Matt Kenseth is known as one of NASCAR's more reserved drivers, a Wisconsin native who often speaks in clipped sentences and seldom goes looking for the spotlight.
The Roush Fenway Racing driver also has a tendency to hide his cards until it matters and, much to Jeff Gordon's chagrin, he was holding the superior hand Sunday night in Fontana.
Kenseth held off Gordon to win his third Auto Club 500 one week after winning stock-car racing's crown jewel, the Daytona 500, giving Kenseth and new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer a perfect start to the season.
The last Cup driver to win the first two races of the year? Gordon in 1997.
Kyle Busch was third in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and Kenseth teammate Greg Biffle was fourth.
"It feels pretty unbelievable to win the first two races" of the season, said Kenseth, 36, who won the Cup championship in 2003 but was winless in 2008 -- his first yearlong drought in seven years.
The win also tightened the stranglehold that Roush Fenway seems to have over the two-mile Auto Club Speedway, as Roush drivers have now won the Auto Club 500 five consecutive years.
The 92,000-seat speedway, often chided for its lack of sellouts in recent years, also scored a victory of sorts in the eyes of its officials.
Despite fears that the economic recession, the Academy Awards telecast and other factors might limit attendance to 60,000 or fewer, NASCAR estimated that the race drew about 78,000 people -- 8,000 more than it said attended the Fontana race last Labor Day weekend.
Auto Club Speedway, like many tracks nationwide, had cut prices on some seats in response to the economic pressure.
"The turnout was awesome, I'm so thrilled with the crowd," said track President Gillian Zucker. "It clearly shows how passionate Southern California is about NASCAR. That even in this kind of an economy that the crowd is that big says an awful lot."
They saw a close finish at the wide, fast track where the cars frequently are spread far apart, with Kenseth winning by only 1.5 seconds.
Gordon led 64 of the race's 250 laps in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and appeared poised to finally break his winless streak dating to October 2007.
But Kenseth put his No. 17 Ford in front and kept it there over the final 38 laps, with Gordon in close pursuit but unable to retake the lead.
