Kenseth Wins Auto Club 500 in California
Matt Kenseth completes the sweep, winning the Nascar Auto Club 500 in California, the day after winning the Busch Series race at the same track. I don’t understand why more cup drivers don’t race the Busch series, I know it helps them race on Sunday, look at Kevin Harvick, he raced every Busch race that he could last year, and what happens? Fighting for the Cup at the end of the year, and he’s starting the season with a bang so far this year. If he had not had that tire go down, he would be leading the points right now and not Mark Martin.
“It’s a special win,” an emotional Kenseth said after bouncing back from a disappointing Daytona 500 with his second victory of the weekend and second Nextel Cup win at California Speedway. “It’s not without Robbie though. He spent the week at home while we were at Daytona building this car. Robbie built this team.”
A year ago, it was Jimmie Johnson whose team overcame the loss of crew chief Chad Knaus to get off to a strong start on the way to a championship.“Those guys didn’t let some bad luck stop them or slow them down,” Kenseth said. “Everybody on this team knows what Robbie would expect them to do, whether he is here or not.” Source: Kenseth puts Daytona behind him with win
It really looked like Harvick had a shot at Kenseth, but, after the tire went down he lost quite a few positions to finish 17th. Several cars blew up, no one has determined whether the new unleaded fuel had anything to do with it, but I am sure the race teams will have plenty of data to pass out soon. Gordon finished 2nd, getting the jump on Burton after he spun the tires on that last restart, to put him in third place in the points race, behind Burton and Martin. Here is the finishing order in Fontana.
1 Matt Kenseth
2 Jeff Gordon
3 Jimmie Johnson
4 Jeff Burton
5 Mark Martin
6 Clint Bowyer
7 Kurt Busch
8 Tony Stewart
9 Kyle Busch
10 Brian Vickers
11 Denny Hamlin
12 Ryan Newman
13 J.J. Yeley
14 Joe Nemechek
15 Greg Biffle
16 David Ragan
17 Kevin Harvick
18 Johnny Sauter
19 David Stremme
20 Paul Menard
21 Robby Gordon
22 Kyle Petty
23 Tony Raines
24 Elliott Sadler
25 David Gilliland
26 Juan Montoya
27 Ricky Rudd
28 Bobby Labonte
29 Carl Edwards
30 Jeff Green
31 Casey Mears
32 Dale Jarrett
33 David Reutimann
34 John Andretti
35 Sterling Marlin
36 Ken Schrader
37 Jamie McMurray
38 Kasey Kahne
39 Dave Blaney
40 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
41 Scott Riggs
42 Martin Truex Jr.
43 Reed Sorenson
Little too early to be worried about it, but here are the top ten in points after Fontana.
1. Mark Martin 335 Leader
2. Jeff Burton 330 -5
3. Jeff Gordon 309 -26
4. Kevin Harvick 307 -28
5. David Ragan 270 -65
6. Clint Bowyer 264 -71
7. Joe Nemechek 259 -76
8. J.J. Yeley 251 -84
9. Kyle Busch 239 -96
10. David Stremme 236 -99
