| Those new Volkswagen commercials are weird. | | | | In fact, Edwards swept Atlanta in '05, and was dang |
| You know the ones: some dude is sitting behind the | | | | good on the similarly configured tracks in Charlotte |
| wheel of his new VW, hearing Darth Vader voices in | | | | and Texas, too. In those six events last season, he |
| his head. Someone else is telling him he's got to slow | | | | won three times, came third once, and 10th another |
| down---his girlfriend, his buddy or a police officer---but | | | | time: best in the biz. It'll be important for us to look |
| the Vader voice is adamant: he must go faster. The | | | | at recent history at all three tracks this week. They |
| camera cuts to a weird shiny little gizmo, from | | | | really are almost identical: 1.5-milers with a full 24 |
| whence the voice is presumably coming. Cue the | | | | degrees of banking. That means the best cars may |
| tagline: "Make Friends With Your Fast." | | | | not even have to get out of the gas as they go |
| Huh? | | | | through the turns, and it also means danger is this |
| I don't get it, but it's appropriate as the Smokeless | | | | race's middle name. Let's take a look at who stands |
| Set heads for Atlanta Motor Speedway. Which is | | | | out as the best values for the Golden Corral 500. |
| very, very fast. Until the 2005 season, Atlanta was | | | | Last Week: Well, it was a crusher. Matt Kenseth |
| considered the fastest unrestricted track on which | | | | dominated the race and had it sewn up with four laps |
| the good ol' boys run. In '05, Charlotte was | | | | to go, when NASCAR called a lame, unneeded and |
| resurfaced, which made it slightly faster (to | | | | made-for-TV caution. Johnson had been slowly |
| disastrous effect: tires kept exploding), and Texas | | | | gaining on Kenseth, but wasn't going to catch him |
| was slightly faster last season as well. But Sunday | | | | without some help. He got it. Johnson passed |
| afternoon in Atlanta, you won't be able to tell the | | | | Kenseth in Vegas the way Edwards passed Johnson |
| Nextel Cuppers that there's any place in the world | | | | in Atlanta last spring, and I scared the heck out of |
| that's scarier. Atlanta is a 190-mph maniac's paradise: | | | | my dogs yelling at the TV. Nevertheless, Tony |
| bumpy, wide, high-banked and dangerous. We'll | | | | Stewart did win his head-to-head battle against |
| probably see some long green-flag runs, but we'll also | | | | Edwards, so I finished the week marginally ahead: .43 |
| see drama. What could've been better than Carl | | | | units to the positive. For the year, then, I've had two |
| Edwards passing Jimmie Johnson on the final | | | | winning weeks out of three events, for a total of |
| straightaway in this event last year? | | | | plus 1.87 units. Ah, but what might've been.... |