Coca-Cola 600 thoughts and observations

Quick, someone take Kasey Kahne to Las Vegas, pronto! He needs to cash in on this luck now while he has it! Kahne took advantage of Tony Stewart's bad luck Sunday to win his second Coca-Cola 600. It was Kahne's first win in a points race since the fall race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2006. Rounding out the top 5 were Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Thoughts and observations

I think NASCAR needs to make a movie about the last 12 months in Kasey's career, maybe call it "How Kasey Got His Groove Back." Ok, in all seriousness, it looks like Kasey Kahne and his Gillett Evernham crew finally got things sorted out after a year's worth of struggles. Its great to see teams turn it around like that after a tough year, makes for a great story.

Kahne's win makes him the sixth driver to ever win the All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600 in back-to-back weeks. The previous five? Darrell Waltrip, Davey Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. How's that for history boys?

Greg Biffle must be feeling like he just had a case of Deja Vu. Last week he was bested by Kahne in the All-Star Race and this week Kahne outdid him again to take home the Coca-Cola 600 trophy. Biffle is bound to get a win sooner or later as long as he continues to run like this.

Ok, I think Tony Stewart has had enough with the ice age style meltdowns late in races. He loses the Daytona 500 on a last lap pass by the Penske teammates, then he cuts down a tire with less then five laps to go at the Coca-Cola 600 while leading. Don't worry Tony, the Brickyard 400 will be here very soon.

Speaking of cut tires, what was the deal with that Sunday? It seemed like being in the lead was the last place you wanted to be. Men who led a bunch of laps, including Brian Vickers, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Stewart all cut down tires after (some while leading the race.) All of these men could have used a win, but it just wasn't to be. Guess it wasn't good to be the alpha dogs at Lowe's Motor Speedway this week.

Speaking of Earnhardt Jr., how about him soldiering home to a 5th place finish with a car that looked like it had battled 300 men rather then 43 race cars and the safer barrier.

This David Ragan kid just keeps looking more and more like the real thing. Is he really going to make the chase? Who knows, maybe this really is no country for old men.

How about David Reutimann and the No. 44 UPS team? They hung out in the back half of the top 10 a good chunk of the race and managed to come home 10th. Not bad for a team who struggled to stay in the top 35 in owner points during the entire 2007 season. Go Reuti go!!!!!!

After that series of bad races Matt Kenseth looks like he might finally be on the right track. Top 10's at both Darlington and LMS have Kenseth up to 16th in the points. The Chronicles of Kenseth continue...

It looks like Sam Hornish Jr. might finally have this Sprint Cup thing figured out. He raced his way into the All-Star Race (where he finished 7th with a crashed car) then managed to finish 13th this week in the Coca-Cola 600. I guess you could say he was "The Rookie" at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson looked like he was well on his way to another victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway, that is, until his motor came apart. It's ok, just wait, superman will return in the fall when the Sprint Cup boys come back to Lowe's Motor Speedway.

In our weekly top 35 watch nothing has changed, but things did get a little tighter. Another bad finish from Michael Waltrip has him only three points ahead of rookie Sam Hornish Jr. Regan Smith and Dave Blaney are only an additional 8 points ahead of Waltrip with Michael McDowell up only 12 additional points. It might be worth placing bets at the Casino Royale on who will be in and who will be out after next weeks race at Dover.