The 2009 Kobalt Tools 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on March 8, 2009, in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before a crowd of 94,400 attendees. The circuit is an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The 325-lap race was won by Penske Racing Championship's Kurt Busch from a second position start. Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports took second, with Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards in third.
Mark Martin won his first pole position since the 2001 season by posting the fastest lap in qualifying, and he held the lead for the first six laps, until Busch overtook him on the seventh lap. He lost it after the first pit stop cycle to Ryan Newman but he passed him on the 18th lap to retake the position. After that, Busch ceded the lead to Jimmie Johnson after a refuelling problem during a pit stop, but he returned to the lead on lap 103. At the green–white–checker restart on lap 330, Edwards was in the first position, but he was passed by Kurt Busch on the outside lane soon after, and the latter held off Gordon for the remainder of the race to win. There were eleven cautions and thirteen lead changes amongst eight different drivers during the course of the event.
The victory was Busch's first of the season, his second at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the 19th of his career, since he debuted in the 2000 season. The result advanced him from seventh to third in the Drivers' Championship; 46 points behind Gordon (whose second-place finish enabled him to increase his points advantage over Clint Bowyer). In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet lowered Ford's lead to two points, while Toyota and Dodge were tied for third with 33 races left in the season. The race had a television audience of 8,877,000 million.
Background
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; an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. 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.
Before the race, Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship with 459 points, ahead of Clint Bowyer in second, and Matt Kenseth third. Greg Biffle and David Reutimann were fourth and fifth, and Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick, and Michael Waltrip rounded out the top twelve. 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. In the first practice session, Mark Martin was fastest with a 30.180 seconds lap, ahead of Harvick in second, and Brian Vickers in third. David Stremme was fourth-fastest, Juan Pablo Montoya placed fifth, and Kasey Kahne sixth. Kurt Busch, Edwards, Marcos Ambrose, and A. J. Allmendinger rounded out the session's top ten competitors.
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. Martin took his first pole position since the 2001 Pontiac Excitement 400, and the 42nd of his career, 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. The four drivers who did not qualify were Todd Bodine, Scott Riggs, Jeremy Mayfield, and Geoff Bodine. Tony Raines withdrew prior to qualifying. Martin said afterward, "I feel like a rookie, I really, really do. I'm still shaking. I thought I ran out of talent in turn four. There was no possible way to hold my foot on the floor and not hit the wall, back end first, in turn four. But that was really fun. I live to scare myself like that."
On Saturday morning Biffle was the fastest driver in the second practice session with a time of 30.030 seconds. Edwards was second, and Stremme in third. Hamlin was fourth-fastest, Kenseth came fifth, and Jeff Gordon sixth. Kyle Busch, Montoya, David Ragan, and Johnson followed in positions seven through ten. 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 Grid Car Driver Team Manufacturer 1 5Mark MartinHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet 29.640187.044 2 2Kurt BuschPenske Championship RacingDodge 29.748186.365 3 26Jamie McMurrayRoush Fenway RacingFord 29.757186.309 4 42Juan Pablo MontoyaEarnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 29.773186.209 5 16Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.777186.184 611Denny HamlinJoe Gibbs RacingToyota 29.780186.165 7 48Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet29.798186.053 8 87Joe NemechekNEMCO Motorsports Toyota 29.819185.922 9 18Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota29.824185.891 10 29Kevin HarvickRichard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.833185.835 11 14Tony StewartStewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 29.848185.741 12 39Ryan Newman Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 29.874185.579 13 9Kasey KahneRichard Petty Motorsports Dodge 29.898185.430 14 19Elliott Sadler Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge 29.913185.337 15 31Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.922185.282 16 24Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.924185.269 17 83Brian VickersRed Bull Racing Team Toyota 29.976184.948 18 00David ReutimannMichael Waltrip Racing Toyota 29.989184.868 19 7Robby GordonRobby Gordon Motorsports Toyota 30.023184.658 20 88Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 30.049184.499 21 33Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.049184.499 22 28Travis KvapilYates RacingFord 30.088184.260 23 1Martin Truex Jr. Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 30.113184.107 24 55Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 30.129184.009 25 7Casey Mears Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.130184.003 2682Scott Speed Red Bull Racing Team Toyota30.134183.978 27 66Dave BlaneyPrism Motorsports Toyota 30.139183.948 28 12David Stremme Penske Championship Racing Dodge 30.143183.923 29 99Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 30.150183.881 30 17Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Racing Ford 30.164183.795 31 71David GillilandTRG Motorsports Chevrolet 30.169183.765 32 43Reed SorensonRichard Petty Motorsports Dodge 30.171183.753 33 98Paul Menard Yates Racing Ford 30.248183.285 34 47Marcos AmbroseJTG Daugherty Racing Toyota30.250183.273 35 21Bill ElliottWood Brothers Racing Ford 30.251183.267 36 77Sam Hornish Jr. Penske Championship Racing Dodge 30.254183.249 37 8Aric Almirola Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 30.306182.934 38 44A. J. Allmendinger Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge 30.308182.922 39 6David Ragan Roush Fenway Racing Ford 30.319182.856 40 96Bobby LabonteHall of Fame Racing Ford 30.331182.753 41 34John AndrettiFront Row Motorsports Chevrolet 30.358182.621 42 20Joey Logano Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 30.472181.938 43 09Mike BlissPhoenix Racing Dodge 30.354182.645 44 35Todd BodineGermain Racing Toyota 30.443182.111 45 36Scott RiggsTommy Baldwin Racing Toyota 30.584181.271 46 41Jeremy Mayfield Mayfield Motorsports Toyota 30.811179.936 47 64Geoff BodineGunselman Motorsports Toyota 31.018178.735
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 . Lead pastor Chris Patton of Southside Church in Peachtree City, Georgia began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Country music artist and songwriter Richie McDonald performed the national anthem, and the command for drivers to start their engines was given by Kelly Brown, vice president of merchandising for Lowe's. During the pace laps, Ragan dropped to the rear of the field because of an engine change. Poor track grip caused drivers to battle for control of their cars during the event.
The race commenced at 2:18 local time. Martin maintained the first position on the entry to turn one. The first caution was waved on the next lap as Reed Sorenson made contact with the wall lining the track at turn one after a car component failure. He drove to his garage for repairs. Martin held the lead at the lap six restart, followed by Kurt Busch and McMurray. On the following lap, Kurt Busch passed below Martin to take the lead. Bobby Labonte triggered the second caution five laps later, when he spun in turn 4, but avoided damage to his car. During the caution, some drivers including Kurt Busch, made pit stops for tires and car adjustments. Nemechek led for one lap before making his pit stop on the 14th lap. Ryan Newman then took the lead, and held it at the restart on lap 16. Kurt Busch overtook Martin for second place on the next lap. On the 17th lap, Kurt Busch steered right to the outside lane and passed Newman to reclaim the first position. Hamlin got ahead of Newman for second two laps later. Martin attempted to do the same for third, but he was unsuccessful. After starting 16th, Jeff Gordon advanced to ninth by the 23rd lap. Similarly, Edwards was in seventh by lap 31 after beginning from 29th place. Eight laps later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost tenth to Kyle Busch.