It was typical Bristol. There was plenty of beating and banging with a little controversy mixed in. For Kurt Busch there was a feel good ending to a tumultuous week. And as the summer winds down Silly Season is about to heat up. Here are some of the sidebar storylines from Saturday's Sharpie 500.

The changing face of Busch: Kurt Busch went from victim to villain to victor all within a span of six days.

Last Sunday, Jimmy Spencer punched Busch. By Monday afternoon Busch was the one being blamed for starting the altercation on the race track. Finally, Saturday night he ended the most difficult week of his career in storybook fashion, winning the Sharpie 500.

"It's big. To compare it to the Ford Centennial win in Michigan or my first win here at Bristol, this one caps all of them," said Busch. "This was a pretty emotional week for me. Just letting the team know that I'm there and the team was backing me a hundred percent. We had to move forward."

Still, NASCAR fans can be very unforgiving. Despite winning one of the most grueling and competitive races of the year, Busch was booed vehemently in Victory Lane.

"This place lets you know how you did," added Busch in a humble tone. "You know a lot of people had their different side of it. But the way that we ran the race obviously showed the side that we wanted to focus on."

Memorable moment: Much will be made of what transpired on lap 373. Battling for the win, Kurt Busch ran into the back of Sterling Marlin, causing him to spin while the two raced for second place.

"I got to (Marlin) and I didn't think he'd yield to me that quickly," said Busch "I was running him for second and he wanted to let me go going into Turn 1 'cause he knew I had a faster car. And I was looking forward to Turn No. 2 and passing him and we ran into one another."

For Busch, who was place on probation because of last week's altercation, the incident drew an immediate warning from NASCAR and an unforgiving chorus of boos from the fans.

"I know the fans didn't dig it," acknowledged an apologetic Busch. "And I didn't want to put NASCAR in a position to make a call on me and I just felt horrible and I had to apologize right away."

Stat of the week: With the win Busch has now won eight races in the last 17 months. To put that in perspective, that's the same number of wins Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart -- the last two Winston Cup champions -- have combined.

Hard luck award: Mark Martin, who qualified second and ran among the leaders most of the night, saw his evening come to a halting conclusion on lap 347.

After a pit stop during which he dragged his gas can outside of his pit box, Martin was penalized and forced to start at the end of the longest line. That put him deep in traffic and proved to be hazardous. He and Johnny Sauter got together shortly thereafter and Martin wrecked, prematurely ending what was otherwise a solid night.

	Schrader has been strong over the last two races.

Spectacular crash: It wasn't so much the quality as it was the quantity. If you're a sheet metal collector Bristol was the place to be. There were a record 20 caution flags Saturday night.

Championship turning point: If Matt Kenseth holds on to win the Winston Cup championship -- and it looks like he will -- people will point to Bristol as the place where he sealed the deal.

As always Bristol is a crapshoot, anything can happen and it usually does. However, Kenseth seemed to live a charmed life, catching several fortunate breaks and turning the night into another top-five finish.

Early on, Kenseth cut a valve stem and was just about to come down pit road. Then a caution came out saving him from having to make a costly green flag stop.

Near the halfway mark Kenseth was again struggling and was on the verge of going a lap down when Ricky Craven and Ted Musgrave collided, bringing out a caution that allowed the DeWalt team to make adjustments and remain on the lead lap.

During the next round of pit stops Kenseth came in 13th but had a lug nut problem and dropped back to 19th.

The team continued to adjust and Kenseth charged toward the front. On lap 444, Ken Schrader had a tire go down, Jeff Gordon checked up and Kenseth nailed him in the rear bumper. Gordon crashed putting another dent in his fading championship hopes. Kenseth sustained cosmetic damage.

Finally, with less than 50 laps to go crew chief Robbie Reiser called Kenseth to pit road while most of the lead lap cars stayed out. With four fresh tires Kenseth sliced through the field, finishing fourth and opening his commanding point lead to 351 points with just 12 races remaining.

Surprise of the day: For the second straight week Ken Schrader ran with the leaders. He finished a respectable 12th. This is only the third time this year he has finished inside the top-15 but its the second time in as many weeks.

Disappointment of the day: Rusty Wallace has nine Bristol wins and entered the Sharpie 500 with high hopes of ending his 85-race winless streak. Those hopes came to an end on lap 88. Michael Waltrip spun, slid up the banking, ricocheted off the wall, then came back down the track directly in the path of Wallace, whose car sustained terminal damage, relegating him to a 43rd-place finish.

Silly Season notes: A possible deal between Tony Stewart and Chip Ganassi may be dead. Anonymous sources say that Stewart -- whose contract with Joe Gibbs racing expires at the end of 2004 -- was tendered a contract offer from Ganassi. However, a deadline was attached to that offer, one that passed this week without a commitment from Stewart.

If Stewart is untouchable, Ganassi may turn his attention to two-time IRL champion Sam Hornish. Hornish informed Panther Racing last week that he will not return next season and did not deny the possibility of heading to NASCAR. Hornish said he has two options for 2004 but both Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick say their teams aren't involved in the Hornish lottery.

Another possibility for Hornish is Penske Racing. Many believe that the ABC program -- ARCA, Busch and Winston Cup -- they laid out for Ryan Newman two years ago would be the perfect training program for Hornish. Roger Penske declined interview but quickly said, "I'm having fun listening to all (the speculation)."

Mike Massaro covers NASCAR for ESPN and ESPN.com.