Rearview: Atlanta

The spring Atlanta weekend is always one of my favorites of the entire year. Just like Las Vegas, I always enjoyed the original layout at Atlanta but also enjoy the current layout too. The asphalt at Atlanta has aged over the past 12 years and it makes it virtually impossible to build a tire that will last as long as tank of gas will. The drop-off in times from the start of a run to the end of a run sometimes reaches three seconds, and that's why you saw everyone on pit road for tires with a green-white-checkered finish on Sunday. It's the same shape but it's certainly not the same track that saw Geoff Bodine blister a 197+ mph lap back in 1997.

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Was there any doubt that Kurt Busch would pass Carl Edwards and claim the win during that two-lap dash to the finish? Edwards only took two tires and was hoping for a repeat caution to give him the win, but it didn't come. Edwards showed exactly how talented he is by muscling his car alongside Jeff Gordon - who had four fresh tires - for almost a lap and a half before settling back into third.

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Brian Vickers was in contention for the win until the final caution flag and ensuing pit stop. Although he didn't get off pit road as well as everyone else, he has to be pleased with the performance of his team on the intermediate tracks to start 2009. Vickers' first win at Talladega is still seen by many as a tainted victory after contact between himself and Jimmie Johnson took out Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and he's certainly a candidate to pick up another win, especially on a 1.5-miler.

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The final yellow came out due to rubber debris shed off Robby Gordon's car in turn two and down the backstretch. Gordon obviously knew he had a problem and had slowed dramatically. Why not get the car down below the white line and allow that tire to come apart out of the racing groove?

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Atlanta always produces some of the best three-wide racing of the year. So why do television directors chose to show us lap after lap of the leader running a couple of seconds ahead of the rest of the field?

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It's not too often that a former Indianapolis 500 winner and a Daytona 500 winner crash together, but that's exactly what happened when Sam Hornish and Bill Elliott wrecked on Sunday. Elliott won at Daytona in 1985 and 1987 while Hornish won at Indianapolis in 2006. I wonder what the players from the SuperBowl in 1985 were doing during the 2009 SuperBowl. No doubt that none of them were playing; yet NASCAR's "SuperBowl" winner from 22 years ago was in the field for this year's running.

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It's refreshing to read comments from David Pearson over the weekend. Pearson has maintained a low profile in recent years and maybe we're starting to understand why. Pearson doesn't like the fact that the cars are all the same and NASCAR mandates what shocks and springs the teams have to run. I still maintain that there is a correlation to the introduction of common templates and the drop in television ratings and at-track attendance. Yes it's impossible to go back to true stock cars, and I don't think anyone wants that, but it certainly possible to go back to cars that look stock. The competition among manufacturers is a big part of what drove the sport through the 1980s and 1990s and the fact it's no longer a viable aspect of the sport is a reason why a lot of fans have seen their interest wane.

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I am all for safety on the racetrack, but enough with the debris cautions. It's predictable that any time a round of green flag stops is approaching in the Camping World Truck Series - particularly when the field is spread out - that a piece of debris will be spotted and the caution will come out. SPEED cameras never showed whatever debris was found during Saturday's Truck race. The new pit stop rules seem to work well under caution but the Fontana race showed green flag stops lead to tough choices and some odd strategy. It sure seems like the way to prevent those tough choices was to throw competition cautions and allow the field to pit under yellow. The old ASA had competition cautions if there was a 100-lap green flag run. Of course races rarely went that long without a legitimate caution but at least they were up front about what they were doing. Either show the debris or call it what it is, a competition caution.

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There weren't a lot of on-track incidents over the course of the two days of racing action as the Atlanta track offers a lot of room and multiple grooves. But many of those incidents that did occur on Saturday and Sunday seemed to involve many of the usual suspects. If these guys continue to perform like they have been, the races at Bristol and Martinsville should have a record number of yellows.

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Elliott Sadler was half a lap away from winning the Daytona 500. Where has he been since? The good news is he did pick up his best finish since Daytona on Sunday, but the bad news is was still a 20th-place run. If that doesn't prove how little the racing at Daytona has in common with every other track on the schedule, nothing will.

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Terry Cook has opened the Truck season strongly, taking home a third at Daytona and a fifth at Atlanta. It's the first time in his career he's started the season with two top-fives in the first three races. Cook hasn't missed a Truck race since the last race of the 1997 season, and like many other drivers in the series right now is looking for added sponsorship. With the number of full-time teams markedly lower than last season, team owner Jim Harris has to be looking at picking up some top-fives and contending for a win or two this season. Although Cook dropped out with a punctured oil cooler at California, teammate David Starr ended up fourth giving Harris a top five finish in each of the season's first three races. Billy Ballew (Kyle Busch) and Steve Germain (Todd Bodine) also have three top fives in three races.

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Chad McCumbee doesn't have any guarantee he'll be racing every week but he's sure making a case for it on the racetrack. He followed up a third-place run in California with a sixth-place finish in Atlanta. McCumbee and crew chief Bobby Dotter are a perfect match; both are excellent at getting the most out of their equipment, even if they don't have the resources of some of the larger teams.

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The third caution on Sunday was for one of the most unusual reasons I've ever witnessed in an auto race. The gasman for the No. 47 team, Jimmy Watts, crossed pit road into the grass to retrieve a loose tire. He had to venture about halfway out to the racetrack to get the tire and that drew the yellow. He was suspended for the remainder of the race and is waiting to hear if there are any more reprocussions from the incident. Many will get a laugh from it, and some will go the opposite way and say he shouldn't ever be allowed to work in the garage again. I venture to guess NASCAR made their point on Sunday and we don't have to worry about anything like this happening again any time soon. It's easy to judge it as a boneheaded move (and it was) but unless you've experienced what's going on in the heat of the moment it's difficult to understand. I'm sure he wanted to prevent a caution from coming out, but regardless of what happened the yellow was going to come out. I understand he's a firefighter in Mooresville as well, and after watching him venture out next to the racetrack with cars zooming by at 180 miles per hour climbing up a ladder to battle a blaze shouldn't sound too scary.