Joshua and Cheryl have been offering up their own personal sets of HeartRacers~HeartBreakers for each race. The moments that stirred them for whatever reason will fall in the HeartRacers category, and anything that makes them wince, cry, or throw stuff will be HeartBreakers. All cawsnjaws readers are invited to add on their own to share with everyone.

While ‘Miles the Monster’ stepped on some teams on Sunday, others escaped that fate and enjoyed varying degrees of success. No matter which drivers the fans in attendance followed, however, they all must have left knowing they saw an exciting race with a blood-stirring finish.

HeartRacers:

• The rain was holding off and Benny was in the booth. What a wonderful way to start off the day.

• Happy Birthday, Allen Bestwick. Are you sure we can’t start a fan club for you? There’s a lot of ‘Besties’ out there, we just know it.

• Figure skating star Kimmie Meissner was Wally’s guest passenger on ‘Wally’s World’. Her screams were cute, not shrill and irritating. Has anyone else noticed how much Wally enjoys scaring his passengers? The more frantic they get, the wider he smiles.

• It was cool to hear Hulk Hogan give the call to the drivers, “Start your engines, brothers!”

• Fans of Carl Edwards (No. 99 Ford) had to enjoy the race a little more today than in recent weeks. He started sixth, and finished second. Despite at one point forgetting which race he was in and nearly passing up his pit box (thinking he was still racing yesterday’s Busch race), he had a good day.

• The happy story of the day was undeniably Jeff Burton’s (No. 31 Chevy) victory. It had been a long time in coming (since 2001), and he battled Kenseth (No. 17 Ford) hard for it. Lots of drivers stopped in Victory Lane to congratulate him, and his fans could finally let out the breaths they have been holding for a long, long time. Thank you, TNT broadcasters, for not focusing on Kim’s face for any longer than you did. Jeff Burton deserved the spotlight, and we are sure Kim appreciated most of the attention going his way, too.

HeartBreakers:

• Joshua says that Brooke Hogan’s rendition of the National Anthem was the ‘worst he’s heard yet’. Cheryl says it’s unlikely he’d say that in front of Brooke’s father.

• We imagine that there were a lot of fainting females in the audience as on lap 11 Tony Stewart (No. 20 Chevy) got into Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Dodge) and both sustain heavy damage. Stewart declined interviews while his car was being repaired. The broadcast team then showed a clip of Stewart in a previous interview stating how important it was to him to stay out of the way of any of the drivers in the Chase. Kahne was gracious and calm in post-wreck interviews, but clearly and understandably disappointed.

• We are thinking that David Ragan (No. 06 Ford) isn’t feeling very welcome in the world of Cup racing. First Ken Schrader gets into him on lap 22 and sends him spinning; then on lap 48 Ragan spins hard into the wall.

• It’s doubtful that the crew of the No. 48 team are pleased with the crew of the No. 45 team. During a pit stop on lap 23, someone from Kyle Petty’s pit crew knocked one of Jimmie Johnson’s tires out onto pit road, and the penalty went to Johnson’s team. We’re thinking that Johnson must have broken a mirror or something to have such atrocious luck.

• Speaking of atrocious luck, shortly after lap 100 Kyle Busch (No. 5 Chevy) was reporting his engine has blown. On lap 115 he was heading to the garage, and stated this his chances to win the Chase were done.

• Another Chaser, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 8 Chevy), had troubles through the race. TNT even came back quickly from a commercial break on lap 330 as it was reported that he feared a tire going down. When all was said and done Earnhardt finished 21st.

• On lap 168, Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Ford) lost 18 spots due to a bad pit stop. He battled forward, though, and by the last laps of the race was masterfully keeping Jeff Burton from passing him for the lead. On lap 394 Burton made the pass, but Kenseth could still not claim second place as he ran out of fuel. In post-race interviews Kenseth stated that he did not know that his fuel situation was so dire. Ultimately he finished a respectable 10th, and did not lose any positions in the Chase standings.