Kyle Busch drives during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Todd Warshaw/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

Meanwhile, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Labonte and Ryan Newman are free agents now, their respective contracts all ending after this season. And with Richard Childress Racing adding a fourth car and UPS apparently looking to leave Michael Waltrip Racing, this will be the busiest and most significant silly season in years.
Some final thoughts from Talladega:

It was good to see some new faces up front and good for the sport, too, though restrictor-plate racing is such a different animal that it’s hard to read too much into the Aaron’s 499 results. Still, four of the top six finishers had their best results of the season, including Juan Pablo Montoya (second), David Ragan (fourth), Brian Vickers (fifth) and Travis Kvapil (sixth). Casey Mears matched his best finish of 2008 with a seventh.

It was very nice to see Kvapil’s car carrying sponsorship from Northern Tool + Equipment and freecreditreport.com back on the Yates Racing Ford of his teammate, David Gilliland. In its first season, and with little sponsorship, the Yates squad has done a fantastic job. Gilliland has finished 15th in three consecutive races and is now 18th in points, five spots ahead of Kvapil.

Two of the sports powerhouse teams, Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing, had disappointing outings. Hendrick, which had won four consecutive races at Talladega, could muster only Mears’s seventh and a 10th from Dale Earnhardt Jr. as its best finishes.

And while Ragan had a stellar run for Roush Fenway Racing, blown right-front tires put both Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards into the SAFER barriers, Kenseth finishing 41st, one position ahead of Edwards. Kenseth is now 19th in points and in very real danger of missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the first time.

So now it’s off to Richmond and some Saturday short-track racing. See you there.

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17, as well as provide more than 90 hours of

support programming prior to the event. Stay tuned to SPEEDtv.com for frequent updates on the history of the event and all the details about this year’s action.

Watch and Win!

Get this widget!