For a sport that makes so much out of its season-opening event at
Daytona, it is therefore surprising to hear nearly everybody talking about the ‘real' season starts one week later than the Daytona 500 on the other side of the country no less.
However in NASCAR this is true, for the two-mile California Speedway in Fontana is a far greater indicator of how folk will fare for the balance of the 36 race Nextel Cup season.
With the intricacies involved in restrictor plate racing getting ever more…well intricate, the four races at Daytona and Talladega are becoming nearly as foreign compared to the bulk of the season as the two road course events and so it is Sunday's Auto Club 500 in California and the subsequent events in Las Vegas and Atlanta that will provide the real guide to the 2006 season.
Of course the fact that Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 does in no way mean that he shouldn't be considered a contender in California, even if round two of the series will be far tougher than round one for Johnson's Knaus-less #48 team and stand-in crew-chief Darian Grubb. Tracks such as California and Las Vegas will highlight even the smallest of flaws in either set-up or strategy far more than Daytona's high banking, and so Sunday's race could be a tricky proposition for the current Nextel Cup points leader.
That said, Johnson's form at the Fontana oval has been nothing short of formidable since he made his Cup Series debut there in 2002, winning on his debut at the track and finishing second in two of his five subsequent visits to the fast, wide and flowing D-shaped oval, including this event last year.
While Johnson, who has led laps in four of his six starts at Fontana, may have the best track record, his Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon is the only driver to have won more than once in eleven Nextel Cup races at the venue.
