Tony Stewart

It wasn't not so great luck, but rather a not so great car that slowed Clint Bowyer last weekend in Las Vegas. His number 33 team battled all day and got the car up to a respectible 15th place finish. " We battled a loose-handling race car and changing track conditions all day," said Bowyer, "but were still able to score a top-15 finish and gain a few spots in points. " And the points thing is really important. After all, he may be just 39 points out of first, but there are also 17 cars between him and points leader Tony Stewart.

You know the saying, "everything is bigger than Texas. " And while it's not the biggest track on the circuit, thanks to restrictor plates, only Atlanta rivals the Texas Motor Speedway when it comes to speed. The first 13 times we raced at Texas, there were different winners until Jeff Burton won for the second time in 2007. Other multiple race winners at Texas include Carl Edwards, who has won three times, and Denny Hamlin, who swept last season. Hamlin and Burton are just a couple of the past Texas winners who could use a good run this weekend.

Defending SprintCup champion Tony Stewart made a bold move to take the lead on a late restart and held off Jimmie Johnson for a redemptive win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.     Frustrated by a pit mishap at Las Vegas a year ago, Stewart dipped below the two leaders from the second row to take the lead with about 30 laps left in the 400-mile race. He pulled away from Johnson on three more restarts over the final 17 laps for his first win on the 1.5-mile tri-oval in the desert.

NASCAR's silly season (or the year end shuffling of drivers and personnel) seems to be sillier than ever this season. But not because of massive unexpected driver changes, save Kurt Busch. This off season is wild, because it's all about the crew chief. Honestly, who shouldn't be looking to make a change. I mean, if winning a championship isn't enough to keep your job, there isn't a crew chief in the garage area that shouldn't be looking over his shoulder. Many crew chief changes were already in the works before we all found out that Darian Grubb would not be returning to defend his title the number 14 team.

NASCAR is back! Kind of. All big events need a good bit of hype and NASCAR is the closest thing to a traveling road show you will find out side of the circus. As many of you know, close to 200 members of the Local and National media are in Concord, North Carolina (just down the road from the Charlotte Motor Speedway) for the 30th annual Sprint Media Tour. And your humble little NASCAR reporter from KWCH is one of them. NASCAR Photo Gallery This is actually my fifth time on the tour and I am happy to be back after missing last season.

No one saw this coming. No one.   Brad Keselowski won his first race in 2009 at Talladega Superspeedway, running a part-time schedule with single-car team Phoenix Racing. It was a nice story in a long season, one that ended with Jimmie Johnson winning the championship.   His second victory came in 2011 at Kansas Speedway while in his second full season with Penske Racing. That win moved him into 21st in points. Again, a feel-good story to weave into the year; one that culminates with Tony Stewart capturing his third title.

Time to head to what I consider my home track, the Atlanta Motor Speedway, even though I don't live down there anymore. This will mark the first AMS race I've missed since 2003 and that makes me a little sad. It also makes me a little sad that this is the first trip to the mile and a half, high speed, high banked track this season. AMS lost it's spring race to Kentucky. And we all know how that worked out. Still it seems a little strange just be heading to Georgia for the first time this season and it's September.

Here we are at the final race of the 2011 season. The thing about the NASCAR season is sometimes it seems like it will go on forever, but when we get to this point, it always seems like it was over too soon. None the lest here we are. And the final race of the season brings with it no shortage of drama. A new Sprint Cup champion will be crowned on Sunday. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, along with 9 other drivers that qualified for the chase, have been eliminated. So it comes down to Carl Edwards vs Tony Stewart.