Fontana Cup race to resume Monday

NASCAR officials have had to deal with the changing weather conditions at Fontana, which had already delayed the start of the race for more than an hour due to rain before the scheduled start time.

Nearly four hours after the race was stopped, and following efforts to dry the track to allow the race to reach at least the halfway mark to be declared official, NASCAR decided to postpone the rest of the event until Monday morning, starting at 10:00 am local time.

The race had already been red-flagged twice before, the first one on lap 20 due to an accident triggered by Casey Mears spinning after going over a wet patch between turns three and four. Mears went across the track after making contact with the wall, collecting his Hendrick teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Also involved was Sam Hornish Jr, who crashed into the rear of Reed Sorenson after the latter slowed down when Mears spun.

Hornish then crashed into Mears's wrecked car, turning Mears's car upside down while a fuel line on Hornish's car broke in the crash, igniting a fire that was quickly extinguished by NASCAR officials. None of the drivers were hurt in the incident.

The cause of Mears's crash, the damp track which had already caught out Denny Hamlin putting him in the wall on lap 14, led to an up-close inspection of the track, which confirmed water was seeping from below the track surface.

"We saw some weepers developing, so we asked the track to come out and cut some straight lines in those areas in order to relieve the water that had begun to seep up there," said NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp.

For about an hour, track personnel worked to fix the problem before they were able to restart the race.

However 19 laps later a slight drizzle caused another caution and yet another red flag, as officials waited for conditions to improve. The race was eventually restarted, but the rain returned again on lap 87, forcing the final interruption of the day.

At the time, polesitter Jimmie Johnson was in the lead of the race and he will pick up where he left off on Monday morning. Yates Racing's Travis Kvapil will start second, followed by Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon, who has been the driver to beat thus far.

"We lost a little track position, but once we get that back, we will be in great shape," Gordon said. "These guys have given me one heck of a race car today. We are having fun out there battling with them.

"I think we have seen the cream really rise up to the top. There are some guys really strong, the Roush cars. Jimmie (Johnson) has really stepped it up. A couple of others too so it is going to be an interesting race once we get it going."

The weather forecasts are promising for Monday so the race should run to the scheduled distance.

Following the Auto Club 500, the Nationwide Series Stater Bros 300, which has been postponed twice already, is expected to start early Monday afternoon.