All four Hendrick cars in the Chase

Last night's wild Sprint Cup race at Atlanta lasted nearly four hours, had some bizarre occurrences like a squirrel running in front of Kevin Harvick, and took two green-white-checkered attempts to end following a crash between Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. Hendrick Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne ended up winning after not being a big factor during most of the race. With Kahne's win, all four Hendrick drivers have won this year and are locked into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Kahne's teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have all won at various points earlier in the season, and they clinched their Chase spots before Kahne, who looked like he would be left out unless he could pull off a win. Now he has picked up that win, and is the thirteenth different winner in NASCAR's top series in 2014. It is the tenth win for a Hendrick driver.

The Labor Day eve race was dominated by Kevin Harvick, the winner of Saturday night's Nationwide Series race driving a Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned car numbered 5 (just like Kahne's Cup car) and the polesitter for the second straight week in the Cup series. Harvick got caught up in a crash with Joey Logano, Paul Menard and Jimmie Johnson on the restart for the first green-white-checkered attempt, which set up the second attempt, and ended up finishing 19th. Second-place Matt Kenseth, who hasn't won a Cup points race in almost a year, was leading at the final restart, but then got passed by Kahne. However, Kenseth did claim a Chase spot based on his place in the point standings. But most of the buzz heading into the race was about Tony Stewart, who was racing for the first time since his tragic sprint car accident on August 9, during the Watkins Glen race weekend. Stewart had a fast car early, but ran into some tire issues and made an early exit from the race, on which he declined to be interviewed.

The last race before the Chase begins will take place in Richmond, Virginia next Saturday, September 6, in another short track night race, with a couple of Chase spots still up for grabs. The final 16-driver Chase grid will be determined by the end of that race, and the first round of the new Chase will begin at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois on Sunday, September 14.