Welcome to “Fuel It Up”! The racing world is chock full of intriguing stories, but sifting through them to get a good general sense of the landscape can be challenging. In Fuel It Up, I take the biggest, more interesting storylines and present them to you in a quick, compact 300-words-or-less format.
This week’s paint scheme award goes to the #1 Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet driven by Jamie McMurray. Another great looking car gets honorable mention in the #88 “Race to Achieve” National Guard Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr…………… Now we’re getting the real story behind Stewart-Haas dumping Ryan Newman because they couldn’t go to four teams. Then a few short weeks later they add a fourth team with Kurt Busch. It seems as though part-owner Gene Haas overruled Tony Stewart and made Busch an offer to join the Stewart-Haas stable. At the very least this should help any friction this may have caused between the Newman-Stewart friendship. It will be interesting to see how Busch plays with Stewart in the future…………… As reported here earlier, Harry Scott Jr. has finalized the purchase of Phoenix Racing. They’ve named Justin Allgaier to drive for them in at least 3 races this season. Bobby Labonte was scheduled to be behind the #51 car this weekend in Atlanta with Ryan Truex driving the car the following week at Richmond. That changed on Wednesday as Labonte was involved in a bicycle accident and fractured some ribs putting him out of Saturday’s race. Mike Bliss will replace Labonte this weekend.…………… Martin Truex Jr., who has a fractured wrist, has been cleared to drive in Atlanta. Truex broke his wrist in a crash last week at Bristol. Truex is currently in the Chase as a wildcard…………. Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing is expected to announce that Kyle Larson will take over as driver for the #42 Chevrolet sometime this week. The #42 car became available when it was announced that Juan Pablo Montoya would not be re-signed by Ganassi Racing…………… As you may know, the Nationwide series will not be racing at Villeneuve in Montreal this season. Well, it’s not the Nationwide series and it’s not in Montreal but Canada does have a NASCAR visitor this weekend. The Camping World Truck series visits the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park located in Bowmanville, Ontario. The race is scheduled for Sunday at 12:30 pm……………. Ernie Haase and Signature Sound will perform the National Anthem prior to the AdvoCare 500 on Sunday in Atlanta. The Grand Marshall has yet to be announced.……………. The weather forecast for Atlanta on Sunday calls for scattered thunderstorms with a high of 86f (30c) and a low 70f (21c). The race can be seen in the US on ESPN and in Canada on TSN. Race time is 7:30 pm.
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