Busch takes pole, Kahne looks to build on All-Star win 
Kyle Busch ran a fastest lap of 185.433 on Thursday to take the pole position for Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600. Kasey Kahne, looking to build momentum after an impressive win in the All-Star Challenge, qualified second making for a formidable front row featuring two of NASCAR'S hottest young guns. Kahne's season starting promising with four top-10's in five races, but has yet to find consistency as of late. Busch on the other hand has been arguably the best driver up until this point of the season, winning three races and riding high atop the Sprint Cup points standings. Kahne will be attempting to lay the ground work on a much more consistent season compared to last year, while Busch will try to stretch his points lead over Jeff Burton into triple digits.

TOP PICKS
Kyle Busch: The aforementioned Busch has been on an impressive early season tear, picking up wins at Atlanta, Talladega, and Darlington. The points leader has not had the best of luck at Lowe's in the past, but with his momentum this may be his best shot at winning one of NASCAR's premier races.

Kasey Kahne: Kahne smoothed over doubts that he was capable of putting together a solid string of runs by passing Jimmie Johnson for the victory in the All-Star Challenge. He will be going after another big payday, but will have to contend with drivers that will be on their best game. Kahne swept both Lowe's races in '06 and is starting to figure out what it takes to make it to the Chase.

Jimmie Johnson: Mr. Lowe's himself has collected five wins at his sponsor's track, sweeping the season's races there in '04 and the '05 seasons. Johnson is usually a virtual lock to finish in the top-five or above, but his best finish there last season was only 10th. Most drivers would take that any year, though Johnson seems to hold himself to a higher standard here since he owns on this intermediate speedway.

SLEEPERS
Brian Vickers/A.J. Allmendinger: Allmendinger managed to hold off a hard-charging Sam Hornish Jr. to take Sprint Showdown to get in the All-Star race. And with Vickers qualifying third, this pair of teammates could give the wily vets a run for the money Sunday night. Vickers may be the most likely to surprise fans, but Allmendinger running up front and showing signs that he's starting to "get it" in NASCAR may be a sign he is ready to take the next step.

Greg Biffle: Biffle hasn't broke the top-10 at Lowe's since finishing seventh two seasons ago, but is racing for a major extension with Roush Fenway. Never underestimate drivers with jobs on the line. Biffle has 11 career wins at intermediate tracks.

Jamie McMurray: Kahne's season hasn't been nearly as inconsistent as McMurray's. He had his breakthough win at Lowe's while subbing for Sterling Marlin in only his second Cup start. McMurray will need help, but he has proven he can get up front and keep a lead here.

NO CHANCE
Ryan Newman: Newman has never had good luck here and has not finished above 27th in his past four races at Lowe's. Will at least look to avoid finishing in the latter half of drivers in this race.

Juan Montoya: The driver everyone loves to hate has yet to score big at any intermediate track that isn't a road course. With Marlin filling in for Franchitti and Reed Sorenson being the only other Ganassi driver in the field, Chip might have a better day with his Indy Cars than his Cup teams.

Elliott Sadler: Sadler hasn't finished on the lead lap at Lowe's since the spring race in '05 when he finished 13th. Sadler might have a small window to chase the leader if he gets towards the front where teammate Kahne is, but look for him to keep sliding back.

Whether you believe in jinx or not, there is no doubt that the Reds appeared to be cursed when it comes to playing on the West Coast. Even back when they played in the NL West, how many times have we've seen a trip to the Left Coast cost this team. It's still early in the season, but after cruising through last week's homestand with two series sweeps over first place team, the Marlins and Indians, Dusty Baker's bunch once again finds themselves in the NL Central cellar, seven games behind the Cubs with a record of 21-26.

Much has been made this week of the team's struggles out west, particularly in Los Angeles, where the team has not won a game since July 28, 2005.  Nine straight losses to the Dodgers in L.A.  To put that into perspective, the has changed owners once, general managers twice and managers three times. Only eight of the current 25 players on the roster were around when Cincinnati last departed the ballpark winners.

However, it's not just Los Angeles where the team struggles, in fact they are only 9-22 on the West Coast since 2006. Who can forget the 2-9 mark they turned up on the critical late August road trip in '06, when the Reds were very much still in the race?

Maybe there is just too much being made out of all of this though as closer look reveals the team pretty much has struggled everywhere that is not Great Amercian Ballpark. Keeping in mind that the team has had a winning season in seven years it's staggering to see the difference between their home and road performance since the opening of GABP in 2003.

Year - Home | Away
2003 - 35-46 | 34-47
2004 - 40-41 | 36-45
2005 - 42-39 | 31-50
2006 - 42-39 | 38-43
2007 - 39-42 | 33-48

The team entered their current road trip having lost 18 of their last 19 road trips since 2006. The only winning trip in that span was Aug. 14-19, 2007. Barring a sweep of the Padres that number will soon be 19 of 20 losing road trips. The team is already sporting a 7-18 away record in ‘08 and if they can reverse that trend will be looking at an eighth straight losing season.