The green flag for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Stator Bros 300 flew at 2:47 p.m., CA time. The cars spread out quickly as each driver gravitated to their preferred line. After the green flag, Logano still lead the pack across the line followed by Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Brian Scott and Kevin Harvick at the end of the 1st lap.
Danica dropped back to 41st by the 8th lap. By lap 9 Kyle Busch found a good line to get past the race leader, Joey Logano, but by lap 19, Joey took the lead back.
Also on lap 19, Joey lapped Danica in the No. 7 GoDaddy Chevy. (5x. That’s how often you see “GoDaddy” stickers in the in-car camera shot of Danica Patrick. Sheesh!)
Lap 34 saw our first caution, for debris and by this time, there were 3 start-and-parks behind the wall. It’s here that Danica gets her first NASCAR Nationwide Series speeding ticket in this caution… ziiiing!
After the restart, by Lap 40, Joey Logano, Brian Scott, Brian Vickers, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Justin Allgaier, Jason Leffler, Brad Keselowski & Trevor Bayne were at the front of the pack.
Lap 78 saw green flag pit stops. Danica has moved back up to 35th, but says she’s been burning off the RR tire.
Ziing – Carl Edwards gets a speeding ticket upon exiting pit road. The worse time to do that… under green flag conditions!
DOUBLE Ziing – Danica gets another speeding penalty on exiting pit road again! John Wes Townley and Brendan Gaughan were also busted by the speed-police!
All the speeding tickets were taking place in the last segment of pit road. Everyone is mis-guaging where the end of the pit road is and the yellow line that marks the end of pit road is infact, almost a few car lengths past the wall. I think people are using the wall as a reference, and that’s not the case!
TRIPLE Ziiing… John Wes Townley got busted for speeding as he entered pit road to serve his last speeding penalty.
If I go by the few people I follow on Twitter, people are down on Townley but does Richard Childress Racing know something we don’t? The season shall tell, indeed.
There was a 2nd Caution for Debris, and during this 2nd caution, Carl Edwards gets busted again for speeding on exit. He’s on the tail end of the lead lap.
That’s the 2nd caution debris and ESPN is not showing the debris or anything related to it. What’s up with that? We want to be comforted with seeing the cause of this rude race interruption.
Lap 92 restart sees Greg Biffle, Brad (I wreck anyone near me) Keselowski, David Reutimann, Kelly Bires, Justin Allgaier, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, James Buescher, Joey Logano & Brian Vickers at the front.
Lap 117 saw Kevin Harvick pull down out of the race groove and headed to the garage as his motor gave up the ghost while he was running 5th.
Lap 119 sees Stenhouse Jr and John Wes Townley wreck off of turn 2. Radio chatter indicated there might have been oil in that part of the track. Townley spun and Stenhouse Jr. wrecked trying to avoid him, hitting the inside wall and crumpling his ride, finished for the rest of the day for Stenhouse Jr..
After the restart, with 24 to go, it was Logano, Ky Busch Biffle, Vickers and Scott leading the pack.
By the time it was 7 to go, Paul Menard was having a good run, but his fender got cut up while rubbin’ and racin, and it in turn, cut up his RF tire. Meanwhile back at the front, Logano was headed for his 2nd win at Fontana with almost a 2 second lead, then the No. 62 car of Brendan Gaughan spun out on his own. This brought the front runners together, but as I type this during the race, I don’t think Kyle has anything for Joey. (As we’ll see, it’s not Joey he’ll need to beat!)
The front 6 pull a fake and dodge down, then dash back into line, not pitting. Everyone else is getting tires. This may very well be a very interesting race finish.
With 2 to go, Joey got loosened by Greg Biffle getting under him and nudging him up out of the race line and Biffle and Kyle Busch get past Joey Logano and in the subsequent dash for the checkers, Kyle Busch pulled off the win as 4 cars vied for the win! Keselowski spun Logano down the front stretch just in front of the checkers. Logano still managed a 5th place finish going sideways, courtesy of Brad.
And during the post-race interviews, this is the first time I’ve seen Joey Logano… not his usual smiling self. He said “that if someone does enough of that stuff, it will come back to bite you. I remember that stuff.“ (Referring to Keselowski.) Does this now put Denny and Joey in the same club? From what I’m seeing, the club is going to be growing if Brad isn’t careful.
The top-5 finishers were Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Brad (I use my bumper) Keselowski, Carl Edwards and Joey Logano.
And that folks, is my super fast review of the Stater Bros 300 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. (NASCAR Unofficial results.)
Check out Jeff Gluck’s articles on the race, and after the race. There’s some pretty interesting details over there on Danica Patrick, Townley and others.
