Without a Hitch ; Tony Stewart wins his first-ever 500-mile NASCAR race.(Brief Article)

That sigh of relief coming from Daytona Beach around dusk on Sunday was the sound of silence. For the first time this year, a NASCAR race had gone off without a hitch.

No red flag/yellow flag uncertainty like Daytona Beach and Rockingham. No huge crashes triggered by blocking like Daytona Beach. No quarter-inch violations on the winner like Rockingham. And no unpunished speeders like the winner at Las Vegas.

Instead, the Atlanta round was as free of controversy and hard feelings as any Winston Cup race since-well, nobody's sure exactly. (How will those Southern weeklies fill this week's Letters to the Editor section?)

Tony Stewart won it, giving Joe Gibbs Racing its sixth Atlanta win since 1996. It was Stewart's earliest-ever Cup win and his first (strange but true) in a 500. It vaulted him from 11th in points to fifth, an encouraging sign given his propensity for early-season struggles.

``Finally-it was a long time coming,'' Stewart said after his 13th Cup win in 108 starts. ``The biggest key was that we tested here last fall and didn't do any qualifying runs. We tested strictly for race runs. We started practice [on Friday] with the same thing we finished up with here last year. We refined and fine-tuned off that for the race.''

Stewart, in a Pontiac, beat the Chevrolets of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, and the ...