Big Brother reminds us all he's still a champion driver

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Just when you begin to think maybe Little Brother is about to render Big Brother almost irrelevant, isn't it just like an older sibling to step up and remind everyone who was brought into this world first?

So it was Sunday with Kurt Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he ran away with the Kobalt Tools 500 in front of a sparse crowd that couldn't have been half the size of the 94,400 AMS and NASCAR had the audacity to announce as the official attendance.

Best brothers?

Kyle and Kurt Busch rank sixth on the list of brothers who have won in the Cup Series. But the duo could easily move up.

• Final Turn: Sibling rivalries
• Your Turn: Join the discussion

Actually, to say Busch ran away with his first victory of this young season and the 19th of his Sprint Cup career is a bit of a misnomer. He dominated most of a scheduled 325-lap race, but then had to come from behind after a late caution and pit stop that preceded an unexpected green-white-checkered finish and pushed the event to a lap total of 330.

"It was like I ran two different races, one for 500 miles and one for the last three laps," Busch said.

He was good enough to win both. He led 232 of the first 325 laps, dominating the field -- then needed less than half a lap to get around Carl Edwards down the backstretch and lead the last two to the checkered flag.

His philosophy on the day was simple, if not flawless. Despite a Driver Rating that NASCAR pronounced as perfect, he brushed the wall on at least three occasions when he mentally dispensed with the strategy that propelled him to the front in the first place.

But he never let his mind stray for long.

"I felt like I raced the track, not the competition," Busch said. "It felt like old-school Darlington, old-school Rockingham. The tracks here in the Southeast chew up tires.

"The times I did brush the wall, I was just being stupid, trying to race the competition. I lost track of the ultimate focus, which was just driving the race car, knowing how many laps you have on your tires, having confidence in the pit crew."

Bragging rights?

Even though he is a former champion, having won the very first Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in 2004, and he owns six more career Cup victories than younger brother Kyle, these days you would hardly know it.

Kyle, who won the Camping World Truck Series event at AMS on Saturday, has been raking in the family's lion share of accolades since going on a hot streak early last year that made it seem a little role reversal with his older bro was in progress.

Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't. (Continued)