Matt Kenseth celebrates at Darlington. (Getty)The significance of winning at Darlington is no more evident than when a two-time Daytona 500 champion emerges from his car and says it's the biggest of his career.

That two-time 500 champion is Matt Kenseth, and he passed teammate Kyle Busch with 14 laps to go to take the lead of Saturday night's Bojangles Southern 500 to get his first win at Darlington and third win of the season. And it's a win that comes just three days after Kenseth's team saw the penalties that NASCAR levied against it after his win at Kansas severely lessened.

"Honestly, I've only dreamed about winning the Southern 500," Kenseth said. "This to me feels to me probably bigger than any win of my career. So I really feel bad that (crew chief Jason Ratcliff)'s not here, this is obviously his team and his effort but (interim crew chief Wally Brown) did a great job filling in and all these guys behind me. We had a fifth or sixth place car, fighting loose and those last two adjustments were just awesome."

[Related: Denny

Kurt Busch gets in before making his pole-winning qualifying attempt. (Getty)

Less than a week after flipping through a Talladega early evening and turning laps in an IndyCar at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the day before, Kurt Busch won the pole for Saturday night's Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington with the fastest lap ever at the track.

Busch's speed of 181.918 MPH knocked Jimmie Johnson off the top spot when Busch made his qualifying run late in the session. Johnson starts second while Kyle Busch is third.

Late in Sunday's race at Talladega, Busch's car was hit in the right rear quarterpanel and went airborne, turning over before landing on Ryan Newman's car. On Thursday, Busch drove an IndyCar for Andretti Autosport and registered a lap over 218 MPH. While Busch's session was essentially a version of IndyCar's Rookie Orientation Program and he was cleared by the sanctioning body, after running at Indy, Busch said that he didn't have the stamina to try to complete both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day this year.

It's Busch's first

You can see Ryan Newman's car in there somewhere. (Getty)

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg. We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy. Right? Oh who are we kidding, this is NASCAR. No one is ever happy.

Another really busy week in NASCAR. How do you think the sanctioning body fared in the Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing appeals this week? NASCAR was definitely not happy with the decision that the appeals panel made in the JGR case, but I that decision certainly seems to side with public opinion. There weren't too many people saying that the penalty was fair.

Oh, and there was that whole race at Talladega too. That's what you all wrote about this week. This might be the most, uh, passionate mailbag of the year. But it's Talladega, would you expect anything less?

I thought Talladega was excellent this weekend (except for the weather delay) and I'm tired of these drivers whining about the cars taking flight.

(@FollowAndretti)

Wednesday morning, Kurt Busch got into Ryan Hunter-Reay's car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to run some laps. Will we see Kurt in the Indianapolis 500 anytime soon? He's in a car for Andretti Autosport, which fields Chevrolets, so manufacturer conflicts won't be an issue if he decides to do the double.

(@IndyCar)

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(Getty)Welcome to Warped Wednesday. On this, we'll put out the rush to judgment mat, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely.

Ryan Newman has been fined $25,000 for his comments criticizing NASCAR’s decision to race late into the afternoon and evening at Talladega on Sunday.

Newman’s comments were out of frustration after he was involved in a crash that saw Kurt Busch’s car land on top of his.

"They can build safer race cars, they can build safer walls, but they can't get their heads out of their asses far enough to keep them on the race track, and that's pretty disappointing," he said after exiting the infield care center. "I wanted to make sure I get that point across, and y'all can figure out who 'they' is.”

NASCAR certainly figured out who the “they” was in Newman’s comments, and he was fined the same amount that Denny Hamlin was after he made his comments about

There was a lot that happened at Talladega to talk about, no? Hell, we had so much to talk about that we hit the hour mark without getting to talk about the Nationwide race. Sorry Ronald Reagan Smith.

Got any questions for us to use in the mailbag or the podcast? Hit us at HappyHourMailbag@Yahoo.com.

Click here to download the podcast or here to listen to in your browser. And we're now on iTunes! Find us in the Podcast section right here and subscribe. Listen!

Brad Keselowski will be without crew chief Paul Wolfe two races instead of six. (Getty)

John Middlebrook, NASCAR's chief appellate officer, upheld Penske Racing's points penalties and fines but reduced the suspensions that were levied against the team after NASCAR found violations in the rear-end housing of the Penske cars before the April 13 race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Crew chiefs Todd Gordon and Paul Wolfe, along with Penske Competition Director Travis Geisler, were suspended six races along with car chiefs Jerry Kelley (Brad Keselowski) and Raymond Fox (Joey Logano) and team engineers Brian Wilson (Keselowski) and Samuel Stanley (Logano). On Tuesday, Middlebrook reduced all crew suspensions to two races.

Logano and Keselowski were penalized 25 points and Gordon and Wolfe were fined $100,000 by NASCAR. The points penalties and fines stand. All previous penalties had been upheld by NASCAR's appeals panel previously. The crew members will be eligible to return to the track at Dover.

Last year, Middlebrook heard the final appeal of Hendrick Motorsports and Jimmie Johnson's

It's time for Power Rankings! After every race, we'll opine about who we think is at the top of the Sprint Cup heap and how and why they got there. Remember, this isn't scientific, as our formula is the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. So let's get on with it, shall we?

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): Ho hum, another top five finish for JJ. Did anyone else have a sneaking suspicion that Johnson was going to get past Matt Kenseth before that final caution flag flew? Instead, Johnson was fifth, and saw his points lead trimmed by an astonishing two points. What a slacker.

2. Carl Edwards (LW: 2): Speaking of the guy who sliced into Johnson's points lead! Tony Stewart's move during last fall's Talladega race had us thinking: what if Edwards had made another move when Ragan dashed to his inside on the backstretch? Who would have won the race? Anyone?

3. Matt Kenseth (LW: 3): Yeah, yeah, yeah, not much change at the top. What's in the water for Kenseth that's made