Tony Stewart was clearly the class of the field in yesterday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup event in Atlanta and was rewarded with a well deserved victory, his fourth of the season. His race and on-track performance was so trouble free that perhaps the most worrying moment was watching him scale the fence to the flag stand in his now customary victory celebration.

Behind him the ten drivers in “The Chase” had mixed fortunes with equal helpings of bad luck (Mark Martin), good luck (Dale Earnhardt Jr. – whose lucky debris caution flag was maybe just a little too fortuitous) and simple brain fade (Kasey Khane).

Following my comments last week it seems that Jimmy Johnson has decided to step up and make a play for the championship with a display of strong driving and brave moves. The fact that Matt Kenseth still leads the points charts after yet another consistent and safe drive still leaves me shaking my head.

On another personal note I’m not a fan of the way that the grid was set after Friday’s qualifying was rained out. The track was clear and dry on Saturday and everyone had an opportunity to turn practice laps, so why not use that time to run a qualifying session a day late?

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 5:33 pm and is filed under NASCAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.