Stewart edges Edwards; Blaney finishes 24th in Georgia

Associated Press

HAMPTON, Ga.

Tony Stewart raced to his first victory of the year, pulling away from Carl Edwards off the final restart of the Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Stewart beat Edwards by 1.316 seconds Sunday night for his first victory since Oct. 4, 2009, at Kansas, leaving Edwards winless since the 2008 season finale.

Jimmie Johnson was third, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch. Trumbull County native Dave Blaney finished 24th.

Denny Hamlin wanted to get an early start on the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Now, he’s just glad that it’s almost here.

After starting from the pole, Hamlin had another dismal finish, going out with a blown engine that again raised concerns about the reliability of a car that won five races during a 10-race stretch earlier in the season.

“We just have one more week to hopefully survive,” he said. “At this point, I’m so lucky there’s no more races (after next week at Richmond) before the Chase cutoff, or else we would be in danger of missing it. It’s just very discouraging, but I know we can get it together.”

Hamlin has not won in nearly two months and struggled to finishes of 34th and 37th in two of his last three races before Atlanta. He said the team had decided to treat the last two events before the 10-race playoff as though they part of the Chase, hoping that would get the No. 11 Toyota back on track before it begins for real.

He clearly had a strong car, leading 74 laps, but knew there could be trouble when teammate Joey Logano blew a cylinder and fell off the pace.

“I saw the 20 [Logano] have problems and then I was pretty worried,” Hamlin said.

Those fears were realized when Hamlin’s car began billowing smoke on lap 144, sending him into a spin through the quad-oval grass. His night was done.