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CBSSports.com's Brian De Los Santos and Pete Pistone provide analysis on three weekly racing topics. We welcome your question submissions. If you have a question or hot racing topic you'd like to see discussed, post it here . | Pete Pistone | Brian De Los Santos | | Should/will Kyle Busch's season be tainted by Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide Series cheating scandal at Michigan? | | Not at all. The Michigan dyno controversy has nothing to do with JGR's Sprint Cup effort. Busch has won in the team's Nationwide cars on a regular basis too, but I don't think what the teams did at Michigan relates to those victories at all. What Gibbs did at MIS is without a doubt the most blatant attempt of cheating an inspection process I've ever seen. I applaud J.D. Gibbs for stepping up immediately and rather than trying to hide or make excuses, take complete blame for his team's actions. But it should in no way have any kind of reflection on Busch, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin or Joey Logano for that matter. | The implication here, of course, is that even though Busch didn't run in the Nationwide race at Michigan, considering his wealth of success this season, surely this wasn't the first time JGR has flaunted the rules -- just the first time they got caught. And I can't say I disagree with that sentiment. However, there's an old axiom in NASCAR: If you're not cheating, you're not trying. Lest anybody forget, Carl Edwards' team was penalized following his victory at Las Vegas earlier this season. And two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson's 48 team drew major penalties from NASCAR in each of his championship seasons. My guess is that by the time the championship is decided, the JGR Michigan fiasco will be long forgotten by the vast majority. | | Are you happy with the changes to the 2009 Cup schedule? If you could make one additional change, what would it be? | | NASCAR got some things finally righted in next year's Cup schedule. Getting Labor Day out of Fontana will help attendance both at Auto Club Speedway, which now has a Chase date in October when temperatures won't be anywhere near the 100 degree-mark they are in late summer. That's smart. Moving it to Atlanta, which will certainly have a better chance at drawing a bigger crowd than it usually does in the fall, at least gets the traditional date back to the Southeast. And sliding Talladega down a couple of weekends also will be beneficial weather-wise and add a little spice to the last weeks of the Chase. But if Darlington could have just been put back on Labor Day with the Southern 500, the schedule would be pretty much perfect in my world. | I don't think the schedule is perfect by any means, but I think they took a big step in the right direction with some of the changes they made. I'd say what I like best is making the second Atlanta race a Labor Day weekend night event. I've always enjoyed the racing at Atlanta and I think a lot of fans will appreciate NASCAR putting the Labor Day race back in the south. There are still plenty of tweaks I'd like to see made to the schedule, including shifting the Brickyard to the final race of the "regular season," for reasons I've previously explained in my blog (though considering this year's Indy debacle, I may have to rethink that concept). That said, I continue to be mystified how Pocono warrants two stops. I personally wouldn't mind seeing Iowa added to the schedule. Why Iowa? I know it's not a huge market, but at least it's not another 1.5-mile oval (sorry Kentucky). | | Carl Edwards has won two of the past three races and is the defending event champion at Bristol. Is he the driver to beat this weekend? | | He'll be in the mix but I see Busch as the guy to beat. He's won there before and let's face it, every week he has to be considered a favorite. Look for Matt Kenseth to be the cream of the Roush Fenway Racing crop this weekend, another guy who loves the track and always seems to do well, particularly in the summer night race. Want a dark horse? How about Clint Bowyer who has fallen on hard times of late, but finished third at Bristol back in the spring. | I think Edwards could be a contender, though I wouldn't consider him the favorite on Saturday night. That win last season was just one of three top 10s he has in eight trips to the track. In this year's March race, he finished 16th. I'm actually thinking this could be a good weekend for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his 88 team to break out of their slump. Earnhardt has three top 5's in his past four visits to Bristol and seven top 10s in his last eight trips. | | Previous Feud of the Weeks: August 12 | August 5 | July 29 | July 22 | July 15 | July 8 | July 1 | June 24 | June 17 | June 10 | May 27 | May 13 |
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