Streaking at California

August 27, 2008 8:43pm CDT

Auto Club Speedway and Michigan International Speedway are two of the closest tracks in terms of configuration and their proximity on the fall schedule guarantees that drivers with momentum can hang onto it. Dark horses from the 3M Performance 400 by Bondo should be watched closely this week.

2008 Streaks

Carl Edwards is the hottest driver on the circuit with back-to-back victories and a sweep of the top 10 in his last five starts. Oh yeah, and he also won at Pocono during that span.

It wasn't long ago that Kevin Harvick was clinging precariously to the top 12 in points, but after stringing four top-10s together, he is comfortably in eighth.

David Ragan was a surprise at the front of the Bristol field and he powered to a 10th-place finish. That was his sixth consecutive top-15 on oval tracks.

Finishing second in back-to-back races is making Kyle Busch a little frustrated. After all, it's been three weeks since he won.

It's not a long streak, but Matt Kenseth will take it. He's finished fifth at Michigan and was ninth at Bristol.

Tony Stewart came oh so close with back-to-back runner-up finishes at Pocono and Watkins Glen. His last two results were not as great, but he nevertheless has a four-race streak of top-15s.

He's started on the first three rows in the last six consecutive races, but he wasn't finishing very well until last week. Jeff Gordon finally put a complete race together at Bristol and finished fifth.

The hits just keep on coming. Dave Blaney has crashed out of the last three races and his best result came last week with a 38th-place finish.

Negative Streaks

Momentum is fickle. When it abandons a driver he often finds it difficult to recapture.

The following drivers have failed to earn a top-10 finish in at least 10 consecutive attempts (including failures to qualify):

68: Paul Menard
63: Mike Skinner
56: Sterling Marlin
56: Joe Nemechek
51: Scott Riggs
35: Ken Schrader
32: Sam Hornish Jr. *
30: Regan Smith *
29: Kyle Petty
24: Patrick Carpentier *
20: Johnny Sauter
18: Jeff Green
14: Tony Raines
13: Travis Kvapil
12: David Reutimann
11: Dave Blaney

* entire career

Running at the End

A team can’t earn a good finish in the garage; the following drivers have avoided that fate for at least the last 10 races.

68: Kevin Harvick (and 107 of 108)
61: Clint Bowyer
29: Matt Kenseth
29: Regan Smith
25: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
20: Carl Edwards
15: Martin Truex Jr.
14: Kurt Busch
14: Reed Sorenson
12: Jimmie Johnson (and 39 of 40)
11: Elliott Sadler
11: Tony Stewart
10: Kyle Busch (and 29 of 30)

Casey Mears' spotter cleared him too soon at Bristol and triggered a massive crash that stopped his 13-race streak during which he was running at the end.

Finishing on the Lead Lap

More important still, a driver needs to finish on the same lap as the leader in order to have a chance at victory. The following drivers have at least three consecutive finishes on the lead lap.

10: Tony Stewart
7: David Ragan
6: Greg Biffle (and 12 of 13)
6: Jamie McMurray
5: Carl Edwards (and 14 of 15)
4: Matt Kenseth (and 13 of 14)
4: Kevin Harvick (and 10 of 11)
3: Kyle Busch (and 9 of 10)

Starting deep in the pack quickly led to trouble for Jimmie Johnson and crash damage stranded him well off the lead lap for the first time in 10 races.

Bristol was not the best of times for Martin Truex Jr. He slipped four laps off the pace and broke the longest active streak of 11 complete races.

Two-mile tracks streaks

California Speedway—now named Auto Club Speedway—was fashioned from the same mold as Michigan International Speedway and it shows.

Carl Edwards has been as close to perfect on the two-mile tracks. He has only one bad finish on each course, but he has perfect streak of top-10s during the last six races.

In his last 14 attempts on the two-mile tracks, Matt Kenseth has earned three victories, nine top-fives, 12 top-10s and 13 top-15s. In fact, the only time he finished worse than that was when he failed to finish at all in the 2007 Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan.

Kyle Busch has six top-10s and a streak of eight consecutive top-15s on the two-milers and three of his last four efforts have been top-fives.

Brian Vickers has been great on the two-milers for Red Bull Racing with only two finishes outside the top 10 and one result worse than 11th in seven attempts.

David Ragan is getting progressively better on the two-milers. Last year and this spring, he finished in the top 15 at Auto Club and he earned top-10s in his last two Michigan attempts.

Jamie McMurray posted back-to-back top-10s on the sister track of Michigan.

Likewise, Elliott Sadler earned back-to-back ninths at Michigan.

A 12th at Michigan two weeks ago was Tony Stewart's worst finish on a two-mile track in his last nine attempts.

The following active drivers have won on the two-mile tracks (driver's name is followed by the number of victories):

Jeff Gordon, 5
Matt Kenseth, 4
Greg Biffle, 3
Kurt Busch, 3
Carl Edwards, 3
Bobby Labonte, 3
Jimmie Johnson, 2
Kasey Kahne, 2
Ryan Newman, 2
Kyle Busch, 1
Dale Earnhardt Jr., 1
Elliott Sadler, 1
Tony Stewart, 1

The following active drivers have earned two-mile tracks top-fives:

Jeff Gordon, 23
Matt Kenseth, 14
Bobby Labonte, 13
Tony Stewart, 12
Carl Edwards, 11
Jeff Burton, 9
Jimmie Johnson, 9
Kasey Kahne, 8
Greg Biffle, 7
Dale Earnhardt Jr., 6
Ryan Newman, 6
Kurt Busch, 5
Kyle Busch, 4
Jamie McMurray, 4
Kyle Petty, 3
Brian Vickers, 2
Martin Truex Jr., 2
Kevin Harvick, 2
Elliott Sadler, 2
Michael Waltrip, 2
Denny Hamlin, 1
Casey Mears, 1
Scott Riggs, 1
Reed Sorenson, 1
Clint Bowyer, 1
David Ragan, 1

Auto Club streaks

Sitting way out on the left coast, Auto Club Speedway is far from the heart of stock car racing.

Since winning there in September 2005, Kyle Busch has swept the top-10 at Auto Club.

Auto Club is a track on which drivers can string long streaks together: Matt Kenseth enters the weekend with six consecutive top-10s.

Jimmie Johnson has never finished worse than 16th at Auto Club, but his results have nevertheless been uneven. In 11 starts he has seven top-fives (including one victory) compared to four results outside the top 10.

Carl Edwards has been nearly perfect at Auto Club. He finished 29th in February 2007, but his next worst finish was a sixth in his inaugural race. Every other result has been in the top five.

Kasey Kahne hopes to stop the bleeding this week. After failing to finish his last two races, he comes to a track on which he has five top-10s in his last six starts.

Martin Truex Jr. has finished sixth in his last two Auto Club races.

Jeff Gordon could get back on track this week. Three of his last four Auto Club starts ended in top-five finishes. Of course, his single bad result of 22nd came in this race last year.

It's been a while since Tony Stewart finished in the top five at Auto Club, but three of his last four races there have been in the top 10 and all of them have been top-15s.

Auto Club's three-year average finish