Battle for the Chase no sweat for Stewart

HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Tony Stewart can take it easy the next couple of weekends. Same for Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.

The real action can be found a little farther back in the Sprint Cup standings.

With two races left until the Chase for the Championship, there’s quite a battle shaping up for those last couple of spots in the 12-driver playoff. So, excuse Matt Kenseth for seeming preoccupied. Cut Kasey Kahne a break if he’s not in a talkative mood. Even Greg Biffle, relatively secure with the eighth spot in the standings, is feeling a bit on edge.

“Certainly there’s a lot of pressure,” Biffle said Saturday, standing outside his hauler after practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “I don’t think we can play it safe.”

Some of this will get sorted out tonight in the Pep Boys Auto 500, when NASCAR holds its first scheduled race entirely under the lights at this high-speed, 1.54-mile trioval south of Atlanta, a track that’s notoriously hard on tires and tends to separate the best drivers from the pretenders.

As usual, there are sideplots all around. Carl Edwards is fifth and looking good for the Chase, but he was hobbling around the garage on crutches after breaking his right foot playing frisbee. He’ll be racing, of course, because this is no time to get out of the car.

His rivals couldn’t resist the chance to poke fun at Edwards over his misfortune.

“At least say you were playing rugby or football, or scaling a mountain or something. But playing frisbee?” Biffle said, managing a smile in a stressful time.

Outside the championship race, former Cup winner Bobby Labonte was forced to scramble for a new ride after his regular team dumped him for the next seven races because of sponsorship issues. Yates Racing was able to line up funding for the No. 96 Ford, but only if it put 26-year-old Sprint Cup neophyte Erik Darnell in the car.

Labonte landed with TRG Motorsports’ No. 71 Chevrolet, which gave him a shot to continue his streak of 568 consecutive starts — second among active drivers only to Jeff Gordon’s 569 starts.