The wreckage of Jason Leffler's car. (Via @christophetaitt)

New Jersey state police have announced that NASCAR driver Jason Leffler has died as a result of injuries suffered in a wreck at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey, according to the Associated Press. Leffler was 37.

Jason Leffler (Getty Images)Leffler was racing a Sprint Car at the track's "Night of Wings" when his car apparently flipped on the front stretch of the 5/8-mile, high-banked dirt oval. "Jason's left rear tire blew coming out of turn 4 and it made his car spin directly toward the wall," Connor Ferrell, who was at the race, wrote to Yahoo! Sports. "He did 3 or 4 flips before his car came to a stop." According to eyewitness accounts, he was extracted from the car on a board and airlifted out of the track via helicopter. The remainder of the night's racing was cancelled.

According to state police, Leffler was pronounced dead at 9:02 p.m. ET.

Leffler, from Long Beach, Calif., spent most of his decade-plus NASCAR career in the Nationwide series, running full schedules from 2006 to 2011. He had two wins, 42 top

Read More »from Jason Leffler dies from injuries suffered at Bridgeport Speedway race

(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. THIS IS SATIRE.

Eddie Gossage has no shortage of ideas to get his track attention and after watching Saturday night's IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, he could have had his craziest one yet.

Sources exclusive to Warped Wednesday said that when Gossage saw the speeds of the IndyCars fall off dramatically through the course of a fuel and tire run, he started feverishly thinking about the possibility of a showdown between the open wheel cars and the Sprint Cup Series cars.

Yes, the IndyCars are the fastest oval-track cars in the world, but at the end of the fuel and tire cycles, the field was averaging approximately 198 MPH a lap. Or, in NASCAR terms, just two MPH faster than the Sprint Cup Series pole speed at Texas Motor Speedway in

Read More »from Warped Wednesday: An IndyCar vs. NASCAR showdown?

Geoffrey Miller and I talk about the Party that was in the Poconos and was dominated by Jimmie Johnson. Man, what a party pooper.

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

(Apologies for our technical difficulties last week.)

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!

Yeah, so, this is not how you want to treat your $400,000 Bugatti.

Meet Edmund Burgess, of Lavenham in the United Kingdom. As Autoblog relates, Mr. Burgess was driving his 1924 Bugatti Type 13 in the Prescott Speed Hill Climb in Gloucestershire. The brakes apparently failed, the car rolled, and, well, Mr. Burgess was quite literally lucky to escape with his skull intact.

As you can see in the video above, Burgess only wore a helmet, goggles and jacket; the Bugatti's cockpit is wide open to the elements. The car, worth an estimated £250,000, suffered heavy damage. But Burgess says he'll be running it again later this summer, to which we say: keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up, friend.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Hot/Not: 'Clarity' for Jimmie Johnson could turn ugly for the competition
• Power Rankings: Jimmie Johnson stands alone
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. gearing up for another win at Michigan

Read More »from $400,000 car, wrecked: This is not how you want your afternoon drive to go

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): Stunning, just stunning that Jimmie is here, you know? Johnson's run over the first 14 races has made discussion about potentially skipping a regular season race real. Why? Well, Chandra Johnson is due with the couple's second child in the fall. If she goes into labor early around the Richmond race and Johnson has maintained his current 51 point lead or locked himself in the Chase, he can be present for the birth. And if that scenario plays out? Good for Jimmie. He will have certainly earned it.

2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): After moving into the passenger seat last week with a top 10 finish, it'd be hypocritical to remove Harvick from it after a ninth place finish,

Read More »from Power Rankings: It’s Jimmie Johnson’s throne, and no one else is close

Esteban Gutierrez gets out of his car after crashing. He was unhurt in the accident. (Getty)

A marshal died from injuries sustained in a mishap while tending to Esteban Gutierrez's crashed car in the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

The 38-year-old worker, who has not been identified, dropped his radio and was backed over by a crane while officials prepared to remove Gutierrez's car from the track. Gutierrez crashed in turn 2 in the late stages of the race.

"The worker was helping to recover a car which had stopped during the race. The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up. As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle," the FIA, the governing body of F1, said in a statement.

The track worker, a 10 year veteran, was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:02 PM local time before he was to be operated on.

From the Montreal Gazette:

The man was rushed by ambulance to the medical

Read More »from Track marshal dies after sustaining injuries at Canadian Grand Prix

The last two Sprint Cup Series champs went for a synchronized save after making contact in the tunnel turn.

Brad Keselowski was inside of Tony Stewart for fifth place when he lost grip and washed up toward Stewart. As Keselowski's car started sliding, he hit Stewart in the left rear corner and sent the 2011 champion into a slide as well.

Incredibly, they both kept their cars pointed in the right direction. Both Keselowski and Stewart lost multiple positions to the cars behind them, but they were able to avoid the fate that befell Juan Pablo Montoya and Matt Kenseth in the tunnel turn just previously. In that incident, Montoya's car washed up while on the inside of Kenseth's and both drivers went spinning, though neither one hit anything.

Stewart bounced back to finish fourth and Keselowski was 16th after working his way through the field after a late-race pit stop for tires.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Jimmie Johnson dominates for victory at Pocono
• Nationwide Craziest

Read More »from Craziest Moment: Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski with incredible saves after contact

Five-time is now a three-time 2013 winner. (Getty)

Sometimes you get a race that's so thoroughly controlled by one car that no matter what happens, it seems inevitable that car will take the checkered flag.

Sunday at Pocono was one of those days. Jimmie Johnson, the five-time champion and Sprint Cup Series points leader, led 128 of the race's 160 laps en route to his third win of the season.

And, unlike the previous week at Dover, when a late-race restart cost Johnson a victory with a dominating car, this week, this race's cluster of late lap restarts was not going to deny Johnson the win.

Just how good was Johnson's car? Well, these words were the first words he said after emerging from his car in victory lane. Mind you, this is a guy who just won his 63rd Sprint Cup race; and did we mention he was a five-time Sprint Cup Series champion?

"That's the best car I've had in a long, long, long, long, long, long time," Johnson said. "Not only a good race car but a good engine. Had fuel mileage and plenty of power. It was awesome on the

Read More »from Jimmie Johnson dominates for win at Pocono