Pepsi 500: California Shooting and Falling Stars

While the Pepsi 500 race at the Auto Club Speedway began in the glare of day, the sun set and the stars then began to shine brightly in the Fontana, California sky.

In fact, the sky was full of stars on the eve of Labor Day, some shooting stars and some falling stars.  And then, there were some drivers and teams who were simply star crossed.

The brightest star of all was Jimmie Johnson, who absolutely dominated the field throughout the race.  While almost all the other drivers muscled extremely loose cars around the track, Johnson seemed to breeze effortlessly through the California night. 

Johnson's stars were so aligned that he even surpassed superstar Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to take over the third position in the championship points race.  Johnson is now meteorically surging, as he always seems to do at this time of year, preparing to do serious battle with Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in this year's Cup contest.

Other shooting stars included Greg Biffle in his 3M Ford.  Biffle actually had Johnson in his sights on some of the later runs and after some of his quick pit stops.  But Johnson's star was just too bright and he outshone second place Biff by a mile.

Another driver twinkled brightly in the Fontana sky, in spite of declaring that he and his team should not even be in the championship chase just the week before.  Denny Hamlin in the FedEx Toyota had something to prove, and he most certainly redeemed himself on this Sunday night with a solid third place finish.

There were some falling stars, however, at the Auto Club Speedway.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. lost a little bit of his shine with an 11th place finish, dropping him into fourth place in the Chase battle.

Another falling star was past Cup champ Tony Stewart, who fell two positions, from sixth to eighth, in the Chase race.  Smoke struggled with his Subway/Home Depot Toyota throughout the evening, ending the race with a disappointing 22nd finish.

There was one team, however, that seemed completely star crossed, and that was the 24 Pepsi/Dupont Chevrolet team.  While Jeff Gordon managed to qualify the car in the third position, he fell like a rocket ship plummeting back to earth throughout the race.  Every adjustment that crew chief Steve Letarte made seemed at cross purposes for the way that Gordon wanted or was able to drive the car. 

This Hendrick team may be so star crossed as to fall out of the championship completely as they are now backed up to the 10th position in the points standings.  In fact, Denny Hamlin, who is only nine points behind Gordon, may be able to shoot past him at the next and final race before the Chase officially begins.

Shooting stars symbolize fleeting moments in life filled with wonder or times when one reaches an ultimate goal.  Right now, Jimmie Johnson seems to be the brightest of these shooting stars in the NASCAR universe.  Will he continue to burn brilliantly as he marches across the Chase sky? 

Or will the shooting stars of Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards sparkle just a little bit more brightly?  Or perhaps even more likely, will the two stars collide, leaving the darkness for another driver to fill?   

There is only one race left for all fans to wish upon their favorite star to decide which NASCAR star will shoot to the top....and which star will fall out of this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.