Atlanta thoughts and observations

Kyle Busch picked up his first win of the 2008 season yesterday by winning the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch dominated much of the race, leading a race high 173 laps in route to taking home the checkered flag. It's the first victory for Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing, not to mention the first victory for Toyota in the Sprint Cup series.

Thoughts and observations:

I take back what I said last week, Kyle Busch is still the hottest driver in NASCAR. Had it not been for a blown tire on Saturday Kyle Busch likely would have picked up three trophies over the weekend at Atlanta. He leads the Sprint Cup and Craftsman Truck standings and is third in the Nationwide Standings. That, my friends, is getting it done.

Anyone else curious how the race would have played out had Carl Edwards not had a transmission issue?

Several drivers made strong impressions during the race Sunday. First, Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated the early stages of the race, making it look like he was going to just run away with the race before Kyle Busch took over. Next, Clint Bowyer ran up front for awhile, passing Kyle Busch and leading 52 laps of the event.

Matt Kenseth had, for lack of a better term, a Matt Kenseth like day. Started out back, struggled early, but eventually him and his team got the car figured out and he ended up with a top 10 finish. How often did he do that when he won the championship in 2003?

What a difference a year makes for Brian Vickers and the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota. Last year at this time Vickers was 40th in the standings after missing two races. This year he sits 9th in the standings and a legit contender to make the chase. Is anyone else not really surprised?

Question: Who is second in Sprint Cup points right now? Answer: Greg Biffle. Wait, huh? How did that happen? He has two top 5's and three top 10's, that's how.

With one race left for teams to lock themselves into races, several world class drivers are in serious trouble. Sam Hornish Jr., Dave Blaney, Dario Franchitti, Regan Smith, Kyle Petty are all in serious trouble.

Speaking of serious trouble, I think now would be a good time to hit the panic button for the Wood Brothers Racing team. They've missed three out of four races (only making the race in California thanks to the help of some rain) and that doesn't look to be improving. On the plus side after Bristol Kurt Busch will be locked in the field and Dale Jarrett will be retiring, allowing Bill Elliott to use the Past Champions Provisional. That might help the team, but they need more then that to get the ship righted.