Busch, Edwards put on probation for six Cup races

NASCAR placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation Wednesday for the next six Sprint Cup Series races, the result of their on-track incident last weekend at the end of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

During the cooldown lap after Edwards' Ford took the checkered flag for Roush Fenway Racing, Busch drove alongside Edwards and bumped his car. Edwards responded by driving the nose of his car into the right side of Busch's Toyota, spinning him out.

The postrace incident apparently was a reaction to Edwards nudging Busch aside with 30 laps to go Saturday night. Busch had led the previous 415 laps.

Busch was unrepentant after the race, saying, "We'll go on, and we'll race him that way in the Chase if that's the way he wants to race."

Edwards wasn't backing down, either.

"A real smart racer explained it to me this way after he wrecked me and I was real mad. He said, 'I just had to look at your rear bumper and decide if you would do this to me, and you had, and so it was a real simple decision,' " Edwards said. "I'd do it again."

NASCAR later summoned both drivers to explain their actions.

This is just the latest development in a growing rivalry between the 23-year-old Busch and the 29-year-old Edwards, the winningest drivers in Cup this season.

Busch, a Las Vegas native who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, has been the most dominant driver this season, winning eight times and building a 212-point lead over runner-up Edwards in the Cup standings with two races left before the start of the 10-race Chase. But Edwards, who has six wins, has come on strong in recent weeks, winning two in a row and three of the last four races.

• LOGANO SCHEDULE -- Joey Logano will drive in seven Sprint Cup races this fall as a tuneup before the 18-year-old star begins his full-time ride at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Logano, who will replace two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Toyota in 2009, will make his Sprint Cup debut Sept. 6 at Richmond International Raceway in the No. 02 Toyota prepared by Gibbs. JGR also will field a car for Logano at Atlanta in October.

Hall of Fame Racing announced Wednesday that Logano then will drive in the No. 96 Toyota in five more races: at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 14, at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 28, at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Oct. 11, at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 18 and at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 2.

Hall of Fame Racing gets its engines and chassis from Gibbs' race team.

Logano has three top-five finishes in nine races in the second-tier Nationwide Series since he turned 18 in May. A development driver with Gibbs since he was 15, Logano was selected to replace Stewart, who will leave at the end of the season to become a driver-owner for what now is called Haas-CNC Racing.