NASCAR announced Tuesday night that Jimmy Watts -- gas man for the No. 47 car driven by Marcos Ambrose -- has been suspended for four races for actions in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The suspension applies to races at Bristol, Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix. He and crew chief Frank Kerr were also placed on probation for the remainder of the calendar year. No fines were announced.

Watts was penalized under NASCAR's catch-all rule, 12-1: "actions detrimental to stock car racing" and also rule 9-15-U: "crew members must not go on the race track for any reason while the cars are racing or while the cars are running under the yellow flag or the red flag, unless otherwise directed to do so by a NASCAR official". Kerr was penalized for violating rule 12-1 and rule 9-4-A: "crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of the team".

Watts initiated a lap 67 caution period in the middle of pit stops by attempting to retrieve a loose tire that had rolled into the quad-oval grassy area on the front stretch. The yellow flag put much of the field a lap down early in the race, dropping most drivers out of contention. (See this report filed by Nicole Manske for ESPN.)

Kurt Busch took back his lead with two laps to go and conquered a very slick racetrack at Atlanta Motor Speedway to win Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500. It was the first win for both he and manufacturer Dodge on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit since June of last year in Loudon, NH. Busch dominated the event, leading 234 of the 330 laps run.

Busch was leading the race with four laps to go with Brian Vickers chasing him down when Robby Gordon blew a tire in turn two, throwing debris on the racing surface and necessitating a final caution period. During the yellow, all lead lap drivers elected to pit for gas and tires. Carl Edwards came out of the pits with the lead after deciding to take on only two tires. He was followed by Busch and Jeff Gordon.

On the ensuing restart, Busch blew by Edwards exiting turn two and held off a challenge from Gordon on the white flag lap to take the victory. Edwards finished third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Vickers fifth.

Most drivers struggled to get grip on the surface all day long with Goodyear's tire package. By the final third of the race, shadows from the sun setting and partly cloudy skies helped tighten the track up and bring many teams to the front of the field, but few were ultimately able to challenge Busch.

The strangest incident of the race resulted in the ejection of Jimmy Watts, crew member on Marcos Ambrose's team. The incident occurred on lap 67 during green-flag pit stops. Most of the field had pitted except a handful of the leaders. During Ambrose's pit stop, a changed tire rolled away from the car. Watts chased the tire down, which had rolled well into the grassy area separating pit road from the front straightaway, forcing NASCAR officials to throw the yellow flag. This placed most of the drivers a lap down, and after the few remaining leaders had pitted, forced them to restart on the tail end of the lead lap.

The Sprint Cup series takes next week off, and then returns to action at Bristol, TN on March 22.

One can't help but believe that engine builders on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit are looking forward to one of those rare off weeks coming up in mid-March. After a rash of engine failures to start the season, a little downtime will probably be welcomed.

Chevrolet was the first to get in on the action when Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were forced to retire from the race at Fontana with blown motors. Bad valve springs provided by a third-party vendor took the blame for these. In the same race, Kevin Harvick crashed from what was initially thought to be another blown engine. The team later announced that actually the oil cooler had been punctured, which caused Harvick to slip in the oil and crash out of the event.

When the tour rolled into Las Vegas on Friday it was Toyota's turn to feel the pain. Eventual race-winner Kyle Busch was the first to be forced into an engine change, after only logging four laps in the first practice session. By the time the day was done, four other Toyota teams were swapping out engines, three for lubrication problems with the cam lifters and the other for another failed valve spring.

Ford didn't fare much better; the Roush-Fenway Racing team blew up three motors in Sunday's race. Matt Kenseth -- going for three straight victories -- had barely turned a lap until he realized there was a problem. Five laps later he had pulled behind the wall and was done for the day. Then David Ragan went up in smoke, followed shortly thereafter by Martin's second straight blown motor, this time for a broken rod. Carl Edwards almost made it to the finish, retiring with two laps to go.

Jack Roush attributed his teams' failures to a bad car setup, causing broken valves. According to NASCAR.com, the Roush team misjudged the speed increases caused by the new Goodyear tire compound.

"We had a choice of which rear axle ratio to use, and we used the higher of the ratios, and it was 200 RPM more than the other ratio would have been. We just made the wrong choice from a crew chief and from an engineering point of view on that. If we can go back looking at it, I'd say I'd need to have more margin in the engine, and it needs to not be that close to its limit. We'll be wiser going to Atlanta."

Everyone will have to be wiser going to Atlanta. The track is one of the fastest on the circuit of those where engines are unrestricted; topping over 9,000 RPMs on the straights is quite common.

Hey... this is why they run 500 miles.

Kyle Busch picked up the lead with 17 laps to go and held on through a pair of restarts to win the Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.  By doing so he simultaneously became the first driver to win from the pole and win from the furthest back starting position at Las Vegas.  Busch won the pole position on Friday but started at the rear of the field due to an engine change.

Matt Kenseth's attempt to make history by starting the season with a third consecutive victory quickly went up in smoke on lap 6 after engine failure.  Roush-Fenway teammates David Ragan and Carl Edwards also retired with blown engines, Edwards with just two laps to go.

With six laps to go, Jimmie Johnson crashed in turn two to bring out a race record 14th caution.  On the restart, Busch drove his Toyota away from Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer to take the checkered flag at his hometrack.  Bowyer passed teammate Burton on the final lap to claim second place.  David Reutimann finished fourth and Bobby Labonte was the top finishing Ford in fifth.

Jeff Gordon rebounded from a blown tire on lap 220 to finish sixth.  Gordon missed pit road coming down for a stop, locked the brakes, and blew out the left front, causing significant body damage.  Rounding out the top ten were Greg Biffle, Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Johnson, Biffle, and Burton combined to lead most of the laps.

The circuit moves to the fast Atlanta Motor Speedway next weekend before taking a week off.

For the first time in their careers, the Busch brothers have qualified together on the front row for the Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at their home track in Las Vegas, NV.  It was Kyle who ended up with the pole, smashing the track record with a lap of 185.995 mph.  Kyle knocked his brother Kurt off the pole by just 45-thousandths of a second.  The top 7 cars qualified within a tenth of a second of the pole time.

Twelve drivers broke the track record set by Kasey Kahne in 2007.  Cool weather conditions and a Goodyear tire with more grip were largely credited for the increased speeds.  Mark Martin was the first driver to take time and was the first to break the track record.

Qualifying third-fastest was Jimmie Johnson, followed by David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Ryan Newman, Kahne, Martin, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart.

Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered setbacks in qualifying after hitting the bumps in turn one and washing up the track on their first laps.  They'll start 28th and 31st, respectively.

Matt Kenseth is looking to make history Sunday by becoming the first driver to win three straight races at the start of the season.  Starting 40th, he'll have his work cut out for him, but Kenseth has two career victories at Las Vegas.

Kyle Busch's record-setting pole run is a bit moot; the team had to replace an engine before qualifying and therefore, like Brian Vickers last week, Busch will have to start the race last.

Matt Kenseth held off Jeff Gordon through the final 20 laps to win the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway, kicking off the NASCAR Sprint Cup season with two consecutive wins.  Kenseth, who won last week's rain-shortened Daytona 500, beat Gordon to the checkered flag by just over a second.

Jimmie Johnson and Gordon dominated the first half of the race, but Kenseth's team consistently got their driver out of pit road first and by the time nightfall came Kenseth was the man to beat.  His teammate, Greg Biffle, sported a solid car most of the night but overshot his pit stall on the final round of stops, pinning the air hose under the front wheels.  The mistake cost him several positions, but he rebounded to finish fourth.

Kyle Busch, after winning two NASCAR races Saturday, had to settle for third place Sunday night.  His brother Kurt rounded out the top five.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired with engine troubles 40 laps from the end.  Shortly thereafter, Kevin Harvick blew his engine and crashed in turn one.  The race was slowed on several occasions by rain showers.

Matt Kenseth is only the fourth driver to back up a Daytona 500 win with a second consecutive victory.  Richard Petty did it in 1973 (Richmond), Cale Yarborough in 1977 (also at Richmond) and Gordon in 1997 (Rockingham).

The tour resumes next week at the 1.5-mile tri-oval in Las Vegas, NV.

Kyle Busch led all but 12 laps of competition Saturday at California Speedway, snagging a pair of victories in the process.  Busch started the afternoon with a win in the San Bernardino County 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, leading 95 of 100 laps.  He then followed it up with a win in the Stater Bros. 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday night.

Busch dominated both races before sparse crowds, yielding the lead only during pit stops.  In the Nationwide race, Greg Biffle brought out the final caution with 20 laps to go by crashing in turn 1.  On the subsequent pit stops, Carl Edwards' team was able to get him out quick enough to pick up the lead, just beating Busch's car to the pit exit line by a few feet.  But on the restart, Busch tapped Edwards lightly exiting turn one and was back into the lead by the time the field hit the backstretch.  He was left unchallenged for the remainder of the race.  Edwards finished fourth.

Kevin Harvick took second place followed by Busch's teammate Joey Logano.  Edwards' teammate David Ragan rounded out the top five.

Busch will try for the weekend sweep from a 10th place starting position in Sunday's Auto Club 500.

Sprint Cup Final Practice

Jimmy Johnson was fastest in the final Sprint Cup practice session, posting a lap of 179.582 mph.  The remainder of the top five included Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin and Biffle.

Reed Sorenson crashed at the beginning of the practice session and will have to start a backup car at the rear of the field with pole-winner Brian Vickers.