By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(September 4, 2011)
HAMPTON, Ga.—Despite outstanding racing in Saturday night’s Great Clips 300 Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch predicted Sunday’s AdvoCare 500 Sprint Cup race would turn into a crash fest, as drivers fought for space at the bottom of the track.
Why? Because, as Busch saw it, the bottom was the only fast way around the 1.54-mile speedway.
“I hate to say it, but I think we’re predicting the future for (Sunday), and it’s going to be a crash fest to the bottom,” Busch said after running second to Carl Edwards in the Nationwide race. “It’s just too far around (the top), I guess, and there’s not that much grip up there anymore that you can get that sort of advantage.
“All the cars are equal and run pretty well and fast around the bottom that there’s just not a good enough top side. The truck was the same way (in Friday’s race). I couldn’t get the truck to work around the top throughout the race, either. Kind of disappointing, but it is what it is.”
The race is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. Late Sunday afternoon, however, it was raining at the speedway, located about 30 miles south of Atlanta.
Busch’s comments seemed to contrast sharply with frequent instances of hard side-by-side racing throughout Saturday’s race. Busch acknowledged the quality of the action, particularly during restarts, but still maintained the track failed to widen out the way he would have liked.
“It was a really great race overall, but (I’m) just kind of disappointed the racetrack didn’t spread out more,” he said. “We didn’t run the middle, the top or nothing. It was all kind of fast guys around the bottom, so that was unfortunate.”
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