NASCAR Update. One Busch Brother Comes Up Big While It Might Time to Worry About the Other

Atlanta Motor Speedway had been kind to Kurt Busch in 2009. Busch took the checkered flag in the Kobalt Tools 500 in 2009 even though his brother, Kyle Busch, was one of the favorites to win the 2009 Sprint Cup and appeared ready to dominate NASCAR.

Three-hundred and sixty five days later, Atlanta has proven to be kind once again to Kurt Busch. The only difference for the Busch brother this time around, however, is the fact that brother Kyle isn’t doing nearly as well in 2010 that he did in 2009.

Kurt Busch used a couple of lucky restarts, one on Lap 332 after Carl Edward’s retaliating attack against Brad Keselowski brought on by an incident that occurred on Lap 40 and the other a 7 car pile-up in Turn 3 to cause the 11th caution of the day, to secure the victory. The race went 16 laps, or about 25 miles past its scheduled distance, because of the two restarts. Busch secured the lead from Clint Bowyer on the second consecutive green-white-checkered and took home his second straight Kobalt Tools 500.

While the older Busch and his crew were celebrating, the younger Busch, Kyle, was looking for answers. Before the season started, Steve Addington, who had run Kyle Busch’s crew in all of 2008 and 2009, both incredibly successful years for the younger Busch, had jumped ship to work with Kyle’s older brother Kurt. It paid off this past Sunday when Kurt and Addington took the checkered flag in Atlanta.

For Kyle Busch and his crew chief, Dave Rogers, Atlanta was yet another disappointing run. Something isn’t right for the driver that has dominated NASCAR’s regular season two years running. Kyle Busch hasn’t finished better than 14th in any Sprint Cup race in 2010 and in Atlanta, he finished 25th. Granted, a lot of strange things happened on Sunday, but Kyle and Rogers don’t appear to be on the same page half of the time.

We shall see what happens, but perhaps Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch are already kicking themselves for letting Addington get away from them.

The Real Montoya Stands Up

Now, that’s the Juan Pablo Montoya that began to emerge in 2009! After a great run in the Daytona 500 where he finished 10th, Montoya had finished 37th in both the Auto Club 500 and Shelby American respectively this year. He bounced back on Sunday.

Montoya had a chance to win the Kobalt Tools 500 before Edwards pulled of his retaliatory attack against Keselowski. The Edwards’ incident was bad luck again for Montoya, but keeping his cool and simply continuing to drive with purpose led to a 3rd place finish in the Kobalt Tools 500.

Montoya’s car has been very good during qualifying rounds this year and he no doubt has learned how to drive on the Sprint Cup circuit. He should keep the good times rolling for a while and could emerge as a serious threat to Jimmie Johnson in the Chase.

Harvick Continue to Impress While It’s a Bad Day for Hendrick

Even when Kevin Harvick’s car isn’t doing well, it’s doing well enough. Harvick continued his terrific 2010 by finishing 9th in the Kobalt Tools 500. It was Harvick’s 4th straight Top 10 finish. Harvick is leading in points in the Sprint Cup standings.