Fontana, CA (Sports Network) - After a winless season in the Sprint Cup Series
in 2008, Matt Kenseth is perfect so far this year, as he picked up his second
consecutive victory by taking Sunday's Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway.
Kenseth, who won last weekend's rain-shortened Daytona 500, became the first
driver to win the first two races in the season since Jeff Gordon did it in
1997.
Kenseth led a race-high 84 laps, but had to hold off Gordon in the closing
stages to record his 18th career Sprint Cup victory and his third at the two-
mile Southern California track. He also gave Roush Fenway Racing its fifth
straight victory in the February event at California.
"I'm so blessed that I have such a great race team," Kenseth said. "I thank
these guys. They gave me a pit stop that got me into clean air and that's just
a huge difference."
Kenseth grabbed the lead for the final time when he beat Gordon off of pit
road on lap 213.
With less than 20 laps remaining, the battle for the win came down to Kenseth
and Gordon with third-place Kyle Busch trailing five seconds behind. Gordon
made several attempts to chase Kenseth down in the closing laps, but could not
catch the leader, as he finished second.
"It was a lot of fun," Gordon said. "This is a new team, and it showed
tonight. We still got a little bit of work to do, but man I am so excited on
one side because we ran so good and we started the season off so great. But
I'm so mad on the other hand because I felt like we had what it took to win
tonight."
Even though Gordon won the first qualifying race at Daytona International
Speedway a week and a half ago, the four-time Cup Series champion has not won
a points-paying race since October 2007 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Busch set a NASCAR record Saturday by winning the Camping World Truck and
Nationwide Series races on the same day, but his attempt for a trifecta at
California came up short with a third-place finish.
"It's never been done before, so it's definitely a challenge," Busch said.
"The last one's always the hardest to get. They leave it the hardest to get
because it's on Sunday and it's the biggest show. It's not easy in this sport.
But maybe one day."
Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five.
Brian Vickers won the pole Friday, but had to start from the rear of the field
after an engine change. Therefore, Jimmie Johnson led the field to the green
flag.
The 500-mile race featured five cautions, four of them for rain.
Light rain fell on the track on lap six, with the caution extended until lap
23.
After starting 24th, Kenseth had climbed up to 11th within the first 40 laps.
During the second caution. Kurt Busch won the battle off of pit road and held
the lead for the restart on lap 47. Johnson, however, beat Busch to the line
and reclaimed the lead on the following lap. Kenseth moved into the fifth
position.
Gordon scraped the wall on lap 76, but still managed to dive below Johnson and
take the top spot from Johnson two laps later.
After making his green-flag pit stop, Gordon was back in front on lap 88.
While Gordon built a two-second lead, Biffle passed Johnson for second and
Kenseth took fourth from Kurt Busch just before the 100-lap mark.
Biffle made a fast green-flag stop and beat Gordon off of pit road to take the
lead on lap 128. Gordon attempted to reclaim the top spot, but had to back off
after Michael Waltrip interfered with his progress. Waltrip was a lap down at
the time.
Gordon made one more attempt to capture the lead, but rain in turn three
interrupted 95 consecutive laps of green-flag racing.
Kenseth inherited the lead for the first time on lap 145 after he was the
quickest off of pit road.
Just before the fourth caution came for rain on Lap 170, Johnson's car
began experiencing engine problems as he began to drop in the field. Johnson
managed to soldier on and finish ninth. He led 74 laps earlier in the race.
Johnson's teammate, Mark Martin, wasn't so fortunate with his engine as it
expired on lap 182. Martin headed to the garage and ended up finishing 40th.
The engine woes continued for Hendrick Motorsports when Dale Earnhardt Jr.
called it a day on lap 206.
"I think we broke something in the valve, probably a spring first," Earnhardt
Jr. said. "I'm sure it's just an anomaly. They'll figure out what it was, and
it won't ever happen again."
Earnhardt Jr. finished 39th.
Kevin Harvick created the only on-track incident on lap 208 when he blew a
right-front tire and slammed into the wall. Harvick finished 38th one week
after his second-place run in the Daytona 500.
The series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for next Sunday's Shelby 427.