HAMPTON, GA. ? Rain forced postponement of the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 Winston Cup race Sunday after just 39 of the scheduled 325 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Racing will resume at 11 a.m. today.

NASCAR officials, looking ahead to next week’s race at Phoenix, tried to wait for the bad weather to pass, but finally were forced to call off the vigil when heavy rain began falling again at 5:55 p.m., nearly five hours after the racing was halted.

Kevin Harvick, who started 10th in the 43-car field, was leading six-time Atlanta winner Bobby Labonte and five-time winner Bill Elliott when the rain first began falling on lap 33.

A red flag halted the action after six laps under caution.

“My car is obviously real good right now, so I wish we could get it restarted,” Harvick said. “With all this rain, the track is going to be pretty different when we do get going again, so everything could change.”

Ryan Newman, who started from the pole in quest of his ninth victory of the season, led the first 12 laps before being passed by Harvick. Dale Earnhardt Jr. shot past to take second on lap 14, and Newman faded to ninth before the race was stopped.

“When the tires started to go away a little bit, our car wasn’t very good,” Newman said. “We’re going to certainly have to make some adjustments.”

The rest of the top 10 included Earnhardt, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Spencer, Newman and Jeremy Mayfield.

Series leader Matt Kenseth, who came into the race with a 240-point lead over Harvick with just three races remaining, started 37th and was running 21st when the rain came.

Several drivers had a tough time in the early going Sunday.

Dale Jarrett was bumped by Tony Raines and wound up with a flat left rear tire that tore apart and damaged the bodywork on his Ford before the former Winston Cup champion could get to the pits.

Brian Vickers, making only his second Cup start, started fourth, but had an engine problem and was behind the wall for repairs and running last when the race was stopped. The 20-year-old Vickers was making his first start in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 25 Chevrolet that he will drive in 2004.

NASCAR driver Bobby LaBonte frowns on pit row during a rain delay on the 39th lap of the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500. LaBonte, a six-time winner at Atlanta Motor Speedway, was running second Sunday on the Georgia track when rain forced the postponement of the race until today.