{"id":56118,"date":"2026-02-20T23:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=56118"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:39:11","slug":"nascar-friday-atlanta-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/nascar-friday-atlanta-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Atlanta Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Austin Hill, Jesse Love embrace friendly rivalry at Richard Childress Racing<\/b><\/p>\n

HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Austin Hill arrives at his \u201chome track\u201d EchoPark Speedway a five-time winner in the last seven races here \u2013 and two-time defending winner of Saturday\u2019s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Austin Hill, driver of the #21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at Echo Park Speedway on February 20, 2026 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

His teammate, reigning NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love has won pole position in three of the last four Atlanta races giving the legendary RCR organization a bookend to success at the 1.5-mile high-banked track.<\/p>\n

Which brings up the inevitable question, with both Hill and Love so good here, has a certain sense of rivalry developed between teammates on these big tracks? Both smiled when asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess there is that motivation because Austin hangs a lot of banners up at RCR,\u2019\u2019 Love said of his teammates winning banners. \u201cSo I have that and that rivalry.\u00a0\u00a0\u2026 Especially at these race tracks he\u2019s the toughest one to beat and I definitely learn a lot from him. At the end of the race sometimes we\u2019re racing other people in the field, but nine times out of 10 we\u2019re racing for the win.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Hill, whose No. 21 RCR Chevrolet won the Daytona season-opener last weekend, concedes that likewise, Love\u2019s No. 2 RCR Chevy is always the car he has to keep an eye on as well \u2013 noting RCR\u2019s current dominance at the big drafting tracks such as Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega, Ala.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say when we\u2019re out here at these speedways especially here at Atlanta, the number one car I don\u2019t want behind me at the end of the race is the No. 2 car because I know he has just as good equipment as I have and he knows what he\u2019s doing on these superspeedways<\/p>\n

\u201cSo him talking about me being his biggest threat, he\u2019s my biggest threat I feel like. There\u2019s always that little fun rivalry you have inside the shop, but I think it kind of elevates both of us to the next level and pushes us to be better on the race track. We work well together when we have to, but then when it\u2019s gloves off and we\u2019re going or the win we\u2019re going to try everything we can not to lose the race for both of us \u2013 but obviously he wants to win and I want to win for our team. It\u2019s a fun little rivalry when we come to these places.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Haas Factory Team\u2019s Sam Mayer won the Kennametal Pole Position in the No. 41 Chevrolet Camaro during Friday evening\u2019s NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts qualifying session. Love qualified 10th and Hill will roll off 20th.<\/p>\n

Rajah\u2019s JR Motorsports groove<\/b><\/p>\n

It took all of one start in the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet for the popular young driver Rajah Caruth to score his best career finish (10th) and first career top-10 in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series. The former fulltime NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver is doing a limited schedule in 2026 for JR Motorsports but was certainly energized by the Daytona debut.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Lavar Scott, driver of the #45 Urban Affairs Coalition Chevrolet, (R) and Rajah Caruth, driver of the #88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, talk on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at Echo Park Speedway on February 20, 2026 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The 23-year-old, two-time winner in the truck series is back behind the wheel this weekend at Atlanta and brings some extra confidence to the seat in Saturday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\u201cChecked some boxes or maybe answered some questions I had about really running up front in an O\u2019Reilly [series] car,\u2019\u2019 Caruth said. \u201cI ran the Fall race [at Atlanta] for Jordan Anderson but I wasn\u2019t running in the top-10 all day. So it [Daytona] really answered some questions I had from my years of truck (series) plate racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great. Unfortunately got caught up in some other folks\u2019 mess but to finish in the top-10 was great and really showed how fast all our cars were and how much the work at Hendrick Motorsports shop and JRM closed the gap to the RCR cars. I felt like we could take the fight to them last weekend. Didn\u2019t work out obviously, but I\u2019m very confident going into this weekend that one of us can get the job done.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Introducing Mini Tyrell<\/b><\/p>\n

Two of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series RAM Trucks team fulltime drivers \u2013 Brenden McQueen and Mini Tyrrell \u2013 will be making their first series EchoPark Speedway start in Saturday\u2019s race \u2013 qualifying 28th\u00a0and 29th, respectively for the FR8 Racing 208 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

For Tyrrell, who won his seat in the No. 14 RAM 1500, it\u2019s been a high-profile arrival on the NASCAR scene. He earned the season ride at Kaulig Racing through the \u201cRace for the Seat\u201d reality competition during the offseason – besting a field of 15 hopefuls. The eight-episode series aired on FOX networks and although Tyrrell is an accomplished short track driver, even he has noticed the additional attention it\u2019s brought.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge step in the career and even this morning walking to the garage people wanted me to sign [autographs],\u2019\u2019 Tyrrell said. \u201cTo me that\u2019s just so awesome because I\u2019ve grown up being a race fan and loving racing. It\u2019s been so special and I\u2019ve been in the shoes of those people that love the drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely unexpected, just because I was a local guy who ran the late models,\u2019\u2019 he said of the attention. \u201cI had a bunch of fans that loved the short track scene but they didn\u2019t really know who I was, the fans who love NASCAR. So it was really cool to make that entrance and so cool for the show and having that opportunity and getting my name out there and having so many new fans. It\u2019s been such a pleasure to meet everybody. I love every minute when people come up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia wins NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Pole Position<\/b><\/p>\n

ThorSport Racing driver Jake Garcia, a Georgia-native, won pole position for Saturday\u2019s race in his home state. It marked the fourth career Kennemetal Pole Position for the 20-year old, who fondly recalled coming to EchoPark Speedway to watch races when he was younger.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jake Garcia, driver of the #98 Quanta Services\/Curb Records Ford, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Fr8 Racing 208 at Echo Park Speedway on February 20, 2026 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis is really special, it\u2019s a place where I used to come and watch races for my birthday and I have a lot of fond memories of this place so really cool to lead the field to the green flag,\u2019\u2019 said Garcia, whose best finish at his home track is ninth and came last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally excited to do that in front of a crowd of fellow Georgians.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s lap of 172.980 mph just edged his ThorSport teammate, former series champion Ben Rhodes by a slight .047-second giving the team a lockout on the front row. Eight-time EchoPark Speedway truck race winner Kyle Busch will start third.<\/p>\n

Also of note, Adam Andretti qualified eighth for his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut. He is the brother of the late John Andretti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Austin Hill, Jesse Love embrace friendly rivalry at Richard Childress Racing HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Austin Hill arrives at his \u201chome track\u201d EchoPark Speedway a five-time winner in the last seven races here \u2013 and two-time defending winner of Saturday\u2019s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 (5 p.m. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":56124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[52,16],"class_list":["post-56118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-atlanta-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2262723192-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1708&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-eB8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56118"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56132,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56118\/revisions\/56132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}