Brickyard 400 media day unlike any other

In two weeks I’ll be on the road to the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and you know I couldn’t be happier about it. The Brickyard 400 is a big deal, a huge deal, for me and a lot of other NASCAR drivers.

Jeff Gordon has won it four times, Tony Stewart has done it twice, and Kevin Harvick became the first-ever driver to win from the pole in 2003. Jamie McMurray captured a win in the Brickyard 400 last year, months after winning the Daytona 500.

From left: Felix Sabates, McMurray and Chip Ganassi in the post-race press conference at IMS

“Getting to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 means more to me this year than making the Chase,” McMurray said after winning last year. “This year or in 10 years, the guy that won that race one time everybody will talk about. The guy that finished third in the points, nobody cares.”

Winning once at Indy immortalizes you amongst the greats, and not just the NASCAR greats. If you look at this list of winners at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway you’ll be reminded of history: Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Mears, Fittipaldi and Luyendyk. Names that made the world-famous 2.5-mile rectangle in Speedway, Ind., their home and they invited NASCAR into it.

A win at Indy is priceless.

But some of the best drivers in the sport have yet to visit victory lane, which is why, every year, the same question is asked: “What would it mean to win at Indy?”

Martin and Montoya prepare to start the 2009 Brickyard 400, a race that Montoya dominated, but was caught speeding on pit road, and Martin finished second to Jimmie Johnson

Mark Martin has never done it in NASCAR’s top division (he does have three IROC wins at IMS). Dale Earnhardt Jr. has also never won at IMS, and Juan Pablo Montoya has won the Indy 500 and the U.S Grand Prix, but has never won the Brickyard 400.

To each of these men close is not good enough. They’d love nothing more than to step into Victory Lane, and all three are fan favorites.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning at Indy would make a lot of fans very happy. His dad won in 1995.

But this season has been a season of firsts: Trevor Bayne’s exciting Daytona 500 win, Regan Smith capturing victory at the Southern 500 and David Ragan’s first career win at Daytona two weeks ago have all made headlines.

It seems we’re due for an unlikely winner at Indy.

In two weeks, when media day is upon us, maybe the question to every driver at Indy should be, “Who’s going to be the surprise winner this time?”

I’ll be there. And I can not wait. The countdown is on to the Brickyard 400.

Quaker State 400 Countdown: How much Silly Season news will break at Kentucky?

Three years ago, on July 4th weekend at Daytona, Mark Martin and Rick Hendrick sat at a table and announced that the then 49-year-old Batesville, Ark., native would be driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for NASCAR’s so-called “Super Team” starting in 2009.

Last year, in late July, Martin lambasted reporters for saying he should step aside in the No. 5 one year early to make room for Kasey Kahne, who HMS signed in April of 2010.

Mark Martin was unhappy with a few reporters at last year's Brickyard 400 media day when reporters suggested that ESPN's Ray Evernham was right to say Martin should step out of his car at Hendrick Motorsports one year early to make room for Kasey Kahne

The past few weeks have been full of “Silly Season” news, the most shocking bombshell dropped a few weeks ago when Red Bull Racing announced the team’s Austrian ownership was pulling out of the sport.

Clint Bowyer was apparently close to a deal with Red Bull Racing. Or maybe not. He had his own little tirade last week at Sonoma.

“You guys are pretty creative, you really are pretty good at creating stories and stuff like that,” he told reporters last Friday. “You run into people in the garage and it’s like ‘Hey, what are you going to do next year?’ And it’s like, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ (They say) ‘Well, we might be interested.’ Then the next thing you know, you’re standing on a golf course and everybody is saying ‘Well, now what are you going to do? Your plan just blew up.’ It’s like, what?”

The lynchpin in the whole Silly Season is Carl Edwards, who is in his last year with Roush Fenway Racing. If Edwards stays at RFR, things become a little clearer. If he leaves, wherever he ends up could start the proverbial domino fall.

Juan Pablo Montoya wants to resign with Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, and he wants to do so soon. “We’re pretty close,” Montoya said last Friday at Infineon. “I think we’re pretty close, yeah.”

Brian Vickers's No. 83 at Indy in 2009

And Kasey Kahne is scared about the future of Red Bull Racing. Even though Kahne is going to pilot the No. 5 next season, he will finish out the year in the No. 4 at RBR. “As far as Red Bull putting everything they have into the car and the program the rest of the season, they're going to do that,” he said, as reported by SBNation’s Jeff Gluck. “They've said that. But it's the people. And if the people feel like they're in a stable place, they're going to do a better job – they're going to perform better.”

What will happen within the next week, and will anything break in front of my very eyes at Kentucky? It will be quite interesting to see if anything breaks. And if it does, plan on seeing it here, or on my Twitter page: @adamniemeyer

We’re seven days from the NASCAR Nationwide Series “Feed the Children 300” at Kentucky. More to follow this week about the first-ever tripleheader at Kentucky.

Boys had at it in Sonoma

Before the weekend Tony Stewart said everyone loves Sonoma because it’s almost a getaway vacation for drivers and their girlfriends and/or wives. Something tells me after Sunday’s race, no one was happy sans Kurt Busch and his wife Eva.

Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers had a spat. Joey Logano and Robby Gordon decided that their orange paint schemes needed to be swapped. And Juan Pablo Montoya just ran over everyone in his way late in the race before Brad Keselowski ended JPM’s bulldozer day by punting the No. 42.

“Montoya just drove through me at the top of the hill, that’s just obvious,” Kahne said. “Last year when (the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) cars were really, really good and Jamie McMurray was the man, Juan still couldn’t win a race. That shows about what he can do here in NASCAR anyways.”

Ouch. Montoya, naturally, didn’t see things the same way.

“I got beside (Kahne) and he knocked me a couple of times, and they just don’t give me any room so it was hard,” Montoya said. “The No. 2, I got on his bumper moved him a little bit, got beside him and passed him and he just plain and simple wrecked us. It’s hard when people don’t know how to race on road courses and think they do. It’s OK.”

And that comes from one of the supposed best road racers on the circuit.

Keselowski gave his side, saying, “The body language of Juan’s car said he was going to wreck me. I just made sure that didn’t happen.”

“I don’t race guys that way and I’m not going to let anybody race me that way,” Stewart said. “So if they block, they get dumped. Plain and simple.”

Even the race winner, whose bumpers were awfully clean, if not pristine, chimed in.

“This sport was based off of guys roughing each other up,” Kurt Busch said. “That’s that good old short track racing that we see – the good old door slamming, bumper to bumper. It’s the heritage of our sport.”

Stewart has been angry all season about the way some drivers have raced.

“I’ve been complaining about the way guys have been racing all year,” said Stewart. “I like Brian; I’m not holding it against him at all. I don’t care if it was [teammate] Ryan Newman. I would have dumped him, too. If they want to block, that’s what is going to happen to them every time for the rest of my career.”

And darn it, those were just the post-race interviews on Sunday.

The race was even more entertaining. Who was next? What was going to happen and in what turn would it happen? And how interesting did all this beating and banging suddenly make this week’s upcoming race at Daytona?

With the new version of restrictor plate racing, I doubt anything will transpire, but it will be very interesting to see what comes of all the post-race chatter.

This was truly what NASCAR wanted when they implemented the “Boys have at it” policy last season. Drivers got mad, used their bumpers, retaliated, and policed themselves.

I can’t wait to see how this plays out at Daytona. It’s going to be wild…and fun.

NASCAR Feud: Montoya and Newman

While Kyle Busch was running away with his third straight Richmond spring race win, the most interesting storyline of the race was unfolding behind him. Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman decided to have their own bumper car session.

And was it entertaining.

It was started when Newman, a relatively cool-headed driver, bumped heads—and bumpers—with Montoya early in the race. It was necessarily his fault that Montoya’s No. 42 sliced across his front bumper as the two cars exited the second turn, sending the right rear of Montoya’s red car into the outside wall, crumpling his spoiler and ending all chances he had to be competitive.

Montoya felt Newman was in the wrong, even though Newman sent his spotter down to apologize to Montoya for the perceived aggressiveness. “He crashed himself, basically, Newman told reporters after meeting with officials in the NASCAR hauler. “I don’t know if he thought it was on purpose, but the message was delivered that it wasn't intentional. Either way, he ruined our day at that point and then finished our day off later in the race – on purpose.”

Montoya is widely known for being a hothead. And that’s not just from me.

Last year he told Mark Martin—widely seen as one of the cleanest racers in the garage—that he needed driving lessons after the two rubbed fenders in Chicago, battling for 15th place. “I don’t disagree with him. I need driving lessons,” Martin said.

Mark Martin tells gathered media members about his battle with Montoya on media day at Indianapolis (IMS.com photo)

Montoya and Martin resolved their differences over text message after the event. “We’re good,” Martin said. “Two hotheads that came off the handle. People just didn’t know that I was a hothead... It had 100 percent to do with the circumstances, what happened after the race. Actually I was pleased with my finish in Chicago. I was pleased with my finish and our effort but I lost my temper.”

Montoya and Newman have a history as well. During Montoya’s first race in 2006—the series finale at Homestead—Newman, who was driving for Penske Racing, got spun by Montoya early in the race. Montoya didn’t finish the race because he bounced off of Newman’s bumper, then the wall.

Pictured here with car owner Chip Ganassi, Juan Pablo Montoya, a lightning-rod figure in NASCAR

And at the last Sprint Cup race before Saturday’s event, Newman hit Montoya at Talladega after being turned by Denny Hamlin.

Newman told his team over the radio that he'd "take care of [Montoya] after the race."

Needless to say, there’s not much love between the two men.

Hamlin even chimed in during his post-race press conference. “Every time Montoya has damage, you see who did it, they usually end up getting wrecked. ... I like him, I think he's a helluva driver, but you can't wreck everyone every time you get in an accident,” he told media members.

Montoya ducked past TV cameras waiting near his hauler including FOX’s Dr. Dick Berggren.

Darlington is the track nicknamed “Too Tough to Tame,” but will this weekend’s storylines be centered on the ongoing NASCAR Feud of Montoya and Newman? It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

And you better hope that your favorite driver is nowhere near these two if they get close to one another, as to avoid your guy becoming collateral damage.

This story is nowhere near being complete, but it added a fiery and fun chapter this weekend. If only every race was filled with such tension.

Shootout full of two-car drama

In 33 years the Bud Shootout has never seen so many lead changes. Two-car packs made the Budweiser Shootout a rather bland display of racing at Daytona. Big packs of the past that were familiar at Daytona have been replaced by two-car tandems that reached speeds of nearly 207 mph.

Kurt Busch won the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday evening, beating Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman back to the line. It was one of 28 lead changes on the evening.

“I want to thank my engine department: Jamie McMurray,” Busch said in victory lane.

But the finish didn’t come without some controversy. After all, it’s Daytona.

Coming off the fourth turn, Busch was third behind Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin ducked out behind Newman and passed Newman’s No. 39. NASCAR deemed the pass to be illegal since Hamlin’s car dropped beneath the double yellow line that NASCAR deems out of bounds.

“I knew I was a sitting duck,” Newman said. “I knew it was going to happen off of four. I just didn’t know where [Hamlin] was going to go.”

“It just worked out that I got behind Kurt,” McMurray said. “I’m glad I could push him to the win.”

Two-car packs also dominated the first 25 laps of the event. Jeff Burton won the segment, being pushed by his Richard Childress Racing teammate, two-time defending Shootout champ Kevin Harvick.

A six-car incident caused the night’s first yellow. Carl Edwards and Regan Smith came up too quickly on Dale Jr., causing the polesitter to slam the outside wall. The wreck also caught Kevin Conway, Joey Logano and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Two laps later Mark Martin got into Kyle Busch at the entrance of turn one and spun Busch’s Toyota around.

“I turned Kyle around I have no idea why or how that happened,” Martin said on FOX. “Everything was good, we went into turn one and he just went around…I can’t figure out why that happened.”

This was Martin’s 23rd start in the Bud Shootout, tying him for the most Shootout appearances of all time with Bill Elliott—who was eligible to run but didn’t race.

The win was Busch’s first win on a restrictor plate track. However, if Busch wants to win the Daytona 500 in one week, he might not want to look at the history books. Only five Shootout winners have gone on to win the Daytona 500.

Chip Ganassi spreads knowledge about NASCAR and more in teleconference

Forgive me for being new to this, but yesterday’s Chip Ganassi teleconference was full of such good comments and quotes that I have to do a catch-all post to give you the best tidbits of information from the owner who currently has the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 trophies on his mantle.

As I mentioned yesterday, Ganassi was almost a Brickyard 400 winner last season, when his driver Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the race, but got caught speeding on pit road, and was relegated to an 11th place finish.

Ganassi wasn’t in Indianapolis on that day. “I wouldn’t out it under the category of never recovering from it,” he said of the disappointment that day. “I was recovering from surgery on my eyeball, and I can tell you this, if that puts things into perspective really quickly, about what’s important in life and what isn’t, there are things more important than winning races.”

Ganassi also talked about NASCAR, and the sanctioning body’s seemingly constant, yet not consistent, rule changes. As an owner, is he ever consulted on what NASCAR wants to do? “They do a good job of canvassing the garage area, if you will, for input,” he said.

Ganassi owns the No. 1 car, which will be piloted by Jamie McMurray this year at Indy

He also added, “I don’t always understand or agree with [NASCAR], but I think they’re happy to tell you why they made their decision and they’re not afraid to change it if they’ve made a mistake.”

But when he was asked about the new “Boys have at it” policy, more specifically about Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski’s ongoing feud, Ganassi had some interesting points.

“I’m glad both of those guys don’t drive for me right now because I’d feel a lot stronger about it I’m sure,” he said. “I think I’ve said this before. I think someone has to be there to referee this and I think NASCAR does a good job of this, but I think you’re allowed one move, I’ve said this before.”

“I think it’s very hard to police, and I think you should be allowed one move—I think each guy should be allowed one move—but I don’t think you should be allowed to use your car as a weapon. I just thank God that nobody gets hurt in any of these things.”

Edwards, after practice at Kentucky Speedway for the Nationwide Series race in 2009

Edwards and Keselowski have a severely checkered history, dating back to April of ’09 when Keselowski wrecked Edwards, sending the No. 99 car into the fence at Talladega. Pay back came in Atlanta when Edwards spun Keselowski and the No. 12 car got airborne at Atlanta, hitting the wall.

NASCAR sat both drivers down and had a meeting. Edwards decided that he’d been unfairly pushed out of the way by Keselowski on Saturday night in St. Louis during the final lap of the Nationwide Series race and Edwards hooked Keselowski’s bumper, sending his car into the wall.

Keselowski, after Nationwide Series practice at Kentucky in June of this year. Check out the kid in the aqua shirt on the right side of the photo. Know him from anywhere? (Getty Images)

Edwards won. Keselowski was unhappy with Edwards after the race, which, if you ask me, is ironic being that Keselowski wasn’t unhappy after he wrecked Edwards in Talladega one year ago.

Enough editorializing though.

Ganassi made another point that reminded me of a certain NASCAR Sprint Cup driver when he said, “I would like to see more good driving and driving that we can respect, not having to crash a guy to win. I would rather see a race where a driver gets out of the car and says, ‘Hey so-and-so raced me clean. He could have taken me out for the win but he didn’t’.”

Last August at Bristol Kyle Busch and Mark Martin dueled for the win. Kyle Busch won, and in victory lane said, “He had a chance. He could have [wrecked me]. Mark Martin—what a class act.”

Martin told ESPN's Jamie Little after the race, “That’s not the way he would have raced me.”

Ganassi thinks drivers would get a lot more respect if they drove that way, and although he didn’t specifically mention Mark Martin, I could tell it was drivers like Mark that Ganassi was referring to when he opined about the current state of NASCAR affairs.

The obligatory Gasoline Alley photo as we approach raceday at Indy

And college football is always on the radar here on the blog. Current University of Cincinnati coach Butch Jones preaches that his team will play with more passion than any other team in the country. And Ganassi made some comments about his race team that parallel the thoughts of the UC head man.

“We’re fortunate that those teams are made up of people who are passionate and have a lot of passion for the sport and you have to have that,” Ganassi commented. “Part of having the passion for the sport is understanding the intricacies of each of the places.”

And when you come to read this blog you know you’re reading the musings of someone who might have too much passion—for college football and NASCAR. Hope you enjoyed Chip Ganassi tidbits.

Later on this evening we’ll hear from Jeff Gordon, the only four-time Brickyard 400 champ.

Chip Ganassi looks to win auto racing "triple crown"

Chip Ganassi is a legendary auto racing owner trying to go where no other owner has gone before. Ganassi owns teams in NASCAR, IZOD IndyCar and the Rolex sportscar series.

In February his NASCAR team captured the “Super Bowl” of the sport. Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500, Ganassi’s first Daytona 500 win. Then, in May, Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500, making Ganassi the first owner in racing history to have both the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 trophies in his trophy case.

“Obviously our drivers get up for big events,” the 52-year-old Ganassi said. “They seem to like those places. Our guys like the places where the big races are held. Fortunately our guys are good at the tracks where they have the big races.”

Ganassi had an unbelievable chance to win the Brickyard 400 last season with Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya, the 2000 Indy 500 winner, led 116 of the 160 laps, but was caught speeding on pit road with less than 30 laps remaining to end his chances of taking a stock car to victory lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Montoya ended up finishing 11th in the race, but coming that close to victory hasn’t deterred Montoya. And his owner certainly has faith in him.

“What makes him so good is that he drives every lap. He races every lap,” Ganassi said. “Having said that, there are certain tracks that guys like…Everybody’s got something they like and Juan gets around Indianapolis well.”

In order for Ganassi to pull off an unprecedented motor sports feat, Ganassi’s NASCAR boys are going to have to get around Indianapolis well starting on Friday afternoon when the Sprint Cup cars head out at 2 p.m. for practice.

“Drivers are always looking for a particular feel in a car and if they get that feel at a particular track, they take off,” Ganassi said. “What does it for Juan at Indianapolis? I don’t know, but he and Jamie both like that place, so I’m excited.”

And given his track record in big-time races this season, it should be a successful Sunday in Speedway, Ind., for Ganassi. If McMurray or Montoya happen to win, their owner knows where Victory Lane is at Indy. He’ll just meet them there to collect his third big trophy of this year.
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For more Chip Ganassi comments stay tuned to this blog as well as FOX19.com's Sports webpage: http://www.fox19.com/Global/category.asp?C=4219&nav=menu63_4

Juan Pablo Montoya wants to recapture 2009 Brickyard 400 magic

He led 116 of the 160 laps in last year’s 400-mile marathon in Indianapolis, but only had an 11th place finish to show for it. Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the Brickyard 400 in 2009, but a late-race pit road speeding penalty relegated him to a disappointing finish.

“Thank you, NASCAR, for screwing my day. We had it in the bag and they screwed us because I was not speeding. I swear on my children and my wife,” he said angrily on his radio as he drove down pit road to serve his penalty.

Montoya got caught speeding with only 26 laps left in the '09 Brickyard 400

The Columbian-born Montoya was looking to become the only driver to win the Brickyard 400 and Indy 500. He captured his only 500 win in 2000. He’s also the only driver to have competed in the Indy 500, the Brickyard 400 and the U.S. Grand Prix at the famed and historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

And he would have won the 2009 race if he hadn’t been speeding in two speed zones on pit road at Indy. “It kinda sucks,” Montoya said behind his hauler after the race. “But it is what it is. Everybody on the team did an amazing job. The car was cruising. It was stupid fast.”

While the number on the winning car was 48, the number of the weekend in 2009 at Indy might have been 5. The No. 5 car was blazing fast in practice on Friday. The No. 5 car sat on the pole. The No. 5 car led the first lap, and the pit road speed limit was, you guessed it, two fives—55 mph.

Montoya was the favorite to win in 2009. Will he be a favorite this year? You bet

Montoya was caught at just hundredths over the 5 mph “grace” limit that NASCAR allows drivers on pit road. While Montoya was serving his pit road speeding penalty—a pass through drive down Indy’s long pit road—Mark Martin passed Montoya for the lead.

“Penalty on the 42 for speeding,” Martin’s spotter, Jeremy Brickhouse said on the radio. That was followed just seconds later by crew chief Alan Gustafson telling Martin, “You’re the leader.”

“I feel really bad for him,”' Martin said of Montoya after the race. “If me or my teammates couldn’t win, I absolutely was pulling for Juan. They sure had the car today. But their day will come. It’s tough, but it's happened to every one of us. Good days are still coming for them.”

But will those good days come at perhaps Montoya’s strongest track? Montoya has started second two times in three races at Indy, and surprised few by finishing second to Tony Stewart in 2007—his rookie season in the Cup Series. Had it not been for that speeding penalty last year, Montoya would have had his best shot at winning in a stock car at the 2.5-mile rectangle in Speedway, Ind.

Of course there was no guarantee that Montoya would have held off Mark Martin or Jimmie Johnson on a late restart last year, but there’s no doubt that he would have been much better off than he was mired back in the pack battling with Joey Logano for 11th place.

And even though 2010 hasn’t been like 2009 for Montoya, I wouldn’t bet against him come raceday. And that is only 6 days away.

The countdown is on.

Let the countdown begin

Summer is in full swing; kids are playing in the pool, fireworks light up the night sky, adults are playing hooky from work to go on vacation, and NASCAR racing is only 27 days away from Indianapolis.

That’s right folks, the countdown is on.

Last year’s Brickyard 400 was an unbelievable one for fans of now 51-year-old Mark Martin. The old-timer led Friday’s practice session, won the pole on Saturday afternoon and led the Brickyard 400 late in the race, coming home in second for the second time in his career.
So what will the No. 5 team do for an encore?

That is just one of many storylines I’ll try to cover over the next three plus weeks. Here are some other teasers that you NASCAR fans can think about as we head closer to seeing the stars of NASCAR in Speedway, Ind., in less than one month.

-He had a dominant car last season and a pit road speeding penalty cost him the win. Is 2010 the year Juan Pablo Montoya breaks into the NASCAR winners circle at IMS?
-He was the highest finishing rookie in 2009. Will Joey Logano’s second year be better than his first at Indy?
-Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson both have five wins so far this season. Will Hamlin notch his first Brickyard win, or will Johnson grab his third straight win at Indy, and his fourth career Brickyard win?

-Tony Stewart normally gets hot when the temperatures raise during the summer months. He has two wins at Indy. Does he get number three this season in the No. 14 car?
-Goodyear has had no real issues with tires this season. We all remember the 2008 debacle. What, if anything, will change this year?

-The one thing that has changed on the NASCAR cars from last year is the tail end. Gone is the rear wing, and in is the spoiler. I will take more than one look at the change in rear end accessories on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup cars.

-Will Aric Almirola get to race at Indy? He’s sitting in as Jimmie Johnson’s backup just in case Mrs. Johnson goes into labor with the couple’s first child.

-Is it time for one of the Busch brothers to make it to Victory Lane?

These stories and any other ones I can think of will pop up as the days get closer to race day in Indy. I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about this race, especially given what occurred last season. We’re still working on travel arrangements, and with some help from the FOX19 Sports department, we’re still working on getting a media pass so you, the most loyal readers of this blog, can see the sights and sounds from Indy for a second year in a row.

If you have any story ideas, hit me up. Follow me on Twitter (@adamniemeyer) or e-mail me. Have a great Monday, and remember, only 27 days until the green flag drops in Indianapolis.

Jimmie Johnson admits: “We got lucky”

Jimmie Johnson sent a message to his other 42 competitors on Sunday; don’t let Daytona fool you. He’s back and he’s ready to go win his fifth straight title. With his 48th career win, the driver of the No. 48 car knows he’s now the one everyone will be aiming for, not that the target hasn’t been on his back for years now.

But in all the years he’s been the best driver in the sport, Johnson has been the beneficiary of some unbelievable luck. Last year he finished sixth at Talladega in the fall after most of the cars in front of him had to pit late for gas. Yesterday, with rain looming in the background, Johnson used his Hendrick Motorsports power to drive away from Kevin Harvick, but not before lady luck played to his advantage again.

When Brad Keselowski lost control of his car on the front stretch, Johnson was getting four fresh tires and a full tank of gas. A regularly scheduled green flag stop could have put Johnson a lap down, but he barely beat then leader Jeff Burton to the exit of pit road.

Johnson battles teammate Mark Martin for the lead on a restart (Getty Images)

Johnson took the lead when, guess what, everyone in front of him had to pit for gas. Even though Kevin Harvick made a late charge, Johnson proved too much, and the four-time defending champ brought home only his second win in the month of February.

“There’s no way around it, we got lucky,” Johnson said. “We were running fourth or fifth at the time, so it’s not like we totally backed into this thing. We got a really nice gift with the way things worked out and it was up to me to kind of hang on to it.”

Harvick was up front for most of the race but fell just short at the end (Getty Images)

Kevin Harvick disagreed with Johnson after the race, stating, “They’re really good, but they’re really, really lucky too.”

“Yes, we were lucky today,” Johnson retorted. “But you don’t get lucky and win four championships and 48 races.”

California took a toll on engines too. Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon had issues. Montoya’s engine expired bringing out a caution on lap 140 and Newman’s followed suit eight circuits later. Gordon was able to get his issues straightened out, but was only able to muster a 20th place finish.

Now the series heads off to Vegas—Sin City—where the Busch brothers dominated last year. It’ll be interesting to see what Kurt and Kyle will pull off for an encore in the town they grew up in.

Mark Martin starts off the Chase with a win

“Pinch me. I am sure I’m sleeping. I am sure I am dreaming.” Pinch us too Old Man, we’re still not sure it’s real either.

And this is supposed to be one of his “bad tracks” in the ten race Chase for the Sprint Cup? “This is my hardest place, a tough place,” Martin added.

The 50-year old served notice to the rest of the Chase field on Sunday that even though he’s not won this many races in over ten years, he’s a serious title contender in 2009. Considered to be the best driver to have never raised a Cup trophy, Martin told the media all week that it was Juan Pablo Montoya who is the darkhorse to win this season’s title.

And this weekend Montoya showed why. He paced every practice session, sat on the pole and led a race high 134 laps. He also duked it out late with Martin on two restarts.

Martin prevailed, and in the process apparently made Montoya unhappy.

“What he did, not cool at all. I could have wrecked him,” Montoya commented post race. And even though he was unhappy with Martin, Montoya claimed Martin is the clear favorite to win this year’s title.

“He’s never won a championship, and he wants one, pretty bad.”

His performance today showed why he’s the favorite. He led the series with four wins and was the number one “seed” heading into the Chase.

Officially he led the points before the race. And after the race, he’s still officially the points leader.

The scary thing is he’s heading to two tracks where he’s traditionally done well at. But don’t tell the Batesville, Arkansas native that he’s on a roll. He still has his doubts about the title run.

“There’s always the lotto, Talladega,” he commented in Victory Lane. “I used to think that if the guys could figure out how to get me a fast race car, it would put me in a position to kind of be ahead of the trouble. That certainly isn't the case anymore. So from that standpoint it is kind of like a lotto. It's wild and crazy, and we're going to be there with bells on.”

He also mentioned that despite a decent sixth place finish at Martinsville in the spring, the track that shares his name is not his strongest track. Don’t tell his crew chief that though.

“In my opinion Mark is the best driver out there, and he proves that time and time again, no matter what situation it is,” Alan Gustafson said. “Not only does he restart well and race well, but he's obviously very smart and he knows what to do and when to go.”

And he picked a very good time to get going.