3/14/05… Jimmie Johnson was the one who ended up crossing the finish line first, putting him in Victory Circle for the first time this season. This is the second win for Hendrick Motorsports, and the win takes Roush Racing off of the books as the dominant team at Las Vegas. Hendrick Motorsports took the top two spots in the event, leaving Roush Racing to claim a third place finish as their best of the day.

Following Johnson across the finish line in the top ten were the brothers rookie Kyle and Kurt Busch, who were the hometown heroes making their mark in front of the home town crowd. They were followed by Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle, Casey Mears, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and Ryan Newman. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ryan Newman -- # 12 Dodge-- finished 10th
2. Elliott Sadler -- #38 Ford -- finished 29th
3. Greg Biffle -- #16 Ford -- finished 6th
4. Scott Riggs -- #10 Chevy -- finished 31st
5. Kurt Busch -- #97 Ford -- finished 3rd
6. Travis Kvapil* -- #77 Dodge -- finished 26th
7. Kasey Kahne -- #9 Dodge -- finished 38th
8. Matt Kenseth -- #17 Ford -- finished 8th
9. Jimmie Johnson -- #48 Chevy -- finished 1st
10. Kyle Busch* -- #5 Chevy -- finished 2nd

After the third of 26 events that will determine the Chase for the Championship, Jimmie Johnson has moved up one spot to take the top position away from Kurt Busch. Busch is now in second place listed with a -15. Greg Biffle moved up two spots to third listed now with a -97, followed by Jeff Gordon who moved up six spots to fourth listed with a -107. Carl Edwards dropped down one spot to round out the top five with a -117. Tony Stewart moved up one spot to claim sixth place listed with a -119, followed by Rusty Wallace who also moved up one spot and is now in seventh listed with a -130. Right on Rusty's heels listed with a -131 is Kevin Harvick, who moved up five spots to eighth. Ryan Newman moved up three spots to ninth listed now with a -140, followed by Mark Martin, who dropped down seven spots to round out the top ten with a -151.

We saw the initial use of NASCAR's pit road speed detection system in use last week for the Cup event, and Saturday's Busch Series event was a works in progress for the automated speed checker. There were several violations recorded that required the drivers of the ill-fated cars to make a lap down pit road in repentance of their speeding actions on pit road, taking them off of the lead lap.

On another front, there has been lots of confusion and lots of comments on NASCAR's so-called "impound rule." The sanctioning body really erred on the side of caution when they made it a rule that’s implementation would be decided on by each individual track operator. The reason for this being that some track operators bring in a sizable portion of their revenue for the Friday qualifying and Saturday practice sessions and don't want to give this up. In the same frame of mind, NASCAR was reluctant to force them to give up the revenue and made the new rule optional for each individual track.

This may be all well and good for the track operators and for NASCAR and the TV networks, but it plays hell with the schedules of the teams. Last week at California, the new rule was in effect and the cars were impounded after a Saturday qualifying session. The Las Vegas venue doesn't follow the new rule so it went by the schedules used in previous years. This has really set some of the teams on their ears. The initial Daytona event has its own rules for qualifying and practice, unlike any other event of the season. Then last week the new rules package was in effect, and then this week it wasn't. Three different weeks, with three different scenarios; this is not good for the competitors.

NASCAR's vice president for competition, former crew chief Ryan Pemberton, says that the Cup Series will strive for total acceptance for the impound rule, but that it will take some time. As it stands in the 2005 season, a little more than half of the tracks are abiding by the new rules, while the rest are not. I feel that this half baked scenario is going to make it a very confusing season for teams and fans alike. That's the way I see it, and I'm sticking to it!

Next week the Cup Series moves to Atlanta for the Golden Corral 500. The event is scheduled to be televised live by the FOX Network on Sunday, March 20th at 12:30 pm eastern. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the SPEED channel on Friday, march 18th at 7 pm eastern.

Last season's winner of the March 14th Golden Corral event was Dale Earnhardt Jr. He was followed across the finish line by top ten drivers Jeremy Mayfield, rookie Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Dale Jarrett, and Jeff Gordon.

Ryan Newman won the Bud Pole Award in the #12 Evernham Motorsports Alltel Dodge with a speed of 193.640 miles per hour. There were three caution periods for a total of 17 laps out of the 325 lap event on the 1.54 mile D-shaped oval.

3/21/05… Carl Edwards made a historic sweep of Atlanta Motor Speedway this past weekend. He not only set the record as the first driver to sweep the Busch and Cup Series events during the same weekend, but the wins were his first of each series. This is a record that will probably take many years to match, and within itself, is pretty much unbreakable.

Edwards set the NASCAR racing world on its ear Saturday when he made a daring 4-wide pass to set himself up for winning the Busch Series race, but his hell bent for leather run against Jimmie Johnson in Sunday's Cup event was one for the books. Edwards made his move on the outside coming out of the 4th turn on the last lap to get along side of Johnson coming to the finish line. Johnson waited too long to try to block Edwards, it's clearly apparent that he underestimated the new superstar. Once Edwards got a nose in on Johnson, he gave it all his racecar had; getting a nose ahead of Johnson at the finish line for his first Cup Series win. When the car was checked out after leaving victory circle, it was found to have a large chunk of rubber missing from one of the back tires.

Following Edwards and Johnson across the finish line in the top ten were Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip, Dave Blaney, Scott Riggs, and Elliott Sadler. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ryan Newman -- #12 Dodge -- finished 14th
2. Bobby Hamilton Jr. -- #32 Chevy -- finished 38th
3. Jimmie Johnson -- #48 Chevy -- finished 2nd
4. Carl Edwards -- #99 Ford -- finished 1st
5. Kasey Kahne -- #9 Dodge -- finished 5th
6. Greg Biffle -- #16 Ford -- finished 3rd
7. Joe Nemechek -- #01 Chevy -- finished 35th
8. Brian Vickers -- #25 Chevy -- finished 6th
9. Tony Stewart -- #20 Chevy -- finished 17th
10. Jason Leffler -- #11 Chevy -- finished 25th

Jimmie Johnson's second place finish put him back on top of the driver's standings after losing the position to Kurt Busch after being docked 25 points last week. Greg Biffle moved up one spot to second now listed with a -82. Carl Edward's win moved him up two spots to third listed now with a -87. Kurt Busch dropped back three spots to fourth listed with a -103. Mark martin moved up four spots to round out the top five listed with a -141. Ryan Newman moved up two spots to sixth listed with a -165, followed by Tony Stewart who dropped down one spot to seventh listed with a -166. Elliott Sadler moved up five spots to eighth listed with a -198, while Rusty Wallace dropped down two spots to ninth listed with a -203. Jamie McMurray moved up four spots to round out the top ten listed with a -205.

Next week the Cup Series has a week off. Happy Easter! Check back next week for a rundown on the upcoming Cup event and comments on the Stockcar Racing Commission's decision on the crew chief suspensions.