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I expect Tony Stewart will again have a car to be reckoned as the defending Cup champion pursues his first win of the season.
Also keep an eye on Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has seven top-10 finishes at Atlanta, and who led for 142 laps last fall at this oval on his way to a fourth-place result.
In 27 career Cup starts at Atlanta, four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon has four wins, 11 top-fives, and 16 top-10s. Gordon knows the best line around Atlanta as his 975 laps led there are the most among active full-time Cup drivers.
My darkhorse pick is Kevin Harvick or one of his two teammates at Richard Childress Racing, Jeff Burton or Clint Bowyer as I think the RCR cars are much improved this season.
Keys to success at Atlanta
The pavement has gotten a little older and that's helped the racing, but the most important factor at this intermediate track is handling. The turns are banked at 24 degrees. How well a car grips the track through the corners is key.
An ill-handling car at this track will pretty much doom a driver's chances at success. Some drivers will run the bottom and some the top, and there is really not a great deal of difference as there's lots of room to race, and lots of grip.
A driver can run all over, the bottom, the top, anywhere. And at times, we might even see three-wide racing. And if you like speed, you'll like watching this race as Atlanta is the fastest track on the Cup circuit.
With more room to race at Atlanta, there won't be as many caution flags as we often see at other intermediate tracks. That will put more pressure on the pit crews as there are going to be more green-flag pit stops.
Disastrous pit stops must be avoided because if a driver experiences one, it likely will cost him dearly at Atlanta.
This speedway is very hard on engines since the drivers can race through the corners without considerably reducing the number of RPM's their cars turn. So engines are running closer to full out throughout this race than they do in other races.
Normally in a Cup race a couple of cars will blow engines, but in each of the Atlanta races last year four engines failed.
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