Hampton, GA (Sportsbooks) - Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, September 5. Race: Emory Healthcare 500. Site: Atlanta Motor Speedway. Track: 1.54-mile tri-oval. Start time: 7:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 325. Miles: 500.5. 2009 winner: Kasey Kahne. Television: ESPN. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN) /SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.
Time is running out for several drivers who are attempting to qualify for the championship Chase, which begins September 19 at New Hampshire. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon already have clinched a spot in this year's 12-driver field.
After winning the August 21 race at Bristol, Kyle Busch all but secured his position in the Chase. If Busch finishes 40th or better this Labor Day weekend at the fast 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway, he will qualify for the playoffs. He has been in the Chase in three of the last four years. He came up eight points short of making it in last year.
"I feel like going on to Atlanta, it's going to be a test for us to see how good we are again at the mile-and-a-half stuff," Busch said. "Then we go to Richmond, another one of the racetracks that I tend to run well at."
Busch made NASCAR history at Bristol, where he became the first driver to win all three national touring series races during the same week.
He will attempt triple duty again this week, competing in Friday's Camping World Truck race at Kentucky and then running in Saturday's Nationwide event and Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Atlanta.
Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin likely will clinch a spot in the Chase at Atlanta. Edwards will secure a spot if he finishes 21st or better, regardless of any other driver's performance, while Hamlin's ticket will be punched with a 20th-place run or higher.
Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth have a pretty good shot of qualifying for the Chase at Atlanta.
Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle could secure a position in the playoffs this weekend. Most likely, those three drivers will do it next week at Richmond.
Biffle, currently 11th in points, is 135 points ahead of Clint Bowyer, who now holds the 12th and final spot for the Chase.
Bowyer holds a somewhat comfortable 100-point advantage over 13th-place Jamie McMurray, but anything can happen in the next two races.
"I know that it's going to be a hard-fought battle right down to Richmond," Bowyer said. "You can't count out Mark Martin, Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray. They are still in this thing."
McMurray is only one point ahead of 14th-place Mark Martin.
"With two races left, a lot can happen, and certainly Atlanta is one of those tracks that you can really have a good car there, and you can really miss it and be three laps down," McMurray said.
Ryan Newman sits in 15th-place and trails McMurray by 18 points.
Kasey Kahne is 136 points in back of the coveted 12th spot. Kahne won last year's fall race at Atlanta. He passed Kevin Harvick for the lead after a restart with 11 laps to go, and then held off Harvick at the finish by nearly two seconds for his 11th career Sprint Cup victory. He has not won since Atlanta one year ago.
Kahne will finish the last 12 races of this season with Richard Petty Motorsports before moving over to Red Bull Racing next year and switching over to Hendrick Motorsports to take over Martin's seat in the No.5 car in 2012.
"If we don't make the Chase, hopefully we can show up to the racetrack each week and contend," Kahne said. "If we do make the Chase, we can do the same thing, contend. I feel we should have a really good shot at winning a race or two, regardless if we make it or not."
A lot of attention will be focused on Edwards and Brad Keselowski this weekend, as the two return to Atlanta after their wild on-track altercation in the closing laps of the spring race here in March.
Keselowski got his bell rung when Edwards intentionally bumped him from behind and sent his No.12 Penske Racing Dodge flying upside down into the wall along the frontstretch.
"It's a spectacular result, so I assume we'll see that a lot for a long time," Edwards said. "It's pretty amazing people give me all this credit since I knew exactly how to flip a car over at a track where a car has never flipped over like that before. It turned into the worst-case scenario, or the most dramatic scenario, far from what I expected."
Edwards was more than 150 laps behind at the time of the horrifying crash, due to a previous encounter he had with Keselowski earlier in the race. Keselowski clipped Edwards and shot him up the track before he made contact with Joey Logano and then slammed into the wall.
Both Edwards and Keselowski currently are on probation for the remainder of the year, following their most recent altercation in the July 17 Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis.
Forty-seven teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Emory Healthcare 500.
