The Speeding Bullets: Subway Fresh Fit 500 '11

• Congratulations to Jeff Gordon on breaking his 66-race winless drought and visiting victory lane for the first time in almost two years.  For a while I was questioning whether he still had winning in him or whether his career was just starting to go downhill.  He got caught up in an accident with Carl Edwards early in the race, but his car came out of it undamaged and dominated the rest of the afternoon.  Phoenix has been one of Gordon's tougher tracks over the years as shown in previously only having one victory there; no one would have guessed that on Sunday though.  It's a rare treat to see Jeff in victory lane these days, and it's also a nice reminder of older times.  He's on a Drive To End Hunger; now he has finally ended his own hunger...

• Kyle Busch almost pulled off his second trifecta this weekend.  He totally destroyed the truck and Nationwide races and looked as if he was going to be unbeatable in Cup as well, but he couldn't hold off Jeff Gordon in the closing laps.  You think he would eventually feel fatigued from doing so much.  So far his extremely high energy level has prevented that from happening.  He was very apologetic to Carl Edwards for somewhat causing the accident that ruined his chances for the day; we'll just have to see how Carl responds though...

• Jimmie Johnson started 28th and wasn't too great for most of the race but still managed to come home in third.  He has had remarkable success at Phoenix and amazingly hasn't finished outside of the top ten there since 2005.  That's why I am kicking myself for switching Carl Edwards out for him at the last minute on my fantasy team.  The faulty decision taught me something; never doubt Jimmie Johnson at Phoenix no matter what...

•  Sunday's race was the wildest show I have ever seen at Phoenix.  There was a Big One on a one-mile track and just crash after crash.  Matt Kenseth seems to be the guy being blamed for starting the whole thing, but he's been known as somewhat of a troublemaker in the past.  Brian Vickers was totally outraged at Kenseth for turning him around and has already made it clear that he intends to pay him back...

•  Trevor Bayne had a lot of pressure on him this weekend after his extraordinary achievement at Daytona and all of the sides that came with it, and he seemed to crumble under all of it.  It is always a bad sign when a drive crashes his car in practice on Friday.  Trevor probably felt like a loser crashing a second time during the actual race, but he needs to keep his head held high and remember that no one is perfect...

• It was cool to see Winter Olympian Apolo Ohno give the command.  Lately, the grand marshals have been quite dull when saying the most famous words and some haven't even said anything at all (yes, I am talking about Kim Kardashian at Las Vegas last year).  Subway sure got their money's worth out of that race with Ohno and Edwards.  FOX even went as far as drinking out of Subway cups in the Hollywood Hotel and playing that special promotional clip before the race started...

That's all from the Valley of the Sun.  The next couple of races will be very interesting as tempers have started to flare.  Next week, we head on a five-hour car ride north to Sin City to see who will roll the dice on Sunday.  I know it's a five-hour car ride because one time my family had to make the miserable drive when it was impossible to fly into Phoenix...