Image by duane.schoon via FlickrThis week's NASCAR action takes place in Fontana, California, at Auto Club Speedway. There are two races on tap: Saturday's Nationwide race, the CampingWorld.com 300 (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2) and Sunday's Sprint Cup race, the Pepsi Max 400 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). The Camping World Truck Series is taking yet another weekend off; they return on October 23 at Martinsville.
Sunday's Cup race is the fourth race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. Jimmie Johnson took over the lead in the points standings after last weekend's race at Kansas, but Denny Hamlin is just eight points behind and seven drivers are within 85 points of the four-time champ. Jeff Burton, in ninth place, is just 101 points back. Tony Stewart (-127) and Matt Kenseth (-149) still have faint glimmers of hope.
Clint Bowyer (-252) is just counting the days until the 2011 season after losing his final appeal of his 150-point penalty after his car failed inspection at the NASCAR R&D Center after he won the first Chase race at Loudon. NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook did reduce the fines and suspensions for the No. 33 team though. Crew chief Shane Wilson's fine was reduced from $150,000 to $100,000 and the suspensions of Wilson and car chief Chad Haney were lowered from six races to four. Richard Childress Racing competition director Scott Miller will be on the pit box for Wilson beginning this weekend.
The bad news for all the drivers chasing Johnson is that Auto Club Speedway is one of his best tracks. He leads all drivers with five wins. Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth, both in the Chase, are the only other drivers with multiple wins at the track; they each have three. Johnson is the only driver to win back-to-back races at Fontana; he won earlier in the year in February and last year's October race.
Hendrick Motorsports (nine wins) and Roush Fenway Racing (seven) have won 16 of the 20 Cup races at Fontana. Auto Club Speedway is the only current track where Joe Gibbs Racing does not have a victory.
Jamie McMurray grabbed the pole for Sunday's race in the Friday qualifying session. McMurray ran a lap in 38.859 seconds (185.285 mph). It was his fourth pole of the season and the seven of his career. Elliott Sadler grabbed the other front-row starting spot with a lap of 184.407 mph. Kenseth starts third, the only Chaser in the top five. Juan Montoya starts fourth, Kasey Kahne fifth.
Only two other Chasers start in the top ten -- Greg Biffle starts seventh and Johnson eighth. Bowyer starts 13th, Jeff Burton 15th, Kyle Busch 16th, Gordon 17th, Carl Edwards 20th, Kevin Harvick 21st, Tony Stewart 22nd, Hamlin 34th, and Kurt Busch 38th.
Bobby Labonte claimed the final starting spot by using a past champion's provisional. Mike Bliss and Patrick Carpentier failed to qualify for the 43-car field. (Race lineup)
Auto Club Speedway is very similar to Kansas Speedway, site of last week's race. Both are wide, multi-groove tracks with moderate banking. Where Kansas was a 1.5-mile tri-oval, ACS is a 2-mile D-shaped oval. Auto Club Speedway's layout is almost identical to Michigan International Speedway. There should be a lot of side-by-side racing, but the field might get strung out as the faster cars leave the slower ones behind. The engines run in the high rpm range all day and one or two usually don't make it out alive. This year, in an effort to make the race more competitive, NASCAR reduced the race from 500 to 400 miles.
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