Benny Parsons

The Jack Roush-owned race cars will rebound in a big way from their rough rides at Daytona with a strong showing this weekend at California Motor Speedway, a two-mile, D-shaped, tri-oval that allows for lots of side-by-side racing.

Working in Biffle’s favor
Biffle has a history of dominance at California Motor Speedway. He won this race last season and followed that up with a second-place run in the September race.

Crew chief Doug Richert says he is taking the same car Biffle rode to Victory Lane in last November at Homestead.

Biffle will be motivated by the idea of getting a fresh start given his poor run at last weekend at Daytona, where he blew a tire in the final lap, hit the wall and limped home in 31st place, his worst finish in his last 15 races.

Biffle tends to like to race at the front of the pack at California. What’s more, he was strong in qualifying with an average starting position of 4.5.

He has also won two Busch Series races at the racetrack.

“We got ourselves into a little bit of a hole in Daytona, but I have no doubt that this team will turn it around this weekend,” Biffle told the Associated Press.

Other drivers to watch
I am very interested to find out whether Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will get off to good starts on the intermediate-to-large tracks.

Neither driver fared particularly well on the bigger tracks last season.

But Gordon owns three victories in the past 10 years at Fontana with one pole and five top-five finishes.

But he was shut out of the top 10 in two events last year, averaging a disappointing 25th-place finish.

Junior seems upbeat about his chances at Fontana this weekend, but has publicly admitted that his car isn’t quite where it needs to be.

Including an eighth-place finish at Daytona last week, Earnhardt has three top-10 finishes in his past five races.

His best effort at Fontana is a third-place finish in April 2001. He also recorded a sixth-place finish in 2003.

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Perhaps a brand new chassis can help erase memories of more recent struggles at the track, including a 38th-place finish in the September race.

Now, let’s turn back to the Roush drivers.

Carl Edwards has run in the top 10 in all three of his CMS starts, with two top-five finishes. Edwards also started from the front of the pack (10th) and captured one pole.

Edwards is like Biffle in that he did not race well at Daytona as his car gave out near the midpoint of the race. Obviously, he will try to improve out west this weekend.

Jamie McMurray has been stellar in his five Fontana starts, with four top-10 finishes and three in the top five. His average finish is sixth place, which is impressive when you consider that his average start is 27th.

Plus, McMurray ran well at Daytona last week as he hung around the top 10 for most of the race.

Mark Martin usually fares quite well at Fontana. He has racked up five top-10 finishes and a victory in 11 starts.

Like Biffle, Martin usually runs in the front of the pack at CMS.

“After two weeks at Daytona, I can’t wait to get on the track at California,” Martin told the AP. “I’m ready to get to a track where things are a little more in control of the driver, and Fontana is really my kind of track. It suits my driving style and we’ve been pretty good there in the last couple of years.”

Also keep an eye on Kyle Busch, who won last September’s race as a rookie.

My darkhorse pick is Joe Nemecheck. Why? Before a single lap was completed the veteran driver crashed, struggled for the rest of the race, and finished 33rd.

Nemecheck feels he is long overdue for a little success at Fontana.

I agree with him.

Remember, he dominated this race last year, but was foiled as his engine expired with just 70 laps left. 

In 2004, Nemecheck was on track for a top-10 finish. But his 01 car ran out of gas with two laps left, and he finished in 28th place.

Keys to success at California

• Have a good engine. Like Michigan, California is a big track that features a lot of full-throttle racing, especially along the long straight-aways, where cars will likely reach 200 mph. But in 2003, two cars dropped out due to engine failure after five cars lost their engines the year before. It might be a good idea to keep an eye on Johnson, whose recent run of engine troubles included a DNF at Michigan.
• Handle your tires well. California is a smooth track that does not have many bumps, which essentially makes the track kind to tires, so a good tire strategy is a key. This means to go for track position by changing only two tires, and try to avoid changing tires at the end of the race.
• Fuel-mileage strategy. Expect lots of long runs under green — a stark contrast to last week's race at Bristol. Gordon and his crew are particularly good at this. In fact, they won the first California race in 1997 on fuel mileage.
  

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