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Show lV I 4 tz ! 6 THE M4GNA TIMES, WEST VALLEY NEWS, KEARNS POST s&i&XRiSafiirailui r, 2- - - uTn March 16, 2006 ak. THIS WEEK DID YOU KNOW? A tornado caused extensive damage to ) Race: Golden Conal 500 Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway When: Sunday, 1 p m. ET Television: Fox Defending race winner: Carl Edwards Atlanta Motor Speedway last summer.. ' ' : a Rick Minters OBSERVATIONS A week!) State oi the I mion a:- - N TSC R head', to Atlanta THE STORYLINES Cox News Service photo illustration Carl Edwards (99) leads the pack on his way to victory in last years Golden Corral 500. Edwards said he loves races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a track that provides drivers with numerous racing grooves. Where drivers go to have some fun maj be itll work up there. If it doesnt work there, I can go to By RICK WINTER Cox News Service Atlanta After two consecutive races that tend to boring stretches of racing, the NASCAR circuit is i - headed to a place where the drivers can reallv race The Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck Senes w ill . ' ' run this week at Atlanta Motor Speedway, w here a combination - : of wkIp, high banking and worn ; asphalt make tor a three groove race track that tend', to produce three-widracing with an occasional photo finish. Few have mastered the 1. track as well as Carl Edwards In his three Cop starts at Atlanta, he has won tw ice and finished third. He won his only AMS start m thp Busch Series and w as seventh m his only truck race there. Edwards said he liked the ; 1,1 track from his first practice Jap r because xr offers a driver so . many alternative racing ' grooves. I go out there and run five . different lines, he said fMy ' ' crew members tell me my lap " times and whichever one is fastest, I stick to it Usually Edw ards prefers the high groove he learned to love as a dirt racer j ears ago, but he said the multiple grooves at AMS allow drivers the luxury of ; solving handling problems on the go. At Atlanta, if your car's real tight running around the be you can go up top and , -- e e , the middle " Multiple grooves also add an element of drama because a driver never knows whether the challenge for position will come on the inside or outside. Edw ards slipped to the outside of Jimmie Johnson off Turn Four on the final lap of last springs Golden Corral 510 to get his first Cup victory m Ins 17th career start. That pass on the List lap of Jimmie Johnson, thats a perfect example, he said. You can go anywhere here. Thats what makes it so exciting. Matt Kenseth has three career victories at California (one) and Las Vegas (two), the two tracks preceding AMS on the Cup schedule He has never won at Atlanta, but he likes racing there. I like all the beginning tracks, fbutj the most fun frackJ-as a driver is probably Atlanta, he said on NASCAR s weekly teleconference. You ran run the white line or you can have the right rear scraping the fence like Carl Edw ards does and probably run the same lap times around there You never have an excuse for not passing the car in front of ATLAfiTA you If you're faster, theres no excuse for not getting around SPEEDWAY them Oddly, Edw ards said running Track length: 1 54 miles the Busch race on Saturday Race length: 500 5 miles which he and a host of other (325 laps) Cup drivers typioallv do, doesnt Grandstand seating: on rae give b un a huge heads-u124 000 mg conditions for Sundays Banking in corners: 24 Cup run degrees This is one of the places Banking on straights: 5 whet e running the Busch car degrees cant help you a ton because the Frontstretch: 2.332 feet speeds are so high, he said. Backstretch: 1 ,800 feet The spoilers differences rear Qualifying record: Geoffrey spoilers m Busch are 614 inchBodine, Ford; 197 478 mph, es tall, 4 12 in Cup and the Nov. 15, 1997 Race record: Bobby horsepower differences less pcxtwffn BuscJif mkethetwoj lU Labtfrrter Ponfiac; 759 904 series quite different. mph, Nov. 10, 1997 mien p 500-mil- e " , V DAVID TULI5 NUMERICALLY SPEAKING 1 :n 36 Consecutive laps in which Stacy Compton passed another driver without being passed himself in the Sams Town 300 Busch Series race at Las Vegas. That leads all other drivers. 99 Truck Series races in which one or more female drivers have participated, including the past 54 (dating back to October 2004 at Phoenix), What ever happened to ... Cox Nnu. Sen ice Gerald Duke, 77, of College Park, Ga., had a very impressive start to his brief career on the circuit now know n as Nextel Cup. He ran one rare in 1959, but m 10 he had seven top-1- finishes - including a fourth in the inaugural World 600 at Charlotte in 11 starts in a Ford Thunderbird he built and prepared himself. He also had one front-rostart, at Spartanburg, S C. By 1962. hLs famdy was grow ing and his bank account was shrinking. Four blown engines m a short span put him out of the series for good. For the past 36 years, he has operated Metro Transmissions in his hometown. On his early superspeedway races: In the first World 600, they started 60 cars and I was 44th. I finished fourth. That was a miracle. Then at Daytona, w as running third on the last lap and ran out of gas, so I finished ninth. On his biggest career mistake: Lee Petty came to me and said he was starting a third team at Petty Enterprises and offered me a job driving for him. I didn't take it because I had my own T Bird miming pretty good. On being aw ay from the sport: I miss it every day If I was a young man, that's where Id be. On what he does for thrills today: I still ride motorcycles, and my daughter Terri and I fly my 210 Mooney. And sometimes I still jump out of airplanes. I guess you could say Ive lived a pretty excit0 ing life. -- Races run in the Craftsman Truck Series, including Friday's John Deere 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. d in Victor1 Lane Jolmsons latest victory the 20th of his career, combined with his Daytona 500 v ictory and a runner-ufinish to Kenseth at California, put him 52 pomts ahead of Kenseth in the points standings. p Making history: Bill Lester, a California native living in Mahleton, Ga., is set to make histoi-- this weekend at his adopted home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway Lester, who races in the Craftsman Truck Series in a Toyota Tundra fielded by Bill Dav is, is expected to enter the Golden Corral 500 in a Davis prepared car If he makes the field, he be the first , di iver to race m NASCARs elite division since Willy T. Ribbs blew an engine on the 65th lap of the Miller American 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 15, 1986 That race, won by Bill Elliott, was one of Ribbs three Cup starts, the other two coining m 1986 at North Wilkesboro, N 0., and Riverside, Calif. 11 Kasey at hat: Although he has struggled at times m Nextel Cup, Kasey Kahne has been outstanding in his Busch and Craftsman Truck Senes appearances. Hes undefeated in trucks, wmning his only two starts at Darlington and Homestead m 2004. Last week he rolled to victory in the Busch Senes race at Lis Vegas, running his victory total to four in 108 career starts The Dodge driver has one Cup victory, at Richmond last year, but he has six poles in Busch and Cup. Hes also getting better, it seems, in Cup. On Sunday, he backed up bis Busch victory with a strong fourth-plac- e finish in the 400 at Vegas, lies third i J flip J)dJUt g betynd Itdi'tpiiniiJoJiuson We had a great weekend, he told reporters. - Pole record: Ran "Rocket Man Newman (right), who has won 35 poles in 155 career Nextel Cup starts, will try to claim a share of the pole record at Atlanta Motor Speedway this week. He already owns the record for consecutive poles, having won the top starting spot six consecutive times, dating back to the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 on March 9. 2003. if he runs the string to seven, hell tie his mentor, Buddy Baker, for most poles overall at AMS. But success on Friday hasn't carried over to Sunday for Newman, whose best AMS finish has been a fifth in the spring of 2004 His average finish is 14 8 In 93 races at AMS. the polesitter has won just 13. Fireball Roberts did it first in the track's inaugural race in i960 Bobbv Labonte in 1996 was the last to do jt. Youth being served: Joey Logano, 15, continues his steady march toward the Nextel Cup circuit. List year, the for mer resident of Alpharetta, Ga broke Brian Vickers record for being the youngest driver to win a Hooters Rro Cup rare. Then on Saturday he drove his Joe Gibbs Racing entry to v icHooters Pro Cup race at South tory in Saturday's Georgia Motorsporfs Park in Cecil, Ga. He led 38 laps, then held off veterans Shane Wallace and Benny Gordon in a green flag dash to the finish. Logano, who caught the eye of Nextel Cup driver Mark Martin, was expected to sign with Martin's team, Roush Racing, but when Roush hesitated because Logano wasnt of legal age, Joe Gibbs Racing stepped in with a contract. Logano told reporters after the 250 at South Georgia that he expects to be heard from a lot more this year. I think we can be this good all year this year," he said. 250-la- Keep on truckin: Mark Marti (6) and Mike Skinner race during the GM FlexFuel 250 truck race Feb. 17 at Daytona International Speedway. A J NASCAR Catching up with GeralcOlike 1 270 The number of Craftsman ftj Ru k Minter Cox News Service Flippin out: In the above sequence of photos, Carl Edwards flips from the roof of his No. 99 Ford after winning last years Golden Corral 500 at AMS. No chief, no problem: No Chad Knaus, no problem for, Jimmie Johnson. With Knaus. his longtime crew chief serving a four race suspension for cheating during qualify mg for the Daytona 500, Johnson has rolled to two v ictories in the first three Cup races of the 2006 season. His dramatic victory at lis Vegas on Sunday camp at the expense of Matt Kenseth, who led the most laps only to see the engine in his No. 17 Ford begin to falter m the closing laps Johnson and his No. 48 team, led by interim crevy chief Damn Grubb, adjusted his car throughout the race and came up with a wmning combination for the green w flag nm. As the two leaders sped off Turn Four on the final lap, Johnson motored to the outside and won by less than a car length It was the only lap he led all day The Lust lap dash to the outside w asnt a surprise Johnson has used that move before to beat Bobby Labonto at Charlotte, and he lost in a similar scenario to Carl Edwards at Atlanta Motor Speedway last year. I won one that way and I knew I could do it again, he said ... five-tim- e nine-tim- e Speedway in Charlotte. His only victory last season came at Michigan in August. The old Mayfield, a native of Owensboro. Ky, drives the No. 19 Dodge for Evernham Motorsjxirts. He sat down w ith Cox News Service w riter Jeff Hood to talk about racing and his likes and dislikes: 36-ye- Q: What do you like to w atch on TV? A: Im not real big on TV I do watch The Apprentice. I think thats pretty cool. Donald Trump, hes pretty bad. I like action movies and I like watching the news. Q: What about your music tastes? A: Im kind of all over the board. I can listen to rock and hip hop. Ive got to listen to the good stuff to get me fired up, like Eminem. And I like Charlie Daniels and Hank Williams Jr., too. Q: What about the NASCAR hall of fame selection? A: sure the hall of fame will be a im d STANDSflGS NEXTEL CUP JeramiMY winner in Jeremy Mayfield, a the Nextel Cup Series, has qualified for the Chase for the Cup the past two seasons. A jxile w inner, Mayfield made his Cup debut in 1938 when he finished 29th in the October race at Ijwes Motor white-checkere- p 1 . tremendous success. But it depends on how its marketed from here on out. If you just let it sit there am hope people come by and stop and look e it, its probably not going to happen. Everybody is busy. Race fans have to wo and theyre busv every day, too. If you don t have excitement, nobody is going t come " Q: How do you feel about NASCAR going international? A: I think you've got to be careful there. 1 dont know how' people in other countries percen e our type of racing. 1 know we went to Japan, and it wasnt much of a hit. You take people like us who go over there and cant speak the language, and ft makes it hai'd on us I don't know if rponsors would go for flint Right now were peaked-ou- t running what were running. How would you add any races to our schedule? Are we going to take out Martinsville and add Tokyo9 f tlnnk it would be so expensive that no one would be able to do it. Weve got it covered pretty good right now in the United States. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate for Cox News Service. (800) 255-673- 4. Following the Jimmie Johnson 540, previous-2. Matt Kenseth 488; previous. 3 Kasey Kahne 455; previous: 4. Casey Mears 454, previous 5. Mark Martin 430; previous 6 400 3 4 2 6 Busch 403, previous: 12 7. Clint Bowyer 389, previous 8 8. Elliottt Sadler 385; previous: 10 9. Jeff Gordon Kyle 374, previous- 15 10 Jeff Burton 373; previous. 14 BUSCH SERIES Cup next up: Golden Corral 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway TV: 1pm ET Sunday, Fox Busch next up: Nicorette 300, Atlanta Motor Speedway TV: 3pm ET, Saturday, FX Truck next up: John Deere 200, Atlanta Motor Secdway TV: 9 p m ET, f Jay, Speed Channel TRUCX SERIES 1. Kevin Harvick 1 . 642, previous 1 2 J J.Yeley 600, previous 3 2. Todd Bodine 3 Denny Hamlin 595, previous 2 4 Jamie McMurray 560, previous 4 5 Clint Bowyer 538 previous 5 Mark Martin 380, previous-- 350, previous; 2 3 Ted Musgrave 335; previous: 3 4. Jack Sprague 320, previous 5 5 David Reutimann 303 previous 9 |