NASCAR At Atlanta Motor Speedway: Jeff Gordon Wins Milestone 85th Career Race

If Denny Hamlin had his choice, he wouldn’t head into Richmond with his Chase chances still in doubt.

But at least nothing disastrous happened at Atlanta and, coupled with Clint Bowyer’s misfortune on Tuesday, Hamlin finds himself in solid position to grab a wild card berth after an eighth-place finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. remained in solid position to clinch a NASCAR Chase spot at Richmond next week, but his 19th-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway wasn’t the way he wanted to do it.

And even if he makes the Chase next week, running around 20th place won’t do much for him in the championship battle, he said.

Clint Bowyer’s NASCAR Chase hopes likely ended on Tuesday when contact with Juan Pablo Montoya put him into the wall at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Here’s what Bowyer had to say about the incident in a televised interview with ESPN:

NASCAR finally got the Atlanta Motor Speedway race restarted with 95 laps to go, as the rain cleared out for the moment.

Matt Kenseth retained the lead on the restart, and Jimmie Johnson – who was nearly lapped earlier in the race – passed Carl Edwards for second.

After Andy Lally blew a tire around lap 130, NASCAR called a debris caution which shook up the running order.

Jeff Gordon dropped to fourth following the pit stops (his team put a spring rubber in during his car’s service), with Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch out front. But Busch seemed to jump the restart and then lagged back, and it caused a bit of commotion on the initial green-flag lap.

As expected, the race has been rescheduled. NASCAR gave its all to get Atlanta Motor Speedway dry Sunday night, but Mother Nature had other plans – courtesy of Tropical Storm Lee, which is now a tropical depression.

After one hour, 45 minutes of jet driers and service vehicles working hard to dry the track, it took just one small shower to erase all the work that had been done and NASCAR decided at about 9:45 to call the race and rescheduled the race for 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday – NOT MONDAY.

Jet dryers are on the track at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but our own NASCAR meteorologist Brian Neudorff says there’s little hope for racing tonight.

Though it’s not currently raining at the track, more moisture associated with Tropical Storm Lee is on the way.

It’s NASCAR race night at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about the AdvoCare 500 for you below.

Start time: The command to start engines will be given by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty at 7:39 p.m. Eastern time. After a few pace laps, honorary starter Richard Wright – the CEO of race sponsor AdvoCare will wave the green flag at 7:48 p.m. Eastern. So if you want to skip the pre-race show and just tune in for the race, flip on your TV set at 7:48. *****UPDATE: Due to impending rain, the start time has been moved up to 7:30 p.m. EDT*****

There has been little change in the overall forecast for Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The two players that will impact the weather are Tropical Storm Lee (at least the moisture associated with it) and an approaching cold front arriving from the north.

A band of rain will break off off Lee during the day Sunday and bring steady rain into Alabama and Georgia in the afternoon and evening as Lee slowly works inland into Louisiana. We could even see some rain Sunday morning. The images below are model printouts for 8 p.m. EDT Sunday night.

Denny Hamlin says it’s easier for a driver to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race now than it was in the past.

“It’s easier for the driver to win because it’s really about the crew chief these days and the strategy they play,” he said Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “In my opinion, it’s not as driver-important today as it used to be. There’s so many more factors...which makes it interesting at times. But you just don’t see, in my eyes, the top three drivers in Cup winning as often as what you would think. Ultimately, it’s out of their hands most weeks.”

After Bristol last week, Jeff Gordon said the track’s pit road timing lines were “terrible” and said it was “a joke” that drivers could take advantage of the system to such a degree.

On Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Gordon reiterated his call for NASCAR to address the pit road segments.

Last week, Tony Stewart officially hired Danica Patrick to run a partial Sprint Cup Series schedule next year. Now he’d like to add another driver to the Stewart-Haas Racing roster: Mark Martin.

“I would love to have him,” Stewart said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “The biggest thing is us getting the financial backing to run the remainder of those races. I would love nothing more than Mark in all the races that Danica doesn’t run next year. I’ve been a Mark Martin fan for a long time and, trust me, I would love nothing more than to have Mark in one of our cars.”