Tony Stewart Wins First Race of Season at Atlanta

After leading the most laps in the Emory Healthcare 500, Tony Stewart survived his troubles with wheel spin on restarts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, powered into the lead on the final restart and stretched it out to a comfortable 1.316-second victory over Carl Edwards.

"Ring the bell, baby!" Stewart shouted on his radio as he scored his first victory of the 2010 season.

Jimmie Johnson finished third, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch.

Stewart showered his pit crew with praise for putting him in position to win.

Stewart led 176 laps and dominated the race after pole winner and early leader Denny Hamlin blew an engine and dropped out.

But before the final pit stops, brought on by Brad Keselowski's spin, Stewart had fallen back to fifth because of his trouble with wheelspin on restarts and wasn't making any progress getting back up front.

On the final stop, though, the crew's ultra-fast stop gained him three positions on the track, vaulting him from fifth back up to second. On the restart, Stewart shot past Edwards to take the lead. And he managed to do it again on the final restart on lap 307 of the 325-lap race.

"Guys, you got it done," Stewart told his crew on the cool down lap. "That's the only way we won."

"I didn't hit a restart all night till right there at the end," Stewart said in victory lane. "But it was the last pit stop that got us the track position. When I got back in traffic, I was in really bad shape."

"God, I've never been so happy to win in my life," said Stewart, whose last win came at Kansas in 2009.

Of he restart problems, Stewart said, "I just couldn't keep from spinning the tires and I just made myself not even watch Carl on the bottom on the last two starts. It was just a matter of really focusing. It wasn't that I wasn't trying earlier; I just couldn't figure it out. I'm not sure how I figured it out at the end. I am just glad I did."



Although he didn't win, Edwards had his best run in more than a year. He led 32 laps, which was more laps led than in his last 46 races combined.

"That was fun," Edwards said. "Tony just had such a fast car there at the end. But we're back. The last couple of months have been great. We had something that could win the race tonight and that's a blast."'

Points leader Kevin Harvick had a rough night, blowing a tire after flat-spotting it while skiddiing to slow down before entering pit road. The blowout tore up the left front of his car and caused continuing problems that gave him his first DNF of the season and left him in 33rd position.

But it's rather meaningless at this point, since Harvick has already clinched a spot in the Chase to the Sprint Cup and his lead will evaporate anyway because he only has two wins and other drivers with more will rank ahead of him when the points are reset after next Saturday night's race in Richmond.

The top 10 drivers in the points have now all clinched spots in the Chase, leaviing only two spots technically up for grabs.

At the other end of the top 12, there was little drama on the bubble as Clint Bowyer built an all-but-insurmountable lead in the 12th spot.

Bowyer led no laps but finished a solid seventh, which was ahead of all the drivers chasing him. With only one race to go, Bowyer leads Ryan Newman 117 points, Jamie McMurray by 128 points and Mark Martin by 147 points.

There's never been a points swing as large as 117 points in the final two races before the Chase, much less the final race.

"That is absolutely what we needed," Bowyer said. "Man, I tell you, it was a hard fought battle. The guys kept digging and kept digging. It was good in the daytime. As soon as it went to night, it got really, really loose. Just way down on grip. They kept adjusting on it and never gave it. The guys in the pits, they got us back up there where we needed to be. I am real proud of them. Not what we wanted, but darn sure what we needed."