Brian France says Fontana was prototype for future

There was a wild, last-lap battle for the lead, capped by a dramatic finish. There was a crash on the final lap. And then a scuffle and confrontation between two drivers on pit road after the race. Except for the unfortunate injury to driver Denny Hamlin, NASCAR Chairman Brian France says Sunday’s Auto Club 400 was a near-perfect NASCAR race.

"What I know is when the racing is tighter and there's more passing, there's just more excitement and more contact and more things that happen," France said in an interview with ESPN.com. "That's kind of what NASCAR is all about.

"Kind of what happened on Sunday was a prototype event for how we would look (or) what a good event ought to look like."

Kyle Busch charged past Logano and Hamlin to win the race. An angry Tony Stewart went after Logano after the race, shoving him and taking a swing at him for blocking him on the final restart.

Stewart then ripped Logano in a profanity-laced TV interview afterward, calling him a “Dumb little son-of-a-(expletive) …" and threatening to “bust his ass."

France told ESPN.com that he had no plans to talk to Logano and Hamlin about their budding feud.

France said the battle between the two drivers at California is exactly what NASCAR officials want to see on the track.

"What they did, notwithstanding that Denny got injured, what they did in the last 20 laps is exactly what we would have expected them to do," France said. "This is a contact sport. It's always been a contact sport, especially late in the race.

"They were going at it. It probably didn't hurt the competitiveness that both drivers didn't want the other one to win. They also did want to win themselves. That's how NASCAR racing goes. We won't be having any conversation with them."