I had a little bit of a battle with a bag of donuts this week. Yes, a bag of donuts. My partner's family was visiting my place over the weekend of the Daytona 500. Her dad was really excited about getting a Krispy Kreme donut, so he went out and bought a dozen of them. Well...He ate 2 of them, and for some reason he put the other 10 in my freezer. I didn't realize this until last Sunday when I saw a gallon bag of donuts while I was grabbing some girlscout cookie ice cream. Since the credit crunch is upon us and everyone is trying to save money, I could not in my right mind throw them out. So I starting eating two of them each morning for this past week. Uggghh. They are good, but 2 a day is pretty rough. I guess I know how Morgan Spurlock felt in that movie "Supersize Me" when he ate only McDonalds for a month.

I was half right about the Vegas race being a fuel milage deal, since a lot of the field got pinned a lap down late when the caution came out half way through the pitstop cycle. There were a lot more cautions than usual though, so a good bit of the field was able to stay on the lead lap for most of the race. You just have to love Kyle cueing the mic and going “Goodnight Gracie” after he blew by the 31. Pure entertainment.

Off to Atlanta this week. I think it snowed in the spring (winter?) race last year on the Saturday before the race. It is beautiful in the Carolina’s today (Friday) and will be this weekend, and I suspect the weather will be just fine in Atlanta as well. I think the big story this week will be the tires. The tire this year has a good bit more grip, so the speeds should be higher than last year. The setups will most likely have to change a little to get the balance back with added grip. With more speed comes more force on the car, so teams may need to change their bumpstop package a little, or maybe add some more spring in the car to keep the splitter from crashing into the ground. The teams with the best simulation will win the day on Friday, but after Saturday practice, the smaller teams should have a chance to catch back up and be fine for the race.

Atlanta has some nice big banking that rewards “over driving” the car. Look to the drivers that are known for driving a car in deep to be good in qualifying and the race. Robby has had a good past record at Atlanta, and the team will be buoyed by the good result last weekend. With Bristol looming, you should see another smart calculated race from the 7 car, so that there is no doubt about top 35 status after Bristol. It is difficult to pick winners with the top teams trading engine troubles from week to week. Roush is in a bit of a tizzy after last week and I don’t think they will recover for this week. I will go for 2 in a row for the 18, and I will tip Newman to get out of his funk and get a top 10.