Edwards Wins Fontana Race, 24 Hours Later
This thing was supposed to start at 1 p.m. Sunday.
It finished at 12:16 p.m. on Monday.
It was the 24 Hours of Fontana. Which might be OK had any of us been warned beforehand.
At least the right guy won. Edwards had the best car all day Monday, at a track he likes (seven top-six finishes in eight races here) and pulled away from Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon the final 20 laps.
"Carl was strong," Johnson said. "He was so quick."
Said Gordon: "Carl edwards is in another league. He was awesome."
The only real drama occurred with 28 laps left, when Johnson and Gordon beat Edwards out of the pits on a yellow-flag stop.
Johnson had a lead of a few seconds ... but Edwards had the better car and calmly reeled in Gordon, then Johnson, taking the lead for good with 12 laps left.
Too bad the track didn't have this weather on Sunday. Nice and sunny. Not warm, but not cold. And no standing water on the track.
Very few people in the stands ... and we have to assume the TV audience was a fraction of what it would have been had it gone off on Sunday.
But that's the risk you run when you schedule a race in SoCal in February, our wettest month.
Now we're done with this tour until Labor Day. Fine by me.