2010 Emory Healthcare 500
Race details[1][2][3][4] | |||
---|---|---|---|
Race 25 of 36 in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||
Date | September 5, 2010 | ||
Location | Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Georgia | ||
Course |
Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km) | ||
Distance | 325 laps, 500.5 mi (805.5 km) | ||
Weather | Partly cloudy with a high around 84; wind out of the NE at 4 mph. Chance of precipitation: 0%. | ||
Average speed | 129.039 miles per hour (207.668 km/h) | ||
Pole position | |||
Driver | Joe Gibbs Racing | ||
Time | 29.587 | ||
Most laps led | |||
Driver | Tony Stewart |
Stewart Haas Racing | |
Laps | 175 | ||
Winner | |||
No. 14 | Tony Stewart | Stewart Haas Racing | |
Television in the United States | |||
Network | ESPN | ||
Announcers | Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree |
The 2010 Emory Healthcare 500 was a
Pole position driver Denny Hamlin maintained his lead on the first lap to begin the race, as Ryan Newman, who started in the second position remained behind him. Afterward, Newman became the leader. On lap 128, Hamlin had an engine failure, finishing forty-third. Later in the race, Tony Stewart led a race-high of seventy-five laps. Stewart retained the first position on a final restart to clinch his third win at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
There were eight cautions and twenty-seven lead changes among nine different drivers throughout the course of the race. It was Tony Stewart's first win of the season and the thirty-eighth of his career. The result moved him up two spots to fourth in the Drivers' Championship, 283 points behind of leader Kevin Harvick and fourteen ahead of Carl Edwards. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, thirty-two ahead of Toyota and sixty-six ahead of Ford, with eleven races remaining in the season. A total of 93,200 people attended the race, while 5.516 million watched it on television.
Report
Background
Before the race,
Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions were held on Saturday, prior to the race. The first session lasted 120 minutes, while the second session was 45 minutes.[10] During the first practice session, Kasey Kahne was quickest, ahead of Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer in second and third.[11] Jeff Burton was scored fourth quickest, while Denny Hamlin was fifth.[11] In the second and final practice session, Ryan Newman was scored quickest, as Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya followed in the second and third positions.[12] David Ragan was scored in the fourth position, while Bowyer followed in fifth.[12]
During qualifying, forty-seven cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to start because of NASCAR's
After winning the pole position, Hamlin stated, "I feel like the last 10 races have definitely been up and down for our team," he said. "We were on such a hot streak there. We kind of got spoiled. The regular season was kind of irrelevant at that point because we knew we were going to get in the Chase. We're going to treat these next two weeks as if we're Chase racing. We found ourselves going for wins so much, going all-out for wins, that it probably hurt us in the long run. These next two weeks, we're going back to points racing."[15]
Race
The race, the twenty-fifth in the
Two laps later, Newman passed Hamlin for the lead .
On lap 44, green flag
On lap 70, Kyle Busch drove to pit road, because of a loose wheel. Six laps later, Ryan Newman fell two positions to eleventh, after being passed by Paul Menard and Kevin Harvick. Afterward on lap 80, Edwards passed Kahne to move into the third position. Five laps later, Menard moved to seventh on the grid, after passing Biffle. Afterwards, more green flag pit stops began. On lap 88, Stewart, who was the leader, was passed by Hamlin. Three laps later, Stewart reclaimed the lead. Stewart only led three laps until he returned the lead to Hamlin for one lap. Stewart pitted on lap 97, as pit stops continued. Afterward, Stewart remained first, ahead of Hamlin, Edwards, Truex, and Kahne.[16]
On lap 127, Hamlin reclaimed the lead, as debris in turn four prompted the caution out. Hamlin led on the restart, but three laps later, he fell to fifth, as Edwards claimed the lead. Hamlin, who started on the pole position, went to the garage, as his engine failed, which prompted the second caution. Stewart regained the lead after pit stops completed. Immediately after the restart, Biffle spun sideways, and collided with Elliott Sadler to bring out the third caution. Both obtained excessive damage, and went to the garage for repairs. Stewart remained the leader on the restart, but was overtaken by Johnson. Kyle Busch, who was a lap down after his drive-through penalty, had recovered to sixth. One lap later, Gordon moved into the sixth position, after passing Busch.[16]
On lap 170, Stewart passed Johnson to move into the first position. After struggling with
Montoya, who started eighth, passed Kyle Busch for fourth, three laps later. On lap 222, Montoya moved into the third position, as Johnson showed his displeasure from the previous race
After Harvick drove through pit road the first time, it caused a scoring error, so he was held a lap to fix it. Edwards led on the restart, but within two laps Scott Speed had an engine failure to bring out the sixth caution. Kurt Busch stayed off pit road during the caution to become the leader. Five laps later, on lap 280, Kahne passed Kurt Busch for the first position. One lap later, Johnson passed Kyle Busch for the fourth position. On lap 283, Edwards, followed by Johnson, passed Kurt Busch for second and third. Nine laps later, Stewart passed Kyle Busch for the fifth position. Three laps later, Brad Keselowski collided with the outside wall hard enough to bring out the caution.[16]
Edwards became the leader after the pit stops, but one lap after the restart, Stewart reclaimed the lead, as Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne collided. On lap 302, the eighth caution was given because Kahne's tire deflated. The restart was on lap 307, with Stewart the leader. Three laps later, Kevin Harvick returned to pit road, as Jeff Burton passed Kurt Busch for fifth. On lap 314, Kyle passed his brother Kurt Busch for sixth. By lap 316, Stewart had a 1.2 second lead over Edwards. With three laps remaining, Kahne showed his anger with Newman, after the contact that sent him collided into Kurt Busch. Tony Stewart crossed the line to win the race, over a second ahead of second place Carl Edwards. Jimmie Johnson maintained third while Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch finished fourth and fifth.[16][19]
Post-race
"It was just a really good night overall for the entire Stewart Haas organization, just a lot of hard work we have put in over the last few months just trying to get back to where we feel like we could win a race. We had good Top 5, Top 10 cars but just we were not able to get to victory lane. Tonight we had all the pieces together. We unloaded fast this weekend and Tony did an incredible job qualifying, starting up front makes all the difference in the world and good pit stalls and being able to help the guys out, all things combined, it was a good effort."
Darian Grubb, speaking after the race.[20]
Tony Stewart appeared in victory lane after his victory lap to start celebrating his first win of the season, and his third at Atlanta Motor Speedway, in front of a crowd of 93,200 people.[21][22] After breaking a thirty-one race losing streak, Stewart stated on the team's radio, "Ring the bell baby, woo! Good job, guys! You got it done, that's the only way we had a shot. You guys won this thing in the pits." He also added, "I've never been so happy to win in my life."[22]
Although,
"It was fun racing with him like that. We gave each other room. Whoever got caught in traffic, the other guy got the lead back. It was fun switching the lead. We struggled on restarts or I struggled on restarts, Darian wasn’t driving the car, so I can’t blame it on him. I struggled on restarts all night. Finally the last two, I hit it a lot closer and kept them from spinning quite as bad. The pit crew is who we have got to give all the credit to tonight. They had an awesome pit stop the last time we came in that got us that track position that I lost on the previous restart. So you know, without that, I don’t think we would have a shot to be here tonight."
Ryan Newman discussed his contact with Kahne by explaining, "Yeah, the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) hit me the same time I hit the No. 9 (Kahne) — it was within a millisecond. I was trying to push him to get ahead of the No. 2 car (Kurt Busch) and it didn’t work out. We’ve seen this several times this year, and it was me trying to help him out. It causes accidents once in a while. It hurt him but in the grand scheme of things he tried to hurt me and it didn’t hurt us as bad. So, we’ll just go on." Stewart also stated, "When you have a car that’s that good, it’s not good to lose those spots like that. ... We got caught back there one time and we struggled getting that track position back. But when you have a car that’s that fast, it’s nice. You don’t feel like you’re in too much trouble when you lose a couple of spots on a restart like that."[21]
The race result left Kevin Harvick leading the Driver's Championship with 3,585 points.[23] Jeff Gordon, who finished thirteenth, was second on 3,366, forty-one points ahead of Kyle Busch and sixty-four ahead of Stewart.[23] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet maintained their lead with 182 points.[8] Toyota remained second with 150 points.[8] Ford followed with 116 points, fourteen points ahead of Dodge in fourth.[8] 5.516 million people watched the race on television.[24] The race took three hours, fifty-two minutes and forty-three seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 1.316 seconds.[19]
Results
Qualifying
Race results
Standings after the race
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for driver's standings.
- * – This driver clinched a position in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
- ‡ – This driver is in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
References
- ^ a b "Sprint Cup Series Schedule". ESPN. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
- ^ "Emory Healthcare 500". Rotoworld.com. NBC Sports. Archived from the original on September 2, 2010. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
- ^ Pearce, Al (September 4, 2010). "NASCAR: Denny Hamlin wins pole for Cup race at Atlanta". Auto Week. Archived from the original on September 9, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
- ^ "Stewart wins at Atlanta for season's first victory". News & Observer. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
- ^ "NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on August 15, 2010. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
- ^ a b "NASCAR Tracks—The Atlanta Motor Speedway". Atlanta Motor Speedway. Archived from the original on September 3, 2010. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
- ^ "Driver's Championship Classification". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 9, 2010. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e "Manufactures' Championship Classification". Jayski's Silly Season Site. ESPN. Archived from the original on August 13, 2010. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
- ^ "2009 Pep Boys Auto 500". Racing-reference.info. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
- ^ "Event Schedule". Jayski's Silly Season Site. ESPN. Archived from the original on October 7, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
- ^ a b "Practice 1 Timing and Scoring". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 7, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ a b "Practice 2 Timing and Scoring". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 7, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ "Qualifying Order". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 7, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e "Race Lineup: Atlanta". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 7, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
- ^ "Denny Hamlin wins Atlanta pole". ESPN. September 4, 2010. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Race Summary". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 8, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
- ^ "Ernie Haase & Signature Sound to Perform National Anthem at Emory Healthcare 500". Catchfence. August 31, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
- ^ Theodore, John (August 22, 2010). "Kyle Busch Dominates At Bristol To Complete Historic Weekend Sweep". Bleacher Report. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- ^ a b c "NASCAR Race Result". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 9, 2010. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
- ^ "Tony Stewart Wins at Atlanta and Locks Spot in 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup". Catchfence. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
- ^ a b c Kenny, Bruce (September 5, 2010). "Tony Stewart snaps winless streak with victory at Atlanta". Scene Daily. Archived from the original on September 10, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
- ^ a b Ryan, Nate (September 6, 2010). "Tony Stewart grabs first Sprint Cup win of the year in Atlanta". USA Today. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
- ^ a b c "Point Standings". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on September 9, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
- ^ "2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup TV Ratings". Jayski's Silly Season Site. ESPN. Archived from the original on August 1, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
- ^ "MRN Race Results". Motor Racing Network. Archived from the original on September 9, 2010. Retrieved September 6, 2010.