Raptor King of Tough 250

This article is about the race formerly called the Aaron's 312 held in Atlanta. For the race called the Aaron's 312 held in Talladega, see Sparks Energy 300.

Rinnai 250

File:Rinnai250logo.jpg
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Venue	Atlanta Motor Speedway
Location	Hampton, Georgia, United States
Corporate sponsor	Rinnai
First race	1992
Distance	251.02 miles (403.98 km)
Laps	163 (Stage 1: 40 Stage 2: 40 Stage 3: 83)
Previous names	Atlanta 300 (1992) Slick 50 300 (1993) Busch Light 300 (1994–1996) Stihl Outdoor Power Tools 300 (1997) Stihl 300 (1998) Yellow Freight 300 (1999) Aaron's 312 (2000–2005) Nicorette 300 (2006–2008) Degree Men V12 300 (2009) Great Clips 300 (2010–2011) NRA American Warrior 300 (2012) Great Clips / Grit Chips 300 (2013) Great Clips 300 benefiting Feed the Children (2014) Hisense 250 (2015) Heads Up Georgia 250 (2016)
Most wins (driver)	Kevin Harvick (4)
Most wins (team)	Roush Fenway Racing (7)
Most wins (manufacturer)	Chevrolet (15)
Circuit information
Surface	Asphalt
Length	1.54 mi (2.48 km)
Turns	4

The Rinnai 250 is a NASCAR Xfinity Series stock car race held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, a few miles south of Atlanta. This race has long served as Atlanta's lone Busch/Nationwide Series date, and has been shuffled around the schedule several times. From its inception until 2001 the 300-mile race was run as part of Atlanta's spring Winston Cup race weekend, as the then-Busch Series ended its season at a different track than the then-Winston Cup series.

Following the transfer of the season ending Cup series race from Atlanta to Homestead-Miami Speedway after the 2001 season (although due to extenuating circumstances the 2001 Atlanta fall race was not the final race of the season), the now 312-mile race was moved to Atlanta's fall race weekend where it remained until Aaron's Rental, who was sponsoring the race, chose instead to sponsor the lone Busch event at Talladega. The race gained sponsorship from GlaxoSmithKline through its Nicorette brand and moved back to its traditional spring date.

In September 2008, NASCAR officials announced that Nicorette would not renew its corporate sponsorship for race after the 2008 season. On October 26, 2008 it was announced that Unilever's deodorant brand Degree will take over sponsorship of this race starting in 2009. It was later announced that the now-Degree V12 300 would be moving to September as part of the latest round of NASCAR realignment, which resulted in the Pep Boys Auto 500, the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega, and the Pepsi 500 at Fontana trading places. The Degree V12 300 took the place of the Camping World RV Service 300 on NASCAR's Labor Day weekend race schedule and serves as an accompanying race to the AdvoCare 500.

In 2015, the Xfinity race at Atlanta moved along with the Cup race (Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500) to the second weekend of the season and ran as a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon along with the Camping World Truck Series. The race was also reduced to 250 miles in order to make the race a doubleheader on the same day.

Jeff Gordon, Mike Skinner, Jamie McMurray, and Carl Edwards got their first series wins at Atlanta.

Past winners

Year	Date	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)
						Laps	Miles (km)
1992	March 14	1	Jeff Gordon	Bill Davis Racing	Ford	197	299.834 (482.536)	2:24:36	124.412
1993	November 13*	2	Ward Burton	A.G. Dillard Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	299.834 (482.536)	2:44:05	109.64
1994	March 12	7	Harry Gant	Whitaker Racing	Chevrolet	197	299.834 (482.536)	2:20:56	127.649
1995	March 11	74	Johnny Benson Jr.	BACE Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	299.834 (482.536)	2:03:45	145.767
1996	March 9	5	Terry Labonte	Labonte Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	299.834 (482.536)	2:08:15	139.656
1997*	March 8	60	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	197	299.834 (482.536)	1:58:55	151.751
1998*	November 7	60	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:10:23	138.193
1999	March 13	19	Mike Skinner	Emerald Performance Group	Chevrolet	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:33:46	117.178
2000	March 11	60	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	203	312.62 (503.113)	2:27:47	126.924
2001	March 10	87	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports	Chevrolet	203	312.62 (503.113)	2:10:18	143.954
2002	October 26	27	Jamie McMurray	Brewco Motorsports	Chevrolet	203	312.62 (503.113)	2:15:09	138.788
2003	October 25	7	Greg Biffle	Evans Motorsports	Chevrolet	203	312.62 (503.113)	2:08:17	146.217
2004	October 30	17	Matt Kenseth	Reiser Enterprises	Ford	208*	320.32 (515.505)	2:24:08	133.343
2005	March 19	60	Carl Edwards	Roush Racing	Ford	203	312.62 (503.113)	2:23:34	130.651
2006	March 18	21	Jeff Burton	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:20:47	127.984
2007	March 17	29	Jeff Burton	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:21:39	127.201
2008	March 8	17	Matt Kenseth	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	198*	304.92 (490.721)	2:19:21	131.29
2009	September 5	33	Kevin Harvick	Kevin Harvick Inc.	Chevrolet	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:04:04	145.228
2010	September 4	88	Jamie McMurray	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:04:44	144.452
2011	September 3	60	Carl Edwards	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:15:40	132.811
2012	September 1	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:32:51	117.88
2013	August 31	33	Kevin Harvick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:08:01	140.747
2014	August 30	5	Kevin Harvick	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	195	300.3 (483.286)	2:08:37	140.091
2015	February 28	88	Kevin Harvick	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	163	251.02 (403.977)	1:40:32	149.813
2016	February 27	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	163	251.02 (403.977)	1:49:53	137.065
2017	March 4	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	163	251.02 (403.977)	1:57:16	128.435

• 1993: Race postponed from March to November due to Southeastern Blizzard.
• 1998: After reconfiguration of the track between the two 1997 Cup races, the track was remeasured to 1.54 miles and laps reduced to 195 laps as a result.
• 2004 and 2008: Race extended due to a green–white–checker finish.

Multiple winners (drivers)

# Wins	Driver	Years Won
4	Kevin Harvick	2009, 2013, 2014, 2015
3	Mark Martin	1997, 1998, 2000
2	Jamie McMurray	2002, 2010
	Matt Kenseth	2004, 2008
	Carl Edwards	2005, 2011
	Jeff Burton	2006, 2007
	Kyle Busch	2016, 2017

Multiple winners (teams)

# Wins	Team	Years Won
7	Roush Fenway Racing	1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012
3	Richard Childress Racing	2006, 2007, 2013
	JR Motorsports	2010, 2014, 2015
2	Joe Gibbs Racing	2016, 2017

Manufacturer wins

# Wins	Make	Years Won
15	Chevrolet	1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015
9	Ford	1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012
2	Toyota	2016, 2017

Television broadcasters

Year	Network	Lap-by-lap	Color commentator(s)
1992	ESPN	Bob Jenkins	Ned Jarrett Benny Parsons
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000	ABC
2001	FX	Mike Joy	Darrell Waltrip Larry McReynolds
2002	TNT	Allen Bestwick	Benny Parsons Wally Dallenbach
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007	ABC		Rusty Wallace Andy Petree
2008
2009
2010	ESPN	Marty Reid	Dale Jarrett Andy Petree
2011
2012
2013		Allen Bestwick
2014
2015	FS1	Adam Alexander	Michael Waltrip Brad Keselowski
2016			Michael Waltrip Clint Bowyer
2017			Michael Waltrip Chase Elliott

References

• Racing-Reference.info – Atlanta Motor Speedway Race Results
• Rinnai to Sponsor March 4 NASCAR XFINITY Series Race at Atlanta Motor Speedway

External links

• "What's Behind The Aaron's 312?"-referring to the race in Atlanta