Clint Bowyer strenghtened his hold on twelfth as neither Jamie McMurray or Mark Martin were able to mount a charge in Atlanta.
Qualifying
Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin was best in qualifying in his Toyota with Ryan Newman second quick on the outside of row one.
Atlanta favorites Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards made up row two with Tony Stewart rounding out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Hamlin and Newman stayed side-by-side for entire first lap but Denny Hamlin lead by half a carlength at the start finish line. Hamlin finally made it stick on the bottom on lap two and took the lead. Newman dropped into second place in single-file.
Denny Newman put a little bit of a lead on the field and continued to lead through the first round of pit stops as this race started with a 133 laps of uninterrupted green flag racing.run.
Storylines
The Race to the Chase was the focus tonight. Clint Bowyer came into Atlanta with a 100 point lead over Jamie McMurray and 101 point lead over fourteenth place Mark Martin.
Jamie McMurray missed the committment cone during the first round of pit stops under green. Then later in the race he cut a right rear tire and had to make an unscheduled stop for tires.
McMurray spent the rest of the race clawing his way back towards the front while Martin and Bowyer raced together in the teens.
When the dust settled Clint Bowyer had done what he needed to do and posted a seventh place effort. McMurray crossed the stripe in fifteenth and Mark Martin finished back in twenty-first.
Both of those drivers fell back one spot in the points as fifteenth place Ryan Newman jumped up to thirteenth with one race remaining until the Chase drivers lock in.
Chasing The Checkers
Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards put on a show late in the race as they were locked in a great three-way battle for the lead with 35 laps to go.
A couple of caution flags flew shortly after and Tony Stewart lead Carl Edwards to the final green flag with 18 laps to go.
Stewart got the lead over Edwards as the field dove into turn three. Tony then took advantage of the clean air and checked out on the pack to claim his first victory since the end of 2009.
Top Ten
- Tony Stewart
- Carl Edwards
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jeff Burton
- Kyle Busch
- Kurt Busch
- Clint Bowyer
- Ryan Newman
- Juan Montoya
- Marcos Ambrose
The Points
Only one more race remains until the Chase locks in its drivers for 2010. The top ten drivers all clinched Chase spots as the series moves to Richmond next week.
The top twelve are now:
- Kevin Harvick
- Jeff Gordon -224
- Kyle Busch -260
- Tony Stewart -288
- Carl Edwards -302
- Jeff Burton -329
- Jimmie Johnson -343
- Kurt Busch -362
- Matt Kenseth -365
- Denny Hamlin -443
- Greg Biffle -480
- Clint Bowyer -524
