Hamlin

Kyle Busch took the lead early and held it after 100 miles of the Auto Club 400 in Fontana. There was no doubt that the drivers had a sense of urgency when the race started as the sky grew darker. Denny Hamlin won the first lap but soon gave up the lead to Busch on the second lap. By the sixth lap Busch had even extended his lead to almost a second. Tony Stewart, who started ninth, made a move as the race progressed. By the 18th lap he had moved up to fourth. By the 19th lap he passed Greg Biffle to move into third.

J.D. Gibbs, president of Denny Hamlin's NASCAR team Joe Gibbs Racing, said Thursday he did not think Hamlin's crash with Joey Logano that left Hamlin with a back injury was a form of payback by Logano because the drivers have been feuding. "My personal take is that I think Joey was just really trying to make a point, he was pushing it" as the two raced side by side for the win on the last lap of Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Gibbs told reporters on a conference call.

A judge Friday placed a Christian Science couple on 10 years' probation for denying medical care to their dying son and ordered periodic medical examinations for their other children. The couple, convicted of manslaughter in their son's death, said they would comply with the order. "We always tried to obey the law . . . and we'll try to obey the judge's instructions," David Twitchell said after he and his wife, Ginger, were sentenced by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Sandra Hamlin.

Signaling that its "boys, have at it" policy remains in effect, NASCAR on Tuesday declined to penalize any of its drivers after the wild finish Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. The climax to the Auto Club 400 featured the feuding drivers Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin colliding and crashing on the last lap as they battled for the win, which went to Kyle Busch. There also was a post-race shoving match between Logano and three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, who was furious about an earlier blocking move by Logano.

With the number of green card renewal applicants expected to reach 750,000 this year, the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service this week expanded its services at the Van Nuys office, officials said Wednesday. Beginning this week, Valley residents can renew green cards, which allow noncitizens to live and work in the United States, at the application and support center, 14515 Hamlin St., said Marybel Loeches, INS acting public information officer.

UCLA opens spring football practice on Tuesday, but the Bruins will be without three players. Linebacker Todd Golper, wide receiver Ricky Marvray and wide receiver Jerry Rice Jr. are no longer on the roster. The three will graduate this spring. All had one year of eligibility remaining. Marvray had 20 receptions for 188 yards and two touchdowns as a redshirt freshman in 2010, but had only 10 for 57 yards the following season. Marvray had back surgery last year and played sparingly.

His younger Joe Gibbs Racing teammate grabs all the headlines, but Denny Hamlin is sticking with his own plan. Consistency, he thinks, not the flashy boom-or-bust style Kyle Busch employs, is what will win him a championship. Tonight they'll race in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, where Busch won last year and where Hamlin has never finished outside the top 10. While Busch enters the race fifth in points with three wins, Hamlin is fourth without any wins.

Rookie Denny Hamlin never turned a lap at Pocono Raceway before this weekend. Well, not in reality, anyway. So for his first Nextel Cup win, the 25-year-old owes some credit to the makers of video games. "They got every tree on the site, everything's mapped out perfect," Hamlin said Sunday after winning the Pocono 500 at Long Pond, Pa. "Visually, I know where my letoff points are."

Denny Hamlin caught NASCAR by surprise last season, quietly winning two races and finishing third in the standings, the first rookie to make the Chase for the Championship. This year, he has spoken out to force pit crew changes, refused to back down to teammate Tony Stewart and proclaimed himself a title contender. He also has spent nine weeks running second to Jeff Gordon in the points standings. "The very first year, you are trying to gain a lot of friends and be respectful," Hamlin said.

Jimmie Johnson nudged Denny Hamlin aside in the third and fourth turns with 15 laps to go in the Goody's 500 at Martinsville, Va., and gave team owner Rick Hendrick a perfect place to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his first victory in NASCAR's premier series: Victory Lane. Johnson, dubbed "Mr. Martinsville" by Jeff Gordon, lived up to his moniker, winning for the fifth time in the last six races on the smallest, trickiest track in the series. It was his sixth victory at the 0.

NASCAR's Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano have exchanged text messages in the aftermath of their crash last weekend that sidelined Hamlin with an injured back, Logano's team owner Roger Penske said Wednesday. Penske said he's also sent text messages to Hamlin, a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing who's expected to miss about six weeks after suffering the injury Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. "I've texted back and forth with him and said that we're thinking about him," Penske told Associated Press in Humble, Texas, where Penske and Logano were playing in the pro-am leading up to the PGA Tour's Houston Open.

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin probably will be sidelined about six weeks after injuring his lower back in a crash at the race in Fontana, his team announced Tuesday night. Gibbs said the prognosis was made by Dr. Jerry Petty of Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates, who evaluated the driver after Hamlin flew home to North Carolina. "Dr. Petty determined that Hamlin will not require surgery but will need time to properly heal, which is estimated around six weeks' time," Gibbs said.

After tweeting, "I just want to go home," earlier in the day, NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin finally got his wish Monday evening when he was released from the Loma Linda University Medical Center more than 24 hours after wrecking into the wall on the final lap of the Auto Club 400 in Fontana. Still, life probably won't be returning to normal any time soon for Hamlin, who suffered a compression fracture in his lower back during the crash that followed his collision with rival driver Joey Logano.

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in his lower back in the last-lap crash in Fontana, his team said Monday. Hamlin, who already had a history of back problems, damaged his L1 vertebra after slamming head-on into the inside wall at Auto Club Speedway during Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Hamlin, 32, hoped to be released from a nearby hospital Monday to fly home to North Carolina, his team Joe Gibbs Racing said. The Cup series doesn't race again until April 7, at Martinsville (Va.)

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in his lower back in the last-lap crash in Fontana, his team said Monday. Hamlin, who has a history of back problems, damaged his L1 vertebra after his car slammed head-on into the inside wall at Auto Club Speedway during Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Hamlin, 32, hoped to be released from a nearby hospital Monday to fly home to North Carolina, his team Joe Gibbs Racing said. The Cup series doesn't race again until April 7, at Martinsville (Va.)

Denny Hamlin started the Auto Club 400 in the pole position. He ended up in the hospital. In between there was a lot of good racing in Fontana on Sunday that culminated in Hamlin getting tangled with rival Joey Logano on the final lap and landing front-first against a wall. Kyle Busch wound up winning the race, with Logano hanging on for third place and Hamlin claiming 22nd. Hamlin was able to exit the car on his own but then slumped to the ground beside it. He was eventually airlifted to the hospital.

Denny Hamlin didn't need to do anything elaborate to exact his revenge on Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. He just drove right by him. And then he drove away with ease on three restarts in the final 52 laps, ending the three-time defending series champion's remarkable run of five trips to Victory Lane in the last six races at the shortest circuit in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. Hamlin used an out-of-sequence pit stop after about 160 laps to move to the front, then held on up there until the entire leaderboard headed for pit road about 20 laps later.

Services will be held Saturday for Matthew Russell Hamlin, AIDS educator and activist, who died Nov. 13. He was 36. An avid horseman who taught riding at Sycamore Trails stable in San Juan Capistrano, Hamlin was formerly the client services director of the AIDS Services Foundation in Irvine and a founding advisory committee member of Hospice Orange County.

Luckily for Joey Logano and his fellow NASCAR drivers, they have a break next weekend to relax over Easter. They're going to need it. In a finish that was wild and chaotic even by NASCAR standards, Kyle Busch swept past a crashing Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap Sunday to win the Auto Club 400 stock-car race in Fontana. But the dramatics at Auto Club Speedway were just getting started. After Busch drove under the checkered flag, Hamlin - who slammed the inside wall head-on after his collision with Logano - slumped after climbing from his car and had to be placed in an ambulance.

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.