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Rating the Race: Fontana, CA - Auto Club 500

by Tim Zaegel on February 25th, 2008

After a long, wet, and miserable weekend for racing fans at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, fans filled the seats for 87 laps on Sunday – 27 of which were spent under caution and multiple red flags – only to be told in the early hours of the morning that competition would not resume again until the following afternoon.

The portion of the race that was run on Sunday was clearly dominated by the no. 24 car of Jeff Gordon, as he led the majority of the first 87 laps, despite the fact that his teammate Jimmie Johnson finished the segment at the front of the field. The day was filled with caution after caution, and many drivers felt that the mayhem on the track was to be credited not only to the fact that the drivers ran only 17 laps of practice prior to the race, but also to the notion that water was actually seeping through the track. The frustration was painted clearly on the face of Dale Earnhardt Jr after he was innocently taken out of the race by a spinning Casey Mears. In a post-wreck interview on FOX, Junior stated that NASCAR rushed the start of the race and that the track clearly wasn’t ready. The major concern in that pileup, however, had little to do with NASCAR’s most popular driver, but more so with Mears. After Mears hit Junior, he spun back up the track and was resting on the wall when rookie driver Sam Hornish Jr. blew into him, inverting Mears’ car and leaving it sitting on its roof.

When racing resumed on Monday afternoon, Johnson resumed as the race leader and dominated the majority of the second segment. When the field came out of its eleventh caution of the race on lap 225, it was Johnson still in command with Gordon, Jamie McMurray, and Carl Edwards following behind. McMurray – who had taken only two tires on the stop – was easily passed by Edwards, who then went onto take second from Gordon as well. With only 13 laps remaining on the books, Carl then took the lead from Johnson coming through turns one and two on lap 138. The defending NASCAR champion made a race of it, though, regaining the lead coming out of turn four, but Edwards reconquered the throne on the following lap and never looked back. With a sizeable lead to his advantage, the race ended when Dale Jarrett spun on the final lap of the race to bring out the twelfth and final caution. With the field frozen, Edwards crossed the line to bring home the checkered flag marking his eighth victory in the Sprint Cup Series.

Johnson maintained 2nd place, and Gordon was also able to hang onto 3rd despite blowing his engine on the last lap. Kyle Busch brought home a fourth place finish, which was enough to gain him the points lead for the first time in his career, and the defending race winner Matt Kenseth finished fifth. Ryan Newman lost the points lead despite finishing 10th, while Tony Stewart’s seventh place finish was enough to keep him in third in the standings.  Kurt Busch dropped to fourth in the points after a 13th place finish.

It’s also worth noting that Dale Jarrett led his first laps in the Sprint Cup Series since October of 2006 by staying out on the track while the field was under caution, and rookie Dario Franchitti led the first lap of his career by doing the same.

 Grades (on a 100 point scale):
The Race: 73%
The Drama: 84%
Coverage: 81%
Pre-Race Ceremonies: 62%

Overall Grade: 75.7%
*Note – the Race accounts for 50% of score; Coverage & Drama is 20% each; Pre-Race is 10%

 Results (from nascar.com):