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MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Jimmie Johnson held off Clint Bowyer to score his eighth career Sprint Cup Series win at Martinsville Speedway in Sunday's STP Gas Booster 500.

Johnson started from the pole and led 346 laps on his way to his 62nd career series victory.

“It was just a long, hard-fought day," said Johnson, who led the most laps in a race Sunday during his career. "Martinsville is always tough. You just have to dig in and get into a rhythm and drive your own race and see what happens at the end. I feel like the fastest car won at the end."

The Daytona 500 winner gave Hendrick Motorsports its 20th Martinsville win breaking a tie with Richard Petty Motorsports.

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FONTANA, Calif. - While temperatures climbed all afternoon both on the race surface and inside the engines compartment, nothing matched what boiled over post-race at the Auto Club 400 between Joey Logano and Tony Stewart.

The disagreement initially began after the final restart of the day when Logano blocked Stewart down to the bottom of the racetrack going into Turn 1. It then elevated after Logano and then leader Denny Hamlin crashed in Turn 4 coming to the checkered flag, sending Hamlin hard into the inside wall. He was later airlifted to a local hospital for evaluation.

On the post-race cool down, Logano brought his car down pit lane and was bumped by Stewarts machine, before both cars finally stopped on pit road. Stewart climbed from his car to confront Logano and after the two shoved each other, Stewart threw a punch. Logano responded by throwing his water bottle at his assailant. The two had to be separated by crew members and officials. Stewart said he took exception to the way Logano raced the final laps.

"Well, Joey (Logano) spun the tires on the restart," Stewart said. "Everybody had trouble with that so, but it’s not my fault that he spun the tires. For a guy that has been complaining about how everybody else is driving here and then (for) him to do that it’s a double standard. He makes the choice. He makes the decision to run us down there and when you run a driver down there then you take responsibility for what happens after that.

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This weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Auto Club Speedway for Sunday's Auto Club 400. To help you make your fantasy racing picks, MotorRacingNetwork.com brings you our weekly analysis to help steer you toward Sunday's 200-lap event.

Who's HOT at Auto Club
• Jimmie Johnson leads all drivers in wins (5), laps led (851) and average finish (5.4).
• Kyle Busch has a 2.5 average finish and has led 231 laps in the last two races. 
• Kevin Harvick, the 2011 winner, has finished in the top 10 in the last five races.
• Tony Stewart has won two of the last three races.
• Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon each are three-time winners.
• Carl Edwards has finished seventh or better in seven of his last nine starts.

Keep an Eye On at Auto Club 
• Kasey Kahne, who has finished in the top 10 in two of his last three starts at Auto Club, has led the most laps (213) in the four races with the Gen-6 car this season.
• Brad Keselowski, who is still seeking his first top 10 at Auto Club, has recorded the second-best driver rating in the first four races with the Gen-6 car.
• Ryan Newman, (8.2), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (8.6) and Greg Biffle (9.2) each are ranked in the top five in average finish among all drivers in the last five races on 2-mile speedways.
• Clint Bowyer has finished ninth or better in four of his last five starts at Auto Club.
• Mark Martin, who finished 12th in first track start with Michael Waltrip Racing last season, has finished sixth or better in three of his last five starts.
• Kurt Busch, who will make his first track start with Furniture Row Racing, is coming off his fourth top 10 in the last six races at Auto Club.
• Denny Hamlin ranks in the top five in average running position and laps in top 15 with the Gen-6 car.
• Martin Truex Jr. is coming off his first top 10 with Michael Waltrip Racing at Auto Club.
• Joey Logano, who will carry the race sponsors colors this weekend, will be making his first Auto Club start with Penske Racing. He finished fifth in this event in 2010.

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By: Pete Pistone

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There was a great deal of discussion and controversy after last year’s March Bristol race when an “announced” crowd of 102,000 showed up in the cavernous stadium.

Speedway Motorsports Inc. Bruton Smith vowed to change that and convinced it was Bristol’s new multi-groove, progressive backing surface that was the culprit, proceeded to reconfigure the short track last summer. Smith ordered the top groove to be ground down hoping to tighten things up and cause more of the rough and tumble action thought to be missing; in turn keeping attendance down.

Although last August’s night race had a healthy crowd, Sunday’s Food City 500 drew the about the same number of spectators as the 2012 edition.

And the racing was spectacular – as it was even before Smith turned the bulldozers loose.

Certainly weather may have played a factor in the weekend’s ticket sales with rain permeating much of the forecast. But as I said a year ago and remain convinced, there are a lot of reasons why Bristol’s Spring race doesn’t equal the famed night event’s turnout but the on track product isn’t one of them.

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