With 33 laps to go in Saturday night's Southern 500, Kasey Kahne was racing for the lead with Kyle Busch when he hit the wall in turns one and two after Busch entered the corner to his inside.

To that point, Busch had driven away from everyone who dare crept close to his bumper, but Kahne took the lead off a restart just two laps earlier. As Busch dove to the inside entering turn one, he was unable to accrue enough momentum to drive alongside of Kahne and his car washed up the track. Immediately after that, Kahne's car snapped loose on him and he was in the fence.

Did Busch make contact with Kahne? As incredulous as it may seem, it may be inconclusive. It sure looks like there could have been slight contact between the two cars as they went through turn one, but a zoom angle from Kahne's pit showed nary a scuff on the left rear-quarterpanel of Kahne's car. If they didn't make contact, the disruption of air on Kahne's spoiler from Busch's quick move would have likely been enough to

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Before climbing out of the car, Denny Hamlin took a moment to close his eyes and exhale. He had just completed his first full race in six weeks and on top of that, it was at Darlington, a tough track that hosts one of the Sprint Cup Series' longest races of the season.

And, oh yeah, he had just finished second.

"I'm tired. Just worn out," Hamlin said. "This is a tough, grueling race so there's nothing to hang our heads about coming up second again two years in a row."

In the previous race at Talladega, Hamlin started the race but during the first caution, handed the car over to Brian Vickers. On Saturday night, there was no relief driver in sight. Hamlin was going to attack what ended up as a 3 hour and 40 minute race on his own.

Had you not known about the crash at California that sidelined him since March 24 with a compression fracture of his L1 vertebra, you wouldn't have guessed watching Hamlin's race that he had spent significant time out of the car. He started sixth and stayed

Matt Kenseth celebrates at Darlington. (Getty)The significance of winning at Darlington is no more evident than when a two-time Daytona 500 champion emerges from his car and says it's the biggest of his career.

That two-time 500 champion is Matt Kenseth, and he passed teammate Kyle Busch with 14 laps to go to take the lead of Saturday night's Bojangles Southern 500 to get his first win at Darlington and third win of the season. And it's a win that comes just three days after Kenseth's team saw the penalties that NASCAR levied against it after his win at Kansas severely lessened.

"Honestly, I've only dreamed about winning the Southern 500," Kenseth said. "This to me feels to me probably bigger than any win of my career. So I really feel bad that (crew chief Jason Ratcliff)'s not here, this is obviously his team and his effort but (interim crew chief Wally Brown) did a great job filling in and all these guys behind me. We had a fifth or sixth place car, fighting loose and those last two adjustments were just awesome."

On Tuesday, it

Kurt Busch gets in before making his pole-winning qualifying attempt. (Getty)

Less than a week after flipping through a Talladega early evening and turning laps in an IndyCar at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the day before, Kurt Busch won the pole for Saturday night's Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington.

Busch's speed of 181.918 MPH knocked Jimmie Johnson off the top spot when Busch made his qualifying run late in the session. Johnson starts second while Kyle Busch is third.

Late in Sunday's race at Talladega, Busch's car was hit in the right rear quarterpanel and went airborne, turning over before landing on Ryan Newman's car. On Thursday, Busch drove an IndyCar for Andretti Autosport and registered a lap over 218 MPH. While Busch's session was essentially a version of IndyCar's Rookie Orientation Program and he was cleared by the sanctioning body, after running at Indy, Busch said that he didn't have the stamina to try to complete both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day this year.

It's Busch's first pole at Darlington since he started

You can see Ryan Newman's car in there somewhere. (Getty)

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg. We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy. Right? Oh who are we kidding, this is NASCAR. No one is ever happy.

Another really busy week in NASCAR. How do you think the sanctioning body fared in the Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing appeals this week? NASCAR was definitely not happy with the decision that the appeals panel made in the JGR case, but I that decision certainly seems to side with public opinion. There weren't too many people saying that the penalty was fair.

Oh, and there was that whole race at Talladega too. That's what you all wrote about this week. This might be the most, uh, passionate mailbag of the year. But it's Talladega, would you expect anything less?

I thought Talladega was excellent this weekend (except for the weather delay) and I'm tired of these drivers whining about the cars taking flight.

(@FollowAndretti)

Wednesday morning, Kurt Busch got into Ryan Hunter-Reay's car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to run some laps. Will we see Kurt in the Indianapolis 500 anytime soon? He's in a car for Andretti Autosport, which fields Chevrolets, so manufacturer conflicts won't be an issue if he decides to do the double.

(@IndyCar)

Matt Kenseth and Jason Ratcliff. (Getty Images)

An appeals board has sharply reduced the penalties against Joe Gibbs Racing and Matt Kenseth stemming from the Kansas race, dealing a stinging blow to NASCAR and giving Kenseth a boost in his race for the Chase.

During postrace inspection after Kenseth's victory at Kansas, NASCAR discovered that one of eight connecting rods in the car's engine was light by the weight of three grams. (A penny weighs 2.5 grams.) Kenseth was docked 50 points, crew chief Jason Ratliff was suspended six races and fined $200,000, owner Joe Gibbs was suspended six races, and manufacturer Toyota was served with a five-point penalty.

However, JGR argued that the engine was produced by Toyota and that the team had no access to the engine's rods. In addition, JGR argued that the rod could not have given the No. 20 a competitive advantage. Toyota immediately took responsibility for the rod, which may have had a role in the appeal.

The three-member National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel reduced Kenseth's penalty

(Getty)Welcome to Warped Wednesday. On this, we'll put out the rush to judgment mat, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely.

Ryan Newman has been fined $25,000 for his comments criticizing NASCAR’s decision to race late into the afternoon and evening at Talladega on Sunday.

Newman’s comments were out of frustration after he was involved in a crash that saw Kurt Busch’s car land on top of his.

"They can build safer race cars, they can build safer walls, but they can't get their heads out of their asses far enough to keep them on the race track, and that's pretty disappointing," he said after exiting the infield care center. "I wanted to make sure I get that point across, and y'all can figure out who 'they' is.”

NASCAR certainly figured out who the “they” was in Newman’s comments, and he was fined the same amount that Denny Hamlin was after he made his comments about