Start your engines! Photo via: Wiki Commons.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Hotlanta this week for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. This track has been a staple among the NASCAR Cup Series since it was built back in 1960. This track provides a lot of spacious green flag runs, so we could see a lot of strategy this week as it is one of the more tame races on the schedule.
This season has been unpredictable to say the least. There have been five races and five different winners as the streak continued last week with Martin Truex Jr. winning at Phoenix. The race was fairly mild in spite of the race's twenty-two lead changes. There was a lot of speed early on from the Penske Fords as both Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney won stages one and two, but they were both no match for Truex as he made the race winning pass with twenty-four laps to go. This is a statement win for the 2017 champion as he looks to establish himself as the championship favorite.
While Truex and his #19 team were celebrating, his teammate Kyle Busch has been experiencing the exact opposite as his struggles continue. Two weeks ago at Las Vegas, Kyle made an awesome comeback after struggling for most of the day to finish third. Last week was a much different story. The two-time champion struggled mightily as he was outside the top twenty for most of the day. To add insult to injury, he was involved in an incident with Ross Chastain. This has easily been the most frustrating period of his career as he nearly went winless all of 2020 until winning at Texas in the fall. During this slump, there have been many who questioned why he was struggling so bad. One of the biggest reasons could be NASCAR's omission of practice and qualifying as he was never really able to adjust to that. Another could be he still isn't used to working with his new crew-chief, Ben Beshore. Whatever the reason, rowdy and his team still have plenty of time to turn things around.
The favorite to win this week has to be last week's winner, Martin Truex Jr. Over the last four races here, Truex has been one of the three best drivers by far. He currently holds an impressive 3.33 average finish here since 2017. Plus, he has a lot of good momentum going into this race considering his win last week. I look for him to lead a lot of laps this week considering he will be on the front row. He will be hard to beat come Sunday. Look for the #19 Toyota Camry to be a true contender this week.
The driver that I have winning this week is Brad Keselowski. Over the last two weeks, Brad has been on quite a roll with back-to-back top fives including a second place finish last week. Even though his season started off kind of rocky, Brad has been one of the best drivers out there. He is due for a win, and he's coming to a track where he has been great. He has won here twice in the last four years. Look for him to go to victory lane and become the sixth different winner in 2021.
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Jul 25, 2024, 11:31 am
Hunter Brown had eight strikeouts in six innings to remain one of the hottest pitchers in baseball, helping the Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics 8-1 on Wednesday.
Chas McCormick homered for the first time in more than a month and Jose Altuve had three hits and two RBIs as the Astros bounced back to win the last game of the series after losing the first two in likely their final regular-season trip to the Coliseum.
The game was played before 14,978 fans, the third-largest crowd at the Coliseum this season.
Seth Brown had three hits for the A’s. Oakland had won five of six.
Hunter Brown (9-6) pitched around traffic in every inning he worked but limited the damage while winning for the eighth time in his last nine starts. The right-hander struck out the side twice and allowed eight hits with one walk.
During his strong stretch, Brown has lowered his ERA from 6.18 to 4.00.
Bryan Abreu, Taylor Scott and Bryan King retired three batters each to finish the game.
Lawrence Butler and Miguel Andujar got Oakland going early with back-to-back doubles in the first inning. Andujar was later thrown out by Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña trying to score on a grounder.
Houston tied it in the second after Jon Singleton reached on a two-base fielding error by Seth Brown at first base, then scored on Alutve’s single to left field. Altuve tried to stretch the hit into a double but was thrown out by Andujar.
Peña added an RBI single that deflected off Oakland pitcher JP Sears’ foot and bounced into left field in the sixth.
Altuve and Alex Bregman each doubled in a run as part of a four-run seventh.
Smoked down the line. 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/tLM7LxTLi9
— Houston Astros (@astros) July 24, 2024
Sears (7-8), unbeaten in his three previous starts this month, allowed eight runs (seven earned) and nine hits in six innings.
The A’s put two on with two outs in the seventh before Astros center fielder Jake Meyers made a tumbling catch on Brent Rooker’s short flyball to end the inning.
UP NEXT
Astros: Had not announced a scheduled starting pitcher for Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Minute Maid Park.
Athletics: The team plans to activate RHP Ross Stripling (1-9, 5.82 ERA) off the injured list to start Thursday’s series opener against the Angels. Stripling has been on a rehab assignment recovering from a strained right elbow.