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Matt Kenseth won the Nationwide series Nicorette 300 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Driving for Roush Racing, Kenseth survived two late race restarts and a dominant performance by Kyle Busch.

Busch’s performance left the remainder battling for second until a tire failure on lap 172 put him in the wall setting up a scramble for the checkered flag.

“I knew it kind of opened the door for us,” Kenseth said. “There was no way any of us was going to beat him on speed.”

Kenseth was followed in by Kevin Harvick in second with Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Bobby LaBonte rounding out the top five.

In the closing restarts, the top three were at times running three wide but with Kenseth getting out in clean air he pulled away from the field.

Harvick did all he could to mount a late race charge, but in the end it was too little too late with Kenseth winning by a margin of .159 seconds.

“I’m pretty sure we would have passed him,” Harvick said. “It seems like his car was really good on sticker tires. Matt was good on restarts and new tires and I just needed a few laps to get where I needed to be to come back and pass him.”

The win was the second series trip to victory lane at Atlanta for Kenseth; backings up his 2004 win.

It was his twenty-forth series victory, putting the Wisconsin native tied with Tommy Houston for fifth in all time wins.

Kyle Busch wound up coming in twenty-forth.

“Obviously we had the dominant car”, said Busch. “The Farm Bureau and Toyota should be real proud, I’m just sorry about the fact that we blew another right-front tire”

The string of back luck with tires continues from last week.

Busch was running top five in Las Vegas was bitten by a tire problem that put him in the garage early.

After the Vegas race Busch was publicly critical of the Goodyear tires selected for competition.

This week representative’s from Goodyear fought back noting that there was no conclusive evidence that the tire failed.

Carol Schwartz of Goodyear noted “there is no conclusion on what happened with Kyle Busch’s tire at this point. Some of the markings on the tread face are inconclusive, and Goodyear is sending the tire back to Akron for closer study. Excessive tire wear was not an issue on any car”.

Part of the problem may be the coil bound set ups that most of the teams use. The set up compresses both shock and spring in the corner, leaving no room for travel if the car bounces. The result is more down force but at the price of abusing tires.

Whether the problem was caused by Goodyear, the cars set-up or Busch’s aggressive driving style the result is still the same, the fastest car on the track finished outside the top ten.

Qualifying for the event was cancelled due to some snow in the area giving the pole to 2007 owners champion Richard Childress Racing with Jeff Burton in the number twenty nine.

The event sew twenty two lead changes among eleven drivers and was slowed by caution eight times and stopped once for a red flag.

Leaving Atlanta, two time champion Kevin Harvick is the series point’s leader as the teams head to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Sharpie Mini 300.

Race Notes

It was a busy week for the National Stock Car Racing Commission as several teams had appeals heard following proposed fines and penalties issued following the season opener at Daytona.

Several teams where issued penalties for oil tank cover violations

Johnny Davis, owner of the 01, driven by Kertus Davis found there penalties upheld.

Richardson-Haas Racing had some minor modifications to the penalties. Fines, suspensions and loss of points including points taken from driver David Gilliland remain, with the fines transferring from Carl Haas to Donnie Richardson.

Kevin Harvick Racing had fines reduced, and the suspension of crew chief Shane Wilson was also changed from six to two races. Car owner and driver points (Cale Gale) remain as they were not appealed by the team.

Phoenix Racing also received reduction in fines and suspension for crew chief Newt Moore, but not driver Johnny Sauter.

Rusty Wallace Racing had there penalties overturned for the entry driven by David Stremme

Jr Motorsports/Hendrick Motorsports announced it has dropped its appeal stemming form the deck lid violation at Daytona. The team also announced that Martin Truex Jr will drive for the No 5 team at Bristol Motor Speedway. Truex, a New Jersey Native is a two time series champion who has a 2004 win at the half mile facility. “We are extremely happy to have Martin in the No. 5 National Guard Chevrolet at Bristol, and we want to thank DEI for allowing him to drive for us,” said Kelley Elledge, vice president and general manager at JR Motorsports.