When the race was finally run on Monday after being postponed due to rain on Sunday, a new player emerged into the winner's circle. The driver was Kasey Kahne, who is having a great 2006 season so far. This win was only the second in Kahne's young career to date, following his first victory slightly less than one year ago in May 2005 at Richmond. Kahne has clearly shown much greater maturity as a driver and is developing the kind of consistency most expected him to have after his Rookie of the Year honors in 2004.
After not living up to higher expectations last season and failing to make the Chase, Kasey is now enjoying the second place spot in the Nextel Cup standings, behind only frontrunner Jimmie Johnson. Kahne was largely overshadowed last season by fellow "young gun" Carl Edwards, who came out of nowhere (relatively speaking) to win both Atlanta races (both Cup races and the spring Busch race) last season. Edwards would go on to win four races on the year and finish an impressive third place in the Championship race after most thought he wouldn't even make the Chase. Kahne is looking much more like the driver that Edwards was last year - notching high finishes and getting wins (Cup and Busch).
Speaking of Edwards, he is falling quickly in the standings after multiple instances of bad luck so far this season. Carl should have been a factor in both races he competed this weekend, but his finishes left a lot to be desired. After finishing a distant 24th in the race and dropping to seventh in the Busch standings, Edwards could only hope his Cup race would be better. Instead, he once again experienced bad luck with a pit road collision after only 44 laps with competitor Dave Blaney, sending Edwards' car behind the wall for repair. Edwards was a non-factor for the remainder of the race, finishing 12 laps down and in a disappointing 40th place. He now stands a distant 30th in the standings, losing seven spots after today's race.
Other drivers had more than their share of bad luck as well. Bobby Labonte, who lead some laps early in the race, had an engine failure after only 56 laps and finished in the last position, 43rd. He can only be shaking his head at his sequence of bad finishes so far this season while falling two more spots in the standings to a very low 38th spot. Kevin Harvick had a miserable day as well, losing laps to a blown tire and finishing like Edwards at 12 laps down to the leaders. Harvick suffered in the standings comparably to Edwards as well, losing six spots to now stand back in 23rd position.
It wasn't all bad news for every driver out there today. A few drivers were lucky enough to take advantage of the failures of others. Both Dales - Earnhardt Jr. and Jarrett - moved back into the Top 10 in points with top 10 finishes in the race, both moving four spots to 7th and 9th, respectively. The biggest gainer of the day, Kyle Petty, moved up nine spots into 24th after cracking the top 10 in a race for the first time this season. Tony Stewart was also a big gainer, moving up seven spots into 12th after a top 5 finish. Mark Martin had a strong car all day, notching the runner-up spot in the race and moving solidly into 4th in the points race.
All in all, Atlanta provided another quality race, although it was hard to rival last year's race for excitement. The race's dominant driver was Greg Biffle, who led the most laps but once again didn't have the car to finish the race. After running out of fuel on the final lap, Biffle had to coast across for a 16th place finish. Biffle has had dominating performances multiple times now (California, Las Vegas, and now Atlanta) with very little to show for it. He his experiencing what Tony Stewart did early in last season; maybe he can hope for the same result as well.
The day belonged to a deserving Kasey Kahne, who led the second-most laps in the race and showed that he is coming into his own this year. He is a bona fide contender for the Chase in an Evernham organization that is getting it's act together as well.
I can't wait for the deck to be shuffled again - Bristol is next weekend! A possible demolition derby awaits ... stay tuned.
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