This is going to be a very interesting weekend for Carl Edwards, whose career, suddenly seems to be at a crossroads of sorts. Ever since his creepy confrontation of teammate Matt Kenseth at Martinsville on Sunday night, Edwards has been the subject of intense media scrutiny. (Heck, I wrote about him earlier this week). Much of the talk has focused on his personality. Is he the genial, good-guy that we see on television every weekend? Or is he just another jerk whose smile vanishes the moment the cameras turn off?

I don't know the definitive answer to that one, but I know plenty of people on the Cup circuit who would channel Grampa Simpson and say, "Mmm, a little from Column A, and a little from Column B!" In other words, the rumors about the existence of "two Carls" are nothing new. What's different now is that there is evidence out there for all to see ... and having seen it several times, I know how it would incline me to vote. Gotta love youtube.

So, to take a question straight out of a Bergman film, can Edwards reclaim his identity? Or maybe the better question is, can he decide on one?

He took a step in the right direction on Tuesday by issuing a fairly unqualified apology. And it was good to see him complain about the dynamics of his Roush-Fenway team. As any management trainee can tell you, identifying the existence of a problem is the first step to solving it. Yes, Greg Biffle has opened up this week about the fact that Edwards, and not Kenseth, is the problem at RFR. But at least there's an honest discussion going on. From everything I've been reading about Edwards this week, such forthrightness doesn't seem to have been his strong suit, at least in the Cup garage.

It seems clear that an honest, warts-and-all Edwards would be good for everybody at this point. Such a thing would certainly have lessened the creepy impact that his youtube-moment has had on his image this week. If I were to point him toward a driver to emulate -- and I can't believe I'm saying this -- it might be Tony Stewart, a prickly personality who makes no attempt to hide the fact that he's a prickly personality. If such a persona represents Cousin Carl's true colors, then he would be doing everybody a favor by showing it rather than trying to be somebody he's not.

Tony Stewart discusses how Atlanta's 1.5-mile oval differs from others on the Cup circuit:

You move around a lot more. The surface gets more and more abrasive each time we go there. The neat thing is that the times fall off so guys move around on the racetrack more. Everybody starts at the bottom, and the fast guys normally end up right around the wall midway through a run. That is something that is different than Charlotte and some of the other tracks on the circuit. Fast guys ran at the top and at the bottom at Charlotte. Other than that, it's shaped exactly like the other ones are."

• 115: Number of points separating leader Jeff Gordon from Clint Bowyer in the standings.

• 111: Number of points separating leader Jeff Gordon from Terry Labonte in 1996-the year Labonte won his second, and final, Cup championship.

Thanks to Carl Edwards and his near-assault on teammate Matt Kenseth(see above), the ol' meter had another strong week.

Fans strain to get a glimpse inside Jeff Gordon's garage before a race, a scene to which the current points leader is accustomed.

November 8, 1998: Jeff Gordon caps off a championship season by winning the Cup finale at Atlanta, his 13th victory of the year. The '98 title is Gordon's second in a row.