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Storylines: Auto Club Speedway
Kenseth, Roush Look To Build On Momentum
Here’s why:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Looks To Rebound – Quickly
Coming out, there are question marks everywhere.
Earnhardt failed to win a race of any type during Speedweeks and suffered through an extremely disappointing Daytona 500 in which he had several pit-road miscues and was blamed for initiating a late-race multi-car incident that took out several cars. Earnhardt finished 27th.
He comes to Auto Club Speedway looking to bounce back in the standings and look like a credible contender for the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
Unfinished Business: Rain-Shortened Daytona 500 Left Some Drivers -- And Their Expectations -- Hanging
Such as:
Those three, among others, must now put the 500 behind them.
New Alliance Yields Big-Time Results
“RPM” resulted from a preseason merger of Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises.
Allmendinger Emerging From Pack Of Former Open-Wheelers
And then, a third-place finish in the Daytona 500.
Suddenly, Allmendinger looks like the standout from a recent crop of former open-wheel racers who have migrated to NASCAR in recent years.
Bad Daytona 500 For Johnson, But What’s New?
And you might ask, “What’s your point?”
Indeed, the Daytona 500 has had little bearing on Johnson’s overall success during his career. In 2007, he finished 39th. Last year, he was 27th.
He went on to the win the series championship both years.
On the other hand, when Johnson won the 500 in 2006, he went on to win the series championship for the first of three consecutive years.
Suffice to say people expect the El Cajon, Calif. native to once again overcome a slow start.
From the East Coast to the West Coast … from Daytona International Speedway to Auto Club Speedway near Los Angeles … NASCAR rolls into Fontana, Calif. for a national series tripleheader culminating with Sunday’s Auto Club 500. Following are some storylines pertinent to this Western swing.
Matt Kenseth and his car owner Jack Roush head to California as Daytona 500 champions and should have an excellent chance to build on their already-considerable momentum, in Sunday’s Auto Club 500.
Going into Speedweeks at Daytona, optimism abounded for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
When rain halted the Daytona 500 on Sunday night after 152 of the scheduled 200 laps, a number of final Speedweeks chapters were left unwritten.
The newly formed organization known as Richard Petty Motorsports returned one of NASCAR’s hallowed names to the Daytona 500 spotlight on Sunday as three of the organization’s drivers finished in the top 10 – third place AJ Allmendinger, fifth-place Elliott Sadler and ninth-place Reed Sorenson.
AJ Allmendinger, from Los Gatos, Calif., emerged dramatically from the Speedweeks pack. He finished a solid fifth in the Budweiser Shootout, then “raced” his way into the Daytona 500 via a 10th-place finish in the second of the two Gatorade Duel events.
Jimmie Johnson finished a distant and dismal 31st in the Daytona 500.