Jimmie Johnson passed Tony Stewart (and crowded him a bit) with three to go today at Atlanta Motor Speedway and went on to win the Kobalt Tools 500. Coming from third on the final restart with 11 laps remaining, Johnson captured his second win in a row, his 2nd at Atlanta, and the 25th Nextel Cup victory of his career (he’s now tied with Jim Paschal & Joe Weathersley for 23rd on the all-time win list). This was win #151 for Hendrick Motorsports, it was their 9th at Atlanta, and it was worth $233,261 from the over $4.9M in posted awards. Juan Pablo Montoya (5th) had his career-best finish today. His previous best was 19th at Daytona last month. Reed Sorenson (9th) had his best finish since he was 8th at Michigan last August. Mike Bliss (21st) had his best finish since he was 12th at Homestead in November of 2005 (only seven races). STREAKIN….Jimmie Johnson has 9 Top-10’s in the last 10 races. Mark Martin has 5 Top-10’s in the last 6 races. Matt Kenseth has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races. This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Jeff Burton (+28 ), followed by Jamie McMurray (+22). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Scott Riggs (-33), followed by Kasey Kahne (-27), Kyle Busch (-24), and Ryan Newman (-22). A relatively quiet “Shaft” today. Next week will be crucial as far as the Top-35 in Owner Points (and the qualifying exemption it carries with it) is concerned. No team from 29th on back can breathe easy right now, and we’ve got some well-funded teams on the outside looking in at the present. Paul Menard (#15) is 36th on the list, just 9 points back….and teams like Kasey Kahne’s, the Wood Brothers, Dave Blaney’s, Brian Vickers’, and Scott Riggs’ need to run good seven days hence. The best move forward today came from Clint Bowyer (17th to 9th), while Greg Biffle (15th to 26th) fell the most spots.(Stock Car Fans)(3-18-2007)
