Kenseth wins Fontana Busch race

The Roush Racing driver led a race-high 48 laps, including the last 22, when he was able to pull away from Casey Mears, Kyle Busch, and Burton. It was Kenseth's 22nd victory in 200 starts in the Busch Series.

"That was a lot of fun," Kenseth said. "Without the last caution with 30 to go, we weren't going to win. Once we got that, we had one good set of tyres left lying there and I thought we were going to have a fun time.

"I didn't know if we were going to beat Kyle and Jeff, and then Casey snuck up there at the end, but I knew it was going to be a good race."

Polesitter Dave Blaney comfortably led the first part of the race, closely followed by Burton, the only driver who looked capable of keeping up with the pace of the No. 10 Toyota Camry initially. An early caution came out on lap four after Eric McLure and Kertus Davis spun in Turn 1.

Later, on lap 17, Burton took the lead and steadily started to pull away from Blaney until a second caution came out for debris - providing the chance for the first round of pit stops for the whole field. It was Kyle Busch who came out chasing Burton as Blaney dropped out of the top five.

Busch then took the lead on lap 32, setting a blistering pace that only Burton was able to match for a while as the pair broke away from the pack. He was able to build a four second lead up-front until the third caution came out on lap 58.

As everybody went for tyres and fuel, Burton took over the lead again, while Busch fell down to fourth. A few laps later the Richard Childress driver got loose out of Turn 2 and Kenseth took the chance to take the lead of the race for the first time.

The fourth caution of the race came on lap 74 when Steve Wallace spun and had contact with the wall at Turn 2. This gave reigning champion Kevin Harvick the chance to get back onto the lead lap as he had gone a lap down when he pitted under green on lap 51.

For the second weekend in a row the race ended prematurely for Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian was running high past the start-finish line on lap 88, when Jason Leffler came across the track in front of him and into the wall after being tapped from behind by Kenny Wallace. There was no way for Montoya to avoid the wreck, which brought his already difficult race to an early end.

"I think Jason just got spun, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's just part of racing," Montoya said. "I wasn't part of the incident so I don't really know what happened. I was just a passenger when he came across me."

As the race restarted a recovered Harvick led for a few laps but his pace was no match for Burton, who took over the lead from lap 103 and stayed ahead for a further 21 laps. Kyle Busch followed him with Kenseth staying closely in pursuit.

With 27 laps to go, the seventh caution came out when Paul Menard had an engine failure. This allowed for the final round of pit stops for the frontrunners, after which Burton came out ahead and led the field under green with 23 laps to go.

Three laps later, Kenseth took the lead after going through on the inside of Burton, and he started to pull away immediately as Burton came under attack from Kyle Busch and Mears.

The final caution of the race came out with 17 laps to go when Sam Hornish Jr hit the wall at Turn 2 having got loose on the entry while battling with J.J. Yeley.

With 14 laps remaining, the final sprint got underway with Kenseth again pulling away. Mears took second as Burton struggled in the closing laps of the race, being overtaken by Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Harvick also.

Mears slightly closed the gap to Kenseth in the end, but he ran out of laps to catch the No. 17 Ford. Behind Mears, Kyle Busch came second ahead of Edwards and Biffle.

Daytona winner Harvick finished sixth and continues to lead the championship with 345 points, ahead of Edwards with 330 and Kenseth with 327. Blaney, who finished tenth as the best Toyota once again, is now fourth in the standings.

Results:

Pos  Driver              Make      Laps
 1.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       150
 2.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  150
 3.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  150
 4.  Carl Edwards        Ford       150
 5.  Greg Biffle         Ford       150
 6.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  150
 7.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  150
 8.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  150
 9.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  150
10.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     150
11.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  150
12.  David Stremme       Dodge      150
13.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  150
14.  David Reutimann     Toyota     150
15.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       150
16.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      150
17.  Timothy Peters      Chevrolet  150
18.  David Ragan         Ford       150
19.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  150
20.  Stephen Leicht      Ford       150
21.  Shane Huffman       Chevrolet  150
22.  Steve Wallace       Dodge      150
23.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  150
24.  Mike Wallace        Chevrolet  150
25.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford       150
26.  Kenny Wallace       Ford       150
27.  Brent Sherman       Chevrolet  150
28.  Jay Sauter          Chevrolet  150
29.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.  Ford       150
30.  Kertus Davis        Chevrolet  150
31.  Jon Wood            Ford       149
32.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet  149
33.  Kyle Krisiloff      Ford       147
34.  Ward Burton         Ford       137
35.  Sam Hornish Jr.     Dodge      132
36.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      126
37.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet  122
38.  Jason Leffler       Toyota     87
39.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      87
40.  Eric McClure        Chevrolet  64
41.  Morgan Shepherd     Chevrolet  18