AGAINST THE ODDS; Jimmie Johnson takes Atlanta.(Motorsports)

Byline: AL PEARCE

Jimmie Johnson spent the week of the Bass Pro Shops/MBNA 500 in mourning. He and his crew lost 10 friends in the Oct. 24 crash of a Hendrick Motorsports plane in Virginia (AW, Nov. 1). The team was reeling when it arrived in Atlanta for round seven of the 10-race Chase for the Cup.

They faced daunting odds. Johnson had run poorly as often as he'd run well here. He had won recent races at Charlotte and Martinsville, and three-win streaks are becoming rare in NASCAR. Few would have blamed the team for mailing it in and going home to grieve.

That they didn't is as much tribute to owner Rick Hendrick as to the team itself. Johnson made a stirring charge, leading the final 10 laps to beat Mark Martin and Carl Edwards. It was his series-leading seventh win this year, and the 13th of his career.

You could have floated a liner with the emotion as the four Hendrick teams gathered in victory lane. "There's something bigger going on here, something we can't understand,'' Johnson said. "It was the Good Lord who helped us win at Martinsville and again here today. This is the kind of medication that will help the healing process. There are a lot of people affected by this, and it didn't matter if you were my fan, Junior's, Tony's, Ryan's or whoever's. People respected what happened here today.''

Martin dominated, leading 227 of 235 laps during four stretches. He led in segments of 41, 59, 57 and 70 laps, losing the lead only during pit cycles. Even though everyone behind him stopped, Martin didn't pit under the next-to-last caution on lap 301. Johnson took tires and quickly went from fourth to first. Martin pitted under the last caution a few laps later, but couldn't catch Johnson in the 10-lap dash to the finish.

"If I'd pitted [under the next-to-last caution], the cars behind me would have stayed out and it would be incredibly difficult to win,'' Martin said. "I thought we'd stay out and maybe pull it off. It was a situation where [crew chief] Pat Tryson couldn't win. Whatever we did, the rest of the guys were gonna do the opposite. If we pitted, they'd stay out and win. If we stayed out, they'd pit and win. Pat was a sitting duck.''