Random Las Vegas Observations

--Wasn't I just using that picture last week?

--Carl Edwards now has to be considered the favorite at Atlanta as well. Another 1.5 mile track, he's won there previously, and duh, he's rolling right now. I am afraid that he may not be able to keep it up for the whole season, but it would be fun as hell if he could have Jeff and Jimmie chasing him come October.

--The news that Red Bull is debating pulling AJ Allmendinger from the 84 shouldn't be any surprise. Allmendinger should have been started on an ABC schedule of some sort to ease the transition to stock cars, but was instead thrust into a fulltime Sprint Cup ride because Red Bull wanted to have two teams. He can turn it around, especially with Jay Frye overseeing the whole operation, but he's got to figure out how to qualify for the race first. At this point, taking him out of his ride is nothing different than leaving him in because he's not making the races anyway.

--If Darrell Waltrip hadn't kept mentioning Mike Skinner and Bad Boy Mowers, I would have had no idea that Bad Boy was sponsoring him this week. Of course, our Fox affiliate doesn't have an over the air HD feed, but I couldn't tell who was sponsoring that car. Word to Bill Davis: get some bolder decals.

--Elliott Sadler is 12th in points? Really?

--I'm going to have to disagree with David Poole, who is not happy that NASCAR is pushing a new statistic called Driver Rating instead of putting the money won in the agate box scores. At least driver rating--however the heck it's figured out--gives us a better idea of how a driver did. Tony Stewart made more money for finishing last than David Ragan made for finishing 6th. I know that Stewart's prominence and success and sponsor money has a lot to do with it, but can we at least agree that the money outside of what the winner receives is largely irrelevant?