Cup guys finally practice, rain ends it after 17 laps

FONTANA, Calif. -- Like everyone in the Sprint Cup garage at Auto Club Speedway, Matt Kenseth was happy to finally get to do something other than sit around and watch it rain.

Unfortunately, the weather once again had other ideas, as Saturday's final practice session lasted less than 35 minutes before the next band of rain showers began to pelt the speedway and clouds obscured the snow-covered San Gabriel Mountains to the north.

Autostock

Matt Kenseth

Auto Club 500

Final Practice Speeds

Pos.	Driver	Make	Speed
1.	J. Gordon	Chevrolet	179.569
2.	C. Edwards	Ford	179.180
3.	G. Biffle	Ford	178.909
4.	M. Martin	Chevrolet	178.891
5.	M. Kenseth	Ford	178.820
6.	C. Bowyer	Chevrolet	178.580
7.	R. Sorenson	Dodge	178.527
8.	D. Hamlin	Toyota	178.474
9.	T. Stewart	Toyota	178.240
10.	E. Sadler	Dodge	178.218

• Complete Speeds click here

Jeff Gordon's lap of 179.569 mph was the best of the 43 starters, all of whom ran at least five laps before the practice was curtailed. The rest of the top five included Mark Martin (fourth) and Roush Fenway teammates Carl Edwards (second), Greg Biffle (third) and Kenseth (fifth). The top Dodge was Reed Sorenson (seventh), while Denny Hamlin (eighth) was the fastest Toyota.

The rain stopped shortly thereafter but NASCAR officials decided to attempt to dry the track for the Stater Bros. 300, the Nationwide Series race later in the evening. So a handful of practice laps, plus last month's test session, will be the sum of knowledge teams will be able to take into Sunday's Auto Club 500, if the rain ever relents.

But Kenseth, who has won the last two spring events at Fontana, said every season is like starting with a fresh sheet of paper -- and 2008 is certainly no different, particularly as the new car makes its intermediate speedway debut this weekend.

"This car is totally different -- nothing works off that other car to this one, so none of that is going to relate," Kenseth said. "But as much as we learned about that other car in the last four years, we didn't run the same setup last spring as we did the year before in the spring.

"Everything always changes, and you've got to be able to adapt to those changes. This is obviously a bigger change than the other car was from year to year, but nothing really stays exactly the same. You're always trying to learn: changing the tire, track conditions are always changing."

Led by Edwards, Roush's team showed significant strength when Cup teams were out West last month. Kenseth said the results of that test may prove to be the best litmus test of how Sunday's race may go.

"We went to Vegas for two days and here for two days last month, so that should've given you some idea," Kenseth said. "Since everybody was here, [you should know] where you stack up with your competition and what your strong suits and weak points are."

One thing Kenseth doesn't like is being idled, so he likes this year's schedule, which allows teams to run five consecutive weeks before taking a break for Easter weekend. In the past, NASCAR placed an off-weekend as early as the third week of the year.

"I don't think that off-weekend helped anything that early in the year," Kenseth said. "Everybody should already have their stuff done for the first few weeks.

"I think it's better to go out and race for five weeks, and then get a break and evaluate where you're at, and work on your stuff from there. It seemed like you'd just get started and then take a week off, so I think it's better like this."