NASCAR drivers to watch in the Auto Club 400

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will be at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana this weekend for its one and only stop in Southern California.

Danica-mania has died down a little since the Daytona 500 last month when she won the pole and finished in the top 10.

That has been Danica Patrick’s best race so far this season. She crashed at Phoenix International Raceway the following weekend. She was 33^rd at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks after Daytona.

She was 28^th and five laps off the lead lap in Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.

She has cooled off tremendously since Daytona.

Here is a look at the drivers who are hot coming into the Auto Club 400 in Fontana on Sunday.

Kasey Kahne: He won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol and was second in the race in Vegas. Neither track compares to Fontana though. Auto Club Speedway in a wide-open 2-mile oval. Bristol is one of NASCAR’s tiniest tracks, a half-mile bullring. Vegas is a 1.5-mile oval, a tad smaller than the Fontana track.

In Kahne’s favor, though, is his history at Fontana. He won the Cup race at Auto Club Speedway in September of 2006 and had a ninth-place finish in 2010.

Those were before his Hendrick Motorsports days. Still, he is the hottest driver entering the Fontana weekend. His second season with Hendrick didn’t start off so well either. He was 36^th at Daytona and 19^th at Phoenix.

“Since Las Vegas, the test day went really well,” Kahne said after winning at Bristol on Sunday. “I thought we learned some things there, were able to put a really good weekend together, and again this weekend.”

With the win in Bristol, coupled with his runner-up finish in Las Vegas, Kahne is in seventh place in the Sprint Cup Series standings after four races.

“We’ve gained a lot of spots here in the last two weeks and feel really good about where we’re at, where our team’s at,” Kahne said. “There was a lot that went on during the off‑season to get a little bit better. I felt like each one of us needed to get a touch better. So far it’s all paying off. The guys are doing an awesome job.”

Brad Keselowski: The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has yet to finish outside of the top five in the first four races.

He was third at Bristol on Sunday. He won the pole and finished in third place at Las Vegas the previous race. He posted a pair of fourth-place finishes at Daytona and Phoenix. He holds a nine-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Sprint Cup Series standings after the first four races.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: He has four top 10s in the first four races of the year and probably should have won the race at Las Vegas. He led the most laps, but came in fifth place.

His best finish came at Daytona, where he was the runner-up to Jimmie Johnson. Junior is coming off a sixth-place finish at Bristol.

Carl Edwards: He won the Cup race at Phoenix and was fifth at Las Vegas. His only real setback came at Daytona with a 33^rd-place finish.

He comes into the race at Fontana in eighth place in the Sprint Cup Series standings and is coming off an 18^th-place finish at Bristol.

Matt Kenseth: He won the Cup race at Las Vegas, but has been very inconsistent in the other three races. He was seventh in Phoenix, but 35^th at Bristol and 37^th at Daytona.

Still, he is another driver with a successful record at Auto Club Speedway. He also has a new team. Perhaps Joe Gibbs Racing equipment combined with Kenseth’s experience can produce a winning weekend.

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On a more local NASCAR note, Canyon High graduate Greg Pursley won the K&N Pro Series West season opener at Phoenix International Raceway.

The 2011 Pro Series West champion was part of a 1-2 finish for Gene Price Motorsports at the race in Phoenix. Pursley’s teammate, Cameron Hayley, a teenager from Canada, was second in the Phoenix race.

Photo: Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, sits in his car during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on Friday in Fontana, Calif. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images)

NASCAR winless streaks

As hard as it is to believe, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards each have some pretty long NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winless streaks.
Gordon has gone 58 Cup races without a win. He is a three-time winner at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, site of today's Pepsi Max 400. His last win in Fontana came in 2004.
When asked if he knew what it takes to win at Auto Club Speedway, he said, "I don't know. Ask me after Sunday because it's been a while since we've won one anywhere and this track is a tricky one."
Tricky is a relative term. It seems the driver who can get out front at Auto Club Speedway can break away from he rest of the field. The drivers left behind have to work to get to the front.
Still Gordon insists track conditions can present some challenges.
"It's slick. The grooves move around during the race and we haven't had the success here recently that we've had in the past," Gordon said. "Sometimes it takes fuel mileage. Sometimes it takes having a good car on the restarts. Sometimes pit strategy, but a lot of different things. I'll take a fast car anywhere we go, that always help."
Edwards hasn't won a Cup race in his past 65 starts. He is also a former winner at Fontana, coming in the February race in 2008. He is coming off a sixth-place finish at Kansas Speedway last weekend.
"I believe last week was a good test for us," Edwards said. "That Kansas race track is a lot like the Auto Club Speedway. It's going to be a really hot, slippery race on Sunday. It looks like the temperatures are going to be pretty high. I feel like our team has been marching towards this points lead just little bits at a time and I think is an opportunity for us to do that again."

Photo: California native Jeff Gordon is fifth in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup standings after three races. He starts 17th in today's Pepsi Max 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. (Credit: Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Looking back, Carl Edwards was the favorite to top Jimmie Johnson

Before the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season started, the members of the media were asked to predict the top 12 drivers in 2009. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, Jimmie Johnson was not the media’s choice to repeat again as champion.
Until someone beats him, he has to be the favorite.
What’s more telling is that Denny Hamlin and Mark Martin did not receive more support. If anything, those two drivers seemed to be the most motivated to knock Johnson off the top.
The media picked Carl Edwards to win the championship. That was a pretty bold prediction considering he didn’t win a single race in 2009 and only finished in the top three three times. The whole Roush Fenway Racing stable needs improvement. Matt Kenseth’s two wins to start the year at Daytona and Fontana and Jamie McMurray’s fluke win at Talledega were the only victories for Roush Fenway in the Sprint Cup Series.
Here’s a look at the top 12 as voted on by the media:

1. Carl Edwards: 0-for-36 in 2009. His best finish came at Pocono Raceway in June. He was second. He wasn’t particularly impressive in the Chase either and finished 11th.
2. Jimmie Johnson: He won an unprecedented fourth straight Sprint Cup Series championship. Chase or not, he is becoming one of the greats in NASCAR.
3. Kyle Busch: Really? He had four Cup wins. Perhaps more telling, he had five Cup finishes of 30th or worse. Incredibly inconsistent.
4. Jeff Gordon: Think Gordon wanted to see Johnson tie him with four Cup Series championships?
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: It’s easy to see why he is the most popular driver among fans, but there is no excuse for the media to be infatuated with him too.
6. Greg Biffle: Another underachieving Roush Fenway driver. No wins and 10 top 10s in 2009. How did he make the Chase?
7. Kevin Harvick: None of the Richard Childress Racing drivers made the Chase. Harvick not only missed the Chase, he might be missing his seat with RCR in the near future.
8. Mark Martin: Well, at least the media didn’t pick him to finish second, again.
9. Jeff Burton: This is the perfect spot for Burton. He makes the Chase, but doesn’t push the envelope quite enough to make a run at the championship. Typical Burton.
10. Matt Kenseth: Roush Fenway Racing got a lot of respect, even though it ended up the team was going in reverse since February at Fontana.
11. Denny Hamlin: The way he was racing at the end of the Chase this year, it seems like a fire is under him now. This is a bit low and he should have finished better in the poll than Busch.
12. Tony Stewart: Stewart starting his own team probably made everyone a bit nervous. Everyone, that is, except Stewart.

Brian Vickers, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch proved the media experts wrong by making the Chase. For Vickers and Montoya, it was their first time. For Busch, it’s becoming a right of fall for him to make the Chase.
It will be interesting to see if Vickers and Montoya fall into favor this year.
What might be more interesting to see is if Dale Jr. falls out of favor.

Photo: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet battles for position with Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Penn., in June. Edwards ended up with a second-place finish, his best showing of the year, while Johnson was seventh. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)

New team for Casey Mears

Casey Mears spent the past two years driving for Hendrick Motorsports and was a teammate of Jimmie Johnson for two of his three straight Cup championships.
Mears is now the driver of the No. 07 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, but he had a unique perspective on Johnson's team for the past two seasons. He was asked if Johnson gets proper credit for what he has accomplished in NASCAR.
“I think that’s a good question," said Mears, a driver from Bakersfield. "I think the people that know, for the most part, I think he gets great credit. He’s such a damn good guy. I think he gets overlooked a lot, probably. Here’s a guy who has done something that nobody has done in a long time in an era that isn’t even close to how it was in the past."
Johnson and Cale Yarborough are the only two NASCAR drivers to win three straight championships in stock car racing's highest level. The difference between the two feats is that Johnson accomplished his during the Chase era, when NASCAR implemented a 10-race playoff. Some argue that Johnson wasn't the best driver over the entire season, just during the Chase. Kyle Busch won the most races of any driver in the series last year, but stumbled when the Chase started and fell out of contention. Jeff Gordon, Johnson's teammate at Hendrick, emerged as the Chase favorite in 2007, but Johnson put together a better Chase than Gordon and won his second championship.
Mears said the level of competition is greater now than it was when Yarborough was winning his championships.
"Obviously it was competitive in the past, but not near as competitive as it is now," Mears said. "And to do what he’s done in these days, it ridiculous, you know? But I think he’s not one of those guys who is jumping up and down and saying look at what I did. He’s not asking for that attention."
Even though Johnson has won the past three Cup championships, Carl Edwads, a driver for Roush Fenway Racing, has emerged as the favorite to win the Cup championship this year.
"No offense to Carl, and I don’t want this to be taken in a bad way, but when Carl wins, everybody is looking for a back flip," Mears said. "Jimmie does a burnout like everybody else and goes to victory lane. It’s different people get different attention in different ways. And I think Carl is obviously very talented. The fact that he’s picked to win the championship this year is probably just because somebody wants to see something different happen. And he was the next best guy.”

Favorite to win Sprint Cup Series

Depending on who you ask and where you look, Carl Edwards has emerged as the favorite to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
The season-opening Daytona 500 is more than a week away, but it's never too early to start the Cup debate.
Greg Biffle, teammate of Carl Edwards at Rouch Fenway Racing, said Edwards is a favorite only because it's unlikely Jimmie Johnson will win a fourth straight Cup championship. Johnson, a driver from El Cajon, has won the past three Cup championships, tying a mark set by Cale Yarborough.

“I think a lot of people like to play the odds game," Biffle said. "What are the odds of him winning four in a row? I’m not counting him out. I wasn’t the one who said he wasn’t gonna win it (laughing), but I’m just telling you that’s the way people will look at it. They’ll think, ‘Aw, he’s already won three in a row, he won’t win four.’ How many he has won in that past doesn’t have an impact on how he’s gonna do today.”