WHAT A SUNDAY

Let’s get the negative out of the way first before touching on some observations from Sunday’s Shelby 427 Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Were it not for Kyle Busch’s run from back to front the race would have been a parade with only a handful of meaningful passes at the front.

And I’m not sure why.

Could be the new-style cars share so many similarities.

The track keeps getting better, but still not much side-by-side racing.

BUSCH UPDATE

Sibling rivalry between Kurt and Kyle Busch has been reported in the past couple of years but that’s because of a seven-year age gap and not any on-track jealousy.

Despite a very disappointing effort from his Dodge engine, Kurt was quick to visit Kyle in the winner’s circle and congratulate him for putting the Busch name on the list of winners at their hometown track.

They embraced. Very touching.

Their mom, Gaye, was there too. The moisture on her cheeks might have been a little of the sprayed champaign, but it mostly was tears.

Can you imagine how proud she was?

What a shame Tom Busch, the family patriarch, remained back in North Carolina to oversee the Kyle Busch Motorsports team and construction of a new racing shop.

Tom is why the boys are the biggest names in American racing. Gaye gets credit that they graduated from Durango High with top grades; Tom gets credit for them becoming multimillionaires and race winners.

Heard a rumor that Kyle’s new shop could be big enough to house a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team, possibly the one he drives for part time.

PARTY DOWN KYLE

With heavy snow falling Sunday night around Charlotte, N.C., most drivers and teams had to delay flights back east until Monday.

That was perfect for Kyle and his team. What better place to celebrate than in Las Vegas.

And Kyle did it right.

According to TMZ.com, he paid over $5,000 for 10 bottles of champaign at Body English at the Hard Rock and used most of it to spray the crowd.

Check it out at www.tmz.com/page/2/

GOOD DAY FOR GOODYEAR

It was a great day for Goodyear, which prefers its publicists and engineers never to be interviewed. That’s only because if reporters want to talk to them it’s usually about tire failure.

The only tire failure I recall was when one of Jeff Gordon’s tires blew and that likely was from track debris.

Goodyear supplied a reliable tire compound this past weekend.

LITTLE ENGINES THAT COULDN’T

Toyota had problems apparently with lubricants that caused five Cup teams — including Kyle’s — to change engines on Friday. That forced each toward the back of the pack before the green flag waved on Sunday.

For Brian Vickers, it’s the second week he lost a solid qualifying spot because of mechanical issues for Toyota. But he rallied on Sunday to finish eighth.

Friday’s engine problems marked the second straight race when a Toyota pole winner -- Vickers in Fontana, Calif., and Kyle on Sunday -- had to go back at the start of the race.

But Toyota didn’t have major issues Sunday. The same can’t be said for Ford and Dodge.

Kurt Busch was running solidly in the top five until the midway point until his engine lost a cylinder. He still was able to finish 23rd and on the lead lap.

“We’ll take it for being on seven cylinders most of the race. We like the car that we had in California and the Miller Lite Dodge felt great running up front again here in Las Vegas.

“I felt like I had a car capable of winning the race. We just ran into a tough break that didn’t allow us to run the entire race on full power. We found a weak link today, but we’ll put our heads together and fix it and try to push as hard as we can next week in Atlanta.”

The Roush Fenway Fords of Matt Kenseth (lap 6) and David Ragan (lap 72) lost engines as did Mark Martin (lap 121) in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

OBSERVATIONS FROM A CUP INFIELD ROOKIE

Review-Journal assistant sports editor Dennis Rudner spent Saturday night and the wee hours of Sunday hanging out in the speedway infield.

Read his observations at www.lvrj.com/sports/40521227.html