According to NASCAR:

Following the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event last Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, Denny Hamlin made some disparaging remarks about the on-track racing that had taken place that afternoon. While NASCAR gives its competitors ample leeway in voicing their opinions when it comes to a wide range of aspects about the sport, the sanctioning body will not tolerate publicly made comments by its drivers that denigrate the racing product.

Ryan Pemberton, vice president of competition at NASCAR, said that Hamlin’s comments were different from constructive criticism. He called them “damaging.”

After the race, 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. 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. [If] 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 also said that despite starting in the back and finishing third, he did not pass a lot of cars on the racetrack.

While those comments don’t seem to be too outlandish, NASCAR has made it clear that it will not tolerate public negative comments about the racing.

In November of 2011, Brad Keselowski was fined $25,000 for making disparaging comments at a NASCAR Hall of Fame event about NASCAR’s move to fuel injection. At that time, Keselowski said:

We’re not doing this because it’s better for the teams. I don’t think we’re really going to save any gas. It’s a media circus, trying to make you guys happy so you write good stories. It gives them something to promote. We’re always looking for something to promote, but the honest answer is it does nothing for the sport except cost the team owners money. Cars on the street are injected with real electronics, not a throttle body (like in NASCAR). So we’ve managed to go from 50-year-old technology to 35-year-old technology. I don’t see what the big deal is.

In the summer of 2010, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman were also fined for disparaging comments they made about NASCAR.

This time around, however, Hamlin is refusing to pay the fine and he will appeal. On NASCAR Now, Hamlin said:

Ultimately, I’m not OK with it. This is the most upset and angry I’ve been in a really, really long time about anything … anything that relates to NASCAR. The truth is what the truth is. I don’t believe in this. I’m never going to believe in it. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to pay the fine. If they suspend me, they suspend me. I don’t care at this point.

Per the NASCAR rulebook, failure to pay a fine can result in suspension, and the money can be deducts from race winnings.

Update: Denny Hamlin has dropped his appeal of the fine. Hamlin tweeted:

After a lot of thought I have decided not to appeal the fine NASCAR has issued. Dragging myself, my team and NASCAR through the mud for the next 2 weeks would not be good for anyone. I firmly believe I am in the right on this issue and will stand behind my decision not to pay. I understand NASCAR will do what they feel is necessary based on my decision. Thanks to all of my fans and peers who have supported me in this decision. I look forward to putting it to rest.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) March 14, 2013

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The victory was the 61st of Johnson’s career in his 400th start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and his second win in NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

Earnhardt finished second for the third time in the last four Daytona 500s. Mark Martin ran third, followed by defending series champion Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman. Greg Biffle ran sixth and Regan Smith seventh.

Polesitter Danica Patrick came home eighth, the best-ever finish by a woman in the Daytona 500.

With tandem racing all but absent in the points race for the new Gen-6 race cars, passing was difficult and track position paramount.

“You can’t ride and wait for things to happen,” Johnson said. “You have to race all day long and fight for track position. This race car, this Lowe’s Chevrolet was so good. (Crew chief) Chad Knaus and all of Hendrick Motorsports had me a fast car, and I could really stay up front all day long. I had a lot of confidence in the final few laps leading the train, (because) I knew just how fast the car was.”

Earnhardt got a strong push from Martin on the last lap, but couldn’t catch Johnson off the final corner.

“I couldn’t have done much without Mark helping me here at the end,” said Earnhardt, who was fourth at the white flag. “I was hoping he was thinking what I was thinking as we come off of Turn 2 on that last lap. I felt like we needed to make the move a little earlier than off (Turn) 4.

“I kept backing up, backing up, trying not to let guys get racing behind us too much. If somebody ducked out of line a couple rows behind Mark, I was going to have a gap, (and) me and Mark could take off, not get hung up with those guys. Once we come off of 2, mashed the gas, got a run on Danica, side-drafted her a little bit.

“I don’t know why them guys didn’t pull down in front of me besides Jimmie, but we got through 3 and 4 with a pretty good run. Once we come to Turn 4, we kind of run out of steam, didn’t have enough to get a run on Jimmie.”

After a restart on Lap 182, following the fifth caution of the race for Jeff Burton’s hard contact with the outside wall at the entrance to the tri-oval, Keselowski and Johnson ran side-by-side at the front of the pack, trading the lead as their respective lanes gained momentum.

A caution for debris on Lap 192 set up the six-lap dash to the finish with Johnson in the lead in the outside lane.

Patrick made history when she led the field to green from the pole position. On Lap 90, she reached another milestone. Surging to the lead after a restart, she paced the field on Laps 90 and 91, and, in doing so, became the first female driver to lead a lap in the Daytona 500 and the first female to lead a green-flag Lap in the Cup series.

(Janet Guthrie led Laps 43 through 47 under caution in the Nov. 20, 1977, Los Angeles Times 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway, the only five laps she led in 33 career Cup starts.)

Later in the race, Patrick led three more laps, for a total of five, to tie Guthrie’s five.

Despite the success, Patrick was reluctant to reset expectations for her rookie season in the Cup series.

“I think that would be unwise to sort of start telling myself that top 10 is where we need to be every week,” said Patrick, who was third with one lap left but fell to eighth in the last-lap scramble. “I think that’s setting up for failure. The list of drivers in the Cup series is deep. This is a unique track. These (restrictor-plate) tracks are different and unique. (It’s) a lot about the car.

“I mean, you have to be smart enough to do the right thing at the right time, but it’s very much about the car. I feel like I’m still sticking to ‘Let’s see how these first five races go,’ where we go to a bunch of different kinds of tracks, see where we settle in, start to establish goals from there on out.”

The Toyota Camrys of Joe Gibbs Racing were running 1-2-3 as the race neared the three-quarter mark, with Matt Kenseth pacing Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. On Lap 150, however, Kenseth, who led four times for a race-high 86 laps, brought his car to pit road, having felt a vibration in the drive train. Busch parked his car two laps later, with a blown engine.

That left Hamlin at the point as the field ran single-file behind him, in a lull before the late-race pyrotechnics.

A nine-car accident on Lap 138, thinned an already depleted field. With most cars running single-file around the top of the track, Keselowski tapped David Reutimann and dropped abruptly to the apron in Turn 1.

That triggered a melee as cars checked up behind Keselowski. Carl Edwards was a victim of the accident, as ill fortune at Daytona continued to haunt the driver who already had wrecked four cars at Daytona this year.

Other casualties included 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., making his first start as a full-time Cup driver in the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion.

The first major wreck of the race — on Lap 33 as the double-file lead pack of cars exited the tri-oval — dashed the hopes of former Daytona 500 winners Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray, as well as those of pre-race favorites Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne.

As the field stacked up toward Turn 1, Kyle Busch tagged the back of Kahne’s car, turning Kahne into Juan Pablo Montoya’s Chevrolet SS and igniting a nine-car incident that also damaged the cars of Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Casey Mears.

Keselowski suffered damage to the both sides of his Ford, pinballing off both Montoya and Harvick, but was able to continue. Kurt Busch lost a lap on pit road with the nose of his Chevy caved in from contact during the wreck. Casey Mears, who had qualified 17th, also sustained significant damage.

Note: Other drivers who have won their 400th Cup starts include Lee Petty, Richard Petty, David Pearson, Dave Marci’s and Dale Earnhardt.

Gordon crossed the finish line 1.028 seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer, his nemesis from a week ago at Phoenix, as Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet sat forlorn in the garage, Johnson’s title hopes the victim of a pit road mistake and a rare part failure.

Ryan Newman ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle.

Keselowski finished 15th, a lap down, but Johnson’s difficulties took the suspense out of the title fight in the closing laps of the race. Johnson entered the season finale 20 points behind Keselowski, but his 36th-place result cost him second place in the final standings.

The Cup championship was the first for team owner Roger Penske, and the first since 1975 for car maker Dodge, which is leaving Cup racing at the end of the season.

“It means the world — it really does,” Keselowski said. “I’ve got the best team in racing, and I’m just so thrilled to be a part of it. From the top down, Roger Penske, (crew chief) Paul Wolfe, everybody else, the crew guys and my family — that means so much.”"

Bowyer passed Johnson for the second spot in the standings, 39 points behind the first-time champion. Johnson held third, 40 points back; in 11 full seasons of Cup racing, Johnson never has finished lower than sixth.

Gordon made some history of his own. He won for the second time this year and the 87th time in his career, most among active drivers and third-most all-time behind Richard Petty (200) and David Pearson (105). The victory was Gordon’s first at Homestead and the first for Hendrick Motorsports.

“This is just huge,” said Gordon, who wrecked Bowyer in retaliation last Sunday at Phoenix and drew a $100,000 fine and 25-point penalty for his actions. “Man, it’s been an emotional week and a hard one — one of the hardest ones I’ve ever gone through, just looking back on my decision.

“What an unbelievable week. There were so many ups and downs this week, and to be able to end in Victory Lane with just an awesome team effort was just awesome… This is the way you want to win a race, by just going to battle with them and having a good race car and playing it all out really smart.”

Aggressive pit strategy put Johnson in position to challenge for the title, but the race fell apart for the 48 team after the 200-lap mark.

Able to finish the race on one pit stop to Keselowski’s two, Johnson brought the No. 48 Chevrolet to pit road on Lap 214. Johnson, however, pulled away from his stall with a loose lug nut, and NASCAR mandated another stop to correct the error.

The coup de grace came on Lap 224, when Johnson returned to pit road with the drive line problem. The No. 48 crew pushed the car to the garage, where it sat for the rest of the race.

“Yeah, we were in position and putting the pressure on the 2 car (Keselowski) like we needed to,” Johnson said ruefully. “I said at the beginning of the week, 15th isn’t a lay-up, and I certainly had him in position.

“He made it really interesting here at the end of this thing. If we could have not had the mistake on pit road and then the gear failure at the end… Didn’t really catch exactly what happened, but I know there was oil under the back of the car.”

Keselowski, who didn’t cover Johnson’s move when the No. 48 topped off the fuel tank on Lap 158, knew he had dodged a bullet.

“He was going to win this race, and I know that,” Keselowski said. “We were not as fast as we wanted to be, and we’d be the first to admit that, but my guys never gave up. We kept working, and at the end there we were even capable of getting back up enough to where it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d have won — which made me feel a lot better.”

Notes: Pole winner Joey Logano started from the rear in a back-up car after a crash in practice and finished 14th in his last race for Joe Gibbs Racing… Matt Kenseth ran 18th in his last ride at Roush Fenway Racing… Tony Stewart finished 17th in the 500th Cup start of his career.

Now we can add prophecy to his list of accomplishments.

We can also add fisticuffs to the repertoires of the Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon crews, who brawled in the garage after Gordon wrecked Bowyer and dashed his championship hopes on the next to last scheduled lap.

Never mind that Kevin Harvick stole a race that Kyle Busch absolutely dominated, winning Sunday’s AdvoCare 500 in a green-white checkered-flag finish at Phoenix International Raceway.

Never mind that Harvick crossed the stripe as a wreck erupted behind him.

The real drama was deeper in the field, and earlier, as Keselowski moved tantalizingly close to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship after predicting last Sunday that bad luck might be on the horizon for five-time champion Jimmie Johnson. The prediction came true — in spades—in the form of a wreck on Lap 234.

Harvick took the checkered flag ahead of Denny Hamlin, who passed Busch after the final restart. Busch came home third in a race that went seven laps beyond its posted distance of 312 laps. Kasey Kahne ran fourth, followed by Ryan Newman and Keselowski, who took back the lead from Johnson and leads by 20 points with one race left in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Keselowski, however, was appropriately cautious when assessing his title chances.

“Certainly if you have the choice, you always want to be in the lead of the points, especially in the closing races, so I’m thankful for that,” said Keselowski, who can win the Cup championship outright with a finish of 15th or better in next Sunday’s season finale at Homestead.

“But I also know that the troubles that they had are the same troubles that we could have next week, and so you try not to take anything for granted. You try to just focus on what lies ahead, and we’ve got to do the best job we can at Homestead. That’s where my focus is.”

All other drivers were mathematically eliminated from title contention, including Bowyer, who was the victim of retaliation from Gordon for an earlier incident in which contact between their cars cut Gordon’s left front tire and sent him sliding into the Turn 3 wall.

Harvick’s victory came two days after ESPN.com reported he would leave Richard Childress Racing for Stewart-Haas Racing after the 2013 season, the last year on Harvick’s current contract. Clearly, the reported business dealings didn’t affect Harvick’s focus.

“There can be distractions,” said Harvick who broke a 44-race drought in winning for the 19th time in the Cup series. “There can be whatever happening around the race track, off the race track, but when you get in that garage and everybody is doing their jobs — I get in the car, he (owner Richard Childress) is up on the trailers — we’re all just racers in the end. We want to race cars, and it comes with a lot of media. It comes with a lot of things outside of the race track.

“But when we actually get to get into our element, we all do our jobs regardless, and we all don’t want to go out and embarrass ourselves and not run good. We want to be exactly where we are, right here, talking to you guys after the race and in Victory Lane and doing the things that make us all happy. It’s been a frustrating year, but two races to go, here we are.”

The biggest, most destructive bolt of ill-fortune in Johnson’s already storied career struck on Lap 234, when the right front tire on Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet exploded — the result of a melted bead (the edge of the tire that sits on the wheel) due to brake heat. Johnson smacked the Turn 4 wall.

Unlike at Kansas, where Johnson’s crew was able to repair a wrecked car without losing a lap, the 48 was damaged far beyond the healing power of a pit road band-aid. Johnson spent 38 laps in the garage before returning to competition just as David Ragan’s brush with the wall on Lap 273 caused the fifth caution of the race.

Johnson finished 32nd, his prospects for a sixth Cup title vastly diminished.

Busch led four times for 237 laps but surrendered the lead to Harvick after a restart on Lap 305 and never got it back.

“The guys gave me an awesome piece, and unfortunately there, I gave the race away,” Busch said. “I hate it for my guys, and they worked so hard and they dug hard this weekend, and obviously having a car that’s the class of the field, you expect to win and you’re supposed to win, but I guess I just didn’t know how to win it today.”

Harvick said:

I’m looking forward to finishing out this season on a strong note with RCR and continuing to build our program going into the 2013 season with the ultimate goal of winning a championship. Anything beyond that, once I know what my future plans are set, I’ll let you know.

In 2014, Harvick will join the SHR stable, which includes Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, and Danica Patrick.

RCR owner Richard Childress wouldn’t talk about the rumor:

I’ve got a contract for 2013 and this is 2012. I’m not talking to you about nothing (regarding that).

Harvick has 18 career Sprint Cup victories, and has driven for RCR since his Cup career began, the week after Dale Earnhardt Sr was killed in a crash at Daytona International Speedway.

In 2010, Harvick considered leaving the team, but decided to stay in good faith. This time, he chose to leave because he thinks SHR will provide motivation that seems to be lacking at RCR.

RCR shrunk to three cars this season, after Clint Bowyer left due to a lack of sponsorship. Reports indicated that Bowyer had a sponsor lined up, but RCR wasn’t interested. As a result, Bowyer left to join Michael Waltrip Racing and had arguably the best season of his career.

Childress’ grandsons both drive in NASCAR’s lower levels. Austin Dillon is driving in the Nationwide Series, where he sits third in points. Dillon will drive the No. 33 in the Daytona 500 next season.

Ty Dillon drives in the Camping World Truck Series, where he sits second in points.

Childress is grooming RCR for his grandsons to eventually take over. While there is nothing to indicate that this has anything to do with Harvick’s decision, it is possible that it does.

Paul Menard and Jeff Burton have been struggling this season, with both out of the top 15 in the standings and winless.

Elliott Sadler, who drives the team’s Nationwide Series entry, is tied for the N’Wide series points lead. He will not return to RCR next season. He is rumored to be close to a deal with Joe Gibbs Racing. Ty Dillon could move up to the Nationwide Series next season.

Update: Stewart was asked to comment on the rumor. He said:

Well, it’s actually Dale, Jr. And (NASCAR reporter) Marty Smith is actually going to be in the fourth car. Yes, that’s where we are at. I will tell you this, when we have something to tell you guys, we’ll tell you. I’ve always said that. You guys can throw darts, but when we have something to tell you that’s different than what we’ve got going on, we’ll obviously tell you.

Update 2: Kevin Harvick is said to be taking Budweiser and Jimmy Johns with him to Stewart Haas Racing in 2014.

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SHR was in the market for a sponsor to replace Office Depot, which announced that it was leaving the No. 14 team at the end of the season earlier this year.

Bass Pro Shops was in its last year with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and the No. 1 Chevy driven by Jamie McMurray.

Bass Pro Shops will continue to sponsor Austin and Ty Dillon in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

Quicken Loans also recently extended its partnership with SHR for the No. 39 Chevy and Ryan Newman. The US Army announced earlier this season that it would leave the team at season’s end. It appears that Quicken Loans has picked up the majority of the races that the Army gave up.

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Jay Farner, President and Chief Marketing Officer of Quicken Loans said:

We were not sure what to expect with the 2012 season being our first in the sport. What we quickly found was that NASCAR fans are tremendously passionate and loyal to the brands that help drive their sport. It was their commitment to our company that ultimately allowed us to significantly increase our involvement with the sport, Stewart-Haas Racing and Ryan Newman.

Earlier this year, the US Army, which currently sponsors SHR’s No. 39, announced it would not return to the team in 2013. This expanded deal with Quicken Loans seems to have taken most of the races the Army gave up.

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With a pass for the lead that seemed certain to spark controversy in the Hendrick Motorsports camp, Keselowski won Sunday’s Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Keselowski took the lead over Johnson, the polesitter, after an exchange of green-flag pit stops, with Keselowski re-entering the track one lap later than Johnson, on Lap 231, and pulling up in front of Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet off Turn 2 on Lap 232.

Keselowski inherited the top spot on Lap 242 after the pit stops cycled through and led the final 26 laps of the race.

“It feels like Round 1 of a heavyweight title bout,” said Keselowski, who took the series points lead for the first time in his career. “It’s a 10-round bout. Week one’s done. We might have won the round, but we didn’t by any means knock ‘em out.

“We’ve got a lot of racing left to go. We’re feeling good about today, but (we) know that we have a lot of work to do.”

Keselowski pulled away to win by 3.171 seconds over Johnson, who led a race-high 172 laps but couldn’t catch Keselowski during the last green-flag run.

The victory was Keselowski’s fourth of the season, his first at Chicagoland and the eighth of his career. Kasey Kahne ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman, as Keselowski took a three-point lead in the Chase standings over second-place Johnson with nine races left in NASCAR’s playoff.

During the race, NASCAR looked at videotape of Keselowski’s return to the track in front of Johnson and decided no action was warranted.

At first perturbed by what he considered Keselowski’s early entry into the racing groove, Johnson said after the race that the outcome didn’t hinge on that particular situation.

“He did cut up early,” Johnson said. “It did impede my progress. I had to check up and wasn’t sure where things were going. But it didn’t affect the outcome, I don’t believe.

“The way he made quick work of traffic and stretched it out on me, I’m not sure I would have held him off. At the time, it messed me up, but I don’t think it played (a part in the) outcome in the race.”

Keselowski thought he was well within the spirit and letter of the law in re-entering off Turn 2.

“There is no enforced line like you see in other sports, and that’s not a bad thing,” Keselowski said. “That’s just one more thing to monitor during the race. But it’s certainly a, I don’t want to say a gentlemen’s agreement, it’s a policy of merging down the backstretch, off of Turn 2, I think it said specifically in the driver’s meeting, and I feel like that’s what we did.

“You can make rules that count it down to the inches and just make it a pain in the [neck] for everybody that participates in the sport, or you can just have a rule like we do, and I felt like I was inside those guidelines.”

A caution for Casey Mears’ crash into the Turn 2 wall brought out the third caution of the race on Lap 149 and interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops. Johnson, Keselowski and Kahne had not pitted before the caution, and that trio remained out front for a restart on Lap 158.

Johnson quickly opened a gap of one second on Keselowski, with Kahne trailing the leader by more than four seconds as the green-flag run progressed. When Jeff Gordon passed Ryan Newman for fourth on Lap 174, Hendrick Motorsports had three of the top four cars in the running order.

Matt Kenseth dropped back drastically during the run, and his team prepared to change a right front shock absorber, but Gordon became the first major casualty of the Chase on Lap 188, when the throttle of the No. 24 Chevrolet stuck as he entered Turn 1 and the car slammed the outside wall.

“I just let off the throttle, and it just didn’t come all the way back,” Gordon said as his crew tried to repair the car. “It was probably about half-throttle, which is still enough to do a lot of damage. We’re looking at what the issue is right now, what could have caused it.

“We’ll get back out, but in this deal you can’t afford to have issues like that.”

Gordon, the last driver in the Chase as the second wild card, finished 35th and, in all likelihood, fell out of the championship conversation.

Kenseth salvaged an 18th-place finish but fell to 11th in the standings, 26 points behind Keselowski and 21 ahead of Gordon in 12th. Defending champion Tony Stewart ran sixth and sits third in points, seven ahead of Denny Hamlin (16th Sunday after running out of fuel in the closing laps), Kahne and Clint Bowyer (10th Sunday).

Per the team’s Facebook page:

The skill and tenacity [Newman] brings to our race team has helped us achieve a lot in a very short period of time, and we look forward to continued success with Ryan behind the wheel of our No. 39 Chevrolet.

This announcement is good news for a team that has been receiving bad news recently: losing sponsors Office Depot and US Army.

Update: Ryan Newman indicated that he signed a one-year deal with SHR, and took a pay cut to stay with the team.

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SHR spokesman Mike Arning said:

Office Depot has notified SHR that they will not be renewing as the primary sponsor of the No. 14 team. However, SHR is in continued discussions with Office Depot regarding possible future roles the company could have with the team.

Mindy Kramer, of Office Depot, said:

The changing business landscape warrants a realignment of priorities and resources. That being said, Tony Stewart has been an exceptional ambassador for our brand, and he has gone above and beyond in everything that he has done for our company. Being a part of his legendary 2011 championship run was a moment of tremendous pride for everyone at Office Depot.

Office Depot does want to be involved with Stewart and the team, but in what capacity has yet to be determined.

Office Depot held primary sponsorship of the car in 22 of 38 races in 2012. Mobil 1 sponsors the car for the remaining 16 races. Mobil 1 will serve as primary sponsor for the same number of races in 2013.

This news comes as another blow, as SHR’s No. 39 Sprint Cup Chevy, driven by Ryan Newman, lost one of its primary sponsors when the US Army announced that it would be leaving the team at season’s end. Still, SHR expects to field three teams in 2013.

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