LOOKING IN ON: MOTOR SPORTS

Thursday, June 14, 2007 | 8:05 a.m.

Danica Patrick's finish - her career best - in Saturday night's IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

8.4

Length, in miles, of the Circuit de la Sarthe, which will host the 75th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend.

"It hurts as a driver to say I want Terry to drive my car."

Michael Waltrip on his decision to let veteran Terry Labonte drive Waltrip's No. 55 Toyota Camry for the two road-course races this summer on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule. Waltrip has qualified for only two of 14 races in his first season as an owner and driver.

There is a reason NASCAR doesn't have a driver sit on the committee that determines penalties for on-the-track transgressions.

Human nature being what it is, it would be easy for a driver to let his personal opinion of a competitor color his judgment when it came time to hand out penalties.

Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR champion and a Las Vegas native, probably thanked his lucky stars last week that his peers weren't sitting in judgment when NASCAR determined how to punish him for a June 4 incident at Dover International Speedway.

Busch clipped Tony Stewart during the rain-delayed race at Dover and Busch ended up with serious damage to his car. He retaliated by grazing Stewart's car on pit road - and nearly hitting one of Stewart's crew members.

NASCAR fined Busch $100,000 and docked him 100 championship points but did not take the extreme measure - which Busch said he had expected - of forcing him to sit out Sunday's race at Pocono Raceway.

Had it been up to Jeff Burton or Jeff Gordon - two of the most respected drivers in the NASCAR garage - Busch would have been watching Sunday's Pocono 500 from his living room instead of driving his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge to a 16th-place finish.

"I think the penalty should have been really severe," Burton said before the race. "I think there are a lot of people in the garage that believe he got off easy."

Gordon agreed with Burton.

"I think that we all knew that there was going to be some kind of fine and penalty and that it would be severe because there was a crew member involved," he said. "NASCAR had to make a pretty stern decision there ... It didn't surprise me, put it that way. I am more surprised that they didn't suspend him, actually."

The 100-point penalty dropped Busch from 11th in the Nextel Cup Series standings to 17th, but he climbed to 16th with his finish Sunday at Pocono. Only the top 12 drivers in points after 26 races qualify for the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup and are eligible to compete for the season championship.

Back on top

Rod Fuller of Las Vegas advanced to his second final round of the season Sunday in the National Hot Rod Association event at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.

Although he was beaten by Larry Dixon in the final, Fuller regained the points lead in the NHRA Top Fuel standings.

Fuller holds a 31-point lead over Brandon Bernstein after nine races. Fuller's quest for the points lead was aided when Bernstein failed to qualify for Sunday's eliminations.

"I thought it would be hard to come out of here with the points lead because Brandon had a three-round lead and they've been really good," Fuller said. "But when they didn't qualify, I knew we'd take the points lead back.

"Other than not winning, the weekend couldn't have gone any better."

Full ride

Jace Meier, a local racer and honors student at Spring Valley High School, has received a full scholarship to attend Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina.

Meier said he plans to pursue a bachelor's degree in business with a concentration in motor sports management. Belmont Abbey last year became the first college in the country to offer a four-year degree in the business and management side of motor sports.

Meier, who served as Spring Valley High's senior class president this year, is fourth in points in the Late Models division at Irwindale Speedway in Southern California.