Weekend NASCAR action from Atlanta Motor Speedway

[The General]

Cup Series

Atlanta | 1 p.m ET | Sun. | ABC

Busch Series

Memphis | 3 p.m. ET | Sat. | ESPN2

Truck Series

Atlanta | 12:30 p.m. ET | Sat. | SPEED

Cup Entry List
Busch Entry List
Truck Entry List

[The General]

By the Numbers: Atlanta

All the Facts (Top 20 at Atlanta, March 2007)

1Jimmie Johnson posted his second victory at Atlanta and sixth top-five in the past eight races. In 12 career starts at AMS, Johnson has seven top-fives and eight top-10s. Average finish: 10.1.

2Tony Stewart just missed out on his second consecutive victory at Atlanta. He led 121 laps in posting his seventh top-five finish in 17 races. Stewart has led 100 or more laps five times at AMS. Average finish: 11.5.

3Matt Kenseth posted his second consecutive top-five finish at Atlanta, and third in the past four races there. Average finish (15 starts): 15.6.

4Jeff Burton posted his fourth fourth-place finish at Atlanta, which represents his best in 26 career starts there. Average finish: 17.2.

5Juan Montoya posted his first career Cup top-10 at Atlanta. He now has three top-fives in his rookie season. Average finish: 5.0.

6Clint Bowyer scored his first top-10 at Atlanta after finishing 27th and 25th in his two starts there as a rookie in 2006. Average finish: 19.3.

7Carl Edwards has five top-10s in six starts at Atlanta including a sweep of the 2005 season. Average finish: 9.8.

8Martin Truex Jr. posted his first top-10 in five Atlanta starts, and finished a race there for just the second time. He has competed in three October races at AMS, with a DNF each time including two crashes. Average finish: 28.2.

9Reed Sorenson has top-10s in two March races at Atlanta, but hasn't finished better than 29th in two starts there in October. The Georgia native led his first and only lap at AMS earlier this year. Average finish: 22.2.

10Mark Martin has 22 top-10s in 43 starts at Atlanta including two victories. He has as many DNFs (13) as top-fives. Average finish: 16.0.

11Kurt Busch just missed his first top-10 at Atlanta since October 2003. He has finished 32nd or worse in six of 13 starts at AMS. Busch has only three top-10s there but one is a victory. Average finish: 22.3.

12Jeff Gordon will make his 31st start at Atlanta, which will be the most of any one track in his career. Average finish: 13.3.

13David Stremme finished 33rd and 39th at Atlanta as a rookie in 2006, including a DNF (crash) last October. Average finish: 28.3.

14Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended a string of three consecutive top-fives at Atlanta. He has seven top-fives and nine top-10s at AMS -- which match his career bests at any particular track -- in 16 starts there. Average finish: 11.4.

15Jamie McMurray has finished higher than 15th just three times in 10 starts at Atlanta. All three of his top-10s came in the October races, but so did his worst finish there -- 40th last year.

16Bobby Labonte leads all active drivers with six victories at Atlanta, and all but one of his 13 top-10s were top-fives, the last coming in October 2003. After engine failure relegated him to a last-place finish in his first start at Atlanta (March 2006) in the 43 car, he finished 12th last October. Average finish: 15.6.

17Joe Nemechek has posted five of his seven top-10s (and two of three top-fives) in the October races at Atlanta. Average finish (27 starts): 19.9.

18Elliott Sadler started second in March, the seventh time in the past nine races he has started 11th or better. He has three top-10s in 17 starts at AMS, the last in 2005 when he finished 10th in both races that year. Average finish: 21.8.

19Denny Hamlin finished at his career average in four starts at AMS. His lone top-10 was an eighth-place finish last October. Average finish: 19.2.

20Robby Gordon finished at his career average in 13 starts at AMS. His lone top-10 was a 10th-place finish last October. Average finish: 20.2.

All the Facts (Notables at Atlanta, March 2007)

25Kevin Harvick won his first race in just his third career start in 2001, then finished third in the second race that year at Atlanta. He hasn't finished better than 19th in 11 starts since. Average finish: 25.2.

32Kyle Busch has three 12th-place finishes, each consecutively, and three finishes of 27th or worse in six starts at Atlanta. Average finish: 23.0.


NASCAR.COM

[The General]

Rankings
Rank	Name	Comments
1.	Jeff Gordon	Is this getting boring yet? His only competition is his teammate. Jeff, you're good, we get it, now can you give someone else a chance?
2.	Jimmie Johnson	Thankfully Jimmie is tearing it up, too, otherwise this Chase would be over quicker than a Pam Anderson marriage.
3.	Clint Bowyer	Can we officially put to bed any doubts about Bowyer? He just clicked off another top-10 finish at a track he'd never been good at before.
4.	Kyle Busch	Two bad breaks are the difference between Shrub playing out the Chase and Shrub contending for the title.
5.	Tony Stewart	Every time we point out that Smoke is mad at someone, Smoke fans get mad that we point it out. Is their a correlation there?
6.	Carl Edwards	The second-best battle in the Chase is for fourth place. Carl and Shrub have some work to do to catch Smoke.
7.	Denny Hamlin	We kept Denny in Power Rankings on reputation alone – and he delivered.
8.	Kasey Kahne	Have you noticed there are more commercials with Kasey than there are of Dale Earnhardt Jr.?
9.	Ryan Newman	A few weeks ago, it was tough to remember when Newman wasn't contending for the win; now, it's hard to recall when he wasn't.
10.	Kurt Busch	Ironically, while Kurt's performance has been slipping (albeit, not necessarily of his own doing), his teammate (Newman) has been coming on strong.

NASCAR - Power Rankings - Yahoo! Sports

[The General]

2007 Standings	Behind
1. Jeff Gordon (24)	-
2. Jimmie Johnson (48)	-53
3. Clint Bowyer (07)	-115
4. Tony Stewart (20)	-249
5. Carl Edwards (99)	-285
6. Kyle Busch (5)	-290
7. Kevin Harvick (29)	-369
8. Denny Hamlin (11)	-374
9. Jeff Burton (31)	-409
10. Kurt Busch (2)	-420

[The General]

RACE LINEUP

Pep Boys Auto 500 | Atlanta Motor Speedway

October 28, 2007 | Race 33 of 36

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	Lumber Liquidators	192.453	28.807	Leader
2	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	192.426	28.811	-0.004
3	44	Dale Jarrett	Toyota	The UPS Store / Toys for Tots	191.655	28.927	-0.120
4	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Dodge Dealers / UAW	191.595	28.936	-0.129
5	8	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Budweiser	191.489	28.952	-0.145
6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	191.199	28.996	-0.189
7	40	David Stremme	Dodge	Coors Light / St. Jude Hospital	190.975	29.030	-0.223
8	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Nicorette Cinnamon Surge / DuPont	190.719	29.069	-0.262
9	12	Ryan Newman	Dodge	Mobil 1	190.719	29.069	-0.262
10	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	Dodge Dealers / UAW	190.706	29.071	-0.264
11	43	Bobby Labonte	Dodge	Cheerios / Betty Crocker	190.548	29.095	-0.288
12	01	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	190.509	29.101	-0.294
13	38	David Gilliland	Ford	M&M's Halloween	190.365	29.123	-0.316
14	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	190.247	29.141	-0.334
15	25	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	National Guard / GMAC	190.058	29.170	-0.363
16	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Office Depot	189.818	29.207	-0.400
17	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	DEWALT NANO Technology	189.818	29.207	-0.400
18	11	Denny Hamlin	Chevrolet	FedEx Express	189.779	29.213	-0.406
19	5	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	CARQUEST / Kellogg's	189.759	29.216	-0.409
20	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	189.740	29.219	-0.412
21	42	Juan Montoya*	Dodge	Texaco / Havoline	189.694	29.226	-0.419
22	18	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	Interstate Batteries	189.681	29.228	-0.421
23	78	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing	189.642	29.234	-0.427
24	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	189.610	29.239	-0.432
25	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	Crown Royal	189.532	29.251	-0.444
26	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Jack Daniel's	189.428	29.267	-0.460
27	10	Scott Riggs	Dodge	Sears Auto Center / Valvoline / Stanley	189.409	29.270	-0.463
28	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	AT&T Mobility	189.370	29.276	-0.469
29	49	John Andretti	Dodge	Paralyzed Veterans of America	189.273	29.291	-0.484
30	20	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	The Home Depot	189.209	29.301	-0.494
31	84	A.J. Allmendinger*	Toyota	Red Bull	189.092	29.319	-0.512
32	41	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	Target / Breast Cancer Awareness	188.796	29.365	-0.558
33	7	Robby Gordon	Ford	Jim Beam	188.482	29.414	-0.607
34	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	188.079	29.477	-0.670
35	70	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	Radioactive Energy Drink	188.034	29.484	-0.677
36	15	Paul Menard*	Chevrolet	Johns Manville / Menards	187.786	29.523	-0.716
37	6	David Ragan+*	Ford	AAA	187.354	29.591	-0.784
38	88	Ricky Rudd+	Ford	Snickers Halloween	187.076	29.635	-0.828
39	45	Kyle Petty+	Dodge	Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil	186.679	29.698	-0.891
40	96	Tony Raines+	Chevrolet	DLP HDTV	186.478	29.730	-0.923
41	66	Jeremy Mayfield+	Chevrolet	Best Buy	185.934	29.817	-1.010
42	22	Dave Blaney+	Toyota	Caterpillar	-	-	-
43	21	Bill Elliott	Ford	Little Debbie	Champion's Provisional
Did Not Qualify
44	00	David Reutimann*	Toyota	Dominos.com	188.758	29.371	-0.564
45	208	Burney Lamar	Dodge	rhino's energy drink	188.738	29.374	-0.567
46	06	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Mobil 1	188.655	29.387	-0.580
47	4	Ward Burton	Chevrolet	Lucas Oil / State Water Heaters	187.697	29.537	-0.730
48	36	Mike Skinner	Toyota	360 OTC	187.665	29.542	-0.735