NASCAR notes

Tryson, Kurt Busch will part ways after season

Crew chief Pat Tryson, who has been working with Kurt Busch, will leave at the end of the season, reportedly to work for Martin Truex Jr.'s team in 2010. Truex declined comment yesterday.

Busch said that the team would finish the season, including the Chase, before they parted ways. He added that the timing of the announcement was not ideal.

"It's unfortunate that Pat made that type of decision," he said. "It seems like our focus right now should be on the Chase and making it in the Chase, so it's a tough week for that type of news."

After qualifying 13th, Busch needs only a respectable finish tonight to hold his spot in the top 12 -- he's currently seventh.

Wallace keeps ticking behind the wheel

Kenny Wallace might be better known as the brother of Rusty Wallace. Kenny Wallace might be better known as a NASCAR analyst for SPEED.

Kenny Wallace would prefer to be known as a race car driver, and he has a point.

Last night in the Virginia 529 College Savings 250, Wallace made the 800th start of his career. That places him 17th on the list of the 3,821 drivers who have competed in the three NASCAR series -- Sprint, Nationwide and trucks.

He is only the third driver to start 400 Nationwide races (444). Wallace has nine Nationwide victories, 64 top-fives, 159 top-10s and 10 poles. He's finished in the top 10 in the standings in eight of the 11 seasons he has driven on the circuit full time.

"I'm humbled by fact I've been hired to drive someone's race car for 20 years," Wallace said.

He is not humbled by the fact that more people know him for his TV work than his driving.

"It drives me up a wall," Wallace said. "My mother taught me to never use word hate, and I hate it. If I could quit TV, I would do it. But it pays too much money and brings too much sponsorship."

Hamlin's car was worse for the wear

Denny Hamlin said his stolen car was "bad" when it was recovered.

"I think they probably lived in it, to be honest with you," he said.

The Associated Press reported that police found Hamlin's courtesy car, a 2008 Lexus LS, after it was spotted last week in Charlotte. Tomaceeta Hampton was charged with possessing a stolen vehicle and released on $15,000 bond.

Hamlin, a former Chesterfield County resident, lives in Davidson, N.C. His house has security cameras, and video showed two men walking up the driveway Aug. 18 and leaving in the $50,000 car, The AP reported.

"I guess he's stolen about 30 cars in his life, which you've got to wonder why he keeps getting out," Hamlin said. "I guess he stole Joe Gibbs' car out of his garage six or eight years ago or something like that. It seems like you would at least go out of town or something instead of just riding around in Charlotte. Everyone knows it's my car. Eventually, once they played it on the news, they caught him the next day.

"Idiots."

Edwards still can put best foot forward

Carl Edwards still is on crutches but said his foot shouldn't be a factor tonight. Edwards fractured his right foot last week playing Frisbee.

He still managed to finish seventh at Atlanta.

"It's better than my arm pits from these crutches," he said. "I thought I'd have more trouble at this track, but the extra week of time has made my foot feel a lot better, so it really shouldn't be an issue. I thought it was going to be more of an issue last week, but that ended up being the least of my concerns during the race. It was fine."

Double-file restarts add to excitement

Several of the drivers said they believe double-file restarts will play a factor in the Chase. NASCAR instituted the double-file setup in early June.

"I keep saying we still haven't seen the worst case with these double-file restarts," Edwards said. "You still could have that massive wreck at a place like Texas or California . . . so it's something you have to treat with respect."

Brian Vickers said he thinks the restarts have been great for the sport, but there's "more opportunity to mess up.

"If there is a crash on a restart, it's going to be bigger and it's going to collect a lot more cars," he said. "There's going to be times when it's going to affect the outcome, but to say that it couldn't have happened in a single-file restart either would be difficult."

-- Michael Phillips, Tim Pearrell and Paul Woody