Stewart remains hot with rain-shortened win

• SPRINT CUP

When dark clouds ominously obscured majestic Mount Baldy north of Auto Club Speedway early in Sunday's race, NASCAR's drivers all realized they were probably in for a short day on a long track.

Nobody did a better job racing until the raindrops fell than Tony Stewart.

Stewart got his second NASCAR victory of the season when rain shortened the race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., by 71 laps, extending the defending Sprint Cup champion's unusually strong start.

Kyle Busch finished second, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. added to his good start to the season in third.

"You hate to have it end with rain like that," Stewart said. "But we've lost some that way, and we didn't back into the lead."

Stewart has won seven of the last 15 races, including Las Vegas last month, in a remarkable stretch of dominance for a driver who rarely gets rolling until summer.

Although Stewart sees nothing special about his approach to the new season, he's clearly focused. Stewart and new crew chief Steve Addington didn't mention the rain to each other until moments before it hit one end of the 2-mile oval, but they had already done the work necessary to win.

"It's been nice to get off to a good start this year the way we have," said Stewart, who has been even more impressive this year despite firing crew chief Darian Grubb last December. "The history shows the last 13 years, we haven't had the strongest start the first third of the year, but I'm really excited about the start we've got going. Daytona was probably our weakest race, and I know I made decisions trying to make things happen and it didn't work out. I'm really proud of what Steve and all our guys have done."

Stewart's Chevrolet passed Busch 44 laps before the race was stopped when the looming rain clouds finally burst and halted a race run entirely on green flags to that point. Although a few drivers weren't happy when the race was called off after a delay of just over 30 minutes amid steadily worsening rain, Stewart collected his 46th career win and his second at Fontana.

"Playing to the weather, everybody is trying to get everything they can get toward the midway point of that race," Stewart said.

Defending race winner Kevin Harvick was fourth, and Carl Edwards was fifth. Greg Biffle, Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing teammate, finished sixth and kept a seven-point lead on Harvick atop the points standings.

"We had a great race car there from the start of the race," said Busch, who started second alongside teammate Denny Hamlin and took the lead on the second lap. "We led a lot of laps. I just wish we led 30 more."

The drivers saw only blue skies at their meeting two hours before the race began, but the weather steadily worsened. The resulting drop in temperature threw off many teams' calculations on air pressure and other decisions, forcing adjustments on their first pit stops.

Realizing they might not be able to get much past the halfway point necessary to make a race official, the drivers mounted a fast, clean race on the extra-wide track, nearly setting the track record for consecutive green-flag laps until the rain finally forced a caution on the 125th lap.

NASCAR

Sprint Cup

Auto Club 400

Sunday

At Auto Club Speedway

Fontana, Calif.

Lap length: 2 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (9) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 129 laps, 133.5 rating, 47 points, $323,450.

2. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 129, 137.5, 44, $259,698.

3. (14) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 129, 104.3, 41, $170,165.

4. (7) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 129, 103.9, 40, $181,551.

5. (12) Carl Edwards, Ford, 129, 100.7, 39, $161,056.

6. (4) Greg Biffle, Ford, 129, 104.9, 38, $119,590.

7. (6) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 129, 104.5, 37, $146,448.

8. (13) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 129, 89.3, 36, $131,504.

9. (23) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 129, 79.9, 35, $138,898.

10. (10) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 129, 112.5, 35, $142,201.

11. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 129, 115.1, 34, $149,771.

12. (3) Mark Martin, Toyota, 129, 90.8, 32, $96,355.

13. (11) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 129, 85.4, 31, $122,469.

14. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 129, 89.9, 30, $102,105.

15. (25) A J Allmendinger, Dodge, 129, 76.5, 29, $134,330.

16. (15) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 129, 79.2, 28, $138,866.

17. (24) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 128, 66.1, 27, $122,096.

18. (17) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 128, 81.7, 26, $125,250.

19. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 128, 58.1, 25, $98,705.

20. (22) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 128, 63.3, 24, $114,163.

21. (29) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 128, 67.3, 23, $118,388.

22. (19) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 128, 72, 22, $127,180.

23. (33) Casey Mears, Ford, 128, 65, 21, $102,163.

24. (8) Joey Logano, Toyota, 128, 68.6, 20, $95,280.

25. (28) Aric Almirola, Ford, 128, 56.2, 19, $124,016.

26. (21) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 128, 94.7, 19, $130,566.

27. (18) David Reutimann, Chevrolet, 127, 59, 17, $85,230.

28. (26) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 127, 54.9, 16, $104,188.

29. (40) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 127, 48, 15, $101,777.

30. (41) David Gilliland, Ford, 127, 41.4, 14, $85,480.

31. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 127, 48, 13, $83,280.

32. (16) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 126, 68.2, 12, $111,613.

33. (34) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 126, 37.7, 11, $80,355.

34. (42) Ken Schrader, Ford, 125, 32, 10, $88,155.

35. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 125, 35.5, 9, $79,930.

36. (31) Landon Cassill, Toyota, 124, 46.2, 8, $106,125.

37. (30) Josh Wise, Ford, vibration, 51, 32.9, 7, $79,555.

38. (32) Michael McDowell, Ford, vibration, 40, 39.1, 6, $79,307.

39. (20) David Stremme, Toyota, rear gear, 36, 34.1, 5, $75,855.

40. (39) Mike Bliss, Toyota, transmission, 18, 33.8, 0, $75,675.

41. (35) Scott Riggs, Chevrolet, vibration, 17, 30, 3, $75,505.

42. (43) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, vibration, 6, 28.9, 0, $75,415.

43. (37) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, engine, 1, 27.8, 1, $83,769.

Top 12 in Points: 1. G.Biffle, 195; 2. K.Harvick, 188; 3. D.Earnhardt Jr., 178; 4. T.Stewart, 177; 5. M.Truex Jr., 175; 6. M.Kenseth, 173; 7. D.Hamlin, 171; 8. C.Bowyer, 157; 9. J.Johnson, 156; 10. R.Newman, 155; 11. P.Menard, 148; 12. C.Edwards, 146.

• IRL

Castroneves wins IndyCar season opener

Helio Castroneves used a bold pass of Scott Dixon to win the IndyCar season opener through the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., where he celebrated with a tribute to the late Dan Wheldon.

Castroneves stopped his Penske Racing Chevrolet in Turn 10, which earlier this year was renamed Dan Wheldon Way in honor of the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. After climbing the fence, his traditional victory celebration, he ran to the street sign and patted it, then emotionally doubled over against the wall.

Wheldon was killed in the October season finale at Las Vegas, and this season's opener was in the Englishman's adopted hometown. He lived in St. Petersburg, won the inaugural 2005 race, and his younger sister, Holly, dropped the green flag Sunday.

IndyCar

Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Sunday

At St. Petersburg street course

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Lap length: 1.8 miles

(Starting position in parentheses)

All cars Dallara chassis

1. (5) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 100 laps.

2. (6) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100.

3. (3) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 100.

4. (4) James Hinchcliffe, Chevrolet, 100.

5. (2) Ryan Briscoe, Chevrolet, 100.

6. (16) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100.

7. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100.

8. (12) EJ Viso, Chevrolet, 100.

9. (22) Charlie Kimball, Honda, 100.

10. (15) Justin Wilson, Honda, 100.

11. (19) Josef Newgarden, Honda, 100.

12. (10) Graham Rahal, Honda, 100.

13. (9) Dario Franchitti, Honda, 100.

14. (7) Marco Andretti, Chevrolet, 99.

15. (17) Alex Tagliani, Lotus, 99.

16. (23) Oriol Servia, Lotus, 99.

17. (13) Rubens Barrichello, Chevrolet, 98.

18. (24) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 98.

19. (18) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 96, mechanical.

20. (11) Mike Conway, Honda, 75, mechanical.

21. (26) Sebastien Bourdais, Lotus, 73, mechanical.

22. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 73, mechanical.

23. (25) Katherine Legge, Lotus, 59, mechanical.

24. (21) Simona de Silvestro, Lotus, 22, mechanical.

25. (8) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 21, mechanical.

26. (20) James Jakes, Honda, 19, contact.

Points: Castroneves 50, Dixon 42, Hunter-Reay 35, Hinchcliffe 32, Briscoe 30, Pagenaud 28, Power 27, Viso 24, Kimball 22, Wilson 20.