I think there's a bit too much hype and focus on who got to victory lane first. Here's one: "Kyle Busch Beats Dale Earnhardt Jr. And Hendrick In Race To Victory Lane" Who cares?

I'll admit, Shrub had a great car yesterday. He's the youngest driver to win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he's the first to take Toyota to victory lane, plus it's a first for a driver to win both a Craftsman Truck and Sprint Cup race in the same weekend. That is a great reason to puff up like a peacock. Fantastic. He is having an excellent year. Period.

To play into the soap opera of who got the better deal, Hendrick vs. Gibbs and who got to victory lane first? Please. It is a bit ridiculous and also much too soon in the season for that. Only time will tell and we're a LONG way from the end of the season. Congrats to Busch for his first victory under the Joe Gibbs umbrella.

Last week when I made my pick for who I thought would win the race, I told you that I may have been jinxing the driver that I pick. I had picked Jimmie Johnson to win at Las Vegas, a track that he had won three times in a row. So what happens? He ends up finishing 29th. Uugh.

So, here we go again, let's see if I can finally break the losing streak that I am on (I have NEVER picked the winner) and finally do so this week.

I am going with Jeff Gordon for the win. He has four victories at Atlanta Motor Speedway, including 12 top-fives, and 19 top-tens. He's had some pretty bad luck so far this year, but maybe this is the track that will turn his luck around.

The other driver I'll be watching is Bobby Labonte. He has 6 wins here, including 12 top-fives and 13 top-tens.

I'm betting Ryan Newman will get the pole. In his 12 starts here, 7 have started from pole position.

Who are you picking for the win?

I know I said that I was hoping for a bit of bad luck for the Hendrick boys but I will admit that when I learned that Jimmie Johnson was going to donate his winnings from the race to the fire victims out in California, I wanted him to have a solid finish. Others were going to join in and match his contribution including his primary sponsor, Lowe's, and car owner Rick Hendrick. I am pretty sure this put the total donation above $1 million.

Johnson had a solid car all day, as did Kyle Busch. Busch had a bit of bad luck in one of the craziest restarts that I have seen this year. With only a handful of laps to go on the restart, Denny Hamlin ran out of gas even before making it to the green flag and all the cars stacked up behind him. (Excuse me, what was his crew chief thinking not bringing him in the pits to get gas?) Martin Truex Jr. slammed right in the back of Hamlin, ending his day. Kyle Busch jerked the car to the left to miss hitting Truex Jr. and spun into the infield. He ended up with a 17th place finish.

Others in the Chase:
Tony Stewart had a terrible night. He finished right where he started, 30th position. He had to make two unscheduled pit stops. One because he was really loose and they thought there wasn't enouh air pressure in the tires. And the other because he mysteriously lost oil pressure. He went in to the pits and the crew put the hood up, he restarted the car and the oil pressure was fine and he went on his way, 5 laps down.

Kevin Harvick pretty much ran like a brick all day long. He is lucky to have finished 15th. Carl Edwards had a good run finishing 2nd, Matt Kenseth - 4th, Jeff Burton - 5th, Clint Bowyer - 6th, Jeff Gordon - 7th, Kurt Busch - 8th.

A few more thoughts:

• It should be of no surprise that the first caution of the race happened during a commercial. What ever happened to “if caution breaks out, we’ll break in?”
• I cannot handle the color graphics of how the air works. Blue=clean air, yellow=dirty air. It takes me back to my very early years...Yellow plus Blue makes Green.
• The “here, kitty kitty” is being overused. I am sick of it.
• It was looking like Dale Earnhardt Jr. was going to finally have an engine that didn’t expire. Only, his bad luck continues and he couldn’t keep the tires on it. A left rear tire literally just fell off his car during a restart. The only luck he has had this year is BAD luck.

Atlanta Motor Speedway Data
Race #: 33 of 36 (10-28-07)
Track Size: 1.54 miles
Race Length: 325 laps/500.5 miles
• Banking/Corners: 24 degrees
• Banking/Straights: 5 degrees
• Frontstretch: 2,332 feet
• Backstretch: 1,800 feet