Food City 500 Preview

Thank goodness that off-weekend is over! I didn't know what to do with myself this past weekend. I tried to get my NASCAR fix in any way I could, but no matter what I did, nothing seemed to work.

I began with sticking my NASCAR 09 XBox game into my 360, in hopes that perhaps I could quench my NASCAR thirst. Instead, all I got was a message across the screen that said, "Disk unreadable!". To this day, that's still all I've gotten. My NASCAR 09 game appears to be deceased. This makes me sad.

Still thirsty for something NASCAR, I channel surfed for awhile. Finally, I came across the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. Now, don't get me wrong, Cars is a good movie. But trying to quench your NASCAR thirst by watching that movie would be like quenching your real-life thirst by drinking a shot of highly caffeinated Pepsi. In other words, it just makes things worse.

I somehow made it through my Sunday, which quite frankly, seemed to last longer than these 4 days since. Anyway, the action at Bristol begins tomorrow with practice and qualifying for the Cup and Nationwide series. But, before we can move on to Bristol, let's briefly review Atlanta.

Let's see, Mark Martin lead from the Pole, and then Kurt Busch lead, and then Kurt Busch lead, and then Marcos Ambrose's gas man went to fetch a tire, which would have brought out a caution anyway, but the crew man is being blamed for the caution, and then Kurt Busch lead. Well, you get the picture.

In all honesty, it was good to see Kurt finally go out and show us what he, and Dodge, are still made of. Unfortunately for me, Dodge's success did nothing to help my picks record this year, although I was still able to keep my streak of picking one top 5 driver every week alive. Yes, Carl Edwards, with his third place finish, was my lone top 5er in the ATL.

Now, we can move on to Bristol. I predict 20 cautions. No, seriously. If Atlanta can have double-digit cautions then Bristol can have 20. Oh, and I'm seeing a little Brian Vickers/Dale Jr. revenge this week. I just don't know who will run into whom. And now, my top 5 picks for Bristol:

5.Denny Hamlin
4.Jeff Gordon
3.Jeff Burton
2.Carl Edwards
1.Kurt Busch

I can't tell you how much I hate picking Kurt to win this week, especially after the proverbial hex I put on a couple of Ford drivers last week. But you can't go on thinking you're a human jinx, even if your most loyal readers hint at the fact. That's all for this week. Have a Happy Sunday!