Kyle Busch comes of age with impressive Atlanta win

With his victory in Atlanta, Kyle Busch showed both he and his Toyota equipment were capable of winning at any track.

Five things we learned on Sunday at the fastest track on the NASCAR circuit: Atlanta Motor Speedway:

1. Kyle Busch made quite a statement.

Forget for a moment that Busch's win in his Toyota Camry was the first victory in NASCAR by a foreign manufacturer since 1954. More impressive is that he's now proven he can run well at every type of track the circuit visits. He's led laps on a restrictor-plate track (Daytona), a flat track (California) and on two intermediate tracks (Las Vegas and Atlanta). If Busch has a weakness, it's that he can get overzealous at times, but so far in 2008 he's showing patience, maturity and discipline.

While chatting with Busch in the infield at Daytona, I asked him when would the Toyotas be up to speed with the Chevys and Fords. "March," he said. "Just wait until March."

Well, March has arrived -- and so has Busch.

2. It's official: Jimmie Johnson is struggling.

For the second straight race the setup on Johnson's car was dramatically off, causing him to struggle with handling. How slow was the two-time defending Cup champion? He went a lap down midway through the race, before salvaging a 13th place finish.

After four races it's clear that Johnson and the rest of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers don't have a mechanical advantage over the rest of the field like they did last year. Hendrick won half of the races in '07, but they're 0-for-4 in '08.

3. Speaking of Hendrick, there is a nice story developing within the organization. For the third time this season, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., was Hendrick's top performer. He came in third and is now sixth in the points. More telling, his teammates are already going to him for advice; before Sunday's race Jeff Gordon quizzed Little E on his setup and essentially copied what he was doing.

"Everything seems to be working out really good," says Earnhardt. "I just want to keep it going. You know what I mean? I'm just trying not to make any mistakes. They gave me great, great racecars. They're pretty confident in their ability, so hopefully I can do my end of the job."

So far he has.

4. The biggest surprise of the season is Brian Vickers.

Last season was something of a nightmare for Vickers. Driving for Red Bull, a startup team, he failed to qualify for 13 races and finished 38th in points. But this offseason Toyota made significant strides in its racing program, and no one has benefited more than Vickers. On Sunday he finished ninth and is now ninth in the points. The '03 Busch Series champ hasn't been spectacular this year -- he only has one top-10 finish -- but he's avoiding trouble on the race track and has come in 20th or worse only once.

Will Vickers make the Chase? It's unlikely given that Red Bull is still at least two years away from being an elite team, but Vickers is clearly on the rise.

5. The Vegas hangover hasn't gone away for the No. 99 team.

Carl Edwards has been the most dominant driver of the season, even though he blew an engine late on Sunday and finished 42nd. He's won twice and appeared poised to take his third checkered flag on Sunday. Yet there's a whiff of scandal emanating from this team that isn't going away soon.

The story of the week in motorsports, after all, was NASCAR slapping the No. 99 team with a 100-point penalty for failing the post-race inspection at Las Vegas because Edwards' car was missing the lid from its oil tank box. The punishment prompted Geoff Smith, the president of Roush Fenway Racing, to throw some verbal spears back at NASCAR, arguing that the team did nothing wrong and that the lid merely fell off due to a faulty part.

Then things got interesting. According to a story by my friend Nate Ryan at USA Today, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) tested a car in a wind tunnel that was missing its oil lid. The result: The manipulation of the oil lid gave the car more downforce in its rear, which gives the car better grip on the track and allows the driver to get through the turns a tick faster. Lee White, the general manage of TRD, then accused the No. 99 team of blatantly cheating. Jack Roush responded by saying everyone on his team would be willing to take a lie detector test to prove that they didn't do anything nefarious.

What struck me about this tête-à-tête was the fact that Toyota was so willing to flex its muscle and publicly criticize an established figure such as Roush. Last year, as Toyota struggled, the heavies at TRD often seemed hesitant to say anything remotely controversial. But now? Well, they're so confident that they're calling out one of their main competitors. Stay tuned, because this story is far from over.