A week after finishing second, Kasey Kahne found himself in second place once again late in the race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday. But this week, Kahne sprinted away on a late race restart and drove away from the field over the last 40 laps to collect his first win at the half-mile bullring.

Kahne started on the inside of leader Brad Keselowski, and given the race's pattern of restarts, it looked like he'd be at a disadvantage as for most of the day, the leader of the field had jumped out to a large lead rather quickly. However, with fourth place Denny Hamlin on Keselowski's bumper, Keselowski spun the tires and couldn't get going, opening the door for Kahne to be the one to dash out to the lead into turns one and two.

"This whole team was flawless again today," Kahne said. "Last week, today, this whole season so far, it's been a lot of fun."

During the final laps of last week's race, Kahne closed in on the back bumper of eventual race-winner Matt Kenseth, but never was able to

Joey Gase took a big impact from Brad Sweet after he stopped on the track to stay out of the way of Brad Teague's car during Nationwide Series practice on Friday at Bristol.

Gase was on the backstretch pointed diagonally towards the inside wall after trying to avoid Teague's spinning car. Sweet saw Gase's car coming off of turn two, but when he stabbed the brakes, he hit them a little too hard and they locked up. That sent Sweet's car careening into Gase's.

The impact basically obliterated the back end of Gase's car and the front end of Sweet's. (Kevin Harvick sustained some minor damage in the incident.) Sweet, driving for JR Motorsports, has a backup car. Gase, driving for Hamilton Means Racing, a team that shows up to the track most every week but scrapes to get by, didn't. That means he won't get to race on Saturday.

Kyle Busch (Getty Images)

Remember when Brad Keselowski called Kyle Busch an "ass" during driver introductions at Bristol?

That was in 2010, which, in Keselowski years, is a lifetime ago. It was his first full season in the Sprint Cup Series, when he'd won just one race – the fluke at Talladega – and was known more for his mouth and rough driving style than anything resembling a budding champion.

At the time, Busch was everyone's pick to be NASCAR's next big thing. It wasn't a matter of if but when he'd win his first of many Cup championships. Keselowski, meanwhile, had earned himself a spot on quite a few driver's s-lists. He was on Busch's, of course, Carl Edwards' and Denny Hamlin's, just to name a few.

But in the three years since, Keselowski's career has been on a rocket ride to the top while Busch's has flattened out. It's as if they've traded places: Keselowski with his hauler parked in the champion's spot every weekend, Busch's parked somewhere down the line, usually about 12th to 15th.

Nowhere has

(Getty)New season, new Happy Hour! You know the drill. 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.

We're three for three so far with overriding themes and you can guess what the topic of discussion was this week. Given the reaction, you have to wonder how many new fans Denny Hamlin has picked up over the last seven days?
This is America. We Do have free speech. This is a new low for NASCAR. Long-time fans like me want to hear and see more of the driver's personality not just the prepared media version. Denny Hamlin has a right to be outraged and is afraid to say what he feels because the sanctioning body seems to be more powerful than the constitution of the United States! I guess this weekend I'll watch golf.
- Fred

After being a Nascar race fan for 40+

(Getty)Earlier Thursday we showed you the Jeff Gordon's test drive video in which he goes undercover and scares the bejeezus out of a used car salesman. And now we can indeed confirm from the four-time Cup champ himself that it was a stunt driver behind the wheel for the debauchery.

Gordon was in Kansas City as part of a partnership with a Harvesters, a local food bank, Kansas Speedway and his sponsor AARP's Drive to End Hunger to start a virtual food drive, so we had the opportunity to chat with him about it.

We got on the topic of the commercial after asking Gordon the From the Marbles' staple question of "Who would drive your getaway car if you robbed a bank (hypotethically, of course)?" After some thought and bringing up Jimmie Johnson as an obvious choice, the topic turned to the video as the stunt driver from it was considered.

"Yeah, I drove it out of the lot but my time, I only have so much -- to do all those stunts, they need two days to do that stuff," Gordon said. "So if I had more

(Getty)

After being fined $25,000 for his comments after the second race of the Sprint Cup Series season at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin said that he wouldn't pay the fine that NASCAR levied against him and he would appeal the decision.

On Thursday, Hamlin stood by his decision not to pay the fine but said he was not going to appeal. Hamlin was fined for what NASCAR viewed were critical comments of its new race car and the quality of the racing at Phoenix.

After a lot of thought I have decided not to appeal the fine NASCAR has issued," Hamlin tweeted Thursday afternoon. "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."

It's great to see Hamlin take a stand,

If you were going to pick the NASCAR driver most likely to dive headfirst into 21st-century media, Jeff Gordon — who won his first Sprint Cup championship while current champ Brad Keselowski was still in middle school — might not even crack your top 10. But Gordon has thrown himself into new media, whether it's reality-show silliness or current Internet memes. (Gordon's "Harlem Shake" hit within days of the first one, while the fad was still new.)

But his latest, a viral video for Pepsi Max, might just top them all. Gordon plays a timid car buyer named "Mike" who visits a dealership and proceeds to take the car salesman on the drive of his life. Now, granted, this is as staged as it comes; apparently Gordon wasn't even the driver for most of the stunts. But oh, it's funny. Well done, all.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

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(Getty)Welcome to Warped Wednesday, our new feature at From the Marbles. On it, we'll put out the rush to judgment map, 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. So let's get started, shall we?

A staple of the ever-present patriotism at NASCAR races is the pre-race flyover. Yeah, it isn't always timed perfectly (but, in a rare moment of Warped Wednesday clarity, it takes a ton of precision to time it correctly) and some are better than others.

But it's the flyover. America. Military. Power. Don't touch it. Hell, there was even a statement issued at the Daytona 500 after low clouds prevented the flyover from happening.

The sequester has touched it though. As part of the budget cuts, you won't be seeing fighter jets buzz the track at the next race you attend. (Unless it's Texas, which is bringing in private jets for a flyover.)

Is that really a bad thing? It's not exactly the