Food City 500 at Bristol: Winners and Losers

With all the talk of how Bristol can be cruel to even the leader of the race, it seemed like it was pretty tame out there on Sunday, even though some were fighting for their spot next Sunday at Martinsville. Here are the winners and losers from this weekends race.

Winners

Kyle Busch

Three weeks in a row the white flag was paced by a Busch brother. Not to be out done by his older brother Kurt who dominated at Atlanta, Kyle Busch led 415 of 503 laps on Sunday to collect his second win of the season.

Points: Fourth

Jimmie Johnson

In pre-race Jimmie Johnson said he considers not winning at Bristol Motor Speedway at any point in his career to be a personal failure. So, Johnson delivered, posting a third place finish, his best career race at Bristol.

Points: Ninth

Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon is always the groomsmen, never the groom. This team has to be wondering when all the positioning themselves for wins will start to pay off.

Sunday Gordon struggled all day with the handling of his race car. Still, he came home with a fourth place finish. It's only a matter of time until this team pulls out a victory, and Martinsville could be just the place.

Points: First

Bubble Boys

There were  a lot of them coming into Sunday and two of them delivered.

Mark Martin

He has had no luck so far in 2009. Blown engines and tire issues had set back this team coming into Sunday's event. Martin was in need of a good run to avoid having to time this way into Martinsville. All he did was go out and win the pole and finish sixth in a very uneventful day at Bristol. Remember, its one race at a time.

Points: 31st

Ryan Newman

Ryan Newman has always been a great qualifier in the Sprint Cup series, though he has seen his share of tough luck as well. Friday he won the outside pole next to Martin and ran within the top 10 all day long. Newman brought home his best finish this year, ending the race in seventh. The off week gave this team exactly what they needed.

Points: 27th

Marcos Ambrose

To be honest when I saw him sitting in second, I didn't think it would last long. Boy was I wrong. He ran with the leaders all day long, and finished 10th, even though he had been running on seven cylinders. To say this outing was a surprise is an understatement. The question now is will this be a one week wonder or will we see him run well at Martinsville?

Points: 24th

Losers

Carl Edwards

He was a favorite coming into this event, but struggled all weekend with his car and was never even a contender.  Edwards was racing in the back of the pack for most of the day and struggled to stay on the lead lap. A 15th place finish was far from the results they were looking for.

Points: Fifth

Joey Logano

It's a tough year to be rookie in the Sprint Cup series. Racing is only in its second year of the current car and teams are still figuring out the changes.  On top of that you throw in the testing ban that has all but eliminated seat time for drivers.

Joey Logano needed seat time, he needed to run laps, and he needed to learn the tracks. If the testing ban has hurt anyone it has been the rookies.

The much talked about Logano has struggled every week. His best finish was 13th place at Las Vegas. Sunday marked the first time Logano had ever raced at Bristol and it showed. They struggled to stay on the lead lap and ended up with a blown engine.

They were already on the bubble coming in now going into Martinsville, while they are guaranteed a spot, they can't afford any mistakes.

Points: 34th

Brian Vickers

After nearly winning at Atlanta two weeks ago, Vickers had momentum going into the off week, but what a difference two weeks can make. This team was never even a factor, they qualified 27th only to finish in 29th. The last thing this team needed was an off week.

Points: 14th

Final Lap

With all the talk of Bristol being such a scary place for drivers the race wasn't all that impressive. Many drivers complained of not being able to complete a pass on a driver.

We saw some three wide racing from time to time but really the race was not as good as many had predicted or hoped.

Now that we have raced on every type of track, besides a road course, the contenders have worked their way to the top.

The top 12 is starting to take form and we could see a change in a few drivers leaving and entering the top 12, but historically they're not many changes.

On to Martinsville...