Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers from the recently-completed NASCAR weekend at Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway:
NASCAR Winners And Losers: A Look Back At Fontana
Winners
Jimmie Johnson
When is a 10th-place finish like a win? When your car is spewing oil like a '73 Pinto but before you have to limp your way to the garage, the red flag – and the checkered flag – comes out with you sitting 10th. Looks like someone found his missing horseshoe.
Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch quietly netted his first top-10 finish of the year and the first for a James Finch-owned car on a track other than Daytona or Talladega since 2009 at Loudon – coincidently another rain-shortened race – when Brad Keselowski finished sixth.
Auto Club Speedway
The much-maligned track is often ridiculed for the rather mundane racing it regularly produces. But for whatever reason – a track surface which is now weathered and broken-in and has drivers sliding around like they’re at Eldora or the urgency created by the impending downpour – Sunday’s race featured more side-by-side racing and battles for the lead than we’ve previously seen on the two-mile oval.
Losers
Darian Grubb
Unquestionably, the man who guided Tony Stewart to the championship last year is on the short list of top crew chiefs in the garage. But his call based on the belief the rain would subside when every forecast called for continued storms was ill-advised to say the least. The only saving grace was Denny Hamlin still was able to come home 11th.
Brad Keselowski
He may not have had a winning car like he did at Bristol, but Brad Keselowski's Dodge was more than capable of challenging for a spot in the top 10. That was until he got dinged for speeding during his final pit stop and ended up 18th. On a side note, the Penske driver has yet to record consecutive top-10 finishes this year.
Jeff Gordon
Bad luck has put Jeff Gordon into a deep points hole unlike he's ever been in before, but it wasn't bad luck this time around which derailed his fine run. Instead, it was dragging the fuel man – along with his refueling can – out of his pit box, something NASCAR frowns upon. The subsequent penalty resulted in him finishing 26th, and consequently he fell into an even deeper hole as he slid to 25th in points.
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