History shows Atlanta win leads to Texas victory

Recent history shows that success at Atlanta Motor Speedway directly translates into positive results one week later at Texas Motor Speedway.

In each of the last three seasons, the winner of the fall race at Atlanta has gone on to capture the victory at Texas. If that's the case again in 2008, it will be Carl Edwards' turn to repeat the 1-2 punch he landed on the Chase field in 2005. Last year, Jimmie Johnson -- who finished second to Edwards on Sunday -- completed the sweep of Atlanta and Texas on his way to his second consecutive championship.

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But the Atlanta-Texas connection hasn't always been limited to Chase contenders. In 2006, defending Cup champion Tony Stewart was left out in the cold when he narrowly missed the Chase field. So he took his frustration out in the best way possible: by winning.

"I'm still not going to be in the top 10, and I'm still not going to go for any trophy at the end of the year," Stewart said. "Our objective is completely different than the guys in the top 10."

Starting eighth in the 2006 Dickies 500, Stewart chased down early leader Kurt Busch and by Lap 42, assumed the race lead and rarely gave it up from that point on -- usually during caution periods. The only car that seemed to be Stewart's equal that day was Kasey Kahne, and his engine expired just before Greg Biffle's crash on Lap 327.

The final drama came when Scott Riggs got loose and crashed while racing for third coming to the white flag, with Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards getting tangled up in the mess. That set up a green-white-checkered finish with Johnson directly behind Stewart. But the No. 20 motored away at the drop of the flag and won by a comfortable five car-lengths.

"I thought we had the perfect car all day," Stewart said. "It was just an unbelievable day. I've been racing for 27 years and I can count on my hands the number of times I've had a car like that."

It was Stewart's third win during the Chase, having previously captured the race at Kansas, and gave him five wins for the season. Even though it couldn't make up for missing the top 10, there obviously was a certain satisfaction at going all out for victories.

"We finally have caught up now," Stewart said. "We all wish that we could turn back the hands of time and get on this streak three months earlier. But our stress level is a tenth of what those guys in the Chase are facing. We can go out and try to win races without the fear of losing points."

Interestingly enough, Johnson also finished second at Atlanta that season -- and with his runner-up finish at Texas, took control of the points lead from Kenseth. He would go on to record another second-place finish at Phoenix and a ninth at Homestead.

"We've had so much fun racing for this since we got down [in the points] early," Johnson said. "We just want to keep having fun."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered from the effects of the flu, a hard hit with the wall that forced him to make multiple stops for repairs, and a pit-road speeding penalty to finish sixth.

"Not too bad," Earnhardt said. "The first part of the race, I didn't feel good at all. I drank so many fluids, I had heartburn and all kind of bad stuff going on in there. Then, as the race went on, I got to feeling better.

"I'm just sorry we couldn't do any better than we did."

NASCAR also celebrated what was to be Terry Labonte's final race. He was the last driver introduced and drove a special No. 44 Chevrolet paint scheme that included images of his career highlights. In addition, son Justin drove several pace laps in the 1978 car that his father used to record his first victory.

"It was a really awesome day," Labonte said. "I looked over at Justin, looked at that car and was, 'Man, be careful. It doesn't look like it could go that fast.' They have come a long way in safety features."

Labonte finished 36th and wondered what his future might bring.

"I've been very fortunate in my career," he said. "I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing."

Since Stewart's back-to-back victories, wins by non-Chase drivers during the final 10 races of the season have been few and far between. The last came at Kansas last season when Greg Biffle won despite appearing to run out of fuel while coming to the checkered flag.

Labonte's "retirement" turned out to be temporary. He drove three races for Michael Waltrip in 2007 and teamed up with younger brother Bobby as a fill-in for Kyle Petty at Petty Enterprises this season.