Into everyone's life a little rain must fall, but enough

Sometimes you have to admire people for their perseverance, but sometimes you need to be careful that that seeming persistence isn't a mask for desperation.

Two late entries showed up Tuesday on the roster for this weekend's Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway, for Joey Logano and Bryan Clauson.

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Clauson is in a systematic, step-by-step walk up NASCAR's ladder system and making his Sprint Cup debut is part of that process. Clauson's been denied twice by rain: at Lowe's Motor Speedway and last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He's yet to make an official practice lap in a Cup car, so he's hoping for clear weather on Friday in Texas.

But with a spiffy Home Depot advertising campaign lauding the transition from the veteran Tony Stewart to the rookie Logano already launched, it seems necessary for Logano to get his ducks in a row for Speedweeks 2009 at Daytona, and that's apparently not yet occurred.

NASCAR has said it "anticipates that [Logano] would be able to do what he needed to do" to satisfy its requirements for a 2009 Speedweeks debut at either Texas or Homestead, the two remaining 1.5-mile, high-speed venues on the 2008 schedule.

And while Clauson wants to get one for his scrapbook, there's a lot more riding on pleasant weather in Texas this Friday for Logano.

Kudos for Hamlin

When he wins his third consecutive Cup championship, one of the most-overlooked, yet critical aspects of Jimmie Johnson's surge to the title will be a move made by another driver.

Yep, Denny Hamlin's save of his suddenly wickedly loose No. 11 Toyota on the last lap at Atlanta, while Johnson was kicking Hamlin back to third position, rates at least a "9" on the 1-10 save scale.

When Johnson swept past him to the high side, Hamlin's mount wobbled loose, and Hamlin did a perfect job of reining it back in, without over-correcting it, which would have sent him straight into the outside wall and probably through Johnson's left-rear quarter panel in the process (watch video).

Johnson certainly knew, with 18 cars finishing on the lead lap, what a last-lap wreck would've cost him.

"I have to go down and thank Denny for not getting into me," Johnson said after exiting his second-place car on pit road. "I got him sideways, I could hear him pedaling the car [and he] did a great job of saving it. Fortunately he didn't get me so I have to thank him for that." (Continued)