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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
JENSEN: Rockin’ Night In Atlanta
Tony Stewart’s victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway was an indicator of just how unpredictable the 2010 season has been so far...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted September 06, 2010   Charlotte, NC
SPEED.com's Editor-in-Chief Tom Jensen. (Image: SPEED)
Tony Stewart’s victory in Sunday night’s Emory Healthcare 500 was an indicator of just how unpredictable the 2010 season has been so far and how wide open the Chase for the Sprint Cup likely will be.

Coming into the Atlanta race, Stewart was smack in the throes of a 31-race winless streak, and in the previous 16 races, he had led more than seven laps in any event just once. Yet, Stewart blew away the field at Atlanta, winning 176 of 325 laps to break into the victory column for the first time in 2010.

Carl Edwards and Jeff Burton, who finished second and fourth, respectively, at AMS haven’t won since the 2008 season, yet they were up in the mix, too. Edwards, who had led only six laps all season long, led 32 at Atlanta as he continues to come on strong.

Conversely, Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick came into Atlanta with a lead of 279 points over Jeff Gordon, virtually two full races. Yet Harvick popped a tire and finished 29th, the third time in the last four races he’s finished outside the top 10. After being bulletproof all season long, Harvick suddenly seems vulnerable.

The bottom line is that this year, there is no clear-cut championship favorite, and I think we’re in for a wildly unpredictable Chase.

Some other thoughts, with just one race left in NASCAR’s regular season:
VIDEO: Last Lap Cup - Atlanta Tony Stewart wins at AMS. (Image: SPEED)

• One of the most paradoxical elements of NASCAR’s much-publicized attendance woes is that the racing really has been great for much of the year. That much was in evidence again last night, especially when Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards put on a spectacular late-race battle for the lead.

“When Jimmie and Kasey and I were racing, you know, two- and three-wide for the lead there for a few laps, I mean, there's one point where I was laughing done going down the front straightaway,” said Edwards. “It was just fun. That's what racing's about is having some fun.”

There might be problems in NASCAR, but the quality of racing isn’t one of them.

• In his last eight races, the still-winless Edwards has an average finish of 5.0. In that period, his only finish worse than seventh was a 12th at Bristol. If he can keep it up, he very well could be the champion this year. And for what it’s worth, if this year’s champion doesn’t win any races, I think that would be a real black eye for the sport.

• Night races should either be 400 miles or start an hour earlier. A 500-mile race with a green flag time of 7:47 p.m. is too late.

• Barring something really odd happening at Richmond, the Chase field will have four new contestants this season: Harvick, Burton, Clint Bowyer, all from Richard Childress Racing, and Kyle Busch. Last year’s Chase drivers who fell out are Mark Martin, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers.

• Rick Hendrick said he likes the chemistry between Lance McGrew and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The last seven finishes for Earnhardt? He was 22nd last night and prior to that 13th, 19th, 26th, 27th, 27th and 23rd. That doesn’t seem to add up to a passing grade in Chemistry 101.

• It’s odd to think about heading into Richmond with the Chase field all but locked up, but the reality is, the guys at the tail end of the top 12 at the end of the regular season don’t end up making an impact in the Chase anyway, so maybe it’s not that big a deal.

• Last but not least, I can’t decide if Jimmie Johnson’s third-place finish at Atlanta is proof that he’s back, or if he was really back, he would have won last night. By the same token, Denny Hamlin was in a class by himself, but broke a motor. In the Chase, will he win it all or be felled by reliability problems?

Like everything else, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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