A few odds and ends, emptying out the notebook after battling the weather coming home from Richmond -- wait a minute, seems like "battling the weather" was the phrase of the weekend, as the forecast loomed darkly over everything.

In the end, it was a blessing that the weather only dampened pre-race activity, delayed the start a bit and then doused everyone as they headed for home after the checkered flag.

That's two in top 10

Another race, another impressive performance by Stewart-Haas Racing, that now finds both drivers in the top 10 in points after Richmond.

• Complete story
• Press Pass: Tony Stewart
• Post-race: Stewart, Newman
• Video: Stewart, Burton battle

Stewart was right

The tire combination Goodyear had in play was perfect for a number of competitors, but none so much as Tony Stewart and, by having the joy of observing his work, a lot of fans.

Knowing how hard the tire manufacturer works to get its best feet on the race track, and knowing Stewart's history of verbal abuse, it was great to watch Stewart come to the front, and then better yet to hear him describe the wild action that included a track record-tying 15 cautions.

"The magic was four bolt-on tires," Stewart said. "As odd as this is going to sound, I've been impressed with how hard Goodyear is working. They continue to not sit on their hands. I mean, they keep trying different things and keep trying to find combinations that make it better for us."

And how? Unlike most of the 1.5-mile tracks, lapped cars were maddeningly (if you were the leaders) competitive and a number of them were able to out-run the leader to get laps back, most notably Reed Sorenson late in the race.

"It's nice to not have to sit there and just rely on track position -- it's nice to know that you can bolt on four tires and it's going to make a difference and takes the track position game out of the equation," Stewart said. "I mean, it still worked for Kyle [Busch], but at the same time the tires helped Jeff [Burton] and I drive through the field, too. I think that makes it exciting for the fans to watch versus just being able to stay out there for the last hundred laps and every time a caution comes out just stay in line and not seeing any passing."

Stewart and Burton's exquisite ballet around the wickedly-fast short track was something to behold and Stewart, more than anyone, certainly appreciated it. In fact, he didn't name names but by comparison, Burton seemed a candidate for sainthood in the owner/driver eyes.

"That's the great thing about a guy like Jeff Burton -- you trust him," Stewart said. "There are a lot of guys out there I don't trust anymore after [Saturday] and watching their antics out there on the race track. Jeff, Mark Martin, those are the guys you are used to running with. Trust me, [Burton] didn't let me have it [Saturday], he made me earn every bit of it. We ran with each other the majority of the night [and I'm] just glad that we both had the opportunity to come in there and get tires and race.

"There were some guys that were less than impressive to be around [Saturday night] but I guess that seems like as time goes on there is less etiquette and less give and take and more idiots out there than we have ever had before. We survived it, got through it and had two cars in the top-four.

"Guys that you normally see give and take a lot, there's less and less guys doing that every week. It makes it harder and harder to have good, clean racing like that when you have guys that are two, three laps down that are racing their guts out. They're trying to get their laps back. At the same time it makes it hard when you're at a short track to do much more than that."

Wait a minute -- didn't Tony just say the fans saw a great show? They did, and dealing with the lappers, who had every right to race their guts out to get those laps back, was certainly part of it.

Mutual respect

Stewart continues to rate races for how his Stewart-Haas Racing team has continued to excel, with the owner garnering his fourth top-five finish in his last five races and teammate Ryan Newman getting his sixth consecutive top-15 and fourth top-10 in those six races. It put both SHR guys in the top 10 in the standings.

It's got a lot of people's attention, but in response to a question directed at Stewart, Burton felt compelled to throw in his two cents, and as it usually is, it was eloquently and accurately delivered -- and reflected the hugely positive change thousands of people have seen in Stewart.

"It's been impressive to watch the change, the mentality that Tony has brought in there about not being there just to be there, but to be there to win," Burton said. "I'm not sure I remember a team changing possession -- you know what I mean, a new owner stepping in and the turnaround being what it's been.

"He's making other people want to go and own their own cars. That's probably not a good thing, but it's been real impressive to watch."

It has been impressive, but to think anyone could do what Stewart and the former Haas CNC organization have done is ludicrous. It ain't gonna happen, any time soon.

In-house brawling?

With Kyle Busch's recent record, it makes you wonder, even in this challenged economy, how much success Joe Gibbs Racing will continue to have and how they'll succeed in doling out races and keeping those sponsors happy.

In no particular order, in the last two seasons Busch has delivered the first victories for Toyota in the Cup Series, sponsors Snickers and Combos in the same division; and for Z-line and NOS Energy Drink in the Nationwide Series. Could be forgetting a previous trip to Victory Lane, so cut me a break, but the bottom line is, as Busch's fan reaction gets more and more positive, the pressure to spread him around can only grow.

“

I've got to tell you, what I hear is more and more cheers. I think generally fans appreciate great effort.

”

-- JOE GIBBS

Saturday night, when Busch took the race lead from Jeff Gordon, all that could be heard from the crowd, wearing a good set of headphones, were cheers -- loud ones.

Don't care what Shrub has said before about not caring about his image. He's always cared about his fans and it's nice to see some of that reflecting back on him.

"Pretty cool," Busch admitted. "They enjoy racing here at Richmond. I'm not sure how many passes there were for the lead out there [but] to make ours stick on the outside like that for the win, you know, really meant a lot [and] the fans enjoyed it. They saw a great race here, I felt like."

Team owner Joe Gibbs, obviously, has a lot of bias; but his assessment was pretty spot-on.

"I've got to tell you, what I hear is more and more cheers," Gibbs said. "I think generally fans appreciate great effort. I think they appreciate somebody that's really, really good at something. I think that's what's coming across with Kyle. I think he's special as a driver."

I'd second that motion.

Another fan favorite

Carl Edwards still has a ways to go before he gains on Dale Earnhardt Jr. as racing's "Pigpen," that is, carrying a mass of people clamoring for autographs, a word or a touch, with him wherever he goes so that from a distance they look like a dust cloud surrounding the man within.

Edwards had to move from the Nationwide garage after final practice to get to his Cup car and a miniature mob surrounded him. But as he usually does -- and certainly as Earnhardt does, as best as he's able -- Edwards apologized for having to keep moving, but signed as much as he could.

Wins: Thru Richmond

	2008	2009
Cup Series	2	3
Nationwide	3	3
Truck Series	2	2

Despite Busch's stunning 2008 NASCAR record for victories in a season, nothing he's done so far this season makes this writer think Busch in 2009 won't eclipse his total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck). Richmond got him back on track, in fact, ahead of the curve as he scored his second weekend sweep in the last two seasons; so it's 8 down (3 Cup, 3 Nationwide, 2 Truck), 14 to go.

His 2008 win total at this point was 7: 2 Cup, 3 Nationwide, 2 Truck, so as Busch himself said with a laugh after leaving Victory Lane at Richmond for the first time in a year and a half, "it's felt like forever [since winning]. We've gone four or five weeks in a row of 17th or worse in the Cup Series and it's just frustrating. We've had runs that have been better than that; we've just taken ourselves out of the running toward the end of the race."

And with Busch going to Darlington, where he's the defending Southern 500 champion, look out.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.