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“So that’s a fair amount of points we lost,” Benson said in a phone interview this week. “That said, our performance has always been there all year. We feel very confident how the season is going at this point. We’re happy with our performance, but probably not happy with only one win.”

Benson, who drives the No. 23 Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing, got that lone victory at a track where he feels extremely comfortable and confident.

(More in ‘Michigan’s Benson No. 1 in competitive truck season’…)

Whether he has sought the title, Busch now is considered NASCAR’s “villain.” In a sport that has, with few exceptions, become overrun by vanilla personalities — not a bad thing, of course, just vanilla — like him or not, Busch gives fans a reason to be involved.

Hatred and disdain are powerful forces, even in sports.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em.

So Busch has me thinking.

(More in ‘Angelique S. Chengelis: Busch turns heel’…)

“That was something this entire team needed,” Sadler said of the Michigan run. “I needed to put together an entire race, the team needed to see its hard work in the shop pay off on the track and we needed to show that Gillett Evernham is getting better and better all around.”

Although Sadler has had success in Sonoma — he’s scored inside the top-10 in four out of his last six races there — he’s never finished higher than sixth. His No.

(More in ‘Sadler hits the road at Sonoma’…)

• In other tournaments: Kateryna Bondarenko claimed her first WTA Tour singles title with a 7-6, 2-6, 7-6 victory over Yanina Wickmayer in the DFS Classic at Birmingham, England.

… Nikolay Davydenko took his third ATP Tour title of the year, beating Tommy Robredo , 6-3, 6-3, in the Warsaw Open.

… Maria Kirilenko won the Torneo Barcelona in Spain, 6-0, 6-2, over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez .

(More in ‘Briefs: Former Michigan wrestler Hrovat wins trial at 185′…)

Busch, who already has 10 wins this season — four in Cup, four in the Nationwide Series and two in the Craftsman Truck Series — was hoping to win them all last week while racing in Cup at Pocono, Nationwide at Nashville and trucks at Texas.

That was something nobody had ever done before — racing in NASCAR races at three different tracks on the same weekend, but it didn’t work out the way he planned.

(More in ‘Rainout gives Kyle Busch MIS pole’…)

“I relax and take life easy,” said Speed, who maintains a home in Austria as well as Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a very small world here in NASCAR in general. There’s a feeling for what’s acceptable. You bring something in from a different direction, a different culture, and it’s crazy. Everyone gets crazy that I’m getting my toenails done.

“It comes down to being a small world here. It’s in its own small box, and I’ll never be there.

(More in ‘Speed a NASCAR oddity’…)

Because he’s switching to a backup car, he must drop to the rear of the field at the start of Sunday’s race.

“It’s just part of racing,” crew chief Steve Addington said. “The car got a little bit loose off, and then he tried to just turn down pit road and spun out and tore the front end up on the car. It’s no big deal. These guys will dig in, and we’ll have a good car for the race.”

Once the backup was race-ready, Busch took it out on the track and posted the 16th-fastest speed of the final practice session.

(More in ‘Cup points leader Kyle Busch wrecks car in practice, turns to backup vehicle’…)

“The entire riverfront is mesmerized,” said Peter Hanna, 36, of Madison Heights. “It’s bringing in everyone. This is what the city needs.”

After gusts canceled qualifying runs Saturday and training runs Friday, Sunday’s blue skies and near 80-degree temperatures made for a perfect day for flying. More than 100,000 tickets were sold for the event this weekend that drew people to the Detroit and Windsor waterfronts.

(More in ‘Red Bull race pilots thrill thousands on Detroit riverfront’…)

 The suburban Milwaukee track is also where Patrick had a brief pit road confrontation with Dan Wheldon a year ago following an on-track incident.

 ”You know, adrenaline’s pumping,” she said. “That usually lasts after every weekend, after every time you’re on the track in race situation, for an hour or two after. Your adrenaline’s up.

(More in ‘Patrick offers no apologies’…)