The Honda Classic rolls on, and the 59 watch of Brian Harman seized the early headlines, Tiger Woods' putting kept him under the cut line, and the sterling play of Justin Rose and Tom Gillis took over the top of the leaderboard. Play continues on Saturday.

So you recall the story of the San Diego sportscaster who thought he was going to be a little clever and cutesy and take a shot at Danica Patrick? Yeah, he got suspended for his trouble, and on Friday Patrick weighed in on his actions. She took the high road, calling it "interesting," but you've got to figure there was plenty more behind the scenes that we didn't hear.

Moral of the story: watch what you say. Danica's listening.

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The Rick Santorum ride. / Getty Images

First rule of NASCAR advertising: if it works once, go to the well until it doesn't.

Encouraged by the attention they received from the Daytona 500, the honchos at the Rick Santorum presidential campaign have decided to buy car space on a NASCAR ride for a second straight week. Once again, they'll be going with Front Row Motorsports, and this time the campaign will be featured on the hood of David Gilliland's No. 38 Ford. During Daytona, Santorum's logo rode the No. 26 of Tony Raines to a top-20 finish.

"It's actually pretty cool to know that our sport is playing a role in something as important as a presidential election," Gilliland said. "It sounds kind of cliché but it's true, you don't get much more American than the sport of NASCAR. It's cool to have them with us." Your move, Mitt.

Oh, and insert cheap turn-left, turn-left joke here.

Just days after Brad Keselowski's Twitter tour de force, drivers took time at Phoenix to discuss the politics and ethics of carrying a phone in the car. And while no driver indicated he'd be following in Keselowski's footsteps and bringing a phone in the car, opinion broke down rather neatly into two camps.

On one hand, certain drivers said they had no problem with what Keselowski was doing. "Anything that gets the fans excited is good," Carl Edwards said. "I didn't realize we could have a phone in the car. I won't be taking a phone in the car, put it that way. But if it gets the fans more excited, more power to the guys doing it."

"I thought it was neat Brad got to do that," Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth said. "I know that was entertaining with the fans. I never had a phone in the car and I'm not going to start. But a red flag with two hours off? There's nothing wrong with tweeting and filling up some airtime."

On the other end of the spectrum, drivers worried about the advantage a

Brian Harman / Getty ImagesGolf tends to toss up great out-of-nowhere stories about once a month, and March's version arrived on the second day: Brian Harman, the second alternate coming into this week's Honda Classic, stood on the tee at 18 with a chance at achieving golf nirvana: the fabled sub-60 round.

Alas, it wasn't to be; he needed an eagle to pull off a 59, and "only" managed a par. Still, Harman's 61, a 9-under round, was good enough to set the course record at PGA National by three strokes. He sat just two strokes off the lead with players still on the course Friday afternoon.

"I walked off 16 and I was like, man, if I birdie these last two holes, I'm going to shoot 59," he said afterward. "I hit a great drive on 18 and had a chance ‑‑ I mean, I had a chance." His approach on 18 found the bunker, he wasn't able to get up and down, and he missed a 5-footer that would have left him at 60. Still, not a bad afternoon's work.

Making Harman's achievement far more impressive is the difficulty of the PGA

Closing off the last of the Daytona 500 with this gem: Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. racing for the toilet during the Explosion Delay. Looks like Kes overshot his marks, so Junior was able to snag the win. Good on ya, Junior! The streak is over!

For the moment, Chad Knaus is still permitted at NASCAR tracks pending the appeal of his six-race suspension for illegal modifications to the 48 car. And on Friday, he took the opportunity to address the media about the suspension and the way it took him by surprise.

"I'm deeply saddened, of course," Knaus said. "We didn't expect this. Definitely not the way we wanted to start the season ... I really didn't expect any of it. We do everything we can to build the best race cars we possibly can to bring to the race track. And that's what we do. Unfortunately, they didn't like something."

He noted that the template to measure the cars was never even placed on the 48 car found to be in violation, and that lack of hard data concerns him and warrants the appeal: "It was just a visual inspection," he said. "We never even got the opportunity to present that under templates. It's unfortunate. There's a bit of subjectiveness to it, and that's why we're going through an appeal."

Knaus has

The Daytona 500 (Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)

The most stark reminder of the way NASCAR has faded from its early-2000s boom days is visible in the background of almost every photo taken during a race: the dwindling attendance, the swathes of empty seats and benches. (Monday's Daytona 500 was a notable exception.) Couch it however you like, with gigantic tarps or multicolored seats, the effect is the same: attendance has declined, and given the costs of attending a race, it's not particularly surprising.

On the other hand, ratings are climbing steadily year-over-year, and an astonishing 36 million people watched at least part of the race, with 13 million watching the entire race. Compare that to the estimated 140,000 in attendance at Daytona, and numbers start to add up, yes?

At his Phoenix media session on Friday, Brad Keselowski brought up the question of whether ratings or attendance are more important for NASCAR. The phenomenal ratings for Fox on Monday night, the network's best since the World Series, could, and perhaps