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By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(October 10, 2010)

FONTANA, Calif.—Tony Stewart still needs help to catch NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson, but he jump-started his climb back into contention for the series championship Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.

Stewart beat resilient Clint Bowyer to the finish line by .466 seconds In Sunday’s Pepsi Max 400 to win his first race at the 2-mile track, his second of the year and the 39th of his career.

In sharp contrast to Stewart’s win, which left him 107 points behind third-place finisher and Chase leader Jimmie Johnson, a handful of Chase drivers took big hits in the championship battle.

Down for the count are Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle, both of whom suffered blown engines. An ignition rotor failure KO’d Carl Edwards, and a late-race wreck with David Ragan all but dashed Kurt Busch’s chances for a second title.

Johnson, on the other hand, leaves his home track 36 points ahead of second-place Denny Hamlin, who came home eighth Sunday. With the Chase field spreading out four races into the series’ postseason, only Hamlin, Kevin Harvick (54 points back) and Jeff Gordon (85 back) are within 100 points of the four-time defending champion with six races left.

Non-Chasers Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and Mark Martin finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Harvick came home seventh, followed by Hamlin, Gordon and David Reutimann.

Stewart, who gets his engines and chassis from Hendrick Motorsports, isn’t about to discount his chances of winning a third NASCAR Sprint Cup title.

“We’re doing everything we can do,” said Stewart, who took the lead one lap after a restart on Lap 188 and held it the rest of the way. “We’re going to need some help, but we’re doing everything we can do. I’m proud of these guys, and just so thankful … they refuse to give up, they refuse to back down. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing here.”

Though happy to have a fast racecar, Bowyer was disappointed to leave Fontana without a victory. Bowyer won the first Chase race, at New Hampshire, only to have the victory tainted by a 150-point penalty after his winning car failed inspection at NASCAR’s tech center in Concord, N.C.

“A good run was crucial for our race team after what had happened with our win, and we got that today. But I was frustrated I didn’t get a win,” said Bowyer, who passed Johnson for the runner-up position after a restart with two laps left in the race.

“I really, really wanted to win just to set the record straight on what had happened with the last win. We’re capable of winning races, and if we keep doing what we did today, we’re going to win another one.”

It was a disastrous day for Roush Fenway Racing, which got a team-best finish of 30th from Matt Kenseth. Biffle’s engine exploded on Lap 40, relegating him to a 41st-place result.

On a restart 18 laps later, Edwards developed his ignition problem and lost 14 laps while his crew repaired his No. 99 Ford. Edwards finished 34th and, like Biffle, sustained a crushing blow to his championship hopes.

Biffle, last week’s winner at Kansas, summed it up after climbing from his car: “It’s disappointing, but what can you do? It broke. Everybody is giving this program 110 percent, so you can’t blame anybody. We were trying hard to win the title—and it isn’t going to happen this year.”

Likewise, Kyle Busch saw his title aspirations disappear in smoke when his engine blew on Lap 154. He finished 35th.

Gordon also took a hit in the points after being flagged for speeding on pit road during stops under caution on Lap 156. He rallied for a ninth-place finish but still lost significant ground to Johnson.

In sweeping the top three positions, Chevrolet won its 34th manufacturers’ championship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

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1 22 14 Tony Stewart Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet
2 13 33 Clint Bowyer The Hartford Chevrolet
3 8 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/Jimmie Johnson Foundation Chevrolet
4 5 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Ford
5 14 39 Ryan Newman Tornados Chevrolet
6 11 5 Mark Martin CARQUEST/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
7 21 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet
8 34 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota
9 17 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont/Pepsi Max Chevrolet
10 23 00 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota
11 10 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota
12 19 78 Regan Smith Farm American Chevrolet
13 2 19 Elliott Sadler Reynolds Wrap Ford
14 4 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet
15 37 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge
16 9 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet
17 1 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald’s Chevrolet
18 6 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Toyota
19 30 43 A J Allmendinger Valvoline Ford
20 32 38 David Gilliland Taco Bell Ford
21 38 2 Kurt Busch Operation Home Front/Miller Lite Dodge
22 24 98 Paul Menard Vertis/Menards Ford
23 15 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet
24 29 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota
25 12 13 Casey Mears GEICO Toyota
26 25 12 Brad Keselowski No. 12 Penske Dodge
27 27 83 Reed Sorenson Red Bull Toyota
28 40 34 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver’s Ford
29 39 37 Dave Blaney A&W All American Food Ford
30 3 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Ford
31 41 7 Kevin Conway # Extenze Toyota
32 18 6 David Ragan UPS Freight Ford
33 26 47 Marcos Ambrose Little Debbie Toyota
34 20 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford
35 16 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota
36 42 71 Andy Lally The Media Barons Chevrolet
37 35 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota
38 43 09 Bobby Labonte Phoenix Construction Chevrolet
39 28 46 Michael McDowell Whitney’s Collision Centers Chevrolet
40 36 64 Landon Cassill Little Joe’s Autos Toyota
41 7 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford
42 31 36 J J Yeley Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet
43 33 66 Jason Leffler PRISM Motorsports Toyota

Note: Before an estimated crowd of 70,000

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RACE RECAP | CALIFORNIA

10 David Reutimann
9 Jeff Gordon
8 Denny Hamlin
7 Kevin Harvick
6 Mark Martin
5 Ryan Newman
4 Kasey Kahne
3 Jimmie Johnson increased his points lead to 36
2 Clint Bowyer remains in 12th place

VICTORY LANE

1 Tony Stewart wins his first career race in 19 starts at California, 2nd win this season, 39th career Cup Series win, and rockets to 5th in the points

OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY

-The engine on Greg Biffle’s #16 car blew up ending his Chase hopes after winning at Kansas. Biffle ends up 41st.

-Marcos Ambrose brought out the caution on lap 54 after his 47 car just spun around.

-On lap 58 Carl Edwards slowed coming to the green and stopped. The 99 went to the garage to fix a distributer problem. Edwards takes home a 34th place

-Kyle Busch’s 18 car erupted in a ball of smoke ending his day, sending him to 35th

-Jeff Gordon was caught speeding on pit road after running up front all day

-Kurt Busch wrecked with David Ragan with 7 laps to go, Busch finished 21st

-Matt Kenseth finished 30th as his engine was letting go with 10 laps to go

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How NASCAR should fix the Nationwide Series
By: Kerry Murphey
Photo Credit: NASCARMedia used with permission

The records that Kyle Busch is breaking this year in the Nationwide Series are not impressive at all. For the simple reason, he, or any other Cup Series driver does not belong down there in the first place. Of course Kyle wins all the time, of course Kyle is breaking all the records in that series, he’s better than anyone else out there. He has top notch equipment and talent, and should not be racing in the lower divisions of NASCAR once achieving entry into the pinnacle of the sport.

It’s like Tiger Woods playing at the amateur level again, a major league baseball player going down to the minors outside of a rehab assignment, or Michael Jordan playing college ball again. NASCAR, unlike any other sport, allows their top athletes to go down a level or two to whoop it up on the up and comers.

The reason the Nationwide Series has been dubbed “Cup Light” is because week after week, especially on companion events, the stars of the sport hop in their top tier race cars and destroy the credibility of the lower divisions. This not only hurts the Cup Series, because it makes achieving that level less special, it hurts the lower series because they lose their own identity and opportunity for young talent to rise through the ranks.

Why are drivers like Justin Allgaier and Trevor Bayne losing rides and sponsors? It’s because the sponsors would rather put their money into a Cup driver since they’ll be running up front without question. It’s a no brainer. Meanwhile it makes it harder and harder for new talent to advance due to lack of sponsorship and lack of good equipment to showcase their talents.

Having so many Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series also dilutes the Cup Series itself. The ongoing argument is that having these drivers achieves two goals. First, they attract a larger audience in the grandstands and on television. The evidence of that was pretty hard to see on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway, as the grandstands were not so ‘grand.’ According to NASCAR it was “Before an estimated crowd of 25,000.” Seriously, 25k? The pitiful L.A. Dodgers get more than that on a Tuesday night against the Pirates. Clearly the Cup drivers are not bringing in the crowds. Second, it allows the younger drivers to race against these top notch drivers to learn from them, well this may or may not be true, but sounds good on paper.

So here’s my suggested solutions since keeping the Cup drivers isn’t achieving anything significant.

There shouldn’t be any Cup Series drivers allowed after 3 years of making their Cup Series debut. Why am I giving this grace period? Simple, seat time is everything in this sport, and for developing drivers it’s needed to run both series for a while. Once you graduate after the 3 years under your belt, that’s it, you’re done going backwards, you are now a prestigious Cup Series driver and it should be an honor to get to that level. Major League Baseball players refer to getting to the MLB as ‘the show’ because that is the best of the best, the top level you can be in baseball. If you keep heading back to the minors, it’s because you are either injured, or you can’t cut it up there. Would you put Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards etc. in that category?Certainly not. I would however, have provisions in the rules for say a driver that loses their full time Cup ride and can only get a Nationwide Series ride to be allowed back. Drivers have to feed their families too.

By making these simple changes, the NASCAR Nationwide Series would instantly have it’s identity back. ‘The Future Stars of NASCAR’ would be one way to promote it for example. It would be a place where we can see unique cars like the Mustang and Challenger racing, and the up and coming driver talent with sponsors backing them for who they are. The racing would be unique, the cars would be unique, and the drivers would be unique. The alternative is watching the Cup superstars dominate week after week.

Kerry Murphey is a syndicated radio host, podcaster, and writer on all things NASCAR.

Follow him at http://twitter.com/thefinallap and http://facebook.com/thefinallap