Matt Kenseth completed a weekend double at the California Speedway with victory in Sunday's Auto Club 500.
Not only did Kenseth successfully defend his Auto Club 500 title he also replicated Kevin Harvick's Busch/Cup double from
Daytona and gave team boss Jack Roush an incredible 13th win at the two-mile Fontana oval.
The second round of the 2007 Nextel Cup Championship took place on an unseasonably cool and cloudy day in California with the relatively adverse weather conditions (for California at least) perhaps accounting for the number of empty seats scattered amongst the vast grandstands. However those who chose to watch the race from the comfort of their own homes missed an accident packed and intriguing race spoiled only by a late race red flag and an untimely puncture for
Daytona 500 winner Harvick just as he was ready to mount an assault on Kenseth's lead.
Kenseth's #17 Carhartt Ford led early and often en-route to his 15th career Cup Series win, eventually heading the field for 129 of the 250 laps, but had it not been for a slow late pitstop for Jimmie Johnson and an even later front puncture for Harvick, the final laps could have been so different.
The race started with a flurry of early caution periods, which shuffled the order greatly as drivers chose to pit at different times. Outside front row qualifier Kasey Kahne led the opening laps as polesitter Jeff Gordon fell back with a wildly understeering car before the various pitstop shuffles handed the lead briefly to Kyle Busch and then Kenseth, who was able to manoeuvre his way from 25th on the grid to first by lap 30.
Kenseth managed to hang on to top spot through the first round of green flag pitstops, which were interrupted by another caution period on lap 53, by which time enough of the front runners had made their stops to allow Kenseth to retake the lead in time for the lap 55 restart. Although Kenseth had opened a lead of three seconds prior to the caution, once he was pegged back he found that his hands were full with both Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton, who pushed Kenseth back to third until the next caution flag on lap 91, where Kenseth was able to regain the lead on pit road.
The 2003 Cup Series Champion stayed on point for the next 40 laps until another yellow flag brought his rivals back into contention, and as the race reached half way Kenseth, a recovering Gordon, Stewart and Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer engaged in a terrific five way battle for first place. As the next round of green flag stops approached it seemed as though Stewart had the upper hand until a costly speeding penalty relegated the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet to the tail end of the lead lap and out of contention for the rest of the day.
Quick pit work from Kenseth's crew saw their man regain the lead as the order sorted itself out and with the race running without a caution flag all the way through to the next round of stops Kenseth was also able to rack up enough laps on point to guarantee him an extra five championship points for leading the most laps. However when the next round of stops took place with 50 laps to go it was Johnson's crew who rattled off the best change, putting the defending series champion in the lead with room to spare.
After rarely featuring in the battle for the lead all day Johnson was suddenly able to pace the field almost at will, opening up a three second lead before the eighth caution flag of the afternoon waved on lap 225. Everyone took this opportunity to pit for what should have been the final time and it was here that Johnson's #48 Hendrick Motorsports crew undid all their earlier hard work with a slow stop that cost their man four spots. Therefore it was Kenseth who took the restart ahead followed by Burton, Kevin Harvick, who had earlier been penalised for speeding on pit road, Gordon and Johnson.
Although Kenseth was able to get a good jump at the restart Harvick was soon hunting him down, the bright yellow #29 RCR Chevrolet inexorably bringing the one second gap down to just a few car lengths before Kenseth's fellow Roush stablemate Greg Biffle spun rookie David Reutimann hard into the turn four wall to bring out the red flag.
