FONTANA, Calif. -- It may be called sunny Southern California, but the region certainly didn't live up to that moniker over the weekend as NASCAR visited Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway) for the second race of the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season.
Three days of rain wreaked havoc on NASCAR's practice and qualifying schedule, and after spending hours trying to dry the race surface on Sunday evening, the sanctioning body was forced to postpone the conclusion of the Auto Club 500 until Monday.
Fortunately, clear skies greeted the teams on Monday morning as the race resumed. Carl Edwards, who had one of the fastest cars all day, passed Lowe's Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson with 11 laps remaining to win the event, while Johnson and the No. 48 crew came home second. Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, finished third.
"It's been a great weekend for us," said Johnson, pictured at right with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I really feel from the test session, even through the first and only practice session that we had, that short one we had, we learned a lot about the cars, made a lot of ground. So I'm very thankful to the effort Chad (Knaus, the crew chief) put in and also the (No.) 24 team and how our teams worked together.
"I really feel we're getting on to things. The test session here was discouraging. The Vegas test was better. I'm excited to take what we learned today, actually the last four or five days we've been here -- seems like a month we've been here -- take that to Vegas and improve on it."
Persistent showers kept competitors from getting on track at all for practice or qualifying on Friday. When the decision was made to cancel qualifying, NASCAR set the starting field based on last year's final points standings.
As the defending champion, the move gave Johnson the pole position for the race, but the Team Lowe's Racing driver likely would have traded his starting position for a chance at making some practice laps.
When Johnson and his peers finally did get on track for final practice on Saturday afternoon, the teams completed just 17 laps before more rain curtailed the session.
More showers delayed the start of the race on Sunday afternoon by more than three hours, and when the cars did finally get on the track, it quickly became apparent the race surface would be a concern.
Water began seeping up through the seams in the track's asphalt, a condition known as "weeping." The moisture created hazardous conditions for the drivers, leading to two separate incidents. First, Denny Hamlin lost control of his car when his tires hit the seepage, sending him sliding into the outside retaining wall.
A few laps later, Johnson's teammate Casey Mears hit the wall, setting off a four-car collision that also collected Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. In his post-wreck interview, Mears suggested the water on the track might have played a part in the accident.
As track workers cleaned up the wreckage, NASCAR chose to put the race under red flag conditions. After officials examined the racing surface, the decision was made to have workers use saws to cut grooves in the asphalt, helping to channel the water off the track. It took crews more than an hour to complete the work before the race resumed, with just 24 laps having been completed.
After several caution flags came out for spins and accidents, the rain began to fall again around lap 83. As conditions worsened, NASCAR put out the red flag again on lap 87 and brought the field to pit road, with Johnson being shown in the lead.
For the next four hours, officials waited for the rain to dissipate before resuming track drying efforts. When it became apparent the water seepage would continue to be a problem, NASCAR officially postponed the race around 2 a.m. ET.
The race resumed at about 1:10 p.m. ET on Monday, and Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards traded the lead at various times throughout the event. A loose condition on Johnson's No. 48 Lowe's Chevy caused the driver to drop back in the field, but the chassis changes decided on by Johnson and Knaus helped Team Lowe's Racing move back up the leaderboard.
A caution flag with 19 laps remaining gave Johnson a chance to duck on to pit road for the final time, where quick work by his pit crew gave the Lowe's driver four fresh tires and fuel. Johnson beat Gordon and Edwards off pit road to resume the lead on the final restart.
Edwards was able to get by Gordon shortly after the restart, and he quickly tracked down Johnson as well.
The top five finishers were Edwards, Johnson, Gordon, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth.
With the finish, Johnson sits eighth in the drivers' point standings, 73 points behind leader Kyle Busch.
The Lowe's team next heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where it will seek its fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Series win in the 400-mile race at Vegas. In his six Sprint Cup Series starts at the 1.5-mile superspeedway, Johnson has never finished outside the top 20.
The 400-mile Sprint Cup Series event airs live from Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 2 beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX and PRN Radio affiliates.
TELEVISION SCHEDULE
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Friday, Feb. 29
Sprint Cup practice, 3 p.m. ET on SPEED
Sprint Cup qualifying, 6:30 p.m. ET on SPEED
Saturday, March 1
Sprint Cup practice, 1:30 p.m. ET on SPEED
Sprint Cup final practice, 2:30 p.m. ET on SPEED
Sunday, March 2
Pre-race, 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX
