- Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson on getting his first ever victory at Bristol. Just as he did a few weeks ago in Vegas, he cruised around in second position for most of the race. Jimmie made his power move on the final restart when he blasted into turn one like a rocket. It was interesting how taking four tires with only a few laps left proved to be so effective at a short track. Johnson currently sits third in the standings only 14 points out of the lead, and I won't be surprised if he overtakes the two guys above him next week at Martinsville...
- Tony Stewart gave Jimmie a run for his money but couldn't hold off those four fresh Goodyears. The second place finish anyway was his first top five of year and a step in the right direction when it comes to momentum building. Remember, Tony has never been known to be outstanding too early in the season. The wins start adding up for him when the summer rolls around...
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jamie McMurray finally got back on track with their seventh and eighth place finishes, respectively. Both of them have struggled the past several weeks after being the Daytona 500 winner and runner-up. I don't expect to see McMurray in victory lane anymore this season, but I think Junior will surprise us in one of these races. He's long due for a win, and statistics even say it's time (What comes after May 2006 and June 2008 ???)...
- The mid-race pileup that involved 13 cars looked like something we would see on a restrictor plate track. Greg Biffle and Mark Martin made contact, Mark slammed on the brakes to hit pit road that lap, and from then on it was a big chain reaction. Marcos Ambrose was the innocent victim of the whole collision which gave him a 33rd place finish instead of a possible top ten...
- The weather was a factor once again this week just as it was at Fontana. Thankfully, there were only a few mild showers that weren't severe enough to affect the finish. I have to give NASCAR credit this season for doing a great job making sure races are run the full distance. It seems like in the past there have been some they have called too early...
That's all from Thunder Valley. Next week, the track gets even shorter and the turns become even narrower as we head to the paper clip in Martinsville, VA. A lot of the racers who ran up front here will run up front there as well...
You've probably already figured out that I am a week late on this edition of The Speeding Bullets. That's because I have had a load of school work and couldn't find time to get around to it until the past couple of days...
- Congratulations to Kurt Busch on getting his first victory of the season and the first one with Steve Addington sitting on top of the pit box. Kurt had the best short run car of any driver out there, and that's what won him the race with the unusually high number of cautions for Atlanta. It's just nice to see someone other than Jimmie Johnson taking the checkered flag...
- Matt Kenseth is another one of those drivers who has been excelling so far in 2010 after a not so great 2009, even though he did win two races. He adjusted his car throughout the race, and it was where he needed it to be when the sun finally came out later in the afternoon. Matt's second place finish on Sunday marked his third top ten in a row. He is the strongest Roush-Fenway car after four races, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in victory lane sometime in the next month or two...
- Kasey Kahne took the lead early on and led 144 laps but came up short in the end. He struggled with all of the cautions at the end of the race because he had a long run car, just the opposite from the winner Kurt Busch. Kahne's pit box also happened to be in a highly congested area, and as a result he lost several positions every time he came down to get tires and gas. Though, after really bad performances at Daytona and Fontana, a fourth place finish feels like quite an accomplishment...
- Kudos to Paul Menard and AJ Allmendinger for both finishing in fifth and sixth, respectively. This is the best run Menard has ever had in his career. He even had a shot at winning the race, but two tires wasn't enough to hold off Kurt Busch in the closing laps. Nice to see some different guys up front having success...
- The 500 miles this week really took a toll on tires. Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin, and many others were either taken out of the race or put several laps down as a result. I thought Goodyear fixed the problem after Tony Stewart totally dogged them two years back, but it looks like they need to take another look at what's going on...
- This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski feud that went down at 195 mph. Brad ticked Carl off early in the race, and Carl decided to pay him back in the end even though he acted in the garage like the whole thing wasn't too big of a deal. Edwards got all excited when he realized he could ruin Keselowski's day by preventing him from getting a possible top five finish. The dangers involved didn't even cross his mind or even the idea of waiting to settle things at Bristol. NASCAR couldn't give him a serious punishment anyway after only a month ago encouraging the drivers to express their emotions. That's why they gave him a little slap on the back instead by putting him on probation for a couple of races...
That's all from Atlanta. Next week, we move on to Bristol for the first short track race of the season. I was disappointed with last year's spring race, but I am willing to bet that this one will go above and beyond what people normally expect from Thunder Valley. Hope you are having a great off-week...
For the first time in who knows when the Fontana race was more exciting than the Vegas one. But that doesn't mean anything about The Speeding Bullets; hope you enjoy the read!
- Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson on getting his second consecutive victory only three races into the season. It also makes him the all-time most winning driver on 1.5 mile tracks. As usual, Chad Knaus adjusted the car throughout the afternoon each time he got a status report from Jimmie. I could just tell the tandem was sizing up Jeff Gordon all race long until the moment came to make the race winning pass. All of Johnson's fellow racers are already struggling to keep up with this early, so there's no telling how big of a points lead he will have five or six months from now...
- Kevin Harvick impressed me more this week than he has in any of the other races so far. He still managed to gradually work his way to a second place finish even after starting a backup car in 34th position. A gas and go pit stop midway through the race was the call that really pushed him toward the front. Harvick looks like the man Johnson is going to have to beat for this year's championship, but I think it's only a matter of how long Happy can keep up...
- A pothole one week, phantom rainfall another, and now the caution lights not working; what is up with all of this??? What happened this week at Vegas was probably the last thing anyone expected. Now that I think about it though, the track did have a power outage during qualifying, and that very well could have had something to do with it. Race fans, you'd better be on a tornado alert or maybe even a tsunami this weekend in Atlanta... lol.
- A third place finish feels like failure for Jeff Gordon after setting a new Las Vegas record by leading 219 of 267 laps. Many people say his downfall was taking right sides only on the final pit stop, but Letarte's frame of mind was track position which would have been brilliant strategy if it hadn't been for all of the other guys deciding to take four tires. As a result, Johnson had the better car on the final restart, and Gordon wasn't able to hold him off. I was rooting for Jeff just as plenty of other fans were there at the end. It's a rare thing these days when we see him in victory lane..
- Kim Kardashian standing next to Carroll Shelby as co-grand marshals was definitely the laugh of the day. The funniest part... Kim didn't even say "Gentlemen Start Your Engines" and afterward Carroll looked over at her like she was a total idiot. I know she is known more for her looks than her brains (if she has any at all), but she went as far there as taking the "common" out of "common sense"...
That's all from the Diamond in the Desert. Next week, NASCAR returns to the good ole' south and races at the fastest track on the circuit, Atlanta Motor Speedway. Gordon and Harvick are two drivers who came up short in Sin City but both have had noticeable success at AMS; look for them to be big factors on Sunday...
