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.

But other than that memorable finish, Harvick hasn't torn up AMS. Besides his victory, he has one more top-five and a top-10 to show in 15 starts, and his average finish is 23.3, worst in the Chase.

Jeff Gordon is seventh in points coming in, thanks to a solid run at Martinsville. Gordon has a Chase-best four victories on the 1.54-mile oval, the same place he made his series debut way back in 1992. In 32 starts here, Gordon has the four victories, two poles, 13 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes for an average finish of 12.8. That's fourth among Chasers.

Tony Stewart suffered at the altar of torn-up right-front tires last week at Martinsville and dropped from seventh to eighth in points. Stewart is among the seven Chasers to have won here, his victory in this race in 2006 the latest of his two triumphs. Stewart is always around the top 10 here, finishing there in 12 of his 19 starts. Eight of those finishes were inside the top five. His average finish is 12.0, third behind Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt is another driver who gets it done at Atlanta, winning the spring race in 2004 and logging top-10 finishes in 10 of his 18 starts. Eight of those were top-fives, too. He's led 632 laps here and won a pole as well. His average finish of 11.7 is behind only Johnson's mark among Chasers.

Matt Kenseth's Atlanta stats are similar to those of Stewart and Earnhardt, without the victories. In 17 starts, Kenseth has 10 top-10 results and six top-fives, with a third-place run his best effort in the spring of 2007. Kenseth averages 14.5 per finish, seventh in the Chase.

Denny Hamlin will start 11th on Sunday, and he's looking for a little traction. In six starts, Hamlin's best result is eighth in his rookie season of 2006. His average finish of 19.3 is 10th in the 12-man Chase.

Kyle Busch rounds out the Chasers and the top-12 qualifiers for Sunday's race. Busch won the spring race at Atlanta for his only victory here in eight starts. It was also his only top-10. His average finish is 19.9.