AdvoCare

Welcome to today's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race thread for the AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway!

Green Flag: approximately 7:32pm ET on September 1st

Television: ESPN @ 7:30pm ET

Radio:

Streams: (hosted by ), ,

Race Length: 500.5 miles (325 laps)

Track Information: Atlanta Motor Speedway is a 1.54 mile quad-oval located in Hampton, GA USA.

NEW FLAIR IS NOW AVAILABLE!!

Browse the new (more than 45!) flairs by clicking "(edit)" next to your name in the sidebar!! ►►

Tip: Sort comments by "NEW" to see the latest race information, or view this post on .

Remember to UPVOTE the thread for visibility!

^{This post was uploaded by using the NASCAR Thread Bot at , a bot maintained by .}

Link to tweet:

Welcome to today's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race thread for the AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway!

Green Flag: approximately 3:15pm ET on November 10th

Television: ESPN @ 3pm ET

Radio:

Streams: (hosted by ), ,

Race Length: 312 miles (312 laps)

Track Information: Phoenix International Raceway is a 1 mile D-shaped tri-oval located in Avondale, AZ USA.

Tip: Sort comments by "NEW" to see the latest race information, or view this post on .

^{This post was uploaded by using the NASCAR Thread Bot, a bot maintained by .}

Biffle, Johnson, Earnhardt Jr, Kenseth have clinched chase spots.

5th through 10th spots can clinch tonight. The magic number is 49 points ahead of 11th.

For in car cameras/radios: (It's free)

AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl: #22 LSU Tigers vs Texas Tech Red Raiders

When: December 29, 9:00 p.m. ET

Where: NRG Stadium, Houston, TX

Watch:

The Numbers

All-Time Series: . LSU leads the series.

Spread: LSU -7

Over/Under: 73.5

The Questions

• What are your “Keys to the Game”?

• Who do you think wins?

• Do you think the favorite will cover the spread?

• Which player(s) are you most interested to watch?

• How will the 2015 coaching carousel affect the game?

The Area

• Feel free to share suggestions on the best places to eat and drink in town, things to see or do in the area, and tailgating tips for that location!

Thread Notes

• Discuss whatever you wish related to the bowl game. Keep trash talk civil.

• Please click “report” under the comment.

LET'S TALK FOOTBALL!

Source:

With nine seconds left, trailing 21-20 and the noise of 60,662 people filling AT&T Stadium, No. 16 Auburn needed someone to step up to complete the comeback against No. 13 Oregon.

Auburn’s true freshman quarterback Bo Nix took on the challenge and found sophomore wide receiver Seth Williams in the end zone for a 26-yard score to steal a 27-21 win in the AdvoCare Classic.

“(Nix) has some savviness to him, there’s no doubt,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said. “Of course when the game is on the line, you’ve got to make plays and that’s the one thing he showed.”

Nix had made a mark earlier on the game-winning drive by converting a key fourth down. The Oregon defense forced a fourth-and-three at midfield trying to snuff out Auburn’s final scoring chance.

But Nix had another idea.

“I saw a whole bunch of white jerseys,” Nix said of the fourth-and-three play. “Everybody I felt like was covered. It just hit me that I guess I better run for it. I don’t know, I just --- I got it.”

That run turned out to be the spark the Tigers needed to complete the 11 play, 60-yard game-winning drive.

A nine-yard completion to senior fullback Spencer Nigh and two completions for 39 yards to Williams punctuated the Tiger’s 15-point comeback.

Nix’s ability to read the defense on the final drive, particularly the fourth-and-three play, and make a good, split-second decision showed Malzahn the new signal-caller’s potential for growth.

“Knowing where the sticks are, I mean, that’s something sometimes you take for granted,” Malzahn said. “But, you know, he was -- It was a really close one, but he got it. And really, that was the play of the game or we wouldn’t have anything afterwards.”

Nix shined on the final drive to finish with 177 yards on 13-of-31 passing, but also threw two interceptions. The Tigers’ offense mustered two field goals in the first half before going on a 21-0 run in the second half to pull out the win.

Oregon started the game on fire, jumping out to a 14-3 lead in the first quarter. Quarterback Justin Herbert went 8-of-11 for 109 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter and could have added one more touchdown on the Ducks’ second drive.

But, a dropped touchdown in the back of the end zone forced Oregon to attempt a 20-yard field goal. The attempt sailed wide right.

The Ducks had another scoring opportunity in the second quarter from the nine-yard line after an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown. A bad snap on the next play, however, turned into an 83-yard fumble return for Auburn.

“We had a lot of opportunities to execute,” Herbert said. “We didn’t do what we wanted to do, and we kind of shot ourselves in the foot a couple times. But I thought the defense played really well, and I know what type of team we have going forward.”

Running back Darrius Felix’s six-yard score gave Oregon a 21-6 lead with 9:23 left in the third quarter.

From there, Auburn’s offensive and defensive linemen took over the game. The Tigers held Oregon to 126 total rushing yards, including 49 in the second half. Herbert finished with 242 passing yards and was sacked three times for -16 rushing yards.

The offensive line opened up running lanes to help the Tigers finish with 206 rushing yards. Running back JaTarvious Whitlow was the biggest beneficiary as he ran for 78 of his 110 yards in the second half.

“We need(ed) to try and turn this game into a line of scrimmage game,” Malzahn said. “and I think in the second half we were able to do that. That helped us win the game.”

Other Story lines from Auburn-Oregon

Miscues, miscues and more miscues From the opening snap, Oregon and Auburn showed just how hard it is to shake off the rust and get readjusted to game speed action in a loud, pressure-filled environment.

The Ducks called a timeout seven seconds into the game to avoid a delay of game penalty. The only thing that had happened to that point was a 24-yard kickoff return.

Auburn had a similar misstep with a delay of game penalty on the opening snap of the second half.

Both teams had seven penalties.

Every time it looked like Auburn or Oregon got back on track, something else threw a team off course.

The Ducks scored on that initial drive to go up 7-0 but dropped a touchdown and missed a field goal on the next drive.

Midway through the second quarter, the Ducks had first-and-goal from the nine-yard after the 81-yard punt return. A fumbled snap eventually turned into 3-points for Auburn.

“Missed cue right there,” Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal said. “The mesh between the quarterback and the running back got too tight. They bumped into each other and the ball came out.”

Auburn had its fair share of mistakes as true freshman quarterback Bo Nix adjusted to the college game. The first drive ended with a 3-and-out and the next four possessions resulted in six points.

Some of the mistakes came from the sidelines as both coaches had certain plays they wanted to take back.

For Auburn, it was right after the 83-yard fumble return in the second quarter.

“There were some bad play calls out there tonight. I’ll tell you that.” Auburn’s Gus Malzahn said. “You know, like I said, the one that I’d like back is that (one) right after that turnover. It’s first-and-goal from the three, and I think we lost a yard.”

Oregon’s came with 5:34 left in the game.

Quarterback Justin Herbert had to sit out a fourth-and-one play from Auburn’s 41-yard line after needing medical attention the field from bumping knees with a defender.

Personnel confusion forced Oregon to use both timeouts before running a play which resulted in a 1-yard loss and a turnover.

“But we don’t blame them,” Cristobal said. “We take it as a coaching staff. That’s on us. We had a few guys that were obviously down for the game, and then a couple guys that had cramped up during the game. So, we were trying to make the pieces work for a certain play.”

Neither team played great, but both showed flashes of good things to come. Oregon’s offense has the ability to score quick, both passing and on the ground. Auburn can control the line of scrimmage and potentially impose it’s will on teams.

The question will be how well these strengths translate to Oregon and Auburn’s respective conferences and are those miscues simply a result of the nerves and the usual adjustments and miscues associated with a season-opener or are they a sign of things to come.

Oregon and the road ahead Losing on a national stage as a top-15 team is never an ideal situation.

Then, when the loss is looked at from a wider lens and the potential College Football Playoff implications, it can hurt even more.

Heading into the game, Oregon seemed to be playing for more than just a season-opening win.

Win, and the Pac-12’s ability to get a College Football Playoff bid would be straight-forward. Lose, and the Pac-12 can still get in, but it will probably require any Pac-12 school to go win out and get help – aka the right losses -- from other Power-5 schools.

Oregon showed it can compete with a top-ranked SEC team on a national stage. The Ducks have the entire season ahead of them with the Pac-12 North and Pac-12 Titles still in view.

“You hurt a ton from a loss, but you also learn the most from your losses,” Cristobal said. “And you just hate feeling those consequences. But, yes, we count on our leaders 100% and expect them tomorrow to bounce back and get ready to go for Nevada.”

Senior quarterback Justin Herbert and the offense have the pieces to put up points and give Pac-12 defenses problems. The Ducks’ defense logged seven tackles-for-loss against an SEC offensive line and held Auburn to six points for 40 minutes.

Oregon will remain a favorite to win the Pac-12. Road trips to Stanford, Washington, and Washington State jump out as the Ducks’ major road blocks to any championships in 2019.

It’s hard to know if a week one loss to an SEC team would prevent the Ducks from reaching the College Football Playoff – assuming they run the table and win the Pac-12. The playoffs are five months away and the committee has shown each year can vary on what qualifies as a playoff-caliber team.

History, however, has not been kind to the Pac-12 in the College Football Playoffs, which made this matchup against Auburn so important.

The Pac-12 has sent two representatives to the College Football Playoffs in its five-year history. Oregon beat Florida State in 2015 to reach the National Championship game against Auburn and Washington fell to Alabama in the 2017 semi-finals.

And since Alabama and Clemson seem to have punched their tickets to the playoffs before the 2019 season even kicked off, the window of opportunity and room for error closes even more.

But the Ducks' attention is on Nevada right now and rightfully so.

All Oregon can do now is focus on each opponent, rack up wins and let the process play itself out.

“We have to bounce back,” Oregon linebacker Troy Dye said. “They (Nevada) are riding really high. They don’t care how we feel. They don’t care about our loss. They are going to want to play as hard as they can, and we have to do that as well.”

Maybe the season will end in with Oregon, or another Pac-12 team, in the College Football Playoffs.

Maybe not.

Only one way to find out.

I hope you guys are ready, because we are!

Should be a ton of fun!