Qualifying
Jeff Gordon was fastest in qualifying in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne started along side him in second with his Evernham Dodge. Daytona 500 top finishers Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick made up row number two. Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top five starters.
Ford and Toyota's best efforts found them back in row seven. Greg Biffle was the best Ford qualifier as he started 13th. Dave Blaney was the top Toyota. Blaney rolled off 14th.
Drop The Green Flag
The outside line jumped out to the early lead as Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick lead the early laps. A couple of early incidents shuffled the deck as some different pit strategies played out. This allowed 2006 California winner Matt Kenseth to take over the lead and dominate the early going.
Storylines
Fortunately it was a non-event for NASCAR but it is worth noting that today's race was the first race in the history of NASCAR where teams used unleaded fuel. While this change was important for environmentalists it does not seem like it was a big event for the sport.
There were a number of engine problems during the race but that is not unusual. California's high speeds and long green flag runs are hard on engines. We often see a number of drivers go up in smoke in California.
Chasing The Checkers
There was one final round of pit stops with about twenty laps to go. Jimmie Johnson held the lead by two seconds over Matt Kenseth as NASCAR threw the yellow flag for "debris" with just 25 laps to go. This tightened up the race and guaranteed NASCAR a close finish.
Matt Kenseth won the race off of pit road over Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Kevin Harvick quickly jumped to second place and started to close in on leader Matt Kenseth.
With eight laps to go David Reutimann crashed hard again bringing out the red flag. Kevin Harvick ended up with a flat tire and had to drop off.
Nobody else had anything for Kenseth as he cruised the last four laps to the checkers.
Top Ten
- Matt Kenseth
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jeff Burton
- Mark Martin
- Clint Bowyer
- Kurt Busch
- Tony Stewart
- Kyle Busch
- Brian Vickers
The Points
Will Mark Martin really get out of the car later this year as planned if he is still leading the points? Mark has posted two top-five finishes in his first two rides with Ginn Racing to take over the point lead from Kevin Harvick.
The top ten in points are now:
- Mark Martin -0
- Jeff Burton -5
- Jeff Gordon -26
- Kevin Harvick -28
- David Ragan -65
- Clint Bowyer -71
- Joe Nemechek -76
- J.J. Yeley -84
- Kyle Busch -96
- David Stremme -99
Next Week
Next week the NEXTEL Cup stars get a week off. The week after that the NEXTEL Cups series will head west again. This time the series will visit the newly repaved and reconfigured Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In testing there a few weeks ago drivers were complaining about the high speeds the are possible now on the newly-banked race track.
Las Vegas will be an interesting race as drivers will head off into the unknown.
