It’s been 117 races since Dale Earnhardt Junior has won a race and that is a long time for the sports most popular driver. You have to go back to 2008 at Michigan to find a win for Junior, He has ran good at Atlanta in the past so hopefully he will do well this weekend. He is still tenth in the power rankings and unless he has trouble in the next two races he will be in the chase this year. Recently he signed a five year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports but don’t for a minute think that signing will boost his performance on the track because his contract with Hendrick was never a thought in his mind. He knew he was resigning and wasn’t worried about it. Dale Junior has been doing well this year although they are still without a win. But you have to look at the big picture; there are more than 43 drivers out there that can potentially qualify for any Nascar race out of hundreds of thousands of racecar drivers around this country and the world. Just being where he is, is one heck of an accomplishment.
I can’t say that he will win this Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway but I am hopeful as always. I’m just glad that he is still in there swinging. He will never be able to measure up to his father, hell very few can, so I am just happy to see him running well this year. Anyone that had any kind of thought that Dale Junior was going to go elsewhere after not winning in 117 races was nuts. He has found a home here and will be there for a good while longer. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him sign another five year extension when this one runs it’s course.
Lets take a look at the Nascar Power Rankings for the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Number one is Kyle Busch and for good reason. Kyle is on a roll late in the season. He has been on such a roll that he locked himself into the chase with the win at Michigan. I’m not surprised to see him still at the top.Behind Kyle in second for the second week in a row is “Five Time” Jimmy Johnson. Isn’t it funny how he is magically there at the end of the season? Nothing has really changed there at the ole 48 team.Jeff Gordon sitting in third is looking for his fifth championship. Running well at Bristol was a good boost in the energy of that team. Jeff hasn’t won at Atlanta in a while so he might be due. The first three spots in the power rankings were unchanged from last week but coming up a spot to fourth this week is Matt Kenseth. Matt’s spot jumped up rather than down because he came in second here last fall.Ryan Newman comes in fifth for Atlanta pre race power rankings. Ryan dropped a spot when Kenseth jumped over him but his average finish has him solidly in fifth.Those are the top five drivers for Atlanta in Nascar’s power rankings. For the whole list head over to Nascar.com.
One driver to mention is Clint Bowyer who dropped 4 spots in the power rankings and is now sitting at 15th this week in danger of dropping out. A good deal of that drop is probably due to the fact that unless he wins the next two races and others above him in points have bad days, he is not going to be in the chase. With that kind of pressure I doubt that he will climb back up.
Atlanta is a night race ran on Sunday night and I am not sure yet if I will get to watch it as I may have to drive Sunday night. I know that Monday is a holiday but not all of our customers are shut down on Monday so it will be the luck of the draw for me. The Nationwide series will be running at Atlanta Saturday night as well as the Nascar Camping World truck series on Friday night. I should get to see both of those. If you have ever been to Talladega and saw what kind of a party that was, then you will love Atlanta. It is the same kind of party at night as Talladega just on a smaller scale. They have room for you to park your truck there as well and I’m pretty sure there are still good seats available. Get out and see a race this season. Get with your dispatcher truckers and get them to route you through somewhere where there is a race being run. Call Atlanta Motor Speedway and get down there. 877-9-AMS-TIX
I’m headed to my delivery in the Gateway then hopefully loading something for Tuesday that I will be bringing to the yard. I hope it is something short for Tuesday morning like a Chicago load.
Stay safe out there.
TW
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