FONTANA, Calif. (AP) -- Joey Logano simply got mad after Greg Biffle put Logano in the wall Saturday in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway.
His father, Tom, tried to get even, and lost his NASCAR credentials in the process.
Joey Logano recovered to win the 300-mile race, pulling away from Brian Vickers over the final two laps to pick up his fifth series win of the year, and second in a row.
Yet while the 19-year-old exalted in Victory Lane, his father was being taken to the NASCAR hauler to talk with Nationwide Series director Joe Balash following a post-race confrontation with Biffle.
Tony Stewart has been ranked first or second in NASCAR's marquee Sprint Cup Series championship for the last 19 weeks. He's led the standings since May 31, building a comfy 100-point margin by late June and eventually an impressive 284-point edge over second place by August.
Stewart entered last Saturday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway with a 234-point advantage in the championship.
You may have heard or seensome reports this morning connecting Danica Patrick to NASCAR in a very big way, that also heavily impacts the sport's most popular driver. But here's one word of advice: don't read into it quite yet.
It's that time of year again. Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway officially kicks off the "Race to the Chase," the 10-race stretch for a shot at the championship.
While there have been several surprises in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year, one of the biggest shocks as we close in on the Chase for the Sprint Cup is the absence of a clear-cut favorite for the championship. Last year's dominant teams at this time of the season were the 99 and 18, and the 24 and 48 in 2007, but we really don't have one in 2009, which bodes well for the sport.
BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) -- The most surprised person to find Mark Martin in Victory Lane at Michigan International Speedway was the driver himself.
The 50-year-old NASCAR star has run well but has had to deal with considerable bad luck this season. It looked like more of the same Sunday when the battery in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet began to fail before the halfway mark in the LifeLock 400 Sprint Cup race.
Martin turned off everything in the car that he could, nursing it as best he could. Then he realized the race was going to be a fuel economy run.
What with Tony Stewart going it on his own just fine, thank you; Kyle Busch smashing trophies in victory lane; Dale Earnhardt Jr. struggling to live up to his hype; 50-year old Mark Martin winning races; and Hendrick Motorsports being, well ... Hendrick Motorsports, the once dominant Roush Fenway Ford team finds itself on NASCAR's attention periphery here at the midseason point.
Yellow Fever - Despite 60 years of racing and 106 Sprint Cup Series events at Darlington Raceway, never had the field combined to create as many caution flags as it did Saturday night. The yellow waved 17 times for 73 laps, upping the previous record from 15 cautions.
The number of caution flags wasn't a record though as a race in 1995 had 12 cautions for 94 laps, a race in 1977 had 6 cautions for 93 laps, and one in 1974 with 11 cautions for 101 laps.
TALLEDEGA, Ala. -- Brad Keselowski did what any driver would do.
It was the last lap, and he had a shot to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race. So he held his line and powered forward.
That the ensuing collision between his Chevy and Carl Edwards's Ford as they approached the finish line resulted in Edwards taking a frightening airborne ride into grandstands fencing and injuring seven fans had less to do with Keselowski than the innate dangers of restrictor plate racing.
In fact, NASCAR started putting restrictor plates on the cars at its two super speedways in Talladega and Daytona because of a similar airborne accident at Talladega in 1987. The idea was to control speeds. Roof flaps developed in the 1990s were supposed to keep the cars on the ground.
And so the 25-year-old Keselowski, whose win came in only his fifth Cup start, didn't make apologies for the racing.
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- He's won the Indy 500 and Formula One jewel, the Grand Prix of Monaco, but Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya figures winning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway ranks right up there on a list of impressive racing feats.
Certainly, it is another shot of adrenalin for the newly merged Earnhardt-Ganassi operation, which also won the pole position for the season-opening Daytona 500. It's been a big week for owner Chip Ganassi, who's Grand-Am sportscar team won the pole in Virginia and whose IndyCar Series team is coming off a win at Long Beach on Sunday.
Mark Martin's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory last weekend at Phoenix very well may have been the most popular and sentimental win in years.
Not only did the fans in the grandstands voice their thundering approval but numerous drivers and car owners ducked into Victory Lane to congratulate Mark on his accomplishment. Greg Biffle articulated it best when he said, in summary, that he couldn't think of anyone else, besides himself, he'd rather see in Victory Lane. The feeling of virtually every driver in the garage is that if they can't pull their car into Victory Lane, they're happy to see Mark do so. He has that much respect because he races everyone clean and is as intense as they come.