Sprint Cup N's & Q's: Sharpie 500

Thoughts, ramblings and more from a 500 lapper in Thunder Valley.

Marcos Ambrose is certainly making a name for himself in the Sprint Cup Series, and the way he's doing it is just mind-boggling.

His Michael Waltrip Racing-prepared cars aren't on level with Hendrick, Roush or Gibbs and the guy truly has less experience in NASCAR-style stock cars than just about every driver out there. Yet, he's compiled 4 Top-5s and 7 Top-10s with a team that has obviously worked quite hard.

I'd say he's a shoe-in for the 2010 Chase.

I mentioned the battle between Mark Martin and Kyle Busch to close out Saturday night's race was a key element in why fans should realize that Bristol has changed for the better.

I still though can't get over how much car control each driver exhibited in the late-race dash for the win. Busch on the outside and Martin on the inside with inches to spare and hardly even a touch between them. It was NASCAR racing at its best, and for all the marbles at the end of the race.

Winning probably takes the cake, but I'd bet the adrenaline pumping through both Martin and Busch in the closing laps is a huge reason they do what they do.

There's been quite the precedent for Kyle Busch getting heavy boos from the grandstands, according to Martin.

"I'll tell you, anybody that wins a whole lot gets booed," said Martin. "Jeff Gordon never did anything, in my opinion, to get booed. And he got booed a lot because he won a lot. That's part of the sport. Kyle's incredibly talented and he's won a lot. That's part of it."

It's hard not to agree with that logic, especially after spending my fair share of time in the grandstands during Gordon's reign in the late ninties.

Jimmie Johnson disappointment has stretched to two weeks after running out of fuel at Michigan and then suffering a pit stop problem during the race's final stops on Saturday night at Bristol.

Ultimately, the issue ended up being a lug nut that had bounced up and lodged itself between the new tire and rotor, making it impossible for the rear tire changer to mount the left-rear tire appropriately. It cost Johnson, the leader prior to the pit stops, an extra pit road and likely his first win at Bristol.

"Fastest car out there," said Johnson after the race. "We should be in victory lane. It's just a bummer we had something on pit road screw us up. Just really disappointed."

I have a feeling that come Homestead in November, the disappointment will wear off. Yep, consider that my championship prediction.

David Ragan followed up his second career Nationwide Series win with a 14th-place finish Saturday night. Not great, but certainly not as bad as most of his should-have-been-breakout season has gone.

2009 has been terribly disappointing after the No. 6 showed so much promise at the end of 2008. He certainly could afford to make some late-season noise.

160,000 fans showed up to Bristol on Saturday night to sell out the joint yet again. Bad economy or not, all this talk about how bad NASCAR is doing is a bit premature if you ask me.

Show me another 'struggling' sport where 160,000 folks will show up. I've yet to see one.