Tony Stewart won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win of the season at the Atlanta Motor Speedway this past Sunday. Stewart, a sponsored Safety-Kleen driver, had the strong car all day and was able to hold off Carl Edwards for his first victory in 31 races. The first part of the race however belonged to Denny Hamlin, who sat on the pole and took off at the green flag, but his day ended when his engine blew up leaving the lead to Stewart. Stewart did have his problems on restarts as he had couldn’t get a hold of the track. But on the final restart Stewart’s tires hooked up and he cruised to his 38th career win. Edward’s Ford seemed to be down on horsepower compared to Stewart’s Chevy and was unable to stay with Stewart on NASCAR’s fastest race track. Jimmie Johnson came to Atlanta ready to race and he put in a steady performance and finished in third ahead of Safety-Kleen driver Jeff Burton. And yes, Kyle Busch was in the race and looked to be coming to the front but he got caught for speeding entering the pits and had to race back from almost a lap down to finish in fifth. Safety-Kleen sponsored Kurt Busch also recovered from being a lap down to finish sixth ahead of Clint Bowyer, who looks to be in The Chase in the last 12th position as the team head to Richmond next week for the final race before The Chase begins in Loudon. Ryan Newman,Tony Stewart’s teammate, finished eighth after coming together with Kasey Kahne in the closing laps. Juan Pablo Montoya and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top 10. Series point leader and Safety-Kleen driver Kevin Harvick blew a front right tire early in the race and he later retired and was scored in the 33rd position. Another great job this weekend from the Morrow branch, Dave Klotter coordinated the customer activities at the track with help from Travis Wiggins and Rick Hodge.

Jamie McMurray held off a hard charging Kyle Busch to win onSaturday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Driving JR Motorsports and sponsored by Safety-Kleen McMurray held off Busch and the other competitors for the final 23 laps of the event. The win was the 8th for McMurray in the Nationwide Series. The race was set up when Kevin Harvick was battling Kyle Busch at about half way, then Ryan Newman spun Trevor Bayne on the backstretch and bunch the field. McMurray was first out of the pits under caution and led the field to a restart on Lap 153. With McMurray out in front Harvick and Busch fought for position down to the end. At the checkered flag Carl Edwards was able to get ahead of Harvickwith Matt Kenseth finishing in fourth. Joey Logano, Jason Leffler, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10. Series points leader Brad Keselowski finished 12th and now lead Edwards by 332 points.

Todd Bodine won the race this past Friday night and seems to be set to win another Camping World Truck Series championship, but this win wasn’t easy at Kentucky Speedway. Bodine, a Safety-Kleen sponsored driver, spun while battling Kyle Busch for the lead on Lap 81. The spin sent Bodine to the pits and put his into a fuel mileage strategy as he restarted in 25th position. 10 laps later another caution came out and Bodine pitted again for fuel and that’s all it took to set the stage for the victory. Busch took the lead after the caution and ended up leading a total of 73 laps of the race, until 23 laps to go and he had to come to the pits for his last stop. Bodine then retook the lead and the earlier troubles and the fuel strategy paid off as he held the trophy at the end. Johnny Sauter, another Safety-Kleen sponsored driver, finished second, with Aric Almirola third, Jason White fourth and a great race for Ricky Carmichael finishing in fifth. Timothy Peters, Busch, Ryan Sieg, pole sitter Austin Dillon and Matt Crafton completed the top 10. Bodine extended his points lead to 261 over Almirola as the teams head for Loudon in two weeks. A special thanks to Dave from the Louisville branch for helping out at the track this weekend.

Helio Castroneves victory at Kentucky Speedway this past Saturday night can be summed up in one word -”fuel”. Helio rolled the dice and stayed out as the rest of the leaders had to take a “splash and go” late in the race and took the checkered flag. The win was set up by an extra pitstop mid way thru the event, thus putting the Penske Safety-Kleen driver out of sequence with the rest of the field. You never know if that will pay off until the final segment of a race and for Helioit paid off big. But for Dan Wheldon, who looked set to take his first victory since 2008 his luck ran out and so did his fuelas he had to pit with a few laps to go to make it to the end. Polesitter Ed Carpenter also came to the pits with a handful of laps remaining and was able to beat Weldon to the strip to take second over Weldon. Safety-Kleen sponsored Andretti Autosport had a good night, Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick battled thru the field and finished in sixth and ninth. Penske driver Will Power was strong early on but he fell down in the standings and finished in eighth while Franchitti scored a fifth. The two Safety-Kleen sponsored racers are now within 17 points of each other with just two races to go in the season. Next stop is Japan in two weeks and then Homestead at the end of the month to determine the Champion.

The NFL has the Super Bowl – Major League baseball has The World Series and NHRA Drag Racing has the US Nationals. To win at Indy defines a racers career and on Labor Day Monday each year the battle is on to see who will win “The Big Go” as it is known in the industry. This past Monday Larry Dixon, driving the Allen Johnson Racing Top Fuel Dragster, continued his 2010 winning ways as he rolled to his 10TH win of the season at the US Nationals this past Monday in Indianapolis. Dixon, who is supported by Safety-Kleen earned his 4th win at Indy and 58th of his career by beating another Safety-Kleen driver Cory McClenathan in the final round. Dixon defeated Bruce Litton, Steve Torrence and Shawn Langdon in earlier rounds to advance to the final.The last pass of the day was a great drag race and Dixon wonwith a 3.837 seconds -319.60 mph pass to a loosing 3.870 at 319.82 pass by Cory .In Funny Car Ashley Force Hood beat her father and team owner John Force in the finals. Ashley claimed her first win of the season and 4th career win. She laid down a 4.141 at 308.07 while her father’s Ford Mustang lost traction at mid-track and finished in 7.246 at 91.61 – the throttle cable broke and the car shut off. Force however, maintained his series lead, 60 in front of Jack Beckman. Force Hood moved to fourth in the standings with the victory. In Pro Stock Greg Stanfield used a hole shot to defeat defending world champion Mike Edwards in the Pro Stock final round. Stanfield posted a 6.665 at 207.59 to hold off the quicker-but losing 6.627 at 208.75 run by Edwards. It was Stanfield’s first win of the season and 4th of his career. Stanfield moved to third in the points behind Edwards. Thanks to the crew from the Greenwood branch for a super job this weekend led by crew chief Wes and special help from Jim, Kevin and Dave. The next stop for the NHRA is Charlotte in two weeks.