NORTHBOUND
NASCAR making beeline to Atlanta Motor Speedway
The hype, pressure, crowds and bumper-to-bumper racing at 200 mph is the norm for Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway, which is one reason several drivers were looking forward to getting to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race teams will report to Atlanta for two test sessions Thursday before the actual race weekend begins on Friday morning. Why the test? The stock cars used at Daytona were basically the same machines that raced there in 2014. For all other tracks, NASCAR has a different set of rules, including a device that allows drivers to adjust track-bar settings from their seat.
With the new rules, NASCAR decided to give teams a day to test this new stuff out.
For drivers, they just wanted to get out of the all-consuming Speedweeks limelight.
“For me, I’m ready to go to Atlanta,” said Kevin Harvick, who finished second to Joey Logano in the Daytona 500. “It seems like we’ve been here for a month. I’m glad (it’s) is over. I’m relieved for my team that we had a good, solid finish, a good start to the season.
“I’m excited about, you know, everything that we do on our mile-and-a-half stuff. I’m looking forward to going to Atlanta. That’s really what it’s all about, is trying to win a race to get yourself positioned in the Chase, be able to try to win more races if you can do that early enough.”
Lots of money
Drivers may be ready to get out of Daytona Beach in a hurry after the Daytona 500, but they leave with a bunch of money in their pockets.
Race winner Joey Logano pocketed $1,581,453 in purse money while Harvick, the defending Cup Series champion, won $1.1 million.
Many drivers had their best payday of the season Sunday. Consider last-place Landon Cassill, who turned 18 laps, finished dead last and took home $262,390 in prize money. The total purse was more than $19 million.
Missed again
Tony Stewart has made 17 Daytona 500 starts and remains winless in NASCAR’s Super Bowl racing event.
The 43-year-old driver had a horrible day Sunday. His No. 14 Chevrolet hit the wall midway through the race and took him out of the running.
He finished 42nd, one spot out of last place.
“Well, it is just part of it,” Stewart said. “Yes, it’s not what we had planned, but we stuck with the plan from the start of the race and that was to stay up front as much as we could.
“We knew the first two runs of the race we were probably going to have to adjust on the car; I just didn’t make it far enough into the second run there to get a chance to adjust on it.”