Image by fdtate via FlickrTony Stewart earned his first career victory at Auto Club Speedway, winning Sunday's Pepsi Max 400. Jimmie Johnson began pulling away from the rest of the Chase field in the quest for his fifth straight championship.
Stewart's championship hopes were on life support after the first two Chase races. After four, he suddenly finds himself back in contention again. He was buried back in the field throughout the first half of the race, but his crew made the right adjustments and the car came to life in the second half. It was Stewart's second win of the season and the 39th of his career, putting him in a 17th-place tie with Tim Flock on the all-time wins list.
The race turned on a debris caution on Lap 183 (of 200). Paul Menard and Regan Smith took two tires and led the field to green on the restart with 13 to go. Stewart got by Smith a lap later to take the lead, but another caution soon flew when David Ragan slid up the track and pinched Kurt Busch into the wall. That set up a two-lap shootout and Stewart and Johnson led the field to green. Stewart took the high line and got a good push from Clint Bowyer to keep him ahead of Johnson. Bowyer and Johnson battled side-by-side through the final lap for second as Stewart pulled away to win by 0.466 seconds.
Bowyer won the battle and nipped Johnson at the line for second. Kasey Kahne was fourth. Ryan Newman was fifth. (Race results)
After the race, Bowyer seemed disappointed with a second-place finish. He blasted NASCAR for the debris caution, claiming that he would have won easily if the race had stayed green.
Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon finished seventh, eighth, and ninth respectively to keep Johnson in sight in the championship hunt, but it wasn't easy for any of them. Harvick and Gordon overcame pit road speeding penalties. Hamlin had to start the race in the rear of the field after his crew changed his transmission after qualifying.
The rest of the Chase contenders had terrible days. After his run-in with Ragan, Kurt Busch limped home in 21st place. That was two spots ahead of Jeff Burton, who ran yet another lackluster race. Kyle Busch's engine blew on Lap 155; he finished 35th.
After all their past success at Fontana, it was surprising to see the whole Roush Fenway Racing organization's title hopes go up in smoke. Greg Biffle's engine blew just 40 laps in, giving him a 41st-place finish. Just a few laps later, Carl Edwards lost power and had to be pushed to the garage. The trouble was finally traced to a distributor problem and he returned to the track to finish 34th. Matt Kenseth also had engine problems. His car was smoking badly at the end, but he nursed it home to finish 30th.
Johnson now leads Hamlin by 36 in the points standings. Harvick (-54) and Gordon (-85) are the only other drivers within 100 points of the four-time champion. With his win and the other Chasers' misfortunes, Stewart climbed five spots in the standings to fifth. He is now 107 points back with six races remaining. Kurt Busch (-140), Edwards (-162), Burton (-177), Kyle Busch (-187), Biffle (-215), Kenseth (-241) and Bowyer (-247) round out the Chase field.
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