AMS' 100th race promises to add to great memories

If one really wants to know how far Atlanta Motor Speedway has come during the 99 races leading up to No. 100 -- the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday -- look no further than the photographs from Race 1, the Dixie 300 on July 31, 1960.

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He's better known as the track president at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But Ed Clark also is known in local circles as a driving champion. He discusses his affinity for racing -- from the driver's perspective.
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Mike Bell picks the defending winner of the spring race at Atlanta to win again this weekend.
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Larry McReynolds talks with Drew Blickensderfer, crew chief of the No. 17, about the team's early success.
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Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote it. Ray Charles made it famous. Willie Nelson made it cry. Just a year after Willie's version of Georgia on My Mind topped the country and western charts, Georgia adopted it as the state's official song. But did you know ...
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A look at the top five in points and five drivers to watch in the Kobalt Tools 500. All statistical references are for Cup Series races at Atlanta Motor Speedway unless otherwise indicated. Driver rating is based on the past eight races at the track.

Gordon

1. Jeff Gordon, 98.4 driver rating -- Gordon has finished outside the top 10 once in the past seven races at Atlanta, and that was 12th in March 2007. But he hasn't had a win there since 2003. But he's driving well enough right now to get one Sunday.

2. Clint Bowyer, 87.0 -- Bowyer finished 20th last fall to snap a streak of three consecutive sixth-place finishes. He led 52 laps in this race last year. Overall, though, Richard Childress Racing cars have not been factors at Atlanta lately. RCR hasn't had a win since Kevin Harvick in March 2001, and RCR cars have led only 111 laps in the 15 races since.

3. Matt Kenseth, 98.6 -- Kenseth appears to be on the cusp of a victory at Atlanta. He led a race-high 128 laps last October while finishing fourth for the third time in five races, a stretch that also includes finishes of third and eighth. Expect Kenseth to bounce back from the blown engine that knocked him out last week at Las Vegas after six laps.

4. Greg Biffle, 100.2 -- Keep an eye on Biffle. Although he is winless at Atlanta, he has seven top 10s in 12 races and led 151 laps in March 2005 when he finished third and a race-high 128 in March 2006 when he finished 16th. Atlanta is a fast track, and guess who has run the most fastest laps so far in 2009. Yup, Biffle.

5. David Reutimann, 50.5 -- Reutimann's subpar driver rating is based on three races, all forgettable: 40th in March 2007 and 20th and 28th last year. But if this is going to be a breakthrough year for Reutimann, those finishes shouldn't matter. He scored his first career top five last week. If he follows that with another strong run, we might have something here.

Five to watch

Busch

6. Kyle Busch, 90.2 -- Busch won this race last year, leading 173 laps and igniting an eight-win season. He came back in the fall and finished fifth. Those were his first two top-10s in nine starts. Busch won last week and has been a factor in all three races this season. He'll make it four Sunday.

9. Carl Edwards, 107.4 -- Edwards has three wins at Atlanta, including last year in the Chase, and has seven top-10s in nine races. He has been quiet so far this year, leading all of three laps. Last year after three races, he had two wins and led 150 laps.

19. Jimmie Johnson, 112.9 -- Johnson has the best driver rating. He has three wins and 10 tops-10s in 15 races (nine finishes in the top five). In his past five races at the track, he has two wins, two seconds and a 13th. Johnson has been very strong the past two weeks but doesn't have much to show for it. That's a trend he should end this week.

29. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 103.7 -- Most of Junior's success at Atlanta occurred earlier in his career. Since 2007, he has one top-10 -- a third in this race last year when he led 62 laps. Earnhardt moved up six spots in the standings last week. Whoever thought we'd be talking about Junior in terms of being on the top-35 bubble? But if he suffers a mishap Sunday, he'll go into Bristol after the break with a lot riding on the outcome of the season's first short-track race. Moving up the standings Sunday is priority one for the 88 team.

32. Joey Logano, no driver rating -- This is Logano's first Cup race in Atlanta. It's important for two big reasons. First, he drives the Home Depot car, and Atlanta is Home Depot's corporate home. Second, his No. 20 Toyota is perilously close to the top-35 cutoff in the owners standings (see Earnhardt). That's a lot to put on the shoulders of an 18-year-old.

Qualifying: 6:30 p.m. ET Friday on SPEED
Race: 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX
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