Kenseth excels at Fontana while Earnhardt struggles

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Statistically speaking, two storylines may continue through this weekend's race at Auto Club Speedway. One is Matt Kenseth's success. The other is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s struggles.

Everything worked perfectly for Kenseth this past Sunday as he captured his first Daytona 500 victory. Don't be surprised if he goes 2-for-2, winning Sunday's Auto Club 500 (5 p.m. ET, FOX).

Statistically, the 2-mile track is one of Kenseth's best:

Kenseth | Earnhardt

The Daytona 500, meanwhile, was not one of Earnhardt's best days. He finished 27th, had two pit-road mistakes and is generally blamed for causing a multi-car incident.

Earnhardt now gets to race at Fontana. Statistically, that's not a good thing. The track could be Earnhardt's worst.

In his 328-race career, Earnhardt has finished 38th or worse 25 times. Three of those finishes have come at Fontana -- only unpredictable Talladega appears that many times on his personal "worst of" list.

Earnhardt has more sub-50.0 Driver Ratings at Fontana than any other track. Since the inception of the Loop Data statistic in 2005, Earnhardt has scored 11 Driver Ratings less than 50.0. Three of those were at Fontana, the only track to appear more than once on the list:

That's not to say Earnhardt hasn't had some success out West. He finished second at Fontana in 2006, posting a Driver Rating of 119.1, and fifth in 2007, with a Driver Rating of 118.3.

Still, according to the numbers, those finishes are rare. The track ranks among his worst in both average Driver Rating and average finish:

More Loop Data
• 2009 Statistics | Season-to-Date Box Score