Qualifying Results: Walmart 500

Flint continues to stay hot by sitting on the pole for Talladega. This is the first race Team Harden will not have a driver on the front row. Qualifying means very little in a 188 lap restrictor plate race, so we'll see what happens!

Brackets!

Here are the 3 brackets I recieved for our mid season tournament. The rules are simple, earn the most points by the end! A correct pick at Talladega will be worth 1 point, 2 at Charlotte, 3 at Bristol, and 4 at the Glen. So lets look at what we have

Michael Taylor- Taylor Motorsports

Brent Harden- Team Harden

 Patrick Dumas- Dumas Racing

Season 1 Race 5: Walmart 500

Track- Talladega Superspeedway

Configuration- Tri-Oval

Length- 2.66 Miles

Laps- 188

Distance- 500.88 Miles

Mid Season Tournament

Starting next race at Talladega, the top 16 drivers in points will compete in a mid season tournament. The premise is simple. Have a better finish than your rival, and you move on. The seeds are based on what positions each driver is in the standings. The 4 races are on the 4 measures of tracks we go to. Talladega, Charlotte, Bristol, and the final will be at Watkins Glen.

Feel free to paste the bracket in paint and blindly guess at who will advance. I know 4 races is a small sample, but you get some reputation! So get at it, boy!

Standings After Race 4

The top 4 was separated by 23 points heading into Atlanta, and now it's sitting at 19! McAffee is the new points leader, jumping over Barros, who just got 1 point closer to the leader. Powers and Harkins fell out of the top 16 with their DNFs. Flint and Severn were the top 2 in Atlanta, and both were out of the top 16 going in. Also note how close the standings from 5th to 19th are. This will be interesting going into Talladega.

Chick-Fil-A 500

The series heads to a fast tri-oval looking for a mix up in the standings, and they got it! Here is the break down of the Chick-Fil-A 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Lap 1: McAffee on the pole, leads Sims and Fischer to the line after one lap

 Lap 37: The race was very tight with drivers shuffling positions often. That was until the driver in 5th in the standings, Ricky Bracket, had to retire due to a suspension problem.

 Lap 46: Trouble strikes the points leader. Running around 10th, Morello had to pull into the pits after dropping the clutch. He would be passed by Barros for the points standings.

 Lap 80: The first caution of the race comes out when Powers, who was running 4th spun in turn 3 and hit the wall hard, forcing his retirement.

 Lap 141: During green flag cautions, Bowen spins infront of Wick on the dog-leg. This brought out a caution, and trapped the leaders of the points(McAffee and Barros) a lap down.

 Lap 165: Harkins retires again, this time due to a clutch failure. This was the second Ford that had this problem this race.

 Lap 227: In a big pack, Unger's car caught on fire just infront of the pits, forcing him to drop off to the apron and retire form the race.

 The race remained still for the lat hundred laps. Flint managed to pass every car in the field, going last to first and winning his first career race.

 The race got pretty deluted since there wasn't a caution since the Bowen spin. Theonly battle late in the race was Richmond and Wick. Bowen, who was driving slower than the rest of the field slowed down Wick on the last lap. Here are the final results!

McAffee was behind Barros by 18 points in the standings, and managed to get 19 up on his rival, and earning a top 10 in the process!

Flint joins Wick and Barros as the drivers qualified for the All-Star Race. This race also set up the mid-season tournament! The top 16 drivers in the standings will be seeded as such, and the best result advances. I chose this week because next race is at TALLADEGA. So put a restrictor plate on your car, and head to Alabama!

Qualifying Results: Chick-Fil-A 500

For the 4th straight race, Team Harden has a car on the front row. Simms just got edged out by McAffee who can make up some ground in the standings with a good run, and having Barros and Morello 5 spots back. Big Stuff Racing swept the last row, and that is the opposite of what they need.