Stewart finds top gear as NASCAR Chase looms

Tony Stewart has lived up to his reputation as a slow starter this season.

But in the closing laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night, Stewart proved unstoppable.

Smoke blew by Carl Edwards on the second-to-the-last restart on Lap 301 and easily held off the No. 99 Ford by 1.3 seconds for his first win of 2010. Stewart led 176 of 325 laps of the Emory Healthcare 500 en route to his 38th career victory.

Still, for the two-time Cup champion, capturing his first victory 24 races into the season is relatively uncharacteristic. However, with just one race before the start of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, the win could not have come at a better time.

"I forgot what it was like, it has been so long,” said Stewart. “It seems like an eternity since we won a race. Especially with the Chase a week away now, we needed these 10 points, and we need this momentum.

“This team has been doing an awesome job for the last 2 1/2 or three months, and we've been kind of quiet this year. We took off slow, but thank goodness for Office Depot and Old Spice, these guys with this Chevrolet, they have been doing a great job. The pit stops have been good. The cars have been good. With Darian (Grubb, crew chief) and these guys at our shop, it has just been really fun the last couple of months."

Edwards enjoyed one of his strongest performances of the year. He tied a season-high second-place finish set at Chicago in July. And Edwards’ Roush Fenway Racing team executed one of its best pit stops of the season to propel its driver to the point with just 28 circuits remaining in the race.

In the closing laps, crew chief Bob Osborne told Edwards to consider “the big picture.” The advice paid off.

“If we keep running like this, we'll win this championship,” Edwards radioed his crew after the race. “Keep your heads up. Keep digging like you're doing. You guys are doing a great job. This is all we got to do. We've scored more points than anybody the last two months.”

Edwards was 12th in the standings, 514 points behind Kevin Harvick after the Daytona race in July. But after Sunday’s race, Edwards is up to fifth and his point deficit has been cut to 297 behind Harvick, who experienced his own problems Sunday after cutting a tire on Lap 254. Harvick finished 33rd.

Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.

Numbers game

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Jeff Burton on securing a position in the Chase and his strategy entering Richmond:

"We go hard next week. When you clinch, you get to go to Richmond and in that shape, it is a lot of fun. We are going to go and run really hard. That's how we are going to run the Chase. We are going to run it really hard in Chase. We are going to kick it off next week and just bring everything we have got. We've been protecting a little bit the last four or five weeks. It is no more protecting now, it is go time and we have to lay it all on the line."