Earnhardt

	Stewart

While the race itself is the biggest game in town, it's often the undercard battles within a Winston Cup event that raise the excitement level. It's like pieces of a puzzle, with the driver lucky enough to have the final piece being the one to motor to victory.

And if history is any indication, there's going to be a battle royale in Sunday's Bass Pro Shops/MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In one corner, is No. 20 Chevrolet of defending Winston Cup champ and race winner Tony Stewart. His triumph a year ago at Atlanta was the first of three wins he recorded during the season, It was also arguably one of the most significant linchpins to building his run to the title.

And, in the other corner, is the No. 8 Chevy of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who figures the 1½-mile, high-banked track owes him after several close -- as well as bizarre -- finishes he's racked up there in seven starts. On the plus side, Earnhardt started third and finished second behind Stewart last year, including leading five times for 38 laps. He also earned the pole in the November 2001 race at Atlanta.

And then there's the bizarre side of things: In March 2001, with less than five laps to go and racing three-wide for the lead, Earnhardt's hope for a win exploded when he cut a tire and was forced to pit. Eight months later, Junior again dominated, starting from the pole and leading 171 laps, but finished seventh when a piece of debris became lodged in his eye. Finally, Earnhardt was leading the spring race last year until a piece of equipment hooked up to one of his in-car cameras damaged a rear brake line, leaving Earnhardt with no brakes and causing him to crash into the wall, ending his day.

"I really want to get a win at Atlanta," Earnhardt said. "We've come so close. I don't know how many times we've run second or been in second place there with a few laps to go. Hopefully, one day we'll win a race there."

Given Earnhardt's incredible success on some of the other fast tracks, such as Daytona and Talladega, it's no surprise Atlanta is one of Junior's favorites -- after all, it's the fastest non-restrictor-plate facility on the circuit.

"I like Atlanta," he said. "We always qualify well and race well there. It's a fun, fun racetrack because you can run three-wide and move around. Your car can work on the bottom, but it can run just as good up top, so you've really got an opportunity to do some racing there. I hope they don't ever cut back on the schedule for that track because it's a lot of fun."

Earnhardt enters this weekend riding momentum from last Sunday's runner-up finish at Las Vegas. Prior to that event, he was sitting in 38th in the standings after two races. But when he left Las Vegas, Earnhardt jumped 20 spots to 18th, putting him right back into the thick of the championship race.

"The Las Vegas race is a relief actually," Earnhardt said. "The media and a lot of other people made a big deal about our points position after the first two races, but no one in a Bud uniform panicked. We know what kind of a team we are, and we know that second place is a finish that shows what we're capable of doing week after week. We're seven positions better right now than we were at this time last year, so it's pointed the right direction."

Stewart, meanwhile, began putting his title drive in gear a year ago at Atlanta. His win helped him erase much of the disappointment from the 43rd-place finish in the Daytona 500. More importantly, he climbed from 11th to fifth in the points after his win at Atlanta.

	“	Atlanta is a fun track. Of all the mile-and-a-half ovals we go to, Atlanta has the most personality as far as the race track is concerned. ”
		— Tony Stewart

"It's a lot more relaxing (this year)," Stewart said. "We're coming into Atlanta fifth in points, 52 points out of the lead, whereas last year at this time we weren't even in the top-10. I think we're 50 points ahead of where we were last year. That alone makes you feel more relaxed. And I think this team is probably even more focused because we're not dealing with all the stresses and strains of coming back from such a big deficit."

And while being the defending race winner helps, Stewart, who trails leader Michael Waltrip by just 52 points, relishes the wide-open racing Atlanta provides. It's the kind of place that harkens back to the reason most drivers got into racing in the first place: to go as fast as they can.

"Atlanta is a fun track," said Stewart, who in addition to winning there earlier in the year, started from the pole and finished fourth in November's event at AMS. "Of all the mile-and-a-half ovals we go to, Atlanta has the most personality as far as the race track is concerned.

"You can run all the way down on the white line when the tires are fresh, but as you get some laps on the tires you start moving up the race track. You can end up running three-wide, with the guy on the outside running right up against the wall. The track is fun because you're able to move around a lot."

With Atlanta's reputation for speed -- qualifying usually finds most drivers trying to climb through the 195-mph window -- calls for putting restrictor plates on cars there have been floated in recent years. But while non-restrictor-plate speed at Daytona and Talladega proved to be unsafe, Atlanta seems to comfortably straddle the fine line between the highest speeds and safety, Stewart said.

"I thought that as time went on and the track surface got older (from being resurfaced in 1997), the speeds would probably slow down some," Stewart said. "But it's still pretty fast, and when you do hit the wall you hit it pretty hard. There's not much room for error simply because of how fast the track is. The faster you go the more racetrack you need to get your car back under control. But I've never been concerned about speed. I ran a 237 mph average at Indianapolis during rookie orientation for the (1996) Indy 500, so going fast doesn't bother me in the least bit.

"Because the track is such a momentum race track, if you're a little bit off it seems like you're way off. If your stuff isn't right, you can't expect to run with the pack all day. You've got to be on your game, because it seems like there's always two or three guys who always get it right. And everybody's who's just a little bit off -- it shows up big time on the clock."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.