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LAS VEGAS — NASCAR on Saturday displayed a clearly altered glove that Joey Logano wore in qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where aerodynamic-deflecting alterations were so obvious it looked as if he was wearing part of an amphibious costume.

The black glove for Logano’s left hand had webbing made of an unspecified material in between every finger. The theory is that Logano, who qualified second at Atlanta, had the glove altered in order to place his hand out his window as an aerodynamic blocker during qualifying last weekend.

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, NASCAR would not speculate on the motivation of the two-time Cup champion or Team Penske, which did not appeal a penalty imposed on Logano. NASCAR said it discovered the glove during a random inspection — and not, as Denny Hamlin suggested, in a tipoff from a rival team — and NASCAR did not know if Logano was wearing the glove when he won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500.

Rival driver Corey Lajoie didn’t flinch when asked Saturday if Logano was wearing the glove in Daytona 500 qualifying — “yes,” he said — and insisted Team Penske would have done computer simulation on the glove before using it on the track. LaJoie estimated the webbed glove was worth three counts of drag for Logano.

Logano, who won the pole for Sunday’s race at Las Vegas wearing legal gloves, declined to comment on if he wore the webbed glove when winning Team Penske’s first Daytona 500 pole. He said he was not forced to wear the glove by his team.

“As a driver, you work with the team and, hey, I’m going to take a portion of responsibility of that too, obviously. I should. I put the glove on,” Logano said. “I didn’t build the glove or make it on my own. I can’t sew. We had conversations about it.

“What I’m proud about with this team is, yeah, that was a tough situation for us,” he continued. “It was hard to go through and embarrassing for sure, but the fact we got through it and just move on and focus on the next week, we showed that we have some speed in our race car and to be able to put it on the pole here, to me, is a statement type lap, so I’m proud of that.”

Logano turned a lap in Saturday qualifying at 184.357 mph to win his second pole in three races, and the third of his career at Las Vegas. He beat Kyle Larson, winner at Las Vegas in October, who turned a lap at 184.225 in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series managing director, said the No. 22 Ford was one of five cars randomly selected for postqualifying inspection and the in-car camera immediately alerted officials that something was amiss.

“We spotted something that was honestly concerning,” Moran said ahead of Saturday activity at Las Vegas. “As you can see, the entire glove is webbed. The reason for that is you can obviously block more air, the drivers do put their hand up against the [window] opening, which we’ve never really had a rule against.

“This obviously goes one step further, and that glove becomes not only a competition problem, but it goes one step further because it becomes a safety violation.”

All equipment must be approved by The SFI Foundation Inc., which is a nonprofit organization that has administered the standards for the quality assurance of specialty performance and racing equipment since 1978. NASCAR was unsure the material used to create the webbing effect was even fire retardant.

Logano said at Las Vegas he would never have used the glove if he thought it was dangerous, which “I personally did not.”

“I would never have put myself in a situation where I feel unsafe,” Logano said. “I have kids. I have a wife. I have a family that I care way more about than race cars, so no, I didn’t feel concerned about what we did. I didn’t race with it. Qualifying on speedways is pretty simple.”

Logano was penalized this past Sunday morning when he forfeited the second-place starting position and was dropped to the back of the field at Atlanta. He also had to serve a drive-through penalty on pit road once he took the green flag as the competition penalty.

Logano this week was fined $10,000 for violating NASCAR’s safety code, under “Driver Responsibilities & Driver Protective Clothing/Equipment.”

Team owner Roger Penske earlier this week twice told The Associated Press, “I didn’t like that at all,” about Logano’s infraction and expressed his disappointment in the veteran Penske driver.

“It’s not good. Period. I told him,” Penske said. “He’s the leader of the team. Look, we are under so much scrutiny and the last thing we need to do is have any noise like that. It’s not good for us. It’s not good for him. We’ll take our punches.”

Reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney, who in November gave Penske back-to-back NASCAR championships, said there was no internal conversation among the three Penske cars to try the glove. Blaney further said he was unaware that Logano was using an altered glove.

But Blaney acknowledged all teams are consistently trying to work within a gray area — but not push the boundaries to the point that their boss, Penske, is irked with the efforts and optics of the organization.

“That was something they found, and they just wanted to try, but that wasn’t something they tried to talk about,” Blaney said. “It’s always tricky, you want to be fast. But I feel like we’ve always been very good. We’ve always been very respectful — like we never get in trouble — because that’s Roger’s way, right?

“So, it’s a real balance because you are always trying to find speed, but sometimes you have to kind of get a little in that gray area to find it.”

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Yelich fuels rally, Brewers extend win streak to 13

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Yelich fuels rally, Brewers extend win streak to 13

CINCINNATI — Christian Yelich had two homers among his four hits and drove in five runs as the Milwaukee Brewers overcame a seven-run deficit to beat the Cincinnati Reds 10-8 Friday night for their club record-tying 13th straight victory.

The Brewers became the first team in 94 years to extend a double-digit win streak with a comeback win of seven or more runs, according to ESPN Research.

The Reds chased Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski – making his first start since July 28 – with a seven-run seventh inning to take an 8-1 lead.

Yelich homered leading off the second against Nick Martinez for Milwaukee’s first run. He had an RBI double in the third before Andrew Vaughn hit his 14th homer – a three-run shot – and Brice Turang‘s RBI double to cut it to 8-6. Yelich had a two-run single in the fourth to tie it at 8-all and then hit his 26th homer – a one-out, solo shot off Scott Barlow (6-1) in the sixth to give the Brewers the lead.

Yelich did his damage with a bat honoring the late Bob Uecker. It had the home run call of the former catcher and longtime Brewers’ announcer written on it.

This was also Yelich’s third career game with four hits and two home runs, tying Ryan Braun and Willy Adames for most in franchise history, according to ESPN Research.

Brandon Lockridge went 3 for 5 and doubled off Sam Moll with two outs in the seventh before scoring on a wild pitch for an insurance run.

Misiorowski loaded the bases with one out in the second on a hit batter and two walks and left after walking Spencer Steer to force in a run. Elly De La Cruz had the first hit in the inning – a two-run double off DL Hall for a 4-1 lead. Four straight singles increased the lead to 8-1.

Misiorowski was charged with five runs on four hits and three walks in 1 1/3 innings hours after coming off the injured list. Nick Mears (4-3) pitched a scoreless fifth. Trevor Megill struck out two in the ninth for his 29th save. Six relievers combined to retire the final 23 Reds in order.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Slumping Dodgers lose 3B Muncy (oblique) to IL

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Slumping Dodgers lose 3B Muncy (oblique) to IL

LOS ANGELES — Third baseman Max Muncy was diagnosed with a Grade 1 oblique strain and landed on the injured list Friday, a major blow to a Los Angeles Dodgers team that finds itself fading in the standings.

Muncy was originally a late scratch from Wednesday’s lineup after feeling soreness in his right side during pregame batting practice. The Dodgers’ hope was that sitting out for the finale from Angel Stadium, then getting extra rest during the Thursday off day, would allow Muncy to return for a critical series against the division-rival San Diego Padres, who have taken a one-game lead in the National League West.

But Muncy will miss this weekend’s series from Dodger Stadium, as well as the following series from San Diego’s Petco Park next weekend.

“I don’t think anyone expects it to be season-ending,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “but hopefully it’s sooner than later.”

Roberts doesn’t believe the current oblique injury is as bad as the one that forced Muncy to miss about two months last year, but even in a best-case scenario, the Dodgers might be without their third baseman and left-handed power hitter until around mid-September.

Muncy got off to a bad start this year before turning it on in the middle of May, slashing .312/.438/.616 with 11 home runs in a stretch of 41 games. Muncy then injured his left knee during a scary collision at third base and wound up missing most of July. He returned Aug. 4, went 8-for-23 with four home runs over the course of eight games, and now he’s out again — at a time when the reigning World Series champs could really use some reinforcements.

The Dodgers held a nine-game lead in the NL West as of July 3 and have since gone 12-21 to fall a game back of a surging Padres team that arrived in L.A. on the heels of a five-game winning streak. As many as six high-leverage relievers reside on the Dodgers’ IL, though three of them — Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott — are nearing returns. The offense, meanwhile, has been mostly unproductive over the past six weeks, posting an 0.708 OPS that ranks 22nd in the major leagues.

During Muncy’s absence, the Dodgers will use Alex Freeland, a switch-hitting rookie who’s batting .176 in his first 12 games, and Buddy Kennedy, a right-handed-hitting journeyman with a career .193 batting average. Other potential reinforcements like Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim and Enrique Hernandez remain on the IL and aren’t close enough to a return.

“It’s certainly a tough loss,” Roberts said. “I think it’s just guys got to continue to perform to their abilities. It’s hard to kind of backfill Max, what he means, as far as the plate discipline, the slug, the on-base, all that stuff. I feel good about our lineup, the guys that we have, and they just have to go out there and take good at-bats. That’s all we can do right now.”

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Phils’ Duran takes liner off foot; X-rays negative

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Phils' Duran takes liner off foot; X-rays negative

WASHINGTON — Philadelphia Phillies closer Jhoan Duran was carted off the field after he took a comebacker off his right foot in the ninth inning of a 6-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night.

The Phillies said that initial X-rays were negative and that Duran would be evaluated further Saturday.

Pitching in a non-save situation after four days off, Duran began the ninth by facing Paul DeJong, who hit a sharp grounder to the mound on his fourth pitch. The ball deflected off Duran’s foot and into foul territory for a single.

Duran ran toward the ball but began limping as he approached the foul line. After a lengthy visit by team trainers, he took a seat in the Nationals’ bullpen cart and was driven off the field.

“He ran like a shot to retrieve the ball, and once he got there, I think the adrenaline wore off and the pain set in,” Thomson said. “But before the cart came out, he said, ‘I actually feel better, I think I can walk over to the dugout.’ But we got all these steps up here, so we just wanted to use the cart and take him all the way around, so he didn’t have to go up the steps.”

Acquired from Minnesota at the trade deadline, Duran is 4-for-4 in save opportunities with the Phillies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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