Head2Head: Storyline of the 2009 season ... thus far

This season has been full of headlines, but I just can't get two amazing finishes out of my head. Carl Edwards flying into the catchfence at Talladega and Kyle Busch taking three hard hits at Daytona are my biggest storylines of 2009.

These are two of the more spectacular crashes we've seen in some time, and both occurred feet from the finish line.

At Talladega, Edwards was trying to block his way to victory only to get clipped by Brad Keselowski, sending Edwards airborne up the track. To make matters worse, Edwards hit Ryan Newman, propelling Edwards into the catchfence. It was violent and it was hard to watch.

But Edwards was OK. In fact, he climbed out of his car and ran across the finish line a la Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights.

Then last week at Daytona, Busch did everything he could to keep Tony Stewart behind him only to get clipped and sent up the race track in a hard, head-on collision with the wall. That was followed with two destructive hits -- Kasey Kahne rear-ended him at 190 mph and Joey Logano slammed into the No. 18 on the driver's side. Like Edwards' crash, it was violent and hard to watch, but Busch walked away.

Those two crashes should have injured the drivers -- but they didn't, because the new car has done exactly what it was designed to do. The biggest storyline for '09 is the new car has made racing more exciting again -- but more importantly, Edwards and Busch didn't require hospital stays.

Whether or not we want to admit it, a lot of us have egg on our face. About this time last year, when Tony Stewart announced he was going to be owner/driver for Stewart-Haas Racing, we asked what in tarnation he was thinking. Wins, much less the Chase, seemed in doubt. With two of the former and while leading the march to the latter, we should be asking ourselves what we were thinking to ever question him.

What Smoke has done in his dual role is nothing short of spectacular. While Haas-CNC struggled to make races last year, Stewart is so far ahead in the standings, he could take a race (or three) off and still be in position for a championship run. "Haas" and "championship" in the same sentence? Who would've thunk?

Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon have tried pulling double duty with tepid results -- and they probably had a few restless nights along the way. Stewart, meanwhile, looks like he could do this in his sleep. Outside of early-season bad luck for teammate Ryan Newman, both drivers hit the ground sprinting. The Rocketman's career has been cleared for liftoff once again and Stewart is on the short list of title favorites.

His numbers are staggering. Fourteen top-10s, 10 top-fives (including four runner-up finishes) in 18 races. Every other year that Stewart has led the standings, he took home the hardware. There's plenty of reason to believe Smoke can complete the miracle season and do it again.