FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's Top Atlanta Drivers Talk Before and After Race

Tony Stewart ran strong on a rare Sunday night race in NASCAR to win the Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch trained behind Stewart on the last lap of the fast 1.54-mile oval--after four hours of grueling behind-the-wheel competition. 

All top five finishers expressed their thoughts before the green flag and after the checkers for the Labor Day Weekend race at AMS, race 25 of 36 in the long, ferocious NASCAR season. 

With only two races remaining to make the top twelve in the Chase to Sprint Cup, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman had special missions as they were teetering on the ‘bump spot’ that will mean a shot at the big prize. Bowyer finished sixth to be the last driver above the cut line while Newman finished eighth to move within 117 points of replacing Bowyer. 

One race will determine who clinches. 

Before and after quotes from drivers this week have intense meaning as they look to the next event, and the last 10 playoff races. 

Tony Stewart (No. 14 Chevrolet) Finished first

Before:

“The neat thing is that the times fall off so guys move around on the racetrack more,” Stewart said. “Everybody starts at the bottom, and the fast guys normally end up right around the wall midway through a run.

“No matter how fast the computer says that car is going to be, if that driver is not comfortable driving it, then they’re not going to go fast. So you’ve got to tune these cars to the drivers and their feels, and that’s what makes them go fast.”

After:

“Tonight was so much fun on the race car, because we could run the bottom, we could run the top,” Stewart said. “I told Darian yesterday, there were times in practice where I have run higher than I have ever run here.

“The thing I guess I've been really excited about, especially the last two months, we have been kind of silent every weekend and we are gaining on it. 

“It's been a lot of little steps in the last ten to 12 races. I think we got room to be better. When you can help deliver some results like this, it makes those guys work that much harder to keep doing that every week.”

Carl Edwards (No.99 Ford) Finished second

Before:

“I enjoy racing here just because of the track and the fans and the way the place drives, and how competitive it is,” Edwards said. “It’s a long race and the tire, I think, is gonna make it a complex difficult race for the driver and the crew chief. 

“The trick is just having a car that’s good enough every time. It means a lot to have that fast of a race car. That’s gonna be a big deal during the race with a good pit stall and clean air. “

After:

“That was fun,” Edwards said. “We’re scoring more points than anybody. We’re heading into the chase. I feel like we locked ourselves in. We’re better set to go race for that championship now than we’ve ever been.”

Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Chevrolet) Finished third

Before:

“Atlanta hasn’t been our best track for us with the COT—but once we get in the Chase I’m not sure what our first mile-and-a-half track is, “Johnson said. “If we get there and we don’t run like we need to do we’ll step back and punt. Right now we’re making decisions on what we’re going to take into the Chase and do everything we can with that.”

After:

“It was really a good night,” Johnson said. “There were times where we lost the handle and were able to adjust the car and get it back. We had a good time on track. At times we were off, but made adjustments to the car and it responded and got better and better.”

Jeff Burton (No. 31 Chevrolet) Finished fourth

Before:

“Atlanta is a crazy race,” Burton said. “The track has two different personalities. You have the qualifying race track that is screaming fast, and then you have to race on a race track that has no grip, whatsoever, and it’s really, really slow. It’s just a bizarre race track. Atlanta has been a good race track for us so I have high expectations going into that race.”

After:

“When you clinch, you get to go to Richmond and in that shape; it is a lot of fun,” Burton said. “We are going to kick it off next week and just bring everything we have got. We've been protecting a little bit the last four or five weeks. It is no more protecting now, it is go time and we have to lay it all on the line."

Kyle Busch (No. 18 Toyota) Finished fifth

Before:

“You can run anywhere on the track and I love that,” Busch said. “Coming off turn two, if you’re running the low line and start to slide up, you have a tendency to get sideways. But, otherwise, it’s a really fun track. It’s really a driver’s track because, when you get about 40 laps on your tires, you really start to slide around and that can be a handful.”

After:

“We battled hard and made some good adjustments,” Busch said. “We came from almost two laps down today and got back on the lead lap. It was a hard fought battle and that’s what it’s going to take the next 10 races is to come back like this. Hopefully we can go out and carry this momentum into next week and have another strong run at Richmond. Then go after these final 10.”

The Bubble dudes—Bowyer is in, Newman is out—speak up.

Clint Bowyer (No. 33 Chevrolet) Finished sixth

Before:

“You're dirt tracking at 200 miles per hour around a big race track, Bowyer said. “You have to get up on the wheel to make things happen, but hold onto the car and don't let it get out from underneath you. 

“I know everyone has a reason for a bad finish, but I think every bad finish we've had, except for one race, something bogus happened around us. Things have been good this year, but we haven't been able to get the finishes that we deserve in a lot of places."

After:

“I tell you, it was a hard fought battle," Bowyer said. “The guys kept digging and kept digging. The guys in the pits, they got us back up there where we needed to be. I am real proud of them. Not what we wanted, but darn sure what we needed."

Ryan Newman (No. 39 Chevrolet) Finished eighth

Before:

“Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of the best tracks we go to for three-and four-wide racing in the corners,” Newman said. “We know we have a lot of ground to make up if we're going to make the Chase, but right now our main focus is to put the Army Reserve Chevrolet in position to contend for the race win.”

After:

"We're not going down without a fight," Newman said. "It appeared we were doomed a couple of times out there, but we never gave up in our U.S. Army Reserve Chevrolet. We kept our poise and fought back just as our Soldiers do every day. The last 50 laps were some of the best racing I've ever seen here at Atlanta."

Select quote of the race:

Matt Kenseth (No.17 Ford) Finished eleventh

“As dumb as it sounds for being a five-hour race, we just ran out of time,” Kenseth said. “We just need to figure out our adjustments earlier, I guess. I’m happy for our finish considering how we ran.”

FYI WIRZ is the swift presentation of pertinent motorsports topics compiled and condensed by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. Quotes provided by NASCAR and Sprint Cup team media.

Photo credit: Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com