Auto Racing Capsules: Stewart takes his 1st Cup win of the year

Only it's not that sudden.

Stewart has been steadily improving over the past couple of months, consistently running in the top 10 and seeming to find a little bit more speed every week. He figured it was just a matter of time before he finally got back to Victory Lane.

That breakthrough came Sunday night, when Stewart claimed his first win of the season with a dominating performance at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"We've kind of been silent every weekend, but we've been gaining on it," he said. "It was not a one-week increment where we had a big change. We've been taking a lot of little steps the last 10 to 12 races. Nobody's really noticed it, but we've noticed. We have a much better feeling than we did compared to this time last year."

He led more laps (176) in the Emory Healthcare 500 than everyone else combined and pulled away from Carl Edwards on the last restart to win by a comfortable 1.316 seconds. Stewart snapped a streak of 31 races without a win — the second-longest drought of his 12-year Cup career, surpassed only by a 43-race stretch over the 2007-08 seasons.

But he's been one of the most consistent racers in the series since a sluggish start. Ten of the last 12 races have resulted in top-10 finishes, and clearly he hasn't forgotten how to win, either.

Now comes the Chase, in which the 39-year-old Stewart will be seeking his third career championship but first as a car owner.

"I don't know if we have peaked yet," he said. "I think we've got room to be better."

There won't be all that much drama in next weekend's race at Richmond, essentially the regular-season finale. Stewart is among 10 drivers who've already clinched spots in the 12-man Chase, led by points leader Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch.

Stewart is fourth, followed by Edwards, Jeff Burton, four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin. Still looking to lock up spots at Richmond are No. 11 Greg Biffle and No. 12 Clint Bowyer, each of whom would only fall out with an unprecedented collapse.

Bowyer has a 117-point lead on No. 13 Ryan Newman and merely needs to finish 28th at Richmond to clinch his spot. Sentimental favorite Mark Martin, trying to win his first Cup championship at age 51, slipped a spot in the standings and is now 15th — a daunting 147 points out of the playoff.

The final caution of the night came out after Newman made contact with Kasey Kahne, nearly causing a crash on the backstretch.

Stewart was out front when the green came back out with 19 laps to go, and he zoomed off the line to beat Edwards into the first corner. From there, the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy steadily pulled away for his first victory since Oct. 4, 2009, at Kansas.

Johnson was third, followed by Burton and Kyle Busch.

"I didn't hit a restart all night until right there at the end," Stewart said. "I've never been so happy with a win in my life."

Edwards is winless since the 2008 season finale, but he led more laps in Atlanta (32) than he had in the last 46 races combined. That gives him plenty of confidence that he can contend for his first series title, the one that slipped away two years ago despite nine wins.

"Tony just had such a fast car at the end, but we're back," Edwards said. "I know we don't look as good as we did in 2008, but we're better prepared to race for the championship."

Johnson also is headed back to the Chase, giving him a shot to add to an already unprecedented streak of Cup titles.

"This is a huge relief for myself and this team," he said. "That was so much fun. That was the way racing should be. Even at the end, we were trying to run (Edwards) down. We were racing hard with these guys. That says a lot about the 48 team going forward."

It wasn't such a good night for pole winner Hamlin, who had vowed to shake out of his midseason slump with a couple of strong performances going into the Chase.

He had plenty of speed, leading 74 laps, but the engine didn't hold out on his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Coming to the start-finish line on the 143rd lap, Hamlin's car suddenly started billowing smoke, sending him spinning into the infield grass.

He wound up last in the 43-car field and slipped five places in the standings to 10th.

"At this point, I'm so lucky that there's no more races before the Chase cutoff or else we'd be in danger of missing it," Hamlin said. "It's very discouraging, but I just know we can get it together."

He has struggled since a five wins-in-10-races stretch earlier in the season. He knew he might be in trouble again when he heard that teammate Joey Logano had blown a cylinder.

Not long after workers cleaned up the mess from Hamlin's spin, the first big crash of the race took out Biffle and Elliott Sadler.

Newman charged up to make it three-wide racing going into turn three and Biffle didn't realize the No. 39 car was there. Biffle went into a spin and slid down the banking, where he clipped Sadler trying to go low. That turned Sadler's car up into the outside wall for a hard lick, but the padded barrier ensured there were no injuries.

Luckily for Harvick, he barely missed the crash diving inside of Sadler.

Harvick's luck ran out when he messed up an attempt to dive down pit road. He wound up damaging his left front tire and had problems the rest of the night, finally parking his car in 33rd place.

Notebook: Another disappointing race for Denny Hamlin

Now, he's just glad that it's almost here.

After starting from the pole, Hamlin had another dismal finish Sunday in the Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, going out with a blown engine that again raised concerns about the reliability of a car that won five races — worth 50 bonus points in the Chase — during a 10-race stretch earlier in the season.

"We just have one more week to hopefully survive," he said. "At this point, I'm so lucky there's no more races (after next week at Richmond) before the Chase cutoff, or else we would be in danger of missing it. It's just very discouraging, but I know we can get it together."

Hamlin has not won in nearly two months and struggled to finishes of 34th and 37th in two of his last three races before Atlanta. He said the team had decided to treat the last two events before the 10-race playoff as though they part of the Chase, hoping that would get the No. 11 Toyota back on track before it begins for real.

He clearly had a strong car, leading 74 laps, but knew there could be trouble when teammate Joey Logano blew a cylinder and fell off the pace.

"I saw the 20 (Logano) have problems and then I was pretty worried," Hamlin said.

Those fears were realized when Hamlin's car began billowing smoke on lap 144, sending him into a spin through the quad-oval grass. His night was done. He finished last in the 43-car field.

At least Hamlin clinched a spot in the 12-driver Chase, even though he slipped five spots in the season standings to 10th.

"I know if we had the reliability that we could win this championship," he said. "When it gets down to the Chase, it seems like we have a lot of issues and problems with keeping our cars together, and today was just a small sign of that."

BITTER RIVALS: Don't expect Kyle Busch and Todd Bodine to be hanging out at dinner anytime soon.

The two have developed a compelling rivalry in the NASCAR Trucks Series, which boiled over again during the most recent race at Kentucky Motor Speedway.

Bodine accused Busch of "driving dirty" when he got into Bodine's rear quarterpanel, causing a spin. Busch took issue with those comments, confronting Bodine before they left Kentucky and making his case again after arriving at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday night's Sprint Cup race.

"It was just a matter of hard racing," Busch said. "If he doesn't want me to race him that hard, he ought to give me room in the turn."

Busch insisted that he's not a dirty driver.

"I feel like I'm a hard racer, an aggressive one," Busch said. "I wouldn't say I'm dirty. Dirty is when you run into the back of somebody on the straightaway and put them into the fence."

Bodine bounced back from his spin to win the truck race, but that didn't cause him to soften his stance on Busch's tactics.

"I've always had a lot of respect for Kyle. Slowly but surely I'm losing it," Bodine said. "He's without a doubt one of the best drivers NASCAR has ever seen. ... He doesn't have to drive like that to win races but he does and he's getting away with it because NASCAR won't do anything about it. He was mad because I called him out on it."

Busch countered that he did nothing wrong.

"I went into (turn) three knowing I had to give him a little bit of room, and I tried," Busch said. "If I spin him out and he spins me out, what good does that do me? It doesn't do me any good. I actually had the courtesy to think about him spinning out, and he did. I thought I gave him room."

Too bad they didn't get a chance to tangle again in the Sprint Cup race. Bodine was one of four drivers who failed to qualify for the 43-man field.

Busch finished fifth.

PRETTY IN PINK: Jeff Gordon had perhaps the most eye-catching car on the track. He can thank his 3-year-old daughter for that.

Little Ella Gordon helped design the paint scheme on her dad's No. 24 car, part of a campaign to promote Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Not surprisingly, she went heavy on pink, with some blue and white mixed in.

"We were trying to explain what she was doing and I don't think she really kind of grasped the concept," Gordon said. "But you lay some paper down in front of her with an outline sketch of a race car, and give her a bunch of paint brushes and things, that is all it takes."

Ella really got hands-on before the process was done.

"She kept wanting to put her hands in the paint, so we finally let her do that," Gordon said. "That is what you see on the paint scheme is bunch of different mixtures of colors and brush strokes and hand prints."

And what about those colors? It's not very often that you see so much pink on a race car.

"It is really bright and it is not a car you want to run in the back with," Gordon quipped. "If that's the inspiration that we need, then I'm fine with that. On the flip side, I can't wreck this car because she isn't going to want to see me wreck the car she designed. So there's a lot of pressure this weekend."

Not to worry. Gordon finished a solid 13th and remained second in the standings with one race to go before the Chase.

FIRST RACE: Atlanta Motor Speedway has been celebrating its 50th anniversary, including a ceremony Sunday attended by 1960 NASCAR champion Rex White, who lives in nearby Fayetteville.

Also on hand was Michael Greer, who was 8 years old when he attended the inaugural Dixie 300 on July 31, 1960.

"We sat in the lower rows, and the grit, the grime, the noise is what sticks out most in my mind," Greer recalled. "Of course, as an 8-year-old boy, the mud was just an added bonus. And I've been an avid NASCAR fan ever since."

NASCAR president Mike Helton praised longtime markets such as Atlanta for their importance in helping the Southern-rooted sport develop a national following. Of course, some might accuse the sport of abandoning its history by leaving tracks such as North Wilkesboro and Rockingham and stripping races away from Atlanta and Darlington.

Next year, the Cup series will make only one stop in Atlanta, on this same Labor Day weekend. The spring race is being shifted to Kentucky.

"These folks are at the heart and soul of the history and roots of NASCAR," said Helton, who served as president of the Atlanta track from 1979-86. "When you come to the speedway and you come to Georgia, there are some pretty good stories from this neck of the woods that would support that this area contributed greatly to the early years of racing."

LUG NUTS: Warren Buffett, one of the country's richest people, attended the race as a guest of car owner Joe Gibbs. After being introduced at the driver meeting, Buffett joked, "I understand these guys can do pit stops in 12-plus seconds. I'm going to see what we can do to get it under 11." ... Gibbs delivered the invocation before the race.

-- Paul Newberry

NASCAR Sprint Cup-Emory Healthcare 500 Results

Sunday; At Atlanta Motor Speedway; Hampton, Ga.

Lap length: 1.54 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

CLERMONT, Ind. (AP) — Defending Pro Stock season champion Mike Edwards raced to the No. 1 qualifying position Sunday in the NHRA's playoff-opening the U.S. Nationals with a track-record time of 6.579 seconds at 209.26 mph.

Edwards topped qualifying for the 12th time this season and 34th overall.

Larry Dixon, Matt Hagan and Andrew Hines also led their divisions in the first of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

In Top Fuel, Dixon's track record time of 3.776 at 324.36 from Saturday stood as the quickest of the weekend, giving the three-time Indy winner his sixth No. 1 effort of the season, 46th of his career and third at the event.

Hagan claimed his third top qualifying position of the season and fifth of his career with a track-record time of 4.039 at 299.86 in a Dodge Charger.

Hines led all five Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying sessions on his Harley-Davidson and earned his second No. 1 of the season and 28th of his career with his national-record run of 6.185 seconds at a track-record speed of 196.76 mph.

Elsewhere

WALL, N.J. (AP) — One of New Jersey's oldest stock-car tracks has been shuttered because its owners and manager failed to reach a new lease agreement.

The decision to suspend racing at 60-year-old Wall Stadium was made public this weekend when manager Jim Morton posted a notice on the track's website.

Citing financial concerns, Morton said he decided to cease operations after unsuccessfully seeking a lower lease amount. He had overseen racing since April 2009.

Timothy Shinn, one of the five co-owners of the track in Monmouth County, told the Asbury Park Press of Neptune that the group hoped to find a new track operator soon.

But Shinn said they have no plans to run the stadium themselves.

This marks the second time since March 2008 that the track had been shut down.