Jeff Gordon held off Tony Stewart to take the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 one day late at Atlanta Motor Speedway this afternoon….and, as is often the case, it came down to pit stops. Tony’s crew had a problem two stops from the end and he couldn’t catch up. If was the 3rd victory for Gordon on the season, the 64th of his career (he’s 12 wins behind the late Dale Earnhardt in 7th on the all-time list), his 4th at Atlanta, the 117th for Hendrick Motorsports….and it was worth $249,978 from the over $5.3M in posted awards. Bobby Labonte (5th) had his best finish since he was 5th at Daytona in July. Jimmy Spencer (9th) had his best finish since he was 8th at The Brickyard in August. Ward Burton (13th) had his best finish since he was 13th at Bristol in August. This was also the best finish for the NetZero “0” car in it’s brief history….their previous best was 14th at the Daytona 500 with Jack Sprague. Kevin Lepage (14th) had his best finish since he was 10th at Talladega in October of 2001 Tony Raines (18th) had his best finish since he was 16th at Pocono in July. STREAKIN….Jeff Gordon has 6 Top-5’s in a row. Tony Stewart has 6 Top-5’s in a row. Jimmie Johnson has 6 Top-10’s in the last 7 races. This Week’s Elevator…UP: Operator of the Week (for the 4th time this season) is Matt Kenseth (+26), followed by Sterling Marlin (+24), and Tony Stewart (+22). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Brian Vickers (-39), followed by Todd Bodine (-35), Ryan Newman (-28), and Michael Waltrip (-25). Tony Raines led a lap today (#289 to be precise) for the first time in his Cup career. He becomes the 47th different driver to lead a lap this season, surpassing last year’s number of 46. What little chance Kevin Harvick had of catching Matt Kenseth disappeared today with his 20th place finish. Dale Earnhardt Jr has now moved past Kevin into second place…but still 258 points out of the lead. The “Magic Number” has now ballooned to 21st place. Even in Matt finishes last the final three events, Jr would still have to run 14th or better to win. Matt needs a lead of 370 to be crowned Champion next week (unlikely)…a lead of 302 (only 45 more than he has now) would give him a clinch just by starting the final two events.( StockCarFans.Com Winstoncup Newsletter )(10-27-2003)
