As Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano battled for the lead on the last lap of the Auto Club 400 in Fontana, CA on Sunday, Kyle Busch passed them both on the high side of the racetrack and won the race. Logano hit Hamlin who ended up sliding down the track and slamming into the inside wall head first. He has suffered an L1 Compression Fracture, a severe back injury. Logano managed to finish in 3rd place.
Ten laps earlier, Logano blocked a pass attempt by Tony Stewart, which caused Stewart to lose his momentum, and he finished in 22nd place. Stewart took this matter into his own hands after the race, as he started a fight with Logano, but several crew members broke it up before anything serious happened. Stewart, a 2-time Sprint Cup Champion, and one of the most colorful drivers in the series, suggested that drivers should be able to setlle their differences by fighting it out like hockey players. When one driver hits the ground, the fight is over. This is a very interesting proposition by Stewart, that I’m sure most of the NASCAR fans would love. Stewart also said that Logano only gets tough once he has crew members around to protect him. Logano threw a water bottle at Stewart during the skirmish, which didn’t sit well with Stewart either.
With the win, Kyle Busch has now won 25 Sprint Cup races, and he also won the Nationwide race on Saturday. Almost lost in all the post-race vitriol, was the fact that with a second place finish, fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. has taken over the points lead 5 races into the long season. Brad Keselowski, the defending Sprint Cup Champion, and the points leader coming into the race, finished 23rd, and is now 12 points behind Earnhardt Jr. Five-time Champion Jimmy Johnson is in 3rd place, 16 points behind, after a 12th place finish.
Conflict like they had on Sunday only enhances the attractiveness of NASCAR, with its roots dating back to the south decades ago, with many of the drivers smuggling moonshine as their other job. Besides the injury to Hamlin, I would think nearly all of NASCAR fans, and secretly the NASCAR executives, love this sort of post race altercation.
The season started with most of the attention going to Danica Patrick, and her qualifying on the pole at Daytona. But after an 8th place finish there, everything has been downhill for her. She now sits in 25th place in the driver standings, after finishing 26th on Sunday. So the timing of the fight after the race in Fontana, was perfect to get interest back in the Sprint Cup Series. There’s no telling what will happen the rest of the year, between Logano and Stewart, and of course Hamlin, once he returns from his injury. Hamlin is merely listed as uncertain after the crash, but will see a specialist later in the week. Add to all this, the fact that Earnhardt Jr. is in the points lead, and NASCAR nation must be loving the turn of events lately. The series continues in 2 weeks, with the STP Gas Booster 500 in Martinsville, VA on April 7th.
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