Edwards reigns in Auto Club 200
For Carl Edwards, it’s a signal. At least one NASCAR Sprint Cup team is ready to take on Hendrick Motorsports.
Edwards won the rain-delayed Auto Club 500 on Monday in Fontana, Calif., finishing ahead of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. In a race that resumed with the 88th of 250 laps, Edwards assumed the lead for good with 13 laps left.
“I hope it’s an indication we’ve caught up with them,” Edwards said after the eighth victory of his career. “They still were second and third and they were the guys to beat today. I hope this is a sign we’re up to their standards; to their level.”
Johnson took the green flag for the final restart in the lead with 26 laps left, but Edwards surged from third.
He then showed fine form on his traditional victory backflip after capturing the checkered flag in a race that ended under caution when Dale Jarrett spun on the final lap.
Edwards had it all but wrapped up at that point, driving his Roush Fenway No. 99 Ford to a lead of more than four seconds over Johnson. It was his first victory at Fontana but his seventh top-10 finish in eight starts at the track formerly known as California Speedway.
Gordon, who dominated Sunday’s rain-interrupted portion, was followed by Kyle Busch and Roush’s Matt Kenseth, who had won the two previous February races at this track. Another Roush driver, Greg Biffle, won this event in 2005.
A year ago, Johnson and Gordon ended 1-2 in the season points. Johnson won his second straight Cup title and the team rolled up 18 victories in 36 races. The Hendrick contingent also won nine of the 16 races in which NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow was raced.
The CoT is being used for the entire Sprint Cup schedule in 2008 and its debut on Auto Club Speedway’s 2-mile oval was a triumph for Edwards and Roush Fenway Racing.
About 25,000 fans, far short of the approximate 120,000 capacity, were on hand Monday, with the sun peeking out from high clouds and temperatures moving into the high 60s.
The drivers spent most of Sunday waiting through rain, track drying and attempts to stop water seeping through seams of the track. The race finally began about 2 1/2 hours late, followed by a rain delay of just more than an hour and then a five-hour wait after a downpour. NASCAR and track officials finally gave up after 11 p.m. and postponed the conclusion until Monday.
Stewart wins again
Tony Stewart was dominant in winning his second straight NASCAR Nationwide Series race, holding off hard-charging Kyle Busch again.
Stewart beat Busch, his teammate in the Sprint Cup series, in a 1-2 Toyota sweep in the Nationwide season-opener at Daytona. He made it look a lot easier in the rain-postponed race at Auto Club Speedway as he led 136 of the 150 laps in the 300-miler on the 2-mile track.
Stewart won by 2.408 seconds – about half a straightaway – as both leaders nearly ran out of gas at the end.
IRL begins transition
Now comes the hard part: making the merger between America’s two major open-wheel series work.
“It’ll be long and tedious and expensive and a lot of work to put it all together,” car owner Derrick Walker said after an orientation meeting for the Champ Car teams that are expected to make the switch to the Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series this season.
“But everybody on both sides of the aisle are 100 percent behind the merger and want to make it work. That’s the main thing,” Walker said. “It’ll work … it will just take time.”
IRL founder Tony George, the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Champ Car co-owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe announced the agreement to end the 12-year split in open-wheel racing last week. With the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway less than five weeks away, there is a lot to be done and not much time to get the former Champ Car teams ready.
The IRL will make engines and chassis available, possibly as soon as today, and within the next week or two will announce an expanded schedule that will likely include some of the former Champ Car races, IRL president Brian Barnhart said.