Benny Parsons

This Monday's Nextel Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway has me going out on a limb as I'll pick Kasey Kahne to win. The Evernham Motorsports driver seems ready for Victory Lane after a pair of fourth-place finishes in his last two races.    

Working in Kahne's favor
In Kahne's four career Cup races at Atlanta, he's had three top-five finishes. Kahne’s average start at the speedway is 13.8, and his average finish is 12th.

Kahne drives a Dodge Charger, which in traffic seems to struggle, but Atlanta's layout is very wide, so there's plenty of room to race and there is grip from the very bottom of the track to the very top of it. So Kahne's No. 9 car will not be competing in the traffic it did in Las Vegas last week, and in California on Feb. 26.

Atlanta is one of Kahne's favorite tracks. The 25-year-old who is in his third full season of Cup racing says the key for him at Atlanta is finding the fastest way around the track over the final 100 miles of racing. For Kahne, that's been at the top of the track most of the time.

Kahne always ran high when he was racing sprint cars, so he just feels comfortable up there and when his car is working, he can carry more momentum off the corner.

According to Kahne, the work the Evernham team did in the offseason is paying off as through the first three races this season, they've been able to adjust the car and continue to make it better each pit stop. 

The up-and-coming driver also told me on my radio show recently that after last season he sat down and assessed himself as a driver. That led to him making some changes this season, and he now has a better understanding of the car and its limits.

He's also communicating what the car is doing more effectively to his crew chief Kenny Francis.

Other drivers to watch
Jimmie Johnson is red hot. Johnson has come close to winning all three races this year. In addition to his wins at Daytona and Las Vegas, he placed second to Matt Kenseth at California.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver leads the championship standings by 52 points over Kenseth. And his early-season success has come with his crew chief, Chad Knaus, serving a four-race suspension by NASCAR for making an unapproved modification to the car before Daytona qualifying.

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In nine career Cup races at Atlanta, Johnson has a win (in October of 2004), and five top-five finishes. In this race last year, he had the No. 48 Chevrolet in the lead for 156 laps, but Carl Edwards pulled off an amazing outside pass in the final corner to edge Johnson for the win by  just two hundredths of a second.

It was at Atlanta in March of 2004 that Johnson began his streak of of 71 consecutive races being ranked among the top 10 in the championship standings -– the longest such streak of any driver.

The Roush cars driven by Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, and Jamie McMurray I feel will run extremely well.

Carl Edwards swept both Cup races at Atlanta last year. In his three career Cup events at the 1.5-mile oval, Edwards has never started worse than fourth or finished worse than third. The 26-year-old has a 1.66 average finish at Atlanta, the best among active drivers.

Last March in Atlanta, Edwards became the first driver in NASCAR history to win his first Nextel Cup race and Busch Series race on the same weekend. Edwards also tested at Atlanta earlier this year.

Matt Kenseth has six top-10 finishes in 12 career Cup races at Atlanta. Despite never having won at the track, the 2003 Cup champion loves racing at this oval, saying that Atlanta is probably the most fun venue to race at on the Cup circuit.

Kenseth's crew chief Robbie Reiser says the No. 17 team has a lot of confidence, and the start of this year has been much better than the start to last season.

In the Cup series Greg Biffle hasn't won at Atlanta although he has four top-10 results in six starts. In the Busch series, Biffle has never finished outside of the top 10 in races at Atlanta, where he won a Busch event in the fall of 2003.

Biffle's crew chief Doug Richert feels pretty confident about his driver's chances at Atlanta. After running well at this oval in the past, Richert says the No. 16 team will just take those setups and tweak them a little bit. Richert is also going to try a different shock package based on what the team learned in Las Vegas last weekend.

Mark Martin loves racing at Atlanta, where the veteran driver has posted three straight top- five finishes, crossing the checkers third there last fall, fourth last spring, and second in the fall of 2004.

Martin ran his first career Cup race at Atlanta 23 years ago. This will be his 41st Cup start at this oval, where he has recorded 20 top-10 finishes, 12 top-fives and two wins.

The newest Roush racer, Jamie McMurray, has three top-10 finishes in his seven Cup starts at Atlanta.