By the Numbers: California

When it comes to Nationwide Series success at California Speedway, look no further than Cup Series drivers who are looking for a Nationwide-Sprint Cup weekend sweep. Since the series started racing two events at the Fontana track in 2004, a Cup Series regular has visited Victory Lane every time -- eight races, eight Cup stars taking the checkered flag.

One of the hottest drivers on the circuit right now looks to make it nine in a row.

For the second consecutive week, Kyle Busch will pull off a weekend tri-fecta. Last week at Daytona, Busch brought home three consecutive top-five finishes -- a second in both the Truck and Nationwide races and a fourth in the Daytona 500.

This week, Busch will run the Stater Bros. 300 on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2), sandwiched between a Truck race Saturday afternoon and the Cup race on Sunday.

Top-fives are nothing new to Busch in the Nationwide Series, as he is in the midst of one of the most dominating streaks this series has seen.

At California, Busch had two top-threes last season, but is still searching for that first victory.

"I love racing at California Speedway," Busch said. "This is the site of my first Sprint Cup Series win but a Nationwide Series win here has always eluded me.

"We're going to really work on the car in practice and focus on getting a good starting spot and having a car that's going to be good in the afternoon when the race starts and will still be good in the evening after the sun sets."

Another driver still in search of his first California win is Clint Bowyer, who struggled to a 25th-place finish at Daytona last Saturday.

Bowyer has a stout average starting position of 6.8 and an average finish of 8.2 in five races at the 2-mile track, with three top-fives and a worst finish of 16th back in 2006.

More impressive, Bowyer holds the record for most poles at California with two, the only driver to sit in the P-1 position on more than one occasion, although that might be more of a curse than a cause for celebration.

Surprisingly, despite his two poles, Bowyer's 6.8 average starting position at California isn't tops among the drivers -- he's actually third.

Regardless of where he starts Saturday's race, Bowyer will be a driver to contend with. California Speedway is one of his strongest tracks, as evidenced by his average running position and laps in the top 15 since 2005.

Last season, Bowyer ran a part-time Nationwide Series schedule in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevy and only raced once at California, a fifth-place finish in the fall race. Now, Bowyer is back in the series full time, and he can't wait to begin that title quest in California.

"I'm looking forward to going to California and building on what we had last year, Bowyer said. "We had a great run with the No. 21 car last year and I think we can build on that this year. We're running full-time for the championship this year so I'm excited to see what we've got.

"We sat on a couple poles [at California] and I like the racetrack. It seems like you have to run the car pretty free on the long run and that's one of my strong points."

There are 14 Cup Series regulars entered in this week's race, all looking for a chance to grab a victory out West. For Busch or Bowyer to find their way to the front, Bowyer's RCR teammate Jeff Burton says it's really simple -- it all comes down to basics.

"Really, it's kind of the same at every racetrack we go to," he said. "First and foremost, you have to have a fast car. Then, you can't make mistakes out on the racetrack or in the pits. NASCAR racing is so competitive that there can not be mistakes made anywhere in order to have a good finish because the competition is just so strong."

Just the facts ma'am