NASCAR Cup Series

"Richmond will be a wild one with guys looking to make the Chase. If you can win, you're in. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. People will be taking some risks that they typically wouldn't take on the racetrack and even on pit road. Our CSX team will be right in the middle of it. Richmond has been a good track for me in the past with a lot of top-fives.

With an intense heat radiating from the track and an even more intense return to the track for Tony Stewart, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 55th annual Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

With his win at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night, Kasey Kahne became the 13th winner of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season – and the 13th member of the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Richard Childress Racing teammates Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Austin Dillon finished seventh, 18th and 24th, respectively.

Ty Dillon drove the Circle Sport Racing No. 33 Realtree/Rheem Chevrolet SS to a 25th-place finish Sunday night in the Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The 22-year-old driver, making his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut, started from the 29th position.

Kasey Kahne led the last two laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Oral-B USA 500 to clinch a berth in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup with his first victory of the season. He led twice for 25 laps in his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS in route to his third victory at the 1.54-mile track and 17th win of his career. He joins Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. making it the third year in a row that all four Hendrick Motorsports teams have been in the final 10-race run for the title.

DO YOU THINK THE RACING CONDITIONS OF THE TRACK CAME TO YOU? “Not really, I think it was our adjustments. We started really bad, really loose and then we got the car where it was driving great and I think we got up to fifth or sixth. Then we adjusted our way out of it, and then got it back at the end. So it was all adjustments, what we did, and the communication. Then at the end Kenny made a great call with fuel and how we played that game because it had a big part in what our splitter was doing. So it was a team effort and the guys did great tonight and I am pretty pumped to be here.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion – “We were rallying pretty well. I made a pit road mistake a little bit earlier that got us behind, but got up to fourth and had a shot at winning the race. Kevin was really strong, but we were just starting the pit sequence and one of the slower cars in front of us was pitting and so was Denny Hamlin, who was running second or third there, and he just made the decision to pit from the middle lane and clogged the whole track. That kind of ruined our day with the Alliance Truck Parts Ford.”

Roush Fenway Racing placed a pair of Fords in the top 10 of Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and kept alive its bid to place two cars in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup field. Carl Edwards, who is already locked into the Chase with a pair of wins, led the Roush Fenway effort with a fifth-place finish in his No. 99 Subway Ford. Greg Biffle drove the No. 16 Ortho Ford to a solid 10th-place finish to keep his Chase hopes alive with only one race remaining before the cutoff. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rebounded from a blown tire to finish 20th in his No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford.

Matt Kenseth (second) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Atlanta Motor Speedway behind race-winner Kasey Kahne.