2010 Pepsi Max 400: Tony Stewart Holds Off Bowyer at Fontana

Held as the 30th event of the 2010 Sprint Cup calendar, the Pepsi Max 400 was also the fourth round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Tony Stewart won it for Stewart-Haas Racing, holding off Clint Bowyer after a race that featured nine cautions and 24 lead changes.

When and where was the 2010 Pepsi Max 400 run?

The race was held on 10 October 2010 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, over 200 laps. It was the 30th of the season's 36 races and the fourth event of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the playoff that decides the series champion.

Auto Club Speedway had previously been called California Speedway. It hosted NASCAR racing each year from 1997 to 2023, and the two-mile (3.2 km) track has four turns. The turns are banked at fourteen degrees, the front stretch at eleven degrees and the back stretch at three degrees, and the grandstands seated 92,100 people.

A Chase race that Tony Stewart won by less than a second, after nine cautions and 24 lead changes.

Why did the race matter for the championship?

Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,503 points before the race, and Denny Hamlin was second on 5,495. Kevin Harvick was third on 5,473, with twenty-three points ahead of Carl Edwards in fourth. Kurt Busch was ten points ahead of Kyle Busch, and Greg Biffle was sixteen ahead of Jeff Burton.

Chevrolet led the Manufacturers' Championship with two hundred twelve points, thirty-seven ahead of Toyota. Ford had one hundred thirty-five points and was nineteen ahead of Dodge in the battle for third. Johnson had won the race the year before, so he was the defending champion at Fontana.

How did qualifying set the grid?

Forty-five cars entered qualifying, but NASCAR's procedure allowed only forty-three to race. Jamie McMurray claimed his second pole of the 2010 season with a lap of 38.859 seconds. Elliott Sadler joined him on the front row, and Matt Kenseth started third.

Juan Pablo Montoya took fourth and Kasey Kahne fifth. Kevin Harvick, one of the Chase drivers, qualified 21st, and Denny Hamlin was 34th. Mike Bliss and Patrick Carpentier failed to qualify. McMurray said afterwards that the ECR engines had plenty of power, and that the team's effort on the lightweight setup had helped the car.

What happened in practice before the race?

Three practice sessions were held before the race, one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first lasted 90 minutes and ran before qualifying. McMurray was quickest in it, ahead of A. J. Allmendinger in second and Greg Biffle in third.

Biffle was fastest in the second session on the Saturday morning, ahead of Kenseth and David Reutimann. Johnson topped the final session at 40.092 seconds, with Jeff Gordon and McMurray close behind at 40.098 and 40.114 seconds.

How did the opening laps unfold?

The race began at 3:00 p.m. EDT and was televised live on ESPN. The temperature was around 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) in sunshine. Soft rock singer Kenny Loggins sang the national anthem, and Meg Whitman, then the Republican candidate for governor of California, gave the drivers their start command.

McMurray pulled away from Sadler off the line and led the first lap. Montoya passed Kenseth for second on lap 2, and Johnson went past Kahne for fourth after starting eighth. Clint Bowyer climbed five places by lap 5. Hamlin, who had started at the back after a transmission change, was 27th within six laps.

Montoya hit the wall two laps later and dropped to fourth. Bowyer moved to tenth by passing Biffle on lap 10, and Kenseth took the lead ahead of McMurray. Johnson passed McMurray for second on lap 19, and by lap 24 Kenseth had a one-second lead over him.

What were the middle laps like?

Kenseth's lead was short-lived. He pitted on lap 37 and gave the lead to Johnson, who stopped the following lap for four new tyres. When Biffle's engine failed on lap 40, most of the leaders stayed out on the track, and Kenseth dropped to third on the restart as Gordon and Johnson went past him.

Brad Keselowski hit the wall on lap 51. Marcos Ambrose spun in the second corner on lap 54, which brought the second caution, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. stayed out to lead. Edwards' car stalled on the restart, and he returned to the race fourteen laps down after a safety vehicle pushed him to the garage.

Mark Martin took the lead one lap after Edwards returned, and the frontrunners made their pit stops on lap 97. Harvick was given a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road. Debris brought a fourth caution after Martin's lead had been reduced to nothing, and Gordon led the restart on lap 119 with Bowyer climbing past Truex and Stewart to take second.

How did the late race play out?

Ambrose spun for a second time on lap 137, which brought out the fifth caution. Bowyer led the restart, and a debris caution followed four laps later. Stewart took the lead on lap 149, and Kyle Busch's engine failed soon after, bringing a seventh caution.

Bowyer reclaimed the lead on lap 168, and Johnson moved past Newman into fourth before taking third from Stewart. Debris brought an eighth caution on lap 183, and Stewart reclaimed the lead from Smith after a single lap in front. Kahne moved into second, and Bowyer clinched fourth in the process.

Johnson moved into second on lap 192, and Smith fell to ninth after the restart. Kurt Busch and David Ragan collided shortly before the finish, prompting the final caution. Stewart led the restart with two laps to run, with Johnson and Bowyer behind him.

Who finished where at Fontana?

Stewart came home first on lap 200 for the second victory of his 2010 campaign, with Bowyer under a second behind. Johnson took third, ahead of Kahne, Newman, Martin, Harvick and Hamlin. Gordon, who had struggled to recover from a late drive-through penalty, took ninth on the line ahead of Reutimann.

What did the result mean for the Chase?

The win moved Stewart up to fifth in the Drivers' Championship. He was one hundred seven points behind Johnson and fifty-one points ahead of Kurt Busch. Chevrolet still led the manufacturers. Its margin was forty-one points over Toyota and seventy-nine over Ford, and six events were left on the calendar.

Johnson held the top of the standings with 5,673 points after the race, and Hamlin was thirty-six points behind him in second. Harvick, Gordon and Stewart followed, with Kurt Busch sixth on 5,533 points.

How did the drivers react?

Bowyer was mixed in his response. He said the run had been crucial for his team after a difficult week, but he was frustrated not to have won. He added that the team could win races if it kept doing what it had done that afternoon.

Johnson described the day as great overall and said that finishing in the top three week after week gave a driver a real chance of winning the title. Hamlin called the day decent and said a top ten from where he had started was uplifting for the team.

The Roush Fenway chasers had a harder race. All three finished 30th or worse, and Biffle said his engine had failed with no warning. He said the team had been trying hard to win the championship, but it would not happen in 2010.

How did Regan Smith's race go?

Regan Smith was one of the cars that briefly led late in the race. He gained six positions to reach 13th by lap 22, and he took the lead for a single lap during the restart after the eighth caution. He then dropped back and finished 12th.

Smith was pleased with the result. He said the car had been good early on, but the team got caught in dirty air and bad traffic. With fresh tyres the car was strong at the front, but he lacked the grip to hold the lead for more than a lap.

Which drivers were chasing the title?

Jimmie Johnson entered the race at the top of the standings, and his third-place finish kept him in front. Denny Hamlin, who finished eighth, was the closest challenger, while Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were also in the mix.

Kenseth and Bowyer started the race eleventh and twelfth in the standings, on 5,354 and 5,251 points. With six events still to run, a single race could still reshuffle the order.

How did Roush Fenway and the Chase drivers fare?

Roush Fenway Racing had a difficult afternoon. All three of its Chase drivers finished 30th or worse, which damaged their places in the standings. Greg Biffle's engine failed with no warning, and he said the race had been an opportunity for the team to get back into the Chase.

Biffle added that everyone involved was giving the programme 110 percent, so nobody could be blamed for the result. By then the 2010 title was clearly out of reach for the team.

Why did the cautions matter so much?

The race had nine cautions. Several came from spins and wrecks in the early and middle stages. Marcos Ambrose spun in the second corner twice, once on lap 54 and again on lap 137.

Each caution brought the leaders down pit road and reshuffled the order. Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not pit during the caution on lap 54 and inherited the lead, showing how a single decision could change a race. The stops were a major part of how the afternoon turned.

How did pit road penalties affect the race?

Two leading drivers were hit with drive-through penalties. Kevin Harvick was penalised for speeding on pit road during the stops on lap 97, and Jeff Gordon's afternoon was hurt by a drive-through penalty late on. Both lost positions they had worked hard to gain.

Hamlin had to start at the rear after a transmission change before the race. He worked his way through the field from the back and finished eighth.

How big was the crowd and the TV audience?

Stewart celebrated in victory lane in front of a crowd of about 70,000 people. He also earned $262,598 in race winnings. On television, 4.072 million people watched the race.

Stewart's win was the 39th of his career. It arrived with six races left in the season, at a point where the title was still open to several drivers.