I'm going to surprise you; I'm not going to talk about the Edwards vs. Keselowski incident.  While that is the biggest story of the week, Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 had multiple layers of appeal that need to be examined.  In this post I'll briefly touch on ten of them that could generate some discussion.    

1) Tire Issues

The person happiest about Edwards turning Keselowski and sending him airborne in Atlanta is Goodyear tire chief Stu Grant.  (OK Denny Hamlin is probably the happiest person but Stu Grant is no lower than second on this list)  Reason being is that Goodyear would have been on the hot seat after this race for the number of tire failures that occurred.  Robby Gordon, Mark Martin, David Ragan, Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin all had issues of varying degrees with the tires Goodyear brought.  While this was absolutely nothing like the debacle at Indy a few years ago and I do believe that many of the tire issues were the team's fault for being too aggressive with the setups, there were a whole bunch of tire problems Sunday that need to be reevaluated. 

2) Early Surprises

Paul Menard and Scott Speed finished 5th and 10th on Sunday and are 9th and 11th in the points.  This means that if the Chase started today they would both be involved in it.  I know it's early but that's still really impressive for a couple of drivers who finished 31st and 35th in points last year and they deserved to be noticed.

3) Still Some Work To Do

Dale Jr. won the pole and recorded the fastest lap ever in a COT on Friday but couldn't even lead a single lap of the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday.  The 88 team still has a steep hill to climb if they want to compete with the elites. 

4) A Champion's Performance 

Kevin Harvick showed us another reason why he is one of the favorites to win the title this year.  After running in 20 something place all day long, the #29 team slowly made the car better and better as the race went on, got a wave around, made up a lap, and avoided all the carnage during those late race restarts to finish 9th.  Those are the things championships are made of.

5) The Sleeper

Kasey Kahne is stronger than his finishes show this year.  While the Nascar box score may read 17th in points with finishes of 30th, 34th, 9th, and 4th, don't be fooled; the #9 is better than that.  He won his leg of the Twin 150's and showed speed all week at Daytona before getting caught up in a late race wreck in the 500, had what I believe was a top 5 car before crashing at Fontana, was running 5th before he got a pit road penalty at Vegas, and led the most laps this this week at Atlanta before failing to keep up with track changes and constantly getting in the wrong lane on late race restarts.  The bottom line here is that with the possible exception of the Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne is closer than anyone to catching the Hendrick and Childress Chevrolets.    

6) Brotherly Love?

Speaking of Kurt Busch he beat his brother to victory lane this year.  Why is this so significant you ask?  Well Steve Addington, the man who helped guide Kyle Busch to 12 wins over the last two seasons is now Kurt's crew chief.  It's still too soon to form any conclusions, but early indications are that the #18 team may end up lamenting letting Addington get away. 

7) What Might Have Been

Kurt Busch may have never won Sunday's race however if it wasn't for the Keselowski caution coming out in the closing laps.  Montoya had closed the margin down to 0.6 seconds with three laps to go and was catching Busch at 0.2 seconds a lap.  I'll let you do the math for yourself but I believe we were headed for yet another Atlanta photo finish.

8) Clint's Choice

One topic I haven't heard anyone mention so far this week is Clint Bowyer's lane choice on the first green-white-checker restart.  His options were A: (Restart as the leader in the inside lane with Jamie McMurray who only has two fresh tires right behind him) or B: (Restart as the leader in the outside lane with Kurt Busch who has four tires and has been the fastest car on restarts all day long right behind him)  Bowyer chose option B and boy was it the wrong call.  Not only had he fallen to 6th by the time he got to turn three, but he ended up in the huge accident and finished 23rd.

9) What Might Have Been #2

The lane choice intrigue doesn't end there however.  Remember, Kurt Busch was starting 4th (second car on the outside lane) and Montoya was starting 5th (third car on the inside lane) on that restart.  If Bowyer chooses the inside line, that means it's Montoya's and not Kurt Busch's lane that moves first.  While Kurt Busch was great on restarts all day, the end result might have been Montoya winning the race.     

10) Chad Knaus is the Man

In case you're not yet convinced Chad Knaus is the best crew chief in Nascar, the Atlanta race gave you another really good reason to jump on board with that line of thinking.  During Sunday's race, the 48 team was pitting in a really congested area of pit road with Kasey Kahne right behind them and David Gilliland right in front of them.  You may have noticed that despite David Gilliland staying on the lead lap the entire race, he wasn't pitting with the leaders during cautions in the second half of the race. That's because Chad Knaus somehow convinced the 38 team to wait another lap before pitting so Jimmie could have an easier time exiting the pits.  You may not like Chad Knaus but you have to admit, he's pretty amazing.