CUP: Johnson, Stewart Top 5 To Watch List

Sprint Cup

CUP: Johnson, Stewart Top 5 To Watch List

Jimmie Johnson has a finishing average of 9.125 at Atlanta Motor Speedway...

Tom Jensen | Posted September 04, 2009 Atlanta, GA

Jimmie Johnson has posted three victories, three runner-up finishes, eight top fives at Atlanta Motor Speedway and will looking for a win at the Pep Boys Auto 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

We have reached the penultimate event of NASCAR’s long, 26-race season, the Pep Boys Auto 500 at the wicked fast, 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In some ways, this week’s 5 To Watch list is wholly predictable, but in other ways, it’s very much off the wall. Bobby Labonte, the winningest active driver at AMS with six victories, would be on this list most years. But he’s entered this race in his first ride with the No. 71 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet, driving a car ranked 37th in owner points. He has no shot at winning whatsoever this weekend.

And under normal circumstances, Carl Edwards would certainly be one of the dead-nuts-on favorites. Edwards, after all, has three victories at AMS and finished third here in the spring. But, the backflipping Roush Fenway Racing driver broke his right front playing Frisbee on Wednesday and I just don’t see him being able to overcome that this time around, not in a season where he’s gone winless through 24 races.

Then there’s the whole points issue, with eight drivers separated by 89 points in the race for the final six spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. And the fact that Sunday’s Cup race will be the first under the lights at AMS.

With all of that in mind, here’s this week’s 5 To Watch List:

1. JIMMIE JOHNSON, Hendrick Motorsports — In his last 12 starts at AMS, the three-time defending Cup champion has been a total stud. How about three victories, three runner-up finishes, eight top fives and no finish worse than 16th? Johnson has a finishing average of 9.125 at AMS, best of anyone in the field. And given that he’s clinched a Chase spot, he’ll be pulling out all the stops to win and earn 10 Chase bonus points.

Johnson said he and the No. 48 squad are ready to get after it. “It was good to take some time during the off-weekend to relax and charge the batteries for the final 12 races,” he said. “The Chase is right around the corner. Everybody on the No. 48 team needed to do that. Beginning with this weekend in Atlanta, we're all going to need to have a bunch of energy and patience and all that stuff for the Chase. I think that we're there on speed. Our cars are good. We feel very good about the tracks in the Chase. We enjoyed the off weekend but know that we have a lot of work ahead of us now.”

2. TONY STEWART, Stewart-Haas Racing — The Sprint Cup points leader has a lot in common with Johnson: He’s clinched a Chase spot, he drives a car with a Hendrick-supplied chassis and engine and he’s very, very good at Atlanta, where he has two victories and three second-place finishes.

Stewart enjoys the multi-groove character of AMS. “The neat thing is that the times fall off so guys move around on the racetrack more,” he said. “Everybody starts at the bottom, and the fast guys normally end up right around the wall midway through a run. I like having the flexibility to be able to move around. I know that if my car isn’t driving all that well in a particular spot that I have the flexibility as a driver to move around on the racetrack. You can make a difference.”

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Tom Jensen

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