McMurray holds off Busch
Jamie McMurray's first win of the season is making Kyle Busch wait for another try at Nationwide Series history.
McMurray held off Busch to win the Great Clips 300 Nationwide Series race Saturday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch, trying to become the first driver in the 28-year history of the Nationwide Series to win 11 races in a season, fell short in his late efforts to catch McMurray.
Busch led the most laps in the race but finished second, ahead of Carl Edwards and less than a second behind McMurray.
McMurray, who raced to his first Nationwide Series win in Atlanta in 2002, won for the first time since 2004 in Darlington.
Busch will have to try another week for his record 11th win of the season.
Sam Ard won 10 Nationwide races in 1983. Busch matched that mark in 2008. Busch's 10th win this season came Aug. 20 in Bristol, Tenn.
Hamlin wins pole • Mired in a bit of a midseason slump, Denny Hamlin showed signs of turning things around by claiming the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race with a speed of 187.380 mph at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He edged traditionally strong qualifier Ryan Newman, who will start from the outside of the front row after a lap of 187.070.
The rest of the top five for the Emory Healthcare 500 was Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.
"I'm a very bad qualifier," Hamlin said, 'so I'll take it."
He claimed the eighth pole of his career and the 50th for Joe Gibbs Racing, which won its first pole with Bobby Labonte at Martinsville in 1995.
Associated Press
