We go from last week's race at one of the shortest tracks on the circuit in Martinsville to one of the longest and fastest tracks in Talladega this week.

We all remember what happened last time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series went to Talladega, right?

While leading the race, Carl Edwards tried to block Brad Keselowski coming through the tri-oval to the finish line and ended up going airborne and flying into the catch fence while spewing debris in all directions, including into the crowd.

Fortunately, there were only a few minor injuries.

As a result of that crash, NASCAR has increased the height and strength of the catch fence and changed the restrictor plate on the cars to decrease horse-power, which in turn decreases the speed of the cars.

Not only does driver skill play an important part in winning at Talladega, but so does the preservation of your racecar.

Denny Hamlin, last week's winner at Martinsville, had a bit of a crumpled front end on his car when he pulled into Victory Lane. If he had had that kind of damage on his car at Talladega, he would not have won the race, as the aero-dynamic properties of his car would have been greatly affected by the front-end damage, making his car more difficult to handle at high speeds.

Even though Hamlin won last week, Jimmie Johnson still managed to stretch out his point lead on his competition in the Chase. Most of the top 10 in the finish order were Chase contenders but Johnson still outran them by finishing second.

One driver who I was hoping would have a good day was Dale Earnhardt Jr., but unfortunately he didn't. His season has gone from disappointing to dismal in a hurry, and if it weren't for bad luck he wouldn't have any luck at all. Let's hope he has a good run this week as this is one of his better tracks.

Earnhardt has had a frustrating season, and the driver vented those frustrations to the media about a week ago.

His verbal outburst raised some eyebrows, both in the racing community and among the fans -- especially Earnhardt fans nicknamed Jr. Nation.

Dale Jr. easily has NASCAR's biggest fan base and when the Jr. Nation gets upset, everyone hears about it.

The Internet has been abuzz with fans' criticism of Earnhardt's treatment at Hendrick Motorsports, and jealously of Hendrick's other superstars has reared its ugly head within some factions of the Jr. Nation.

Let me tell you, Hendrick is a businessman and he does not play favourites -- the better each of his teams do, the more money he makes, and he wants nothing more than to have all four of his teams competing for the Sprint Cup Championship.

Now if one of his cars happens to not be in the Chase, then so be it. And if Hendrick decides to use that non-Chase car as a test mule for the other cars in the Chase or for next season (so the Jr. Nation accusations go), then that is what he going to do because it will make the organization better and that is the bottom line.

And if the organization gets better because of that, then so will Earnhardt's team in the long run.

But that doesn't mean Earnhardt can't win a race along the way, does it?

It would certainly quiet some of those more extreme critics in the Jr. Nation.