Hello fans. Hope you had a great week. Today the race for the chase took us to Atlanta Motor Speedway. The cup guys were first here in March of this year for the first of two visits to this track in this season. When they were here in March, Goodyear got an earful from several drivers who felt the tires were inadequately meeting drivers needs on the track. The majority of drivers felt the tire made it hard to manuever and made it impossible to race side by side without wrecking another driver in an attempt to pass them or just plain race them. Since that race in March, Goodyear has conducted two different tire tests using 7 different combinations. This time out they bring a softer more right side tire for the race. Scott Riggs who participated in the July and September tests with Goodyear says that of the 7 tire combinations that Goodyear brought to the testing sessions, this one was the most predictable and stable of all the tires that were tested.
Well fans for the third consecutive week, the qualifying events were rained out and the starting line up again was set by owner points. This track is where Kyle Busch got his first of many wins this season. The following is the starting line up by owner points for the first ten positions in the race.
Jimmy Johnson 48 Chevrolet
Greg Biffle 16 Ford
Jeff Burton 31 Chevrolet
Carl Edwards 99 Ford
Clint Bowyer 07 Chevrolet
Kevin Harvick 29 Chevrolet
Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet
Tony Stewart 20 Toyota
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 Chevrolet
Matt Kenseth 17 Ford
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch round out the top 12 for the start of the race. Two time Atlanta winner Mark Martin started 14th. Johnson considers the rainout a mixed blessing stating that he has “mixed feelings” about it. Joey Logano and Bryan Clauson were casualties of the rainout and would not participate in today’s race. At Atlanta track position definitely effects the way a driver runs here, in other words, cars that start near the front have a better chance of maintaining their position throughout the race where someone who starts like 14th or so like Mark Martin, may find it hard to manuever their way through traffic to get a run at the top five and stay there.
In all there were 10 cautions today. The first eight were for mostly debris on the track and blown tires. Caution number 9 was due to a multi car crash involving five drivers, Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya, Reed Sorenson, and Joe Nemechek and was caused by the slowing of driver Dave Blaney’s car which caused Jeff to run into him and collecting up the other four drivers as a result. The 10th caution again was for debris on the track. In all there would be 17 lead changes during the race, Johnson lead twice while it seemed the majority of the lead changes were mainly involving 2 drivers, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. In the end it was Carl Edwards coming to victory lane here at Atlanta Motor Speedway edging out Denny Hamlin who finished third when Johnson made a last effort to gain a few spots and passed Hamlin to finish second. The following is the unofficial race results for Atlanta.
1st Carl Edwards
2nd Jimmy Johnson
3rd Denny Hamlin
4th Matt Kenseth
5th Kyle Busch
6th Kurt Busch
7th Jamie Mc Murray
8th David Ragan
9th Jeff Gordon
10th Greg Biffle
Ok. Well we are down now to the last three races for the chase. Some feel Johnson already has it in the bag. Others, such as myself, are kind of hoping that isnt the case. But being so many points in front with so few races to go, they might just be right. The following is the points standings after today’s race.
Jimmy Johnson 6248 points leader
Carl Edwards 6065 -183 points behind 1st
Greg Biffle 6063 -185
Jeff Burton 6030 -218
Kevin Harvick 5941 -307
Jeff Gordon 5936 -312
Clint Bowyer 5934 -314
Tony Stewart 5847 -401
Matt Kenseth 5835 -413
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5829 -419
Denny Hamlin 5823 -425
Kyle Busch 5783 -465
With only 2 races before the final race, Texas and Phoenix, one can only imagine how this season is going to play out. This coming week we will be at Texas Motor Speedway. This is going to be good. As I did last week, I will post a mid week blog with any interesting and fun information about Texas Motor Speedway that I can find. As always, comments and new information are always welcome and appreciated. Have a great week race fans, see you soon!!
