FONTANA, Calif. — When dark clouds ominously obscured majestic Mount Baldy north of Auto Club Speedway early in Sunday’s race, the NASCAR drivers realized they were probably in for a short day on a long track.
Nobody did a better job than Tony Stewart of racing until raindrops fell.
Stewart notched his second victory of the season when rain shortened the race at Auto Club Speedway by 71 laps, extending the defending Sprint Cup champion’s unusually strong start.
Kyle Busch finished second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. added to his good start to the season, placing third.
“You hate to have it end with rain like that,” Stewart said. “But we’ve lost some that way, and we didn’t back into the lead.”
Stewart has won seven of the last 15 races, including Las Vegas last month, in a remarkable stretch of NASCAR dominance for a driver who rarely gets rolling until the summer.
Stewart’s Chevrolet passed Busch 44 laps before the race was stopped when the looming rain clouds finally burst and halted a race run entirely on green flags to that point. Stewart collected his 46th career win and his second at Fontana.
Regan smith’s race
• Smith had a speeding infraction on lap 34 as he was exiting pit road after his first stop of the day, dropping the Furniture Row Racing driver to 33rd place. • Smith finished 20th.• He moved up one spot to 19th in the driver point standings.
