Yes, Logano drove away from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin after a green-white-checkered-flag restart to win his second straight race in the series and third of the season.

But Logano got the opportunity for his 12th career victory only after a well-intentioned bump went awry and wrecked championship contender Elliott Sadler on a restart with five laps left in regulation distance.

“Obviously, this win was a little bittersweet — you don’t want to win ‘em that way,” said Logano, who called Sadler after the race to apologize and left a voice mail. “Your heart drops. You know he’s running for points.

“Your heart drops a little bit, but at the same time, you’ve got to put it behind you, go out there and do your job and win the race.”

Hamlin, who complained of an engine problem during the final two laps, finished .256 seconds behind Logano in the runner-up position. Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by Sam Hornish Jr. and rookie Austin Dillon, as the race went four laps past its scheduled distance of 147 laps.

Danica Patrick finished 12th and Travis Pastrana 17th, both on the lead lap in their Darlington debuts.

Logano was trying to push Sadler and keep him in the lead on a restart on Lap 143, but Sadler’s No. 2 moved up the track to the right and turned across the nose of Hamlin’s Camry, which was running in the outside lane.

After slamming into the wall near the entry to Turn 1, Sadler’s car was too hobbled to continue, leaving him in 24th place at the finish and dropping him to 23 points behind series leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who started on the pole and finished sixth.

“I was trying to help him,” Logano said of the contact with Sadler’s car. “Two restarts before that I successfully helped him and got him out front. The next restart was the same situation — he was first; I was third — and I started to push him.

“He did take two tires, so I think he spun his tires some, and I was trying to shove him ahead. . . . He may have been trying to go up in front of Denny, or he was spinning the tires, and I had him crossed up, but once he turned sideways, I couldn’t get off him.”

Sadler’s crash caused the sixth caution of the race and forced overtime, with the field taking the green flag on Lap 150. Logano powered past his teammate into the lead.

“We lost a cylinder, and that’s why we didn’t take off,” said Hamlin, who led 103 of the 151 laps. “We just can’t keep dominating these races and not win ‘em.”

Hamlin led Kurt Busch by more than five seconds when the right-front tire on Busch’s No. 54 Toyota blew on Lap 126, shooting the nose of the car into the outside wall. The resulting caution brought the top cars to pit road, with Sadler grabbing the lead with a two-tire stop under the yellow.

Before the caution, the fourth of the race, Hamlin had dominated. Busch took the lead briefly with a bold three-wide move on a Lap 51 restart, but Hamlin regained the top spot on Lap 53 and began to pull away.

His advantage over Busch grew to nearly seven seconds through a cycle of green-flag stops, before Busch’s tire blew to bring out the yellow flag. Ultimately, Busch recovered to finish eighth, despite the damage his car suffered when he hit the wall.

The team has enough sponsorship to run the first fives races of the season.

McDowell will also drive Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 in five races in the Nationwide Series. McDowell will pilot the car at Road America, Watkins Glen International, Michigan International Speedway, and Iowa Speedway twice.

In the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the top 10 drivers in points leaving Richmond International Raceway in September make the Chase. Chase positions 11th and 12th will be wild cards.  Wild cards are the two drivers inside of the top 20 in points with the most wins. If there are no drivers with victories in those positions, the final Chase poisitions will be determined by points.

Also, NASCAR announced in the off-season that drivers must specify the national series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide, or Camping World Truck –  in which they would like to compete for the championship.

NASCAR wanted to make the championship race closer and more exciting.  As we can see, the new points system is doing its job for the Sprint Cup series.  The race for the championship is tight, making it as exciting as ever. It is likelt to make for an awesome show at Richmond this fall.  It puts an extreme emphasis on winning rather than just top fives and top tens.

With the Nationwide Series, the new system ensures that Sprint Cup drivers can’t take the championship away from Nationwide regulars, no matter how many races Cup regulars win.  It will be nice to see an Nwide driver win the championship at the end of the year.

But, there is a chance that a Nationwide driver could win this championship without winning a race.  Is that good for the sport from a Nationwide Series perspective? In my opinion, no.

NASCAR thinks that if Cup drivers aren’t in the field for Nationwide races, fans wouldn’t be interested in attending or watching.  That’s where I think they are wrong.  All NASCAR fans want to see is good racing.  It doesn’t matter who is doing the racing, they just want to see some door-to-door action.  Fans are bored with seeing Cup drivers like Kyle Busch of Carl Edwards winning all of the Nationwide races.

If NASCAR limited how many Cup drivers are allowed to race in the Nationwide Series, I believe it would bring back some excitement to the series.  We would see drivers like Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Justin Allgaier racing neck-and-neck for the win on the last lap, rather than seeing the same Cup drivers contending for the win week in and week out.

That would give the Nationwide drivers back a name and add more heart and soul to the races.  It would give NASCAR fans something to be excited about.

My solution?  I think if a Sprint Cup driver has raced competitively at the Cup level for two years or more, they should not be allowed to race more than five Nationwide races a year.  Drivers that moved down from the Cup level to the Nationwide level (ie: Elliott Sadler) would be able to race the entire Nationwide season. This would give the Nationwide drivers back their series, and give them a chance to add wins to their resume.

This will probably never happen, but it was something lingering in my mind that I needed to get off my chest. Your thoughts?

In the old policy, NASCAR explained that a mixture of medications could cause a violation. In the new policy, the explanation is more in depth.

NASCAR also added synthetic marijuana to its list of drugs that would cause a violation.

Other changes included a reminder that crewman must pass a drug test before entering the garage; a definition of a refused test, which includes uncooperation and attempting to mask results; a name for its reinstatement process (Road to Recovery).

Top 5: Hamlin, Busch, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, and Jason Leffler.

Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Brian Vickers, and Paul Menard finsihed sixth through 10th, respectively.

Notables: Michael Annett (11th), Steve Wallace (12th), Justin Allgaier (17th), Kenny Wallace (20th), Steve Arpin (29th), Matt Kenseth (30th), Greg Biffle (35th), Clint Bowyer (39th), and David Gilliland (41st).

Matt Kenseth was involved in two accidents, the second of which put him out of the race. Brian Scott spun in turn 4. Tony Raines turned down to avoid him and got into Kenseth. Kenseth spun into the inside wall. He hit hard, but was okay and waved to the crowd before entering the ambulance for his required trip to the infield care center. He finsihed 30th. Raines finished 18th.

Greg Biffle also had trouble at the track too tough to tame. He spun out of turn 2, hitting the wall. He suffered hevay damage. He finished 35th.

Under caution, Keselowski took four tires, while Kyle Busch and Justin Allgaier stayed out on older tires. Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle each took two tires under the yellow. Keselowski restarted fourth behind Busch, Allgaier, and McMurray.

On the green-white-checkered finish, Keselowski and Biffle, who restarted fifth, surged to the front and separated themselves from the rest of the pack. On the white flag lap, Keselowski passed Biffle and crossed the finish line 0.261 seconds ahead of Biffle. When all was said and done, Keselowski led 189 of 252 laps.

Top 5: Keselowski, Biffle, McMurray, Busch, and Carl Edwards.

Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Reed Sorenson, Brendan Gaughan, and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Kelly Bires (11th), Mike Bliss (13th), Jason Keller (14th), Justin Allgaier (15th), Jason Leffler (16th), Steve Wallace (17th), Paul Menard (19th), Kenny Wallace (22nd), Clint Bowyer (23rd), Steve Arpin (25th), Michael Annett (27th), Hermie Sadler (32nd), and David Gilliland (39th).

Bires piloted the JRM Chevy for five races this season, after Dale Earnhardt Jr drove the season opener at Daytona due to the sponsor’s wishes. Bires was set to pilot the team’s second car at Daytona, but after Danica Patrick posted an impressive sixth-place finish in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race, she was given the ride.

Bires made his debut in the No. 88 the following week in the Stater Bros. 300. He posted a seventh place finish in his first start with the team. One week later, he crashed out of the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas. He finished 42nd. At the next two Nationwide Series races, he posted back-to-back top 15 finishes, with a 12th at Bristol and a 14th at Nashville. At Phoenix in the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200, he was running in the top 10 late in the race. But, after being involved in a late pileup and contact on pit road, he finished 17th.  

Bires’ release has many scratching their heads, considering he had an average finish of 15th, and was 20th in points despite missing one race. JRM general manager and co-owner Kelly Earnhardt offered some clarity. She said:

We are extremely appreciative of Kelly Bires and wish him the best. Internally, it was evident the chemistry that is imperative for us to succeed in this highly competitive industry was simply not there. That is the fault of no one person. We owe it to our fans and sponsors to make necessary adjustments in an effort to put our best product on the track, and we’ll continue evaluating our progress until we are confident that our full potential is being reached.

After reading this statement, the question I’m left asking is, “Is a five-race span long enough to develop chemistry?” I don’t think you get an accurate representation of team chemistry in such a short period of time.

Looking back at Keselowski’s performance over the same five races (Daytona and Texas are not included because Bires has not competed at those tracks this season), Keselowski posted back-to-back 27th-place finishes, a 12th, and back-to-back 3rd-place finishes, compared to Bires’ finishes of 7th, 42nd, 14th,12th, and 17th.

No one can argue that the two top 5s are better than one top 10, but Bires’ average finish (18.4) wasn’t that far off of Keselowski’s (14.4). Some would argue that a four-spot difference isn’t enough to lose a ride.

But, Bires’ release is the latest indication that sponsors (and their money) are dictating (if even indirectly) what team owners can and can’t do. Gone are the days when a team could develop a driver behind the wheel for a few seasons. Sponsors want results now.

Kelley Earnhardt discussed the decision on SIRIUS XM Radio today. She said that the sponsor did not ask for the change. She said that the decision to release Bires was made by JRM officials. They feel like the No. 88 is a top 5 team, and they want to keep the team in the top 5 to keep the sponsors happy. And while the sponsor did not specifically say that they wanted Bires out of the car, I think Earnhardt’s comments indicate that sponsorship considerations played a part of it.

To me, Earnhardt said that if the No. 88 is not in the top 5 in points, and is not running up front week in and week out, the sponsor will be unhappy. And, if that’s the case, why wait until the sponsor is actually unhappy to make a change? You don’t. You make a change now, before the sponsor becomes unhappy – especially if you want that sponsor to stick by you long term.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this decision had just as much to do with team chemistry as it did with sponsorship. From what Earnhardt said about having a negative attitude and a lack of confidence in the team’s ability to compete, there were certainly issues. But, is a five-race span enough time to build chemistry? Conventional wisdom would say no. Are five races enough time to know what you have? Probably not. 

But, when I think about the fact that the JRM officials who made the decision (Rick Hendrick, Tony Eury Jr, Dale Jr, and Kelley) all agreed this was the right move, I have to think it was.

And, at the end of the day, when sponsors are involved you don’t have a lot of time. You have to do everything you can to put the best product out there. And with Bires’ release, JRM thinks it did just that.