Fontana

Kyle Busch hails from Las Vegas, but Fontana is like his second home — at least when he's sitting in a NASCAR Nationwide Series car. Busch outdueled Sam Hornish Jr. on Saturday to win the Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway, Busch's sixth victory in the last eight Nationwide races at the two-mile Fontana track. Hornish finished second, Regan Smith was third and Parker Kligerman finished fourth. Austin Dillon was fifth and 20-year-old rookie Kyle Larson finished sixth. Busch, 27, mainly drives in NASCAR's premier Sprint Cup Series but also races in the second-level Nationwide Series, although he doesn't earn driver championship points in the Nationwide Series.

Somewhere in the galaxy, maybe Mars, there might be a crazier sport than NASCAR. These guys don't race cars, they play Russian roulette with lives. Each other's. There is courage, and then there are NASCAR drivers. They must do their training by wrestling crocodiles or sticking hands into the mouths of great whites. For kicks, they sneak up on rattlesnakes in high grass. Calling this a sport of daredevils is selling it short. Testosterone- fueled psychos comes closer, which will be taken in the garages as a compliment, except for Danica Patrick's.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. still hasn't won at Auto Club Speedway, but he left the Fontana track Sunday leading the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. Earnhardt finished second in the Auto Club 400 after the last-lap crash knocked out leaders Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin , giving Earnhardt his fifth top-10 finish in as many races this season. "I was just glad to get through" the wreck "and get a good run," Earnhardt said. "We had a good car all day. " Earnhardt started 15th and struggled at times but rebounded in the closing stages after his Hendrick Motorsports team made adjustments to his No. 88 Chevrolet.

Kyle Busch led at the halfway point of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Busch, who won the Nationwide Series race on the same track a day earlier, was just ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin in the Auto Club 400. Joey Logano was third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was running fourth and Matt Kenseth, a three-time winner at Auto Club Speedway, was fifth. Brad Keselowski had climbed to 13th in his No. 2 Ford after the reigning Sprint Cup champion was forced to start at the rear of the 43-car field because of an engine change.

It's only five weeks into the NASCAR season and Denny Hamlin can't keep himself out of the news. First, NASCAR fined him $25,000 for questioning the capability of the Sprint Cup Series' new race car. That was followed by his widely publicized feud with rival driver and former teammate Joey Logano. Then Hamlin won the pole position for Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota, he said, "was just ridiculous fast. " Now the headlines Hamlin seeks are those announcing his first win of the season and first victory at Auto Club Speedway, where the Virginian has never won in 12 Cup starts.

Three weeks ago Denny Hamlin got on NASCAR's bad side for complaining about the sport's new Gen-6 race car. On Friday, Hamlin won the pole position for Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Hamlin turned a lap of 187.451 mph in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to earn the first starting spot in Sunday's Auto Club 400. "I knew my lap was really good," Hamlin said. "Our car was just exceptional. " Greg Biffle qualified second, reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski was third, and Hamlin teammate Kyle Busch was fourth.

Danica Patrick was talking about racing at Martinsville Speedway next month when a reporter asked whether she also would eat one of the Virginia track's famous hot dogs. "I will at least have half of a hot dog," she said Friday. "I'm a half person. I have half of a cookie, half of a brownie, half of a hot dog. " A more pressing issue is how soon the struggling Patrick again will be racing with the front half of the field as she continues her first full season in NASCAR's top-tier Sprint Cup Series.

Tony Stewart is known for sometimes starting sluggishly when the NASCAR season opens and then picking up steam as the weather gets warmer. This year is no exception — at least as far as his slow start is concerned. Stewart is 24th in the title standings as the three-time Sprint Cup Series champion arrives for the race Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. But Stewart is the defending winner of the Auto Club 400; last year he did get off to a good early start. And another strong showing on the two-mile Fontana oval could help the veteran driver get back into championship contention.