Race Report.(Motorsports)(NASCAR)

NASCAR's ever-tightening technical rules are producing the intended effect: Much of the time, you can throw a blanket over the field. Nine races into the Winston Cup season there were nine different winners. Kurt Busch bucked the trend with a convincing win in the 500-miler at California Speedway, becoming the first driver to score a repeat this year. Busch now has five wins in his last 15 starts, including his win at Bristol in March, and three more in the last five weeks of last year.

Steve Park qualified on the pole with a lap of 38.536 seconds (186.838 mph). The strong qualifying performance was an encouraging development for Park, who is fighting rumors his DEI ride is in jeopardy. But the positive vibe didn't last, as Park slid up into Ryan Newman in Turn Two of the first lap, effectively ending both their days. From there, Tony Stewart led 100 of the 250 laps on the two-mile oval, dueling with rookie Jamie McMurray, until Stewart's engine blew up just past the halfway mark.

Uncharacteristically for Fontana, there were eight caution flags, and plenty of close racing in the final stages. The last yellow came on lap 231 when nine cars piled up in Turn Two, setting the stage for a four-way battle in the final stint between McMurray, Busch, Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace. McMurray's Dodge was weak on short runs and soon faded. Wallace took the lead, and ...