Be it as it may, The Auto Club 400 went from perfect blue skies in early morning to rain by lap 125 and everyone pretty much knew it was coming and raced to the halfway point. Some drivers were tweaked that the race was called as early as it was (around 2pm CA time), but had they seen the radar, they might have noticed that the light rain was stopping the race, and heavier rain was on its way. Plus, I don't think NASCAR needed a repeat of that one fateful CA race where they ran on into to wee hours of the morning.
What befuddled me was that when the caution for rain came out (the first yellow flag of the day), drivers like Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson & Mark Martin pitted. Very uncharacteristic of how a team might view a rain caution, but they had hopes the band of rain would pass quickly and the race would be on. But alas, someone wasn't watching the radar close enough.
On the lucky side of things, the race being rain shorted, saved Jimmie Johnson's butt big time... after his pit stop, he car started blowing smoke and had the race gone on to green, he would not have even had the 10th place finish he mustered up.
When the race was called at 1:52pm, local time, Tony Stewart found himself the winner, followed by Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards.
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During the race, the biggest controversy during the telecast was how some of the drivers were passing aggressively on the low side then sliding up in front of their slide-pass victim. The Fox telecast went on and on about that for a bit.
But then again, That's better than then going on about car wrecks or burning track dryer trucks. (Whose staff was probably getting nervous when it started raining.)
After the race was stopped, did anyone notice the drivers propensity for not holding their own umbrellas? Seriously guys?
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The rain-shortened Sprint Cup race did see a few changes in the point standings... Greg Biffle remains the points leader & Kevin Harvick 2nd, but Dale Earnhardt Jr., moved up 3 spots to third, as did Tony Stewart, moving into fourth. Other big upward moves included Jimmie Johnson (3 spots into eigth) and Ryan Newman (3 spots into tenth).
Kurt Busch finished 9th on Sunday, and that propelled him 4 spots, into twenty-third while Kasey Kahne's 15th place finish moved him 4 spots up into twenty-eighth.
This won't be indicative of the rest of the season. As races get run and points get settled, there will be fewer and fewer big jumps in spots... but for now, that's what makes the early part of the season exciting. The position jostling.
The Auto Club 400 ended with twenty-six cars still on the lead lap.
Unofficial Results:
| FIN | DRIVER |
| 1 | Tony Stewart |
| 2 | Kyle Busch |
| 3 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
| 4 | Kevin Harvick |
| 5 | Carl Edwards |
| 6 | Greg Biffle |
| 7 | Ryan Newman |
| 8 | Martin Truex Jr. |
| 9 | Kurt Busch |
| 10 | Jimmie Johnson |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin |
| 12 | Mark Martin |
| 13 | Matt Kenseth |
| 14 | Clint Bowyer |
| 15 | Kasey Kahne |
| 16 | AJ Allmendinger |
| 17 | Juan Montoya |
| 18 | Brad Keselowski |
| 19 | Paul Menard |
| 20 | Regan Smith |
| 21 | Marcos Ambrose |
| 22 | Jeff Burton |
| 23 | Casey Mears |
| 24 | Joey Logano |
| 25 | Aric Almirola |
| 26 | Jeff Gordon |
| 27 | David Reutimann |
| 28 | Bobby Labonte |
| 29 | Travis Kvapil |
| 30 | David Gilliland |
| 31 | David Ragan |
| 32 | Jamie McMurray |
| 33 | Dave Blaney |
| 34 | Ken Schrader |
| 35 | J.J. Yeley |
| 36 | Landon Cassill |
| 37 | Josh Wise * |
| 38 | Michael McDowell |
| 39 | David Stremme |
| 40 | Mike Bliss |
| 41 | Scott Riggs |
| 42 | Reed Sorenson |
| 43 | Brendan Gaughan |
