Stewart Climbs Fence At Atlanta

Tony Stewart may not have qualified for the chase but everyone is aware that he still is a contender each weekend. This weekend was no exception, as Stewart powered through the field early and often, holding off charges from Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Jimmie Johnson to win the Bass Pro Shop's 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The race started with the field set by points due to ugly weather on Friday, so this put Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick on the front row for the start of the race. Unfortunately, the two would not remain their long. Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson had a typical consistent day; running in the top ten most of the race with both finishing top five (Johnson, 2nd & Kenseth, 4th). On the other hand, other chase contenders had problems and may have watched their chances fall apart along with their car.

Kyle Busch was the first contender to find problems, spinning early. Kevin Harvick led the first nine laps of the race, but the car started to fade and the team could not get the handle on it, negating Harvick to a 31st place finish. While Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin both ran well for the better part of the race, but both were involved in crashes late, which have damaged their chances at the 2006 cup. Jeff Burton faced problems late as well. Burton ran in the top ten for a majority of the race, until a flat tire forced him to make an unscheduled pit-stop, putting him two laps down. Burton needed to have the race go green in order to pass the leaders in an effort to at least get one lap down (his car was clearly good enough to get the lucky dog later), but someone's impatiences ruined his shot at getting back on the lead lap. A piece of rollbar padding was thrown onto the track by an unknown driver forcing NASCAR to call a caution; trapping Burton two laps down (he did rally to finish 13th).

Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin rebounded from their early problems which helped each score top ten finishes (Dale Jr, 3rd; Gordon, 6th & Hamlin, 8th) and remain in contention for the cup.