HAMPTON, Ga. -- Tony Stewart won't worry about where he would be in the points standings if he was in NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup. The title contenders are glad he missed the Chase.

Stewart scored his second win in the Chase and fourth of the season Sunday at Atlanta. He led a race-high 146 laps to earn his 28th career Cup victory. He was followed by title contenders Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and points leader Matt Kenseth. Greg Biffle was fifth.

Stewart has four top-10 finishes in the first seven races of the Chase. Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon are the only title contenders who can match Stewart's mark.

Johnson admits "It's not as tough of a Chase'' with Stewart out of it.

He's one of the best in the sport,'' Johnson said. "I can say tonight chasing him around, I had so much fun chasing him, learning from him.''

Says Stewart: "We're just trying to win races. I didn't worry about anybody but ourselves. I'm sure Matt Kenseth and Jimmie and those guys were worried about where the other guys in the Chase were. It takes the pressure off of us and let's us go back to do what we do best and that's just going out and trying to win races.''

Stewart led 55 of the last 65 laps to earn the win in the same car he used to win at Kansas earlier this month. He collected a paycheck for $373,286.

Strong recovery

Rookie Denny Hamlin keeps turning bad races into top-10 finishes. He did it again Sunday and is third in the season standings, 65 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth.

Hamlin struggled with the car's handling, lost a lap and didn't regain it until about 75 laps to go in the 325-lap race.

He avoided a late multi-car crash to finish eighth.

"We sucked real bad,'' Hamlin said. "I don't know, I can't get a grip on this race track. I haven't had and I don't know if I will in the foreseeable future. I've got to work on it. We were just fortunate to miss that one wreck, put two tires on at the [last pit stop] and get us a top-10.''

Not happy

Jeff Burton was not pleased with how a piece of roll bar padding created a caution flag about 35 laps from the finish.

Burton hit the wall on lap 268 and cut a right front tire. He pitted on lap 281 and fell a lap down. He needed the field to go through its final pit stop under green to catch back up with the leaders but never got the chance when the caution came out for the roll bar padding.

"We were going to be OK and then they threw a caution because of a roll bar pad,'' Burton said. "NASCAR should stop every car on pit road and check for roll bar pads and whoever threw their's out should be fined 185 points and $100,000 because it was a huge impact on the race. ... It is starting to happen just too often and NASCAR gets on everybody when it happens. Well, they should find out who did it and penalize them.''

The roll bar pad appeared to come from 10th-place finisher Robby Gordon's car, NBC video showed.

"I definitely did not throw anything out of the window,'' Gordon told NBC after the race.

NASCAR did not penalize Gordon, citing the video was inconclusive.

Pit stops

Kasey Kahne accepted the blame for the accident that damaged rookie David Stremme's car. "I knew he was there and then I forgot he was there,'' Kahne said. ... Joe Nemechek's ninth-place finish tied his season best. ... Bobby Labonte finished 12th. It's his sixth consecutive top-20.