FanHouse Kurt Busch

Fans have just voted Kasey Kahne's win in last year's Sprint All-Star Race the greatest moment in Lowe's Motor Speedway's storied history. After failing to qualify for the race, Kahne lined up on the starting grid thanks to the fans' popular vote, then promptly went out and snapped a 19-month winless streak.

Kahne's amazing effort that night, followed by a win a week later in the Coca-Cola 600, marked one of the best weeks of his Sprint Cup Series career.

The highlight reel has been considerably shorter for him since.

It took 97 races, nearly four years and lot of decision-making but 50-year-old Mark Martin is back in NASCAR Sprint Cup victory lane.

Martin led the most laps of the Subway Fresh Fit 500k -- he also started from the pole position -- to win Saturday night's 312-miler at Phoenix International Raceway during his first season back as a full-time driver with Hendrick Motorsports.

Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle rounded out Top-5 of the afternoon-to-evening event.

Gaye Busch has a very reasonable explanation for the simultaneous success of both her sons -- NASCAR's reigning super siblings Kurt and Kyle.

"We did everything as a family when they were growing up," Gaye Busch. "We just did things together."

And they still are. Only now the Busch family gatherings are happening every week in victory lane.

It wasn't a great week and change to be the assistant of Sprint Cup Series driver Kurt Busch after the Las Vegas native won the series' last outing two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Thanks to a nameless, peculiar victory lap Busch unveiled after the win by driving his No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge in reverse in the correct counter-clockwise fashion for a full lap, ideas poured from all corners of the NASCAR world on what the lap should be called.

And because, you know, that's what people in NASCAR do, Busch announced Friday that the lap's official title will be the "Unwind Lap".

Ladies and gentlemen, join me in welcoming back ... Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.

Let's hear it for Kurt.

It's been a while since he was a regular atop NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series leaderboard, but Busch is making an early-season case as a viable Hendrick-Roush-Childress buster -- a compelling alternative to the recent cast of championship characters.

Like his one-of-a-kind reverse victory lap at Atlanta two weeks ago, Busch and his Penske Racing team seem to be turning things around from a frustrating 2008 and what some consider an under-achieving tenure at the high profile team.

"You got to bang your head against a wall every now and then if you want to figure out what you need to do," Busch said Tuesday about his recent resurgence.

During one of only four off-weeks all season, it's a good time to breathe and check out the early-season statistics. It's way to early to come to any conclusions, but it's been an interesting few weeks of haves and have-nots.

Here's a look at who's getting the thumbs-up or thumbs-down as we prepare for one of the best shows NASCAR has to offer -- 500 laps at the half-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway next Sunday afternoon.

He may have ended the day going backwards, but Kurt Busch did just about everything right to stay up front Sunday.

As a result, Busch earned his first victory of 2009 in the Sprint Cup Series' Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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After two consecutive 40th-place finishes, Mark Martin desperately needs a rebound this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Lucky for him, thanks to a qualifying lap that made the driver "feel like a rookie," Martin will start Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 from the pole with Penske Racing's Kurt Busch alongside. Not bad for a driver that became the second-oldest pole winner in NASCAR Sprint Cup history.

NASCAR's tire supplier Goodyear better hope Sprint Cup driver Tony Stewart loses his voice this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, otherwise they might be for yet another public relations nightmare.

A year removed from a post-race tirade that saw Stewart tell the world he would dispose of any Goodyear product he owned because the tires created virtually no grip for the heavy stock cars, the problem appears to be creeping up again.

To make matters worse, even the driver of the best car on Friday at the 1.5-mile track talked about the lack of control he felt while making laps at NASCAR's fastest track.