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HAMPTON, Ga. — A pit-stall selection might have determined the outcome of Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Carl Edwards led with eventual winner Kurt Busch second and Jeff Gordon third entering the final two-lap restart.

Before the restart, Edwards pitted for two new tires, while Busch and Gordon each changed four tires. With as much as the track wears tires, four are better than two.

While Edwards would have liked to have had four tires, it wasn't feasible. His team selected its pit stall in front of Gordon's pit and behind Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s pit — two top competitors.

Typically, teams want to pit where there is an opening on pit road. If none is available, teams hope to pit near a weaker team, figuring that weaker teams will quickly fall a lap down. Thus when the leaders pit the weaker team's pit stall will be open, allowing a stronger team more room to maneuver. That didn't happen this time and forced Edwards' team to change only two tires.

"We didn't have much of a choice,'' said Bob Osborne, crew chief for Edwards. "We had to come around (Gordon) no matter what. (Earnhardt) if we would have taken four would have blocked us in and we would have lost quite a few positions, so our only chance there &ellipses; was to take two and hope for the best."

Instead, Busch passed Edwards for the lead on the backstretch after the restart and led the final two laps.

TOUGH RUN: Martin Truex Jr. finished 10th a day after passing a kidney stone.

Truex went to a local hospital Saturday afternoon but returned to his motorcoach before passing the kidney stone that night.

MORE PENALTIES? NASCAR is considering additional penalties to Jimmy Watts, the gasman for Marcos Ambrose's team who ran across pit road and on to the infield grass to retrieve a tire during the race.

The incident forced NASCAR to throw a caution. It came in the middle of a pit cycle, leaving only six cars on the lead lap at the time.

NASCAR suspended Watts for the rest of the race and met with him afterward.

STRONG RUNS: Kevin Harvick rallied from a lap down to finish fourth, while his Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer placed sixth. They sandwiched Brian Vickers, who finished a season-best fifth.

FALLING DOWN: Mark Martin fell to 35th in car-owner points after blowing a right rear tire and finishing 31st.

Blown engines sidelined Martin the past two weeks and the blown tire ruined a likely top-10 finish for the pole-sitter.

The top 35 in car-owner points after Bristol (the next race in two weeks) are guaranteed a starting spot for the following race. If Martin has problems at Bristol, he could go into Martinsville later this month facing the possibility of not qualifying for the race.

"The key to stuff like this is you've got to turn it into motivation," crew chief Alan Gustafson said. "You can't sit there and feel sorry for yourself."

NOT TOP DOLLAR: Kurt Busch collected $164,175 for the win. Because his team is not in all the NASCAR contingency programs, he actually made less than the second-place driver.

Runner-up Jeff Gordon earned $186,276.

JUST KIDDING: At one point Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on his radio that he would whack all his crewmembers with a hammer if a loose wheel caused him to crash. Later, he mentioned he might need to taser crew chief Tony Eury Jr.

Earnhardt said he doesn't say such things in malice.

"Part of it is trying to fire me up, part of it is trying to fire them up, part of it is just trying to tell everybody that I'm still in the game," said Earnhardt, who finished 11th.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com