Last place finisher at Daytona Edwards has just three starts at Fontana, although the most recent one of those, on Labour Day weekend last year, began from the pole position and ended with a fourth place finish. Edwards and the #99 Roush team were at their best on the fast tracks last year and Edwards should be in good shape for another top result on Sunday.
Like Edwards, who was in his first full Nextel Cup season last year, sophomore driver Kyle Busch is another driver to watch this weekend. The Hendrick Motorsports driver may have come under some harsh criticism for his rough driving at Daytona but sat on the pole for last year's Auto Club 500 and won at California in September last year.
Defending Auto Club 500 Champion Greg Biffle needs a similar kind of performance on Sunday if he is to be taken seriously as a title threat again in 2006. Although his last lap spin dropped him several positions in the running order at
Daytona, it didn't disguise from the fact that Biffle was the most anonymous member of the Roush team throughout Speedweeks, something that was a major problem for him in 2004. Biffle finished first and second in last years two races at Fontana but will have to show form that has so far been largely absent during the first two months of the year if he is to repeat those figures.
With more than 50 teams entered for Sunday's race there is no shortage of potential winners, and two of those could come in the form of current Chip Ganassi driver Casey Mears and former Ganassi driver Jamie McMurray. Mears looked better than ever at Daytona on his way to a second place finish and while McMurray has been shaky and accident prone since his move from Ganassi to Roush, he seems to have picked up all the speed that Kurt Busch had acquired during his years with the #26 (was #97) team.
