2009 Kobalt Tools 500

The Kobalt Tools 500 was the fourth out of thirty-six scheduled stock car races of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on March 8, 2009, in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta Motor Speedway; The standard track at Atlanta Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-oval. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five degrees. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Ford led with 22 points; Chevrolet were in second place with 18 points. Toyota placed third with 16 points, and Dodge were fourth with ten points. Kyle Busch was the race's defending champion from the 2008 event. Starting from the Atlanta round, NASCAR established a regulation that determines how long the restart zone is on each track. This added to a new rule devised by NASCAR at the start of the season, when they created a zone from which the race leader was required to commence the race for better consistency. NASCAR's vice-president of competition Robin Pemberton explained series officials would double the figure of the pit road speed limit, and then establish it as the distance in feet of the restart area, "It will be twice the pit-road speed. It's a means to get variable lengths in there for the race track itself. It's something the garage area asked us to do. Is it perfect; maybe, maybe not. But, it's a start." == Practice and qualifying ==

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race; one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, and the second, scheduled for 45 minutes, was shortened to 20 minutes because of fog delaying qualifying for the Camping World Truck Series round. The final session ran for an hour. (pictured in 2007) had the 42nd pole position of his career. Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify on Friday evening, according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. with a time of 29.640 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Kurt Busch whose best lap was 0.108 seconds behind because of his slower corner entry speed. Jamie McMurray was the highest-placed Ford driver in third. Montoya qualified fourth after a minor loss of car control leaving turn four, Biffle took fifth, and Denny Hamlin sixth. Jimmie Johnson, Joe Nemechek (the fastest driver to qualify on merit outside the top 35), Kyle Busch, and Harvick completed the top ten starters. Later that day, Edwards paced the final practice session with a lap of 30.880 seconds, with Kahne three-hundredths of a second behind in second. Hamlin was third-fastest; Kurt Busch came fourth, McMurray placed fifth, and Biffle was sixth. Stremme was seventh-fastest, Jeff Gordon eighth, Martin ninth, and Aric Almirola completed the top ten ahead of the race. During practice, Martin Truex Jr. was in pain due to a small kidney stone. He was transported directly to the infield medical centre to undergo an examination, and later to Spalding Regional Medical Center in Griffin, Georgia for observation and further treatment. Because of NASCAR's drug regulations, he elected to forgo medications while passing the stone so that he could compete in the race. Qualifying results == Race ==

Live television coverage of the event, the 100th in NASCAR Cup Series competition at Atlanta Motor Speedway, commenced in the United States on Fox at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (UTC−04:00). Around the start of the race, weather conditions were clear and warm with the air temperature at . Ambrose's gas man and firefighter Jimmy Watts ran across the grass, and was within of the track when he retrieved the tire. Because Watts ventured into the infield, considered by NASCAR to be part of the track, and with cars leaving turn four at near to , The leaders again made pit stops under caution. Jeff Gordon led at the lap 222 restart. Hamlin was passed around the outside by Kurt Busch for third on lap 235. Five laps later, he caught and overtook Johnson for the second position. Kurt Busch narrowed Jeff Gordon's lead, and passed him on the outside lane leaving turn four to retake the lead on the 251st lap. The ninth caution came out nine laps later as debris from Robby Gordon's car was located in turn four. During the caution, the leaders went to pit road for fuel, tires and car adjustments. The restart on lap 265 was led by Kurt Busch from Vickers, and Bowyer. On lap 267, Scott Speed hit the wall leaving turn four, and slid into the front of Ragan's car. Biffle was collected by Speed, and was spun into the outside wall, and Jeff Burton went through the grass, activating the tenth caution. and the 19th of his career. Edwards said of his third-place finish, "Third place, considering our pit debacle down there — we were boxed in, It was just a bad pit stall selection and it didn't work out like we planned, but we made the most of it." NASCAR stated that had Watts not ventured into the infield, they would have waved the caution once all cars had made their pit stops. Watts admitted to reacting inappropriately and apologized for his actions. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet cut Ford's lead to two points. Dodge tied with Toyota in third place with 33 races left in the season. The event had a television audience of 8,877,000 million; it took 3 hours, 59 minutes and 1 second to complete the race, and the margin of victory was 0.332 seconds. Race results == Standings after the race ==

;Drivers' Championship standings remained the points leader after coming third in the race. ;Manufacturers' Championship standings • Note: Only the top twelve positions are included for the driver standings. == References ==