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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
JENSEN: It Never Rains In California
It was an interesting weekend in Fontana...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 22, 2010   Fontana, CA
SPEED.com's Editor-in-Chief Tom Jensen. (Image: SPEED)
Some odds and ends from an interesting weekend of racing in Southern California:

Sunday's Auto Club 500 had a great finish, the second exciting race in a row during NASCAR's “have at it, boys” era. Yeah, Daytona had the hole to deal with, but I can't really quarrel with the quality of the on-track action. The Daytona 500 had a great finish, and so did the Auto Club 500.

Kevin Harvick came out of nowhere in the closing laps to challenge race-winner Jimmie Johnson, and it seemed Harvick was certain to find victory lane in a NASCAR Sprint Cup points race for the first time in more than three years.

But Johnson cleanly and neatly closed the door on the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and forced Harvick to make an error by scraping the wall. That hurt his aerodynamics just enough to prevent Harvick from getting around Johnson. Still, it was a thing of beauty to watch those two duel, as they did throughout much of the race.

Johnson got a fortuitous break when a caution flew on Lap 225, as he was in the pits for the last time. He barely got out of the pits before Jeff Burton crossed the start-finish line. Had he not done that, Johnson would have gone a lap down, with no chance of victory.

But for anyone bemoaning Johnson's luck, he had a good retort: “Yes, we were lucky today. But you don't get lucky and win four championships and 48 races.”

• Richard Childress Racing, which showed major improvement in the final month of 2009, appears all the way back and as of right now, is the team in the best position to challenge Hendrick Motorsports. In the first two races of the season, no RCR car has finished worse than 11th, and all three RCR drivers are in the top five in points.

And Harvick had the best quote of the weekend, referring to Johnson's good fortune. “They did a good job today in winning the race, but they have a golden horseshoe stuck up their ass,” Harvick said. “I mean, there's no way to get around that.”

• Roush Fenway Racing had won the last five spring ACS races; this time around, the best they could do was seventh for Matt Kenseth and 10th for Greg Biffle. Keep an eye on what they do — good or bad — next weekend in Las Vegas.

• Surprisingly good starts to 2010 season: Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano and Scott Speed.

• Disappointing starts to 2010: Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman.

• Who had Greg Biffle vs. Joey Logano as the first great feud of 2010? Didn't see that one coming at all.

• Danica Patrick had a miserable weekend at Auto Club Speedway. She was slow in practice, slow in qualifying and slow in the Stater Brothers 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, where she finished three laps down in 31st place.

Patrick has now competed in three stock races. She finished sixth in the ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway, got crashed out of her NNS debut at Daytona and now finished 31st in Southern California.

In my mind, Patrick's grade after each of the three races remains the same: Incomplete. After spending a lifetime in open-wheel cars, three stock-car races aren't enough to be an accurate barometer of what she can do. Anyone who said after the ARCA race that she can do this was wrong. Anyone who said after yesterday's race that she can't was just as wrong. You don't know yet, I don't know yet, she doesn't know yet.

Ultimately, she might be a superstar in NASCAR. She might turn out to be a flop, too. We just have no way of knowing yet. Hence the grade of incomplete.

And after next weekend at Las Vegas, Patrick will take a lengthy break to concentrate on here IndyCar obligations. In all likelihood, it will take her at least until the end of this year and most likely the end of next year, before anyone can accurately assess her ability to drive a stock car.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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