Kenseth captures 15th Nextel Cup win

It was his second straight victory in the Auto Club 500 race.
By REID SPENCER
SPORTING NEWS NASCAR WIRE SERVICE
FONTANA, Calif. -- The combination of good fortune and fast work in the pits propelled Matt Kenseth to his second straight Auto Club 500 victory Sunday at California Speedway.
With his strongest competition in the pits with a flat tire on a restart with four laps to go, and earlier leader Jimmie Johnson mired in fourth place after a slow pit stop under caution on Lap 227, Kenseth streaked to his 15th Nextel Cup victory and a weekend sweep of the Cup and Busch Series events at the 2.0-mile speedway.
Kenseth beat polesitter Jeff Gordon to the finish line by .679 seconds during a four-lap dash that followed a red-flag period of more than 15 minutes.
Flat tire halts Harvick
Kevin Harvick, who was gaining ground on Kenseth and in second before the race was stopped on Lap 243 after a crash involving David Reutimann, cut his left front tire as the cars were rolling under caution. He came to the pits as Kenseth took the green flag to start Lap 247.
Johnson finished third, followed by Jeff Burton and Mark Martin. Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers completed the top 10. Vickers posted the first top 10 for Toyota in its inaugural year in the Cup Series.
Kenseth held on for the win despite the absence of crew chief Robbie Reiser, who is serving a four-race suspension for infractions discovered after qualifying for last week's Daytona 500. Interim crew chief Chip Bolin guided the team to the first Cup win for the newly formed Roush Fenway Racing.
"Oh, my gosh, this is a special one," Kenseth said. "It's not without Robbie. Robbie's at home working on the car. This team is built by Robbie Reiser.
"It's an emotional win, an awesome win for us. I thought it was going to slip away, because the 29 [Harvick] was better, but he had some bad fortune there. We had to hold them off. It is awesome to do the double here."
Quick pit stop
Kenseth was first out of the pits on Lap 227 during the eighth caution of the race, for debris on the backstretch. Johnson, the leader into pits, suffered from a slow stop and dropped four positions to fifth.
After the restart on Lap 231, Kenseth moved out to a lead of more than one second. Harvick passed Burton for second position on Lap 232, as Kenseth ran his fastest circuit of the race, but over the next 10 laps the Daytona 500 winner began to close on Kenseth.
Harvick was .78 seconds behind when a tap from Greg Biffle sent Reutimann spinning into the Turn 4 wall. Ricky Rudd spun trying to avoid the wreck, and Bobby Labonte sustained damage during the incident.
During a caution-free run of 102 laps, Johnson took the lead through a cycle of green-flag pit stops and held a 2.011-second advantage over Kenseth as he crossed the stripe to complete Lap 201.
Kenseth cut the advantage to 1.3 seconds early in the run, but as the leaders worked through traffic and tires started to fade, Johnson stretched the lead to more than two seconds by Lap 220.
But the race changed in the pits on Lap 227, as Kenseth took advantage of the superior work of his pit crew.
Gordon gets second
Gordon passed Burton for second on the last restart, but that was as far as he could go.
"I don't know what happened to the 31 [Burton] there on the restart," said Gordon, who swept past the driver of the Cingular Chevy on the outside.