Jeff Gordon won the pole for Sunday's race in Friday's qualifying. During practice on Saturday, however, the No. 24 Chevrolet was too loose for Gordon's liking. Consequently, the team adjusted the car's suspension setup.
But the weather changed. Cloudy skies greeted fans and racers in Fontana. It was cooler Sunday. Consequently Gordon's adjustments went too far.
The mood appeared light as drivers headed into the first turn with Gordon on the pole and Kasey Kahne in second. By the time they reach Turn 2, Kahne left Gordon behind.
Jimmie Johnson started in the middle of the pack, but quickly moved up and ran his No. 48 Chevy in the top 10 most of the day.
On lap 19, David Ragan spun out, which brought out the third caution in less than 20 laps. Kahne, Kevin Harvick and Gordon were among those who pitted, giving the lead to Kyle Busch, followed by Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. Gordon adjusted the track bar and air pressure in the tires to get the setup right, and fell as far back as 33rd place.
Kenseth, who won last year's race for owner Jack Roush, led after 125 laps, leading Gordon to the start line on the restart following a yellow flag.
Kenseth and Gordon actually touched side by side about lap 136. They've had issues before. Gordon, after getting spun out by Kenseth last year at Bristol, shoved Kenseth after the race. A few weeks later, Gordon spun out Kenseth at Chicago.
Tony Stewart had a memorable lap 144, when he was third, behind Kenseth and Gordon. Gordon went low to attempt to pass Kenseth, and Stewart went even lower to pick off Gordon in the backstretch. He then passed Kenseth before reaching the start-finish line.
At the stripe on lap 175, Kenseth remained the leader in a Ford owned by Jack Roush. Gordon was running second.
Kenseth led 133 of 250 laps, but after making a green-flag stop on Lap 196 he found himself about two seconds behind Jimmie Johnson, an El Cajon native. He might have bettered his third-place finish if not for a bit of bad luck. Johnson built a 2.6-second lead over Kenseth at the 225-lap mark, then out came a yellow flag and misfortune for the defending series champion. The reason for the yellow: Debris.
“We had a nice lead there,” Johnson said. “And then, the wonderful debris caution came out. I think we all saw it coming.”
Was Johnson questioning the validity of that yellow? You bet. “If anyone has seen the debris, I would like to know what it was,” he said. “I think they had five trucks looking for it.” It looked like a show caution to me.
All of the leaders would have had to make pit stops anyway. Now, they would all come under yellow and at the same time. Johnson took four tires, and so did Kenseth. Kenseth’s crew got it done while Johnson’s had a slight misstep and got their driver back out in the fifth spot.
When they excited the pits on lap 228, Kenseth was the new leader, followed by Jeff Burton, Harvick, Gordon and Johnson.
Harvick’s charge was blunted when David Reutimann’s crash on Lap 243 brought out a yellow and then a red flag. After a delay of just more than 15 minutes, as the field lined up for a four-lap race to the finish, Harvick had a flat left-front tire and had to pit.
That left Burton in second as the green flew, but he spun his tires on the restart and got passed by Gordon for second and Johnson for third.
Gordon finished a second ahead of teammate Johnson. Kenseth's Ford finished 0.679 of a second ahead of Gordon's Chevrolet.
"I'm very happy with that second-place finish," Gordon said. "We started on the pole and we faded early. We just overtightened the car from practice. I think the overcast really hurt us more than we thought it was going to. It took a while for us to make those adjustments, and once we did, we were a top-three or four car all day."
Gordon's finish left him third in points. "I think it's extremely important (to get off to a good start)," Gordon said. "I know it's early in the season, but we're trying to build a championship right now, not just with points, but with the team."
"It wasn't a bad day," Johnson said. "The mysterious debris caution cost us, and then we had some issues on pit road. But it was solid. We had the speed. We just had that stop at the end that kind of hurt us."
The top-five finish came at a good time for Johnson. After finishing 39th in the season-opening Daytona 500 last week, the reigning Nextel Cup champion vaulted into 15th place in the points standings with Sunday's third-place finish. "It's good to get some points back and get back going in the right direction," Johnson said.
Jack Roush was on the dais with his victorious driver, Kenseth, after Sunday's Auto Club (AAA) 500 at California Speedway, but Hendrick Motorsports had an equally successful day.
Mark Martin, who drives with Hendrick power for Ginn Racing moved to the top of the 2007 NEXTEL Cup point standings after the February 25th Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. Martin, driver of the #01 U.S. Army Chevrolet, finished 4th in the race and moved up one spot to lead the standings by 5 points over Burton. Harvick, who led the standings after last week's race, finished 17th in the race and dropped three spots to 4th in the points.
Kyle Busch finished ninth.
Oh yeah, don't forget. The fries are free at Arby's today. Just show the results of the race and thank Matt.
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