Tony Stewart leading the pack during Red Flag at Fontana Photo – Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Tony Stewart wins the first rain-shortened race at Auto Club Speedway. 


The race had its one and only caution come out on lap 123 for the rain that slowly moved in and ended racing for the day. 


The only real racing we saw featuring a real battle was when the halfway point of the race – lap 100 – was upcoming and the looming rain that everyone was murmuring about was advancing in the distance. No race fan wants to see a rain-shortened race because it takes an exciting finish out of picture.  


With only five races this season, two already have involved rain. The Daytona 500 was postponed until Monday Night which was the other rainy race of the season. In 2011 the first race that involved rain wasn’t until Watkins Glen in August.  


The three green flag pit stops that occurred during the duration of the rain shortened event saw several mistakes – at least four pit road speeding penalties – and not too much advancement in position. 


Kyle Busch led most of the first 75 laps then eventually passed by Tony Stewart. 


Around lap 100, when teams realized the race was going past halfway, the real racing began. All drivers were aware of the rain that was coming. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon tried to play the rain game but they eventually had to pit and ended up with disappointing finishes of what could have been with Johnson finishing tenth and Gordon in 26th. 


The last two pit stops of the day hurt Jeff Gordon and his No.24 team, when they incurred two penalties which stripped them of a decent finish. 


On lap 123 when the final caution came out, drivers were offered a chance to pit and Tony Stewart faked the field out when he looked as though he was going to pit – that was obviously a questionable move if he had actually pitted. But at the last second, Stewart made a hard right to re-join the field. The second place driver at the time was Denny Hamlin who followed Stewart toward pit road, effectively taking his second place finish from him. It appeared Hamlin made no attempt to stay out once Stewart swerved back out on the track. Hamlin continued with his pit stop and ended up finishing 11^th.  


Less than 30 minutes after the cars were brought down pit road, NASCAR officially called the race and Tony Stewart ended up winning his second race of the season. In 2011 Stewart’s first victory would not occur until Chicagoland in September. Smoke who is usually cool in the beginning of the season has had a hot start in 2012. The defending champion is putting up a fight to defend his crown and a rainy day in Fontana left smoke celebrating in rain.