Jamie McMurray used pit-crew speed to take over the lead and outran Kyle Busch over the closing miles to win Saturday night’s Great Clips 300 Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
LINK> UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: GREAT CLIPS 300 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY PDF > UNOFFICIAL DRIVER POINTS: GREAT CLIPS 300 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
McMurray, driving a JR Motorsports Chevrolet, entered the pits in fourth place during a yellow-flag round of stops with 50 laps to go. Busch was first, but his crew had problems while changing the left front tire, and he returned to the track in fourth. McMurray inherited the lead with a quick stop.
McMurray steadily built his lead over the final 40 laps, and Busch, wrestling with handling problems, couldn’t get close enough for a true challenge.
Close racing between Reed Sorenson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. resulted in Sorenson slapping the wall with 28 laps to go, producing the night’s final caution. Series point leader Brad Keselowski didn’t pit for tires during that caution, taking the lead.
Keselowski’s move didn’t pan out. As soon as the green flag flew with 23 laps to go, McMurray roared up from third place to take the lead in the first turn.
Busch was fourth on the last restart but surged into second quickly and zeroed in on McMurray.
McMurray led by one second with 16 laps to go. The margin stayed in that range until the final three laps, when Busch cut into the lead. He moved within McMurray’s shadow with two to go but couldn’t close the gap.
McMurray complained about what he thought might be a loose wheel during the run to the finish, but the vibrations he had noticed went away.
“When we unloaded today, we had the fastest car,” McMurray said. “It was just loose. Pops [crew chief Tony Eury Sr.] made an adjustment. It was really strong. It was running so well I didn’t think I was running that hard. At the end it felt like I was running about 95 percent. We just had the best car today.”
Following McMurray and Busch in the top five were Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.
Harvick stormed from 14th place to first and dominated the race for about 50 laps, but he lost the lead to Busch during a pit stop with 70 laps to go and was never again a threat for first.
Keselowski finished 12th but has a 332-point lead over the second-place Edwards.
LINK> UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: GREAT CLIPS 300 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY PDF > UNOFFICIAL DRIVER POINTS: GREAT CLIPS 300 - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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