Lately, there hasn’t been a NASCAR race that has gotten me incredibly excited. Sure, I might like who wins, but if it’s a single file race with very little action, no matter who wins I rarely like what I’ve just seen. That is, until Sunday night in Atlanta. I can’t stop saying “what a race”! Granted one of my fav drivers won but even without that, the excitement of the race kept me glued to my tivo (sorry, I barely have a 4 hour attention span so I need to watch on tivo).

Here are my moments of the night:

Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman racing hard. Yep, that’s what it was, hard racing. Kahne thought Newman tried to take him out so he retaliated. And to watch them talk after the race was a kick…never saw K2 actually look angry. And there was Ryan smiling almost saying “oops, pushed you too hard.” Wish he had been that nice to Joey Logano a few races ago

Kurt Busch starting at P11 but eventually ending up P28 and driving his way up to 6th and securing a spot in the chase. What I loved about this moment was that no matter what hit Kurt, and he did get hit, he hung in there. He drove that car as hard as anyone could and was for him, fairly polite on the radio to Crew Chief Steve Addington. Kudos to KuBu for working his a** off for a top 10 finish, when he had a top 20 car at best.

Jeff Burton starting P26 and bringing it home in 4th. The man is a great driver who gets lost in the shuffle when people start talking about top drivers. But he’s a quiet leader who does what he’s supposed to do on the track and always impresses me every race.

Nelson Stewart waving the flashlight so Tony could see his pit easier. I think everyone got a kick out of this one! I loved when one of the commentators said “they probably picked that up at some dirt track years ago.” But it worked!

Tony Stewart actually apologizing to his crew that he was spinning the tires on the restarts and saying he had one more thing to try. Even Crew Chief Darian Grubb admitted he had no idea what Tony had up his sleeve but if anyone did have something, it would be Tony.

Kyle Busch not winning. It’s not that I’m not a Kyle fan, the guy knows how to drive a car, but he gets so angry when he doesn’t win that it takes away the fun of watching him and sometimes even rooting for him. We all like to win all the time but guess what KyBu, we can’t. He was a lap down and came back to finish P3. Very impressive.

And sadly, Denny Hamlin having an awesome run and blowing up. My heart just skipped a beat when I saw Denny starting to smoke and then turn sideways. Great control of the car. He even handled the interviews after quite well. No bitterness, just that we have to do better in Richmond. Could our little Denny be growing up after all?

So here’s to a great race at Richmond on Saturday. It’s the last race before The Chase lineup with lots on the line.  I’m betting it’s going to be a great one too…just sayin’.

Joey Logano manned up on Sunday and I’m so proud of him. Though I don’t think Kevin Harvick did anything intentional, I’m glad to see Logano stuck up for himself. At first TNT said Harvick drove towards Logano, but after some video reviews, even Kyle Petty said he thought it was just racing, nothing else.

The #20 crew did the right thing to try and keep Logano away from the Harvick, at least until he calmed down a bit. But there was Tom Logano telling his son to go for it, pushing a TV broadcaster out of the way, and pointing towards Harvick’s car. And Logano did just that. With Harvick’s crew surrounding the #29 and stopping Logano from reaching their driver, Logano was left with only the opportunity to yell at a crew member…a very large crew member. The camera shot of Joey in the face of this huge Harvick crew guy was almost comical. But I am thrilled that Joey stood up for himself and said what he had to when he had to. His after race comments regarding Harvick were quite funny as well. If by chance you hadn’t heard them, he said that Harvick’s wife wears the fire suit in the family!

As far as NASCAR is concerned, there was no need to bring Logano and Harvick to the hauler, and that’s a good thing. Now as for Tom Logano, I assumed NASCAR was going have a video review of his performance. Tom’s already had his hard card taken away once before and I wondered if this will be the second time. I glad to see it wasn’t. Even NASCAR got it right this time. It was just racing and the heat of the moment. Just sayin’

What an amazing two weeks Kurt Busch has had. The Blue Deuce is one car that keeps getting stronger every lap, every race. Forget the rumors of a new Kyle Busch; we have a new and improved Kurt Busch, who, along with Denny Hamlin, will give Jimmie Johnson a run for the Championship.  I can’t help but believe that the addition of Steve Addington is the number one reason

Okay, I admit it, Addington is one of my favorite crew chiefs and I was crushed when JGR dumped him. Absolutely disgraceful. But when you are as good as he is, you bounce back even stronger. Addington and KuBu are a perfect match. Whoever thought a Busch brother would give Addington the respect he deserves! KuBu and Addington are two gear heads who love fast cars and if they weren’t driver and crew chief, my guess is they’d be sitting in a garage somewhere working on cars together. KuBu gives Addington the feedback he needs to adjust the car to KuBu’s liking. KuBu tells Addington what he wants, what he needs, what the car feels like (btw Darrell Waltrip, when a driver tells this to a crew chief it’s called feedback, not complaining!) It’s hard to build a relationship via text messages, which unfortunately was Addington’s main form of communication with KyBu.

Last year KyBu took way too many chances when he raced and ended up hitting the wall, crashing, basically running his cars into the ground. His double digit finishes were not all Addington’s fault. KyBu helped create the lack of consistency, which led him to be 8 points out of the Chase. So of course that means time to get a new crew chief, right? Maybe Rick Hendrick’s well documented cookies and milk meeting should be a requirement for every team!

Addington is a soft spoken man with a laid back personality that seems to work effortlessly when dealing with KuBu. When KuBu starts getting frustrated and barks back to his crew chief, Addington handles it with a calmness that I can only imagine him saying “no problem, no worries, we’ll fix it.” I also think Addington’s maturity has rubbed off a bit onto KuBu, and that’s a good thing. Addington is an incredible addition to the Penske family. His knowledge and skills are an asset to all the teams within the Penske organization. From dirt tracks to Nationwide and now to Sprint Cup, Addington has proven himself a winner.

Hmmm, I wonder if he can solve the oil leak in the Gulf…just sayin’

Oh what a sweet dance it was. Kevin Harvick #29 slides in for the win while pushing #1 Jamie McMurray. No one expected that.  What a move.  Better than anything I’ve seen on DWTS.

It was a great race all around, couldn’t ask for a better Sunday treat.  I’m loving the new Jeff Gordon/Jimmie Johnson rivalry brewing.  NASCAR needs something like this. Fans need to see the driver’s passion.  Gordon has that competitive fire burning and I’m thrilled. We want to see Ella in the winners circle with her poppa.

But as much as I enjoyed the race, would have enjoyed it even more if the FOX announcers would have shut up for a second so we could have enjoyed the moment. I know they get excited, we all do, but goodness I could barely concentrate on what I was watching as everyone was screaming on my tv. I don’t want complete silence, if I wanted that I’d watch golf. But it would be nice if we could have just enjoyed what was going on without being distracted. I’m just sayin’.

Today Carl Edwards received a 3 race probation from NASCAR for retaliating against Brad Keselowski in Atlanta on Sunday.  When I watched the race and saw the incident, I was ready to see Edwards suspended for the rest of the season, that’s how angry I was.  I mean who intentionally bumps someone going 195 miles an hour just for payback.  But the more I read and heard about the incident, the more I realized that the punishment, if you could even call it that, was not even needed.  Yes, Edwards did a totally stupid thing, but if Keselowski’s #12 never flipped, the NASCAR Nation would never have spent nearly 3 days discussing and disecting the hit.  It would have been called a racing incident, and Carl would have spent the next hour getting high fives from the other drivers.

I think we can all agree that Keselowksi deserved some sort of payback.  Yes, he’s an awesome driver.  Yes, he won ‘Dega last year.  But he is way too cocky for his first full season in Cup.  He really needs to learn to respect other drivers.  Until then, Keselowski better prepare himself for more retaliation hits.

As for Cousin Carl, Tuesday NASCARNow showed all the retaliation hits that Edwards has committed in his career.  One after another.  Forget probation, the dude needs anger management therapy…fast.

I’m just sayin’.