In a Nut Shell . . .

Atlanta

I used to really like going to Atlanta back when the front stretch was the back stretch and the back the front. I still, to this day, do not understand why they changed the track except for the fact of someone making a bunch of money on condos….any way. I got my first NACSCAR win at the (old) Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was in 1995 with BACE Motorsports when Johnny Benson drove the #74 Lipton Tea car. That was a long time ago but still one of my fondest memories. My most memorable win also came at the (new) Atlanta Motor Speedway with Kirk Shelmerdine in 1998 in an ARCA race. These days we don’t even get a garage. We are lucky to park our rental cars inside the track (unlike Texas). Still, here lately we have been running well but I still wish the track layout was the “old” Atlanta.

We flew down on Thursday morning. It sure is nice having Dog Leg Aviation flying us around this year. All we had to do was inspection and as normal, we got through with out event. That night a few of us went to the steak house to eat. Round root met us there. We called it an early evening because Friday was going to be a long day. The garage opened at 6:30 am we would not race until 9:15pm. As the day started everything was pretty basic. In the first practice we were out to lunch. We couldn’t give David what he needed to get the truck to turn. Then we had a jack bolt seize up on us. That is NO FUN at the track. Luckily we were near the end of practice and when we got a chance to fix it went very smooth.

As the second practice went on we were still in the same boat. And yes, now the other front jack bolt started to seize up. Jason came across the radio and told us not to worry about a mock qualifying run. We had to get the truck turning good in race mode. Here lately this has not hurt us at all. We didn’t make a mock qualifying run in Fontana and sat on the pole. Right at the end of practice we hit on something and David said the truck was really good even with a lot of laps on our tires. We felt good.

We didn’t have as good of luck as in Fontana and wound up qualifying 7th. That was just fine with me with the day we had just had. Race time came around and it was time to get some cheese burgers. The pit crew had the mind set to win the Checkers/Rally’s Drive thru challenge and we brought it. The truck was pretty good. Todd and Mark were on rails. It was a lot of fun on pit road. It seemed like we pitted every caution, but I think they were just grouped together.

There was some confusion at the end of the race as to where we had finished. We just loaded the truck and let Jason take care of it. They did give us 5th and we didn’t have to go through tech. All in all it was a good week end and now we are getting ready for Martinsville. We have not had the best of luck there in the past but we have momentum on our side. Bring it to the drive-thru and make it a triple/triple.