After Matt Kenseth took the pole for the Kobalt Tools 400 earlier in the weekend, several drivers, such as Greg Biffle and Juan Montoya, took turns out front.

But it was Tony Stewart with the strongest car, leading the most laps until running over an air line on pit road late in the race, thereby incurring a drive through penalty and sending him deep into the pack.

He recovered many of those positions by gambling on a two tire stop, which elevated him 14 spots into the lead, but that would come to bite them late in the go.

With about two dozen laps remaining, the final pit stop saw Edwards and Montoya grab two tires while Stewart took four.

With pit stops completed, Edwards’ Ford emerged in the lead by several seconds and ran away to the checkers with Stewart, Montoya, Marcos Ambrose, and Ryan Newman capping the top five finishers.

Stewart’s post race interviews saw a ticked off Chevy driver saying that they gave one away.

I say that with all things considered, second was just fine—especially coming with a tie with Kurt Busch in the overall standings. The latest results also find Montoya and Edwards tied for second place, just seven points back from the top spot.

Similarly, last week’s Cup winner, Jeff Gordon, while running among the top 10, smacked the outside wall with a flat right front—sending the four-time champ out of the race and into 36^th place. Gordon also dropped 14 spots in the standings down to 19^th—ouch!

Nationwide: As the laps wound down towards the checkers, it looked as if Brad Keselowski would add yet another mark to his win column—until the white flag lap.

That’s when his right front tire went down, sending the Dodge racer into the outside wall while he watched Mark Martin zoom by for the win.

Martin’s latest triumph marked his 49^th trophy in the Nationwide series, much to the approval of race fans and fellow competitors.

Martin had been told to be easy on the gas, as they were about 2 ½ laps shy, so he proceeded to do so; it paid off for the wily veteran. Crossing the line more than one second back were the cars of Justin Allgaier, Keselowski, Danica Patrick, and Trevor Bayne.

The race turned out to be an economy run with the top players rolling the dice on fuel mileage.

Had there been a late race caution, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, or Ricky Stenhouse would more than likely have landed in the winner’s circle. All of these drivers needed a splash for gas late in the show, giving up their spot out front.

Note: Patrick’s fourth place finish marks the highest finish by a female driver in any NASCAR event. For me, she was fortunate (read lucky) to be in the right place at the right time to notch this top five finish.

Even her crew chief, Tony Eury Jr. said in post-race interviews that they were lucky. She was running in the teens for most of the day—at times as much as two laps down.

From Rumorville: Robby Gordon was placed on indefinite probation on Friday afternoon, after an incident between he and Kevin Conway.

Conway had driven for Gordon with Extenze backing that has yet to be paid for. The two drivers are currently in litigation over the situation, and even though the details were sketchy, there’s little doubt in my mind that Gordon will throw a few punches at Conway. More details as they develop.

— Jamie McMurray in an Indy car? Well, just for demonstration purposes as he and Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon will swap their normal rides in an unofficial exercise later in the season.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the NASCAR truck action from Darlington, along with more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@comcast.net

It also marked the first win for a Dodge product in the 33-year history of the Budweiser Shootout.

The race began with Dale Earnhardt Jr out front, the result of a lucky draw from the festivities the night before. Twenty-three cars followed the fan favorite across the stripe to take the green before drivers decided on ‘dancing’ drafting partners. With the new surface and changes to the cars, the new fast way around the big track turns out to be to be two cars running nose-to-tail.

It didn’t seem to matter what brand you were driving ,just what combo worked well in the wind.

Early good combos were teammates Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick and Chevy ‘buds’ Joey Logano and five-time champ Jimmie Johnson.

Kasey Kahne dropped out by lap 11 with engine woes while Burton was the fast cat on the track, winning the first segment with Harvick and Dale Jr close by.

After a 10-minute break for minor repairs, the pack hit the track again, still looking for the best partner in order to get to the front.

On the second lap of the 50-lap segment, all heck broke loose when Ragan Smith and Carl Edwards tangled, sending several other top cars such as Logano, Dale Jr and Juan Montoya out of the race.

Not far into the segment, the second incident found Mark Martin and Kyle Busch into each other with both eventually out of the big show.

The were lots of two by two cars zipping around that appeared to work the best. Not three, not four, but two good cars with two good drivers turned out to be the hot ticket.

In the final dozen laps, Ryan Newman was being pushed around the track by a fast Denny Hamlin with Kurt Busch helped by Jamie McMurray.

These four cars wound up pulling away from the next pack of six and drag raced to the finish line by several seconds over the final closing laps.

Over the final thousand feet, Busch moved high with McMurray sticking with him, while Hamlin dove below Newman and crossed the line first, but because of going below the yellow line, NASCAR quickly stepped in and awarded the win to Busch with McMurray second and Newman, Johnson and Greg Biffle rounding out the top five.

An elated Busch said, “I’m glad to see this win for Shell and Pennzoil. This is a great start for a new relationship.”

On the other end of the comment trail, Hamlin said, “The yellow line is there for safety reasons. I should have gone high, but didn’t want to get into the 39.” Hamlin wound up being credited with 12^th place, the last car on the lead lap.

The race gave us a good idea of what to expect at this year’s Daytona 500, that being a 200 mph high-speed chess match with a whole bunch of luck to get into the winner’s circle.

What do you think of the way the cars run now? Will we have a great 500 race next week or will we see more of the two car breakaways witnessed on Saturday night?

Here is Part 5 of who’s where for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup team lineup for 2011. You might keep a score card as there are many changes in store.