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Auto Club 500
Auto Club Speedway
Race Capsule
* What: Race 2 of 36 on Sprint Cup circuit
* Where: Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, CA
* When: February 21, 2010 3:16 pm EST
* Laps: 250
* Track Length: 2. miles
* Race Length: 500.00 miles
* Purse:
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Drivers to Watch
Jamie McMurray This year's Daytona 500 winner has three top-five and five top-10 finishes in 13 starts at Fontana but has never won a race there and has not even finished in the top 10 in his last seven races at Auto Club Speedway. His last top-five at Fontana was a fourth-place in this race in 2005. He started third and finished 16th in this race last year when he was with Roush Fenway Racing, and he started 29th and finished 36th in the second race at Fontana in October. ... McMurray will share data from teammate Juan Pablo Montoya's car last year. "I'm going to base this on Juan's performance last year at mile-and-a-half tracks, the level of equipment that the EGR cars are right now," McMurray said. "They have a solid setup and they build obviously very fast cars. They have great engines. They have really good setups to go back to all these tracks. I feel like they're developing even better cars right now than what they had last year. That's so important because if you stay where you were last year, you'll be left behind. It will be important to run well this weekend. But that's honestly a really good track for me. I think average finish-wise that's been one of my best tracks. I look forward to getting there. I haven't been in one of their cars on a mile-and-a-half. With the testing we have done at Disneyworld and New Smyrna, we unloaded at both those places with the setup that the 42 team liked in their previous tests, and the car drove really well for me. I expect to get to Fontana, be able to unload with the setup that Juan ran last year and be really close. The 42 ran great there last year. I just don't see any reason why we're not going to be able to unload there and be really good."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Look who's back -- Earnhardt finds himself at his highest position in the Sprint Cup points since August 2008, after the second race at Pocono that season. He heads to Auto Club Speedway looking for his first win at that track. He has three top-five and four top-10 finishes in 16 starts and was 39th in this race last year and 25th in October. In his last four races there, he has finished 40th, 11th, 39th and 25th. His last top-five was fifth in the second race in 2007. "I don't like going out west, but it's much easier to go there after you run good somewhere else," Earnhardt said. "I look forward to seeing how we are as a team. This is not a true gauge on what the changes are going to do to our team. The next couple race tracks will definitely give us a better understanding of where we are."
Greg Biffle Biffle is a former Fontana winner -- he dominated the race in 2005, leading 46 laps on his way to the victory. He has four top-five finishes and no other top-10s in 14 starts and finished fourth in this race last year and 20th in October. In his last three starts, Biffle has two finishes in the top four, including second place in August 2008. "I really can't wait to get to California," Biffle said. "I love that track partly because we've had success there but also because it's a lot of fun and it is fast and challenging. A lot of strategy comes into play at California, and that usually makes it interesting, too. I also really like going out west because I get to see my family. My mom usually comes to most of the West Coast races, and it's always good to get to spend time with her. Other than that, my goal this weekend is to win the race and take the points lead."
Kevin Harvick Harvick, from nearby Bakersfield, Calif., is winless at Fontana and has one top-five finish and five top-10s in 15 starts -- but the top-five and two of the top-10s were in the last four races. He was 38th last February and 10th in October. Last February's race still bugs Harvick. "The oil filter fell off," Harvick said. "That was definitely the best car we had in our fleet, and that had been our moneymaker car from the year before. We ran in the latter part of the top 10 all day and we had a good car. I drove into turn one and the oil filter fell off, and we destroyed it. But it's been a good race track for us and our cars have been pretty solid there. You just can't control all of the circumstances. It's the only time in my career that has ever happened. I think that we're going to be OK at the first four or five races. I think it's just a matter of how we adapt to the spoiler, and the engineering department and the aero department are going to be under a lot of pressure to make sure that the cars are balanced like they need to be. And that's where you're really going to be able to tell, probably seven or eight races in, you know, with three or four races of them running with the spoiler. It throws a new kink in that we're not used to. So you have a plan for the first few races, and you have a plan for the rest of the races."
David Reutimann Reutimann has just one top-10 finish, ninth in August 2008, in six Fontana starts. He was 14th last February and 18th in October. "Don't get me wrong, I love Daytona and SpeedWeeks and everything that goes with that race, but it's hard to tell who's going to be fast once we take the restrictor plates off," Reutimann said. "The race in California is that first real test. When we show up at California on a two-mile race track to race and practice, it's when you start to see who put on their big boy pants and came ready to race. This race is also a big race for Michael Waltrip Racing since Toyota Racing Development is based in Torrence, Calif. We want to show everyone that our Toyota Camrys are going to be some of the best cars on the race track every single week."
Martin Truex Jr. Truex has no top-five finishes and only two top-10s in eight Fontana starts. He was 27th last February and 22nd in October. He finished sixth in the second 2007 race and came back to repeat that finish in February 2008. "I think California is a difficult track," Truex said. "It is very fast, yet it doesn't have a lot of banking. It is getting kind of worn out, so it is a challenge to get the Toyota to stick good. ... The key is just getting your car to turn well but still be able to get the power down. Qualifying is always important to me. At a track like the Auto Club Speedway, it is so big and fast. The field tends to get strung out, so qualifying up front definitely makes your job easier. Usually if you are fast in qualifying, you can get it in the race, also. It is definitely a good thing to qualify up front there."
Juan Pablo Montoya Montoya has never won a Cup race at Fontana but came close in October when he led 78 laps before finishing third. That is his only top-five and top-10 finish in six Cup starts at the two-mile oval. He was 11th in this race last year. Before that his best finish was 20th, which he did in both 2008 events.
Carl Edwards Edwards has a spectacular record at Fontana -- he won this race in 2008 and has six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 11 Fontana starts. The only time he has finished lower than seventh was when he was 29th in this race in 2007. In the last five races there he has finished second, first, sixth, seventh and sixth. "Auto Club Speedway has always been one of my favorite race tracks," Edwards said. "It has very high speeds and it's a proven racing surface -- you can race three, four and five wide there. The fact that it's a 500-mile race makes it a throwback race to me. It's grueling and it's a test of the driver, the car, the crew and the engines. This race feels like an accomplishment when it's over if I've won or finished well. This race is a real event, and it's a plus going to California in February -- it's about as good as it gets." ... Crew chief Bob Osborne is also confident of success on Sunday. "The car we are taking ran well at Homestead and California at the end of last season, so with the work we've done over the winter I'm hoping we can improve on the top-10s we got with it last year. Our crew really got the job done on pit road at Daytona last weekend, and if they can keep that up every week it will be a lot easier to keep Carl up front."
Mark Martin Martin has one win and eight top-10 finishes in 17 starts at Fontana, including a fourth last October. "This is where we get back to real racing," said Martin. "It doesn't matter which line you're in or who bumped who or who your drafting partner is. I'm excited about it. I'm ready to get back there and see what we can do."
Jeff Burton When Ragan finished seventh last October at Fontana, it was his first top-10 finish in six starts there. "It's a place where the Roush cars always seem to run well and be competitive," said Ragan. "It's a wide track with lots of opportunities to pass if you've got a good-handling race car."
Kyle Busch Busch has one win and eight top-10 finishes in 11 starts at Fontana. The victory was his first in Sprint Cup racing. "It was crazy because I came over the radio and told the guys I couldn't believe how loose I had to drive the car," said Busch. "That was loosest I think I've ever driven a race car that was still moving forward. But it was fast."
Paul Menard Menard finished 20th in his Fontana debut and has not finished better than that in five more Cup starts at the track. "The first year I raced the Cup car in Fontana, we had a couple of decent finishes, but it's been a struggle since then," said Menard. The team will be running a new car this weekend.
Brian Vickers When Vickers won the pole for the Auto Club 500 a year ago and finished 10th in the race, it was his second pole at Fontana and his fourth top-10 finish in 13 starts there. "It's a long season, a lot of races," said crew chief Ryan Pemberton. "The next one is always the most important race. Daytona is behind us; we need to do well at California."
Denny Hamlin Hamlin finished sixth a year ago at Fontana for his third top-10 finish in eight starts at the track. He won the pole for the fall race but got involved in an accident while battling for the lead and ended up 37th. "Last fall was really tough," said Hamlin. "I pushed too hard trying to win that race and I took myself out. That's part of maturing as a driver."
Joey Logano Logano finished 26th in his first Fontana start a year ago. He qualified sixth for the fall race and finished 14th in the 500-mile event. "I would have to say this is one track that sticks out in my mind the most as the place where we as a team made the biggest gains," said Logano. "If we continue that this weekend, we should have a pretty solid race."
Bobby Labonte Busch finished fifth and eighth in the two races at Fontana in 2009 and has seven top-10 finishes in 15 starts at the track, including a win back in 2003. Busch will be racing a new car this weekend, one he tested at Texas on Jan 19-20. "Kurt was really pleased with it," said crew chief Steve Addington.
Tony Stewart Stewart finished eighth and fifth in the two Fontana races last year, giving him nine top-10 finishes in 17 starts at the track. Fourth is his best finish at the speedway. "We are running the car we tested with at Texas, and we were quite pleased with that test," said Stewart. "So we feel good about this weekend."
Jeff Gordon Gordon has three wins and 10 top-five finishes at Fontana, including two second-place finishes in 2009. In all, Gordon had eight runner-up finishes a year ago. "I think our eight second-place finishes in 2009 is where our motivation and direction came from for this year," said Gordon. "We looked at those finishes and analyzed what it would have taken to get us into Victory Lane."
Jimmie Johnson Johnson won the fall race at Fontana for his fourth win at his home track. All four have come in the fall. "California is the first downforce track that we have and a real good indicator of where people are for the bulk of the season," said Johnson. "So I'm excited. It's going to be like the first day of school all over again."
Mike Bliss Speed finished 21st in the fall race last year at Fontana, and that's his best finish in two starts there. "The second year you have higher expectations and make more progress," said crew chief Jimmy Elledge. "We're still a little early for setting the benchmarks too high, but I certainly expect to be in the top 35. That doesn't need to be an issue for us."
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