(Note: The picture on the right is from 2004. Yes, it freaks me out too. Thank you, Getty Images.)

If you remember back to one year ago, Kurt and Kyle Busch weren't exactly the happiest set of brothers in the NASCAR garage.

That's generally what happens -- brothers or not -- when you wreck each other while racing for $1 million. I will give credit where credit is due, of course, and say that Kurt Busch easily had one of the best lines of all of 2007 when he said "I definitely won't be eating any Kellogg's any time soon."

Since then, though, the relationship in the family between the two hasn't been the greatest. For much of 2007, a quote from one or the other came out about how they weren't talking or hadn't discussed things.

In other words, they just didn't want to kiss and make up.

Then Grandma stepped in:

Kyle said the two made amends after their grandmother asked them to work out their differences for the Christmas holiday.

"It was a little edgy to begin with because that was about the first time we'd ever sat down together," Kyle said of Christmas dinner.

"The more it kind of went, the more it kind of got back to normal and friendly and whatever. By the end of the night we were playing games and everything anyway."

Well isn't that just ... precious.

If nothing else, Kyle Busch is proving that his 2008 success at Joe Gibbs Racing is a total team effort.

The 23-year-old driver drove to the pole for Saturday night's Sprint Cup All-Star Race XXIV at Lowe's Motor Speedway, just ahead of former teammate Jeff Gordon and brother Kurt Busch.

The qualifying format for the All-Star event is much, much different than a time trial for any other race on the Sprint Cup Series schedule. Instead of a driver making laps on track alone, in the All-Star format the driver has to complete three laps and the pit crew has to perform a four-tire pit stop.

Kyle Busch's crew dropped a four-tire stop of 13.4 seconds, and that combined with his laps gave Busch an elapsed time of 121.956 seconds. Gordon had the same speed of pit stop, but was about a half-second off of Busch's time.

A few penalties were assessed including Dale Jarrett, Kevin Harvick, and Casey Mears earning five-second penalties and speeding on to pit road were Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards, earning each of them a 20-second penalty.

Jimmie Johnson's time was disallowed after missing a lug nut on the pit stop, pulling ahead, and then having service done outside of the pit box area by the Lowe's crew.

Kurt Busch's Miller Lite crew busted out a 12.9-second pit stop which was the fastest of the night. Harvick's team had the same time, but the penalty was a killer.

The Sprint All-Star Race XXIV is scheduled for Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. As the teams prepare for the winner-take-all non-points event, stay with the FanHouse all week for plenty of All-Star coverage.

"The Winston" in 2004 was the beginning of the end, you could say, for Kurt Busch at Roush Fenway Racing. The elder Busch from Las Vegas would go on to win the championship that year, but his antics in the all-star race sure didn't make him any friends.

Greg Biffle, his teammate, was likely at the top of the list as he got wrecked by Busch to set off a massive crash in turn one. Watch below at 0:46:



One lap after a restart, Busch got a big run down the frontstretch behind Biffle. By the time they passed the start/finish line, Busch was trying to push Biffle ahead, but instead, lifted Biffle's wheels off the ground. Biffle couldn't hang on, and lost it.

The ensuing crash took out many of the race's contenders including Biffle, Busch, Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Ken Schrader, Sterling Marlin, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, and Joe Nemechek.

Biffle's comments afterward definitely summed up Busch's move to the fullest extent.

It wasn't a particularly good weekend at Las Vegas for former champions of the Sprint Cup series in the UAW-Dodge 400.

Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Dale Jarrett, and Matt Kenseth all had trouble at some point during the event that saw a record 11 cautions.

Defending two-time champion Jimmie Johnson was just horrendous all day.

The highest-finishing past champ was Bobby Labonte in the 17th-position. The rest are counted down by their finishing position:

20th - Matt Kenseth, No. 17 USG Sheetrock Ford

Kenseth had a very decent run going Sunday and looked to be the more-dominant of the Roush Fenway group through the middle parts of the race. His trouble came after contact with Gordon off of turn 2 with four laps remaining.

Last season, a number of drivers were burned by the combination of the Top-35 rule and rain on the day of qualifying for several NASCAR Sprint Cup events.

Case in point? Boris Said.

The road course ace has tried to gather together sponsorship and a quality team together to compete in a handful of races every year, and his current situation has No Fear Energy Drink as the sponsor with support from Roush Fenway Racing.

That combination had Boris on the pole for last year's Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July -- until a rain storm canceled qualifying midway through the session, sending Boris home instead of into a race on the following night.

Friday, rain is possible and the NASCAR Scene has developed a list of go-homers in the event of rain. From the Scene:

The top 35 in owners points from 2007 are locked into the field. If qualifying is canceled, the first 35 positions are allocated by owners points from last year for the first five races of the season.

Barring any teams having missed the entry list deadline, the remaining eight spots would be allocated like this:

He wasn't on my picks, and more than likely he wasn't at the top yours.

But that didn't matter to Ryan Newman Sunday evening at Daytona International Speedway. Newman won his first-career Daytona 500 in thrilling fashion, his first win since 2005 in the Sprint Cup Series.

At the white flag, Newman didn't lead but Tony Stewart did with his teammate Kyle Busch coming fast. Off of Turn 2, the outside line that Ryan Newman was leading was gaining on Stewart with teammate Kurt Busch planted squarely in the rear end of Newman's Dodge.

Stewart ducked low thinking that he would head off a a charge by Kyle Busch and that he could use a push to keep the lead, but it backfired, and the Penske freight train powered past with Kurt shoving Newman to the lead.

Stewart later called it one of the most disappointing things to ever happen to him in his racing career as he was once again denied in a bid to win the Daytona 500.

The race ended with 7 cautions and all but 6 of those occurred after the halfway mark.

Amazingly, the highest finishing Hendrick Motorsports team -- all four cars were pre-race favorites -- was in ninth-place by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

NASCAR FanHouse will have plenty more coverage of the Daytona 500 coming to a screen near you.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage. On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.

Batting one thousand must be getting easier in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the first race of the Gatorade Duels at Daytona Thursday afternoon, his second win in as many races with his new team from Hendrick Motorsports.

Earnhardt Jr., who had to move to the back of the pack prior to the start of the race with a host of other drivers because of engine issues on Wednesday, found himself in sixth place by lap 12, and in the lead by lap 17.

He would lead 26 laps en route to his win, which locks the No. 88 into a third-place start in Sunday's Daytona 500. Without a doubt, Earnhardt Jr. will be a clear favorite to win the golden anniversary of The Great American Race.

Earnhardt Jr. won Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout.

Aside from Earnhardt Jr., Kenny Wallace and Brian Vickers were likely the two happiest people in Daytona after the first of two races Thursday. Both drivers are outside of the top-35 in owner points but managed to lock themselves in the field for the season's biggest race.

Wallace, racing for a team that he was fired from last season, took his Furniture Row No. 87 Chevrolet to an eighth-place finish. In post-race interviews, Wallace said he was "in a zone" and definitely couldn't be happier.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

I literally laughed in the middle of hotel lobby when I read today the penalties exacted on Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart for their antics last Friday night during Budweiser Shootout practice.

And yes, the girl behind the Starbucks counter gave me a weird look.

Probation was the name of the game for the two former champions who got into an arguing match with two 3,500lb race cars Friday night. Who cares if the actions have cost drivers points and fines in the past, for NASCAR is set about making NASCAR more user-friendly to people who like controversy.

Step one in that process is apparently slapping the weakest penalty known to man on the two drivers who consistently find themselves on the wrong side of NASCAR's ire.

Yep, Stewart and Busch earned a six-race probation for their antics. Nope, not a suspension. Not a fine. No community service. And nope, no points deductions either.

Probation.

We're talking about probation, man!

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

A major highlight of Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout wasn't the passes for the lead or Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s first victory with his new team.

Rather, it was Kurt Busch's impressive near-save after getting loose heading in to turn 3 that stood out as one of the best driving moves of the night. I'll let the video do the talking, but the coolest part was that Busch didn't actually spin out until exiting turn four and avoided creating a major pile-up late in the race.

See for yourself at the 0:36 second mark.



Awesome.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

Casey Mears can now add his name to the list as a candidate for penalties either this week or next from NASCAR due to rules infractions.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver competing in his first race Saturday night as driver of the No. 5 Kelloggs Chevrolet formerly piloted by Kyle Busch finished a strong sixth in the Budweiser Shootout. After his car went through inspection though, the mood changed a little bit for the team.

NASCAR found the No. 5 Chevy to be one-eighth of an inch too low in the rear, adding him to the tentative penalty box now filled by Mears, Kurt Busch & Tony Stewart (bumping and punching during Friday night's Shootout practice), and Robby Gordon (came to Daytona with the wrong Dodge nose on the car).

Mears' new teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the event.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson seemed quite perplexed by the finding.

"I don't think our adjustments were unreasonable, so I'm real surprised," Gustafson said. "It's the first time we ran the car here. We're trying to learn it and figure out what's going to happen. ... We'll collect all the pieces together and figure out what went on."

I don't know that you can really fault Mears' team here, nor would it be appropriate to lump this lapse in with last year's Hendrick penalties and the laundry list of bad deeds committed by Jimmie Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus.

Could one-eighth of an inch make a difference? Possibly. Should it really matter to a driver who finished sixth in a non-points race? I don't think so.