NASCAR made a huge boo-boo when they moved Fontana to the 2nd race of the schedule.  It's a boring track, it hasn't seen a sellout since it was given 2 dates, it's right before Las Vegas which has become a much more popular track, and to top it all off, today's Auto Club 500 will take place at the same time Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for the Oscars...D'OH!  This is strike 3 in SoCal.  First, Ontario Speedway closed in 1980 and is now the site of houses, hotels, and more.  Then the road course at Riverside followed in 1988, and is now the site of a shopping mall, a Lowe's, and a housing development.  When will NASCAR learn that hollywood and auto racing just don't mix?

Anywho, enough of my rant.  Even though I personally think this race is a snoozefest, the race is still taking place today nonetheless.  Brian Vickers won the pole, however, he had to change engines, so to the back goes the #83.  By rule, the inside line moves up one position, which means Jamie McMurray will now start on the pole.  Hmm, a Roush driver starting up front, that should surprise nobody.  Jack Roush's drivers have long endured success at Michigan and California, and one of his drivers has gone to victory lane in this race the last 4 years.  In fact, a Roushketeer has won this spring race 6 times in the 12 previous runnings.

How about first time winners?  Well there have been 2.  Jimmie Johnson won this race in April of 2002 in his rookie season.  In 2005, Kyle Busch won the Labor Day race, and became the youngest driver to win a Cup Series race, breaking the old record by only 4 days.

Speaking of Shrub, while it's no secret I'm not one of his fans, he's going for NASCAR history today.  Yesterday he won both the Truck and Nationwide races in dominating fashion, becoming the first driver to ever win 2 races on the same day.  Nobody has ever swept all 3 races in the same weekend, but Shrub will attempt to do just that.

Oh, a quick side note here, all 3 of last year's winless chasers went to victory lane during Speedweeks...Harvick won the shootout, Gordon won his duel, and Kenseth won the 500.  As for Kenseth, he'll attempt to become the first driver since Jeff Gordon in 1997 to win the first 2 races of the season.

All of these drivers I've mentioned are certainly among the favorites to win, but my pick is the defending winner of this race, Carl Edwards.  My dark horse is David Ragan.

This is your official open race thread to discuss the happenings before, during, and after you doze off while watching the race...LET'S GO RACING!