The first mistake was bumping Logano too hard on Lap 349 in retaliation for the way the Penske Racing driver raced him earlier. The bump sent Logano into a spin when he was battling Jeff Gordon for the lead and ruined any chance he had of contending for the victory.

The second was for attacking Logano personally after a postrace shoving match between the crews that began when Logano approached Hamlin at his car.

“He said he was coming for me,” Hamlin said after the incident. “I usually don’t see him, so it’s not a factor.”

On the first mistake, Hamlin said he was trying to send Logano a message with a tap after Logano pinched down on him too hard earlier.

“I felt bad, and really if you could watch my in-car camera, you could see how frustrated I was to see he had damage to his car,” Hamlin said before the first practice at Auto Club Speedway. “I banged the steering wheel because I was, ‘Man, I didn’t mean to do that.'”

Hamlin said that gave the impression he was trying to “bully” Logano, which he was not.

“I wish the cameras would see what happened before the contact you saw on TV,” he said. “That frustrates me the most. I’m not trying to bully Joey around because of performance.”

Then came what Hamlin called “the big mistake.”

“At the end of the race I shouldn’t have degraded him as a driver,” he said. “It’s not my job to say who’s good or bad in our sport. That part probably should have been left out.”

Hamlin and Logano haven’t communicated since a battle of words Sunday night on Twitter. Logano indicated the issue that began at the Daytona 500 with Hamlin criticizing his driving wasn’t over.

“I feel like I’ve told him everything I can tell him,” Logano told ESPN.com earlier in the week. “I’ve got nothing to say.”

Hamlin considers the issue over because they haven’t talked.

“He has my phone number, and I have his,” he said. “I assume when Bristol is over with it’s over with unless spoken to otherwise. I voiced to him he had my number. If he had a problem with anything that went on, then we could talk about it. I’m assuming by no contact it’s over at this point.”

Logano said he is still upset over what happened.

“Until anyone says anything to me personally, no, it’s not over,” said Logano.

Hamlin isn’t concerned that Logano will retaliate Sunday.

“I don’t believe so,” Hamlin said. “We both have the same goal in mind. The first thing is you need to win races. The second thing is you need to make the Chase. Messing with each other on the racetrack is a huge distraction for that. You cannot do your job a hundred percent the way you’re supposed to if you’re constantly worried about somebody else.

“My guess is going into this weekend and beyond he’s going to be worried about his program and I’m going to be worried about mine.”

Logano said winning races, not wrecking Hamlin, is his top priority.

“You remember things like that, obviously,” he said of what happened at Bristol. “You don’t go out there aiming for somebody. Obviously, I’m out there to win races and run for a championship.

“But at the same time, you don’t forget what happened. You don’t forget three years down the road what happened. It’s always there. That’s the case for everybody I would assume.”

Logano said he and Hamlin weren’t buddies away from the track during his four years in the No. 20 Cup car at JGR. Hamlin said nothing went on in their relationship that would lead to what has happened this season.

“I felt like [it was] an OK relationship off the racetrack as teammates,” Hamlin said. “On the racetrack, we didn’t go to him for as much information as they probably came to us. I think at times during our tenure as teammates he felt like I probably raced him too hard at times. There was times when I felt he raced me too hard as teammates.

“That went back and forth a little bit behind the scenes, but definitely not the displeasure for each other like we’ve seen the first few races this year.”

The post Denny Hamlin apologizes for bump appeared first on IdealCapper.

Former teammates Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano exchanged words after the race — in person and on Twitter — because Hamlin spun Logano as Logano was racing for the lead.

A flat tire knocked Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth out of the race while they were running 1-2.

Typical Bristol, right?

It looked that way as Kahne and Keselowski staged a spectacular battle for the lead, only for a caution to put them side-by-side for a restart with 39 laps to go.

Keselowski had an issue, he either spun his tires or the Hamlin-Logano feud disrupted his start, and Kahne sailed away for his first career victory at Bristol.

“Feels really good to win at this place,” Kahne said. “Such a tough track over the years. This is a big race for me. When you race in the Sprint Cup Series, Bristol is a race you want to win.”

Tempers flared after the race when Logano leaned inside Hamlin’s window to complain about Hamlin spinning him as he tried to pass Gordon for the lead.

Logano was pulled away from Hamlin’s car by crew members for both drivers in a classic post-Bristol clash that delighted the crowd. “They’re fighting! It’s Bristol!” yelled Clint Bowyer, who saw the action on the infield big screen.

Logano wouldn’t discuss what he told Hamlin, but indicated there’s no love lost between the former Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.

“That’s a freaking genius behind the wheel of the 11 car — probably the worst teammate I’ve ever had,” Logano said. “I have a scorecard and I’m not putting up with that. What goes around, comes around. I had to put up with him for years, so whatever.”

Hamlin shrugged it all off.

“He said he was coming for me,” Hamlin said. “I usually don’t see him, so it’s usually not a factor.”

The two sparred briefly on Twitter after the season-opening Daytona 500, when Hamlin complained Logano ruined the closing laps of the race. But he said Sunday’s flap was not a carryover.

“It didn’t have anything to do with that,” Hamlin said. “You’ve really got to control your car and he slipped up into me. Really, he would have been in the garage with no radiator in it if I had not checked up twice. I meant to run in to him. I didn’t mean to spin him out, but his day was fine. We finished bad and he finished bad. It’s even.”

But they continued sniping at each other after the race on Twitter, overshadowing what was undoubtedly the best race to date for NASCAR’s new Gen-6 race car.

And, their feuding may have played a role in the outcome of the race, too.

Keselowski was the leader on the final restart as he lined up next to Kahne. Hamlin was lined up behind Keselowski, with Logano lined up behind Hamlin. When the flag waved, Keselowski didn’t go and Kahne rocketed to the lead and never looked back.

Although it appeared Keselowski spun his tires, he was adamant after the race about what happened — “I got ran over!” — and that prevented him from breaking away on the restart.

Hamlin backed up Keselowski’s account.

“The 22 (Logano) ran into me and shoved me into (Keselowski),” Hamlin said. “Sorry to the 2, but I was the pinball in the sandwich. Once he throttled up, the 22 lifted me up and just flat out pinned me up against the 2.”

Logano seemed to think Keselowski spun his tires and that created the bottleneck, but Keselowski believed he had help from behind.

“I haven’t seen the replay, I just know my rear tires were off the ground before I got to the restart zone,” he said. “Eventually I got hit so hard it pushed my foot in the gas pedal, made myself look like a (fool). That was the deal. Never had another chance.”

Nobody came close to Kahne, who drove his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the win by 1.7-seconds. Hendrick drivers have now won two of the first four races this season.

Kyle Busch snagged second from Keselowski, who took over the Sprint Cup Series points lead as the only driver to open the season with four top-five finishes. Kurt Busch finished fourth and was followed by Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Ryan Newman was seventh, Brian Vickers was eighth and Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top 10.

The race changed dramatically with 110 laps to go in a bizarre crash between leaders Gordon and Matt Kenseth. Gordon was out front when he suddenly lost a tire and his car darted up the track into the wall.

Kenseth had nowhere to go to avoid him and drove directly into the back of Gordon, causing heavy damage to both cars.

“You all right?” crew chief Alan Gustafson radioed Gordon.

“Yeah, I’m OK. Did we take out Matt, too?” Gordon asked.

With the top two cars in the garage, the rest of the field headed to pit road to reset for the final 100 laps.

“I hate that for Matt Kenseth,” Gordon said. “He was coming, and it was just a matter of time before he caught us. We needed points. This definitely isn’t going to get us many.”

Kenseth, winner of last week’s race at Las Vegas, said the crash was unavoidable.

“There’s not a lot either one of us can do about that,” he said. “There was nowhere to go.”

Before the Gordon-Kenseth crash, Gordon and Logano were dueling for the lead. Gordon used a two-tire stop with about 175 laps to go to gain eight spots on pit road and take the lead. Logano chased Gordon around the 0.533-mile bullring, pulling even with the four-time champion as he exited the corners only to lose ground on the straights.

Lurking behind in third was Hamlin, who apparently got tired of waiting for Logano to get past Gordon and showed how restless he was with slight contact on Logano’s bumper as they exited Turn 2.

The tap caused Logano to back his car into the wall and took him out of contention, leading to the post-race drama Bristol is known to create.

The post Kasey Kahne gets Cup win at Bristol appeared first on IdealCapper.

With a shot at grabbing his first Nationwide Series win Saturday, he wasn’t going to make that same mistake again.

Especially not against Kyle Busch.

Larson stalked Busch over the closing laps around Bristol Motor Speedway waiting to make a move. It came as they closed in on the finish line, and Larson made a last-gasp push on the high side that fell just short as Busch held on for his second win of the season.

But in chasing the win the right way, the 20-year-old Larson cleaned up some of the criticism that had followed him from Daytona last month after spinning C.E. Falk III on the final lap of the “Battle at the Beach” late model race.

“You certainly want to try to win races the right way,” Busch said. “He played it smart today. That was good on his end. I think a lot of people have been looking at him to try to see if he’s going to be to a wrecker or a checker. Today he didn’t get the checkers, but that’s how you get them. You drive into the corner, or drive into the back of me, I’m going to be here for a while and if he keeps coming up through the ranks, he’s not going to have fun dealing with me every week.

“But right now? I’m going to race him as hard as he raced me, but just as clean as he raced me because he didn’t put a fender on me all day.”

Larson had his win over Falk in the back of his head during the closing laps at Bristol as he looked for a place to try to grab the win. Although he has received high praise from Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne as NASCAR’s next big star, his move in the “Battle of the Beach” caused many top Sprint Cup drivers to openly criticize Larson.

“I was pretty aggressive at the ‘Battle of the Beach’ and I didn’t want to have anything like that happen again and have more people look at me,” Larson said. “I don’t race that way and didn’t want to move (Busch). I wanted to outrace him. I’d gain a little more respect that way, and it made for a better finish, I think.”

Indeed it did, as both drivers closed in on lapped cars as they neared the finish line. Busch chose the low line and Larson went high, then tried to squeeze his way past Busch. Larson’s car bounced off of both the wall and Busch’s car, but he was nipped at the finish line by Busch by .023 seconds.

“He’s got a lot of talent,” Busch said. “Obviously, he’s already made a name for himself and he’s got a lot going for him. I’m 27 and I feel like I’m getting old. Every time I looked in the rear view mirror he caught me, so I stopped looking. I didn’t want to know where he was at.”

It was Busch’s fifth career Nationwide victory at Bristol, tying him with Kevin Harvick for the most in the series. Busch has a series-record 53 wins, and two in the last four weeks after going winless last season.

Brian Vickers was third and was followed by Nationwide Series points leader Sam Hornish Jr. and Harvick.

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“The best answer is ‘we don’t know,’ because my injury is something we haven’t seen in the past 12 years at least,” the Richard Petty Motorsports driver said on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Annett said Petty Motorsports, NASCAR and the company that produces seat belts all are working to figure out what led to him needing surgery for injuries that doctors expect will sideline him for eight weeks.

“I was in a carbon-fiber seat, six-point harness,” Annett said. “We’ve met with a lot of people, and everything did what it was supposed to. There are things they are working on right now to improve on what we already have.

“But at the time of the accident, everything was installed properly. Nobody did anything wrong. It was just that everything came together in the worst way possible — the speed, the impact, the angle of the impact.”

Annett said 12 years ago, before NASCAR began implementing safety changes following the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt in the Daytona 500, he probably wouldn’t be alive to talk about the 11-car crash that halted the race for 20 minutes.

“The steering wheel hadn’t moved, it wasn’t bent,” he said. “There wasn’t a mark on the helmet, a mark on the suit. It was pretty much my body stayed where it was supposed to and my sternum tried to come out of my chest. That’s all we know.”

Neither Annett nor NASCAR would not reveal the g-forces at the time of impact.

“We know what it was and it was definitely high,” Annett said. “The manufacturers of all the safety equipment we wear did its job and that’s why we test them at the numbers that I did hit at.”

Annett said he plans to meet with doctors on Monday in Charlotte, N.C., to see exactly where he stands on the recovery process. He hopes to get back in the car, being driven by Reed Sorenson in his absence, a week or so earlier than projected.

“I was doing better until I got a cold and found out that sneezing is about the most painful thing there is,” Annett said. “But other than that, I’m doing good. Honestly, I feel like I could be putting my suit on right now.

“We all heal differently. They said eight weeks, but they also said I would be in the ICU all night and I was there for 30 minutes. So hopefully, we can turn that eight weeks into six or seven.”

The post Michael Annett’s recovery continues appeared first on IdealCapper.

NASCAR suspended Clements for using the “n-word” in a Feb. 23 conversation with MTV blogger Marty Beckerman at Daytona International Speedway.

Clements was informed of his reinstatement after completing a session of racial insensitivity counseling with Dr. Richard Lapchick, the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, on Monday.
“We’re pleased that Jeremy has taken these important steps and will return to racing starting this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway,” Steve ODonnell, NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations, said Wednesday.

The 28-year-old driver, who runs the No. 51 for his family-owned team in Spartanburg, S.C., will be back on the track for Saturday’s race after missing the past two events at Phoenix and Las Vegas.

“It’s been a tough time for me for sure,” Clements told ESPN.com. “I learned a lot from that class. I learned a lot about different words, stuff I didn’t know before.

“I learned a great deal about that and myself, how it affects everything that has to do with family, friends, church, sponsors and the team. I’m excited to be back in the race car. Nothing like that will ever happen again.”

Clements said he used the slur as an adjective during a conversation with Beckerman and in the presence of a NASCAR public relations person who was looking for directions to Johanna Long’s hauler.

He has since apologized to Beckerman, who was at DIS writing a piece for his Guy Code blog, the PR person and others he may have offended by his remark.

He said the comment was not meant to be racist in any way, that it was just a word some use in the racing community he grew up around to describe a driver “roughing somebody up.”

Beckerman confirmed in an MTV news article that Clements didn’t direct the word at another driver, that he was illustrating that “if you drive roughly, you’ll be treated roughly.”

While not making excuses, Clements acknowledged it is a word he hears in rap music and movies all the time.

“There is no use for that word in our sport,” Clements said. NASCAR in a statement referred to the comment as an “intolerable and insensitive remark” that violated the sanctioning body’s Code of Conduct for actions detrimental to stock car racing.

The rulebook prohibits any “public statement” that criticizes, ridicules or otherwise disparages another person based on race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age or handicapping condition.

The comment came at a time when the sport was celebrating the first woman, Danica Patrick, winning the pole for the Daytona 500 and the arrival of black driver Darrell Wallace Jr. into a full-time Truck Series ride.

“We want as many different fans as we can get,” Clements said. “We want a diverse set of fans and people to be in the sport. I definitely don’t want people turned away from [NASCAR] just because that word was used one time.

“I definitely wasn’t very smart about it.”

Lapchick’s class cost Clements $2,400, plus travel expenses. One of his sponsors wanted to pay the fee, but Clements said he wouldn’t accept it.

Clements said the slur cost him one sponsor for one race. He said two more are waiting to see if there is any further backlash before committing.

“It just affects a lot of stuff, losing the sponsor, not being in the car,” he said. “We’re going to get through it. It seems to be the end of it. I just want to get back to racing and get over this.”

While he has picked up a lot of new followers on Twitter and Facebook since the suspension was announced, Clements said this is not what he or his underfunded race team wants to be remembered for.

“I don’t want to be associated with it one bit,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. I’ve been to schools [to speak] where there’s mostly African-American kids and talked to them and tried to get them to come to races. To think if they saw this … it’s embarrassing to me.

“I want to be the role model I was trying to shoot for before all this.”

Clements also doesn’t want to be forced to sit again. The only other time his racing career was sidetracked came in 2004, when a torque arm broke in his ARCA car, causing the drive shaft to pull out of the transmission and fly into the cockpit. The drive shaft shattered Clements’ right hand, resulting in 12 operations that sidelined him for a year.

“I think everyone deserves a second chance,” Clements said. “You’ve got to look at a person’s record. I’ve never been in trouble with NASCAR at all before this. It’s a shame it had to end like that with the suspension, but I would like to think it won’t hurt my future.

“I want to make the best of it I can and have people say he did the right thing, he did the best job with what he had and move on.”

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