Where did he come from???

[twomanymontes]

Kevin Harvick won the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway for his 1st win of 2011. Somehow, He came from 3rd place with 3 laps remaining, passed Kyle Busch for second and then did the Bump and run on Jimmie Johnson for the win coming off turn 4 on the final lap. Johnson held on for second. Busch, who led 151 laps on the day was 3rd, followed by Kenseth, Newman, Edwards, Bowyer, Vickers, Kahne, and Montoya.
Points leader going in to the race, Kurt Busch finished 17th.
My favorites Tony Stewart finished 13th after running in the top 3 for the most part and Mark Martin was 20th.

[85t5mcss]

Very good pass, not anything that shook JJ or spin or put in the wall. And it wasn't JJ winning. Woohoo!

[twomanymontes]

Exactly! a very clean pass, Harvick just had a better car than Johnson. Although I think Johnson into the wall would have been cooler, LOL!

[85t5mcss]

I would rather have seen a blown engine with lots of oil down. Take out some of the frontrunners.

[twomanymontes]

LOL!

[twomanymontes]

Twice in two weeks? This guy is on Fire!!!! I felt really bad for Truex Jr., stuck throttle cable and bam! into the wall!:

Kevin Harvick pulled a late-race magic act again, this time pushing past Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the victory at Martinsville.

Earnhardt finished in second place while Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five.

With 21 laps to go, the crowd at Martinsville went nuts as Earnhardt edged Kyle Busch and took the lead. And instead of just playing cat and mouse with Busch, Earnhardt pulled away. With 10 laps to go, Earnhardt had almost a one-second lead on Busch. But Harvick, just like last week, saved his best racing for the end.

With 150 laps to go, five drivers appeared to be the ones consistently challenging for the lead — Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Of those five, only Bowyer isn't among the top six leaders in short-track wins.

At this point, Ryan Newman cut a left tire and spun, causing the 10th caution of the race. All lead drivers pitted, and most took four tires.

Meanwhile, Jeff Burton's car limped into pit road after the front half of his car folded like an accordion during the restart. His pit crew pulled out hammers and, in Whack-a-Mole-like fashion, proceeded to hammer out the hood.

Kyle Busch's Toyota was running hard the entire race, impressing even Jeff Gordon, who voiced his amazement on the radio: "That 18 is driving so hard . . . I don't know how the hell he's getting away with it."

At the midpoint of the race, Jeff Gordon finally took the lead for the first time of the day — and Tony Stewart's struggles continued at this famed short track.

Stewart was levied a drive-through penalty after changing lanes before the start/finish line, becoming the third driver in the race to receive that penalty.

With 191 laps to go, Denny Hamlin passed Stewart, whose No. 14 Chevrolet fell two laps down. A.J. Allmendinger, who started the race in the sixth spot, finally had the lead position at Lap 326 after Ryan Newman had pitted.

Allmendinger was the first Ford driver to lead the race.

A ninth caution was called when Trevor Bayne cut his left rear tire, which left debris on the track. Kyle Busch won the race off pit road, with Hamlin second and Gordon third.

The fifth caution was out when Hermie Sadler slowed down after appearing to have cut a tire. On the restart, Clint Bowyer was in the lead position, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya. Earnhardt's brief appearance near the lead didn't last long, though, as Kyle Busch powered past him to take the second spot.


A huge crash involving Kasey Kahne and Martin Truex Jr. caused a 25-minute red caution on Lap 221 because of damage to a wall. The wreck was the result of Truex's throttle getting stuck. He got into Kahne's Red Bull Toyota going into the turn, and Truex's car slammed hard into the wall and burst into flames.

After emerging from the infield care center, Truex recalled that, right before his car hit the wall, he was thinking, "Oh, man, this is going to hurt." But, as it turns out, “it didn't hurt at all," Truex said, praising the SAFER safety barriers. "Ten years ago, I wouldn't be standing here."

Once the restart had been signaled, there had been eight leaders and 14 lead changes, with Bowyer keeping the No. 1 spot and leading 60 of 222 laps.

Two laps later, Kurt Busch cut down low in Turn 3, trimmed some grass and wrecked Bobby Labonte. Labonte's car hit the wall and sustained heavy damage, while Joey Logano and Robby Gordon were caught up by the wreck and spun around.

Bowyer won the restart, but three laps later, an eighth caution was called after Brad Keselowski got into Paul Menard and caused a three-car wreck. Menard, Casey Mears and Michael McDowell were all caught up in that accident.

Earlier in the race, a second caution was called on Lap 106 after Dave Blaney went high on the track and ended up in a marble-filled area. On the restart, Jimmie Johnson beat out Kyle Busch and took the lead on Lap 115.

Ten laps later, McDowell started pushing Marcus Ambrose around. And pushing. And pushing. Ambrose spun, hit the wall and limped away with some damage to the rear of his car. McDowell was overheard on his radio saying, "I'm not going to take it."

Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne hit the garages early Sunday: A radiator issue put him 35 laps down when he finally got back on the track.

Johnson won the restart and was the leader for one lap before home-state favorite Denny Hamlin passed him on Lap 133, but like JJ's lead, it didn't last long. Bowyer took the inside groove and became the 11th leader of the race on Lap 134.

Blaney's car caused another caution on Lap 174 — and for the same reason, a flat right front tire. He appeared to have stopped on the track, drawing the ire of NASCAR, which then penalized him two laps. During Blaney's pit stop, one removed tire sitting near the wall was smoking heavily. On the restart, Johnson took the lead after beating everyone out of the pits for the third straight time.

Bowyer performed a brilliant bump-and-run on Kyle Busch and overtook him for second place while Mark Martin was penalized for changing lanes before hitting the start/finish line.

Matt Kenseth was put in a foul mood early on. He changed lanes before reaching the start/finish line at the start of the race and had to serve a drive-through penalty on pit road. Kenseth's spotter, Mike Calinoff, tried to reassure him by saying he would get the lucky dog pass, but Kenseth replied, "Shut up, spotter."

Pole winner Jaime McMurray held the lead for the first 31 laps. Kahne, Ryan Newman and Hamlin all exchanged the top spot until the first caution was called on Lap 50 for David Gilliland's cut front tire.

After the restart, Johnson took the lead out of pit road and held it until Kyle Busch took over on Lap 78. While Johnson and Busch were racing each other hard, other veteran drivers were struggling early. Tony Stewart was in danger of getting lapped and Kurt Busch was already down one by Lap 56.

[85t5mcss]

Safer barriers definitely helped, but so did plowing into Kahne. The fire went through Kahnes window also. Truex must have panicked because they have a lever on the throttle that can be lifted by foot to force throttle linkage closed. Not bad racing. And I'm glad Jr. didn't win.

[twomanymontes]

Yeah, Thank God for those barriers. I didn't see the fire the first time, but I did on the replay. I thought they had the toe lever as well, but maybe it's just something you don't think about when your headed straight towards the wall.

Overall I thought it was a pretty good race, I'm just glad it wasn't Kyle Busch or Jimmy Johnson that won, But It wouldn't have bothered me at all if Jr. won.