Motorracing

He drove a backup car that hadn't taken any laps of practice. His crew chief mixed up the schedule and showed up uncharacteristically late to the morning drivers meeting. You'd forgive the No. 48 team for being a bit discombobulated going into the Gatorade Duels at Daytona. But they weren't. Not even a little bit. Four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson won the first 150-mile qualifying race Thursday afternoon by a margin of .005 seconds. Kasey Kahne won the second race, breaking up the Hendrick Motorsports party.

Jimmie Johnson isn't the only guy everybody else is chasing at Daytona. You can label Kevin Harvick a Sprint Cup champion, too, since he's the guy to beat in Saturday night's Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. Harvick is going for his third consecutive victory in the Shootout. Saturday night's race also marks NASCAR's official competitive opening of the new racing surface at Daytona and a new fueling system that features a bulkier configuration of the new gas cans.

Melanie Troxel made drag racing history in 2008 when she became the first woman to have won races in both of the NHRA's premier classes, funny cars and top fuel. But a year later, Troxel couldn't be found in either class. A victim of the economic woes afflicting the National Hot Rod Assn. and motor sports, Troxel's funny car was parked in 2009 for lack of sponsorship. Now she's back, thanks to a deal with In-N-Out Burger that's enabling Troxel to race in eight funny car races in the NHRA's Full Throttle Series, starting with this weekend's Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.

As four of the most experienced drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series battled for the win Sunday in the Auto Club 500, right behind them was 19-year-old Joey Logano. And to hear folks in the NASCAR garage tell it, the sport had better get used to seeing the lanky youngster mix it up with the leaders each week during the 36-race Cup schedule. Logano, the stock car racing phenom who took over the prized Cup ride vacated by two-time champion Tony Stewart last year, started 19th and finished fifth in Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

Auto Club Speedway, hoping to boost excitement for the Fontana track's title-contending NASCAR Sprint Cup race this fall, said Wednesday it would shorten the race to 400 miles from 500. The race, which had been called the Pepsi 500, will now be the Pepsi Max 400, reflecting both the shorter distance and a different soft drink marketed by title sponsor Pepsi. Set to run Oct. 10, the race is the fourth of 10 races in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup late-season championship playoff.

John Force is synonymous with funny car drag racing, with a prodigious 14 championships and an animated nature that has made him perhaps the sport's most popular figure. Yet when Force arrived in Pomona for the 50th running of the Winternationals, the season opener for the National Hot Rod Assn.'s Full Throttle Series, he was hungry to show he could win again. After all, Force had won only once since he was seriously injured in a racing crash in 2007 that required extensive rehabilitation, and that victory was 20 months ago. But any doubts were erased Sunday when Force edged Ron Capps by the narrowest of margins to win the Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway, his 127th career win. And the 60-year-old Force did so with reflexes that still appear superlative.

Not that there was any doubt, but Danica Patrick learned for herself Saturday that big league stock-car racing isn't easy. That was evident as Patrick, the IndyCar Series star who's trying her hand at NASCAR, clearly was perturbed after finishing 31st among 43 cars in the Stater Bros. 300, a race in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Patrick, 27, accomplished one goal by finishing the race, her second after her NASCAR debut a week ago at Daytona International Speedway was cut short when she was caught in a multi-car crash just past the halfway point.

Can Tony Schumacher possibly win a seventh consecutive series title? Will Ashley Force Hood or Antron Brown win their first? And can Larry Dixon bounce back from losing last year's title by the narrowest margin on record? As the new season of the National Hot Rod Assn.'s premier Full Throttle Series gets underway with the 50th running of the Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway Thursday through Sunday in Pomona, here's a preview of the competition in the sport's four leading divisions: Top fuel A key architect behind Schumacher's five consecutive season-long titles from 2004 to 2008 was Alan Johnson, his crew chief.

Jimmie Johnson isn't the only guy everybody else is chasing at Daytona. You can label Kevin Harvick a Sprint Cup champion, too, since he's the guy to beat in Saturday night's Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. Harvick is going for his third consecutive victory in the Shootout. Saturday night's race also marks NASCAR's official competitive opening of the new racing surface at Daytona and a new fueling system that features a bulkier configuration of the new gas cans.

Next year's Formula One season just got a whole lot harder for its drivers -- and a whole lot more interesting for the sport's legion of fans worldwide. Michael Schumacher, Formula One's all-time champion with an unprecedented seven titles, confirmed widespread speculation and announced Wednesday that he will come out of retirement to race with the new Mercedes GP team. Saying that he "was feeling like a 12-year-old boy who is jumping from excitement," Schumacher -- who will be 41 when the series opens with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14 -- said he signed a three-year contract with the team.

Another year, another poor finish for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Auto Club Speedway. The most popular driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series had hoped to reverse his record at the Fontana track Sunday after his second-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500. But after starting 27th on the 43-car grid for the Auto Club 500 and climbing to 21st early in the race, Earnhardt was penalized for speeding on pit road, dropping him deep into...

It's often said that after NASCAR opens the year at the unique and unpredictable Daytona track, the true nature of its season is revealed at the second race in Southern California. Yes, Jamie McMurray won a thrilling Daytona 500, but it was only the fourth win of his career. And, yes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second there, but even Earnhardt cautioned not to declare his long slump over. So if the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series really got down to business in race No. 2, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Sunday, then it only stood to reason that Jimmie Johnson got back to winning.

Not that there was any doubt, but Danica Patrick learned for herself Saturday that big league stock-car racing isn't easy. That was evident as Patrick, the IndyCar Series star who's trying her hand at NASCAR, clearly was perturbed after finishing 31st among 43 cars in the Stater Bros. 300, a race in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Patrick, 27, accomplished one goal by finishing the race, her second after her NASCAR debut a week ago at Daytona International Speedway was cut short when she was caught in a multi-car crash just past the halfway point.

Two years ago, questions swirled about the long-term viability of Chip Ganassi's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team. Now, it's gunning to be a title contender. The team's drivers, Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, share the front row in Sunday's Auto Club 500 in Fontana, the second race of the 36-race Cup schedule. McMurray snagged the pole position at Auto Club Speedway five days after winning the season-opening Daytona 500 for Ganassi's team, which is co-owned by Teresa Earnhardt and Felix Sabates.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is curbing his enthusiasm. While relishing his near victory in last week's Daytona 500, the most popular driver in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series knows he's back at what has been -- for him -- the unfriendly confines of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Still, Earnhardt said Friday that he hopes to maintain momentum from his second-place finish behind winner Jamie McMurray in the Daytona 500 with another strong showing Sunday at the Fontana track. "I enjoy finishing up front; it had been a long time since we had finished [well]

Danica Patrick naturally was at ease in front of the phalanx of cameras tracking her first day driving a NASCAR stock car at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Friday. Not so in the seat of her No. 7 Chevrolet. Patrick, the IndyCar series star making a highly publicized attempt at NASCAR racing, complained of still being uncomfortable in the car after two practice rounds for the Stater Bros. 300 on Saturday, her second race in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series. "I'm still not totally happy, that's for sure, I'm just not feeling really comfortable on entry into the corner," she said of driving around the two-mile oval track 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

Seeing Tony Schumacher wearing one of his National Hot Rod Assn. top-fuel championship leather jackets during breakfast Sunday morning didn't look too much out of place. It was a pretty chilly morning for the NHRA season finale at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. Had it been 100 degrees, Schumacher probably still would have worn one of his six championship jackets. Schumacher, with a hint of premonition, a sprinkle of confidence and proudly donning a reminder of his drag racing dominance, addressed friends and sponsors in the garage area before driver introductions.

If anyone needed an early-season boost in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year it was Kevin Harvick. The Bakersfield native had a miserable 2009, finishing 19th in the point standings, his worst showing in seven years, and he hasn't won a points-paying race since nipping Mark Martin to win the Daytona 500 in 2007. But Harvick again demonstrated his prowess at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night by winning his second consecutive Budweiser Shootout, a non-points exhibition race that precedes the Daytona 500 and marks the unofficial start to the Cup season.

NASCAR is back in Fontana, which means Jimmie Johnson will toss and turn at night. "When I go to California, I know the night before I'm not going to sleep well," the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion said of this weekend's race at Auto Club Speedway. "I haven't for the last eight years." That's because Johnson and his rival drivers view Sunday's Auto Club 500, the second race after last weekend's season-opening Daytona 500, as the first true yardstick of how their cars stack up against each other.

Danica Patrick is as curious as everyone else to see how well she performs in her second NASCAR stock car race Saturday. Patrick made her debut last weekend in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, but her race ended after a car wreck just past the halfway point on the high-banked Daytona International Speedway. Her next race is the Stater Bros. 300 at the much flatter, two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. "I don't know what to expect [at Fontana]," Patrick said in an interview, adding that she and her crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., "haven't really talked about it too much" ahead of her first practice here on Friday.