Time for your stats as filtered through the StewartFan. Thanks to Racing-Reference.info for the base line stats. We’ll look at the chasers first, and then a few stat standouts. We’ll list them by number of starts at Hotlanta.

Mark Martin has 41 starts here. He can lay down the fast lap, as his average start is 10.4. He finishes inside the top 10 51% of the time, but the rest of those races he rarely finishes on the lead lap. It’s either feast or famine. He has an average finish of 3^rd in the last 4 races.

Jeff Gordon has 28 starts. He’s got 4 wins, and only Bobby Labonte has more (6) of all active drivers. An average finish of 13.6 is a good mark. He’s coming off a 2^nd and 4^th in the last two Atlanta races.

Jeff Burton has 24 starts. His only good stat here is his low 12.5% DNF number.

Dale has 14 starts. A win and 6 top 5s to go with 57% top 10s all look good. He’s coming off a 4^th and 3^rd in the last two races.

Matt Kenseth has 13 starts. 6 of them have resulted in top 10’s. He’s finished on the lead lap 61% of his races here.

Kevin Harvick has 11 starts. His 1 win, which was his first Cup race here, brought millions of us to tears as it was the first win for the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s team since his untimely death only 22 days earlier. It was the start of the healing process for most of us. Only 1 other top 10 and 3 DNFs don’t add up to much, but he made history that day.

Jimmie Johnson has 10 starts, 1 win, and 5 top 5s. One more top 10 and only 1 DNF make him a strong favorite to keep his place in the points or take advantage of anyone who has a bad day. Average start of 9.8 and an average finish of 11.8 make him a stat favorite.

Kasey Kahne has 5 starts and won the spring race here. He’s finished inside the top 5 four out of those five starts. He’s looking for Atlanta to catapult him back into this thing. There won’t be a hungrier driver out there. His average finish is the lowest of the chasers at 9.8. Look for him to ride the rim all day. If the track has a high line, and it does, Kasey will be passing on the right.

Kyle Bush: 4 starts, no top 10s, and 1 DNF

Denny Hamlin has 2 starts with no top 10s. But he’s got a Joe Gibbs car, and JGR has done very well at this track with Bobby Labonte’s and Tony’s cars. Denny hasn’t failed to finish here.

Outside the chase Carl Edwards swept here in 2005, Ryan Newman has an average start of 1.8, Bobby Labonte has 6 wins here (all with JGR), and Tony finishes in the top 10 60% of the time with 1 win.

My pick for the win; Tony Stewart. This is the StewartFan page, and we luvs us some Tony ‘round here. If you’re looking for a second opinion, you could use a breath mint. And I wonder why people won't take me seriously.

# posted by theStewartFan @ 9:09 PM