Brad Keselowski

Rebounding from hard contact with the wall early in Friday night's Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards held off Kyle Busch on a five-lap green-flag run to the finish to win his eighth Nationwide Series race of the season and the 37th of his career. Busch came home second followed by Trevor Bayne and Elliott Sadler, who claimed the final $100,000 Nationwide Insurance Dash4Cash bonus and cut into the series points lead of ninth-place finisherRicky Stenhouse Jr. Brian Scott ran fifth, followed by Brad Keselowski, whose dominating run was foiled by a cut tire late in the 200-lap race.

It took three tries before Brad Keselowski built his master piece. "I believe if you are going to do anything, you gotta give it your all," he told the group of reporters gathered to watch him at the Legoland Discovery Center in Kansas City. Kesleoski was in KC to help promote next month's STP 400. He also got a behind the scenes look at the still under construction Legoland and one ot it's main attractions, a replica Kansas Speedway build from Legos. He also got the chance to build his own race car and race it against a car built by the attractions master builder.

So here we are, about to close the book on another NASCAR season. And all I can say is wow. Think about it, we started with a driver smashing into a jet dryer on the track at the Daytona 500 and last week we had a driver running through the garage in a full on sprint. Quite a year. So now this weekend, we will crown the 2012 Sprint Cup Series Champion. It looks like it Brad Keselowski's to lose, he comes into the final race at Homestead with a 20 point lead in the standings. "You know if you go out there and run well, at least from my position, that it all takes care of itself," said Keselowski said.  "With maybe the exception of the last lap or two, I've got a pretty good idea of where I'm at on the racetrack, or I should, and that stuff works its way out if we're in a good position.

After falling back to 40th early in the race due to damage on his car, Tony Stewart stormed back to win the Ford 400 and the Sprint Cup Championship. The two actually ended up tied in points, but Stewart won the title due to the tie breaker, which is wins. Stewart has five, Edwards has one. It was the first time in the history of the sport, the points race ended in a tie. "Are you kidding me?" Stewart said after crawling out of his car. " We said all week if we went out and win the race, we didn't have to worry about what he did. If this doesn't go down as the best chase in NASCAR history I don't know what does.

For the first in ten years, I am going to miss the spring race at Talladega. Since moving to Kansas, I have missed the last two fall races, but I did make it back for the Spring race last year. Of course, as soon as I miss a race, the greatest paint scheme in NASCAR in years happens (pictured above). I can just hear ole Ricky Bobby yelling "if you aint first, your last" every time the car rolls by. A Talladega Nights car...at Talladega? Brilliant! Big props to Kurt Busch. I cant think of a better team, or driver to sport that "ME" paint scheme.

Clint Bowyer's chance at a NASCAR championship will have to wait another year. The Emporia native appeared to be headed to Homestead, with an outside shot at the title. But instead, an accident caused when Jeff Gordon intentionally wrecked the 15 coming to the white flag, lead to a 28th place finish for Bowyer and officially eliminated him from contention in the chase. "It's crazy, I didn't even need to pass him, I was plenty content riding behind him," said Bowyer. "But he slipped up and I got under him and here he comes back.

On Sunday Danica Patrick became the first woman to lead the Daytona 500 under green and the highest finishing woman (8th). "I'm honored.  But, again, these are things that just happen along the way," said Patrick. "I'm on the quest to be the best driver, run up front, get to Victory Lane.  These things happen and I'm proud, but they're not the ultimate goal. " Danica Patrick's success is good for the sport of NASCAR. Danica Patrick's success is also bad for the sport of NASCAR.

At first I though it was me. I was having a bad day. I was sick to my stomach. Kyle Busch was stinking on up the show at Kentucky Motor Speedway and TNT's enhanced audio was not really working out, I'm sure they way they envisioned it. As I logged on to Twitter, I thought to myself, "They left Atlanta for this. " Little did I know that the problems were much worse than the boring racing. I watched the reports on Twitter as the laps ticked off. Forty laps in, 60, 90 and people were still trying to get to the track and park.

He's baaaack!   Jimmie Johnson answered all questions about his readiness to contend for a sixth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title with a dominating performance in Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.   Johnson held off hard-charging Kasey Kahne in a green-white-checkered-flag finish set up by Jeff Gordon's blown engine on Lap 265. Johnson beat Kahne to the finish line by .548 seconds in a race that went five laps past its scheduled distance of 267 laps.   The victory was Johnson's second of the season, the 55th of his career and the 20th in 74 career Chase races.

So there they are, the 12 drivers that will battle for NASCAR's top prize, the Sprint Cup. Exactly the 12 you had in right? Me, not so much. So first off let me apologize to Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt, Junior, Brad Keselowski and all their fans. Clearly I underestimated the strengths of your team this season. Now that the field is set, let me take another crack at picking the field. Who will step up their game, who has used up all their chips just to get in it? These are my thoughts, take them with a grain of salt....