1 7 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet 250 195
2 6 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet 250 175
3 14 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 250 170
4 10 5 Mark Martin GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 250 165
5 19 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota 250 155
6 12 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 250 155
7 20 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Ford 250 146
8 3 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 250 147
9 16 14 Tony Stewart Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet 250 138
10 35 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford 250 134
11 13 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota 250 135
12 23 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 250 132
13 31 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 250 124
14 9 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 250 126
15 11 00 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota 250 118
16 8 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Auto Club Dodge 250 115
17 1 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet 250 112
18 36 98 Paul Menard Energizer/Menards Ford 250 109
19 22 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 250 106
20 28 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet 250 108
21 21 12 Brad Keselowski AAA Insurance Dodge Dodge 250 100
22 17 36 Mike Bliss Wave Energy Drink Chevrolet 250 97
23 15 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 250 94
24 37 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Ford 249 91
25 29 43 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Ford 249 88
26 41 38 David Gilliland Taco Bell Ford 249 85
27 33 71 Bobby Labonte TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet 249 82
28 43 13 Max Papis GEICO Toyota 249 79
29 25 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 248 81
30 39 34 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver’s Ford 248 73
31 38 37 Kevin Conway # Extenze Ford 247 70
32 27 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy Juice / National Guard Chevrolet 238 67
33 40 7 Robby Gordon Warner Music Nashville Toyota 230 64
34 4 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Ford 221 61
35 26 47 Marcos Ambrose Armor All Toyota 170 58
36 18 39 Ryan Newman Haas Automation Chevrolet 148 55
37 2 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet 140 57
38 42 26 Boris Said Sacred Power/Southern Pride Trucking Ford 67 49
39 34 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Toyota 64 46
40 32 87 Joe Nemechek FrontRowJoe.com Toyota 48 43
41 5 66 Dave Blaney Prism Motorsports Toyota 43 45
42 30 55 Michael McDowell Prism Motorsports Toyota 40 37
43 24 09 Aric Almirola Phoenix Racing Chevrolet 34 34
s

QUICK RECAP | AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
10 Greg Biffle
9 Tony Stewart
8 Clint Bowyer
7 Matt Kenseth
6 Kurt Busch
5 Joey Logano
4 Mark Martin
3 Jeff Burton 6th career top 5 at California
2 Kevin Harvick hit the wall in the closing laps, giving up the win, but takes over the points lead

VICTORY LANE

1 The driver of the 48 car get’s his 48th career win. It’s Jimmie Johnson’s 5th career win at California, as he continues his streak of Doom at Daytona, and Fantastic at Fontana. He led 8 times for 101 laps, the most of any other driver.

FULL RACE RESULTS – AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY – RACE #2 OF 36

OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY

-First caution was for debris

-Martin Truex Jr. (39th) lost power on lap 65 after a decent start to this race

-Kasey Kahne (34th) went for a spin through the grass

-Juan Pablo Montoya the outside pole sitter, blew an engine and did not finish (DNF)(37th)

-Ryan Newman (36th) also had engine issues, along with Jeff Gordon (20th)

-Jamie McMurray got loose and hit the #00 of David Reutimann

-Dale Earnhardt Jr. (32nd) broke a rear axle while leaving pit road, after another race in the 20’s again.

-Rain brought out the 5th caution, Denny Hamlin (29th) came to the pits for fuel, and Scott Speed assumed the lead

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(February 20, 2010)

Photo: CIA Stock Photo

FONTANA, Calif. — With a last-lap pass of Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch stole a win in the Stater Bros. 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway — a victory that came at the expense of the race’s dominant driver, Busch’s teammate, Joey Logano.

Busch finished .051 seconds ahead of Biffle, who sent Logano — then the leader — up the track after the restart for a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race two laps beyond its scheduled distance of 150 laps.

Busch locked onto Biffle’s rear bumper to start the final lap, and when Biffle slipped slightly, Busch dived to the inside. Third-place finisher Brad Keselowski took it three-wide below Busch in Turn 3 but couldn’t sustain his momentum, and Busch won a drag race off Turn 4 to edge Biffle.

The victory was Busch’s 31st in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, tying him with Jack Ingram for third on the career win list. Danica Patrick finished 31st, three laps down, in her second start in the series.

“We went off into (Turn) 1, and Joey got loose and slid way across the racetrack, and I had to turn underneath him and try to not get boxed in,” Busch said. “Then we went down the back, and I was inside of Biffle, and I’m like, ‘Man, I wish I was on the outside right now.’

“Then we got into (Turn) 3, and Keselowski put his nose in, and I thought we were going to wreck, but somehow we held on to it. (Biffle) ended up getting a little bit loose, so I was able to get to his inside. Man, it was exciting there, coming to the finish.”

Logano, who started from the pole and led 130 laps, had an issue with what he considered Biffle’s aggressiveness on the final restart. Logano and Biffle had traded shots during a NASCAR Nationwide race at the California track last October.

“I don’t know what his deal is with me, but for some reason, in California, he feels like putting me in the fence or hitting me towards the end,” said Logano, who spun through the infield grass on the final lap but still finished one spot behind fourth-place Carl Edwards. “I know we were racing hard there at the end, but — I don’t know — I think he could have done it a little cleaner than that.”

Biffle had a different version of the final restart.

“It was a rookie mistake,” Biffle said. “He spun his tires on the restart and couldn’t get going. … If Joey hadn’t spun his tires on that last restart, I never would have had a chance at him. I had a front-row seat, and I was inside of him, and he came down the racetrack.”

Logano had a comfortable lead over Busch when NASCAR threw the fourth caution of the race for Brendan Gaughan’s spin in Turn 3 on Lap 144.

Note: The margin of victory was the 10th closest in NASCAR Nationwide Series history. … Patrick suffered a pair of pit road speeding penalties and lost one of her three laps on a pass-through penalty.

Great American Dream: McMurray Still Can’t Believe Daytona Win

Guest Column by Cathy Elliott

Some dreams are so big, and seem so unattainable, that even the dreamer doesn’t believe they can ever come true.

Just ask 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray. After the race, McMurray talked about the experience of seeing the checkered flag in front of him … and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., one of the best superspeedway racers in NASCAR, coming up behind him. Fast.

“To be honest, I was like, ‘Crap,’” he said. “This guy has won a lot of races here; he has incredible history here. I hope this isn’t his turn to win the Daytona 500.

“I hope it’s my turn.”

That’s a great line, and as it turned out, it WAS McMurray’s turn to win the most prestigious event on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule.

But when it’s all said and done, Jamie will be best remembered not for what he said, but for what he couldn’t say, because he was crying too hard.

There is a tremendous difference between things we plan to do and things we dream of doing. Plans take on the personality of achievable goals, usually with some sort of deadline attached. “I’m going to have all the laundry done by the end of the day,” for example, or “I’m going to burn off 500 calories before I leave this gym.”

Dreams, on the other hand, are where we really cut loose. Some people have never seen the ocean, for example, or the Grand Canyon. Airplane pilots can fly, but most of them will never set foot on the moon. Many writers can tell great stories, but most of them will never publish a book.

And race car drivers can drive, but most of them will never win the Daytona 500.

McMurray has established himself as being a very good restrictor plate racer, but he seemed just as surprised by his victory as anyone else, remarking that his wife had asked him earlier in the race week what it would mean for him to win the Daytona 500. He had no answer for her.

“I don’t know that I had ever asked myself that question before,” he said.

It’s fun to dream big, but on those rare occasions when dreams become reality, it can really knock the wind out of your sails. It is impossible to predict what any given person’s reaction will be. In McMurray’s case, it was a spectacularly surprising one.

One of the best race car drivers in the world, a member of NASCAR’s elite Sprint Cup Series, completely broke down.

He fell to his knees and kissed the race logo on the infield grass. He buried his face in a towel in Victory Lane and sobbed. A crowd of seasoned reporters sat in respectful silence in the media room, waiting for him to compose himself as he cried on stage.

Under different circumstances, the scene might have provided comic relief for sports shows nationwide, complete with jokes about potential Kleenex sponsorships and such. But the beauty of this particular driver, on this particular day, was that not even the most jaded among us could find anything to laugh about.

Because we were all crying right along with him.

In terms of sports images, Jamie McMurray’s victory in the Daytona 500 will surely go down in history as one of the most emotional moments of 2010. It was raw, and it was real. And like the magic dust of fairy tales, a little bit of it rubbed off on all of us, because we didn’t just sit back and observe it — we felt it.

I am a huge admirer of Jimmie Johnson, but let’s face it. We have gotten so accustomed to seeing him win that a lot of the thrill is gone.

McMurray did us a huge favor on February 14; his behavior served as a reminder of the thing that attracted us to the sport of NASCAR in the first place — emotion.

If tears speak where words fail, he pretty much said it all. What a wonderful moment it was, watching a grown man cry.

The opinions expressed in this articles are solely those of the author and not this website.

1 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet 39.185 183.744
2 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet 39.242 183.477
3 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 39.317 183.127
4 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Ford 39.363 182.913
5 66 Dave Blaney Prism Motorsports Toyota 39.364 182.908
6 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet 39.366 182.899
7 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet 39.368 182.890
8 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Auto Club Dodge 39.385 182.811
9 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 39.390 182.788
10 5 Mark Martin GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 39.400 182.741
11 00 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota 39.431 182.597
12 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 39.497 182.292
13 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota 39.518 182.195
14 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 39.542 182.085
15 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 39.566 181.974
16 14 Tony Stewart Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet 39.586 181.882
17 36 Mike Bliss Wave Energy Drink Chevrolet 39.615 181.749
18 39 Ryan Newman Haas Automation Chevrolet 39.620 181.726
19 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota 39.632 181.671
20 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Ford 39.669 181.502
21 12 Brad Keselowski AAA Insurance Dodge Dodge 39.706 181.333
22 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 39.708 181.324
23 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 39.710 181.315
24 09 Aric Almirola Phoenix Racing Chevrolet 39.710 181.315
25 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 39.713 181.301
26 47 Marcos Ambrose Armor All Toyota 39.729 181.228
27 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy Juice / National Guard Chevrolet 39.755 181.109
28 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet 39.767 181.055
29 43 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Ford 39.770 181.041
30 55 Michael McDowell Prism Motorsports Toyota 39.802 180.895
31 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 39.830 180.768
32 87 Joe Nemechek FrontRowJoe.com Toyota 39.833 180.755
33 71 Bobby Labonte TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet 39.870 180.587
34 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Toyota 39.884 180.524
35 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford 39.928 180.325
36 98 Paul Menard Energizer/Menards Ford 39.982 180.081
37 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Ford 40.018 179.919
38 37 Kevin Conway # Extenze Ford 40.158 179.292
39 34 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver’s Ford 40.229 178.975
40 7 Robby Gordon Warner Music Nashville Toyota Owner Points
41 38 David Gilliland Taco Bell Ford Owner Points
42 26 Boris Said Sacred Power/Southern Pride Trucking Ford Owner Points
43 13 Max Papis GEICO Toyota 39.889 180.501

Did Not Qualify: 90 Casey Mears; 35 Johnny Sauter; 46 Terry Cook.