The Sprint Cup Series suffered a weather debacle two weeks ago in California but on Saturday everyone was given a reminder as to why NASCAR chose to move its two post-
Daytona dates to the west coast. Snow and near arctic temperatures forced NASCAR to cancel the first of two Sprint Cup practice sessions set for Saturday at the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway and when Happy Hour practice eventually got going, virtually all the drivers struggled to get their cars, especially the tyres, up to operating temperature.
Roush-Fenway Racing teammates Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards managed to slide their way around the high banked quad-oval faster than anyone else to finish the session first and second overall as the conditions led to a far greater disparity in lap times than is the norm.
Goodyear's extremely hard tyre compound in use this weekend came in for the most criticism with drivers finding it difficult to get a feel for the handling of their chassis and while the decision to bring a hard tyre to Atlanta following a spate of failures last weekend in Las Vegas is understandable, many feel that Goodyear have gone too far.
Behind the two Roush-Fenway drivers Clint Bowyer was the best placed Chevrolet in third position with Ryan Newman fourth and Kasey Kahne fifth.
Martin Truex Jr, who will start third in Sunday's 325-lap Kobalt Tools 500, was sixth fastest just ahead of front row qualifier Dale Earnhardt Jr and defending race winner Jimmie Johnson. Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top ten with Friday's Coors Light pole winner Jeff Gordon eleventh.
Juan Montoya was well placed in 14th spot on the timesheets as was rookie Sam Hornish Jr in 21st.
Veteran Mike Bliss, filling in for an unwell Dave Blaney in the #22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, was 28th fastest while further down the order Patrick Carpentier and Dario Franchitti both had their hands full with the tricky conditions and finished 37th and 39th fastest respectively, both some ten miles an hour slower than the leaders.
![Clint Bowyer - Jack Daniels Chevrolet [pic credit: GM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/289103.jpg)
