All Jacked Up

Thoughts on the Kobalt Tools 500

Posted by: Jason Randall

Monday, March 10, 2008 4:11 AM

What a weekend it was for Kyle Busch. The younger brother of former Cup champion Kurt Busch completely dominated and came away with two wins in three races at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch won the Craftsman truck race on Friday night, completely dominated the Nationwide race (formerly known as the Busch Series ... I still call it that out of habit) before a problem with a shock and/or tire and then dominated and won the Sprint Cup event on Sunday.

Talk about a wild race across the board! Darrell Waltrip said it looked like they were on roller skates during the broadcast. I think it was more like they were on some good old fashioned Illinois ice.

Every single car out there on Sunday was throwing its back end toward the wall pretty much the whole day. There were some busy hands on those steering wheels, that's for sure.

Kyle Busch's win was historic in that it was Toyota's first win in Cup racing. Of course the Tundra has had a great deal of success in the truck series, but after 40 tries in Cup, the Japanese automaker broke through thanks to a Gibbs team that took the top 2 spots Sunday.

But the big noise came from Tony Stewart after the race, who basically said Goodyear needs to bow out and let other tire manufacturers take over in NASCAR. Stewart and others have been vocal about the tires Goodyear has brought to the track for years, but he took it to a new level on Sunday. He wasn't the only one.

Jeff Gordon said he felt like he was going to crash on every lap. In regard to the tires on his car Sunday, Gordon simply said "just terrible."

Goodyear has some work to do on these mile-and-a-half tracks especially. The tires were OK, not great, at Daytona, but they weren't so good at Fontana or Vegas. They really showed their problems in Hampton, Ga., on Sunday.

I don't exactly know what the problem is. For Goodyear to still be this far behind is alarming to say the least. Sure, drivers always are going to complain, but this is an ongoing issue that, in my opinion, Goodyear has no excuse for.

The cars on Sunday were turning slower laps at AMS than they have in years, and most of that was due to the fact that no one could get a handle on their tires. Goodyear is going to need to get its act together in a hurry or we're going to hear more and more screaming from drivers every week.

On a more positive note, it was good to see a few guys get up front and run pretty well for a time on Sunday. Clint Bowyer was able to lead some laps, Denny Hamlin had some decent long runs and defending Cup champ Jimmie Johnson even seemed to be somewhat back on track.

But, a key development was the success Carl Edwards had after a tough week plagued with a penalty and suspension of crew chief Bob Osborne. I think more than anything, it shows Edwards is a real championship contender and that his car is going to be fast each and every week, despite a transmission failure Sunday. It lends more credibility to the fact that there was no reason for his team to "cheat" last week ... the 99 squad simply has it working.

That's it for now, but I'll be sure and post again sometime later this week. I'm excited ... we're headed to my favorite track, Bristol. Tempers will be flaring, there's going to be some good beatin' and bangin' and I simply can't wait!

Until next time, keep hittin' your marks!

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