2008 Auto Club 500
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| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 2 of 36 in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||
_-_Speedway.svg) Track map of the speedway at Auto Club Speedway AKA California Speedway | |||
| Date | February 24, 2008–February 25, 2008 | ||
| Location | Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 2.0 miles (3.23 km) | ||
| Distance | 250 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures approaching an average of 53.3 °F (11.8 °C); wind speeds up to 7 miles per hour (11 km/h)[1] | ||
| Average speed | 132.704 miles per hour (213.566 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Hendrick Motorsports | ||
| Time | 2007 Owner's Points | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Laps | 76 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 99 | Carl Edwards | Roush Fenway Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Fox Broadcasting Company | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds | ||
| Nielsen ratings | 1.6/3 (1.4) (Final) | ||
The 2008 Auto Club 500 was the second race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and started on February 24, 2008, at Auto Club Speedway of Southern California in Fontana, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. The race was telecast on Fox starting at 3:30 PM US EST/12:30 PM PST, with MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio's broadcast starting at 2:45 PM EST/11:45 AM PST. Rain stopped the race on Lap 87 and the race would continue on Monday, February 25 at 1 PM US EST/10 AM PDT.[2]
This race was the first time that the Car of Tomorrow raced at Fontana, as many people (since the shift from the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina following the Ferko lawsuit in 2004) claim that it is the first "real race" of the season, following the running of the Daytona 500 with its restrictor plates in use.
- Boris Said was an early entry, but withdrew. Mike Skinner was to have replaced Jacques Villeneuve in the #27 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, while Nationwide Series regular Burney Lamar was to replace Carl Long in the #08 Dodge, however, with the cancellation of qualifying due to rain, neither made the field. Villeneuve will look for a ride (and sponsorship) in both Sprint Cup and Nationwide series.
- Kurt Busch was docked 25 points and fined $25,000 after saying a profanity on live television during qualifying. This was the same penalty handed out when Tony Stewart uttered the same profanity after winning the 2007 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard the previous year.
Qualifying
For the first time in the Sprint Cup Series, a new qualifying system was to have been introduced for this race and the rest of the 2008 season.
The new qualifying format is being divided into two groups, that has been called by many as "The Boris Said Rule" after what happened prior to the 2007 Pepsi 400, when Said was on the provisional pole when qualifying was canceled, and the field was set by the rulebook. The format debuted in the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series at Daytona.
In the first group, the Top 35 Exempt teams will go onto the track first and set their positions in the time trials. The second group will involve those outside said Top 35, and will fill the remaining eight spots. However, rain canceled the scheduled qualifying session, and the field was set by the NASCAR rulebook. The first time that the new qualifying session format was used was at the UAW-Dodge 400 the following week in Las Vegas, Nevada.