Catchfence

There were some long faces outside the Wood Brothers’ hauler at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday when a disappointing qualifying run left Bill Elliott and the No. 21 FordParts.com Ford Fusion in 40th place in the starting line-up for Sunday’s Emory Healthcare 500.

Although Elliott picked up speed considerably from practice – from 178.839 miles per hour to 182.380 mph – it wasn’t the overall result he and the team were expecting.

But after a few moments to give the situation an honest assessment, team members had regained much of their optimism, thinking back to the last race at Atlanta where despite another tough day in qualifying they went on to post a season-best 16th place on race day.

And, there was satisfaction in knowing that they’d made the starting field on speed and didn’t have to rely on Elliott’s past champion’s provisional starting spot.

Elliott said the car pushed too much in qualifying for him to post a better speed.

Team co-owner Eddie Wood explained that the crew tightened the car for qualifying but the adjustment resulted in the condition Elliott described.

“We just tightened it up too much from practice,” Wood said.

Just like the spring race at AMS, the Woods and Elliott will have several tools at their disposal as they work to secure a respectable finish in the race.

For starters, they can tune on the car before the race and during the early pit stops. A two-tire strategy could be employed, and there are other tactics that can be used by a team needing to overcome a poor starting spot.

“It’s a long 500-mile race, and we’ll be sure to build a lot of adjustment into the car,” Wood said. “We’re not going to panic.”

The Emory Healthcare 500 is set to begin Sunday night at 7:30, with TV coverage on ESPN.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release