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. That means this isn't real.

After Keselowski's comments about the hiring of former Ford team members by Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, Rick Hendrick said that Keselowski should begin "representing himself and the sport with more class."

In fact, Hendrick feels so strongly about his comments that he's going taking his comments and turning them to actions. Following a lengthy conversation with Joe Gibbs, who also issued a statement rebuking Keselowski's comments, Hendrick and Gibbs have decided that the only way for Keselowski to show more class is to go to more class.

Yes, you read that correctly, the two team owners are going to pay for college classes for Keselowski. However, while the principal idea was solidified and agreed upon almost immediately in their discussions, there remains a snag: they can't agree on if they'll send Keselowski to public or private school.

The offer of free college tuition to a rival NASCAR driver is unprecedented, but that's how passionate Hendrick and Gibbs are about their complementary released statements on Friday. Gibbs wants Keselowski to attend a private college like Davidson or Duke, while Hendrick likes the opportunities that would be afforded Keselowski at North Carolina or North Carolina State. If Keselowski had a choice, he'd choose Michigan, but Gibbs and Hendrick are unlikely to acquiesce to his preference. No matter what, Keselowski is anticipated to accept if an offer is ever directed his way.

There are virtually no limits on what Keselowski could study at school, just as long as he takes more classes. However, Warped Wednesday sources say that English Lit classes are being heavily discouraged, simply because Hendrick and Gibbs don't want Keselowski to start making Shakespearian references and metaphors for every happening in the garage, as they fear any Macbeth comparisons. That edict also includes any Romeo and Juliet mentions about Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick.

However, the public and private divide threatens to derail the offer before it's officially unveiled via dual media releases. Since Hendrick and Gibbs can't come to an agreement and look unlikely to agree anytime soon, one idea is to have engine reliability determine the winner over the next five races. Sources claim Gibbs was very lukewarm to the idea before Sunday's race, but after seeing the performance of his team's Toyota issues and the white plume of smoke from Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s vehicle on Sunday, he's strongly considering the challenge.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Yoga instructor spins out of trouble during drag race
• Power Rankings: Johnson leads a familiar cast
• Daytona International Speedway plans major redesign

Yoga teaches you to calm your mind, to let go of your worldly concerns and troubles and embrace the infinite. It also gives you some amazing reflexes behind the wheel, apparently.

Meet Amy Taub, a yoga instructor who drag races in her spare time for her family's team, T&F Racing. While at full throttle, Amy had quite the spin at Atco Dragway in New Jersey, but managed to wheel her way right out of the skid. Not a bad move at 140 miles per hour.

You can see the full video from the spin and her run right here. Best part of that video is the thumbs-up she shoots the ambulance that had come racing out onto the track, sirens flaring, to rescue her from what everyone assumed would be a vicious crack-up.

We'd tell you not to try this at home, but we don't think you could even get close to that.

[Via The Big Lead.]

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Hendrick pursuing new sponsor for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• Daytona International Speedway plans major redesign
• Power Rankings: Johnson leads a familiar cast

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): Should we start the Power Rankings at No. 2 for the foreseeable future? Because much like Dover, Jimmie Johnson didn't do much to make a case for himself anywhere other than the top spot. Yeah, Chad Knaus's pit strategy ended up having to make the No. 48 cut through the field a lot (and may have ultimately been the team's downfall), but let's look on the flipside of that for a second. With the increased speeds of the new car, track position and clean air have become very important and we've heard drivers talk about how it can be difficult to pass in traffic. Guess what? Johnson didn't get stalled in traffic on Sunday and they likely learned a lot about how their car handled around other cars. Michigan has many characteristics of an intermediate track. There are 5 intermediate tracks in the Chase. See where that's going?

2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): Harvick's stats aren't overwhelming -- he's got seven top 10s in 15 races. But dive a little deeper and his season thus far looks a little Jimmie Johnsonian circa 2012. Thanks to 42nd and 40th place finishes at the two plate tracks, Harvick has scored a whopping seven points at those two races. In other words, had he skipped those two races entirely, he'd still be in fourth in the points. Oh, and he came in second to Biffle Sunday at Michigan. Couple more of those and Harvick's vaulting Vader.

3. Kyle Busch (LW: 3): Did anyone (other than NASCAR officials) actually see Busch's penalty for passing on pit road early in Sunday's race? Not sure that TNT provided us with any replay proof, and given how rare that penalty is, well, it would have been great to see where and how it happened. After being sent to the back of the field, Busch and team didn't let it affect them and drove back through to finish fourth. Kinda reminiscent of Las Vegas, where Busch was penalized early on pit road and came back to finish... fourth.

4. Matt Kenseth (LW: 4): How the hell did Kenseth save that car coming off of turn two? It snapped loose on him and it looked briefly like the nose of his car was pointing towards the inside wall before he gathered it back up and regained his momentum. It was an incredible save, but also a costly one -- Kenseth lost innumerable spots down the backstretch. But, in a surprise to no one, he had a strong enough car to get back to sixth over the final 25 laps.

5. Tony Stewart (LW: 5): Don't look now, but Smoke is in the top 10. Remember, it was just at Charlotte that he had entered the top 20 thanks to a seventh place finish. Stewart's rise through the points standings is reflective of how well the team is performing (especially compared to the first 11 races) lately, but also how tight the points standings are from 10th to 20th. Kurt Busch, the driver in 20th, is 33 points behind Stewart in 10th. Avoiding bad finishes for the guys in that tier is going to be more important than Wild Card wins this summer.

6. Greg Biffle: (LW: NR): Hey! Someone in a different position! Welcome back to the Power Rankings, Biff, and if you keep this up, you're not leaving anytime soon. In an era in which fans complain about drivers being "vanilla," it was great to see Biffle showing that emotion on the radio after crossing the finish line, right? Oh, it wasn't? Judging by many of my Twitter mentions after I had posted his comment, you would have thought that Biffle had committed a mortal sin. People, chill.

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 6): Junior sure looked like he was heading for a repeat Michigan victory until that engine went sour just past the halfway point. Instead, he finished in 37th, right in the same vicinity as two of his Hendrick teammates. Yes, the two engine failures in four races is a bit troublesome, but it's important to consider how well that Junior has been running, too. This isn't a team that's fighting to scratch out top 10s anymore, and if the engine gremlins keep striking, that's going to become very important.

8. Clint Bowyer (LW: 7): Holy crap, did you see how beat up Bowyer's car was? And he finished seventh! Bowyer sustained significant damage on lap one when he got into the back of Trevor Bayne as the field hurtled into turn one. As bad as the lap 6 caution for Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon was for those two drivers, it was that good for Bowyer. Because of it, he was able to spend multiple laps on pit road and get the front end refabricated with spare front end pieces and Bondo. Without it, he would have likely had to pit under green.

9. Carl Edwards: (LW: 8): It seems a little unfair to put Edwards down here, especially after having a strong car all weekend and holding serve as the second place car in the points. But given the performances of the drivers ahead of him, who would he jump? Edwards caught a horrible break when he pitted just before the caution for Jamie McMurray -- one that cost him any shot at the win. And pardon me if I don't completely understand his frustration with Biffle about the issue with the trash on Edwards' grille in the final quarter of the race. That seems a little late to ask Biffle to back up over a dozen car lengths, no?

10. Joey Logano (LW: NR): That's four straight top 10s for Logano, who is a dozen points outside of the top 10. If he keeps that up, we can avoid the discussion at the end of the season about how Logano could have made the Chase if it wasn't for the penalty at Texas. Missing out on that wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?

11. Kasey Kahne (LW: 9): Another fast car, another poor finish for Kasey Kahne. And don't look now, but he's outside of the top 10 in points. In the last six races, Kahne has tumbled from third to 12th in the standings and after the second at Charlotte, his highest finish is 17th at Darlington. By no means is it appropriate to write off Kahne as a contender -- he's been one of the most consistently fast cars every Sprint Cup weekend. The freefall just has to stop soon, especially given the cluster around him in the standings.

12. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: NR): Other Junior finished third and carried the banner for the four Toyotas in the top 10. You could probably hear the sigh of relief from TRD officials across the garage when the race concluded after it dialed back in some horsepower for the weekend and the engines survived.

Lucky Dog: While it was an avoidable mistake, Brad Keselowski gets this week's Lucky Dog for running out of fuel on the last lap. Before he ran out, Keselowski was fifth (and ended up 12th), but had he gone dry a half lap sooner, he'd be staring at a finishing position in the 20s.

The DNF: The aforementioned Jeff Gordon. Or maybe Kurt Busch? Gordon was visibly frustrated at being taken out so early because of the potential of his car and Busch led both of Saturday's practice sessions and some laps early. But both of them ended up in the backstretch wall.

Dropped Out: Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Daytona International Speedway plans major redesign
• Danica Patrick pleased with her finish at Michigan
• Hendrick pursuing new sponsor for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

International Speedway Corporation has announced that it will undertake a massive redevelopment of NASCAR's flagship track, Daytona International Speedway, in a three-year project that will completely revamp the look and feel of the track.

The project will begin with a ceremonial groundbreaking in July, and is expected to be completed in time for the 2016 Rolex 24 and the Daytona 500, at an estimated cost of $375 million to $400 million.

The goal is to create a more fan-friendly (and safe) environment that allows for both fan interaction and good racing sightlines. According to the plan, five "injectors" along International Speedway Boulevard would route fans to one of several concourse levels. From there, fans could visit several "neighborhoods," each the size of a football field, to socialize as they watch the race either live or via video screens.

DIS will replace every seat in the frontstretch with wider, more comfortable seats. The backstretch grandstands will be torn down. The final capacity will be 101,000, with the option to increase to 125,000, down from an estimated 160,000 now. And, of course, ISC will take care of the big dogs. There will be 53 suites along the mile-long frontstretch for corporate partners.

ISC had sought to work out a public/private partnership with the state of Florida, touting the project's $1.6 billion in annual economic benefits. But that partnership failed, forcing the company to cut back on plans such as a redeveloped midway. Plans for a multi-use recreation facility across the street from the track are still subject to numerous government approvals.

Construction will begin right after the 2013 Coke Zero 400, and should not affect major races during Speedweeks in 2014. For more information on the project, ISC recommends fans check out the redevelopment site.

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At one point during Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan, Hendrick Motorsports cars were running 1-2-3. No, they didn't finish in those positions. Not even close.

In fact, it turned into a bad day rarely seen around the Hendrick camp. How brutal was it? Well, it was the first time since Sonoma in 2005 that a Hendrick car didn't finish in the top 25.

Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were occupying those top three spots when Kahne suffered a right front tire failure on lap 104. The flat occurred as Kahne entered turn one and his car immediately shot to the right and towards the outside wall where his engine burst into flames upon impact.

Kahne immediately emerged from his car and walked away. He finished 38th.

Where was Jeff Gordon, you ask? We'll get to him in a moment.

After the ensuing pit stops under caution, Earnhardt Jr. took the lead and he held it until lap 128 when his engine started to go sour. Johnson passed him for the lead and then a short while later, Junior's engine went up in a cloud of white smoke. His day was done. He finished 37th.

Throughout most of the race, the worst breaks that Johnson was catching were on pit road, where a combination of slow stops and different tire strategies forced Johnson to dice through the field multiple times. He had one of the fastest cars on the track, as evidenced by his ability to work through the field. He just had to keep doing it.

After restarting 10th with 28 laps to go, Johnson worked his way (again) to second and started closing on Greg Biffle as the laps wound down. However, with two laps to go, much like Kahne earlier in the race, Johnson lost a right front tire in the middle of turns 1 and 2 and his car washed up and hit the wall. Johnson was able to limp it to pit road, but finished a lap down in 28th.

OK, now time for Gordon. The reason Gordon wasn't up with his Hendrick teammates near the mid-point of the race was because he didn't have the opportunity. On lap 6, Bobby Labonte spun off of turn 2 two cars ahead of Gordon.

Gordon had nowhere to go. As Labonte's car spun back towards the outside, Gordon was trapped and ran into Labonte and then the wall. Gordon was able to get back on track, but by that time he was already 107 laps down. He finished 39th.

After a late tire-issue for Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle cruised to the checkered flag for his second Michigan win in a row on Sunday and first victory of the season.

Biffle was in command of the race after the final restart but was feeling pressure from Johnson, who was closing. Did he have enough time to catch Biffle? With two laps to go and Johnson trailing Biffle by under a second, he lost a tire in the middle of turns one and two and his car skated up towards the wall.

The right side of the car was pancaked. Johnson's chances at the win were toast, and Biffle finished more than four seconds ahead of Kevin Harvick.

"I love it when the 48 crashes trying to catch me. Love it," Biffle exclaimed over the radio after crossing the finish line.

He explained his comment on the radio later -- Johnson came through the field to the front numerous times Sunday and said he had to drive really hard over the last segment of the race to get near Biffle.

"Well, let me clarify that a little bit" Biffle said. "I don’t want to see anybody wreck; I should have said make a mistake. And that’s truly what he did is he made a mistake. He pushed the envelope, and we all do that. I almost did that; he almost busted me, and basically that’s what I was referring to was breaking him. We got him to make a mistake, we got him to falter, and we pushed the envelope, and that’s part of racing and part of running hard and being competitive, and it makes you feel good when you push the guy over the edge, and he made a mistake.

It was also the second straight Michigan race that Johnson had a problem while racing Biffle for the win. Last August, Johnson's engine started to wane while he was in the lead and Biffle passed him for the win shortly before it expired with five laps to go.

Biffle had the lead on that final restart thanks to a great break on pit road during a green flag pit stop cycle. As Biffle had just hit pit road on lap 167 of the 200 lap race, Jamie McMurray blew a tire and brought out a caution flag. But because he was in his pit stall when the caution waved, Biffle was able to exit the pits without going a lap down.

That meant that as the rest of the lead lap cars who hadn't pitted made their way in for service during the caution, Biffle inherited the lead and never gave it back. His teammate Carl Edwards, who started on the pole, had pitted just prior to Biffle. He wasn't so lucky. He was forced to take the wavearound and finished 8th.

"I was really worried about that 48, you know, he'd been pretty fast, but when this thing got in clean air it was all over," Biffle said.

The win was Ford's 1,000th race win across all of NASCAR's national series.

Last week, Biffle finished second to Johnson at Pocono. And it was possible the opposite would be true this week. But because of the tire issue Johnson ended up 28th, the highest finishing Hendrick Motorsports car after Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne also all had problems.

Johnson's points lead is now 31 over Edwards and Biffle is 8th in the standings.

For its entirety, Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Michigan was a race against the rain. In those cases, a faster race is, for obvious reasons, better. On lap one, it didn't get off to an auspicious start.

Alex Bowman was on the inside of Brian Scott and got loose and spun. At essentially the same time just a few cars back, Travis Pastrana spun as well. And then between them, Brian Vickers spun towards the grass after making contact with Joey Logano.

Bowman, Pastrana and Vickers also crashed last week at Iowa. That too, was our craziest moment of that race. Nice congruity, eh?

Jeffrey Earnhardt was also collected in the crash. And while some teams' in-race strategy hinged on the impending arrival of precipitation, the race was run in its entirety. Regan Smith was your winner, and Kyle Larson finished second.

Carl Edwards has won his first pole via qualifying in more than a year, but not without a bit of nerve-wracking pre-qualifying drama.

Early Friday, a few hours before qualifying began, Edwards went for a run and locked his keys in his rental car. What to do? The rental car company was no help. After some scheming and plotting, Edwards and his PR agent found a local used-car dealership, coaxed out a mechanic who had a few coathangers and a crowbar, and broke into the car.

"It kept my mind off the stress of qualifying," Edwards laughed. "It was a little adventure. Jimmy (Fennig, crew chief) says I should go running more often. If he had known how close I was to not making it back I don’t think he would say that.”

So who was this mysterious savior-with-a-crowbar who helped one of NASCAR's finest drivers break into a car? "I don’t want to call the guy out," Edwards said. "I mean he did use a crowbar to break into the car. I didn’t ask him how he knew how to do that so well."

The irony of a NASCAR driver being unable to drive wasn't lost on Carl. "I am just furthering the belief that drivers can’t take care of themselves," he said with a wry grin. "I have people coming to help me all the time, so that isn’t good."

Once he actually drove his company car, Edwards turned a lap of 202.452 mph at Michigan International Speedway, taking his first pole on speed in 49 races and setting himself up as the man to beat in Sunday's Quicken Loans 400. Michigan is one of Edwards' best tracks; he's won twice and finished in the top 10 a career-best 13 times there.

"I'm happy with that lap," Edwards said after his qualifying. "I don’t think I could go any faster if I ran it again."

Fortunately, he doesn't need to. He'll start on the front row alongside Kurt Busch, who's had an impressive recent run of speed. Busch has started first or second in four of the last six races. Rounding out the top five are Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Aric Almirola. Other notables: Dale Earnhardt Jr. 12th, Tony Stewart 14th, Jimmie Johnson 17th.

"To be second, that’s qualifying, now we’ve just got to step into the race and that’s where we’ve got to close the deal," Busch said. "We haven’t been as strong as we’ve needed to be in the last section of the race, like after the last pit stop or with two pit stops to go, that’s where we have to find a little bit more improvement. But otherwise, these Furniture Row guys are phenomenal, and we’re knocking on the door.”

Michigan repaved the track in time for the start of the 2012 season, and drivers indicated that the dreaded "new track feel" is starting to fade.

"It's just going to continue to get better," Martin Truex Jr. said. "Last year, there was times you just felt like you were along for the ride. It was hard to do anything with what you had. ... Hopefully, the groove will widen out. It's pretty narrow right now."

"The new track is super fun to race on," said Edwards, not missing a chance to ladle out the praise. "The pavement seems like it has aged more in a year than a lot of new track surfaces have and hopefully we can keep developing a Goodyear tire and keep making it softer and softer to where it becomes the old Michigan here in a year or two. I think that is going to be awesome.”

Edwards joked that even though he's started on the pole several times this season, this would be the first one to actually count for next year's Sprint Unlimited race. (Others were via rainout.)

"There are a few things I like about racing at Michigan," Edwards said. "The first is that it is the site of my first Sprint Cup start, a huge day for me personally. I will never forget when they said ‘Gentlemen, start your engines.’ That was one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever had in a race car."

And fortunately, you can't lock your keys in an NASCAR car.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Rick Hendrick slams Brad Keselowski after criticism
• Autopsy reveals Jason Leffler died of neck injury
• Happy Hour: The good and bad of TNT's race coverage

An autopsy has concluded that driver Jason Leffler died of blunt-force trauma to his neck, an injury sustained during a wreck Wednesday night at Bridgeport (N.J.) Speedway.

[Related: Jason Leffler's death a reminder how far NASCAR has come]

Leffler's car struck the wall at Bridgeport following a tire blowout, according to witnesses at the track. Leffler had to be extricated from the wreckage and was airlifted to a local hospital. Authorities have not released details about Leffler's condition when he was extricated from the vehicle.

Blunt force trauma is the application of extreme force to the body, and is distinguished from penetrating trauma, in which an object enters the body. It is the same cause of death as IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon, who died of blunt force trauma to the head during an IndyCar race in Las Vegas in 2001. Dale Earnhardt Sr., by contrast, died of a basilar skull fracture, though the proximal cause, collision with an immovable object, was the same as in Leffler's case.

Leffler's team indicated that he was wearing a Simpson Hybrid neck-and-head restraint system, one of six approved for use in NASCAR races. There has been no word on the system's functioning in Leffler's crash.

New Jersey state police continue to investigate the accident.

Drivers across all of NASCAR's series will be honoring Leffler on their cars this weekend.

NASCAR video from Yahoo! Sports:

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Love of racing makes risks worth taking for NASCAR drivers
• Happy Hour: The good and bad of TNT's race coverage
• Chase concerns linger for Tony Stewart

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.

This week's Happy Hour isn't so happy as we kick it off on a somber note given the news of Jason Leffler's fatal accident Wednesday evening. As Jay said earlier Thursday, it's a reminder how far NASCAR has come, but also how dangerous racing can be. NASCAR and its tracks have the benefit of being able to spend millions of dollars on research and development for car safety and SAFER barriers. Exponentially more tracks don't have that luxury.

What's your favorite Jason Leffler memory? The moment that immediately pops into my mind is the 2004 July Nationwide Series race at Daytona (above), when he tried to do almost anything to win the race. He was second on the final lap to Michael Waltrip and made contact with Waltrip's back bumper as he went to the outside... a bump that sent Waltrip into the inside wall. As the field barreled into turn three, Leffler was pursued by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Wallace. Junior went high and so did Leffler, who was not going to let him by. But by moving up to prevent Junior from passing, Mike Wallace snuck by on the inside.

Leffler crossed the line second, but was scored 13th after a NASCAR penalty. Yeah, he may not have made many new fans out of those who cheer for Waltrip and Junior that night, but you can't discount how much he wanted to win that race.

Let's get to it.

Clearly the 48 along with the rest of the HMS camp as a whole has figured out the GEN6 car. Yet, HMS hasn't used any of the 4 NASCAR tests yet. They're not bringing new updated GEN6 versions each week to the track. In fact the 88 camp is returning the same car he won with at Michigan last spring. So, are they cheating or is it that the cars aren't that different after all?
- Ricky Bobby

The transition from the COT to the new car was not as stark as it was from the "Gen-4" car to the COT. Many teams, as exemplified by Junior and the No. 88 camp at Michigan this week, have taken trusted chassis and put new car bodies on them.

Stewart-Haas is a prime example that what worked with the COT doesn't always work with this year's car, but Hendrick Motorsports has enough access to things like seven-rig shaker posts and the ability to gather a ton of data with their four cars that it's not surprising at all that they're where they are. Oh, and Chad Knaus is still Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson is still Jimmie Johnson.

On a related note, the Toyotas are going to dial back in some horsepower this week. Joe Gibbs Racing has been better than Hendrick this year -- they just haven't had the results to show for it. Will they be the fastest team in town at Michigan? And will they be the most reliable?

Now we get a couple of contrasting opinions. I like when that happens.
_____________________

Hi Nick,

I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. I am NOT a fan of the TNT Broadcasting group when they take over NASCAR for the summer. However, they did very well this year. Good job! I hope they keep it up for the next five races.
- Dayna

Knowing that we would be moving from FOX to TNT after Dover, and remembering how much everyone complained about TNT's broadcasts of the races last year, I figured I would throw some fuel (was I supposed to say Sunoco race fuel?) on the fire.

Fox's broadcast of Dover from green flag to checkered flag lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes and had 116 commercials total. This includes the side by side, and does not include pre race or post race.
TNT's broadcast from Pocono lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes and had 101 commercials total from green to checkered.

So yes TNT does bombard us with many more commercials on average, but they should be more ashamed of the bad commentary of the race. Pre race show we were told that the front straight away was 32 feet long. Announcers forgot to explain why the first caution was out. And worst of all, the roller on top of the screen taking up way to much space because they need to have an ad plastered in your face the entire time. TNT truly needs to get their act together or get out of the business of showing races.
- Tim

It was the first race of the season for the TNT gang and it always takes a bit of time for an announcing crew to get a feel for one another again. Plus, TNT only has six races, so Adam Alexander, Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach only call 1/6th of the NASCAR schedule together before going back to their other duties.

I did appreciate Kyle Petty's candor after the first caution flag when he admitted that the broadcast hadn't told viewers why it had been displayed. But the worst part of the broadcast -- it's not even close -- was the banner ads at the top of the tracker.

I totally understand that advertising pays the bills. Hell, readers see that every week on the blog. But there should be no way that advertising on a standard race broadcast should take up so much room during the broadcast itself. Ad included, it's not an exaggeration to say that the ticker took up more than 15 percent of the screen. It crossed the line from "noticeable" to "frustrating."

_____________________

Here’s a crazy shake-up for you: With the TV Rope falling on the track and the 15 minute fix-it timeout came this idea: Sometime during the third quarter segment of the race a computer would spit out a random red flag. All cars on the track are required to make it to their pit stall and allowed 10 minutes to fix whatever they choose; as long as it is done in the pit stall. At 10 minutes all cars are given the signal to leave their pit stall in the same exact order when the flag was thrown. Any car not able to leave would lose their spot in line. But no racing to the line. And a 10 minute 'half-time' for the TV folks to get in 15 minutes of commercials!

And to solve the restart question: All restarts should be from a standing start, dragster style. The first 4 cars all across the track staged at the start-finish line and so on all the way back. A single green light positioned where all can see it flashes ON, and they’re off! What fun! Almost as good as the figure-8 race suggestion Tony Stewart had for Talladega.
- Robert

Bring back the Truck Series halftime! I didn't mind halftime in the Truck Series, but I can't see how standard field manipulations in points races in the Sprint Cup Series could be a serious idea. There are already enough complaints about debris cautions, so imagine the first time the arbitrary red flag comes out with Danica Patrick or Dale Earnhardt Jr. about to be lapped? If you thought the Jimmie Johnson tinfoil hat stuff was big-time, you ain't seen nothing yet.

As far as the standing starts go, I would love to see them at the All-Star Race for the beginning of the segments, if not at the very least the beginning of the race. (In a perfect, danger-free world I'd love to see a rally start, but yeah, that's not happening.) Let's paint some temporary F1-style start boxes on the dogleg at CMS and make it happen!

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Love of racing makes risks worth taking for NASCAR drivers
• Jason Leffler's death a reminder how far NASCAR has come
• Chase concerns linger for Tony Stewart

New Jersey state police have announced that NASCAR driver Jason Leffler has died as a result of injuries suffered in a wreck at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey, according to the Associated Press. Leffler was 37.

Leffler was racing a Sprint Car at the track's "Night of Wings" when his car apparently flipped on the front stretch of the 5/8-mile, high-banked dirt oval. "Jason's left rear tire blew coming out of turn 4 and it made his car spin directly toward the wall," Connor Ferrell, who was at the race, wrote to Yahoo! Sports. "He did 3 or 4 flips before his car came to a stop." According to eyewitness accounts, he was extracted from the car on a board and airlifted out of the track via helicopter. The remainder of the night's racing was cancelled.

According to state police, Leffler was pronounced dead at 9:02 p.m. ET.

Leffler, from Long Beach, Calif., spent most of his decade-plus NASCAR career in the Nationwide series, running full schedules from 2006 to 2011. He had two wins, 42 top fives and 107 top 10s in the Nationwide series. He's also run 73 races in Sprint Cup, most recently at Pocono last week, and 56 races in the Camping World Truck Series, where he posted one victory.

"NASCAR extends its thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the family of Jason Leffler who passed away earlier this evening," NASCAR said in a statement. "For more than a decade, Jason was a fierce competitor in our sport and he will be missed."

Prior to NASCAR, Leffler won three straight USAC midget championships (1997-99). He also competed in the 2000 Indianapolis 500, where he finished 17th.

He'd only this year returned to Sprint Car racing, where he planned on competing in 50-65 races. According to his web site, "Jason is excited to get back to the grass roots of racing to connect with fans and old rivalries."

Leffler was extremely close to his son Charlie Dean, who had only recently finished kindergarten. Leffler's Instagram page is full of shots of Charlie Dean, including this poignant one:

Drivers took to Twitter to share thoughts and condolences:

Really sad for Jason Leffler and his family. Thinking about his little boy...

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) June 13, 2013

Extremely sad to hear about @jasonleffler. spent a lot of time racing with him. Gone way too soon. Prayers to his entire family.

— Joey Logano (@joeylogano) June 13, 2013

My heart goes out to @jasonleffler family. He was a great guy. So friendly and a hell of a racecar driver. So saddened by this. #Restinpeace

— AJ Allmendinger (@AJDinger) June 13, 2013

#LEFturn

— Tony Kanaan (@TonyKanaan) June 13, 2013

Deeply saddened by the passing of @jasonleffler tonight. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. #LEFturn

— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) June 13, 2013

So sad. RIP #LefTurn

— Travis Kvapil (@TravisKvapil) June 13, 2013

My thoughts and prayers are with Jason's family and friends. Breaks my heart thinking of his little boy

— Jeff Burton (@RCR31JeffBurton) June 13, 2013

Thoughts and prayers for Jason Leffler and his family.

— Juan Pablo Montoya (@jpmontoya) June 13, 2013

4 Race car drivers immortality is a way of life. 1 day we find 1 of us 2 be mortal is a day in which we struggle 2 comprehend@jasonleffler

— Parker Kligerman (@pkligerman) June 13, 2013

Lost a good guy tonight in Jason Leffler. Prayers with your family!.

— Bobby Labonte (@Bobby_Labonte) June 13, 2013

I'm completely devastated to hear a bout Jason Leffler. It doesn't seem real. Pray for his family tonight

— Trevor Bayne (@Tbayne21) June 13, 2013

Got any questions for us to use in the mailbag or the podcast? Hit us at HappyHourMailbag@Yahoo.com.

(Apologies for our technical difficulties last week.)

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Yeah, so, this is not how you want to treat your $400,000 Bugatti.

Meet Edmund Burgess, of Lavenham in the United Kingdom. As Autoblog relates, Mr. Burgess was driving his 1924 Bugatti Type 13 in the Prescott Speed Hill Climb in Gloucestershire. The brakes apparently failed, the car rolled, and, well, Mr. Burgess was quite literally lucky to escape with his skull intact.

As you can see in the video above, Burgess only wore a helmet, goggles and jacket; the Bugatti's cockpit is wide open to the elements. The car, worth an estimated £250,000, suffered heavy damage. But Burgess says he'll be running it again later this summer, to which we say: keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up, friend.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Hot/Not: 'Clarity' for Jimmie Johnson could turn ugly for the competition
• Power Rankings: Jimmie Johnson stands alone
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. gearing up for another win at Michigan

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): Stunning, just stunning that Jimmie is here, you know? Johnson's run over the first 14 races has made discussion about potentially skipping a regular season race real. Why? Well, Chandra Johnson is due with the couple's second child in the fall. If she goes into labor early around the Richmond race and Johnson has maintained his current 51 point lead or locked himself in the Chase, he can be present for the birth. And if that scenario plays out? Good for Jimmie. He will have certainly earned it.

2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): After moving into the passenger seat last week with a top 10 finish, it'd be hypocritical to remove Harvick from it after a ninth place finish, right? And besides, someone has to be here. Though if Harvick has a bad finish at Michigan, I think we'd have to start thinking about simply skipping No. 2 in the rankings and going straight to the third spot.

3. Kyle Busch (LW: 4): There aren't too many races where Kyle Busch spends most of his day near the front but not actually, you know, at the front. Last year, Busch had 20 top 10 finishes and in 15 of those, he led laps. Sunday at Pocono was Busch's 8th top 10 of 2013 and the first time all year he'd gotten one without leading laps. Random related stat: Just to illustrate the roller coaster that Busch's season has been so far, his highest non-top 10 finish is 23rd.

4. Matt Kenseth (LW: 3): Hey, Matt Kenseth is getting familiar with roller coasters. After having a good car once again, Kenseth was involved in a spin with Juan Pablo Montoya that ruined his day. Yes, Kenseth had an engine issue after the spin, but it's not necessary to start the freak out just yet -- that engine was under a ton of stress during the 360 that Kenseth pulled after contact with Montoya. That probably had something to do with it.

5. Tony Stewart (LW: 9): He's shooting straight for the top of the rankings! Two weeks, two top five finishes for Smoke, and his car showed some legitimate speed for the second week in a row. Stewart gained 14 positions from start-to-finish on Sunday, second-most of anyone in the top 15. He was only bested by teammate Ryan Newman, who gained 18 spots thanks to a smart off-sequence pit strategy.

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 12): It's time for Michigan so here comes a Junior win! And he's got a superhero paint scheme again this week. It's going to be deja vu all over again! But wait right there, it's not a presidential election year. Until he proves otherwise, you can only bank on a Junior Michigan win at those times. That's a fact. Anyway, Junior kept up with his teammate in the top 10 race at Pocono. That third place finish was his 9th top 10 of the year.

7. Clint Bowyer (LW: 6): 15th for Rawhide at Pocono was his 11th top 15 of the year. Yeah, I'm reaching here. But I'll be honest, what is there to say about a 15th place finish at perhaps the most "eh" race of the season? That top 15 rate is a great way to get into the Chase, but it's not much fodder for Power Rankings. And the latter is obviously much more important than the former.

8. Carl Edwards (LW: 5): Last week, Edwards actually gained (two) points on Johnson thanks to that late-race restart penalty. This week there would be no such luck. After starting second and leading the first nine laps, Edwards was never heard from again after getting shuffled back in the field thanks to tire strategy. Track position was incredibly important Sunday and Edwards lost it. He never got it back.

9. Kasey Kahne (LW: 7): He's Keselowski-ing it! Kahne has finished outside the top 20 in four of the last six races. That included Sunday, when he was sidelined by a drivetrain issue on the first freaking lap of the race. That's some horrible luck. Of course, one of the two finishes inside the top 20 over the last six is a second place finish, so the speed is still there. Kahne's just having his miserable stretch of the season now, rather than at the beginning of the year like last season.

10. Denny Hamlin (LW: 8): Are there such things as "good points days" in Denny Hamlin's world any longer? I'd wager so. While he needs the wins for Wild Card contention, he also needs to worry about the top 20. We've all seen how Hamlin can reel off victories, he doesn't need much time to accrue them. He's 76 points out of 20th. That's what will take time, and yeah, 8th place finishes aren't ideal, but you're not going to throw them away either.

11. Kurt Busch (LW: 11): Busch was fast all weekend once again and grabbed another top 10. He's getting closer and closer to victory lane as evidenced by his progress in the points standings. In the last seven races, the only time he's finished outside the top 15 was when he flipped at Talladega. Coincidentally, he's now 15th in the standings.

12. Jeff Gordon (LW: 10): Just like his standing in Power Rankings, Gordon finished 12th at Pocono. Not great, not poor. Just... pretty good. Thanks to his points position, Gordon started 11th and didn't venture too many deviations past that point throughout the entire race. On that note, it's fair to wonder how much qualifying being rained out made the race such a track position one. The good cars started up front and for the most part, they all stayed there.

Lucky Dog: This goes to Greg Biffle, who finished second. It was The Biff's first top 10 in the last seven races.

The DNF: Even though it wasn't an actual DNF, this goes to Martin Truex Jr., who finished 23rd after a couple of issues. After finishing 38th thanks to a blown engine last week, Truex is 17th in the standings after leaving Charlotte 9th.

Dropped Out: Brad Keselowski

A marshal died from injuries sustained in a mishap while tending to Esteban Gutierrez's crashed car in the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

The 38-year-old worker, who has not been identified, dropped his radio and was backed over by a crane while officials prepared to remove Gutierrez's car from the track. Gutierrez crashed in turn 2 in the late stages of the race.

"The worker was helping to recover a car which had stopped during the race. The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up. As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle," the FIA, the governing body of F1, said in a statement.

The track worker, a 10 year veteran, was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:02 PM local time before he was to be operated on.

From the Montreal Gazette:

The man was rushed by ambulance to the medical centre at the raceway, where he was stabilized by a team of doctors and nurses. He was given oxygen.

The man was then transported by helicopter to Sacré-Coeur, a designated trauma centre, where a team of specialists was already in place waiting for him.

“A giant wheel went over his body, so there are fractures,” Bouchard explained shortly after the accident.

Mobile cranes are a common site at F1 races and are used by course marshals and officials to extract cars from gravel traps and barriers with limited disruption to the race. Fernando Alonso, who finished second to Sebastian Vettel in Sunday's race, tweeted his condolences.

Today there is nothing to celebrate. Terrible news arrive with the death of a marshal this race. Very sad. R.I.P.

— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) June 9, 2013

Brad Keselowski was inside of Tony Stewart for fifth place when he lost grip and washed up toward Stewart. As Keselowski's car started sliding, he hit Stewart in the left rear corner and sent the 2011 champion into a slide as well.

Incredibly, they both kept their cars pointed in the right direction. Both Keselowski and Stewart lost multiple positions to the cars behind them, but they were able to avoid the fate that befell Juan Pablo Montoya and Matt Kenseth in the tunnel turn just previously. In that incident, Montoya's car washed up while on the inside of Kenseth's and both drivers went spinning, though neither one hit anything.

Stewart bounced back to finish fourth and Keselowski was 16th after working his way through the field after a late-race pit stop for tires.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Jimmie Johnson dominates for victory at Pocono
• Nationwide Craziest Moment: Hit from Pastrana lifts Papis' rear wheels off ground
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Sometimes you get a race that's so thoroughly controlled by one car that no matter what happens, it seems inevitable that car will take the checkered flag.

Sunday at Pocono was one of those days. Jimmie Johnson, the five-time champion and Sprint Cup Series points leader, led 128 of the race's 160 laps en route to his third win of the season.

And, unlike the previous week at Dover, when a late-race restart cost Johnson a victory with a dominating car, this week, this race's cluster of late lap restarts was not going to deny Johnson the win.

Just how good was Johnson's car? Well, these words were the first words he said after emerging from his car in victory lane. Mind you, this is a guy who just won his 63rd Sprint Cup race; and did we mention he was a five-time Sprint Cup Series champion?

"That's the best car I've had in a long, long, long, long, long, long time," Johnson said. "Not only a good race car but a good engine. Had fuel mileage and plenty of power. It was awesome on the straightaways today to be able to do what I wanted around other cars.

The fuel mileage aspect came in handy because until that spate of caution flags, the race seemed destined to become a fuel mileage race. That's a strategy that's bitten Johnson and team before, and looked to be the only possibility of derailing the No. 48 on it's train tracks directly towards the checkered flag.

The power aspect came in after those caution flags fell. Four of the race's six cautions came in the final 30 laps, and for each of those restarts, Johnson was in the lead. Every single time he was clear of the field through turn one.

Greg Biffle finished second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third. Dover winner Tony Stewart was fourth and his teammate, Ryan Newman, was fifth. Newman, thanks to an off-sequence pit-stop strategy, was the only driver outside of Johnson to lead the race outside of green flag pit stop cycles since Johnson took the lead on lap 9 from Carl Edwards. Johnson started first by rule because Friday's qualifying session was washed out.

Related NASCAR video on Yahoo! Sports

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
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• Trevor Bayne wins NASCAR Nationwide race in Iowa
• Jim Brown visits with NASCAR's Petty, Patrick

Max Papis thought he was going to be clear of the crash in front of him. He wasn't.

During Sunday's rain-delayed Nationwide Series race at Iowa, Alex Bowman and Brian Vickers went spinning in front of Travis Pastrana. There was nowhere for Pastrana, who was on the high side, to go, and he ended up hitting Vickers' car.

After hitting Vickers, Pastrana's car veered toward the inside of the track, where the field of cars behind the crash had scrambled to avoid the accident. Everyone made it by except Papis.

Pastrana's car smashed into the right side of Papis' car near the right-rear tire and sheared off the sheetmetal on the side and sent Papis' rear wheels off the ground like the car did a reverse pop-a-wheelie.

Both cars were too damaged to continue.

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• Trevor Bayne wins NASCAR Nationwide race in Iowa
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Thanks to steady rain all day, the only on-track activity to talk about at Pocono on Friday was Sunday's Dover restart, which saw Jimmie Johnson get penalized -- and lose any shot at a win -- for jumping it with less than 20 laps to go.

Johnson had the dominant car that day, leading 147 laps. But Montoya was the leader at the time of the restart and Johnson accelerated before he did, beating Montoya and the rest of the field to the start/finish line.

There was no dominant car Friday at Pocono. No one got on track and all activity was officially canceled just after 2 p.m. Eastern. That means the field is set by owner points and Johnson will lead the field to green on Sunday with Carl Edwards next to him. Yes, it's probably safe to say that Johnson isn't going to be overanxious to hit the gas at the drop of the green.

"I really believe that in the restart zone to the start-finish line that Juan (Pablo Montoya) just didn’t go and in my opinion, I think he played it right," Johnson said. "I think he was smart in letting me get out ahead of him and let them make the call on me to keep me from having the lead and winning the race. It’s interesting, I really don’t have anything against Juan for doing it, as racers we need to work any and every angle we can to win a race. That’s what we do, we race. I put a little more weight into officiating in exactly how the rule reads and the way the rule is intended to be enforced. I think we can look at enforcing it differently. I think everybody looking at it afterwards can see that Juan just didn’t go."

Johnson said that he hoped that with current technology that there would be a way to determine if a leader had mechanical issues on a restart that prevented him from accelerating immediately. He also likened the gamesmanship between drivers on the front row to players in the NBA flopping to exaggerate a possible offense by another player and talked about how that gamesmanship could depend on the size of a track's restart zone. Restart zones vary from track to track.

"Someone flops, what then?," Johnson asked. "You think about the restart zone at Indy, you have a couple hundred yards from the end of that zone to the start-finish line and if I’m the leader and on the outside, I could let five or six cars go by and then get to the start-finish line and trap them all down and put them in position to be penalized. Essentially, Juan found a loophole. He found a loophole in the officiating and worked it to his advantage so sure I’m mad I didn’t win the race, and I’m not mad at him, but I think we need to look at how we officiate and how we can regulate that and keep that from happening. Dover, it’s a very short distance from the zone to the start-finish line. At other tracks, it’s a huge distance. (At Pocono), it’s pretty big. I would have to imagine it’s a couple hundred yards as well. You could pin four or five people into that position if they take the bait, which I took the bait clearly.”

When he was asked if he found a loophole in NASCAR's restart rules, Montoya, who will start Sunday's race 25th, responded with a question himself.

"Did I? Wow, I’m that good," Montoya said with a laugh. "Man that is a compliment. The loop hole is that you have to start between the cones and the leader has got to -- I think the start says you have to restart between the two cones that I did. And you are not supposed to beat the leader to the line. What is so hard about that? You know what I mean? I read a quote about him this week. I was at my house and I read a quote. He (Jimmie Johnson) said ‘if he wouldn’t have done that the No. 42 would have beat him.’ I’m like well I’m the leader not you. I was thinking I know you dominated the race, but we came to a pit stop and we did a better job than you guys. And as we did a better job than you guys we are the leader not you. Crazy enough if he would have backed off let me go he would have probably passed me again. It would have been all good. He wanted to time it really well where he didn’t have to deal with me through turns one and two, but he mistimed it. That is it, no drama.”

One way to not have to worry about the second place car to the finish line is to go back to single file restarts. That's what defending champion Brad Keselowski would vote for after expressing he wasn't a fan of double-file restarts.

@nickbromberg st8 up single file with wave arounds. The leader earned this

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) June 7, 2013

While Keselowski's solution may be the most equitable for all -- one lane of drivers wouldn't be starting outside of the preferred racing groove -- don't look for NASCAR to change the double file restart rule anytime soon.

Like the double file restarts? Are you a fan of Keselowski's rule? Should the restart zone be eliminated in favor of another approach? Drop us a line in the comments.

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.

Before we start this week's mailbag, this is one hell of a summer weekend of motorsports coming up. And it's structured perfectly if you need to get stuff done around the house. Friday night's the Truck Series race and then Saturday night we've got the Nationwide Series and the IndyCar Series at the same time, allowing all day to get your errands and tasks done. And then of course, we've got the PARTY IN THE POCONOS!!!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!!

I always hear the same thing about JJ/Chad and the "Evil Empire" that is Hendrick motorsports. I cant tell you how many times I have had to hear and put up with the whole "NASCAR is Set Up" so that JJ will win! Well I hope this finally shuts them up! The fact is that JPM didnt go on the restart and then he spun his tires, JJ waited for the flagman and when he displayed the green, Jimmy punched it. The fact that JPM has NEVER been up front for a restart and spun his tires on the PREFERRED line is not even being discussed...only that JJ entered the "Start Box" ahead of JPM. With all the advancements in technology that NASCAR has at their disposal, why is it that they DONT have a laser or something to definitively show the fans that that indeed was the case? Instead, all we have are 2 very HORRIBLE camera angles(one is from like the other side of the track) to see is Robin Pemperton is telling the truth. Bottom line is(JPM said it himself in an interview)..JJ got a perfect start, JPM spun his tires badly, and its a shame because JJ had the dominate car out there! So please all of you NASCAR conspiracy theorists, stop saying that NASCAR sets it up so that JJ will win.....cause its obvious that is a bunch of BULL!
- K

Tony Stewart was gracious in praising Juan Pablo Montoya for not blocking with 3 to go. Montoya was either being a courteous driver or was pretty sure Smoke would have wrecked him if he tried. You can call that one either way.

Post race, JPM blamed the loss on bad pit strategy (old left tires), and later added that track position dictated that call. Regardless, he threw his crew chief under the bus on that one, and that's not NASCAR teamwork, it's F1 "Teamwork"

I don't like the penalty on the 48 for jumping the last restart. Whether JPM spun his tires or held up so he wouldn't pass Johnson before the first turn, NASCAR will have trouble with this precedent. They're setting up a strategy where the leader checks up before the start finish line, and doesn't go until turn 1 with the rest of the field behind him trying to get going. It will get rid of the guy in 2nd, but it will cause a lot of wrecks.
- John

Hey now, K, there's no reason to disparage Montoya in all of this. He was up front for a restart in the late stages of the race at Richmond this April. And that wasn't the first time he's been near the front either.

I understand why Jimmie Johnson fans would be mad about what happened on Sunday, but it's pretty cut and dry. Had Johnson given Montoya back the spot, he doesn't get the penalty. And you know what? He likely gets that spot back given how well that car was performing.

Instead, Johnson didn't give the spot back, he got penalized and them's the brakes. (Or breaks, whatever you want to say.) Was it gamesmanship by Montoya to not let Johnson give that spot back on the frontstretch if Vader was indeed half-throttle? Possibly. But that's no different than the gamesmanship that typically happens on a restart anyway, so that's fair game as far as I'm concerned.

As far as Montoya throwing his team under the bus, I didn't think that at all after the race. He was matter of fact why his car slowed down over the final laps and that was that. Stewart had newer left-side tires and that very well could have been the difference.

If he keeps showing the speed that's been present in the first 13 races, Montoya is going to win a race this season.

_____________________

Any idea on how long it will be before Newman is in ARCA?

I am a huge fan, but this is getting bad. I know Danica is a major distraction at Stewart-Haas, but in reality Ryan simply doesn't seem up to it anymore. The fact that he was even close enough to the #38 at Dover to dump him (2 laps down) speaks volumes. In all honesty, I can't see him at SHR next year. Can you?
- Chris

Yikes, that's a bold statement, don't you think? I was struck a couple weeks ago when on the Fox pre-race, that when the discussion turned to Newman, it was treated like a foregone conclusion that he was going to be out at Stewart-Haas next year.

That's not really surprising; it's very well-known that Newman is on a one-year contract and Kevin Harvick is heading over to SHR in 2014. Plus, those comments were before SHR officials were publicly talking about the strain of three full-time cars on the organization.

Now with those remarks in mind, it's logical to see how Newman could be the odd driver out at the organization, especially given the sponsorship gaps at that team. If SHR had such an issue expanding to three, are they going to want to immediately expand to four?

So let's say for a second that SHR does stay at three cars next year and with Harvick's arrival, Newman's contract isn't renewed. Where does he go? That's a damn good question. Kurt Busch is the odds-on favorite to replace Harvick and Brian Vickers will likely be in the No. 55. Roush, Gibbs and Penske all have room to expand, though the dreaded s-word would be an issue. In that scenario, Furniture Row would be open and they have the benefit of a full-time sponsor.

_____________________

Been a reader for some time but first time asking a question. Been a NASCAR fan for years, well decades., beginning in the ‘70s.

With Kyle Busch’s win in the truck race this past weekend a thought came to mind. He has won a lot of races between the three series. Would you consider him “the best” or “one of the best” or just that he has that many wins because he races in all three series? I’m not sure I’d place him on any kind of pedestal. After all, the truck and Nationwide series are more like the minor leagues, wouldn’t you say? Sort of like a major league baseball star playing on minor league and college teams.

I just wonder how many wins someone like Richard Perry, Earnhardt, Sr., etc., would have if they raced in all three series. Probably could even include people like Johnson, Gordon, and a few others as well. I know that the Sprint Cup drivers being in those races probably puts butts in the seats, but I think it takes away from the up and coming drivers who are trying to earn spots, show their stuff, etc.
- George

While Busch was dominating the Nationwide Series race at Dover (a race he didn't win), I did some quick math on his winning trends for the hell of it. He's signed for the near future at Joe Gibbs Racing, and if he stays at the same win rate that he's been at for his JGR and Kyle Busch Motorsports career, he's going to get his 200th NASCAR victory at the ripe old age of 33. Yes, 33.

I continually struggle to put that into context and likely won't be able to until Busch gets really close to that number. Busch is driving in a much more competitive Sprint Cup Series era than his record-book peers when you look at the NASCAR win column. And that argument of competitiveness could also stretch to the Nationwide Series and Truck Series too. Though I'm not sure how rock-solid it would be.

However, Busch does have an advantage compared to those historical peers -- the number of races available to him. If he wants to, he could compete in 91 races between the three series this year. The longest Cup Series season of Petty's career was 62 races and there were only 50+ races in 60 seasons. Does quantity dilute the achievement? There are so many factors.

It's an argument that has no right answer and likely will never have one.

_____________________

As a race fan I've always admired the raw talent of Kurt Busch. Recently I've noticed when I wear my #78 FRR tee shirts. I get numerous remarks from folks saying "that fella puts on a show" and the like. So, I'm wondering why are fans suddenly connecting with him? Performance? His support of our veterans? The likeable brother? Successfully overcoming past personal mistakes off the track?
- Rick

Rick, you're the first person in this mailbag space to call Shrub likeable. Kyle sells a lot of merchandise and is much more popular than a lot of people realize (similar to a certain female driver), but it's a sparsely used adjective, at least from our From the Marbles gang.

The attention that Kurt Busch has drawn this year has surprised me a little bit. Is it the second (third?) chance aspect? We joke about what will befall Busch next in his quest to win a race, but the perception and reaction of when he does get back to victory lane will be very intriguing to watch.

_____________________

Why are you so obsessed with Danica? Don't you realize that most serious race fans think she's a total joke? Please do not tell me your just doing your job. The novelty is long over. Please don not tell me "well it got your attention". No, I'm just tired of all the Danica stories instead of actual racing news. Tell me that you will stop pandering to this nonsense and put the effort into reporting on something worth reading. You and I both know that if Danica was male she/he's be lucky to scrape the nickles together to run in the SCCA.
-Hayes

What's that, Hayes? (DANICA!) Are you talking about (DANICA!) a driver in the Sprint (DANICA!) Cup Series? (DANICA!)

(On a serious note, I thought comrade Jay Busbee took the appropriate tone with the Danica and Stenhouse crash post last week. It was certainly something that it was a top story on entertainment sites on Memorial Day.)

People like to read about Danica. Lots of other people read Danica stories too. The easiest way to prevent Danica coverage is to refuse to pay attention to it. That's by not clicking stories, watching features, etc. But the people who dislike Danica (or say that they dislike the coverage) aren't doing that. Or Danica is a whole lot more popular than you think she is. Simply put, people pay attention. Until they stop, Danica coverage isn't going anywhere.

Brad Keselowski was penalized six points and crew chief Paul Wolfe was fined $25,000 and put on probation until December 31 after the No. 2 car failed post-race inspection at Dover when the right front of the car was found to be too low.

:The No. 2 car was found to have violated Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4J (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20-12.8.1B (the car failed to meet the minimum front car heights during post-race inspection) of the 2013 rule book," a NASCAR release said.

It was the same penalty that Martin Truex Jr. received after the right front of his car was found to be too low after Texas in April. Both penalties were attributed by the teams to parts failures and Penske Racing said in a statement that it would not appeal Keselowski's penalty.

The penalty, which also includes six owner's points as well, drops Keselowski from 8th to 10th in the standings. Earlier in the season, both Keselowski and teammate Joey Logano were penalized 25 points after NASCAR found unapproved alterations to the rear-ends of the cars before the Texas race. Sunday's race at Dover was the first race back for Wolfe and Todd Gordon, Logano's crew chief, after the two served suspensions from Texas.

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): Face it, when Jimmie bolted away on that final restart you immediately and briefly thought "well, this race is over." And if you didn't, you're a liar. But there was the (rightful) penalty and Johnson ended up 17th. Does Johnson win the race if he gives back that position to Montoya? Probably. But ifs and buts are candy and nuts and blah blah blah. What we need is a driver to step up and challenge Vader for the top spot in them here power rankings and it's just not happening.

2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 4): Hola, Kevin. Thanks for taking the No. 2 spot this week. Your run at Dover wasn't striking, but thanks to qualifying seventh, you ran in and around the top 10 all day and that's where you finished. On a week where throwing names at a dartboard may be a better (and surefire more fun) method, you're the best of the bunch. Now go give 48 a run, will you?

3. Matt Kenseth (LW: 2): Oh, what's that? The guy that's third in Power Rankings this week suffered a blown engine and finished 40th? Yes, we told you, it's that type of week. Kenseth does seem to be taking the Kyle Busch tale of two extremes approach to NASCAR this season, but it's working out for him so far. It's not going to in the Chase, however.

4. Kyle Busch (LW: 7): We were just talking about you, Kyle. Only in your world does competing in three races in a weekend and finishing first, fifth and fourth is a disappointment, so hopefully it hasn't hurt too much. Not to twist the pinch or anything, but that talk of a triple sweep wasn't just sports-radio blather. You had the best car for all of Saturday's Nationwide race and got caught by pit strategy taking four tires when nine others took two. And on Sunday you were pretty good for the first half of the race too.

5. Carl Edwards (LW: 3): The broken record continues on as Edwards was once again a nonfactor the entire race, but still finished 14th and because of Johnson's penalty, ended up making up ground on Five-Time. That's not going to continue to cut it however, but as we've said before, it's got to be comforting for Cuz that this year his non-factor races are resulting in top 15 finishes.

6. Clint Bowyer (LW: 10): Did you know that Rawhide was third in the points standings? Bowyer's first race as a 34-year-old was a solid sixth place and he's 50 points behind Johnson. Without his team owner in the booth for NASCAR races going forward, will Bowyer's ubiquity via in-car cameras and commercials continue? We're about to find out.

7. Kasey Kahne (LW: 5): The next two spots are a tossup between Kahne and Denny Hamlin and Kahne gets the tiebreaker by virtue of being ahead in last week's power rankings. Both saw good runs spoiled by accidents late in Sunday's race, but because of the nature of Kahne's race, he was able to bounce back and finish 23rd, four laps down.

8. Denny Hamlin (LW: 6): Hamlin wasn't so lucky. Sunday's polesitter lost a right front tire to bring out the race's final caution flag and it was over from there. Going into this Sunday's race at Pocono, you'll likely hear a lot about Hamlin's dominance at the triangle. Yes, he does have four wins, but in the past five races, he's accompanied two fifths with a 19th, 15th and 29th.

9. Tony Stewart (LW: NR): It's Smoke's first appearance in Power Rankings. Welcome, Smoke. If you're a Stewart fan thinking that the start to this season was the karma for the incredible run at the end of 2011 -- or hell, simply a Stewart fan, period -- you have to be wondering where in the hell that victory came from on Sunday. That was the biggest late-lap swing we've seen in a Sprint Cup Series race since when?

10. Jeff Gordon (LW: 11): After squandering a good run at Charlotte with an ill-timed decision to pit when getting caught on pit road as the caution flag flew, the No. 24 crew gets the proverbial salad out of you-know-what third place finish at Dover on Sunday. Those types of finishes are rewarding, but are they rewarding enough to make up for the feeling of "what if?" when squandering a good run?

11. Kurt Busch (LW: 8): Oh Kurt. Oh Kurt. Oh Kurt. You're just going to run through every possibility in the book before you get that complete race, aren't you? This week's Kurt Busch wound was getting caught a lap down after pitting under green before the final caution flag. After taking the wave-around, Busch ended up 12th, so all was definitely not lost. It was just yet another late race segment of having to play salvage. Though Busch is getting pretty good at that.

12. Brad Keselowski (LW: NR) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 9): Who says I can't have 13 drivers in Power Rankings this week? Let's start with Keselowski, who is likely facing a six-point fine after the right front of his car was found to be too low after finishing fifth on Sunday. Broken shock or not, that was a much needed fifth after four straight finishes outside the top 10. As for Junior, it was another week and another top 10. That's tied for the most of any driver this season with Johnson and ... Keselowski.

Lucky Dog: Props to Joey Logano and team for a great recovery and seventh place finish. It's not too often that a driver gets a flat tire under green at Dover and subsequently finishes in the top 10. That gets you mentioned in the Lucky Dog spot for a second straight week.

Dropped Out: Paul Menard

The DNF: The drivers in 14th-21st are separated by a measly 20 points, so that bump of David Gilliland was exceptionally costly for Ryan Newman. Newman was struggling with power steering issues at Dover before the crash, but had he finished 20th instead of the 36th he ended up, he's 16th in the standings and four points out of 14th. Now he's tied for 20th.

The followup to AJ Allmendinger's strong performance at the Indianapolis 500 didn't go very well.

In the IndyCar Series' first dual race weekend of the season, Allmendinger failed to complete the first lap in each race at Detroit's Belle Isle street circuit.

On Saturday, Allmendinger's car launched over Scott Dixon's as he made a move to the inside going into turn four under braking. After flying over Dixon's car, Allmendinger's car came to rest in the tire barrier on the outside of the turn.

Sunday, he didn't make it to turn four. As he exited turn two on the first lap, his car got loose and when he corrected it, it slammed into the outside wall and snapped the right-front suspension.

Saturday was Allmendinger's fifth race in an IndyCar for Penske Racing after coming over from NASCAR. Allmendinger joined Penske's No. 22 Sprint Cup team at the beginning of 2012 but didn't race again for the team after testing positive for a stimulant following the Kentucky race. A five-time winner in CART, Allmendinger finished seventh at Indianapolis.

If Ryan Newman wanted to send David Gilliland a message, consider that message delivered. However, it wasn't delivered optimally.

Newman tagged Gilliland in the left rear as the two were exiting turn two on lap 300 of Sunday's race at Dover, and the bump sent Gilliland into the wall on the backstretch. However, Gilliland bounced off the wall and careened towards the inside of the track and collected Newman as he slammed into the inside wall.

The two cars came to a rest near each other and Gilliland climbed out first and ambled over to Newman's car, where the two drivers had an animated conversation while Newman unbuckled from his car and took off his helmet. Once Newman was out of the car, the discussion continued until it was clear that the two were going to agree to disagree and Gilliland tossed his HANS device towards his car and walked off.

Newman declined to be interviewed after exiting the infield care center. Gilliland's point of view? Well, he was pretty straightforward saying that Newman "wrecked us." What did he say to Newman afterwards?

"What were you thinking? The 7 car (Dave Blaney) was holding me up," Gilliland said. "We were going, we both had race cars, we were racing each other and it was way too aggressive."

After starting in three of the top four starting positions, it was no surprise that Joe Gibbs Racing was strong throughout Sunday's race at Dover. After all, JGR has the most wins and has led significantly more laps than any other team in the Sprint Cup Series.

But that performance has come with a tradeoff that has become unsurprising as well. Yes, you guessed it, engine woes.

Sunday, the engine gremlins felled Matt Kenseth's car. Kenseth was leading when smoke started to trail from his exhaust. Soon after, his day was over.

"Man it's disappointing. I feel like JGR is three of the strongest teams in the garage -- it seems like we have the best cars out there, equal to the best cars," Kenseth said. "But you have to finish these things, obviously. There's been some issues in that department. I've got a lot of faith in those guys, they'll get it figured out."

Kenseth also suffered an engine failure while leading during the Daytona 500 and teammate Kyle Busch's engine expired 257 laps into last week's Coca-Cola 600. In the 500, Busch inherited the lead after Kenseth retired and his engine promptly went sour.

After a spate of engine reliability issues in 2011, Toyota Racing Development and JGR combined engine efforts in August of that season. Since then, the combined shop has supplied engines to not only JGR but Michael Waltrip Racing.

MWR's Martin Truex Jr. was near the front of the field too on Sunday, but just over 100 laps after Kenseth's engine failure, Truex too fell victim to the Toyota engine gremlins.

"Sitting there running second, third, fourth all day long and felt like we were just a little bit away from having something for the win. Just a little too tight on the short run but really fast on the long run," Truex said. "And I just wish we could have had one more crack on it on pit road and raced them to the end. It's just a shame. Got to thank TRD, they've been doing a good job with their engine program and making big power, just a shame we've got to blow them up."

Kenseth is tied for fourth in the standings, 74 points behind Jimmie Johnson while Truex is tied for 14th, 130 points back.

Tony Stewart swung past Juan Pablo Montoya on the high side with three laps to go and won the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover after Jimmie Johnson was penalized for jumping the race's final restart.

Where the heck did Stewart, a driver who has been struggling all season, come from? We'll get to that in a moment. First, that fateful restart.

After Montoya beat Johnson out of the pits before that last restart with 19 laps to go, he was the race leader and chose the high line coming to the green flag. Johnson on the inside, sprinted ahead as the two drove through the restart box that demarcates the zone where the leader is supposed to accelerate through the green flag.

By the time the two got to the start/finish line, Johnson was multiple car lengths ahead of Montoya. Did Montoya spin his tires? Did Johnson jump the restart? Even if Montoya did the former, NASCAR ruled that Johnson did the latter, and he was forced to pit for a pass-through penalty from the race lead with 16 laps to go.

"No, I was half-throttle for the whole frontstretch," Johnson said while watching the replay after the race. "And at some point, I gotta go. And in this situation NASCAR has the judgement to decide if you jumped the start or not and -- he's not even going. I'm not sure if his car broke or he's off power, spun the tires, I don't know. So I'm running half throttle down the frontstretch waiting for him and he never comes."

"So at that point, we got back going, (crew chief Chad Knaus) even told me on the radio that something had happened and I should take off and don't worry about it and then we were called on it."

For NASCAR, it was an easy call. From USA Today:

"He left early and he didn't give it back like we tell them all the time when this type of thing comes up," Pemberton said. "It's pretty cut and dry. … That was an easy call. Very easy call."

Starting 24th, Johnson nearly went a lap down early in the race. But from then on he quickly worked his way through the field and led for a race-high 147 laps. Johnson, a seven-time Dover winner, was so good in the late stages of the race that after he drove away from Montoya, his chances of being caught by Montoya or anyone else were slim-to-none. (Johnson ended up 17th.)

But the penalty changed all of that. With Johnson exiting the track to serve his pass-through, the lead was handed over to Montoya with Stewart almost a second back in second. The race was suddenly between a driver who has had fast cars and circumstances go against him all season looking for the first oval win of his career and a three-time Cup Series champion mired in 20th in the standings looking not only for his first win of the season, but simply his first top five.

Stewart started two spots ahead of Johnson in 22nd and made his way through the field much slower than the No. 48 car. He broke into the top 10 with 100 laps to go and vaulted from the back of the top 10 to fourth before the final restart thanks to a two-tire pit stop.

As the laps ticked down, Stewart started catching Montoya consistently in the middle of turns 3 and 4. Montoya, refusing to give Stewart the low line, stayed glued to the bottom of the track. As the two, with Jeff Gordon in tow, took the signal for three laps to go, Stewart jumped to the high side in turns one and two and pulled alongside, clearing Montoya as they entered 3 and 4 again.

"(Crew chief Steve) Addington's pit strategy gave us the opportunity there at the end," Stewart said. "It's pretty cool. There's not many times when you get to outrace Juan Montoya -- he figured out where I was gaining ground and he made the adjustment and got going there and so we had to move around again and found a little something on the top there."

Yes, it was a hot day at Dover on Sunday, and the cliches about Stewart's prowess in the warm weather were already flowing as soon as the checkered flag fell. Those are probably a bit premature, though Stewart's Chase chances are now much stronger; with the win, he vaulted up to 16th in the standings.

No, that's not supposed to happen.

During Saturday's Nationwide Series 5 Hour Energy 200 at Dover, Parker Kligerman left his pit during the first pit stop of the day with the jack still underneath the bottom of his car. And, almost incredibly, the jack stayed underneath Kligerman's car for an entire lap before he made it back to his pit stall so his crew could remove it.

However, as Kligerman was exiting the pits, it hit front tire changer Mark Armstrong in the right lower leg. Armstrong couldn't continue and the team was forced to find a replacement.

Kligerman was also penalized for removing equipment from the pit box and was forced to start at the back of the field for the ensuing restart. He finished 11th.

Brad Keselowski wrecked Danica Patrick during last week's Coca-Cola 600, in part because Patrick's boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. didn't give ground. The moment it happened, you could almost hear NASCAR Nation perking up, like when the Homecoming Queen and King start sniping at each other in the high school cafeteria. OMG did u see what just happened?!?, and all that.

Friday at Dover, Patrick opened the RV door just a bit on their relationship, and conceded that, yep, she was a little ticked that her two-laps-down boyfriend didn't give her the room she needed.

“I was definitely upset and angry about the situation," Patrick said. "I was a little bit upset with him. Yeah, I was, and we talked about it. It’s absolutely fine now and we were fine by the end of the ride home. That’s what happens out there. Tensions are high and so are emotions.”

Someone asked if Patrick got "a nice dinner" out of the wreck, and she dusted off the question with practiced ease: “Did I get a nice dinner out of it, let’s see. No, went home and went right to bed. I think I ate something on my bus. I think I had half of a banana, a little chocolate protein shake and two beers. That’s what I had.” In other words: you got your money quote already, guys; don't push it and get creepy.

It's important to note that the actual cause of the wreck, Brad Keselowski, took full responsibility for the wreck immediately afterward: “I was three-wide with Danica and didn’t know it and I cut her off and wrecked her and myself," he said. "I feel bad for her and I send my apologies to her."

Patrick also doesn't begrudge the fact that her relationship draws so much attention from fans. "I understand it’s interesting," she said. "I’m sure I would want to know how that all went down after the race too. We’re an entertainment sport, so I get it."

All the same, Ricky ... a dozen roses waiting in the ol' RV after qualifying couldn't hurt, ya know?

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

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.

Immediately following the Indianapolis 500, which I must say was the best Indianapolis 500 I've ever seen, the cries for the race to attempt to finish under green similar to NASCAR's green-white-checker system began. It's understandable that some tuning in wanted to see such a thrilling race end under yellow, but should IndyCar take a page from NASCAR on this one?

After Tony Kanaan's victory on Sunday at Indianapolis, more than a few stated that the finish wasn't satisfying because it ended under caution. They want what NASCAR has - the ballyhooed 'Green/White/Checkers'. As much as I like Green/White/Wreckers in NASCAR, you can't do it in Indy Car. Try beating, banging, and bumping with those cars like they do in NASCAR and someone ends up in the hospital - or worse. Leave Indy Car, and especially the 500 with all its traditions, alone. I had absolutely NO problem with the result.
- Andy

I'm completely with Andy on this one. I have no problem with IndyCar and NASCAR having separate rules, though some in NASCAR thought differently. Take this tweet from Michael Waltrip. Waltrip must have forgotten that he raced most of his career without a green-white-checker finish rule in place in NASCAR.

And besides, that essentially was a green-white-checker finish. Sometimes dramatic NASCAR races end under caution too... like Dale Earnhardt's Daytona 500 win.

_____________________

Can someone explain to me why when a bizarre event like a TV camera cable falls, everyone gets to pit for 15 minutes to repair the damage and then resume the same race order. But back when Jeff Gordon had the Martinsville pothole throw up a piece of asphalt into his car and put a hole in the grill that you could stick your head in after dominating the race to that point, he was forced to pit on his own and make the repairs just as if he had a flat tire.
-Paul

That's a good point that Geoffrey Miller and I talked about in our Chrome Horn podcast. You all listened, right? I believe it was the fairest thing NASCAR could have done in that situation, though it was a stark departure from the rules that have been in place previously.

In that race Paul mentions, Gordon wasn't allowed any special avenues to help get the damage from the concrete fixed and his car in raceable condition. Neither did anyone in the Daytona pothole incident.

We're going to get another bizarre incident in NASCAR in the near future that's going to damage race cars. Hell, who could have seen the rope snapping like that? But the big thing is to see how NASCAR will react in the future. Officials can now go either way. Is this the new normal or was it a special exception?

Now, on to Warped Wednesday, which apparently generated a lot of chatter.

_____________________

We cannot afford to go to the races and will be deprived of seeing them on TV.
- Tommy

You need to stop posting BS lies .... You are so full of it your eyes are brown I have no Idea why yahoo lets you post BS..I hope yahoo yanks you from there page ... Start printing real stuff not fake crap ...
- Jamie (via Twitter)

Apparently people don't read headlines or disclaimers. I'll spell it out. Warped. Wednesday. Is. Not. Real. Got it?

However, there were a lot of commenters and people on social media who got freaked out about the post, despite the fact that the race was going to be replaced by a LEGO re-enactment. Disclaimer aside, if that didn't make you think that it was a fake story, I've got nothing to say.

(I do want to apologize to other NASCAR media members who had to field questions about the post on Twitter Wednesday evening. With the exception of a post that I wrote to convey a message, most are more unbelievable than your craziest Jimmie Johnson conspiracy theory.)

_____________________

Here is something I have never understood. Bobby Labonte is consistently in the top 10 in the fan vote every year, despite his best years being far behind. Heck, he hasn't won a race in almost ten years. I understand loyalty to a driver, or a team if you include all sports, but it seems like being a Labonte fan would be frustrating at times. Can you explain why Bobby Labonte remains so popular to this day?
- Jason

NASCAR fans are a fiercely loyal bunch. Labonte is also the last of the family in NASCAR. Justin's Nationwide Series career was short and Terry is just running a race or two every year.

My guess is that many of those fans have also picked other drivers, but given that Labonte has been eligible for the fan vote every year, he's an easy and sentimental choice to vote for.

Got any questions for us to use in the mailbag or the podcast? Hit us at HappyHourMailbag@Yahoo.com.

Click here to download the podcast or here to listen to in your browser. And we're now on iTunes! Find us in the Podcast section right here and subscribe. Listen!

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.

Sorry fans, NASCAR is going dark.

In response to Sunday's cable camera incident and in a boost to struggling attendance numbers, NASCAR has decided that until a suitable solution has been found, cameras will be banned from all NASCAR tracks.

Yes, that means no television coverage of this weekend's events at Dover and likely longer. A source close to Warped Wednesday said that the process could take a month or more. While the Brickyard 400 has been mentioned as the final line to get NASCAR races back on TV, NASCAR is having internal discussions about extensive cable testing that would push any possible solution into August.

Why? Well, the sanctioning body wants to make sure that another rope doesn't snap and damage cars like it did on Sunday night. After all, the rope that broke was designed to hold exponentially more weight than was distributed on it. Secondly, it would be a great test for Indianapolis' glaring attendance problem. Attendance has fallen sharply at the Brickyard and NASCAR is hoping that depriving the country of television coverage will mean more fans will come to the track.

Why all cameras, and not just cameras attached by ropes? Well, camera lenses are made of glass, and we saw the damage that a rope could do to a car. What would happen if a lens cracked and glass fell on the track and a car suffered a massive tire failure from it? Or what would happen if an entire camera fell? Those are scenarios NASCAR would rather prevent entirely for the time being than take the chance of happening.

Of course, this is a touchy issue because of sponsorship contracts, but NASCAR is confident in this plan. When fans tune in on television, the race audio will be provided by MRN and PRN (depending on the track) and the race will be shown in LEGOs.

NASCAR knows that the radio announcers at MRN and PRN have a knack for making the racing on track infinitely more exciting than it actually is, which will artificially excite viewers and get them thinking about heading to the track the following week. Also, everyone loves LEGO re-enactments of sporting events, so there's potential for millions of YouTube views after the race. The LEGO re-enactments will be a tough task for NASCAR's IMC public relations team, but they have been working around the clock this week to create a LEGO Dover and are confident that the race will be appropriately recreated.

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 2): Before you ask us why Johnson is here because of his 22nd place finish Sunday night, ask yourself who should be here instead of Johnson. Name the driver and look up his finishing position and performance. Yeah, exactly. While Johnson didn't have a race-winning car, he certainly had one capable of a top-five and looked to be headed in that direction before he spun out while racing Martin Truex Jr.

2. Matt Kenseth (LW: 1): Kenseth's race went south at the same time as Johnson's, as he got whacked by Juan Pablo Montoya and the wall in the aftermath of Johnson's slide. And the only reason he was back there was because he got forced to use the wavearound after the caution flag flew during a round of green flag pit stops. Had that not happened, it very well could have been Kenseth battling Kahne for the win.

3. Carl Edwards (LW: 3): This probably seems like a broken record in Edwards' Power Rankings space, but Sunday was another perfect example of how his 2013 is different than his 2012. He wasn't in the same zip code as the leaders all evening (save for late in the race when he stayed out longer than the rest of the field) and ended up 11th. Last year, that's probably 20th. And even better, he cut some points off Johnson's points lead.

4. Kevin Harvick (LW: 6): That was Harvickian, wasn't it? After starting 15th, Harvick slowly worked his way to the front of the field and took the lead for the first time on lap 327. And then when he, along with the rest of the field, came for four tires on the race's final caution, his pit crew got him out first and Harvick did the rest. It wasn't as dramatic as his final lap pass of Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his first Coca-Cola 600 victory, but dare we say this was more impressive.

5. Kasey Kahne (LW: 8): Kahne and crew chief Kenny Francis were in a precarious situation being the leader of the race when that final yellow flew. If Kahne stays out, the rest of the field has the opportunity to isolate Kahne and pit. If he comes in, many cars could have stayed out and forced him to work through traffic on the final 11 laps. Kahne and Francis chose the former and that's exactly what happened. Though Kahne had a good enough car to hold on for second.

6. Denny Hamlin (LW: 9): Obvious statement alert: Second and fourth in your first two races back from injury is a pretty nice way to start your comeback into the top 20. Hamlin jumped three spots Sunday night and is now 24th in the standings. Next up ahead of him is Juan Pablo Montoya, but he's 26 points away. A win at Dover would go a long way to not only making up a significant chunk of that deficit against Montoya but also boost Hamlin's Wild Card chances.

7. Kyle Busch (LW: 4): Busch hitting that rope while leading the race on lap 121 was downright Kyle Buschian, wasn't it? Of course, that bizarre circumstance had to go and be topped on the Buschian scale with a sadly all-too-predictable engine failure and Busch was done with more than 140 laps left in the race. Just when you think all of the pieces are together for Busch to make a charge, consecutive races are marred with a flat tire, hitting a rope and a blown engine. Sheesh.

8. Kurt Busch (LW: NR): Speaking of things being Kyle Buschian, the question of when Kurt Busch and team will finally be able to put together a relatively flawless and incident free race still remains. Kurt finished third, but who knows what it would have been had his battery not died during the final red flag period and he was forced to be pushed by the wrecker to the pits and then restart 15th.

9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 5): Junior's car was faster in the sunlight than it was in the darkness, and he was actually in danger of being lapped at one point. He stayed on the lead lap however, but we're left to wonder how and if Junior would have been able to march back through the field because of that blown engine.

10. Clint Bowyer (LW: 10): Bowyer maintains his spot with a nice eighth place finish. He was everywhere this race weekend, from the booth on ESPN during the Nationwide Series race to in-car interviews during the Coca-Cola 600. And, at one point during the race, Bowyer asked if he could have someone to ride shotgun to "shoot the (stuff)" with. Who wants to volunteer?

11. Jeff Gordon (LW: 7): Gordon also pitted at the same time that Kenseth did and while Kenseth was able to take the wavearound, Gordon lost his lap while on pit road as the team changed two tires. And even though Gordon was ahead of Jimmie Johnson, Johnson got the Lucky Dog. No, that wasn't a conspiracy. The free pass goes to the driver a lap down at the time the caution comes out. Johnson was it. Simple as that.

12. Paul Menard (LW: NR): PFM is back! After getting caught up in the crash involving Johnson, Kenseth and Montoya, Menard and team was able to fix the damage on the right front of his car and played the fuel mileage game for a 13th place finish. While Menard has lost the RCR points leader crown, he's eighth in the standings, one position and 15 points back of Harvick. Watch out, Cupcake. PFM is still hanging around.

Lucky Dog: Joey Logano finished fifth for his fourth top 10 of the season. That's two more than he had all of last year. Logano is 19th in the standings, but if there wasn't that 25 point penalty, he'd be 13th. Think of how different the narrative is without that penalty.

Dropped Out: Aric Almirola, Juan Pablo Montoya

The DNF: Brad Keselowski, it's been a rough stretch for you. Over his last four points races, @Kes has finished 33rd, 15th 32nd and 36th. And that's not counting the busted transmission on lap 2 in the All-Star Race.

Where did the wrecks come from?

NASCAR fans have been accustomed to seeing relatively incident-free racing at intermediate tracks lately, to the dismay of some. Well, those folks weren't disappointed Sunday night.

Not even counting the craziness that was the rope falling from Fox's cable camera, the Coca-Cola 600 had its share of action, especially in an 20 lap stretch in the last quarter of the race.

It all started when Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Danica Patrick and Brad Keselowski were three-wide in turn three and ran out of room. Stenhouse, who was on the bottom, made contact with Patrick and that sent her up into Keselowski, where they both hit the wall. Yes, it was the first incident that both Patrick and Stenhouse were directly involved in since they've been dating.

Less than two laps after the race restarted, seven cars were officially collected in an incident that started when Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Aric Almirola were three-wide on the frontstretch while racing for the Lucky Dog to get back on the lead lap. Martin, who was in the middle, and Almirola, who was on the bottom, made contact that shot Almirola up towards the wall and into Gordon. Stenhouse, Bobby Labonte, Casey Mears and Trevor Bayne were also caught up in it.

After a red flag delay to clean up the debris from the accident, the race restarted again on lap 332 and this time made it about a lap and a half longer before Jimmie Johnson spun while on the inside of Martin Truex Jr. in turn four.

With Truex just to his outside, Johnson's car washed up off the white line and bobbled, and before he could save it, Juan Pablo Montoya and Matt Kenseth got into the wall behind him trying to avoid him.

Johnson looked like he was going to escape his spin relatively-damage free until Montoya then skidded through the infield and clipped the back of his car, crumpling the sheet metal on his right rear quarterpanel. Johnson finished 22nd, and his points lead is now 32 over Carl Edwards.

10 fans were injured and multiple cars were damaged when a rope supporting Fox's overhead cable camera on the frontstretch of Charlotte Motor Speedway snapped on lap 121 of Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

The rope that broke from the camera was the drive rope, which allows the camera to travel up and down above the frontstretch.

"The camera system consists of three ropes -- a drive rope which moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. The drive rope failed near the Turn 1 connection and fell to the track," Fox Sports said in a statement. "The camera itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed. A full investigation is planned, and use of the camera is suspended indefinitely."

According to CMS, seven fans were treated and released for minor cuts and three were taken to a local hospital for further evaluation and released late Sunday night. To zip along the track, the camera is attached to various points at the top of the grandstands, and after it broke over the track, the cable was draped in the seats, as well as on the track. To viewers at home, it was unclear initially why the caution flag was thrown, as Fox was reluctant to address the issue. However, after a few minutes of dancing around the real reason for the delay, the network took full responsibility for the incident.

The first car to hit the rope was Kyle Busch, and it sheared the right side of his car just behind his front tire like a can opener. Mark Martin, Marcos Ambrose and others had damage, with Ambrose describing hitting the rope as like a squid attack. A piece of the rope was so tangled underneath his car that it separated a brake line.

"It was like getting attacked by a giant squid," Ambrose said. "It was just flapping and I didn’t know what was going on. I thought it was cords coming out of maybe one of (Mark Martin's) tires or something, but I could just hear it flapping. And then it got caught up in the rear end and I lost my brakes, so it was a nightmare but we got through it. NASCAR did a great job of actually handling a crisis there because we were hard-done by and they gave us our laps back and we were able to stay in the race and duke it out.”

After a red flag period to clean up all of the pieces of the rope from the track, NASCAR allowed teams 15 minutes in the pits to fix any damage from hitting the rope. Under a red flag, teams are not allowed to make any adjustments to their cars, but because of the number cars affected and the abnormality of the incident, teams were allowed the chance to work on their cars without the risk of losing their position.

In that red flag period, Busch's team was able to essentially rebuild the entire right front of his car with sheet metal and bondo, and Ambrose's team was able to reattach the brake line.

Later in the race, separate from the damage he sustained from the rope, Busch suffered engine trouble and ended up 38th. Ambrose finished 10th.

The Coca-Cola 600 might have been for points and 445 miles longer than the All-Star Race, but the two races finishes were pretty damn similar.

Much like Jimmie Johnson in that All-Star Race, Kevin Harvick ran away from the field after a four-tire pit stop over the last laps of the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway to get his second win of the season.

Both Harvick and Johnson's late race charges came from second place on that final restart, and both were at the expense of Kasey Kahne, who led the field to green for the final time each race. In the All-Star Race, both Kahne and Johnson had four fresh tires thanks to the format's mandatory four-tire pit stop before the final 10 lap segment. Sunday night, Kahne was at a tire disadvantage to Harvick.

When the caution flag flew for debris (coincidentally, from Johnson's car) with 16 laps to go, Kahne, who was the race leader, and crew chief Kenny Francis made the decision to stay out on the track. The rest of the lead lap cars, including Harvick, who was second, hit pit road. Kahne was vulnerable.

When the green flag waved with 11 laps to go, Harvick cleared Kahne by the time the two got to the backstretch. Once he did that, those fresh tires and the clean air at the front of the field meant that Harvick, much like Johnson eight days earlier, wasn't going to be caught.

It was a relatively calm ending to a race that, well, was downright wild with multiple red flags and took over five hours to complete.

The first red flag incident was for Fox's cable cam. The rope from the camera fell on lap 121 and damaged several cars, including the car of Kyle Busch, who hit it while he was leading. Those red flags lasted over 26 minutes, including a 15 minute red flag period in which NASCAR allowed teams to fix the damage to their cars from running over the rope. 10 fans in the grandstands were treated for injuries because of the falling rope and the track said that seven were treated and released for minor cuts and three were taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

The other red flag came for a big crash between Aric Almirola, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and others on the frontstretch when Almirola and Martin made contact that sent Almirola into Gordon and the wall.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The heartbreak is over. After all the years of frustration, Tony Kanaan is at last an Indy 500 champion.

Yes, Kanaan won under caution, but that was the only blemish on an otherwise exceptional afternoon, both for Kanaan and for the Indy 500 in general. Kanaan ran a near-flawless race, punctuated by a last-minute pass of Ryan Hunter-Reay on the final green flag to guarantee himself the win.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," he said over his radio as he crossed the finish line.

Rookie Carlos Munoz started second and finished second, followed by Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Justin Wilson. Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti were both bidding for a record-tying fourth Indy win, but Castroneves finished sixth and Franchitti 23rd.

The story for much of the race was AJ Allmendinger, the Indy rookie who had jumped to the sport after a failed NASCAR drug test. But a seatbelt issue cost him time and the lead. Still, this was one of the most competitive Indy 500s in recent memory, with no clear favorite and plenty of passing throughout. The race featured more than 70 lead changes, a record, and provided the Izod IndyCar Series with a much-needed boost of publicity.

But the day, and the race, belonged to the 38-year-old Kanaan, who lifted his left arm in triumph as he crossed the finish line, and then wept openly as first the victor's wreath encircled his neck. This was his 12th attempt at Indy, never finishing better than second despite leading laps in eight (now nine) of those races. After so many years, the race that's every open-wheeler's dream was at last his.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• A word to describe the Indy 500 winners' trophy ... terrifying
• Boston Marathon runners finish their race at Indy 500
• Photos: Unique Indianapolis 500 traditions

INDIANAPOLIS - Just minutes before the start of the Indy 500, a few dozen racers hit the frontstretch at a considerably slower speed than the 33 cars that would follow. But they received at least as many cheers.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway reached out to the Boston Athletic Association, inviting people who were unable to finish the Boston Marathon because of the bombing last month. Non-finishers in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois, 35 in all, came to IMS to run a ceremonial half-mile right before noon.

“We’re here having a lot of fun today. We were treated like dignitaries,” he said, “but there were a lot of people who were hurt in the bombings. And people died. We ran for them today. They couldn’t be here and we could so we ran for them.”

“The tragedy last month in Boston still resonates with everyone, so we wanted to give runners the chance to finish the race in front of thousands of fans who will appreciate their persistence and determination,” said Doug Boles, the speedway’s chief operating officer.

The runners heard cheers unlike they'd ever heard before as they ran down the fabled straightaway. The crowd broke into chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as the runners passed, and many in the crowd waved American flags.

Ron Kuczma, a 65-year-old runner from Hudson, Ohio kept the day in perspective. “We’re here having a lot of fun today. We were treated like dignitaries,” he told the Indianapolis Star, “but there were a lot of people who were hurt in the bombings. And people died. We ran for them today. They couldn’t be here and we could so we ran for them.”

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• At long last, Tony Kanaan wins the Indy 500 | Photos
• A word to describe the Indy 500 winners' trophy ... terrifying
• Photos: Unique Indianapolis 500 traditions

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - One of the most coveted trophies in sports is also one of the most terrifying. Above is the Borg-Warner Trophy, presented to the winner of the Indy 500. It now stands more than five feet tall and weighs more than 150 pounds. Looks reasonable enough from a distance, though, right? Let's zoom in a little closer...

OH SWEET HEAVEN. Those little knobs on the trophy ... they're faces! Yes, the trophy has carved faces of every single winner since 1911, arranged in a checkerboard fashion. Despite, or perhaps because of, that, the trophy is valued at about $3.5 million. (Also, as For The Win notes, the guy on top is naked.)

At least they're smiling. If the faces were screaming, though ... hey, wait a second. A trophy that captures your soul when you win it? That's one fine movie idea there. And it's mine.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Photos: Unique Indianapolis 500 traditions
• Photos: Previous winners of the Indianapolis 500
• Why does the Indy 500 run for 500 miles?

NASCAR CEO Brian France met with the media on Saturday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway and was asked if NASCAR had learned anything in the wake of the discussion surrounding the sanctioning body's decision to fine Denny Hamlin after the Phoenix race.

As you have undoubtedly read numerous times before, Hamlin said "I don't want to be the pessimist, but it did not race as good as our Generation 5 cars."

"This is more like what the Generation 5 was at the beginning," he continued. "The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you. You would have placed me in 20th-place with 30 (laps) to go, I would have stayed there — I wouldn't have moved up. It's just one of those things where track position is everything."

Hamlin, who is on the pole for Sunday night's race, was fined $25,000 days later, as NASCAR said his comments denigrated the racing product. Did NASCAR learn anything from the reaction -- reaction mostly against it? No, says France.

"We didn't learn anything," France said. Our policy is our policy. You can say rowdy things. You can say things that we don't like at all. You can criticize us, and it happens quite a bit. As I've said, that policy goes further than any other sport, major sport, in this country. What you can't do is you can't cross a line into the product, in any way talking about our racing product. We're very clear."

He continued: "Let me tell you, I can't tell you how many drivers came up to me after the Denny Hamlin comment and said, You got to do that or we won't be able to help ourselves from time to time, I'm glad you did that. They all know the line. They all know exactly where it is, because we talk about it. I talk about it directly with every one of the drivers, every one of the owners. No disputing that."

"But it shouldn't be confused, and it never should have been confused, as a policy to stifle the drivers' personalities. It's quite the opposite. We want them to have emotion, even if we don't like to hear it, one thing or another. That's the emotional part of sports and NASCAR that we would never want to take away from."

The news that other drivers came up to France in support of NASCAR's decision was apparently a new one to Hamlin. He disagreed Saturday afternoon on Twitter.

Someone's nose is growing“@brantjames: France: many drivers expressed support in person for @dennyhamlin fine. #nascar”

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) May 25, 2013

It would seem that Hamlin would have a good idea of his support inside the garage area, though there's obviously a difference of opinion between he and France.

You'll note that NASCAR's policy, is different than that of many other major sports. In stick and ball leagues, you criticize the officiating, you get fined. If you say it was a bad game, no harm no foul. And by France's statement above, Ryan Newman must have known exactly where the line was when he made his critical comments following crashing at Talladega. He wasn't fined.

And the same will go for Hamlin's tweet. Though if he had said the car's nose was growing, it'd be a different story.

In the closest finish in Indianapolis Motor Speedway history, Peter Dempsey beat Gabby Chaves to the finish line by .0026 seconds in a four-wide finish to win the Indy Lights Series Firestone Freedom 100 Friday afternoon.

Almost incredibly, Dempsey was fourth behind Carlos Munoz, Sage Karam and Chaves on the final lap. But when Munoz, Karam and Chaves went three-wide on the backstretch, the hole they created in the air allowed Dempsey to draft up to their bumpers.

The three stayed three-wide off of turn four when Dempsey got a run on the high side of the track and had just enough room to slingshot past the trio and nip Chaves at the line for the first Indy Lights win of his career.

"Enough (room) for an Indy Lights car to fit through," Dempsey said after the race. "It was tight, you know. I was just hoping they weren't going to move, because if the moved, there would have been a huge crash. I've seen too many big crashes over the years, so that's what I said, hats off to the other three drivers. They gave me the respect, they gave me the room. I might have snuck up on them a little late, maybe a little too late to see me, but they gave me just enough room. I don't think they would have fit another car in there, that's for sure."

The Indy Lights Series is the feeder series for the Izod IndyCar Series. Munoz, who finished fourth, is also running in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 and will start third.

Racing is a dangerous business, and it can turn deadly. Canadian driver Greg Moore was an exceptional open-wheel driver who died far too soon, in 1999 at age 24. A friend and colleage of such notables as Dario Franchitti, Moore appeared headed for a career of racing stardom before dying in a wreck in the 1999 season finale. The new documentary "A Hero's Drive" recounts that story, and so much more, in heartbreaking detail.

A proud Canadian, Moore wore red gloves no matter what his sponsor's colors. James Hinchcliffe, also a Canadian, was just 12 years old at the time of Moore's death, and considered Moore his hero. Moore never got to race at Indianapolis, but Hinchcliffe offered some small measure of tribute by carrying a pair of Moore's gloves during qualifying. It was a powerful moment, and a perfect way to memorialize Moore.

Above is part 1 of "A Hero's Drive." Below are parts 2 and 3.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Helio Castroneves has won three Indy 500s. And come this Sunday, he wants another. Bad. Reeeeeal bad.

On Thursday, Castroneves told a local radio show that he'd give up sex for an entire year to win Indy one more time. Castroneves asked whether the restriction was only on his girlfriend, or if he could play the hypothetical field in this hypothetical question that probably got him in a bit of real trouble, and was told, nope, everyone's off limits.

“I would not give up Indy, my friend, I’ll tell you that,” he added. “I think I can handle one year without sex because Indy is Indy.”

Yes, this is a hypothetical question. Very much so. Who would orchestrate such a trade? What would they have to offer the other drivers? How would Helio be tracked? The mind boggles.

Castroneves is one of the co-favorites to win at 7-1, along with Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti and Ed Carpenter. Both Castroneves and Dario Franchitti are seeking a record-tying fourth Indy 500 win.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee for updates all weekend live from Indy.-

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.

Saturday's All-Star race was the most popular (non-NRA division) topic in my email inbox this week. Let's start with the format suggestions first.

After last night's snoozefest of an All Star Race, I decided to try and fix it with a new format. I know the race is suppose to be no points, no pressure, just pure fun but why not make each segment be worth a few points. It would put an emphasis on winning a race during the calendar year to be automatically locked into the event and it would make the showdown even more important to get one of those top two spots.

Showdown- Top 2 Advance. No Fan Vote
All Star Race:
- Segments 1-4 would be 20 laps long with 2 bonus points awarded to the winner.
- Average finish will dictate pitting order of Segment 5 (any strategies go)
- Final Segment- 10-15 laps to decide the finish with a million dollars and 5 bonus points.
- The bonus points are not for the CHASE just the drivers current total.
Just a thought.
- Jack.

Nick -- OK, here's my proposal for the All Star Race.

Four heats, 10 drivers each, so everyone in the top 40 in the standings gets a chance to race in. Maybe it will keep the S&Ps interested a few laps more each race.

Top four from each heat makes the final, with all 12 drivers currently eligible for the Chase also seeded. This year that would have been Johnson, Edwards, Kenseth, Junior, Bowyer, Kahne, Keslowski, Kyle, Armirola, Harvick, PFM and Gordon. Any of those drivers who don't finish in the top four in their heat still make the field, so it can be larger than 16 cars if necessary.

Then: Fifty lap final. Spin a wheel to invert the start. Maybe the Most Popular Driver can do those honors. Yellow flag laps don't count. No pitting under yellow, except to repair damage. Which means a team can replace a blown tire, but not change all four.
This means each team must make one green-flag stop at any time they choose. So there's some fuel and tire strategy, too.

Finally: Hold it at Rockingham.
-Randy

Nick,
As a casual fan of NASCAR, I have enjoyed both the racing as well as the commentaries posted by you and by others.

One thing that just might make the all star race a lot less boring is a required staggered 4 tire change pit stop, Make the final segment something like 30 to 35 laps. After about 5 laps, cars will be required to come to pit road, one car per lap. This could be based on average place after the first 4 segments, or a random draw.

Just like in qualifying, there would be no pit road speed limit. Each team could have their own pit, or they could all be required to use the same pit, possibly in the center of pit road for better viewing by the fans.

Such an arrangement would mean that the field would get spread out from lap 5 thru lap 25 or so, then all the cars would be on the same basis for the sprint to the finish.
This would make all but the first few laps a whole lot more entertaining for everyone.
-Al

I like the idea of not making the final pit stop mandatory, and I like the idea of heat races. What would be wrong with two heats of 11 and two heats of 10 (42 cars were entered in the race) seeded based on current points standings and then we go from there? More than likely the top teams would still make the finals, but we'd have the potential for an upset or two. Or, if we wanted to keep the current qualifying format, then all 42 cars could participate in the three lap plus pit stop process and the field could be seeded into heats based off of that.

However, I'm not sure about getting points involved with the All-Star Race. We've seen how stupid it is that the MLB All-Star Game determines homefield advantage in the World Series. But because NASCAR drivers are racing against each other every week, there's no real comparison to another league. Thoughts on that?

_____________________

I find it truly amusing that such a fuss has been made about Danica Patrick being voted into the All Star race. The fan vote was not implemented to get her into the race, it was to get Jr. into the race. During the years that Jr. was running middle of the pack and not finishing much higher on average than Danica, he needed the fan vote to make the race. He had better equipment than she does and had way more experience in a stock car than she does, yet nobody seemed to care then that there were more deserving drivers, only that Jr. was in the race. Now the "true" NASCAR fans are beside themselves, what a crock. I am not a Jr. hater, just making a comparison that I think is accurate.
-Bruce

I hate to burst the conspiracy bubble (no, I don't), but the fan vote was implemented before Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a candidate for it. He won the All-Star Race in 2001, therefore he was eligible to be in the race for 10 years after that. That meant that Junior was only in the Showdown twice, and once he raced his way in.

_____________________

Brick - let's see... Option 1: NASCAR rigged the All Star Race and gave Jimmie Johnson a better position to start the final segment. Option 2: FOX showed a completely wrong avg finish ranking. Hmmm. Of course seeing as FOX had David Gilliland driving 7 different cars during the showdown - pretty much every car # EXCEPT the one he was actually in - it should be pretty obvious FOX's graphics dept didn't have a foxing clue what they were doing. So yeah, it was a NASCAR conspiracy. *eye roll*
Take off the tin-foil hat and step away from the keyboard!
- Slammin' Sam

I was still getting emails this week from people that were convinced Fox was right and that NASCAR was wrong. Seriously? NASCAR would rig that? Jimmie Johnson's average finish was 6.5 in the first four segments. How people think that would be possible for a driver to have that average finish and be outside of the top 10 is beyond me. But then again, there are a lot of things that don't make sense about the NASCAR conspiracy set, who are a vocal minority on both social media outlets and the comments below.

_____________________

How fast is too fast?

This is a question that NASCAR should seriously consider. With increased speed comes increased reliance on aerodynamics and with 8 out of the 11 races we have run this season seeing new track records set in qualifying. I think we are at a point where "clean air is king" has never been more true.

the pole speed for the 1985 Coke 600 was 160 mph, by 1995 it was 180 mph, by 2010 (with a much heavier COT) it was just under 190 mph, and I won't be surprised if a new record is set this week.

It wasn't that long ago that cars reaching 200 mph was unheard of outside of the 2 plate tracks. We are seeing that regularly on the intermediate tracks today.

Despite this increase in speed over the last 15 years. I don't know that many fans would say that the 2000's have produced the greatest on track product the sport has ever seen.

Am I in the minority among fans in thinking that slower cars could produce better racing?
-FuriousD

With the pole speed at Charlotte Friday night being yet another track record this year (that's number seven), this is a prescient email. What type of racing will we see Sunday night?

I think I'm in the camp that slower cars will produce better racing, if nothing else for the fact that the downforce is lessened at lower speeds. If you take away downforce from the cars, speeds will go down as a result too.

The Fox announcing booth was very excited over Thursday's track record, but do fans really care about how fast the qualifying speed is? Not really. They want to see good racing. And I'm not sure that these exceptionally high speeds are conducive to good racing.

It's almost time for the greatest day in racing, three races that run from dawn to well after dusk. The centerpiece of the day is the Indy 500, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and one of the most famous sporting events in the world. Here, we answer a few of your pressing Indy 500 questions. See you Sunday from the track!

The "500" in racing is a sacred number, as immutable as the 100 yards in football. In olden days, it was a test of drivers' nerve and cars' engineering; the odds were good that either man or machine couldn't go the distance. Now, though, both drivers and cars can sustain a 500-mile race. But how did we get to 500 miles in the first place?

The number dates back to 1911, when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway head Carl Fisher decided to have one major race, not a series of smaller ones. The idea was to have a race that would last the entire day. (Back in 1911, people hadn't had their attention spans demolished by their smartphones and video games, you know.) The race was slated to run from mid-morning to sundown. Cars averaged about 70 miles an hour back then, so with a projected seven-hour window, 500 miles was a nice round number. The track remains the same 2.5-mile, nine-degree-banked layout that it was the day it opened.

The first winner, Ray Harroun, completed the race in six hours, 42 minutes and eight seconds, an average speed of just under 75 mph. For comparison's sake, last year's winner, Dario Franchitti, was more than twice as fast, finishing the race in 2:58:51, or 167.7 mph.

As for that famous tradition of drinking milk? That dates to the 1930s, when winner Louis Meyer regularly requested buttermilk. A local photographer captured the scene, the Indiana Dairy Council apparently spotted an opportunity, and a tradition was yanked into existence. Winners now get their choice of whole, two percent or skim ... well chilled.

-For coverage straight from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Got any questions for us to use in the mailbag or the podcast? Hit us at HappyHourMailbag@Yahoo.com.

Click here to download the podcast or here to listen to in your browser. And we're now on iTunes! Find us in the Podcast section right here and subscribe. Listen!

It's time for Power Rankings! After every race, we opine about who we think is at the top of the Sprint Cup heap and how and why they got there. But this week, it's different! The All-Star Race wasn't for points, so there's no point (pun!) in ranking the Sprint Cup field again. Besides we'd just put Jimmie Johnson back at the top.

Instead, let's stick with the All-Star theme. There's been some fantastic fodder for Happy Hour in the email inbox this week; people are incredibly passionate about the All-Star Race. So what if the All-Star Race was going to go to another track? Where would it go? Let's answer that question.

P.S. -- We're inverting the field this week. Why? Because we can. And we're dreaming big, too.

12. Rockingham: Let's start off with a fan favorite. Rockingham has produced some great racing since the Truck Series has returned to it, and given the multiple grooves through the corners and the tire wear, there would be no shortage of side-by-side racing. Of course, the size of the grandstands and the accessibility to the track would be a drawback, but this is a dream list, right? Let's not worry about stuff like that.

11. Texas World Speedway: The last NASCAR race at TWS was in 1981, but the two-mile track has been a testing site for some teams. It's got steeper banking than Michigan and older pavement, plus a road course if the oval (where Greg Biffle hit 218 in 2009) is too fast.

10. Daytona Road Course: If you're looking for a great test of both driver and car, you can't go wrong with the Daytona Road Course. Drivers would have to be able to navigate the road course turns in the Daytona infield with aplomb, hit the chicane on the backstretch perfectly, and then hope they have enough horsepower to pull away from the field through turns three and four and the tri-oval. Sounds fun, don't you think?

9. O'Reilly Raceway Park: The Nationwide Series should never have left this short track for the Brickyard, so the Cup Series should come back, if only for an exhibition race. How cool would it be to see half the field in the preferred high groove and half the field diving down as low as possible to attempt a slide job at the beginning of the final 10 lap sprint?

8. Talladega: Yes, anything can happen at Talladega, and it usually does. And yes, Talladega is on here because of its popularity amongst the NASCAR fanbase. Can you imagine the infield All-Star parties? That being said, is a restrictor plate track really the best venue?

7. Circuit of the Americas: Catch any of the V-8 Supercars race on Sunday at Austin? The Circuit of the Americas would be a fine host and the mad dash into the tight left-hand turn one after the field storms up the hill on a restart would be a hold-your-breath moment.

6. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve: The track that's produced some of the most compelling Nationwide Series races in recent memory is unfortunately not on the schedule any longer. And given how awesome those races were, can you imagine watching a Cup race there? If this were to happen, there'd have to be a way to guarantee Robby Gordon's inclusion.

5. Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond: The current Cup Series short tracks are all here because each of them would make fine venues for an All-Star Race. But like Talladega, do we really want to see three races a year at each track? Because there's no way we should take away a points race from any of the three.

4. Laguna Seca: Cup cars in the Corkscrew. Need I say more? If you haven't seen it before, take a moment and watch Alex Zanardi's pass of Bryan Herta in 1996.

3. Eldora: Yeah, we've had a version of this with Tony Stewart's annual Prelude to the Dream dirt late-model race, but let's divide the field up into heats and run Cup cars minus the front splitters. Would anyone complain about that?

2. Monaco: Of all the farfetched ideas in this week's edition of Power Rankings, this is the one that's the most out there. Hell no, it ain't happening, but it's fun to dream about, right? Instead of luxury suites, team and series VIPs could be stationed on yachts and everyone would have a great time at the Monte Carlo Casino. This is also a great time to let you know that we're having a live chat for Sunday's F1 race at Monaco. The chat triple!

1. Iowa Speedway: You've likely noticed that most of the tracks on this list don't currently host a Cup Series race. That's by design. If the race is going to change venues, the ideal place is a new track. Iowa gets rave reviews from drivers, has multiple grooves and provides a unique short track to the schedule. Plus, of all of these possibilities on the list, it could be the one that has the best chance of happening, don't you think?

In the last Warped Wednesday feature, I asked the (not-so serious) question of what the point of the All-Star Race was. After all, it's not like NASCAR drivers race against each other 38 times a year or anything.

After watching the reaction after Jimmie Johnson's runaway victory in the final segment of Saturday night's race, allow me to be serious for a moment: Why was the race such a letdown for so many?

I'll be blunt. If you're one of those people, you've allowed yourself to be manipulated by the hype and promotion surrounding the All-Star Race. Last night's race wasn't certainly one of the ones that will be shown on the glossy teaser package to be played 10,000 times before next year's race. But let's not undersell it either.

This is NASCAR. In 2013. On an intermediate track. If you watched – and were disappointed – on Saturday night, you've likely seen one or three or fifty intermediate track races over the last few years. If this was a points race, would anything that happened Saturday night have merited such a disappointing reaction?

Hell, after restarts, the racing was pretty damn good, especially by our intermediate track standards. The racing that Johnson and Kahne carried on for two laps before Johnson checked out was compelling, Clint Bowyer's three-wide move for the lead was daring and Ryan Newman's charge on the high side of 1 and 2 seemed inexplicable.

Yes, ultimately, clean air was the order of the evening. But that's no different than what we'll see Sunday night in the 600. Just because it was "no-holds barred" and not for points, did you expect clean air not to be a factor?

There have been 29 All-Star Races. And there have been, what, five or six truly memorable moments? After the Pass in the Grass, the first race under the lights (and Davey Allison and Kyle Petty's crash), Jeff Gordon's T-Rex car, Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip crashing and Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning, are there any other races that really stand out?

Yet we're conditioned to think that every All-Star Race is exceptional, given the excitement in the booth and those glitzy promotional videos. I get that it's the job of the sport and Fox, the network that broadcasts it, to get viewers to tune in for a non-points race on a spring Saturday night. But at the same time, those promotions fuel the cries to change the race's format yet again or make significant location and structure changes every time each race doesn't have a signature moment.

Johnson has something to do with that too, though, especially given the tinfoil-hat wearing that blew up Twitter shortly after the race thanks to an inaccurate in-race graphic. Not only has he won the most All-Star Races of any driver, but he and Chad Knaus have won back-to-back races under completely different formats. If the All-Star Race is about showcasing NASCAR's best, isn't it fitting that perhaps the best crew chief and driver combination in NASCAR is proving their excellence?

The All-Star Race isn't untouchable; the discussion whether or not it should be moved around is a worthy one. The easiest way to try to create a signature moment would be to add a track wrinkle that's only seen at the race. But until that actually happens and the race is still staged at a 1.5 mile track and intermediate track racing continues to be ruled by clean air, treat it just like you would a points race. Don't expect to be exhilarated every year.

Where the heck did Ryan Newman come from?

On a restart in the middle of the fourth segment of Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race, Newman dashed to the outside in turns one and two like his car suddenly got a boost of nitrous oxide and made a pair of three-wide passes before he had even gotten to the backstretch.

He wasn't done there. His crazy momentum off the high side of turn two had him on the back bumper of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a flash and after giving Junior a bump, Newman moved to the inside to pass him.

However, Kyle Busch was there, because unlike Newman, he hadn't gotten through turns one and two very well and lost positions. As Newman came down, Busch drifted up and the two made contact with Busch suffering some right front fender damage and Newman acquiring a tire rub.

And with that tire rub, the headway that Newman made that lap stalled out. He ended up 13th while Busch maintained his position near the front of the field and finished third.

NASCAR is a sport full of double-entendres and this one in Charmin's is one of the better ones we've ever seen.

This is the billboard that's on the grandstands at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend. According to AutoWeek, it's a two race deal between the track and the company, which also has a "Stop Skidmarks" banner on the pit wall. Will it prevent drivers from peeling out of their pit stalls and laying rubber on the track?

Charmin is also handing out free samples. No word if CMS took the giveaways as an opportunity to save some money and not stock the track bathrooms.