Cup drivers say it?s too early to declare a champ

Even Mark Martin is feeling optimistic these days.

The longtime NASCAR star heads into Sunday?s Nextel Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway seventh in the season standings, 96 points behind leader Matt Kenseth with four races remaining in the Chase for the championship.

?If you look at it historically ? last year and the year before ? we were about twice as far back as we are and we finished fourth in both of those,? Martin said Friday as a steady rain washed out Cup qualifying. ?So, certainly you can look at it from a lot of directions and still find the positive in it.?

If Martin, NASCAR?s resident pessimist, can find a silver lining in being seventh at this point, it truly still is a wide-open championship.

Because of Friday?s rain, the lineup was determined by season points and all 10 drivers in the Chase will start at the front of the field. As close as it is, under the right circumstances, any one of the top nine could be leading the points after Sunday?s Bass Pro Shops 500.

Ninth-place Jeff Gordon trails Kenseth by 141 points and it is mathematically possible ? though unlikely ? to gain 156 points in a single race.

Still, with four races left in the 10-race Chase, that seems like plenty of time to make up the deficit ? if the other drivers run into some bad luck.

?We?re not out of the championship hunt like I originally thought after Charlotte,? said Gordon, who found himself 10th, 216 points behind then-leader Jeff Burton after an engine failure relegated him to a 24th-place finish two weeks ago.

?But it?s still going to be tough,? he added. ?We?re only 141 out of the lead, which is manageable. What?s tough is the fact there are eight guys ahead of us in the standings and it will be difficult to leapfrog them with only four races remaining. We can?t control what they do, so we?ll just focus on trying to win races.?

Jimmie Johnson, making a charge after getting off to a slow start in the Chase, is the consensus favorite among the contenders after winning last Sunday at Martinsville and climbing to third, just 41 points behind the leader.

?I really feel like we?re back in this thing,? Johnson said. ?I never felt we were out of it, but we?re really close in the points now. But I don?t know what to expect in these next four races. I?m just going to go racing.?

Today?s Starting Lineup

The lineup for today?s Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, with each driver?s positin, car number, name and make (qualifying cancelled by rain, order set by owner points.)
1. 17. Matt Kenseth, Ford
2. 29. Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet
3. 48. Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet
4. 11. Denny Hamlin, Chevrolet
5. 31. Jeff Burton, Chevrolet
6. 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet
7. 6. Mark Martin, Ford
8. 9. Kasey Kahne, Dodge
9. 24. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
10. 5. Kyle Busch, Chevrolet
11. 20. Tony Stewart, Chevrolet
12. 99. Carl Edwards, Ford
13. 16. Greg Biffle, Ford
14. 42. Casey Mears, Dodge
15. 25. Brian Vickers, Chevrolet
16. 2. Kurt Busch, Dodge
17. 12. Ryan Newman, Dodge
18. 07. Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet
19. 10. Scott Riggs, Dodge
20. 43. Bobby Labonte, Dodge
21. 1. Martin Truex, Jr., Chevrolet
22. 26. Jamie McMurray, Ford
23. 88. Dale Jarrett, Ford
24. 41. Reed Sorenson, Dodge
25. 38. David Gilliland, Ford
26. 22. Dave Blaney, Dodge
27. 96. Tony Raines, Chevrolet
28. 66. Jeff Green, Chevrolet
29. 7. Robby Gordon, Chevrolet
30. 18. J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet
31. 01. Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet
32. 21. Ken Schrader, Ford
33. 40. David Stremme, Dodge
34. 19. Elliott Sadler, Dodge
35. 14. Sterling Marlin, Chevrolet
36. 37. Bill Elliott, Dodge, champion provisional
37. 45. Kyle Petty, Dodge, attempts
38. 32. Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, attempts
39. 55. Michael Waltrip, Dodge, attempts
40. 4. Todd Bodine, Chevrolet, attempts
41. 49. Mike Bliss, Dodge, attempts
42. 61. Kevin Lepage, Chevrolet, attempts
43. 78. Kenny Wallace, Chevrolet, attempts