Results of the Pepsi 500 at California

Cup Series Results
Cup Series Standings

By Scene Daily Staff

Hamlin, Harvick and Kenseth step up performance with Chase spot on the line

FONTANA, Calif. – As the Pepsi 500 began at Auto Club Speedway, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth didn’t have much margin for error thanks to poor qualifying runs.
   
Hamlin started 21st, Harvick started 33rd and Kenseth started 37th – and all of them knew that a finish that deep in the pack would leave them in jeopardy in the Sept. 6 regular-season finale at Richmond, when the field is set for the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup.
   
All three of those drivers have been regulars in the Chase, and so it should be no surprise they turned in performances worthy of Chase drivers.
   
Hamlin finished third to give himself a 93-point cushion on 13th-place David Ragan heading into Richmond. Harvick came in fourth and he is almost guaranteed a spot in the Chase just by starting at Richmond (to miss out, he would have to finish 43rd, and Ragan would not only have to win, but lead the most laps, as well). And Kenseth rode home in fifth with a 109-point edge on 13th place.
   
It was just two weeks ago when Hamlin questioned whether his team belonged in the Chase. Now he has posted back-to-back third-place finishes.
   
“We’re working hard,” said Hamlin, who is 11th in the standings. “The pit crew was just unbelievable. … If you would have told me on this race weekend we would have finished third, I would have taken it.”
   
Hamlin finished ahead of every driver he is battling for a Chase spot – Kasey Kahne (14th in the standings) was eighth, Clint Bowyer (12th in standings) was 10th and Ragan was 13th.
   
“We needed to come out of here with a top-five finish and beat the guys that we were racing in the points,” Hamlin said. “Definitely this is a good finish for us. We had a top-five car really from the get-go, and it’s pretty rare that you can have a car that’s as consistent from the day to the night.”
   
While Hamlin is only 11th in the standings, the finish marked his eighth top-five of the year. Both Harvick and Kenseth managed only their sixth top-five of the season.
   
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve been on a roll and it seems like we’re peaking at the right time,” Harvick said. “It’s nice to be able to go to one of our best tracks on the circuit [and] to be able to race as hard as we need to [at Richmond]. Momentum is definitely important.
   
“For us, we struggled in the middle portion of the year. The last three months, our cars have been really fast. We have a little more left on the table and as soon as we get in the Chase, we’ll be in good shape.”
   
Harvick said he wasn’t fretting starting 33rd.
   
“We had a good car in practice, and for whatever reason, we hadn’t been qualifying well this year,” he said. “Our car was on right off the bat and we were able to drive right through the pack.”
   
Kenseth, too, also started in the back. He is used to it, never having been known for his qualifying prowess.
   
“These things are pretty frustrating,” Kenseth said about NASCAR’s new race car. “You can’t ever really go anywhere.
   
“Those top bunch of cars start there and they run there all day. It’s just hard to do anything with these cars, so it gets a little frustrating, but we had a great day on pit road. We were able to pass some cars and we got a good finish.”
   
Kenseth has finished 12th or better in seven of his last eight races. He had finishes of 30th or worse in five of the first 10 events, after which he was 22nd in points.
   
“We ran a little better here the last couple of weeks,” Kenseth said. “How we ran tonight is not that far off how we’ve run most of the year. We got ourselves so far behind in the points because of accidents, blown tires and mistakes more so than how we ran.”
   
For Kenseth and Hamlin, they won’t be totally comfortable heading into Richmond.
   
“You’re never in until they tell you you’re in,” Kenseth said. “Certainly we’re in a better spot than we were coming here.”
   
Hamlin at least is going to one of his favorite tracks.
   
“We led every lap it seemed like there in the spring and ended up finishing 28th (actually 24th) or something,” said Hamlin, who grew up in a Richmond suburb. “So you never know what can happen. I wish I had probably a 130-point lead, that way you know you pretty much lock yourself in when you have a buffer like that. … I think on-track performance, we should be fine, and just as long as we run a good, conservative race, we’ll have our spot again.”

Bowyer, Ragan and Kahne in tight battle for final Chase spot

FONTANA, Calif. – A tight race for the 12th and final spot in the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup will carry on into next Saturday night’s regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway.

With their finishes in Sunday night’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway in California, Richard Childress Racing’s Clint Bowyer, Roush Fenway Racing’s David Ragan and Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne remain knotted in a close battle for the last Chase position. The three are separated by just 48 points in the standings.

With his 10th-place result at California, Bowyer now leads Ragan by 17 points. Kahne is 48 points behind Bowyer after placing eighth Sunday – five spots ahead of Ragan.

“It’s going to be a battle,” said Bowyer, who won at the .75-mile Richmond track in the spring. “I mean, I knew it was. We’re just going to have to have a good week next week.”

Bowyer stretched his advantage over Ragan by five points Sunday night, while giving up eight points to Kahne.

“It’s going to be a battle right down to the end,” said Bowyer, who earned his lone victory of the season at Richmond earlier this year. “Anything can happen in Richmond. But nonetheless, there is a little bit of confidence knowing you’re coming off a win there.”

Kahne, also a previous Richmond winner, is hoping to recapture some of that magic this weekend as he tries to come from behind to make the Chase.

"We’ve had some success there, so we're down to 400 miles to decide if we will make it into the Chase,” said Kahne, whose hopes of making the championship-determining field were crippled by consecutive 40th-place finishing coming into California. “Just like [at] Fontana, we can't worry about what the other guys are doing that are in front of us. We just have to prepare our race car and let the chips fall where they may with the results.

“If we can qualify in the top 10 or so and start up front, I think that we'll have a good shot at a good finish. But as much as it is about what we have to do next week [to make the Chase], it's just as much about what the guys in 12th and 13th position do as well. Anything can happen."

Ragan also has high hopes for Richmond, a place where he scored a career-best finish of third a year ago.

“We’re in the same position we were headed into California,” he said. “We’re forced to outrun everybody else on the race track. We’ve just got to have more speed and we’ve just got to beat them on the race track.

"We can’t count on their misfortune for our benefit, we’ve just got to make sure we’re in the top two or three next week.”

Reutimann earns top career Cup finish

FONTANA, Calif. - As a young driver with only 52 NASCAR Sprint Cup starts, Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann is still learning important lessons. What he’s learned recently is that qualifying well is part of finishing well on many Sprint Cup tracks.
   
Just two weeks prior to the race at Auto Club Speedway in California, Reutimann started seventh and finished 14th at Michigan.
   
He qualified second the next week at Bristol but wound up three laps down in 25th.
   
The second-year Cup driver had another strong qualifying effort at California by starting 12th. And this time he improved on his position, posting a career-best ninth.
   
“When you start up front, you tend to race around guys that you need to be racing around with,” Reutimann said. “You watch their cars and see what they’re doing. You learn, and you get better information.
   
“Qualifying up front is key to helping us a little bit.”
   
Reutimann ran in the top 10 for most of the event and used a two-tire call by crew chief Ryan Pemberton to take the lead from laps 184-186 of the 250-lap race.
   
“We fell back a little bit and then kind of held our own riding around in fifth and then we came and took four [on the final two stops], and our car just wouldn’t take off,” Reutimann said. “It took a little while to get going. So by the time we got going, it got strung out a little bit.
   
“We were gaining on [Kasey Kahne] at the end, but we just ran out of time. We had 250 laps to get it done, so I guess I didn’t deserve any more.”
   
It was a big difference from Reutimann’s last visit to the track, where he started 40th (because of rain) and finished 23rd.

“Ryan and the guys did a good job,” Reutimann said. “The pit stops were pretty good and the car was real good. That’s what we need to do every week.”
   
In fact, Reutimann left California wanting more.
   
“It’s saying something when you leave here and you’re disappointed with a top-10,” Reutimann said. “I felt like we were a top-five car. We didn’t luck into anything. We just fought hard all night and ended up with a pretty good finish. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. Nights like tonight, it doesn’t seem all that hard when the car drives like they do.”

Earnhardt Jr. clinches Chase berth with 11th-place California finish

FONTANA, Calif. – Dale Earnhard Jr. and his Hendrick Motorsports team locked up a position in the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup field with an 11th-place finish Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in California.

Earnhardt Jr. said that his team ran well throughout the race, but just didn't have the track position in the end to contend with winner Jimmie Johnson. He also felt like he had a setback with the car itself during the race.

"We had a little bit of an issue in the fuel-pump pressure that we had earlier in the season, and we’re thinking that it’s the pump itself or the gauge is reading the pressure wrong, that there really is no issue, but when you’re a driver and you see that gauge flickering around and carrying on and getting low four or five pounds and you get past the corner, you go, ‘Hey man, maybe we ought to take a little bigger look at this.’ I know if there is a problem, they’ll figure it out," he said. "I might just be a driver there, just saying, ‘Hey man, I need more power because I see my gauge ain’t working.' But it’s probably nothing."
 
Still, he was relatively pleased with the effort. He said that the team was looking at the setup, trying to find areas where they
can pick up additional speed. Overall, he felt like his team pulled together to grab the Chase spot.
 
"We did have a good car," he said. "I was happy about that. [Crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. did a good job and [team owner] Rick [Hendrick] was doing a little work with us and cheerleading a little bit and that was helping us a lot.”
 
With the weight of trying to make the Chase off his back, Earnhardt Jr. turns his attention to Richmond International Raceway. He ran well at the track earlier this season and appeared to be on track for the win before contact with Kyle Busch sent him spinning. Now he's looking to take that top spot - and the 10 bonus points that come with them - at the track next weekend.
 
“We’re going to take back our normal setup that we ran there last time and try to improve on it," he said. "I feel really good about Richmond. We’ve had some great runs there. And I’m glad we made the Chase this year. A lot of people would have expected us to make it, but we didn’t know when the season started.
 
“I want to thank everybody at Hendrick and all the employees that worked really hard to help us have a good enough year to make the Chase and we’ll try to improve a little bit and win some more races before it’s over with and battle like hell for that championship.”

No. 16 crew shows winning form, wins Biffle's praise

JIM UTTER/The Charlotte Observer

FONTANA, Calif. - Greg Biffle won several races at Auto Club Speedway over the weekend, but not the one that came with a trophy, prize money or the victor's Sprint Cup Series points.

Biffle left Sunday night's Pepsi 500 with a second-place finish that all-but locked him into the Chase field. He needs only to start next weekend's race at Richmond to secure the position.

The victories Biffle had - his pit crew consistently got him off pit road ahead of race winner Jimmie Johnson - were still much appreciated.

"The pit stops, man, I don't even know what to say. We beat everybody out every time. I've never had that happen before," said Biffle, who moved up a spot to sixth in points, 596 behind leader Kyle Busch.

"They've been working on the pit crew and shifting guys around, and it was a pretty spectacular tonight. I hope that we can continue that in the Chase, but I'm just real happy to get myself a spot in the Chase this year."

Three times following cautions in the final 90 laps, Biffle restarted ahead of Johnson, but each time Johnson was able to make his away back around Biffle with relative ease.

In the final 20 laps, a large piece of debris got stuck on the grille of Biffle's No. 16 Ford and raising the engine temperature to a dangerously high level. But, with few laps remaining, Biffle kept up the attack.

"I drove as hard as I've driven in a long time. I was just on the edge and I was running him down," Biffle said. "I got within probably 10 car lengths of him and was catching him two-tenths (of a second) a lap, but he would get better as the run went anyway.

"I mean, this is the best night we've had, probably, I'd have to say all season beside Darlington, as far as car-wise goes."

Top Five Clinch: Race for 12th Still Wide Open after Fontana
By Greg Engle, NASCAR Examiner

For the top five drivers in the Sprint Cup standings, California was a good night, bad night scenario Sunday.

Some drivers had finishes in the Pepsi 500 they could be proud of. Jimmie Johnson dominated the field winning his third race of the season, Carl Edwards currently second in the points came home sixth, while points leader Kyle Busch struggled all day but salvaged a seventh place in the end.

On the other hand, Dale Earnhardt Junior and Jeff Burton both finished outside the top ten. Dale Earnhardt Junior, fourth in the standings came home 11th, while Burton who is fifth in the points finished 17th.

Earnhardt Junior and Burton however can find some consolation in the fact that they were able to clinch their berths and all of the top five in points are now guaranteed a spot in the 2008 Chase for the championship.

“Obviously that’s the first thing we wanted to get done and really needed to get done,” said Burton. “We’re disappointed in how we ran. I really thought we were going to run really well tonight. I was really looking forward to it and excited about it and I don’t know, it just kind of got away from us and we got loose and never could get caught back up. But we sure did want to perform better than that, but again, we had a goal tonight and we got that accomplished.”

While the pressures off the top five heading in the Richmond, the race that will finalize the top 12 drivers in the Chase for the championship, one of the most hotly contested positions in that all important 12 place.

Clint Bowyer currently holds the 12th spot in the standings, with David Ragan and Kasey Kahne knocking on the door. Bowyer finished 10th Sunday night, Kahne eighth, and Ragan 12th.

Bowyer said that during the race, he was aware of exactly where Ragan and Kahne were.
 
“You’ve got to be,” Bowyer said. “You just have to race as hard as you can and that’s all you can do. At the end of the day, you’ve just got to do the best you can and that’s all you can ask for. But we had a good night. Everybody did their job and things went well.”

Ragan is now 13th in the standings only 17 points back. 
 
“That’s better than 20 or 25, but not as good as 10 or 5, so we’ve just got to go and do what we’ve been doing,” Ragan said.  “The bottom line is we’ve got to qualify good, race good, and not have any trouble next week to make the Chase.” 

Kahne is 14th 48 points back.

“We gained a little in the points tonight,” said Kahne. “But not enough to make that much of difference. I said earlier in the week that not only do we have to run well to catch the guys in front of me, but they have to stumble a little to help us make up points. Tonight was pretty much a draw."

MAKING A STATEMENT
Johnson dominates Cup field at Fontana
By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

FONTANA, Calif. -- Forget the rivalry between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.

In Sunday's Pepsi 500 Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway, there was only one car that counted, the No. 48 Chevrolet driven by Jimmie Johnson, who served notice that he and crew chief Chad Knaus may have their intermediate racetrack problems solved just in time for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Johnson led 228 of 250 laps and held off a late-race challenge from Greg Biffle, who lost ground when the water temperature in his No. 16 Ford skyrocketed to 260 degrees when a paper wrapper stuck to his grille after a restart on Lap 223.

Johnson beat Biffle to the finish line by 2.076 seconds. Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. Edwards, Busch, Kasey Kahne, David Reutimann and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10.

"It was an awesome racecar all night long," Johnson said. "More than anything, I'm happy to close the deal. It's very, very rare that you have a car that dominant -- and usually you end up doing something stupid."

In winning his third race of the season and the 36th of his career -- breaking a tie with Mark Martin for 17th on the all-time victory list -- Johnson also shattered Biffle's record of 168 laps led at Fontana, set in 2006.

Johnson qualified for the Chase with one race to go - Saturday at Richmond - before the field is set. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th Sunday) and Jeff Burton (17th) also clinched spots. Busch and Edwards punched their tickets to NASCAR's postseason last week.

"We're just happy to get a victory at a big track," Johnson said. "There are seven of these kinds of tracks in the Chase, and that's where we've been off a little bit."

"Off" was not even in the No. 48 team's vocabulary Sunday night.

"I'll tell you what: The 48 was phenomenal," said Biffle, who will clinch a spot in the Chase simply by starting the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond. "(We had) the fastest guys on pit road tonight. Time after time they were getting me out first.

"And our Ford engine was strong. We weren't getting beat in the engine. He just beat me around the corners just a little bit."

Johnson's dominance forced other teams to gamble in the pits. Biffle, Edwards, AJ Allmendinger, Brian Vickers and Ryan Newman took two tires on Lap 163 and held the top five positions for a restart on Lap 166.

Less than two laps after the restart, however, Johnson had regained the lead after passing Biffle through Turns 3 and 4.

Two tires didn't work, but neither did four.

After a slower-than-usual pit stop on Lap 183 -- under caution for Robby Gordon's spin off Turn 4 -- Johnson restarted fourth on Lap 187. Within three laps he had run down Reutimann, Edwards and Biffle to regain the top spot.

Notes: David Ragan kept his Chase hopes alive with a solid 13th-place run. Ragan is 13th in the Cup standings, 17 points behind 12th-place Bowyer. ... Kahne's eighth-place run Sunday left him 48 points out of 12th, the final Chase-eligible position.

“It’s going to be a battle. I mean I knew it was. We’re just going to have to have a good week next week.”

Busch prevails, but without fireworks

By Tim Haddock/dailybreeze.com

FONTANA - It was another 1-2 finish for Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, only this time Busch was in first and Edwards was second. But unlike last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, the fireworks were relegated to the skies over the speedway and not on the race track.

Busch won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Saturday night. It was the seventh Nationwide Series and the 18th NASCAR win of the year for Busch. He has eight wins in the Sprint Cup Series and three in the Craftsman Trucks Series.

Busch and Edwards tangled at the end of the Cup race at Bristol last Saturday night. The two were put on probation by NASCAR for their actions, meaning both have been on their best behavior in Fontana.

Even though Edwards finished second to Busch in the Camping World RV Service 300, the race in Fontana was not nearly as close or dramatic as the Cup race in Bristol.

"Even if I wanted to wreck him, I couldn't," said Edwards, driver of the No.60 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "He was so fast."

Two late cautions gave Edwards a chance to catch Busch. Restarts on laps 135 and 142 bunched up the field with Busch leading and Edwards in second. But Busch built a 2-second lead over Edwards and won the race under caution, leading 144 of 150 laps. The No. 22 Toyota of Josh Wise hit the wall on the final lap of the race. Brian Vickers finished third, followed by Jeff Burton and Jamie McMurray.

Busch, driver of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, led at the halfway point in the race and was out front for 71 of the first 75 laps. Edwards was second on lap 75, followed by Burton, Vickers and Kevin Harvick.

Clint Bowyer, the leader in the Nationwide Series standings, finished seventh. Brad Keselowski, second in the Nationwide Series standings, was 33rd.

The engine in Keselowski's car cut out on lap 104. His crew pushed the car into the garage for repairs. He returned to the track 22 laps behind the leaders.

Keselowski, a driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports Nationwide Series team, is becoming quite a commodity among Cup owners. At least one owner, Roger Penske, has expressed interest in Keselowski.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Dodge for Penske Racing, will drive for Tony Stewart's new Sprint Cup Series team in 2009. That means Penske is looking for a driver and has his eye on Keselowski as one of his candidates.

Earnhardt Jr., who drives for Hendrick Motorsports at the Cup level, said Keselowski was looking for some advice after meeting with Penske and other Cup owners.

"He came and told me he was having a couple of meetings with Roger and he didn't know what to do and he just needed somebody to tell him what was right and I told him I could tell him what I thought, but that Rick (Hendrick) would be the best person to talk to," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Sometimes, like with me, when you talk to Rick, even if he wants you to work for him, he'll sort of help you and he takes the agenda out of it."

Keselowski could find himself driving for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series one day.

That prospect was apparently more appealing than anything Penske could offer.

"I knew he would give Brad good advice," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Brad did the right thing. He's got a great opportunity where he's at. He's running great with the Nationwide team. I basically said would you want to trade where you are and opportunities with Rick in the future at the Cup level with where you could be with Roger. Do you want to trade that?

"Would you trade it? Does that feel comfortable to you? And I guess he made up his mind."

Earnhardt Jr. was asked if there was any chance Keselowski could drive for a Cup team owned by Earnhardt Jr. some day.

"If he could get the deal with Rick, he'd have a better chance of running better and I would hope that happens for him," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I told him that if I was building a Cup team, that I would tell him to go drive for Roger."

Next week, it’s off to Richmond.  Let’s go Hendrick, show ‘em what you got!

Until then, I remain,

Your NASCAR Momma