Carl Edwards

Carl Edwards led over half the race on his way to scoring the victory at Thunder Valley. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 276 of the 500 laps on his way to winning the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It's his 26th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series and third at Bristol.

The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway with a time of 14.991 and a speed of 127.997 mph. This is his 18th career pole in 417 starts in the Sprint Cup Series

I get it. Some folks watch NASCAR for the wrecks. They probably do not watch often, maybe taking in the action from Daytona or Talladega, where one bad move causes a whole lot of bad tidings. I love those tracks, too, but I love watching people doing exciting things that I simply cannot.

Busch won his second consecutive race, passing Martin Truex, Jr. on a restart with 33 laps to go and cruising to the win in the Duck Commander 500.

Watching NASCAR is very much akin to viewing a bunch of toddlers race each other. Little Johnny might take off early, get within a few feet of the finish line, then that damn butterfly takes all his attention and he swerves right and off the course. Saturday night in Texas was a lot like that.

A missing lug nut cost Carl Edwards a chance at victory in the Lone Star State. After starting on the pole, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led a good chunk of the front-half of the Duck Commander 500. After leading 124 laps and coming off a fast stop, he was in position for a duel to the finish with Martin Truex Jr.

Carl Edwards didn’t run a perfect lap in Friday's final round of knockout qualifying, but he had plenty of car to compensate. "I made a little mistake, and I thought that was going to cost us," said Edwards, who earned the top starting spot for Saturday night's Duck Commander 500.

This Saturday night, the boys and girl head west. The way I hear it, if you are going to play in Texas, you got to have a Biffle in the band. That may be true, and it may be a fact this weekend, but sadly such edicts do not include our Hot 20. Greg sits 16 points shy. Maybe the following week.

Busch led 352 of 500 laps on his way to a commanding win in the STP 500, his first ever Sprint Cup win at Martinsville.

A full field. I may be a traditionalist in many ways, but a 40 car field seems about right to me now. It costs money to put a car on the track, to fit the templates, to run fast enough over a lap or two to qualify. That is even so when that auto is destined to simply start and park.