Why I watched…

ESPN did not broadcast the race from Fontana. That was a pretty good reason to watch on Sunday. After watching the Nationwide event Saturday, after hearing Allan speak an octave too high, after hearing Rusty speak at all, they brought in the dynamic Joey Logano for an extended stay in the broadcast booth. If that wasn’t enough, the visuals soon became a bunch of guys turning left. My rating of Saturday was a whopping 5.5/10. Hey, at least I have a new appreciation for Andy Petree in the booth. Too bad about his company. Now, I waited to see if the FOX crew could do something with this track where ratings go to die and to see if Jimmie Johnson could win his sixth there, or if Tony Stewart might make it three for four.

The race…

What in hell was that? As the laps clicked down, Mike Joy announced that we were watching the best race of the season. To my shock, he was absolutely right. Two cars battled it out over the final three laps, two drivers who already had bad blood between them. As they went fender to fender, we knew that neither would back off to allow the other to slip away. On the final lap, on the final turn, Joey Logano drifted up into Denny Hamlin and as they made contact, Kyle Busch flashed his dominant car by on the outside to claim the win as the other two wrecked. Busch went to Victory Lane, Logano finished 6th, while Hamlin hit hard on the inside fence and wound up in the hospital.

Joey Logano is 22 years old, a talented driver who continues to find himself making friends like a drunk uncle at a family wedding. You might remember his situation a few years back with Kevin Harvick. Last week he feuded with Hamlin, This week, he had Tony Stewart looking to remove his head after he cut off Stewart on the final restart that left the former three-time champion in 22nd on the day. It may be just me, but I do not think Hamlin will feel any warmer or all that fuzzy about him after finishing the race Sunday piling into concrete.

There was no tight racing, at least to the eye, as the cars fanned out, spread apart, as the timed distance was measured in seconds instead of fractions. Yet, there was racing, there was passing, and those who faced adversity seemed to be able to overcome and become relevant again. A couple of dropped lugnuts during one pit stop could not stop Dale Earnhardt Jr from finishing second. Kurt Busch got a speeding penalty that put him a lap down and he had a podium finish. It was a cut tire that dropped Matt Kenseth a circuit behind and he left California seventh. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson found themselves in cars that refused to do their bidding, yet they came in 11th and 12th. The impossible became possible, as you searched to see if Jiminy Cricket was indeed somewhere trackside wishing upon a star to make some dreams come true. I thought this destined to be the worst race so far this season. I was so very wrong.

I do not know how much to credit the announcing, the new car, the talent level of the drivers or the flow of the race, but this was the best presentation I have ever seen produced at the Auto Club Speedway. That was already the case even before we witnessed those final three laps.

Rating the race (9/10)…

It was a day when anything could happen, and did. There was action on the track, action once again off the track, a finish that had you up and cheering even from your couch, and a lot to talk about when it was all over. These are highlights they will be playing everywhere, even in places where they think NASCAR is just a southern way of saying “nice car.” From the track where ratings go to die, we just saw our best race, and most certainly the most thrilling finish of the season.

There’s a new closer in the Sprint Cup Series and he happens to be the new point leader heading into the Easter off weekend.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned another second place finish on Sunday and in the process recorded his best career finish at the Auto Club Speedway. Running fourth on the final lap, Earnhardt Jr. took advantage of the melee in turns three and four to cross the finish line behind winner Kyle Busch.

“I was running around the bottom of the corner and they [Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin] were slowing up and battling real hard, I was just trying to get what I could get,” said Earnhardt Jr. afterwards.

“I felt like down the back straightaway Kyle [Busch] had the best shot at winning the race because those other two guys were slowing down running so hard. Just lucky we were able to get by on the inside.”

Logano and Hamlin were battling for the lead heading into turns three and four before the two made contact. Busch slid by for the win as Logano hit the wall and Hamlin spun down into the inside wall. Earnhardt Jr., who was afraid he was going to get collected into the mess, was able to miss them both.

“We had a good car all day and sort of got off sequence and all screwed up on tire strategy there at the end with all the cautions and guys coming for four and two. We were able to take advantage of that on the last caution, get four tires,” he said.

“Starting on the inside was terrible I would lose five, six spots down there trying to get going on the inside. Finally that restart we started 18th but we were outside and we were ninth by the time we came back around for the first lap under green, so really important to get that outside restart and we weren’t getting it there at the end, so we were just going backwards.”

Starting the day 18th, Earnhardt Jr. found himself in a battle with his racecar. While in traffic it never handled to his liking but crew chief Steve Letarte quickly got the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet into contention by lap 50.

His stint in the top 10 lasted for much of the 400-mile event, until a pit stop with less than 85 laps to go took him from third to 22nd. But the driver quickly told team to shake it off; it was just a blimp on the radar. Instead of giving the pit crew a chance to get it back for him, Earnhardt Jr. drove back to 10th in four laps following the restart.

“We just stick together and everybody just kind of patted each other on the back and we were going to get another chance to redeem ourselves on pit road. We had a good car on that next restart we drove back up to tenth before the next caution,” he said.

“I felt like we were back up in position to run well and everything was fine, we got a good pit stop on the next caution and put that mistake behind us.”

But the struggles then continued for Earnhardt Jr. as he had trouble passing late in the race. Finding himself back in traffic, struggling on two tires and falling to 24th before a rash of late cautions again allowed Letarte and the team to make the necessary changes.

The final restart allowed Earnhardt Jr. to drive to fourth before the seas parted in the final corner on the final lap.

When all was said and done, Earnhardt Jr. said he was pleased with the finish because he felt he had a top five car. When the NSCS gets back on track at Martinsville in two weeks, he’ll hold a 12-point lead on defending champion Brad Keselowski. He’s the only driver to start the season with top 10 finishes in all five races.

While he has yet to win at the paperclip, Martinsville has been a great track to Earnhardt Jr. over the years, including a third-place finish last spring. It makes the most popular driver content with how his season has started, the performance of his team, and the position he’s in heading forward.

“Yeah, we just stick together, we’re pretty good at closing races something I never really was good at for years,” noted Earnhardt Jr.

“Now we’re doing it as good as anybody, just riding the wave. Just real happy with how things are going with our team.”