Coming out of the Food City 500 at Bristol, it’s exciting to hear people talking about the racing rather than controversy. It was rain at California, oil tank covers at Las Vegas, and Goodyear tires at Atlanta. Bristol was about 500 laps of hard nosed racing, and a late race pass for the win.

Questions of the track’s race-ability with the new surface were put to rest last weekend. The fall race last season went on the conservative side with the Chase looming, but points seemed to be far from every driver in the top 5’s mind in the last 15 laps at Bristol. Passes were made low, high, and by means of contact. The old Bristol was back, proving once again why the race sells out every time the Nextel Cup circuit makes a stop there.

Joe Gibbs racing was the best thing to happen to Toyota Racing Development in NASCAR. Each Gibbs car saw the front last Sunday, and each one had a legit shot at taking the checkers first. Kyle Busch had a rare power steering malfunction, and Denny Hamlin suffered from fuel pickup issues similar to the ones seen last year at Atlanta. Tony Stewart was wrecked by hard charging Kevin Harvick for the lead in the closing laps.

“I thought I left him plenty of room, but I don’t know. I was far enough ahead of him that I didn’t see where he hit me or when he hit me. I’m sure some how it was my fault. I’m just sorry I got in his way,” Stewart said on the race impacting incident.

Jeff Burton came from seemingly nowhere to steal the win late in the race and lead Richard Childress Racing to its first 1-2-3 finish. Harvick was thought to be the favorite in the RCR camp, but fresh tires and a mechanical failure on Hamlin’s car handed the win to Burton in a green/white/checkered finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. praised crew chief Tony Eury Jr. following his third top five in a row. Earnhardt struggled through the early part of the race, but the 88 crew made some positive adjustments to get Earnhardt into the top 10 late in the race. Not taking tires with the majority of the lead lap cars potentially lost them the race, but a top five wasn’t lost. Earnhardt moved to 5th in the points, only 96 out from leader Busch. His fifth place finish led a surprisingly mediocre Hendrick Motor sports, which is searching for last season’s championship form from the 24 and 48 teams.

NASCAR can be applauded for how the organization handled the rains at Bristol last weekend. They called off qualifying earlier on than usual, knowing conditions weren’t going to improve. Friday tickets were refunded. On Saturday, the Nationwide race was run to halfway in a long afternoon, and called after a red flag at lap 164. Nationwide teams would not have and stick around to finish the race on Monday.

Top 35 points move to 2008 starting at Martinsville, and following an Easter weekend off for the Cup teams. Kyle Petty will remain in the 45 car despite finding himself out of the top 35. Many well funded teams will find themselves as go or go home drivers in Martinsville. Former open wheel drivers Dario Franchiti and Patrick Carpantier have struggled early on, and will need to qualify next race.