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Atlanta was one of the many tracks that Cup champion Jimmie Johnson owned on his way to a 10-win season. The 48 Chevy took the checkers in both March and October, having already earned a victory at the 1.5-mile oval in the fall of 2004.

In last year’s spring race, JJ made an inside power move on Tony Stewart with three laps left, going three-wide and forcing the 20 car into the wall and back in line for a second-place finish.

Dating back to a win at Atlanta in the spring of 2002, Stewart has top-10 finishes in 10 of his last 12 races at AMS — with wins in 2006 and 2002, runner-ups in ’07 and ’03, a fourth-place finish in ’02, and fifth-place runs in ’06 and ’03.

Carl Edwards back-to-back-flipped at Atlanta in 2005, taking the 99 Ford to Victory Lane twice in the same season — becoming the first driver to sweep both races in a single season since Georgia native Bill Elliott drove his No. 11 Ford to consecutive home track wins in 1992. Johnson in 2007, Edwards in 2005, Elliott in 1992 and 1985, David Pearson in 1973, Bobby Allison in 1972 and Marvin Panch in 1965 are the only drivers to accomplish the rare single-season sweep in Atlanta.

Jeff Gordon has four wins at the intermediate track — 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2003.

Kasey Kahne won at AMS in the spring of 2006, but has ninth-, 32nd- and 38th-place finishes since his first victory of a six-win ’06 season.

FANTASY STALL
Looking at Checkers

You willing to bet against the 48?
Pretty Solid Pick
Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr.
Good Sleeper Pick
Reed Sorenson. No doubt.
Runs on Seven Cylinders
Yeley and the 96 team.
Insider Tip
Stick with Hendrick and Roush drivers.

KEEP AN EYE ON...
Clint Bowyer A pair of sixth-place finishes were huge improvements on his 25th- and 27th-place runs in his rookie year. Bowyer likes these fast tracks, too.

Kyle Busch Burned in the water-in-the-fuel-cell fiasco last October, Busch is heading to an organization at Joe Gibbs that has excelled in Hampton.

Juan Pablo Montoya A fifth in his first visit to AMS proved he acclimated himself to the track quickly. We’ll see how he handles the CoT here this season.

Martin Truex Jr. Truex was close to a win in last fall’s event. Lined up second on a late restart, he had the tires and the horses to overtake race leader Denny Hamlin. However, when Hamlin sputtered, Truex rear-ended him, negating a solid run that that included 135 laps on point.


RACE RESULTS FOR Kobalt Tools 500 (Mar 8th, 2009)
DRIVER MANUFACTURER START FINISH POINTS EARNINGS
Kurt Busch (#2) Dodge 2 1 195 $164,175
Jeff Gordon (#24) Chevrolet 16 2 175 $186,276
Carl Edwards (#99) Ford 29 3 170 $156,556
Kevin Harvick (#29) Chevrolet 10 4 160 $143,728
Brian Vickers (#83) Toyota 17 5 155 $117,048
Clint Bowyer (#33) Chevrolet 21 6 150 $96,350
Kasey Kahne (#9) Dodge 13 7 146 $122,173
Tony Stewart (#14) Chevrolet 11 8 142 $96,048
Jimmie Johnson (#48) Chevrolet 7 9 143 $132,126
Martin Truex Jr. (#1) Chevrolet 23 10 139 $117,465
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#88) Chevrolet 20 11 130 $93,650
Matt Kenseth (#17) Ford 30 12 127 $122,065
Denny Hamlin (#11) Toyota 6 13 124 $93,525
Jeff Burton (#31) Chevrolet 15 14 121 $121,181
Jamie McMurray (#26) Ford 3 15 118 $88,675
Casey Mears (#07) Chevrolet 25 16 115 $91,925
A.J. Allmendinger (#44) Dodge 38 17 112 $77,825
Kyle Busch (#18) Toyota 9 18 109 $121,348
David Ragan (#6) Ford 39 19 106 $85,650
Elliott Sadler (#19) Dodge 14 20 103 $86,575
Aric Almirola (#40) Chevrolet 37 21 100 $84,550
Ryan Newman (#39) Chevrolet 12 22 102 $109,679
David Stremme (#12) Dodge 28 23 94 $108,790
David Gilliland (#71) Chevrolet 31 24 91 $73,200
Michael Waltrip (#55) Toyota 24 25 88 $83,925
Robby Gordon (#7) Toyota 19 26 85 $93,935
Juan Pablo Montoya (#42) Chevrolet 4 27 82 $109,673
Paul Menard (#98) Ford 33 28 79 $105,006
John Andretti (#34) Chevrolet 41 29 76 $82,325
Joey Logano (#20) Toyota 42 30 73 $121,551
Mark Martin (#5) Chevrolet 1 31 75 $89,725
David Reutimann (#00) Toyota 18 32 67 $98,098
Reed Sorenson (#43) Dodge 32 33 64 $109,251
Greg Biffle (#16) Ford 5 34 61 $90,475
Scott Speed (#82) Toyota 26 35 58 $85,413
Bill Elliott (#21) Ford 35 36 55 $70,805
Sam Hornish Jr (#77) Dodge 36 37 52 $89,530
Marcos Ambrose (#47) Toyota 34 38 49 $82,808
Joe Nemechek (#87) Toyota 8 39 51 $70,800
Bobby Labonte (#96) Ford 40 40 43 $98,289
Dave Blaney (#66) Toyota 27 41 40 $70,615
Travis Kvapil (#51) Toyota 22 42 37 $70,570
Mike Bliss (#09) Chevrolet 43 43 34 $70,141



redwinger
(March 7, 2009 - 11:59am)

why can't people just except his real talent???????

john deere boy
(July 14, 2008 - 8:40pm)

kyle busch cheats all the time and he suck because he just does

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