3 THINGS TO WATCH
1. Wait until . . .
There was a lot of “just wait until next week” talk in the Atlanta Motor Speedway garage after Sunday’s 500-mile race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the way after a poor finish. “The car had good top-10 speed and we just had a lot of bad luck and can’t really get too upset about that,” he said. “Just have to keep racing when it does go right next week and we are ready to go and capitalize.”
2. Fantastic Fords
Last season it took the Team Ford camp 10 races to score two Cup Series victories. This time around, with the camp growing larger with the addition of Stewart-Haas Racing, the “Blue Oval” has two wins in the first two races. Fords led 313 of 325 laps. Kevin Harvick led 292 laps. Race winner Brad Keselowski led 21. “This one kind of fell in our lap at the end,” Keselowski said with a sheepish grin.
3. Viva Vegas
Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be hosting its 20th Cup Series race since it opened in 1998. The inaugural was won by Mark Martin, who looked a bit uncomfortable in Victory Lane, surrounded by show dancers from the Vegas strip. Martin Truex Jr., who drives the No. 78 Toyota, can't wait for Vegas. "Just had a few little gremlins here or there (at Atlanta)," he said. "We’ll move on and hopefully have a better car in Vegas.” — Godwin Kelly, godwin. kelly@news-jrnl.com