Tag: Atlanta

Atlanta Hawks soaring under Quin Snyder’s vision

Sitting at 12-11 and sixth in the Eastern Conference, the Hawks’ overall record may not scream dominance, but their current five-game win streak tells a different story. Quin Snyder is coaching a roster that GM Landry Fields strategically …

Sitting at 12-11 and sixth in the Eastern Conference, the Hawks’ overall record may not scream dominance, but their current five-game win streak tells a different story. Quin Snyder is coaching a roster that GM Landry Fields strategically overhauled. His coaching style emphasizes ball movement, offensive efficiency, and defensive hustle, all of which have unlocked career-best performances from players like Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson, and De’Andre Hunter. Atlanta is becoming more than just a playoff hopeful – they’re starting to look like a team that could make some noise in the postseason.

Announcers revealed for Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game on ESPN

Do you like this crew?

Until now, it was unclear whether ESPN or ABC would broadcast Notre Dame’s contest against Georgia Tech. It’s annoying how ESPN often waits until this soon before games it has broadcast rights to to announce where a game specifically will be broadcast, but it’s the reality for many college football fans.

We now know that Irish and Yellow Jackets will face each other on ESPN. The game between Alabama and Tennessee has drawn ABC during the same time slot. It makes sense that the contest with the two ranked teams would be on the network with the bigger reach.

On the call for the Irish’s visit to Atlanta will be Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick, while Kris Budden works the sidelines. It’s been a while since Riddick has announced an Irish game, but he is one of the most respected analysts in college football.

Irish fans who don’t care for Jason Garrett being retained for the NBC coverage this season surely will enjoy this break:

Best of luck to the entire broadcast crew in covering the game.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

Questionable calls that almost decided the game against Atlanta

The Steelers were on the wrong end of a couple of awful calls on Sunday.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are no strangers to bad calls made by officials.  Some of these calls can decide a game if missed.  There were two calls this Sunday that would have shifted the game script if called correctly. 

George Pickens made a diving catch with 3 minutes 44 seconds remaining in the 3rd quarter.  Viewers could see that A.J. Terrell tried to touch Pickens down and missed, in which George Pickens got up and ran for around 10 yards more.  The referees, however, missed the call and claimed that Pickens was marked down back at the Atlanta 28-yard line. 

The referees’ presence was also felt on the defensive side of the ball.  With 38 seconds remaining in the 1st half of the game, T.J. Watt spectacularly timed the Atlanta Falcons snap and strip-sacked Kirk Cousins, which should have resulted in a turnover for the Steelers.  The referees, however, labeled this impressive feat of timing and patience an offsides penalty.  The very next play, Kirk Cousins hit tight end Kyle Pitts for a touchdown. 

The Steelers should not put themselves in positions where non-reviewable calls like these can decide the game.  As close as the Steelers win their games, the officials are bound to make or break a contest, one way or another. 

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Bell’s JGR crew returning to full strength at a critical time

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Adam Stevens is still recovering from double knee surgery but returned to the track Sunday and finished fifth with Christopher Bell in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “It’s good to be back,” Stevens …

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Adam Stevens is still recovering from double knee surgery but returned to the track Sunday and finished fifth with Christopher Bell in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“It’s good to be back,” Stevens told RACER. “I didn’t dream I would ever miss a playoff race, so it’s good to be here.”

Steven was injured during the two weeks NASCAR went quiet for the Olympic break at the end of July and into early August. While spending time with his family, he admitted he tried to one-up his teenage son on the diving board and ruptured both patellar tendons at the same time. He spent the last four races working with the No. 20 team from the war room at the JGR shop.

“We were working hard from the war room and the shop all week [but] it’s just not the same,” Stevens said. “There is so much that you take in visually that you don’t have to work to take in, and at the shop you have to actively work. It feels like you’re doing twice as much to do the same job or probably not even as good a job.”

The team didn’t miss a beat regardless of where their crew chief was located. Bell finished sixth or better in three of the four races without Stevens on the pit box. He went from seventh to fourth in the overall championship standings to end the regular season and, with the bonus points accrued, was reseeded third with 32 playoff points.

“Well, you have to relinquish some control to the people at the track,” Stevens said of how things went for the team. “You can prep them for situations and make a lot of decisions, maybe under caution, but once the cars hit pit road, you’ve got to be quiet and let them handle it — especially if a stop doesn’t go right or if it’s a traffic situation on pit road. There’s just nothing you can do from the shop with a 12s delay in most of the tools.

“Plus, losing the internet connection … happens all the time, sadly. You’re just dead in the water, so I had a lot of faith in my guys, and they rose to the occasion as I knew they would. I’m happy we have that depth in our team.”

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Sunday, a fourth-place finish at Atlanta kept Bell and Stevens in the hunt to advance in the postseason. Bell was nervous about the first round starting with a superspeedway (Atlanta) and the expected tire variables at Watkins Glen and Bristol Motor Speedway.

However, the team began its postseason in its best position ever. Stevens feels much better about their postseason hopes beyond the first round after getting through Atlanta without incident.

“It’s just a bit of wild card round, and you don’t want to burn through your bonus points after the first race,” he said. “With the new tire at Watkins Glen — 4s of fall off in 20 laps — nobody knows what’s going to happen up there, which is great, but the chances of it not going your way are pretty good. Same thing with Bristol. If we have a race like we did in the spring where you can’t hardly run 40 or 50 laps before the rubber is gone, anything can happen there — of your doing, or someone in front of you.

“This is a crazy round and we saw a couple of playoff contenders not be able to have good days, so we’re very, very thankful and fortunate to have a solid day today.”

Bell goes to Watkins Glen with a 40-point advantage on the cutline. In understanding and counting the points, he believes the team needs to score in each race to be safe. Stevens hopes that Bell will be locked into the Round of 12 after next weekend’s event.

“There are only two more races and [there] can only be two more winners. There’s 16 of us, and all 16 of us can’t finish in the top 10,” Stevens said. “Let’s go have another solid weekend and then be able to be a little more aggressive, probably at Bristol.”

Logano launches Cup playoffs in style with Atlanta win

With a strong last-lap push from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano rocketed into the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with an overtime victory in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In a …

With a strong last-lap push from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano rocketed into the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with an overtime victory in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In a two-lap shootout that sent the first Playoff race of the 2024 season six laps past the posted distance of 260 laps, Logano had the lead by more than a car-length when NASCAR called a caution on the final circuit for a mid-pack wreck behind the leader.

 

The victory was Logano’s second at Atlanta, his second of the season and the 34th of his career. The driver of the No. 22 Ford vaulted to fifth in the Playoff standings, but the win guaranteed him a spot in the next round.

“[Penske] just gives me really fast cars on superspeedways, and we always find ourselves towards the front of them, [but] we just end up wrecking more times than not,” said Logano, who led twice for nine laps, a far cry from teammate Austin Cindric’s race-high 92.

“To be able to finally capitalize on a fast race car and win here in Atlanta again… I lived right over there in condo 805 for a long time (as a child racing Legend Cars), waking up dreaming of just racing on this racetrack.

“So pulling into Victory Lane here is always a special one. We had such a really good team here today. It’s awesome to get (sponsor) Autotrader into victory lane, and the JL Kids Crew (one of Logano’s charitable enterprises) are here today, so it’s really cool to finally win with them here.”

When NASCAR called the caution on the final lap, February Atlanta winner Daniel Suarez was inches ahead of Blaney, the defending series champion. But with the third-place finish that entailed surviving a three-car wreck on lap 205, Blaney took over the series lead by five points over Christopher Bell, who finished fourth.

After a strong, consistent run throughout the race, Alex Bowman finished fifth, as Playoff drivers claimed nine of the top 10 positions.

The lap 205 wreck Blaney survived proved the undoing of Martin Truex Jr. After repeated trips to pit road, Truex left the race 12 laps down and heads for next Sunday’s second Playoff race at Watkins Glen International 15th in the standings, 18 points below the current cutoff for the Round of 12.

Suarez raced beside Logano on the first lap of overtime but lost his pusher when Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain washed up the track in Turn 3 and fell back.

“No, definitely not satisfied,” Suarez said of the second-place result. “I am happy with it, but not satisfied. I lost my pusher, my teammate. He was doing a great job, and I felt like we were going to have a great shot at it.

“Ross was doing an amazing job of pushing, and I don’t know if he got a flat tire or something, but once I lost him, I knew it was going to be tough, but that is part of racing, right?”

The race was incident-free for the first 55 laps, but on the 56th circuit, calamity struck top-seeded Kyle Larson and fellow Playoff driver Chase Briscoe.

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As cars at the front of the field were exiting Turn 2 on Lap 56, Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, running third, broke loose and shot into the outside wall at roughly 160 mph.

As the car rebounded off the SAFER barrier and slid sideways in the middle of the track, Briscoe’s Ford slammed into Larson’s Camaro, ripping the left front quarter panel off the No. 14 Mustang.

Both Larson and Briscoe exited the race, in 37th and 38th, respectively, and scored one point each for their efforts on Sunday.

“I’m OK,” Larson said after leaving the infield care center. “Thankfully, everything held up well inside the car. That was a huge hit. I’m not really sure what caused it.

“I was actually sort of tight and loaded in the corner. Then I was pretty far around the corner, and it just stepped out. I don’t know, it all just happened really fast.”

Briscoe, who earned his Playoff spot with a victory a week earlier at Darlington Raceway, leaves Atlanta below the current cut line with a win-or-bust mentality.

“It was a big hit, one of the biggest hits I’ve had in a long time,” Briscoe said. “I’m glad I’m all right, and we just have to go win. That’s what we had to do at Darlington, and I know we’re capable of doing it again, so we’ll just have to go to Watkins Glen and Bristol and try to do the same.”

Larson leaves Atlanta in 10th place, 15 points above the current cut line for the Round of 12. Briscoe is 16th in the standings, 20 points on the wrong side of the equation.

Regular-season champion Tyler Reddick came home sixth, overcoming issues on pit road. Non-Playoff driver Kyle Busch finished seventh after leading 24 laps in the final stage. Chase Elliott was eighth, followed by William Byron and Cindric.

Collected in the last-lap wreck, Playoff driver Harrison Burton finished 31st and is 15 points behind Ty Gibbs, who finished 17th after leading 37 laps and is 12th in the standings. Brad Keselowski ran 19th and is tied with Gibbs.

Denny Hamlin ran at the back of the pack throughout the race and was collected in the last-lap wreck, finishing 24th. He heads for Watkins Glen 11th in the standings, a mere two points ahead of Keselowski.

RESULTS

It was game over when my ‘dancing partner’ fell back – Suarez

Daniel Suarez knew it was “game over” when he lost his help from Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain during overtime Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Suarez fought to a second-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener. He was …

Daniel Suarez knew it was “game over” when he lost his help from Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain during overtime Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Suarez fought to a second-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener. He was side-by-side with Joey Logano on the restart and at the white flag, but the teammates couldn’t stay locked together in Turns 1 and 2 on the final lap as the Team Penske teammates of Logano and Ryan Blaney surged on the bottom.

Logano was clear ahead at the finish as Suarez fought Blaney for the second position. NASCAR had to confirm the finish to determine the finishing order as a crash occurred in Turns 3 and 4 that froze the field.

“I can’t thank [Chastain] enough because he pushed me very, very good on the restart, all the way in [Turns] 1 and 2, all the way in [Turns] 3 and 4,” Suarez said. “He kept me in position, and we were right there in the fight. I was timing the second push and once I got the second push, I lost him. I don’t know if he had a flat tire or what happened exactly, but once I lost him, I knew that was game over because that was my dancing partner.

“Overall, I’m very proud of everyone at Trackhouse. They did a great job. We’ve been pretty strong here for a couple of years. It kind of stinks we’re not in victory lane; I felt like we were in position to do that, but that’s part of racing. We have to continue to work [but] good starting out the playoffs.”

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The only Trackhouse Racing driver in the postseason, Suarez had reason to be confident in having his teammate as a helper. He also nearly swept the Atlanta races for the season.

In the final laps of regulation, the No. 99 battled Logano and Ty Gibbs for the lead and potential victory. On a restart with five laps to go, Gibbs cleared Suarez in Turns 1 and 2 before Suarez made a crossover move down the backstretch to pull even once more. Gibbs, Suarez, and Logano were three wide for the lead with three laps to go.

As the Trackhouse Chevy was side-by-side with Logano’s Ford for the lead with two laps to go, a crash involving Noah Gragson on the backstretch set up overtime. Logano was listed as the race leader going into the overtime attempt and Suarez was second.

Logano chose the bottom lane with Blaney behind him. Suarez and Chastain lined up on the outside.

“Honestly, right now, I don’t care about points,” Suarez said. “It just hurts we’re not in victory lane, but that’s part of it. Maybe there are a couple of things I could have done better.”

Suarez leaves Atlanta with a 22-point advantage on the cutline.

Steelers LB T.J. Watt spoils Falcons’ gameplan to stop him

Contrary to what the Atlanta head coach said he’d do, TJ Watt wrecked the game in Steelers’ week 1 victory.

The buildup to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons game in week 1 was not without intrigue.  There was some drama surrounding the starting QB for the game, and if Tomlin was using this to his advantage.  The head coach for the Falcons, Raheem Morris, spoke on this idea, and one more concept that slid under the radar: stopping T. J. Watt from tearing into the Falcons.  

https://twitter.com/_MLFootball/status/1831448627576987740

If today’s game was an indication of the preparation that Morris gave the Atlanta Falcons, for T.J. Watt, only one response is appropriate: Yikes!  T.J. was dominant against the run, had Cousins under pressure all game, recovered a fumble, and finished off the game with a sack.

For all the talk about preparing for T.J., it did not show in Sunday’s game.  One could simply see the amount of effort that Kyle Pitts was using to assist in chipping T.J. all game: zero.

Regardless of whether or not Morris was truly determined to stop the former ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ or simply contain him, one thing was for certain on Sunday, T.J. Watt wrecked the game.

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Steelers week 1 takeaway: Defense dominates

Steelers week 1 takeaway: Defense dominates

Blitzberg was in full force for the Pittsburgh Steelers week 1 victory in Atlanta. Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins looked extremely uncomfortable, constantly under pressure from the Pittsburgh pass rush. 

The Falcons had one touchdown drive on Sunday and it was perhaps the only true noteworthy drive.  With the offense under constant duress, Kirk Cousins tossed two interceptions off pressures from Larry Ogunjobi and TJ Watt.

Watt had two potential strip-sack fumble recoveries called back by flags. One was an extremely questionable call and angered Steelers fans alike, on a terrible offsides call on Watt. However, the defense took the game out of the referees’ hands and put it into their own on Sunday.   

Watt’s consistent pressure and concluding sack on the day show that he should always belong in the conversation for the best defensive player in football. 

The Steelers’ defense held the Atlanta Falcons to 224 offensive yards and just a measly 54 yards in the second half.  The Steelers will look to build off this momentum as they head to Denver next Sunday. 

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Larson, Briscoe face early playoff problems after Atlanta crash

Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe are the first two NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers to encounter trouble in the postseason after crashing out in the first stage of Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Larson is not sure what caused his Hendrick …

Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe are the first two NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers to encounter trouble in the postseason after crashing out in the first stage of Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Larson is not sure what caused his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to turn right and hit the Turn 2 wall on lap 56. The No. 5 shot to the outside wall where he made heavy right-side contact before sliding back down the racetrack and getting hit in the rear by fellow playoff contender Briscoe.

“I’m OK; thankfully everything held up well inside the car,” Larson said. “That was a huge hit. I’m not really sure what caused it. I was actually sort of tight and loaded in the corner, and that was pretty far around the corner and it just stepped out. I don’t know, it all happened really fast.”

Larson felt perhaps he had overcorrected when the car started to get away from him. He was running third at the time of the crash.

Briscoe was running around the 14th position when he ran into the No. 5. Having earned a last-minute spot in the postseason with his win last weekend, Briscoe said he felt fine aside from the initial jolt after the impact with Larson and was glad nothing happened around his feet since the brake pedal “and everything” went through the floorboard.

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“That’s NASCAR,” Briscoe said of the incident. “You can be on top one week and you can be at the very bottom of the mountain the next week. It’s unfortunate. I thought our car was an adjustment away from being pretty good. We weren’t very good at all balance-wise and I still felt like I was able to kind of run right there around the seventh to 12th place guys. I was watching my outside getting into one because somebody kept trying to get to my outside and was probably a little late just trying to see [Larson] wrecking. I didn’t expect anybody to wreck because they weren’t really two-wide, and then I saw the smoke and tried slowing down.

“I knew he was coming down the racetrack and just kept trying to feed the thing left and slow it down and I couldn’t get left quick enough. Then he kind of started sliding back down the track at the very last minute, so I tried to turn back right to avoid him and just KO’d him. It was a big hit, one of the biggest hits I’ve had in a long time. I’m glad I’m alright and we just have to go win. That’s what we had to do at Darlington and I know we’re capable of doing it again, so we’ll just have to go to Watkins Glen and Bristol and try to do the same.”

Neither driver earned stage points as the crash happened before the end of the first stage in the Quaker State 400. The first two drivers out of the race, Briscoe will finish last, 38th, with one point and Larson will finish 37th with two points.

Larson began the postseason as the No. 1 seed with a 35-point advantage on the cutline. Briscoe, the No. 13 seed, was tied for the bubble spot entering the weekend.

Sunday was Larson’s fifth DNF of the season and his second in the last four races. It is also Briscoe’s second DNF in the last four races and his third of the season.

Hill seizes hometown Atlanta sweep in late-race Xfinity battle

Seizing the lead for the first time on lap 152 of 163 of Saturday’s Focused Health 250, Austin Hill stayed out front the rest of way to win his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his home track. The 30-year-old driver from …

Seizing the lead for the first time on lap 152 of 163 of Saturday’s Focused Health 250, Austin Hill stayed out front the rest of way to win his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his home track.

The 30-year-old driver from Winston, Ga., won for the third time this season and completed a sweep of the two Atlanta races. Seven of Hill’s nine career victories have come at race tracks using the superspeedway competition package.

“I’m speechless right now,” Hill said in Victory Lane. “Our Bennett Chevrolet had speed all day, but the handling just was not there the way that I would like. You come to these superspeedway-style events, and you want to have a car that’s trimmed-out. You don’t worry too much about handling.

“But I thought handling was going to be an issue, and it definitely played a part today. We made some right moves at the right time between my spotter, Derek Kneeland, and me. We got up to second and when we had that restart (on lap 150), I was contemplating, ‘Do I go top, or do I go bottom?’

“We both agreed that we have to go bottom and try to get to the lead, and if the bottom didn’t work out, then so be it.”

Hill got help from an unexpected source. He expressed surprise that he got a decisive push on the final lap from Toyota driver Corey Heim, who was making his first superspeedway start in the Xfinity Series.

 

Toyota driver Chandler Smith was equally surprised—and frustrated. Smith dropped to the bottom to attempt to pass Hill on the final circuit and briefly nosed past the front bumper of Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Heim stayed with Hill on top.

“I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me, and he didn’t,” said Smith, who ultimately finished fourth in the No. 82 Joe Gibbs Racing Supra. “I’m kind of speechless.”

Heim, who finished fifth behind Smith, thought his best chance to win the race was to stay with Hill.
“He (Smith) had no run and no momentum, so why go to the bottom?” Heim explained.

After he pushed Hill clear of Smith, Heim tried a pass at the top of the track but brushed the outside wall and lost momentum. Parker Kligerman swept past Heim into second place, with AJ Allmendinger following.

Hill beat Kligerman to the finish line by 0.340s, with Allmendinger in third, just 0.004s behind Kligerman.

“Congrats to Austin Hill – he’s the master of this place,” said Kligerman, who matched his career-best finish in the series.

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A multi-car crash on lap 145 dramatically altered the complexion of the race. Contact between the competitive cars of Justin Allgaier and Cole Custer ignited a six-car incident that collected the machines of Taylor Gray, Ryan Sieg, Riley Herbst and pole winner Jesse Love.

The wreck was particularly detrimental to Sieg, who is chasing Sammy Smith for the final spot in the 12-driver Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Sieg was running in the top 10 after making up a two-lap deficit—the result of an electrical issue in the opening laps—when the wreck occurred. He dropped from 10 to 44 points behind Smith, who overcame a pit road safety violation penalty to finish seventh.

The incident sidelined both Allgaier and Custer, who are battling for the regular-season championship. Allgaier maintains a 34-point margin over the reigning series champion, but both Smith (67 points behind) and Hill (71 points) now have outside chances to overtake the leader.

Note: Allmendinger, who led a race-high 40 laps, won the second 40-lap stage of Saturday’s race—his first stage win of the season. Love survived the last major wreck with the bumper cover of Herbst’s car stuck to the roof of his Chevrolet. He recovered to finish sixth. Five drivers led more laps than Hill, the race winner.

RESULTS