Jamie McMurray won the Great Clips 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, holding off this season’s 10-time winner, Kyle Busch, in front of one of the largest crowds at a Nationwide Series race in the track’s history.
“We unloaded today and had pretty much the fastest car on the track,” McMurray said. “So cool to win here tonight. Gives us a good feeling going into tomorrow.”
Busch was closing in the final laps but couldn’t make up the final gap before the end of the 195-lap scheduled distance.
“It didn’t quite unfold the way we wanted it to,” Busch said. “Typically a long-run car wins here, and we were real good on the short runs.”
The second-place finish kept Busch from setting a Nationwide record for the most wins in a single season.
“We came up short tonight,” Busch said. “Five laps more and I could have had him. If … there’s always an ‘if’ in this sport I guess.”
Carl Edwards finished third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth, while former Alpharetta resident Joey Logano ended the night in sixth.
“This is a fun race track. It was like a dirt race, and it was hard to find the line,” Edwards said. “I could catch those guys and then I would mess up one lap and I would have to pedal for five or six laps to get back to where I was before I messed up. It was a really tough race and I’m pretty excited about tomorrow – 500 miles, more horsepower.”
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE 1 88 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 3 60 Carl Edwards Ford 4 33 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 5 16 Matt Kenseth Ford 6 20 Joey Logano Toyota 7 10 Jason Leffler Toyota 8 1 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 9 98 Paul Menard Ford 10 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. * Ford 11 7 Josh Wise Chevrolet 12 22 Brad Keselowski Dodge 13 12 Justin Allgaier Dodge 14 21 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 15 40 Mike Bliss Chevrolet 16 62 Brendan Gaughan Toyota 17 42 David Gilliland Dodge 18 35 Jason Keller Chevrolet 19 38 Kasey Kahne Toyota 20 34 Tony Raines Chevrolet 21 15 Michael Annett Toyota 22 9 John Wes Townley Ford 23 5 Willie Allen Chevrolet 24 99 Trevor Bayne Toyota 25 28 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 26 27 Brad Baker Ford 27 81 Michael McDowell Dodge 28 11 Brian Scott * Toyota 29 87 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 30 24 Eric McClure Ford 31 26 Brian Keselowski Dodge 32 70 Mark Green Chevrolet 33 23 Robert Richardson Jr. Chevrolet 34 32 Reed Sorenson Toyota 35 66 Steve Wallace Toyota 36 1 Mike Wallace Chevrolet 37 91 Chase Miller Chevrolet 38 90 Danny O'Quinn Jr. Chevrolet 39 89 Johnny Chapman Chevrolet 40 52 Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 41 92 Dennis Setzer Dodge 42 43 Kevin Hamlin Ford 43 136 Jeff Green Chevrolet
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