Kyle Busch

The thing about Tony Stewart is, one would never call him shy. He calls them like he sees them. Some of his rants are funny, some are petty, some right on the spot, some are way off base. But that is Tony Stewart. Love it, hate it you always know what's coming. His unpredictability, to strangely predictable. That being said, no one could have seen this coming. I mean, Tony Stewart has had the reputation of being strong late in the summer and into the fall. But he really hasn't shown a lot of that recently.

The Magic Mile gave Kyle Busch a chance to show his mastery. Busch started from the pole and dominated Saturday's F.W. Webb 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a race in which only six Camping World Truck Series entries finished on the lead lap. Busch, who led 165 of 175 laps, crossed the finish line 3.816 seconds ahead of runner-up Austin Dillon to post his sixth win in 14 starts this season and the 30th victory of his career. Kevin Harvick finished third, followed by Ron Hornaday Jr. and Johnny Sauter.

I am the biggest offender. Looking for any hitch in his step. Any slip on the track. Magnifying every little move Jimmie Johnson makes. Glorifying every little stride that other drivers make on the 48 team. We want, heck the sport needs someone to knock off the champ. But if we take a minute to be completely honest with ourseleves, this year looks exactly the same as it did the year before and the previous two before that. Johnson is the champ and it is going to take a flawless run to knock him off. Can it be done?

Kevin Harvick snapped out of his slump in time to storm into the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Harvick picked up his fourth win of the season Saturday night by winning at Richmond International Raceway. The victory ties Kyle Busch for most in the Sprint Cup Series, and puts the two rivals at the top of the Chase standings. The 10-race Chase begins next Sunday at Chicago. The field will include Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will race for the championship for the first time since 2008.

NASCAR says Kevin Harvick has clinched at least a wild-card berth in the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Harvick was not listed among drivers who had clinched after Saturday night's race at Bristol because there are still scenarios where he could fall outside of the top 10 in points. Further review Monday by NASCAR determined his three victories this season have earned him at minimum one of the two wild cards. Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards officially clinched berths on Saturday night.

I'm not really sure who first described Bristol Motor Speedway as flying fighter jets in a gymnasium. But who ever it was, it is one of the best descriptions I have ever heard for a track. If you have ever been inside Bristol, you understand. If you haven't it's really hard to explain except, it's like flying jets in a gym. The track has changed some since the repave in 2007. The track actually has two racing lanes and drivers say it's not as necessary to just push drivers out of the way, now you can actually pass.

Kyle Busch has won his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the year, outlasting Jimmie Johnson in a green-white-checkered finish at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday. Busch, the series points leader coming into the race, passed Johnson with about a dozen laps remaining and was opening up a comfortable margin when his brother Kurt scraped a wall, forcing a caution from laps 198-201. The yellow flag erased much of Busch's lead, but he was able to fight off a quick move from Johnson after the restart and pull away.

Kyle Busch won the inaugural Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night, pulling away from Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go to collect his 99th NASCAR series victory. Busch won the Trucks race here on Thursday night and had little trouble finding his way to Victory Lane for the second time in three days at the 1.5-mile oval. He started from the pole and dominated long stretches of the 400-mile race to pick up his third Cup win of the season. David Reutimman slipped past Johnson to finish second.

David Ragan has earned the first Sprint Cup victory of his career, redeeming himself after blowing his chance in the season-opening Daytona 500. Ragan was the leader on a late restart in NASCAR's biggest race of the year, but he was penalized for passing too early. That cost him what would have been the biggest win of his career. He redeemed himself Saturday night by outlasting all the mayhem of a typically chaotic race at Daytona International Speedway. He was pushed across the finish line by Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth as a huge wreck developed in the final turn.

So it's been a few days since Richard Childress reportedly took Kyle Busch, put him in a headlock and handout a little vigilante justice. I was sitting in the media center at the Kansas Speedway when the reports of the fight first started trickling in. And I've had a lot of time to think about what reportedly went down. Richard Childress was wrong. He shouldn't have punched Busch. Then again it shouldn't have gotten to this point. As I have said repeatedly, I like Kyle Busch.