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Biffle to back-up: I just killed the car!

Greg Biffle will have to use his back-up car in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway following a crash in final practice.

Nine laps into Saturday's final practice session for the Kobalt Tools 500, Greg Biffle smacked the Turn 4 wall at Atlanta Motor Speedway with right side of his #16 Ford.

Forced to a back-up car, Biffle will give up his 13th starting position for Sunday's race and take the green flag from the rear of the field.

Biffle, currently sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, returned to the track in the back-up car late in the session but turned enough laps to feel optimistic about the race.

"To be honest with you, it couldn't have gone better," Biffle said. "I got out (on the track) with six minutes to go. The car drove really, really well, and it drove better than my old (primary) car for that short run. I think we're going to be pretty good."

As he sat in the back-up waiting to return to the track, Biffle pointed out that Kyle Busch had scraped the wall about 18 times in winning the spring race at Atlanta two years ago.

"I just hit it in the wrong place," Biffle said. "I just got a little bit loose running the top. The back end touched the wall and sucked the nose over, right where they stopped the SAFER barrier. I hit right in the worst spot, where the wall was kinked out. I just killed the car."

Truck: Harvick wins his third straight trucks start

Kevin Harvick took the spoils in Saturday's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series E-Z-GO 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Driving a #2 Chevrolet that saw its first action this weekend at Atlanta, Kevin Harvick dominated Saturday's E-Z-Go 200 to win for the third time in his last three starts in NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series.

In a race that saw several championship contenders fall by the wayside, Harvick crossed the stripe 1.308 seconds ahead of Kyle Busch at the end of a 14-lap green-flag dash to the finish. Aric Almirola came home third, followed by Steve Wallace, the 25th driver to register a top-five in his first race in the series.

Todd Bodine survived a spin to finish fifth. Ricky Carmichael, Timothy Peters, Johnny Sauter, Rick Crawford and rookie Austin Dillon completed the top 10.

Harvick said his occasional appearances in the truck series are designed to "protect his turf" and keep Busch out of victory lane as often as possible. To that end, Kevin Harvick Inc. builds new trucks for its owner and teammate Ron Hornaday Jr. to drive. Used trucks are sold to other teams.

"We probably have a third of the field out on the racetrack," Harvick said. "That's how we make truck racing work. We have a lot of customers that we hang bodies for and give a lot of technical support for, and that's what keeps our team going.

"If they want this one (Saturday's winning truck), they can come have this one, too."

Busch recorded the best finish for his fledgling Kyle Busch Motorsports team, which was formed during the offseason.

"We weren't quite as fast as we would have liked to have been, but we're not sure if that came from our damage early in the race on Lap 1 or not," Busch said. "We still had a real decent effort, and I'm real proud of the way the KBM team ran today, with myself and the way (teammate) Tayler (Malsam) came up through there."

Malsam ran well in the second half of the race, but an off-sequence pit stop dropped him to 13th at the finish.

Four-time series champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who won the pole for Saturday's race, took another body blow against the defence of his 2009 title when a blown left rear tyre shot his #33 Chevrolet backwards into the Turn 4 wall. Hornaday, who opened the season with a 27th-place finish at Daytona last month, was credited with a 34th place result at Atlanta.

Hornaday's troubles started, however, at the start of the race, when Matt Crafton took Hornaday and Busch three-wide moments after the green flag. The right front of Busch's Toyota rubbed the left rear of Hornaday's Chevy, damaging both vehicles.

Harvick inspected a tyre rub on the #33 and told Hornaday he thought the tyre would last. Harvick was wrong, and Hornaday slammed the wall when the tyre blew, injuring his truck beyond repair.

"Hate to see it, but we had a good truck, and we'll come back," Hornaday said after leaving the infield care centre. "Kyle and I spun our tyres a little (at the start) and that's what got (Crafton) the run."

Crafton, who finished second to Hornaday in the series standings last year, had his own succession of problems. On Lap 60, Crafton slipped in Turn 2 and collected the Toyota of Bodine, who remained on the lead lap despite the accident.

A cut tyre on Lap 69 sent Crafton hard into the Turn 2 wall for the second time and ended his race. He finished 27th and dropped from fifth to eighth in the series standings.

Earnhardt snags pole for Atlanta Cup race

Dale Earnhardt Jr. on pole for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Hanging on to his car for dear life on one breathtaking lap, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the fastest lap in NASCAR's new car since its introduction in 2007.

Earnhardt paced Friday's qualifying session at the 1.54-mile racetrack with a lap at 192.716 mph, good enough to edge 2008 race winner Kyle Busch (192.280 mph) for the top spot. Juan Pablo Montoya (192.106 mph) qualified third, followed by Mark Martin (191.814 mph) and Jeff Gordon (191.774 mph).

The pole was Earnhardt's second at Atlanta, the ninth of his career, his first since April 2008 at Texas and his third since September 2002 at Kansas. Tempering his elation at qualifying first, however, was the knowledge that Earnhardt is suffering through a winless streak that reached 60 races last week at Las Vegas.

"We're just hungry, so hungry to do much better on Sunday," said Earnhardt, who hasn't won since June 2008 at Michigan. "We qualified well in Vegas (fourth), and we were pretty happy to put ourselves in the middle of the company we were around up there in the top 10.

"To be able to do what we did tonight means a lot to us, but we're starving for a good finish and something like this to happen on Sunday for us - and that's really all we can think about."

Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler, David Reutimann and Carl Edwards were sixth through tenth, respectively, in Friday's time trials.

Busch, the 13th driver to attempt a qualifying run, was pleased with his lap and thought he had a chance at the pole, but Earnhardt went out four cars later and grabbed the top starting spot.

"Pick your favourite off-ramp - one of those round ones - and drive it as hard as you can and see if it sticks," Busch said in describing a qualifying lap at the lightning-fast, bumpy speedway. "Here at Atlanta, after about 40 laps, it's like doing that off-ramp while it's raining. Good luck!"

Meanwhile four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, who has won the last two Cup races, starts 16th. Series points leader Kevin Harvick qualified 35th, while Clint Bowyer, Harvick's team-mate at Richard Childress Racing and second in the standings, starts 18th. Aric Almirola, Terry Cook and Casey Mears failed to qualify for the 43-car field.

Struggling former Chasers need big day in Atlanta

Pressure is on 2009 Chase men Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers, Juan Pablo Montoya and co as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gears up for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.

Spring is just beginning in the Northern Hemisphere, but for many of those people who race in NASCAR, the time of hope is rapidly giving way to the time of get the heck going.

Although it may be only three races into the season, shallow holes can become deep holes much easier than they can become level ground in auto racing.

When the Sprint Cup cars show up at Atlanta Motor Speedway for this weekend's Kobalt Tools 500, some of the most hopeful of the preseason hopefuls know they had better be packing large, functioning shovels.

Drivers like 2009 Chase qualifiers Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers will be almost 200 points behind leader Kevin Harvick when they fire the engines on Sunday. Hip championship pick Denny Hamlin will be more than 200 points back, as will Kasey Kahne, another driver of whom much was expected this year.

A couple of other Chasers from last year, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman, are in danger of falling out of the top 35 in points and being forced to qualify for races on speed beginning two races after Atlanta.

Yep, there is a large crowd of drivers who would love to pile up some points this weekend.

Newman said this week that doing well at Atlanta is not essential when it comes to saving his season. "I think every racetrack or every day is a new opportunity," he said.

And he happily pointed out he and his team placed 22nd at Atlanta last season and headed out through the tunnel 32nd in points-but still made the Chase.

But he also tacitly acknowledged that at some point, digging upward must replace digging downward, saying, "It's up to our team to go out there and make that happen."

Busch said he would like to go out there and make it happen soon because, among other things, he misses his old neighbours.

"It's just a bummer that you won't be parked up front (in the garages) next to the people that we've been running with the last two years," Busch said of being point poor. "It's always good when you're running with the front guys because you get to park next to them and see what's going on and be in the 'in' crowd so to speak."

And none of the hole-dwellers wants to head into the off-weekend that follows Atlanta thinking about how far they have to go rather than how far they advanced in Georgia.

Atlanta would seem to be a great place for several of the struggling drivers and teams to start reversing field; it has long been a driver favourite. This week, it was virtually impossible to find one who was not looking forward to racing there on Sunday.

"I like old, slick, wore out racetracks," said Vickers, who is 18th in points. "They're what I grew up racing, and I've always enjoyed those racetracks. I really like Atlanta, and I like running against the wall. Atlanta has all of the above."

Montoya, 26th in points, said, "It's the first track I learned to run on the high line. It's a track that gives you options with multiple grooves, and the high line has worked for me. I can run the #42 Target Chevrolet right up against the fence. It's exciting and pushes us as drivers and cars to the limit. It's a driver's track."

Perhaps most important is the fact several of the drivers desperate for success have histories of success at the 1.5-mile oval, which is still the fastest on the schedule.

Busch (19th) and Kahne (23rd) are two-time winners at Atlanta. Busch won last year's spring race; Kahne won the fall race. Busch thinks recent success can help produce current success.

"Confidence is up and on a high going into a race that you've won," Busch said. "You hope that things come together just as smoothly as they did the year before. A top-ten finish would be great, but we're shooting for a win because we won last year."

And, because he is one of that group that can ill-afford to fall further behind the leaders.

Piquet to rejoin Eddie Sharp Racing for ARCA events

Nelson Piquet Jr has confirmed three more outings in the ARCA stock car series for 2010.

Nelson Piquet Jr has confirm that he will rejoin Eddie Sharp Racing for several ARCA Racing Series events, continuing the relationship that began when the Brazilian competed in the 2010 ARCA opener at Daytona.

On that occasion, he qualified in an impressive seventh place, which he then followed up with a sixth place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series a week later.

Piquet has revealed that he will compete in the Rattlesnake 150 at Texas Motor Speedway on 16 April, the Racing for Wildlife 200 at Michigan International Speedway on 11 June and the Pennsylvania ARCA 125 on 31 July at Pocono Raceway, in addition to competing in selected NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events, details of which will be announced soon.

“I consider this opportunity to work with Eddie Sharp Racing the next phase of my development in stock car racing,” the 24-year old said, “ESR is the perfect team to work with to learn about the sport because of their championship team and great driver development track record in the ARCA Racing Series. I learned a lot in the Daytona ARCA race, and I know it helped me with my sixth place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. I have a very good relationship with the Eddie Sharp boys already, we gelled from the very beginning so I'm really happy to continue to work with such a good group of people.”

Truck: Hornaday restarts season unfazed

Truck Series veteran Ron Hornaday insists that there is still plenty of time to mount a title challenge in 2010.

Ron Hornaday's bid for a second straight Camping World Truck Series title hasn't exactly gotten off to a smooth start, but the 13-year series veteran isn't panicking.

Despite finishing 27th in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway and later learning that crew chief Dave Fuge would be replaced, Hornaday is upbeat heading into Saturday's Atlanta 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The 51-year old has overcome early-season adversity in the past, including 2008 when he finished 25th at Daytona but rallied to finish second in the final standings, seven points short of the championship.

"There's no urgency," said Hornaday, who won six races last year en route to a record-setting fourth series championship, "We've got 24 races left and, if we get on a roll like we did last year, we'll be fine."

Kevin Harvick Inc co-owners Kevin and DeLana Harvick appointed Fuge the successor to Rick Ren after Ren's off-season defection to newly formed Kyle Busch Motorsports, but Fuge parted ways with KHI after one race. Doug George, who was hired in early December as the crew chief for KHI's number two truck, has moved over to Hornaday's #33 Chevrolet where he'll call the shots from this weekend.

Hornaday and George are actually old rivals, having competed against each other for a championship in the '90s in what was then known as NASCAR's Winston West Series.

"It's really ironic because Ron and I were pretty fierce competitors, and now we're working on the same team for the same goal," 49-year old George said, as Hornaday attempts to bounce back from Daytona, where his race was ruined in a crash on lap 32.

"The good thing about Doug is he's drove before, he doesn't have an ego, he knows what it takes," Hornaday said, "I can still yell at him when you get out there and the truck's not performing like it's supposed to - he's been in the position of having the pressure of driving and crew chiefing and he's been around a long time."

George was the winning crew chief one year ago at Atlanta with Kyle Busch and Billy Ballew Motorsports, while Hornaday has a win and five top tens in nine starts at the 1.54-mile track.

"I think we've got a really good baseline setup to start with," George said, "To me, it doesn't matter if we're going to Martinsville or Atlanta or wherever. Our common goal here at KHI is to run up front and win races and run for a championship here with the #33."