Three races already are in the books and the top 12 looks reads like a Who's Who of ... who? David Reutimann, Bobby Labonte and Michael Waltrip are inside looking out -- and none of those drivers have qualified for the Chase since its inception in 2004.

• Cup Series tickets
• Truck Series tickets
• Book your travel

Among those not in the top 12 entering Atlanta is three-time defending Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, mired in 19th position -- 145 points behind front-runner Jeff Gordon and 32 behind Waltrip in 12th. Two other 2008 Chase contenders, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton, are 14th and 18th.

Repeat: There's a long way to go until Richmond ...

While the spotlight is on Gordon, who leads the point standings after three races for the first time since 1997, an interesting race-within-the-race looms during AMS' 100th Cup Series event. Tony Stewart leads Carl Edwards by only two points in the standings and both drivers' track record is top-five material at Atlanta.

Edwards has won one-third of his starts at AMS, while Stewart has two wins. They are two of seven drivers on the entry list with multiple victories, including Labonte's field-best six.

"One of the biggest challenges at Atlanta is the track surface itself," Edwards said. "It wears out tires so that always makes it tough when pitting to decide on two, or four tires.

"Throughout a run you have to drive the track differently so that makes it a little more driver intensive because the track is so abrasive. I think that track, just the way it is, if you have a tire that's difficult to drive it really shows up there and that's why so much is said about it. It magnifies any trouble because the track is so fast and banked so high."

Edwards led 33 laps in this race last year but was relegated to a 42nd-place finish after a blown engine the bounced back to win the October race.

"Regardless of the challenges at Atlanta, for some reason we've had a lot of success there," said Edwards, whose first Cup Series win came at Atlanta on March 20, 2005. "I don't know why exactly. I just really like the race track.

"It drives like a half-mile dirt track. The way you drive around it feels a lot like the tracks I grew up racing on, even though it's completely different it still gives me that same sense of the momentum so I really like that. Between the surface, tires and car moving around, you have to really drive the car and I enjoy that. That's probably why I run well there. All those things plus I love going there; it's a fun place to race."

Stewart's foray into team ownership has proven to be impressive. Back-to-back eighth-place finishes to begin the year, followed by a 26th-place finish at Las Vegas because of a loose left-rear wheel, have the two-time series champion looking for bigger and better things at Atlanta.

"There's still question marks I'm sure with a lot of people, 'Can we do this?' " Stewart noted, "and three weeks in a row we've gone out and run well. We didn't get the physical finish at Las Vegas that we deserved, but we had a good performance on the racetrack.

"Every weekend I've had cars that I've been extremely comfortable in. That's half the battle. That's half the worry you have as a driver when you get into a new program. It's, 'How is this package compared to what I've been driving?' and I've been very, very happy with that. The pit stops have been good. All the variables and pieces are there, if we get a little luck on our side, we're going to nail one of these down. Every time I leave the racetrack, it just gives me confidence that we're going to be something to contend with at the end of the year."

Stewart has two wins at AMS and also three second-place finishes among eight top-five finishes in 20 starts. The track, he said, offers multiple racing grooves that play into his style.

"The neat thing is that the [lap] times fall off so guys move around on the racetrack more," Stewart said. "Everybody starts at the bottom, and the fast guys normally end up right around the wall midway through a run. That is something that is different than Charlotte and some of the other [1.5-mile] tracks on the circuit.

"I like having the flexibility to be able to move around. I know that if my car isn't driving all that well in a particular spot that I have the flexibility as a driver to move around on the racetrack. You can make a difference. It's like Michigan, where you can move around and help yourself as a driver versus being committed and whatever you've got, you've got. It does make you feel better as a driver to know you have that flexibility."