Race
The outset of the race was plagued with rain, which was an ongoing theme throughout the weekend, delaying the start by 2½ hours, but weeping in the banked turns from all the inclement weather that fell throughout the weekend because of poor drainage caused the first two cautions. On Lap 14, Denny Hamlin hit the wall in Turn 3, causing the first caution of the day. After just two more laps of green, Casey Mears crashed into Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Sam Hornish Jr., who was blinded from the upraised hood who then hit Reed Sorenson and then turned Mears' car 270 degrees, setting Hornish's car ablaze and causing the first red flag of the race on Lap 21. Track dryers were brought out to clear the track, and concrete saws were used to create pathways for the water to flow off Turns 1 and 2, which was not draining properly. After hour and seven minute delay, racing continued on Lap 25 before a caution was called on Lap 39 due to rain in Turn 4. After drying finished, racing began again on Lap 47 before a yellow flag was shown on Lap 56 due to Jeremy Mayfield's flat tire. Another yellow flag was shown when Joe Nemechek spins out due to a flat tire on Lap 62. Eight laps afterward, the sixth caution flag was shown when Elliott Sadler hit the wall after attempting to avoid Robby Gordon. The seventh caution flag was displayed on Lap 81 when rain began to fall, and was finally called off officially on Lap 87 with a red flag, over five hours after the scheduled start of the race.
NASCAR continued to dry the track and scheduled a night restart at 9 PM PST. That time was postponed twice by an hour to 11 PM local time, when they felt that track drying was inadequate. Ultimately at the time the race was to have restarted, NASCAR officials suspended activities for the evening. When action resumed on Monday morning, Jimmie Johnson led the race when on Lap 132, Jeff Burton brushed the wall on Turn 3 to force the eighth caution period. Three more cautions would follow, ultimately letting Carl Edwards win the race under caution when Dale Jarrett spun in Turn 3 on the last lap. Mark Martin made his 800th career Winston/NEXTEL/Sprint Cup start in this race.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Auto Club 500
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“You sang far better than you knew; the songs
That for your listeners’ hungry hearts sufficed
Still live,—but more than this to you belongs:
You sang a race from wood and stone to Christ.”
—James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
“It now appears that the negro race is, more than any other, susceptible of rapid civilization. The emancipation is observed, in the islands, to have wrought for the negro a benefit as sudden as when a thermometer is brought out of the shade into the sun. It has given him eyes and ears.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Consider the value to the race of one-half of its members being enabled to throw aside the intolerable bondage of ignorance that has always weighed them down!”
—Bertha Honore Potter Palmer (1849–1918)