By Staff
FONTANA, CA. - Matt Kenseth speaks softly. He lets his driving do the talking.
He did it again Sunday at California Speedway, repeatedly holding off the challenges of some of NASCAR's biggest names.
After David Reutimann crashed hard into the outside wall less than 10 laps from the finish, Kenseth returned to the front of the field out of the pits and held off Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton for five furious laps over the two-mile track.
He had previously held off hard-charging Kevin Harvick, the Daytona 500 champion, who was also poised to make a run at Kenseth's Ford down the stretch. Harvick's Chevy, however, had a flat left front tire as the cars were coming to the green flag. His stop knocked him back to 17th finish position.
Kenseth's Sunday win came on the heels of a Saturday night victory in a NASCAR Busch Series race.
Rounding out the top 10 were ageless Mark Martin in fifth, Clint Bowyer sixth, Kurt Busch seventh, Tony Stewart eighth, Kyle Busch ninth and Brian Vickers 10th.
Vickers, who failed to qualify his new Red Bull Toyota for the Daytona 500, was in contention throughout the day.
Kenseth earned his win the hard way, leading the most laps.
The race was only eight laps old when Scott Riggs lost control of his Dodge and slammed into the outside "safer" wall, collecting Jamie McMurray and Reed Sorensen in the aftermath.
Just a few laps after the restart, hard-luck Martin Truex Jr. lost an engine in turn one, trailing smoke like a truck spewing mosquito spray.
Truex's teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a flat tire on the restart and rookie David Ragan spun to bring the caution out again. Earnhardt lost a lap while limping around to his pit.
As some of the lead cars started making pit stops after 50 laps, Sterling Marlin brought out the day's fourth caution when something odd happened to his car on the straightaway. A right rear tire went flat, spinning Marlin's machine into the outside wall.
Harvick, who came out of the pits in third place, was sent to the rear of the field before the restart for speeding on pit road.
Kenseth maintained his lead for just a few laps after the restart when Stewart motored to the front.
Fan favorite Earnhardt fell off the pace with engine problems and ended his day at 70 laps. Kasey Kahne also had engine problems.
Kenseth once again took the lead off pit road after the fifth caution flag fell for debris on the track. Stewart was once again in hot pursuit.
At the midpoint of the race, it was Kenseth, Stewart, Johnson, Bowyer, Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Vickers and Martin.
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