Race Report – Atlanta Motor Speedway

Mar 18, 2023

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Hailie Deegan – No. 13 Pennzoil Screen to Speed Ford F-150

 

Atlanta Race Information

 Started: 3nd

Stage 1: 25th

Stage 2: 19th

Finished: 12th

Laps: 137/137

Laps Led: 0

Status: Accident

Driver Points: 21st

Owner Points: 26th

 

Quotable: 

“I think it was a great day. I think our goal going into this race was to hang back until it really means something. It means something at the end in the third stage, so we just hung back and waited, and I think it worked because there were a few times where I’d be in a good position to keep going forward and I’d tell myself, ‘This doesn’t feel good. Something is gonna happen.’ And then like a lap later all of a sudden something would happen, so I think we put ourselves in a good position to bring home a clean truck and be able to have it for Texas. That’s great because we have something to build off of and we’re not repairing something.”

Matt Crafton – No. 88 Slim Jim/Menards Ford F-150

atlanta Race Information

Started: 8th

Stage 1: 4th

Stage 2: 1st

Finished: 9th

Laps: 137/137

Laps Led: 29

Status: Running

Driver Points: 2nd

Owner Points: 2nd

Quotable:

“I didn’t want to take the bat off my shoulder until I had to go to the bottom and try to see if I could make something work because we kept picking the top and the top would go, but then the bottom would slow as soon as we got all of those yellows in that quick spurt and we kept losing track position. So, as soon as I did it we ran a lot longer green, and I sank big time. All in all, this Menards Ford F-150 was good. It handled great and we just made very minor adjustments. We’re already up front. We led laps and did everything we needed to do today, but we just made that one mistake.”

Ty Majeski – No. 98 Curb Records Ford F-150

 

atlanta Race Information

Started: 2nd

Stage 1: 6th

Stage 2: 2nd

Finished: 11th

Laps: 137/137

Laps Led: 0

Status: Running

Driver Points: 3rd

Owner Points: 3rd

 

Quotable:

“We just got behind. Our pit crew couldn’t get the gas engaged and we lost a lot of track position on that fuel only pit stop. We just never could recover. I tried the top and tried the bottom, but couldn’t really recover to get over that hump. All in all it was a solid points day. We wanted a top 10, but have to settle for 11th.”

Ben Rhodes – No. 99 Kubota Tractor Corporation Ford F-150

 

Atlanta Race Information

Started: 3rd

Stage 1: 8th

Stage 2: 4th

Finished: 5th

Laps: 137/137

Laps Led: 3

Status: Running

Driver Points: 4th

Owner Points: 4th

 

Quotable:

What were you thinking on the final restarts? “I thought we were in really good shape. The 2 and the 19, although they’re Chevy’s, I don’t think wanted to really work together. The 19 and I, Christian, we get along really good off the track. We worked really well together at Daytona and he’s kind of become my satellite teammate, I guess, and just comes from his time at ThorSport of being real teammates there. Congrats to Christian on winning it. I pushed him as hard as I could down the backstretch, but, again, I had a big run and I tried to take it. I lost my momentum getting loose like that, but there was no need for the whole truck to be destroyed for sixth place. I think right now it should be a top five and a fairly clean truck.”

Circuit Of The Americas

Saturday, March 25 at 1:30 p.m. ET

FOX Sports 1 | Motor Racing Network Radio (MRN)