The Biggest NASCAR Storylines to Watch Ahead of Sprint Cup Series at Fontana
The last race on the West Coast swing goes to Fontana for the Auto Club 400, where Kevin Harvick looks to make a clean sweep in California Gold Rush style.
The bad news for other drivers is that Harvick has won at Fontana. The good news is that he’s only won once. The driver who has the most success at this track is Jimmie Johnson. The No. 48 has won five times at Auto Club Speedway.
Harvick is in the zone. Aside from being on top of his game, he has been incredibly lucky. He hasn’t been involved in any wrecks or pit-road maladies.
Bob Margolis for PopularSpeed.com wrote:
"It would be easy to say (or write) that Kevin Harvick should have changed teams years ago. I’ve always believed that they got it right in Ecclesiastes – To everything there is a season. This is undoubtedly the time for Harvick’s season.
Of course, it was after his win at Phoenix last season that Harvick was struck with a very unwelcome string of bad luck. So, on second thought…
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Without further ado—and for fear of being lapped by the No. 4 car—let’s move on to this week’s storylines.
Jimmie Johnson: King of Fontana
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Johnson has won a record five times at Auto Club Speedway. Some drivers own certain tracks. Harvick owns Phoenix, and Johnson owns Auto Club (and Dover and Martinsville).
Johnson comes off a disappointing race at Phoenix that he had to think he could have won were it not for banging up his car in the first lap. He went to pit road and could never get up and stay in the top 10, ultimately finishing 11th.
If anyone can snap Harvick’s streak and keep him from sweeping the West Coast swing, it’s Johnson.
“I think our team has done well on low-grip level race tracks, and this track’s in that category,” Johnson said to Russell Ingold of the Fontana Herald News.
Can David Ragan Make It Three in a Row for the No. 18 Car?
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Kyle Busch won this race in 2013 and 2014. He won’t be present for a three-peat, but his No. 18 Toyota will with David Ragan at the helm.
If No. 18 team brings the same package, Ragan could be in for a breakthrough performance at Fontana. Ragan said to Jared Turner of FoxSports.com:
"I knew Kyle had won there recently at California, but didn't know it was each of the last two years. That puts some pressure on … the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Camry. It also gives you some confidence that your team has run well and your teammates have run well there. A lot of things change from year to year. Every track I've gone to so far with the 18 bunch, I've learned something and have experienced something a little different, and California could be a lot of the same.
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Ragan wants to win for an altruistic reason: to provide momentum to the No. 18 team when Busch returns. It’s an unselfish—and deftly political—thing to say.
“It's important that I help Kyle's team work well together over the next however many weeks it is, so when he gets back, the team can hit the ground running with him in the car,” Ragan said on FoxSports.com.
Will Kasey Kahne Be HMS' Best Driver Sunday?
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It’s well-known at this point that Johnson is the man at ACS.
Jeff Gordon, while notching a top 10 at Phoenix, has not performed at a championship level.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished out of the top five for the first time at Phoenix when his car got chewed up by the wall.
That leaves Kasey Kahne as the one driver who has quietly been one of the best drivers on the circuit. He has two top 10s and was running second to Harvick at Vegas before a crash with Carl Edwards took him out of contention.
Keith Rodden, Kahne’s new crew chief, told Jared Turner of FoxSports.com, "Being able to run second for two hundred and some laps to Kevin at Vegas is something that wasn't happening last year. They were struggling to finish 10th. Just being there, being in the thick of it, through the whole run, so far it's been a little bit better for that."
Kahne has won once before at Fontana.
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Will This Be the Week Tony Stewart Breaks Through?
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Tony Stewart, a two-winner at Fontana, just can’t find his mojo. It’s somewhere, but he lost it sometime in 2013. A picture of his mojo is stamped on every carton of milk from Loudon to Fontana in an effort to locate Stewart’s lost swagger.
In four races this year, he has failed to break the top 30. Harvick, Stewart’s teammate and employee, can’t lose, while Stewart can’t buy time on the lead lap.
"The worst stretch Stewart had before this current one was 12 years ago in 2003, when he finished 41st at Auto Club Speedway, 41st at Richmond International Raceway, and 40th at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Still, that season he was able to score two victories and finish seventh in the overall season standings.
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Throwing salt into the wound (sort of) was seeing Kurt Busch come off his three-race suspension to finish fifth at Phoenix. Without missing a beat, Busch earned a top five.
That’s great if you're just the owner, but since he’s competing as well, Stewart has to feel angry and, at least, confused.
He’s 13 spots behind Danica Patrick, his other teammate and employee, in the points standings.
The Secret to Kevin Harvick's Success
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An oft-neglected part of the coverage around Harvick has been his powerful alliance. It’s no coincidence that the best driver on the circuit has benefited from the best team organization in all of NASCAR: Hendrick Motorsports.
FoxSports.com’s Darrell Waltrip makes several good points in his story about how information shared across team borders helps. It helps single-car teams, but it also helps some mammoths like Harvick. Waltrip writes:
"When I look at the No. 4 car, it really reminds me of 1991 and 1992. I had left Hendrick Motorsports to start my own team at the end of 1990. I and crew chief Jeff Hammond literally started with nothing but a desire, a dream and an empty race shop. What made us successful those first two years was our alliance with Hendrick Motorsports. They helped me with information and especially my engines.
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In a weird way, Harvick is like HMS’ fifth driver, and he’s using his team’s own talent and the world-class information from Hendrick to scale mountains. How long can this run last? Waltrip offers his take:
"Heck, for that matter I don't see it stopping next weekend at Martinsville, either, because Kevin is so dominant at that joint too. This team is on fire. Even after winning the championship last year, in talking to both Kevin and Rodney, they both tell me they still feel they have a lot to prove. Right now I honestly don't see anything stopping them.
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Historically great performances are fun to watch. Not since Gordon in the late '90s have we seen a run of this caliber. It’s best just to enjoy it for what it is.
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