MARCH 8, 2017

(Getty Images/NASCAR)
Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Jimmy John's Ford) led 292 of the 325 laps of Sunday's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway, but a pit road speeding penalty under caution on Lap 311 sent him to the back of the field for the final restart. That gave opportunistic Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Autotrader Ford) the opening he needed, and he blew by Kyle Larson (No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Target Chevrolet) to take the lead and went on to win the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season by .564 seconds. Larson was second, followed by Matt Kenseth (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Dewalt Flexvolt Toyota) and Kasey Kahne (No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Farmers Insurance Chevrolet). Chase Elliott (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet) overcame a pit road speeding penalty of his own incurred on a green-flag stop on Lap 212 to finish fifth. Watch a video here.

The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 17-20 at Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway) is shaping up to be memorable for a number of anniversaries: the 60th anniversary of Formula Junior, the 60th anniversary of Laguna Seca, and the 70th anniversary of Ferrari, which will be the featured marque. Returning to the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion for the first time since 2013 are the sleek Formula Juniors that ran on the world racing stage between 1958 and 1963 (Vern Neff pilots his 1960 Lotus 18, above, at Laguna Seca in 2013). Celebrating its Diamond Jubilee World Tour at Laguna Seca, there will be two groups to accommodate the unprecedented number of 71 entries received, making it the largest group of Formula Juniors to assemble in North America. Cars from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and from across the United States will be arriving for this special occasion.

(Audi images)
Audi Sport presented the DTM racing version of the Audi RS 5 Coupé at the Geneva Motor Show. “This is a special day for me and everyone involved in the DTM project,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “For the first time, we developed a new DTM car in parallel with the production model. This underlines once again how closely motorsport and production work together at Audi.” The German manufacturer tallied ten victories in each of the last two seasons, the most successful DTM effort in both years. “Obviously, we’d like to repeat this with the new RS 5 DTM,” Gass added.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Cliff Ebben No. 36 Stumpf Ford/McMahon Group Ford Mustang) secured his sixth career Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli victory at Sebring International Raceway last weekend, becoming the first TA class winner of the 2017 Trans Am. It was 65-year-old Ebben's sixth victory in 54 starts and his first win at Sebring; he also becomes the first driver of a Ford Mustang to win the TA class at Sebring since Boris Said in 2001. Tomy Drissi (No. 8 Ghost in The Shell Chevrolet Corvette) was second, and David Pintaric (No. 57 Kryderacing Cadillac CTS-V) finished third after starting 19th, but was found to have an illegal splitter after the race and as a result was excluded from the results. Vinnie Allegretta (No. 41 TA Sights & Sounds Chevrolet Corvette) would be awarded third position after the race. Editor-In-Chief's Note: Photographer extraordinaire and longtime AE contributor John Thawley was at Sebring for the 2017 Trans-Am opener. Check out his scintillating images in his gallery from Sebring here. -PMD