Heading to a restart with four laps remaining in Friday's 2008 Atlantic Championship season finale at Road Atlanta, Finnish rookie Markus Niemela was sitting second in both the race and championship standings – but late drama saw him steal the race win and the championship crown.
American rookie Dane Cameron had led from the race's standing start, while another American rookie, Jonathan Summerton was sitting third in the race standings and first in the championship by one point over Niemela. Jonathan Bomarito, who came into the race with a seven-point lead over Summerton and a ten-point advantage over Niemela, saw his championship hopes dashed when he was forced to retire due to a mechanical problem after just ten laps of what would be a 35-lap event.
Niemela got an outstanding run in his #8 Mr. Jones Bar & Kitchen/Rauma Town/Turku Karting machine from Brooks Associates Racing heading into turn one on the final restart and shot to the inside to take the lead away from Cameron. Just behind him, Canadian Kevin Lacroix made a similar move on Summerton to take third away and a few seconds later, both the race and the championship were decided.
In a last-ditch effort to preserve the championship, Summerton made contact with Cameron - who had fallen to third behind both Niemela and Lacroix - damaging both cars and sending them off course.
The contact brought out a full-course caution, allowing Niemela to slowly cruise to the championship with his second consecutive victory. It was Niemela's third consecutive podium result and was his fifth podium of the season overall. It was also Niemela's tenth result of seventh or better.
