NASCAR's Winston Cup Series headed to California's Infineon Raceway for the first road course race of the season. The hilly 12 turn track, one of only two road courses in the Winston Cup schedule, is notoriously difficult for even some of NASCAR's best drivers, with few opportunities to pass.
Road course specialist Boris Said won the pole position with a new track qualifying record. Robby Gordon, a former road course specialist, qualified second, looking for his second Winston Cup win at a track where half the race winners have started in the front row. Point leader Matt Kenseth qualified a career best 4th, after 3 consecutive years of testing at Sonoma to improve his road course skills.
When the green flag waved on the 110-lap event, Boris Said held the lead for a single lap before Robby Gordon drove around him to take the top spot. Kevin Harvick also got around Said to take second and challenge his teammate for the lead. On lap 9, Bobby Labonte spun in turn 7, bringing out a local yellow, in which the caution flag displays in that corner, but the race remains green. Elliot Sadler, Tony Raines and Dale Jarrett all brought out local yellows in various corners as the race wore on, each sliding off the track alone and recovering.
Green flag pit spots began at lap 30, when Robby Gordon headed down pit road, handing the lead to Ron Fellows. Matt Kenseth shredded a tire as he came around to the entrance to pit road, bringing out a caution flag for the tires debris strewn across the track. When the pit stops completed under the yellow flag, Gordon had reclaimed the lead.
The second caution of the day came when another of the road course specialists, Hideo Fukuyama slid off the track in turn 7 and was unable to recover on his own. Only a handful of cars headed for their pits, including Kenseth and Tony Stewart. As the race neared the halfway point, teammates Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick were racing hard for the lead, only to lose it to Ron Fellow, who in a daring move, went three wide through a turn to get past both cars.
Kyle Petty's spin in turn 7 led to the third caution of the day, when he cut off Jack Sprague and Steve Park in rejoining the race. Another caution flew for debris after Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr. got together and slid off the track. With 45 laps to go, a bottleneck in turn 7 caused a 7 car wreck, but all the cars recovered without bringing out the caution.
A lap 72 caution gave Robby Gordon the opportunity to get back to the lead, when he passed Harvick for the lead racing back to take the yellow flag. When the leaders made their final pit stops, Johnny Benson inherited the lead, only to lose it again as Gordon charged back to the front with 30 laps to go. A mechanical problem sent Dale Jarrett spinning off the track in turn 12 and giving him his 6th DNF of the season.
