Celebration for 500 win too much for next week's race

Matt Kenseth has won two of the last three spring races at Auto Club Speedway, but if he winds up suffering the Daytona 500 "winner's hangover" like most previous winners, he'll be hard-pressed to repeat that performance in Sunday's Auto Club 500.

Only once since 1977 has the winner of the Daytona 500 gone on to win the next race: Jeff Gordon at North Carolina Motor Speedway in the 1997 Goodwrench Service 400. And that came as a surprise to nearly everyone at the track that day, even to Gordon.

Numbers: Fontana

If past stats are any indication, Matt Kenseth could join Jeff Gordon and start the season winning the first two races.

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Starting third, Dale Jarrett took the lead from Mark Martin on Lap 13 and was rarely challenged for much of the day. Running on the inside, he led all but 70 laps of the race.

However, Gordon -- one of the few cars able to keep Jarrett in his sights -- continued to make adjustments on his car, and late in the race, found that his No. 24 Chevrolet suddenly favored the high groove.

"We only made minor changes all day, but our groove came in or something happened there at the end," he said. "We sure weren't the fastest car all day. We just kept tuning on it and tuning on it.

"I tried [the high groove] a couple of different times earlier in the race and it just wasn't there. We kept working the bottom groove all day, and Dale was just stronger on the bottom than I was. That high groove never really worked or paid off until about 60 laps to go. Maybe more guys were trying it and there was more rubber up there. I just knew it was either stay right behind Dale Jarrett and finish second or try something else." (Continued)