Two drivers from Georgia entered in this weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, the EchoPark 250 (4 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), are extra revved-up about racing at their home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway – RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg from Tucker and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones from Atlanta.
The 32-year old driver Ryan Sieg and his family-owned organization, RSS Racing, are based in Tucker, Georgia, Sieg’s hometown. The team is run by Ryan’s father, Rod Sieg, and the duo have competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2013 when they made their series debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
This season Sieg is having a career-best start, in four races he has gathered two top fives, three top 10s and an average finish of 6.75 – second-best behind series standings leader Harrison Burton’s 2.75. Sieg and Burton also are the only two drivers that have completed 100% of their laps attempted this season.
“It definitely makes you feel good to get some top fives early in the season,” said Sieg following Phoenix. “We’re super excited to get to Atlanta and race there.”
Sieg heads to Georgia this weekend seventh in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver standings, 33 points back from Burton in the standings lead. Sieg has made six series starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway posting a best finish of 11th in last season’s race.
Following his first win of the season last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, the site of the Championship 4 Playoff finale later this season, is Atlanta, Georgia’s own Brandon Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing. Much like Sieg, Jones is also having a career best start to his season posting a win, two stage wins, two top fives, three top 10s and an average finish of 10.2. Not to mention, he won at Phoenix by out-racing arguably one of the best to ever compete in the series, his JGR teammate Kyle Busch.
“We are coming off a huge win at Phoenix Raceway and our 19 team is really excited about our 2020 season,” said Jones. “We have a lot of momentum and we are headed to my home track at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Atlanta has not always been one of my strongest tracks, but neither was Phoenix. Our team is up to the challenge that the track brings with the old surface which makes saving tires part of the strategy. Our No. 19 Toyota Service Centers team has spent a lot of time over the off-season preparing for Atlanta; we probably put in 200-laps around the track using Toyota’s simulator. It’s a fun race and the Atlanta fans are great. I think if we get our Supra dialed-in to run the bottom of the track, we will be the team in Victory Lane.”
Jones has made four series starts at Atlanta posting an average finish of 11.5; including his career best finish of fourth at the track last season.
