Looking ahead to California

A few items to get you ready for the Cup weekend in Fontana, Calif., and maybe some info to help you with your fantasy team.

 

# Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth has seven consecutive top-10s at Auto Club Speedway.

 

# Roush Fenway Racing has won the last four races at Auto Club Speedway.

 

# Jimmie Johnson has a career average finish of 5.9 at the track with 3 wins, 4 runner-up finishes and 1 third-place finish.

 

# 9 of the 12 drivers who have won at the 2-mile track in California have at least 10 wins in their career.

 

# Kyle Busch has an average finish of 9.9 at the track

 

# Carl Edwards has an average finish of 6.7 there.

 

# Those RPM drivers who did so well at Daytona? Here's how they do at California: AJ Allmendinger 16.0 avg. finish; Elliott Sadler 23.3 avg. finish; Reed Sorenson 28.3 avg finish and Kasey Kahne 13.1 ave finish (and one win)

 

# Richard Childress Racing has won at ever Cup track EXCEPT: Auto Club Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway.

 

# Top five finishers in last February's race at Auto Club Speedway made the Chase last year. Top four in the 2007 Feb. race made the Chase.

 

# Carl Edwards in a release sent by his team about California: "I feel really good going to California on the Sprint Cup side.  It’s the one I’ve been waiting for.  Daytona is what it is, but California’s the first one that we get to see how well we worked over the winter. I just really like the track a lot. 

 

# Tony Eury Jr, in a release from the team, on this weekend: "One of the biggest challenges at California is that the track is really flat and has no grip. Basically, you have to keep a really good aero platform and keep the car from getting too free off the corners. That has typically been our problem in the past. Our car will be good after 20 laps, but will be too free at the start. We are really working hard to try and tighten the car up a little bit but not get it too tight at the end of the run. You have to start the race in the day and end at night so you've got those conditions changing on you on top of that. We have a pretty good plan on what we are going to do, and, with the success that Jimmie (Johnson) had out there last fall, we are looking forward to going back."

 

# Here's the car info for Denny Hamlin this weekend, from his team's release: The FedEx team will unload Chassis JGR 220 for the weekend in California.  JGR 220 last raced at Richmond in Sept. of 2008, posting a third-place finish.  At Michigan, the 2.0-mile track that shares many of the same characteristics as Auto Club, this car had Hamlin in contention for much of the day until late-race engine trouble relegated him to a 37^th-place finish.  JGR 222 will serve in backup at Auto Club.  This car posted third-place finishes at both Auto Club and Indy during the 2008 season.   

 

# Jimmie Johnson's car info (from his team's release): 

• Johnson will pilot chassis No. 504 in Sunday’s race. This car was used eight times by Team Lowe’s Racing in 2008, collecting three wins and a runner-up finish (all from the pole). He last drove that chassis to a 15^th-place finish at Homestead.
• Johnson finished second in backup chassis No. 465 at Auto Club Speedway last February.

 

# Joey Logano, in his team' s release, on expectations for the weekend: “I can’t go into the weekends thinking about expectations.  I know I have a lot to learn at these tracks so I need to focus on doing the best that I can.  Right now I need to continue to work with the team and build our communication so they know what I mean when I say the car is loose or tight.   We didn’t have the finish we wanted last weekend, but as a team we learned a lot about each other and got to know each other better, especially Zippy (crew chief Zipadelli) and I.  That was not only important but critical for us.  I had the opportunity to run the Nationwide race last year, so I have some laps on the track.  That should help a little going into this weekend.”

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