The green flag for the Auto Club 500 flew at 12:20 CA time. The FoxTrax ticker was sick… I know. It was showing Robby Gordon leading the race for a few laps!
By lap 20, Juan Montoya had almost 3 seconds out in front of Jimmie Johnson, in which he subsequently lost that lead to Jimmie by lap 27.
The first green flag pit stops started around LAP 37. As everyone pitted, the unsponsored car of Dave Blaney stayed out and led a couple of laps before parking it. By lap 45 all pits stops were done.
After it was all said and done, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Juan Montoya, Brian Vickers, Mark Martin, Keff Burton, Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann and Kyly Busch were the 10 front runners. Ryan Newman as 13th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 21st, Tony STewart 23rd.
Race leader Kevin Harvick, who took the lead just moments before, took the first CAUTION FLAG on LAP 58, for DEBRIS.
LaP 62 Johnson, Harvick, Martin, Bowyer, Vickers and Jeff Gordon are the first three rows to take the green restart.
Lap 64 saw Martin Truex Jr drift down the backstretch, coasting with no power. He pulled off to the garage.
Kasey Kahne did the lawn mower thing sliding through the luscious grass of Fontana on LAP 94 after a solo spin. The RF splitter got itself bent up.
Montoya, Harvick & Burton were caught for speeding on pit road during the caution.
L97 restart 48, 5, 83, 24, 16 17, 99, 39 & 20
At the 1/2 way point of the race on lap 125 of 250 is 48, 5, 15, 83, 14, 33, 17, 39, 24, 31, 99, 2, 00, 18, 20, 42 & 88
Lap 132 saw another set of green flag pit stops.
Dale Earnhardt Jr got himself a speeding ticket and a subsequent drive through.
Montoya lost his engine.
Lap 145 restart saw Jeff Gordon, Sam Hornish Jr., Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin lead the pack past the green flag.
Ryan Newman “blowed up” right after the green flag restart.
The lap 152 restart saw Jeff Gordon, Sam Hornish Jr., Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch lead the pack back to the green, then Jeff Burton took the lead on the next lap, then Kyle Busch stepped it up on the outside and he took the lead from Burton.
During green flag pitstops around lap 182, they found a broken axel on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car.
Hornish got himself a speeding ticket during the green flag pit stops.
LAP 192 had a short rain-induced caution. Denny Hamlin was so low on fuel, they had to pit, and Scott Speed, with the same fuel level concerns, adopted the lead under caution.
Under caution on lap 195, it was 82, 31, 18, 34, 33, 24, 48, 29, 5 & 17 cars are the top 10.
Scott Speed finally pits. They were losing fuel pressure.
With 50 to go, Burton, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were up front.
Denny Hamlin cuts his tire down rubbing it up with Carl Edwards on the restart.
With just under 30 laps to go, Brad (I use my front Bumper) Keselowski goes spinning, causing a yellow flag. He lost a rear tire from rubbing it up with another car. (He was using his fender instead of his bumper!)
Just as the yellow came out, cars were starting to pit and Jimmie Johnson & Kyle Busch beat the caution being on pit road before it hit.
Denny Hamlin had more issues with his RF tire now. Through a quirk of pitting and timing, Kyle Busch and others got stuffed a lap then a wave around, so they were in the back of the pack.
48, 29, 31, 5, 2, 17, 20 & 14 lead the pack to the green with 20 LAPS to go and weather looming.
With 10 to go, the 3rd place car of Jeff Burton is the fastest car, he’s 1.4 seconds behind the leader, Jimmie Johnson, followed by Kevin Harvick in 2nd.
The three of them gave us a decent show but as Kevin Harvick caught Jimmie Johnson, he tapped the wall and messed his car up just a titch and he drifted back and it was Jimmie’s race after that.
Jimmie Johnson had his 48th win in the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy at Auto Club Speedway. Another “meant to be” finish, if you remember back to earlier when he was on pit road when a caution came out.
The top 12 finishers for the day were
- 48 Jimmie Johnson
- 29 Kevin Harvick,
- 31 Jeff Burton,
- 5 Mark Martin,
- 20 Joey Logano,
- 2 Kurt Busch,
- 17 Matt Kenseth,
- 33 Clint Bowyer,
- 14 Tony Stewart,
- 16 Greg Biffle,
- 82 Scott Speed &
- 83 Brian vickers.
If you want to make some judgements about some teams, check out the RCR cars in this list. It also looks like the crew chief change for Matt Kenseth worked out for them!
Fontana: Unofficial Results | Unofficial Standings
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Congrats to Jimmy Johnson especially considering how he went at Daytona (and is this revival at Fontana a statistical omen for the rest of the season)
Cheers,
Dean