A NASCAR insider breaks down Texas and the season

Even in his best season, Kyle Busch has given into his impatience at times, a habit he will have to avoid if he hopes to win at Texas. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Heading into Sunday's race in Texas, an anonymous NASCAR insider shared his thoughts with SI.com's Tom Bowles on what to look for in the Samsung 500 and some other thoughts on NASCAR nation:

"I certainly hope the tires improve this weekend. Goodyear, for the most part, does a good job ... but that tire at Atlanta was horrendous, it was terrible. If I graded that tire at Atlanta, it was worse than a D-. It was an F. I think it was the worst tire I've ever raced on. That's because a lot of times, Goodyear needs a little more variety of people doing the tire tests for them. Sometimes, they get misinformed, and then they go back and build a tire [that's wrong]. The first and foremost thing they want to do is keep the tire safe; but sometimes that backfires on them, because they're concentrating so hard in making it safe they forget that sometimes making a harder compound just wears the tire out even quicker because it's sliding instead of sticking. But one thing about Goodyear; they learn by their mistakes. The tire at Texas will hopefully be much better...."

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"Texas is like a lot of the mile-and-a-half, what I call cookie-cutter tracks, except it's a little bit unique. It has its own personality. You don't take the Atlanta setup, go to Texas, and expect it to be perfect ... because it's not. It has ... when you try to get off in the corners there, it doesn't scare you to death, but you need to have a good handle in getting back to the throttle and keeping the line straight coming off. It has its own personality."

"I really like the place. It's tried to kill me once or twice, but ... it's first class. Everything there has been done right, and the track is very accommodating to competitors. Just like how they handled the race track itself; they just kept on working on it until they seemed to satisfy everybody. When they built the track, it was structured wrong, designed wrong. But as the track has matured, it's gotten better. They've changed it, worked on it, tweaked it, and made it better and better. ..."

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"I think one of the biggest problems that we have right now is the bump stop. We had problems with them at Martinsville. I think that a couple of teams have got that figured out pretty good, and then there's the rest. Gibbs has got it figured out real well, but they started on it over a year ago, and they've done a lot of R & D, and they've had so many people working on nothing but that. So, they should be a little bit ahead. Obviously, the Hendrick teams are good -- but even the No. 48 is struggling a little bit right now with some of that stuff. RCR seems to be doing real well -- it's the same teams that no matter what you throw at them, they can figure it out pretty quick. Eventually, that knowledge spreads, but by the time that knowledge spreads, they've discovered new things."

"I think if you ask the drivers in the Sprint Cup Series, "Hey, what if they just raised the splitter an inch and outlawed the bump stops on these cars?" I would just about bet you that 90 percent plus would say, 'Heck, yeah.'The splitter needs to be raised up so it can sit on the springs, so we can do what we know how to do and go back racing again. Right now, this is a big science project, and it's not saving anybody any money. Trust me; it's costing everybody money. In NASCAR's defense, they say, 'You don't have to run bump stops.' Well, yeah you do; because if you don't run 'em, then you put too much spring in the car to hold it up, and the attitude of the car is wrong. If you can't get the pitch in that thing and get the full maximum benefit of the downforce with the aerodynamics, then you're behind."

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"RCR [the defending champ at Texas with Jeff Burton] is looking strong. I think that Burton has shown brilliance for quite awhile, and I think the No. 07 [with Clint Bowyer] had good runs last year. The No. 29 team [Kevin Harvick] is strong. I don't think they're overlooked as a championship contender; and I think if you could take some of the drivers' talent and incorporate it into some of the other drivers' patience and experience, you'd really have something. It's like if I could have Kyle Busch and a shock collar to calm him down so that he could be tame; he'd be unstoppable. That guy has no shortage of talent; but as we saw last week, he has a little shortage of patience."

"Speaking of patience, they'll be few people that will talk to [rookie] Michael McDowell this weekend [after he raised the ire of Jeff Burton at Martinsville]. As long as you got the yellow stripe on that back bumper, you're a marked man. And until you gain the respect of those guys, they're not going to be happy. If he races smart, and races fast, which I think the kid's capable of doing -- eventually, that respect will come, and people won't mind running around him. And if he messes up... NASCAR will sit him down. They have their way of taming these guys. ..."

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"Petty Enterprises is a tough situation. They've been here longer than anybody, and I don't want to see them fizzle out. With Kyle Petty's deal [the No. 45 car], Kyle needs to race as long as he wants to race, but at some point in time they need to find the next Kyle Busch to put in that car. Kyle's not the best driver out there, and he knows that as an owner, sometimes you've got to look at what's best for the team. A guy to talk to about that is Richard Childress; when he made the decision to get out of his car, and put a young guy named Dale Earnhardt in the car, that's why RCR is where it is today because of decisions like that. And I think the Pettys need to keep that in mind. That kid he's got in there this weekend [Chad McCumbee] can drive, I'll tell you that. He's the real deal."

"As for favorites at Texas, no surprises; look at Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, and the RCR cars and the Hendrick cars. They'll be tough."