(L-R) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #6 Cargill Beef Ford and Kyle Busch, driver of the #54 Monster Energy Toyota, lead the field at the start of the NASCAR Nationwide Series NRA American Warrior 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 1, 2012
Photo – Brian Lawdermilk-Pool/Getty Images
NASCAR’s Nationwide Series teams head to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Great Clips/Grit Chips 300 race on Saturday, August 31st. Television coverage begins at 7 pm ET on ESPN2 with radio coverage on PRN, Sirius XM channel 90.
In a points battle too close to call, Nationwide Series contenders are swapping the points lead, among the drivers near the top of the standings. Sam Hornish Jr is watching his narrow advantage over the rest of the field shrink further after Friday’s Bristol race.
Finishing third at Bristol, Austin Dillon followed Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski to jump from fourth to second in the point standings. Hornish’s 13-point advantage over Elliott Sadler is now at six points over Dillon with only ten races left in the season. Sadler who now sits 11 markers behind Hornish, dropped to third.
How close is the points battle?
Seven drivers in the top-ten changed their points position after racing at Bristol. Only Hornish, Brian Scott (seventh – 60 points behind) and Parker Kligerman (tenth – 105 points behind) stay in their pre-race ranking spots.
Regan Smith fell from third to fourth (-24), while Justin Allgaier and Brian Vickers switched spots. Allgaier is fifth, 39 points behind Hornish with Vickers in sixth (-40). Rookie of the Year contender, Kyle Larson (eighth; -66) and Trevor Bayne (ninth; -67) also swapped positions.
The constant moving around among the top-ten is nothing new, as these drivers have bounced around the top of the standings all season. Among the top-ten drivers, Hornish has the least movement, staying safely between first and fourth in the standings all season. On the other side of the coin is Dillon, bouncing between first and seventh most of the year. Sadler has been as high as second, but as low as 12th, while Smith ranges between first and 11th in the point standings. Allgaier’s fluctuation is between second and seventh for the majority of the season.
Drivers are still jockeying for position, with just seven weekends left in their 21-consecutive week stretch. Based on previous success at Atlanta, four of the top-five drivers look to buckle up for the late-season stretch and establish their place among the championship contenders.
Last September in Atlanta, Sam Hornish Jr, Austin Dillon, Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier all posted their best series finishes at the 1.5-mile track. All four of them finished with top-ten results with Sadler (fourth), Allgaier (fifth), Dillon (sixth) and Hornish (ninth).
Hornish holds a six-point edge over Dillon and has only one earlier start at Atlanta, resulting in a 15th-place finish in 2007. Dillon’s sixth place finish last year is his only Nationwide start at Atlanta. In seven starts, Sadler has four top-ten finishes, but those are coupled with finishes of 30th, 37th and 42nd. Allgaier’s last two starts at Atlanta have resulted in fifth- and sixth-place finishes. Through four races, his worst showing is 17th in 2009.
Of the top-five drivers, Regan Smith is the only driver without a top-ten finish as he has only competed in two Nationwide Series events (2006, 2007) at Atlanta, finishing 21st and 23rd.
Friday night’s race should play a big role in providing focus to the ever-changing championship picture. After winning at Atlanta last season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr went on to win his second-straight series title.
Other notables to watch are Kyle Larson, finishing fifth at Bristol, and increasing his Rookie of the Year points lead to 67 over Alex Bowman. Eleven drivers are attempting to make their Nationwide Series début and includes Tanner Berryhill, Bowman, Chris Buescher, Ken Butler, Landon Cassill, Matt DiBenedetto, Jamie Dick, Parker Kligerman, Kyle Larson, Nelson Piquet Jr and Ryan Sieg.
