The only thing in NASCAR uglier than Ernie Irvan is last Sunday's race at Bristol. I saw the first few hundreds laps, but I was wrapped up in a heated match of Trivial Pursuits. I must admit that I lost that match to our good friend Tim S. That wasn't Tim's only bit of good luck last weekend, as he picked Rusty Wallace to win the race.

 It's hard not to go with Rusty at Bristol, but a whole bunch of you completely ignored him. That's the problem when you pick your drivers according to the current point standings. Rusty was eleventh in points before the race, so you could've scored extra points by making him your surprise. Tim did the absolute max by picking Rusty as his surprise AND as his winner. The name Rusty earned Tim 35 points.

 Rusty was the winner for two reason: 1) he's great at Bristol, and 2) every other real contender got collected in one crash or another. Jeff Gordon, the man (I use the term loosely) who had one this race the last two years in a row, got hit late in the race. I gave up watching after Texas Thunder Bobby Labonte got hit by Mr. Idiot Robert Pressley. Bobby was definitely out of contention, but that wasn't enough for the track rubes. Bobby got hit by other idiot drivers on three separate occasions! This is the man who broke his shoulder less than a month ago, don't forget. He was all over Rusty until he became a car magnet. He finished 37th, and he lost a spot in the points. Tragedy, tragedy.

 As I said, Tim made some great picks this week. Here's what he had to say in his comments:

 Two people will shine this week -- Rusty and myself. The short track king will reign.

Sean, you're finished. A couple more DNF's from the Pretty Boy and your season is over. Thanks

for playing.

Unfortunately for Tim, three people shined this week: Rusty, Tim, and Sean. Sean managed to top Tim with some amazing and controversial picks. He chose Rusty as his surprise and as a top five finisher, so he got big points for that. He also had Jarrett and Martin dialed in. His big move, though, was going with Ricky Rudd as his DNF. At the end of the day, there were only 3 official DNF's for Sunday's race. One of those DNF's belonged to Ricky Rudd.

 So Sean maintained his grip atop the points. Duncan had a good week, getting three of the top five names right. He also had a nice poem for us:

Robin was Grayson,

When drivin' at Bristol

its rubbin' an' racin'

 Very nice. Before we get on to looking at this week's points chart, let me address the issue of excuses. It seems that a couple of pool members have been feeling under the weather because of allergies. Let's not name names here, let's just pretend it was somebody's mom and dad. Here's the deal: if Texas Thunder Bobby Labonte can drive 500 miles with a broken back, any one of us can click the mouse seven times and send in some picks. I don't want to hear no more crazy excuses. The only reason to not win the points every week is if you get thrown in jail. And if you do, BREAK OUT!!

Let's check this week's points. Don't forget to scroll down and check out the cumulative points table as well.