Atlanta Race Report

· No. 56 NAPA Shocks Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. finished fourth and is fifth in points earning a
  berth in the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
· No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Mark Martin finished 10th. The No. 55 is now 17th in
  owner points.
· No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota driver Clint Bowyer finished 27th and is eighth in points earning a
  berth in the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. 
 
Martin Truex Jr. Race Summary:  No. 56 NAPA Shocks Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. finished fourth in Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He joined teammate Clint Bowyer in clinching Michael Waltrip Racing’s first berths in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Truex took over the lead on lap 282 of the 325-lap race and appeared ready to claim his first victory of the season. A caution with four laps remaining forced a green-white-checkered finish. Truex restarted second, but dropped to fourth and ran out of laps before he could regain the lead. Truex led 39 laps Sunday night and appeared the dominant car the second half of the race. The fourth-place finish is his sixth top-five finish of the season. The NAPA AUTO PARTS team returns to action Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. 

After Saturday’s Richmond race, the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field will be set. The top 10 in points will earn Chase berths, as will the Wild Cards – the two drivers outside the top 10 with the most wins. All 12 drivers will have their points reset to 2,000, but only those in the top 10 will have three points added to their total for each win during the first 26 races. Those points totals will set the Chase seeds. Ties will be broken per the rule book (number of wins, then seconds, then thirds, etc.). The two Wild Cards will automatically be seeded 11th and 12th. The 10-race Chase begins Sept. 16 in Chicago and ends Nov. 18 in Homestead, Fla.

· Started 28th and finished fourth.
· Took over the lead on lap 282 and held it until lap 321
· Restarted second on the green-white-checkered finish.
· Marked his sixth top-five of the season.
· First Chase appearance came in 2007
 
TRUEX: Are you happy with your run tonight? “Yes and no. It sure would have been nice to get a win. We’ve been pretty close here lately. It just sucks when you have one locked up like that and a caution comes out. That’s the way it goes and we weren’t good enough on restarts. Just wasn’t good enough tonight.”
 
Will you be happy about making the Chase tomorrow? “There will be plenty of positives tomorrow. It’s tough losing when you haven’t won in a long time. People keep asking, ‘When are you going to win? When are you going to win?’ We’re close. Just sucks we couldn’t get it done tonight.”
 
CHAD JOHNSTON: What does making the Chase mean to this organization? “Obviously, it’s a big deal for us, big deal for NAPA, big deal for MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing). Feels pretty good going into Richmond knowing that you’re locked in and that you don’t have to do anything special. We’ll just have to go see what we can do with them next week.”

Could you have stayed out during the final pit stop? “You could’ve, but you would have got ate up on tires. You go 300 laps and not have one right front tire failure, then three laps to go you have one fail. It is what it is. We had trouble getting going on the restarts. If we had four or five laps, we probably would have had something for them. All in all, a good day. It was nice to get that NAPA Shocks Toyota running up front, so we’ll move on to Richmond.”
 
WALTRIP: How special is this accomplishment to your team? “Tonight is what NASCAR racing is all about. We’re so disappointed that Martin (Truex Jr.) didn’t win and then we have to be thankful we’re in the Chase and it looks like both cars are in -- or two of our three are in and another top-10 run by the Rodney Childers’ (crew chief) 55 car (Mark Martin). I don’t know -- you’re supposed to be happy when you race and you have success, but somehow we were able to rob the joy of making the Chase. I don’t know how, but we did. We just thought we had it won and Jamie (McMurray) had a flat tire. There was nothing we could do about that and we didn’t win. I told the folks from NAPA -- Gaylord Spencer and Dan Askey and Mike Rearden are here from NAPA’s headquarters here in Atlanta -- and I told them, ‘You know, you read in the paper tomorrow we ran fourth and you’ll be like, oh we ran fourth.’ If you’re sitting here, this (expletive) is hard. Bleep that out, but this (expletive) is hard and we almost got there.”

Clint Bowyer Race Summary: No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota driver Clint Bowyer finished 27th in Sunday night’s 500-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He joined teammate Martin Truex Jr. in clinching Michael Waltrip Racing’s first berths in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Bowyer started 28th but moved to 42nd after changing an engine before the race. It didn’t take long for the 5-hour team to show it brought a fast car to Atlanta. Bowyer moved to the top-10 by lap 63 and appeared set to battle for the victory. But a lap-183 stop to change a battery cost him three laps in the pits taking away his chance to contend. The team persevered and finished four laps down in 27th. Bowyer and the 5-hour ENERGY team return to action on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.  

After Saturday’s Richmond race, the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field will be set. The top 10 in points will earn Chase berths, as will the Wild Cards – the two drivers outside the top 10 with the most wins. All 12 drivers will have their points reset to 2,000, but only those in the top 10 will have three points added to their total for each win during the first 26 races. Those points totals will set the Chase seeds. Ties will be broken per the rule book (number of wins, then seconds, then thirds, etc.). The two Wild Cards will automatically be seeded 11th and 12th. The 10-race Chase begins Sept. 16 in Chicago and ends Nov. 18 in Homestead, Fla.

· Started 28th and finished 27th
· Clinched a berth in the 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
· Dropped to the rear of the field on pace laps because of a pre-race engine change.
· Raced into the top 10 in 63 laps.
· Lost three laps in the pits to change the batter around lap 183.
 
BOWYER:  “Man that was a disappointing finish because we had such a great car tonight. I’m bummed we had to change the battery. That just killed us. The 5-hour car was stout. I’m proud of earning the spot in the Chase. That’s something everyone connected with MWR should be proud of. There will be plenty of time to celebrate. But I want to go to Richmond now and win that thing. We have a chance for some great things the rest of the way.”
 
WALTRIP: What has the journey been like for your team to get here? “I don’t like to look at the journey as having a destination today. It has one some time, but this is just a point along the way. As bad as everything looked in ’07 and as good as it looks now, you just -- if you’d have took a snapshot of ’07 you would have quit. If you took one of now, you might be satisfied. I will never give up and I will never be satisfied. I just keep going and keep trying. Hopefully, the people that have trusted me and this team and Rob (Kauffman, co-owner) with their money will be rewarded ion the end. I’m thankful. I’m happy, but it’s just a point along the way. We’re going to keep going.”
 
Mark Martin Race Summary: No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Mark Martin finished tenth in Sunday night’s 500-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Michael Waltrip Racing driver started sixth and showed throughout the race had one of the fastest cars on the track. Martin lost spots on restarts, but regained those spots as the race progressed with long green flag runs. Martin. The 10th-place finish is his sixth of the 2012 season. The No. 55 returns to action Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. Martin’s teammates Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. earned MWR its first two berths in the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field

· Started sixth and finished tenth
· Climbed as high as fourth in the early going.
· Lost spots on restarts, but excelled during long green flag runs.
· Has posted six top-10 finishes in 2012.
 
MARTIN: ““We had really a lot better race car than we finished. It’s just we got set back several times. Most of them were my fault. I had a couple of really bad situations I got myself in on restarts a couple times and got us way behind.”

ON TRUEX AND BOWYER EARNING CHASE BERTHS: “This is an amazing night for Michael Waltrip Racing. We’ve all seen how far this team has come in just a few years. There have been so many people who’ve worked so hard for this and I’m very happy for everyone. This is just the start of many good things. The folks at Aaron’s need to take great pride in tonight. They’ve been with Michael and the race team from the start and tonight they’ve been rewarded. I just wish Martin could have got that win.”

RACE NOTES:
· Denny Hamlin won the race by 0.378 seconds over second place finisher Jeff Gordon
· Brad Keselowski, Truex and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five finishers.
· The race took 3 hours and 32 minutes. 
· The race featured 18 lead changes among seven drivers.
· Six cautions slowed the race for 31 laps.
· NASCAR estimated the attendance at 90,300.