Atlanta offered good, clean race without controversy

See what happens when you run a race without something akin to Sterno in your fuel? When you don't almost cleverly conceal bleeder valves? When you don't completely reinvent the wheel, err, tire? Or the track it rolls on for that matter?

I noticed it during the Kobalt Tools 500. Perhaps you did too: a race completely undiluted by penalties, controversies or expulsions.

Stewart miffed, Johnson sorry

Tony Stewart was upset after finishing second in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta. He claimed Jimmie Johnson pinched him into the wall while making the race-winning pass. Johnson didn't deny it, but was apologetic afterward.

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There was no slight of hand involved in Juan Montoya's impressive fifth-place finish. Remember, this was his first visit to the fastest track on the Nextel Cup circuit. Juan showed us a ton of poise all race long. Watching Juan, the 42 team and the entire Chip Ganassi Racing organization assert themselves like that is great for the sport. Notice has been served.

Speaking of notice, did you happen to catch Matt Kenseth's pit stops? If you blinked, you missed 'em. His pit crew is a legitimate difference-maker. At the end of the season, I'll bet they're worth 250 championship points in positions gained during pit stops. Somebody check to see if they're not robots, too.

Much to the relief of everyone involved, Goodyear made the right call on tires for Sunday's race. Nobody complained about wear or grip despite the harder right-hand side compound, the high speeds and Atlanta Motor Speedway's highly abrasive asphalt.

This week, everybody behaved. The best were on their game. And everybody's attention was focused on the race. As it should be.

Sure, it may not have been the most exciting racing during the prolonged green-flag conditions, but the finish was all anyone could ask for. It all came down to the day's two best cars -- driven by two series champions -- and wasn't decided until the closing laps when the right balance of car-to-car and car-to-wall contact was achieved.

Enjoy it while you can because next week, it all gets thrown out the window. Drivers will behave as they always do at Bristol. Plus it's the debut of the Car of Tomorrow.

While I'm sure NASCAR will expect teams to be very close to matching the templates, as they were during testing a few weeks back, I think it's also safe to say that NASCAR will exercise a reasonable amount of latitude in this first, full-on race application. And we all know that whenever NASCAR exercises a little bit of latitude, it often leads to a boatload of trouble.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.