Besides Dale Earnhardt, Jr’s wreck at Richmond, there were some other historical events in racing going on over the weekend.

Near the end of last season, NHRA superstar John Force was involved in one of the worst accidents we have seen in drag racing. He suffered several broken bones, including ribs, collar, and legs. But that didn’t stop him. Sunday, in the first round of the O’Reilly Midwest Nationals, John Force became the first driver in NHRA history to win 1,000 competitive rounds.

He did so by beating Ron Capps with an elapsed time of 4.862 seconds at 320.20 mph. His first win was in 1979 at the Cajun Nationals in Baton Rouge, LA.

17 year old Joey Logano ran his very first ARCA/Remax race Sunday, the Carolina 500 at Rockingham Speedway. He won, overcoming a challenge by Ken Schrader in the final laps of the race. There were only four other cars on the lead lap at the end of the race, Schrader’s, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr’s, Matt Hawkins’, who won his first race in his own ARCA premier two weeks ago in Iowa, and Chad McCumbee. Also notable was Austin Dillon, the sixteen year old grandson of Richard Childress, who finished seventh in what was his ARCA premieer.

To put this feat in perspective, note that Rockingham has always been tough on the drivers, the tires, and the cars. From 1982 to 2004, fifteen of the Cup races there were won by a driver who lapped the field. ARCA uses spec engines, which means that no team has a horsepower advantage over the other, so Logano’s historic win was a matter of driving skill and good pit stops, just like the old days.

Speaking of the old days, when Rockingham Speedway closed its gates in 2004, NASCAR fans lamented that racing would never be the same without Rockingham. Many of them claimed to stop following NASCAR because of it. So, four years later, with the return of stock cars to Rockingham, you would think the stands would be filled, right? Wrong. There seemed to be only about a third of the capacity attending the race, that is about twenty-thousand fans out of a possibility of sixty thousand. I guess that shows why Rockingham is no longer on the NASCAR Cup circuit. More on this from Full Throttle.

Steve and Charlie, from On Pit Row have started a new contest where you can win a copy of the DVD “Daytona 500: 50 Years of the Great American Race”  Since there are only two entries so far, the chances of winning are excellent, so enter now, here.

Mike on Trouble in Turn 2 offers a very useful item on “How to Finalize Your Fantasy NASCAR Lineups.” While you’re there you may also want to check out “View From The Couch: Richmond,” which offers some very excellent observations on Sunday’s race.

Since we are back to Sunday’s race, Unrestricted: My NASCAR Rants & Raves delivers some quotations from some of the post-race interviews, while Rev Jim talks about fans’ emotions towards racing incidents, on Rev’Jim’s Rants & Raves.  (Doh! Another Dr Phil moment, Marc, I admit it.)

Steve of On Pit Row gives us yet another take in the strangely titled Hamlin Wins…Hamlin Loses…Shrub Shrubs…Jr Ponders.

Oh, by the way, Clint Bowyer won his second career Cup Race Saturday night at Richmond, just in case nobody noticed.

That’s about it for now, race fans, but there is, as always, more to come.