NASCAR returns to Fontana this weekend with a tough act to follow.
Last year’s Sprint Cup race, with its wild finish at Auto Club Speedway, was considered by many to be the most exciting race of the season.
As the drivers battled side-by-side for the lead in the final turn of the final lap, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin crashed into each other, Kyle Busch passed them for the win and Logano and Tony Stewart battled on pit road after the race.
But the frenzy came to a bitter end when Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota crashed head-on into an inside wall and he suffered a compression fracture in his lower back, forcing the Virginian to miss the next four races.
This year, Hamlin recovered and the rest of the Cup series returns Sunday for the Auto Club 400 amid early-season parity in the series – with four drivers having won the first four races.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick edged out Earnhardt to win at Phoenix, Brad Keselowski won at Las Vegas and Carl Edwards endured last Sunday’s rain-delayed race in Bristol, Tennessee, for his victory.
It’s a repeat of last year, where the season opened with five winners in the first five events. (The record is 10 different winners at the start of the 2000 season.)
Earnhardt and Harvick drive Chevrolets and Keselowski and Edwards drive Fords, so the only manufacturer without a Cup win so far this year is Toyota.
But in last year’s Fontana race, Busch’s No. 18 Toyota was strong throughout, leading 125 of the race’s 200 laps on the two-mile oval. And as Logano and Hamlin collided on the final lap, Busch was poised to pass them for the lead.
“I was coming even if they didn’t end up destroying,” Busch said in notes released by his Joe Gibbs Racing team. “It was a crazy ending.”
Before Edwards’ victory last weekend at Bristol, the veteran was asked about his return to California and he was still talking about last year’s race.
“I hate that Denny got hurt, obviously, but that race was one of the best races I’ve seen,” said Edwards, who finished fourth that day.
“We finished the race and Tony and Joey were out there throwing stuff at each other,” Edwards said, referring to Logano throwing a water bottle at Stewart during their shoving match. “It’s like, ‘It’s NASCAR.’ There were people out of three at the end who crossed paths and destroyed each other.
Stewart chased Logano down pit road because Stewart was angry at the way Logano stopped him from overtaking on the race’s final restart.
As for Logano and Hamlin, both said last week that they had put last year’s race behind them, although their relationship remained frosty.
“You can hold grudges all you want, but it’s not going to make you any faster, and it’s not going to get you any closer to a championship,” Hamlin said.
Logano, in turn, said: “I feel like we’re good. A year is a long time. It’s over now.”
Six-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson holds the record for most Cup victories at the Fontana track with five, followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon and former champion Matt Kenseth, who each have three wins.
Drivers will also use NASCAR’s new knockout qualifying system at Fontana for the first time Friday to set the starting order.
The first 25-minute session will bring together the 43 drivers, with the 24 fastest moving on to a second 10-minute lap. The 12 fastest cars from this round advance to a final five-minute session to determine who will take pole position.
NASCAR at Irwindale
Along with NASCAR’s return to Fontana, one of the sport’s minor league series, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, returns to Irwindale Speedway Saturday night for the NAPA 150.
This is the first time the series has raced on Irwindale’s paved half-mile oval since mid-2011. Qualifications start at 4:45 p.m. and the race at 8:30 p.m.
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