2010 Auto Club 500

Race details[1][2][3][4]
Race 2 of 36 in the2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Track map of the speedway at Auto Club Speedway AKA California Speedway
Date	February 21, 2010 (2010-02-21)
Official name	Auto Club 500
Location	Auto Club Speedway,Fontana, California
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	2.0 miles (3.23 km)
Distance	250 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Weather	Sunny with a daytime high around 62; wind out of the ENE at 3 mph. There was a zero percent chance of precipitation.
Average speed	141.911 miles per hour (228.384 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Jamie McMurray	Earnhardt Ganassi Racing
Time	39.185
Most laps led
Driver	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	101
Winner
No. 48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	Fox Broadcasting Company
Announcers	Mike Joy,Darrell Waltrip andLarry McReynolds

The2010 Auto Club 500 was aNASCARSprint Cup Series race held on February 21, 2010, atAuto Club Speedway inFontana, California. Contested over 250 laps, it was the second race of the2010 Sprint Cup Series season. The race was won byJimmie Johnson forHendrick Motorsports.Kevin Harvick finished second andJeff Burton clinched third.

Polesitter driverJamie McMurray maintained his lead into the first corner, but outsiderJuan Pablo Montoya took the lead before the first lap was over. Afterward, Johnson became the leader, and would eventually lead to the race-high of 101 laps. During the finalpit stops, Johnson was on pit lane as thecaution flag came out. Burton, who led the race during Johnson's pit stop, did not pass Johnson to put him a lap down. Therefore, Johnson retained the first position upon the completion of pit stops. On the final lap, Harvick was gaining on Johnson, but Johnson maintained his position to win his first race of the season.

There were six caution flags and 28 lead changes among 14 different drivers throughout the course of the race. The result moved Johnson up 23 spots to tenth in the Drivers' Championship, 78 points behind of leaderKevin Harvick and one ahead ofKyle Busch.Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, eight points ahead ofToyota and nine ahead ofFord, with 34 races remaining in the season.

Auto Club Speedway (previously California Speedway) was asuperspeedway located in Fontana, California which hostedNASCAR racing annually from 1997 to 2023.^[5] The standard track at Auto Club Speedway featured four turns and was 2 miles (3.2 km) long.^[6] The track's turns werebanked at fourteendegrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, was banked at eleven degrees. The back stretch had 3 degrees of banking.^[6]

Before the race,Jamie McMurray led theDrivers' Championship with 190 points, andDale Earnhardt Jr. stood in second with 175 points.Greg Biffle was third in the Drivers' Championship with 170 points,Clint Bowyer was fourth with 165 points, andKevin Harvick was in fifth with 156 points.^[7] In theManufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with nine points, three points ahead of their rival Ford. Toyota, with four points, was one point ahead of Dodge in the battle for third.^[8]

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—one on Friday, and two on Saturday.^[9] In the first practice session, the fastest drivers wereMark Martin,Ryan Newman,Juan Pablo Montoya,Jeff Burton, andClint Bowyer.^[10] During the second practice session,Jimmie Johnson, Martin,Denny Hamlin,Carl Edwards, andGreg Biffle had the quickest times.^[11] Martin, Bowyer, Johnson, McMurray, andJeff Gordon led the final practice session.^[12]

During qualifying, forty-six cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to race because of NASCAR'squalifying procedure.^[13]Jamie McMurray clinched thepole position with a best lap time of 39.185 seconds.^[14] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Montoya.^[14] Bowyer qualified third,Kasey Kahne took fourth, andDave Blaney started fifth.^[14]Casey Mears,Johnny Sauter, andTerry Cook were the three drivers who failed to qualify.^[14]

The race, the second out of a total of thirty-six in theseason, began at 3 p.m.EST and was televised live in the United States onFox.^[1] Pre-race ceremonies began withMotor Racing Outreach's Jeff Hamilton giving the invocation; thenKatharine McPhee, season fiveAmerican Idol runner-up turned RCA Records recording artist, performed thenational anthem. ActorAndy García gave the traditional command, "Gentlemen Start Your Engines!" Before the race, Denny Hamlin moved to the back of the starting grid because his team changed engines after his qualifying run.^[15] At 3:19 p.m. EST, polesitter Jamie McMurray led the 43-car field to thegreen flag, but his lead was short-lived. Juan Pablo Montoya passed him during the first lap to lead lap 1. On lap 29, Jimmie Johnson passed Montoya for the lead.^[16] Between laps 35 to 40 teams made green flagpit stops (a pit stop while high speed racing continues).Dave Blaney stayed out to lead before parking his car on lap 44, allowing Johnson to regain the lead.^[15]

On lap 57, the first caution period of the race was called because of debris on the track's surface. The restart on lap 61 was led by Johnson, butKevin Harvick passed him for the lead before the lap was over. The second caution flag was waved on lap 92 because Kasey Kahne collided with Montoya. On lap 97, Johnson brought the field to the green flag.^[15] Mark Martin passed Johnson on lap 98, but was passed back after two laps. Drivers began heading for pit stops on lap 133. Then, on lap 140, the third caution came out because Montoya's engine failed, causing him to collide with the turn one wall. On lap 145, the green flag waved with Jeff Gordon as the leader.^[15]

The fourth caution, caused by the expired engine of Ryan Newman, came out on lap 147.^[16] On the restart, Gordon led the field to the green flag. He did not restart fast enough and was passed by both Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch on lap 154. On the next lap, Kyle Busch passed Burton for the lead. Ten laps after that, Burton returned the favor by passing Busch for the lead. During the following laps, several drivers made pit stops. The fifth caution flag was waved on lap 192 because light rain was moving through the area; the leader at the time was Denny Hamlin.^[9][15]

During the restart on lap 199, Burton brought the field to the green flag. No cautions were called untilBrad Keselowski collided with the outsidewall in turn four that brought out the sixth caution. The restart was on lap 229 with Jimmie Johnson as the leader. In the ensuing laps, Jimmie Johnson increased his lead over second-placed Kevin Harvick, but with fewer than ten laps to go Harvick began gaining on Johnson. Two laps before the finish, Burton caught up to Harvick and Johnson. Johnson held off both Harvick and Burton to win his first race in 2010.^[9][15][17]

Jimmie Johnson appeared in victory lane after hisvictory lap to start celebrating his first win of the season, his fifth atAuto Club Speedway, and his 48th overall in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Following his win, he added, "No way around it, we got lucky. We were able to just beat the 31 car [leaderJeff Burton] to the scoring line by about half a car length or we would have been a lap down."^[18]

Although Burton was leading near the end of the race, thecaution was issued as Johnson was exiting the pit lane. It gave Burton a chance to put Johnson a lap down, but Johnson entered the track ahead of Burton.^[18] In the subsequentpress conference, Johnson said, "Fortunate came our way. I’m not going to lie. The fact that we were on pit row gave us track position, and I drove my butt off."^[19] Johnson expressed his enjoyment of winning the race, stating:

"Today was a great race for NASCAR and a great race for this track. I know it got spread out some, but there [was] some really good racing from what I saw. Yes, today we got a huge gift. But I was running fourth or fifth at the time [of the last caution], so it's not like we totally backed into this thing. And I still had to hold Kevin off."^[18]

Burton, who finished third, stated, "We weren't slowing each other down. I ran the low line and Kevin ran the high line. But I got looser and Kevin got better at the end. The 29 by far had the best car."^[18] Harvick, who finished second, said, "When he moved up I got tight and caught the wall a little bit. If he doesn't move up, he gets passed pretty easily. He did what he's supposed to do to take the line away. He did exactly what he had to do."^[18] The race result left Harvick leading the Driver's Championship with a total of 331 points.^[20]Clint Bowyer, who finished third, was second with 312 points, eight ahead ofGreg Biffle and ten ahead ofJamie McMurray.^[20] Jeff Burton stood in fifth with 300 points.^[20] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet maintained their lead with 18 points.^[8] Toyota moved to second with 10 points.^[8] Ford followed with 9 points, two points ahead of Dodge in fourth.^[8]

Drivers' Championship standings[20] Pos Driver Points 1 Kevin Harvick 331 2 Clint Bowyer 312 3 Greg Biffle 304 4 Jamie McMurray 302 5 Jeff Burton 300

Manufacturers' Championship standings[8] Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 18 2 Toyota 10 3 Ford 9 4 Dodge 7

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

• 2010 in sports in California
• 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
• NASCAR races at Auto Club Speedway
• February 2010 sports events in the United States

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