Pepsi Max 400
Who Will Win?
Johnson
Jimmie Johnson: Scream all you want, when you've got a guy who's won the last two races at Fontana and four of the last six, you ride him until the wheels fall off. Johnson may storm to victory yet again, and if he does, we'll hear all the same predictable complaints. But there's just no arguing – this guy is an all-time talent, and this weekend, he'll show us again why he's the best in the sport by a wide margin. – Jay Busbee
• Johnson: It's not just that Johnson is good there – he dominates. He's finished first, second or third in seven of the last eight races, led the most laps in four of the last six races and has never finished lower than 16th in 15 starts. He's a virtual lock. But what's scary is he'll be even more of a lock in two weeks at Martinsville and four weeks at Phoenix. – Jay Hart
Jeff Gordon: Gordon: He needs a win, and this is as good a place as any for him to get it this year. He's going to have to beat his teammate (Johnson) to do it, but if he's going to have a shot, this is the place. – Wally Dallenbach
Jeff Gordon's three things heading into Auto Club
Gordon
1. Keys to winning: Everybody wants to compare Auto Club Speedway to Michigan, but the two are different. The transitions in the turns are different. The corners are so sweeping and the straightaways are very long. You have to be careful not to have too much drag and to keep your power up on your engines. It's a challenging race track to find the right combination of aerodynamic drag and horsepower.
2. Drivers to watch for: Jimmie is going to be tough there. He's dominated that track recently. Harvick also was good there, too, earlier in the year.
3. My outlook for this weekend's race: We were strong there earlier this year. We had a top-three or top-four car there, so our expectations are high. It's more like a mile-and-a-half, which we've excelled at this year, and if we're anything like we were at Michigan we'll be one of the cars to beat.
Top storyline
Busch
• How will Kyle Busch respond after last week's run-in with David Reutimann? Busch won't seek revenge – he has to go after wins now. The question is, will he be in contention when the checkered flag flies or will his risk-it-all strategy send him into a wall? – Jay Hart
• Drivers in the top three or four can race differently than the rest. That's going to make it entertaining. Even though Greg Biffle won at Kansas, he needs another win because he's still 85 points out. It will be fun to watch guys like Biffle down toward the bottom. It's all or nothing for them at this point, because Johnson is probably going to finish in the top five at every race from here on out. If you're going to win the championship and you're not the 48 team – or Denny Hamlin or Kevin Harvick – you have to go for the win every week. – Wally Dallenbach
• NASCAR viewership, both in the stands and on television, is down by an alarming margin. And the series now shifts to Southern California, which is not exactly known for its booming attendance. Many have pointed to the earlier start times as a reason for the decline in ratings; with a 3:30 p.m. ET start, will we see an uptick? No matter what, this weekend will be an important barometer for attendance, both at the track and in the ratings books. Let's hope it's good news. – Jay Busbee
From The Source
Kyle Busch: "Each week, you have to put the last week behind you and look ahead, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. I do that if I won the previous week, or if we didn’t have the kind of finish we were hoping for."
