Notebook: Dale Jr. not too happy with Eury Jr., crew

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. got as high as third and was running sixth when he lost eight track positions in the final 25 laps and finished 14th.

"There at the end, I don't know what the hell [crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. and those guys did to the car, but it was terrible," Earnhardt said. "We ran pretty good all day until the end."

Any chance Earnhardt had of a top-10 finish ended during the final pit stop.

"It [was] just a poor pit stop," Earnhardt said. "We shot ourselves in the foot just not getting the car handling right there at the end and I'm frustrated as heck about it."

Junior moved up two spots in the points to 26th.

"This team, we're better than what we ran [Sunday]," Junior said. "I think everybody knows what we've gotta do."

Martin going out on top

The question everyone has pondered has come to pass: Mark Martin leads the point standings heading to Bristol, where he has said time and again he will not race.

He reiterated that point this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He finished 10th Sunday in the Kobalt Tools 500 and holds an eight-point lead on second-place Jeff Gordon.

"I feel good, man. I am looking forward to next weekend," said Martin, who added, "People might not believe it, but they'll have a hard time finding me next week."

Martin plans on being in Lake City, Fla., next weekend, where son Matt and Ricky Carmichael will be racing Late Models at Columbia Motorsports Park.

"It's been a hard-working stretch and I'm really looking [forward] to taking a little break," Martin said. "It's really cool and kind of a storybook to go out leading the points like this, but that will be gone after next week."

Biffle blames Reutimann for incident

Three weeks ago at California, Greg Biffle got into David Reutimann and sent him hard into the wall. On Sunday, Reutimann's left front made contact with Biffle's right rear on Lap 231, triggering a four-car accident.

"I don't really know," Reutimann, who finished 40th, said about the incident. "I was behind [Brian] Vickers, we got down in the straightaway and I thought Biffle moved up a little to help his entry. I was planning on running in behind Vickers on the top.

"It all happened so fast and I guess I got into [Biffle's] right rear and turned him into Vickers. I don't know if it was my fault or what, it was totally unexpected.

Biffle said it was Reutimann's fault.

"The 00 [Reutimann] right-reared me at the end of the backstretch and turned me in the fence," said Biffle, who was last among the cars finishing 41st. "I guess it's payback from California, I don't know.

"I moved up a little bit to get a little air off of the 83 [Vickers] because we were side-by-side and, I don't know, he must have been splitting the difference or something. Maybe he didn't mean to do it, but those are the facts."

The car most affected was the No. 83 of Vickers. It didn't return.

More Vickers

Before Brian Vickers ended up in the garage with a 42nd-place finish, he became the first Toyota driver to lead a lap in a Nextel Cup Series race. Vickers led laps 89-91.

Vickers was making just his second start of the season in the Team Red Bull No. 83.

"Something happened to the motor early in the race and we don't really know what it was, but we had a great-handling car all day," Vickers said. "I was just trying to get to the end, get a decent finish and get some more points.

"I think that's the first time I've been wrecked on a straightaway."

With one race remaining before 2007 owner points kick in, Vickers' car stands 40th in the standings.

"We were just trying to stay out of the way there and finish as good as we can because we need the points," crew chief Doug Richert said. "The wreck was a bad break in the race, but unfortunately we also had some type of motor issue.

"We're not real sure what happened -- it started early on with a surge. What was so bad is that we would gain so much in the corners and lose so much on the straightaways. Then while we're out there trying to stay out of everybody's way, it looked to me like Reutimann tried to do a little payback to Biffle and we just got collected up with it."

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville does it again

Five-time Atlanta winner Bill Elliott didn't run in Sunday's race as originally planned, but he did come up with another victory at his "home" track.

Elliott, who had the East Turn Grandstand renamed in his honor last year, won his first Roadster race Saturday night on the Thunder Ring, the quarter-mile track on the AMS frontstretch.

Track president Ed Clark clinched his second consecutive Winter Flurry title in the Roadsters division.

Other championship winners Saturday night: Casey Roderick, Pro; Evan Swilling, Bandits; Will Prance, Young Guns; Trey Maughan, Outlaws; Billy Fulson, Semi-Pro; and Jeff Haynie, Masters.