Kenseth sweeps Fontana

Kenseth led a race-high 129 laps, more than half the distance, showing again incredible pace throughout the race, just as he did during Saturday night when he won in the Busch Series.

"The car was really good all day," The 2003 Nextel Cup champion said. "Where we started, I was kind of pleasantly surprised, it was a little too tight but we were able to make a way forward those first couple of runs. So, I was really pretty pleased with it.

"We didn't have to make a lot of changes. When we were down to quarter-pound adjustments I knew we were pretty close - it seemed like we were always able to maintain the top three or four.

"I was looking forward to coming here. I didn't really know what to expect. Obviously, I'm very happy today."

Kenseth, who was racing without crew chief Robbie Reiser for the second weekend in a row after being suspended for four races in Daytona, claimed on Sunday his second consecutive win in the Auto Club 500, his fifteenth career win in the Nextel Cup.

Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon had a slow start to his race, falling backwards as the green flag waved. Front row starter Kasey Kahne took the lead, with Kevin Harvick following him in second, while Tony Stewart had a good start from 11th and quickly put himself up to third.

As early as lap seven, the first caution came out after Scott Riggs crashed in Turn 2. Jamie McMurray and Reed Sorenson were also involved in the crash and all three cars were heavily damaged.

As the third caution came out due to rookie David Ragan spinning on lap 20, leader Kahne pitted for the first time and Harvick and Stewart followed him through the pit road, handing the lead of the race to Kyle Busch.

Kenseth jumped to the front on lap 30, having a long duel with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Twenty laps later, he pitted under green while champion Jimmie Johnson stayed on track taking the chance to pit a few laps later under caution.

On lap 67, Stewart took the lead of the race while Earnhardt Jr had to go to his garage with an engine problem, the third for his team during the weekend. A lap later it was early race leader Kahne who had to go to the garage. He later rejoined 26 laps down.

Another driver facing engine issues was Toyota's Dave Blaney who had run in the top five in the early part of the race. On lap 112 he went to his garage without any oil pressure on his engine and a flaming exhaust.

Just eight laps later Dale Earnhardt Jr, who had returned to the track after lengthy repairs, finally had to give up any hope of finishing the race when his engine failed, almost putting him into the wall and forcing yet another caution.

"We blew it up for good this time," he said. "We tried to go out and get a few laps because Kasey Kahne blew up but fixed it and went back out. Luckily we kept it out of the wall when it blew."

Ahead, Kenseth battled with Jeff Gordon while Stewart quickly closed in, taking the lead for the second time in the afternoon on lap 144. After lap 150, most drivers started to pit under green including the leaders.

Stewart however was forced to pit twice as he exceeded the pitlane speed limit, allowing Kenseth to lead the race once again. The Home Depot car fell down to 18th.

Just before lap 200, the penultimate round of pitstops came under green. As everybody completed their stops, Johnson emerged ahead of Kenseth and teammate Gordon.

With 24 laps to go, a further caution came out for debris on track.

As the front runners pitted, the crew of the No. 17 car performed a very quick stop putting Kenseth on the lead for the last 20 laps, ahead of Jeff Burton, Harvick, Gordon and Johnson.

As the green flag waved, Kenseth led and started opening a gap until Harvick put himself in second, closing in on the Roush Racing driver.

His chase however was interrupted by the last caution, which came out with seven laps to go when David Reutimann crashed hard into the wall between Turns 3 and 4.

The wreck forced the race to be red flagged for nearly 20 minutes to allow officials to clean the track for the final laps of racing. When it was finally clear, the field circulated again under caution and just before the green came out, Harvick was forced to pit with a puncture.

As the green flag waved for the final time, Kenseth was untouchable, cruising to make it a double win for Roush Racing. Behind him Jeff Gordon finished second ahead of teammate Jimmie Johnson.

The best placed Toyota was Red Bull's Brian Vickers, who finished tenth after comfortably running in the top ten for most of the afternoon.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a difficult race, finishing down in 26th, facing handling problems and being unlucky with the yellow flags, falling two laps down on the leader. Ragan was again the top-place rookie, finishing sixteenth.

Mark Martin, who crossed the line fifth, is now leading the driver standings with 335 points, five more than Jeff Burton and 26 ahead of Jeff Gordon. Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick is now fourth.

Auto Club 500 results:

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        250
 2.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   250
 3.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   250
 4.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   250
 5.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   250
 6.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   250
 7.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       250
 8.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   250
 9.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   250
10.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      250
11.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   250
12.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       250
13.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   250
14.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   250
15.  Greg Biffle         Ford        250
16.  David Ragan         Ford        250
17.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   250
18.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   249
19.  David Stremme       Dodge       249
20.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   249
21.  Robby Gordon        Ford        249
22.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       249
23.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   249
24.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       248
25.  David Gilliland     Ford        248
26.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       248
27.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        248
28.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       248
29.  Carl Edwards        Ford        247
30.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   247
31.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   246
32.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      246
33.  David Reutimann     Toyota      239
34.  John Andretti       Dodge       220
35.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   198
36.  Ken Schrader        Ford        160
37.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        134
38.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       129
39.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      112
40.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet    74
41.  Scott Riggs         Dodge        16
42.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet    14
43.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge         7