from the Crossville Chronicle – Crossville, Tn. Wednesday March 12, 2008
By Joe Dunn / joe@onpitroad.com
Record setting was the name of the game at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday as Kyle Busch racked up his first win of 2008, his first win for Joe Gibbs racing and the first win for Toyota in the Nascar Sprint Cup Series. Although it is Toyota’s first win it was not the first for a foreign manufacturer, but you have to go all the way back in the record books to find a race at the Linden, NJ airport on June 13, 1954 when Al Keller won the race driving a Jaguar.
With four weeks of racing in the books, Kyle leads the points in both the Nascar Spring Cup Series as well as the Nascar Craftsman Truck Series. Sunday in Atlanta it looked for a while as if Carl Edwards was headed to his third straight win, but an engine failure ended his day early. In a post race interview Kyle remarked about Edwards saying, “You know, Carl Edwards had the best car here today by far again. And whatever those guys have got over there that’s figured out is really scaring us ’cause, you know, the 16 doesn’t show it, the 17 doesn’t show it, the 26 doesn’t show it, but for some reason that 99 does. “
When Rick Hendrick showed Kyle Busch the day at the end of last season to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr, a lot of folks figured it was a really bad sign for Kyle. So far he has shown folks that he is the real deal for 2008. But Dale Jr. has shown improvement also with his second consecutive 2nd place finish putting him 6th in the points. Also over the weekend, Kyle Busch picked up his second consecutive win in the Truck Series on Friday, while Matt Kenseth won the Nationwide Series race.
This week, the Trucks are off as the nationwide and The Sprint Cup Series both head the World’s fasted half mile, right down the road at Bristol Motor Speedway. Locals heading that way better bundle up for Sundays race as the weatherman is calling for high temperatures in the low 50’s. Sunday will also be the final race for Dale Jarrett who is retiring to head to the broadcast booth. Teammate David Reutimann will move over from the 00 Aaron’s car to the 44 UPS car for the rest of the season.
