Wild finish
Kyle Busch charges to second consecutive Auto Club Speedway victory
FONTANA, CALIF. Nerves were fraying, tires were disintegrating and Sprint Cup drivers were scrambling Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.
For the second consecutive year, the Auto Club 400 was decided on the final lap, which meant Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota was positioned perfectly — in third place at the white flag.
“Put me in the right spot and give me the steering wheel, Coach,” Busch said with a laugh after winning his second thriller in a row and his third overall at the 2-mile oval. “That’s it.”
Busch made it seem that simple Sunday, sweeping past his older brother, Kurt, and Tony Stewart into the lead and holding off a furious charge by rookie Kyle Larson for the victory.
It was reminiscent of when he grabbed the win last year while Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano wrecked on the last lap and touched off a melee in the pits, and this year’s race featured just as much drama — but the plot centered on tire problems instead of tempers.
At least four yellow flags flew for drivers who suffered blowouts, and there were several more that didn’t cause cautions — including that of Jimmie Johnson, who was cruising toward a record sixth win in Fontana before his left front tire exploded with a scheduled six laps remaining. That handed the lead to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who was leading when the yellow flew a final time after Clint Bowyer spun with a tire problem, setting up a greenwhite-checked finish and a bevy of divergent pit strategies that jumbled the field and left Gordon 13th.
“It is just so disappointing,” Gordon said. “I hate Goodyear was not prepared for what happened. They are so good at what they do, and that is just uncalled for. When I saw (Johnson) had issues, I was just hoping we would make it to the end, and cars were just blowing tires all around me. It’s unfortunate.”
Brad Keselowski, whose Ford suffered tire woes in practice and the race, said new 2014 rules had increased the speed of the Gener- ation 6 cars while increasing the stress borne by the tires.
“You can’t add 500 to 600 pounds of downforce to a race car along with a track that has bumps like you are on a freeway in Michigan,” Keselowski said. “The tires just aren’t made for it. … I would expect similar issues through the season.
“If you are going to fix it, you either have to change the margin on the tire or put the cars back to their configuration last year.”
There were no tire worries for Kyle Busch, who also gets to enjoy a relatively stress-free regular season as the latest provisional qualifier for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“I wouldn’t say relaxation, but it certainly takes the pressure off,” Busch said after his 29th victory in NASCAR’s premier series. “Now we’ve still got to continue to make our cars better. We could show speed early, not be so good in the middle but then come on at the end. So we’re kind of all over the place.
“With the race that we had, to be in victory lane is a huge relief. Now we’ve just got to put our focus forward on continuing to work hard.”