The Speeding Bullets: Sharpie 500

• Congratulations to Kyle Busch on getting his fourth victory of 2009. This win gave him a much-needed boost of confidence heading into the final two races before the Chase cutoff at Richmond. He went into Saturday night's race knowing the marks he had to meet and the statement he needed to make to NASCAR nation. Busch is now only 34 points out of 12th place in the standings. It isn't going to be easy for him to make the Chase, but it now looks possible for a driver with his level of talent . Bristol has always been one of his dominant tracks as he proved by sweeping both of the races there this season. He better just be happy that Mark Martin chose to race him the way he did in the closing laps; otherwise, the outcome of the race could have been quite different...

• Mark Martin made his 1,000th career Cup start on Saturday night and dominated most of the race from the pole position; it's too bad he didn't end up in victory lane. He said that the reason that he didn't do the bump-and-run on Kyle Busch was because he didn't feel that Kyle would do the same to him. I understand that Busch giving Martin the inside passing lane prevented the need for a bump, but I just feel that Mark didn't try hard enough to make the maneuver and could have been a little more on the aggressive side. Kyle is the type of guy who will do whatever it takes to win a race...
  

• Marcos Ambrose is edging closer and closer to that first ever Cup victory. He is proving to be much more than just a road racer and a serious threat to win races week in and week out. I know that making the Chase is an unreachable goal for 2009, but he very well could have a shot at contending for the title down the road...

• The Mistake of the Week award for the Bristol night race goes to Jimmie Johnson's jackman. The saying proves true once again that a race can be won or lost on pit road. Johnson pretty much had a win in the bag until his jackman somehow dropped the jack during a tire change. Jimmie made a great recovery and ended up with an eighth place finish; that right there is a mark of a true champion. I can still picture seeing the guy's face on t.v. trying to explain himself. Denial, denial, denial...

• The first half of the race about put me to sleep after having to get up at 6 a.m. for a cross country meet, but the second half was pretty action-packed. It was crash after crash after crash as a result of 43 competitive drivers on a Saturday night at Bristol. Clint Bowyer's Chase hope was shattered along with all of the torn-up race cars thanks to Michael Waltrip's tire going down. There's just something about Mikee and Bristol that don't go too well together...

That's all I have for the Bristol edition. Next week, the drivers get one final off-week before the 2009 season hits the home stretch and the intensity reaches an all-time high. The guys who are on the bubble of making the Chase will get to sit in their La-Z-Boy recliners waiting in agony for their fates to be decided...