Tony Stewart Wins The Bass Pro Shops 500 at Atlanta
Nextel Cup Standings :: Drivers :: Complete Atlanta Results
When dusk fell on the Atlanta Motor Speedway and the checkered flag waved it was Tony Stewart beneath the smoke and rubber. Stewart won the Bass Pro Shops 500 Sunday, it was Stewarts fourth win of the year and second win in the final ten races which make up the Chase for The Nextel Cup.
It was also Stewart’s second trophy of the weekend. He won the IROC Series Championship on Saturday.
Stewart took the lead on lap 314 and held off Jimmie Johnson who finished second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished third for the victory. Rounding out the top five were Matt Kenseth in fourth and Greg Biffle in fifth.
Tony Stewart was listed at +1601 Odds to Win by Online Sports Book PinnacleSports.com. Stewarts backers will enjoy a massive payout of $1601 for every $100 bet on Sunday’s race.
After Atlanta, The Chase for The Nextel Cup is a much tighter landscape. With only three races left to go in the season some teams are all but eliminated from the Chase.
The big winners in The Chase after Atlanta are point’s leader Matt Kenseth who maintains his points lead, Jimmie Johnson who moves from third to second within 26 points of Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. who moves from sixth to fourth and Denny Hamlin who moves from fourth to third. The top five drivers in The Chase are only separated by 84 points.
The big losers have to be Kevin Harvick who drops four spots from second to sixth in The Chase after battling trouble all day and finishing four laps down in thirty first. Kasey Kahne also loses ground after making a mental error driving in front of David Stremme on lap 252. Mark Martin is also all but eliminated from a potential Championship after he was involved in a late race crash which left him 201 points behind leader Matt Kenseth.
Kyle Busch who is currently tenth in the Chase remained there after Atlanta and Jeff Burton who is currently in fifth also remained unchanged.
Next week the Nextel Cup Series heads into the Texas Motor Speedway for the Dickies 500. Texas is very similar to Atlanta so drivers who did well at Atlanta should also have good weeks in Texas. Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile oval with 24 degrees of banking in the corners.
The winner of the spring race at Texas was Kasey Kahne, the 2005 winner of the Dickies 500 was Carl Edwards.
by Michael Cash – thespread.com – Email Us
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