NASCAR: Georgia boys win in Atlanta

Jul. 12—The racing may have been in two different states this past weekend, but they were all in the same state of mind: put on great racing.

Whether it was in Ohio or Georgia, all three races had passing, wrecking, waning laps battles and three popular winners. There for a while it looked like this might be another weekend impacted by Mother Nature, but after she cried, she stormed out of the area, which caused the trucks to have a soggy practice Friday and Xfinity and Cup to cancel qualifying.

Saturday, at Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course, it was an oldie but a goodie with a dominating win by Parker Kligerman (75) his first victory since 2017 in the Camping World Truck Series.

Kligerman has become somewhat of a sentimental favorite, racing while he also reports from the pit for NBS Sports during the Cup and Xfinity races. Several drivers bumped him on the cool down lap to say congratulations.

As icing on the cake, he won the last race of the "Triple Truck Challenge" and took home an extra $50,000.

"It's hard to put into words [what this means], I was pretty emotional on the cool-down lap because this whole team, it's like a team of second chances," Kligerman told an FS1 reporter. "Two years ago, I thought my driving days were done. This team gave me a call, wanting to get back racing and it's just been a steady improvement."

Of his Henderson Racing team, which employs only one full-time crew member, he added: "It's just unbelievable when you put a talented group of humans together, what they achieve. We're doing this on absolutely a fraction of the trucks we run against. This is a small team that 'could, but we're not a small team that doesn't win." Kligerman shouted, turning toward the crowd. "We win."

The 67-lap "O'Reilly Auto Parts 150" took two hours, 19 minutes and 24 seconds to complete at an average race speed of 65.116 mph.

Kligerman won with only a .119 second margin of victory over season dominating second place finisher Zane Smith (38).

There were seven cautions for a total of 12 caution laps and five lead changes between only three drivers.

Hailie Deegan (1) finished 10th, marking the highest finish of her sophomore season and the highest finish for a female on a road course in CWTS history.

Saturday afternoon, it was time to change the channel to USA Network and settle in for the 163-lap "Alsco Uniforms 250" for the Xfinity Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Once the rain stopped and the track was dried (during the truck race), the boys and girls of the NXS put on a pretty good show on the newly re-profiled track.

Georgia-born Austin Hill (21), driving for Richard Childress Racing, came away with the victory with a .111 second margin of victory over second place Josh Berry (8).

Winning at AMS is familiar to Hill, who has been winning at AMS since he was 9-years old in a bandolero car.

"Man, look at this crowd, I love the fans," a smiling Hill said to the waiting NBC Sports Reporter. "What a car. Man, RCR has been working their ever-loving tails off to give me a car that will race really fast."

The "Alsco Uniforms 250" took one hour, 57 minutes and 36 seconds to complete at an average speed of 128.071 mph.

The caution flag flew six times for 28 total laps of caution, along with 17 lead changes between seven drivers. Hill also led the most laps with a race high 73 laps.

Sunday, the Cup Series stepped up for their turn at the newly re-profiled AMS and their 260-lap "Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart."

For the second day in a row, a Georgia-born driver — this time Chase Elliott (9) — won the race.

His win makes him the only driver to have three wins on the season. His victory, however, came under the caution flag for a last lap wreck while he was racing Corey LaJoie (7) driving for Spire Motorsports.

LaJoie tried to block Elliott to maintain his lead on the green/white/checker restart spinning out in the process in the middle of turns one and two while try to become the sixth first time winner this season.

LaJoie was actually up front leading the race and running in the top five most of the last two stages instead of his normal back of the pack runs. So even though LaJoie's box score says he finished 21st, that is far from his stellar performance during the race.

Elliott's win makes him and his father NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott only the second father/son duo to win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the first duo being NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jr.

"This one's up there for sure, to win at your home track is a real big deal I think to any race car driver," Elliott told the NBC Sports Reporter following his tire popping burnout. "I watched a lot of guys do it over the years, Jimmie [Johnson] out in California. We haven't really had a very good run here, so I felt like today was a good opportunity for us."

Elliott continued: "I'm just so proud. This is obviously home for me and home to a lot of great fans who made a lot of noise today. Couldn't be more proud of our team."

Following Elliott's interview, NBC reporters caught up with Corey LaJoie.

"Closest I've ever been, for sure," LaJoie said. "That was fun. I'm proud of my guys at Spire and everyone who's helped us out. I made my move and it didn't work out, and the siren is ringing in Dawsonville [Georgia], unfortunately," referencing the famed Dawsonville Pool Room where the owners turn on a siren to celebrate each of Elliott's victories.

The 260-lap "Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart" took three hours, 22 minutes and 18 seconds to complete at an average race speed of 118.754 mph.

The drivers saw the yellow flag 13 times for a total of 64 total caution laps along with the race having 27 lead changes between 12 drivers.