Atlanta, GA — March 8, 2010

Raybestos® Brand Brakes NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rundown:
 
Kurt Busch passed Clint Bowyer with 10 laps to go and held on through two attempts at a green-white checkered finish to win the Kobalt Tools 500 Sunday afternoon at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
Busch was leading on the final restart on lap 339 of the 341-lap race and quickly pulled away from the field.  His official margin of victory over second-place Matt Kenseth was .482 seconds.
The win was the first for Busch in 2010.  The 31-year old driver has now won at least one race in each of the last nine consecutive seasons.  The victory was the 21st for Busch in 332 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts and his third in 19 races at Atlanta.
There were 31 lead changes among 13 drivers in a race that took 3 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds to complete.  There were 11 cautions for 53 laps, dropping the average speed of the race to 131.294 mph. 
Kevin Conway was the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race at Atlanta.  Conway posted a 31st-place finish and claimed the honor for the third consecutive race.
 
Joe Gibbs Racing Rundown:
 
All three drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing had a tough day at Atlanta.  Denny Hamlin (21st) and Kyle Busch (25th) were both hampered by unscheduled pit stops and both were involved in the final caution of the race but both managed to finish on the lead lap.  Joey Logano (35th) was involved in two separate accidents but was running at the finish.
Hamlin and Busch had remarkably similar races.  Both drivers led (Hamlin five times for 32 laps and Busch three times for 22 laps), were forced to pit out of sequence because of tire issues, and both running just outside the top-10 on lap on lap 333 when they were collected in a seven car pileup.
“Us, the 2 [Kurt Busch] and the 9 [Kasey Kahne] were the class of the field for most of the day,” Hamlin said.  “I didn’t push my car hard at all all day.  I let guys pass on the restarts and I would just go right by them on 20 or 30 lapped tires.  It’s a shame, you know, we wish we had a better finishing day.  But that is all we can ask for is to be that competitive.” 

 
Said Busch:  “It was just a long day.  We had a lot of trouble with our right fronts early in the race and somehow kept it out of the fence.  We were just tight all race, but Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and the guys just kept working on it and we were able to stay out of trouble and get back near the front towards the end.  But the 1 (Jamie McMurray) and the 33 (Clint Bowyer) got together in front of me and I tried to go high to miss it and I had nowhere to go.  Only thing else I can say is congrats to Kurt [Busch] and Steve [Addington], they deserve it.” 
Logano dropped six spots in the series championship standings, falling to 14th-place.
 
Raybestos® Brand Brakes NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rundown:
 
Kevin Harvick scored a dominating victory in Saturday’s E-Z-Go 200 at Atlanta.
Harvick led twice for 100 of the 130 laps, including the final 56, and crossed the finish line 1.308 seconds ahead of second-place Kyle Busch.  He won for the seventh time in 102 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races and claimed his first win in two races at the 1.54-mile speedway. 
The event was slowed by six cautions for 27 laps and there were nine lead changes among six drivers.  Harvick averaged 120.926 mph in a race that took one hour, 39 minutes and 20 seconds to complete.
Austin Dillon was the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race at Atlanta.  Dillion scored a 10th-place finish, his first top-10 in four truck series starts.  He leads Justin Lofton by one point (21-20) in the Raybestos® Rookie standings entering the Mar. 27 Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway.
The rest of the class: Lofton (20th), Jennifer Jo Cobb (21st) and Brett Butler (23rd).
   
Raybestos® Brakes Status Sheet:
Kobalt Tools 500

                          
1.  Kurt Busch                     6.  A J Allmendinger                                                                                                 
2.  Matt Kenseth                  7.  Brian Vickers                                                                          
3.  Juan Pablo Montoya     8. Greg Biffle                
4.  Kasey Kahne                 9. Kevin Harvick

5.  Paul Menard                 10. Scott Speed                 

 
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Points:

1. Kevin Harvick           644
2. Matt Kenseth            618      
3. Greg Biffle                585
4. Jimmie Johnson     570
5. Clint Bowyer             558
6. Jeff Burton                538           
7. Mark Martin              521
8. Tony Stewart           510 
9. Paul Menard           505  
10. Kurt Busch            502

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Raybestos® Rookie of the Year:
 
1. Kevin Conway       33
2. Terry Cook               4  

NASCAR Nationwide Series Raybestos® Rookie of the Year:

1. James Buescher      34
2. Brian Scott                  30
3. Colin Braun                29
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  24
5. Parker Kligerman      15

NASCAR Camping World Series Raybestos® Rookie of the Year:

1. Austin Dillon            21

2. Justin Lofton           20

3. Brett Butler              19   
4. Jennifer Jo Cobb   17
5. Landon Cassill        7