Atlanta race notes: Spirit of ‘Big E’ lives on

Harvick was named as the driver of Earnhardt's ride the next day. Team owner Richard Childress believes Earnhardt was watching after the team from up above.

"I just kept praying there at the end - praying for Dale [Earnhardt] to help us - and he did," said Childress. "I'm speechless."

Harvick said he felt Earnhardt's presence as he battled his way to the win when he edged Jeff Gordon by .006-seconds.

"Winston Cup race wins are not that easy to come by," said Harvick. "I just can't put it into words how we're feeling right now. I think Dale Earnhardt was in the passenger seat of this car today. Somebody was making me go a lot better than I was."

While Harvick's victory provided closure to one of the darkest periods in NASCAR Winston Cup racing with Earnhardt's death, it won't erase the memory of the legendary driver.

"Why does the sport have to move on without the memory of Dale Earnhardt?" Gordon asked. "I think that is always going to be a presence forever. Certainly in my mind, he is and I don't think there is any reason why the sport can't continue to be successful and entertain people and have great races.

"I don't see the sport ever going on without Dale. I think he will always be a part of it."



Matt Kenseth's day ended in a huge puff of smoke and a bright orange flame when his engine blew up on the 273rd lap.

"We thought it probably would because we've had some problems there lately," said Kenseth. "Everybody is working really hard. Robbie Reiser (crew chief) is a great guy and he's got a great team built here. The guys have been putting forth 100 percent and giving me the pit stops and cars we need to run up front. That's the only part letting us down right now and somehow we need to fix it.

"The car was handling good. We weren't as good as the two leaders, but we were a third, fourth or fifth place car, so I was generally happy with the car. We had one more adjustment left there at the end, but we didn't make it."



Dale Jarrett was involved in the late-race free for all as Harvick took the lead with four laps to go. Jarrett started on the pole and finished fourth.

"I really thought we had the car in good shape," Jarrett said. "Maybe we should have pitted there. I don't know if we got beat on tires, we were just sliding the front there. I still thought I had a chance, though. I got myself in a position there, but when the 29 car [Harvick] got on the inside of me it just got me in a bad spot but we had a good car.

"Right at that time my car was actually working the best low. I just needed room to make the run by myself without Harvick or somebody else - trying to protect a position. I needed to just be able to run and not try to protect anything. I was needing to use up a lot of track, but those guys were racing. Harvick did a great job and that's great."



Sterling Marlin was a contender for the victory before an engine problem on the 299th lap. He was running fourth at the time.

"We shot ourselves in the foot," Marlin said. "I thought we blew up, but an electric fan on the radiator came loose, rubbed a hole in the water hose and all the water came out. I never saw the temperature go up. It burned the motor up, and blew it up. We were awful strong. I thought I had a shot at 'em. We've had a top five car in every race. You're going to blow up a couple of times during the year, and you're going to wreck a couple of times. You've just got to take the good with the bad and go on down the road. I feel like we can rebound and come back. I think we had a third-place car today."

Marlin dropped from first to fourth in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings, 82 points behind the leader, Jeff Gordon.



Jeff Gordon's crew nearly cost him the race when he ran out of fuel while leading by a wide margin on lap 143. Gordon went a lap down, but later returned to the lead lap and finished second to Kevin Harvick by just .006-seconds.

"We were good the first half of the race," Gordon said. "We ran out of fuel unfortunately, just a little bit of a mistake. But we rebounded from it. And we didn't have the car in the second half of the race that we did in the first half. Luckily we made some adjustments there at the end and it was capable of winning but we had to battle all day long to get it back there. I just couldn't be more pleased with this team. The guys in the pits did an awesome job. The motor ran great. I just can't believe the way thing are going for us right now."



In NASCAR's attempt to make the four auto manufacturers more equal, one car from each car brand was impounded and sent to the Lockheed wind tunnel in Marietta, Georgia, where wind tunnel tests will be conducted. The cars include Dale Jarrett's Ford Taurus, Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Sterling Marlin's Dodge Intrepid and Bobby Labonte's Pontiac Grand Prix.

Once the results are in from the wind tunnel, NASCAR officials will determine if any rules adjustments will be made.