February 24, 2009
By Ben Brumitt
NASCAR 2009: Week 2 - California
Kyle Busch came into the race with a chance to become the first driver to sweep all three races in a single weekend, but he would have to out drive former track winners Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth. The race went without a single crash between drivers, and it included a green run from lap 47 to lap 142 before a light sprinkle brought out the caution. Good thing for Busch who was in sixth place, but mired almost 20 seconds behind Biffle and Gordon.
Also, a good break for Kenseth, who was seven seconds back in fourth place. His pit crew, who ended the day by gaining him a total of 10 spots, gained him three here and put him in front for the restart with 99 laps to go. Biffle restarted second and Gordon third.
Jimmie Johnson was a distant third-place prior to the caution, five seconds behind Biffle. With 81 to go, he was trailing Kenseth by one-second when his transmission popped out of gear and he fell to fifth-place in less than a lap. Luckily, a light rain simultaneously brought out the caution. His crew positioned him behind Kenseth for the restart, but he slowly faded, eventually losing fourth-place to Kyle Busch with 50 laps left. He wound up the day in eighth-place, 17-seconds back.
Johnson had led the vast majority of the first 76 laps, before Gordon passed him for his first lead. Gordon still maintained the lead after green-flag stops were complete on lap 90, followed by Johnson, Biffle, Kurt Busch and Kenseth. By lap 110, he had built a two-second lead, now over Biffle, while Kenseth was five seconds back in fourth-place. On lap 127, Gordon made his scheduled green-flag stop as Biffle followed him closely onto pit road.
Up to that point Hendrick cars had led all but five laps, but Biffle was able to lead Gordon out of the pits and the two drivers increased their lead over the field up to the caution on lap 142. This is where Kenseth’s crew moved him three spots into the lead (as mentioned earlier), for the restart with 99 laps remaining. Biffle came out second and quickly faded to fourth, but ended up third after Johnson’s trans popped prior to the caution. Biffle lost three spots on pit road and he restarted sixth with 81 to go.
Gordon passed Kenseth with 55 laps to go, and Biffle followed shortly after. By the time the caution waved with 43 to go, Kenseth was four seconds back, less than a second ahead of Kyle Busch. Kevin Harvick brought out that caution, the first one due to an on-track incident, when his #29 Shell Chevrolet hit the wall after the oil-filter failed. It was Harvick’s first DNF in 82 races, a streak of almost 2.5 years. He was running 12th at the time.
Kenseth’s team moved him two spots back into the lead on pit row, while Biffle flushed his chances after sliding over his air hose. Gordon came out second followed by Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, who had slowly moved through the field. Biffle restarted 11th.
The race was now set for a compelling final 32 laps. Gordon was eager to break a 42-race winless streak, Kyle Busch was eyeballing history and Kenseth was gazing at accomplishing a feat only done once in the last 32 years. Win the season’s first two races, last achieved by Gordon, in 1997.
Busch, though, fell four-seconds back half way to the finish, while Kenseth’s lead over Gordon hovered near a full-second with 15 to go. Gordon started running a high-line, appearing to have used use his tires up. With 8 laps left he pulled within .6 seconds, but that was as close as he would get as Kenseth pulled away to win his 18th Cup win, by 1.464 seconds. Kyle Busch finished seven-seconds back in third, while Biffle rebounded to claim fourth, two-seconds behind Busch. In his post-race interview, Biffle remarked that he should be fired.
Fifth through ninth-place consisted of cars that ran top ten all day, with Kurt Busch securing a top five, followed by Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart and Johnson. Brian Vickers recovered from being a lap down in 34th-place, to finish tenth.
Here is how the other Championship hopefuls fared
Kasey Kahne finished 12th, Jamie McMurray ran top ten all day until under 50 laps when he experienced brake problems, he finished 16th. David Ragan was 17th, Clint Bowyer 19th, Jeff Burton 32nd, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 39th and Mark Martin 40th. Rookie Joey Logano finished one-lap down in 26th.
Kenseth received five more bonus points for leading the most laps, 84, while Johnson led 74, Gordon 64 and Biffle 16. Kenseth now leads Gordon in the standings by 81 points, while Stewart and Kurt Busch are tied for third, 96 points off the pace.
Roush drivers have now won the last five spring races at California, three of the last four by Kenseth. Coincidentally, Hendrick has placed second in all five of those, three times with Johnson and twice with Gordon. Kenseth has run well at California since his rookie year in 2000, when he led 120 laps and finished 3rd.
All five Roush drivers finished in the top 16, despite all being in the top ten by lap 80.
Kenseth is a heavy favorite to win at Las Vegas next week too. He has 2 wins in 9 starts and his 438 laps led are more than 200 laps more than every other competitor, except for Mark Martin with 259. Kenseth’s 9.0 average is first among drivers with seven or more starts. Johnson is second at 9.3. Carl Edwards won last year, but Johnson and Kenseth won the five before that.
Kenseth won in 2003 and 2004, while Johnson won his first in 2005. Johnson was triumphant again in 2006, despite only leading one lap, the final one, passing Kenseth for the win. Johnson then won the rubber match in 2007.
This season is heating up and Vegas is only going to fuel our fire. I have a feeling Kyle Busch is up to the challenge as is an invigorated Jeff Gordon.
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