Chasers to start up front for third consecutive race

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Same story, different zip code.

For the 10th time in 33 races, Sprint Cup Series qualifying was cancelled due to weather on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It is the third consecutive week that qualifying has fallen victim to rain, the fourth time in seven Chase races and fifth in the last eight events.

So, like the past two races, Jimmie Johnson will have the first pit stall on Sunday. Last week at Martinsville, the series points leader used that advantage -- and the advantage of starting on the pole -- to help him win. He's been ninth, sixth and first in the past three races.

It's a Chase track, and that means Johnson is pretty good here. He's won three times in 14 starts, including in this race last year, and he's finished in the top five in eight of those starts and in the top 10 in nine. As a result, he again has the best average finish among the 12 Chase drivers at 9.6.

Second-place Greg Biffle moved up a spot after Martinsville, but his record at Atlanta isn't as stout as Johnson's. In 11 starts, Biffle has a pole, three top-five and six top-10 finishes, the best being a third-place in his breakout year of 2005. Average-finish-wise, Biffle is eighth at 14.8.

Jeff Burton had an awful day at Martinsville and dropped to third place in the standings. Burton hasn't won at Atlanta, but he has seven top-five finishes in 29 starts. Four of those were fourth-place runs, the last one coming in the spring of 2007. He's been in the top 10 on 13 occasions. His average finish is a ninth-best 16.5.

Carl Edwards, still struggling to overcome his ignition problem at Lowe's, is fourth in points, and Atlanta is one of his favorite tracks. He earned his first Cup Series victory here in 2005, beating Johnson in a photo-finish, and followed that with a season sweep that fall.

In eight starts at AMS, Edwards has the two victories, four top-five and six top-10 finishes, which gives him a pretty good average finish of 12.9. That's fifth among the Chasers.

Clint Bowyer rests fifth in the Chase coming to Atlanta, and he's hoping to get into the top five this weekend. In five starts, Bowyer has finished sixth three times, including here in the spring. His average finish is 14.0, sixth in the Chase.

The third Richard Childress Racing car, Kevin Harvick's, will line up sixth on Sunday. Like six of his Chase counterparts, Harvick has won here. He beat Jeff Gordon to the line by .006 seconds for his first career victory just weeks after the loss of Dale Earnhardt at Daytona in 2001. (Continued)