Here's the results.



www.jayski.com/nationwide/2012/pdfs/nns-24atlanta2012results.pdf

And the final practice for SprintCup.

[Bundy]

You have to hand it to Ambrose...he has been looking good in qualifying of late...

Jeff Gordon for the win

[HDT05]

Gordon won it last year, he beat Jimmie for the win in a dash for the victory.

[Bundy]

Damn it...Jeff Gordon got 2nd

www.speedcafe.com/2012/09/03/denny-hamlin-wins-at-atlanta/