SPENCER: Hot-Lanta

Sprint Cup

SPENCER: Hot-Lanta

Atlanta has produced some of the sport’s best races over the years...

Jimmy Spencer | Posted August 31, 2012 Hampton, GA

Atlanta Motor Speedway will host Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AdvoCare 500. (Photo: Getty Images)

There’s a lot to talk about heading into this weekend’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, so let’s get down to it.

Nearly a week later, people still are raving about the Bristol race because it was racing the way it is supposed to be. While Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth’s run-in and Stewart’s subsequent helmet throw got most of the attention, a lot of drivers showed raw emotion all over the track. Even Ken Schrader was a little ticked off when Jason Leffler got a little too anxious in the opening laps of a 500-lap race and took him out.

Danica Patrick was furious with Regan Smith after he wrecked her. She was very slow in practice but was running a good race before she got spun out. But wasn’t it cool to see her standing on the track and shaking her finger at Smith afterward?

Then there was the run-in between two of the nicest, least-confrontational drivers in the garage area, Trevor Bayne and Austin Dillon. The two exchanged words on pit road after the Nationwide Series race but remained calm and collected. They were going to be just fine alone, so I don’t agree with Richard Childress stepping in between his grandson and Bayne. Let the kids talk it out and settle it themselves, “Pop Pop.”

Drivers know better than to bump each other out of the way too hard at Atlanta, though, because it is one fast track. Atlanta is a driver’s track because they can’t go full throttle all the way around – they have to lift and finesse the gas pedal. Atlanta has produced some of the sport’s best races over the years, and with the Wild Card battle going down to the wire in the next two races with several drivers in desperate need of a second win, it could be a heck of a show.

And the way teams perform at Atlanta could be a very good indicator of how they’ll fare in the Chase. Atlanta is a mile-and-a-half track, and five of the 10 Chase races will be staged on mile-and-a-halfs. No, they’re not all the same, but you’d better be good at Atlanta if you want any chance at running well two weeks later at Chicagoland. Teams can make a statement to the garage area about their championship prospects with a win at Atlanta.

With guys like Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman knowing they must win to make the Chase, we’re in for a great battle. But my money is on Kyle Busch because he already has the spot and the others have to wrestle it away from him. He also is pulling triple duty this weekend and back in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race for the first time since he infamously dumped Ron Hornaday last November at Texas and was parked for the weekend’s Cup race.

It will be interesting to see how he runs in the Cup race this weekend after running the Truck and Nationwide Series races. I’m of the belief that the more seat time a driver can get, the better, because it not only builds his confidence, it sharpens his skills on that particular track. Joey Logano won the Nationwide race last week at Bristol and had a pretty good run in the Cup car, and I can’t help but think that Edwards has suffered on the Cup side because he has all but quit running Nationwide races in 2012.

Chase contender Kevin Harvick has been suffering on the Cup side this year but I don’t really think it has anything to do with less seat time than usual. Richard Childress Racing as a whole has had a rough Cup season, so much so that Childress removed Harvick’s crew chief, Shane Wilson, prior to Bristol and “temporarily” replaced him with Gil Martin. Recognize that name? Oh yes – he was Harvick’s crew chief last year before Harvick had him moved off the team at the end of the year. He led Harvick to consecutive third-place finishes in the Chase in 2010 and 2011, but I don’t see the same success in their future because there probably are some hurt feelings on Martin’s part. After all that success, he still was axed. On the other hand, I really didn’t understand the pairing of Wilson and Harvick in 2012 to begin with because Wilson seems too quiet for Harvick’s personality. But that’s irrelevant now as Harvick is Martin’s to worry about. I’d love to see them bring some of the old magic back, but those days might be gone. They’d better get that team pulled together in the next two weeks, though, because there remains an outside chance Harvick literally could fall out of the top 10, and with no wins, he would be completely out of Chase contention.

… Just like most of the guys currently on the Chase bubble will be in two weeks …

Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it on NASCAR Race Hub on SPEED. He retired from driving with two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 12 NASCAR Nationwide and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, putting him in an elite group of drivers who have logged wins in all three of NASCAR’s premier divisions. In 478 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Spencer amassed 28 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes. He won back-to-back NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships in 1986 and 1987 on the heels of 15 victories, becoming the first driver ever to earn consecutive titles in the series. He earned the nickname “Mr. Excitement” for his flamboyant and aggressive driving style early in his racing career.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jimmy Spencer

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