Carl Edwards won the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, scoring his career-first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup victory in his 17th career start.
Edwards won both the NASCAR Busch Series and the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Joe Nemechek was the last driver to win both races in a weekend (Kansas October 2004).
Edwards became the first driver ever to post both his career-first NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series victories in the same weekend.
Edwards became the seventh different race winner in the last seven races Atlanta Motor.
Edwards begins the 2005 season with two top-five finishes and top-15s in four races.
Edwards posted his second top-five finish in two races at Atlanta. He finished third at Atlanta last October.
Edwards scored the second victory in four races in 2005 for car owner Jack Roush. It marked Roushs fourth victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Greg Biffle was the most recent first-time winner when he won at Daytona in July 2003.
Notebook Items
Jimmie Johnson (second) posted his fifth top-five finish in eight races at Atlanta. Johnson has scored top- 10 finishes in the 10 races since Charlotte last fall. Johnson is the only driver that has led at least one lap in all four races in 2005.
Greg Biffle (third) scored his third top-10 finish in five races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He posted his third straight top-10 finish of the season. This is the first time in his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup career that he has posted three consecutive top-10s.
Mark Martin (fourth) scored his 19th top-10 finish in 39 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Martin has scored three top-10 finishes in four races this season. Martin has been running at the finish in 26 consecutive races, the longest current streak.
Kasey Kahne (fifth) scored his third top-five finish in three races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kahne scored his first top-10 and best finish in 2005.
Dave Blaney (eighth) scored his second top-10 finish in 11 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. His last top- 10 finish came at Pocono (ninth) in July 2003.
Kyle Busch (12th) was the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year contender for the third time in 2005.
Mike Garvey started 43rd and finished 41st in his first career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup start.
Robby Gordon failed to qualify for the 2005 Daytona 500 and has finished 35th, 39th and 34th in the three races he has competed in this season.
All 10 of the top-10 positions in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings changed at Atlanta.
Just one race remains before 2005 owner points set the guaranteed starting positions at Martinsville. Noted car owners/drivers ranked outside the top 35 include: Joe Gibbs/Bobby Labonte (37th), Greg Pollex/John Andretti (38th), Leonard Wood/Ricky Rudd (39th) and James Smith/Robby Gordon (40th).
Looking ahead to the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup…. 18 drivers are already more than 400 points behind the leader. Included in those 18 are Mike Wallace, Bobby Labonte, John Andretti, Ricky Rudd and Robby Gordon plus 13 others.
The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Leader Bonus will be worth $20,000 Bristol Motor Speedway.
(Information Provided by NASCAR Statistical Services)(3-20-2005)
