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FONTANA, Calif. — Two races into this NASCAR Sprint Cup season and a familiar refrain has developed: Rain, Roush and repeat.

For the second consecutive weekend, Matt Kenseth and Roush Fenway Racing won a race impacted by rain. Unlike last weekend's Daytona 500 where rain shortened that event, Sunday night's race at Auto Club Speedway went the full 500 miles, although rain caused four of the five cautions.

Kenseth's victory makes him the first driver since Jeff Gordon to win the first two races of the season. Gordon, who finished second Sunday, did it in 1997 when he won the Daytona 500 and the following week at Rockingham.

No driver in series history has won the season's first three races. Kenseth will go for that mark this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — a track where he has two victories.

Kyle Busch, who won both the truck and Nationwide races Saturday, finished third Sunday with Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch completing the top five. Denny Hamlin placed sixth and was followed by Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and pole-sitter Brian Vickers, who actually started at the rear of the field because his team changed engines after Friday's qualifying.

Others did not fare as well Sunday. Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered engine problems and finished 39th a week after placing 27th in the Daytona 500. Earnhardt fell to 35th in the season standings and is already 252 points behind Kenseth, the points leader.

"We never have engine trouble,'' Earnhardt said. "I'm sure it's just an anomaly. They'll figure out what it was and we'll never have it happen again.''

Earnhardt's teammate, Mark Martin, also suffered engine problems and was 40th.

Kenseth's victory was the 18th of his career and extended Gordon's winless streak to a career-long 43 races, but Gordon suggested his streak could end soon.

"We keep putting cars like that on the race track, it's not going to be about trying to win a race but how many,'' he said.

"I'm so excited about this race team right now. I think we're head and shoulders above where we were. I know this is just one race (but) I love the way this car was driving. I'm also really bummed out we didn't win the race.''

The key, though, was pit road. Most of the leaders pitted during the final caution on lap 209 of the 250-lap race. Gordon led entering. Kenseth beat him off pit road. Running out front in clean air allowed cars to run better and faster than those behind.

Yet, about 10 laps after the restart, Kenseth radioed his crew about his Ford: "It's a little bit better, but I don't think it's going to be good enough.''

Gordon got close but couldn't get by, as car owner Jack Roush saw one of his cars win this race for a fifth consecutive year.

"Some people would call me a pessimist, I think I'm more a realist,'' Kenseth said. "When we took off the run before that and got the lead and we ran some real fast laps and we led Jeff &ellipses; in the middle of the run he just ran me back down and drove by me and took off. I couldn't do any better.''

Gordon couldn't repeat that on the final run. He said he knew with about 20 laps to go he wouldn't catch Kenseth unless Kenseth made a mistake.

"Matt didn't make one mistake,'' Gordon said. "I put a lot of heat on him. Maybe one little slip up but not enough for me to do anything.'' While nothing can match his Daytona 500 win, Kenseth said Sunday's win was special.

"In a way this almost feels better,'' Kenseth said. "It's not restrictor-plate racing. You don't need other people's help. Luck is not quite as involved as much, and we had to come here and figure out how to beat the other teams on speed and strategy and adjustments.

"Whether you run good or bad at these tracks has a more of a determining factor on making the Chase or running for a championship, it feels pretty unbelievable to win the first two races.''

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com

AUTO CLUB 500

At Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, Calif.

Lap length: 2.0 miles

(Start position, driver, car make, laps, driver points, winnings)

1. (24) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 250 laps, 195 points, $341,615.

2. (6) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 250, 175, $240,926.

3. (10) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 250, 165, $211,648.

4. (5) Greg Biffle, Ford, 250, 165, $161,200.

5. (4) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 250, 160, $133,900.

6. (23) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 250, 150, $129,025.

7. (25) Carl Edwards, Ford, 250, 151, $155,181.

8. (11) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 250, 147, $139,748.

9. (2) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 250, 143, $160,526.

10. (1) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 250, 134, $141,473.

11. (15) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 250, 135, $139,323.

12. (22) Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 250, 127, $139,398.

13. (38) David Stremme, Dodge, 250, 129, $131,690.

14. (7) David Reutimann, Toyota, 250, 121, $123,223.

15. (42) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 250, 118, $111,250.

16. (3) Jamie McMurray, Ford, 250, 115, $104,550.

17. (13) David Ragan, Ford, 249, 112, $103,400.

18. (37) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 249, 109, $94,700.

19. (21) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 249, 106, $94,000.

20. (16) Bobby Labonte, Ford, 249, 103, $122,679.

21. (17) Reed Sorenson, Dodge, 249, 100, $129,951.

22. (14) Marcos Ambrose, Toyota, 249, 97, $106,473.

23. (26) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 249, 94, $109,960.

24. (29) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 249, 91, $106,325.

25. (20) Elliott Sadler, Dodge, 249, 88, $101,350.

26. (34) Joey Logano, Toyota, 249, 85, $135,001.

27. (33) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 249, 82, $123,540.

28. (28) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 248, 79, $115,579.

29. (8) AJ Allmendinger, Dodge, 248, 76, $87,250.

30. (12) Robby Gordon, Toyota, 248, 73, $104,760.

31. (40) John Andretti, Dodge, 248, 75, $92,325.

32. (41) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 247, 67, $130,931.

33. (32) David Gilliland, Chevrolet, 246, 64, $84,850.

34. (39) Jeremy Mayfield, Toyota, 245, 61, $83,700.

35. (31) Aric Almirola, Chevrolet, engine, 242, 58, $91,475.

36. (36) Scott Riggs, Toyota, 240, 55, $83,325.

37. (27) Paul Menard, Ford, 221, 52, $113,506.

38. (19) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, accident, 207, 49, $120,203.

39. (35) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, engine, 205, 46, $100,730.

40. (18) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, engine, 179, 48, $90,575.

41. (9) Scott Speed, Toyota, engine, 172, 40, $94,498.

42. (30) Dave Blaney, Toyota, fuel pump, 50, 37, $82,335.

43. (43) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, fuel pump, 36, 34, $82,690.

Race statistics

Average speed of winner: 135.839 mph.

Time of race: 3 hours, 40 minutes, 51 seconds.

Margin of victory: 1.463 seconds.

Cautions: Five for 43 laps.

Lead changes: 19 among 11 drivers.

Lap leaders: Johnson 1-43; Andretti 44; Kurt Busch 45-46; Johnson 47-77; J. Gordon 78-85; Biffle 86; Edwards 87; J. Gordon 88-127; Biffle 128-142; J. Gordon 143; Montoya 144; Kenseth 145-170; J. Gordon 171; Stewart 172-174; Martin 175; Kenseth 176-195; J. Gordon 196-209; D. Stremme 210-212; Kenseth 213-250.

Leaders summary (driver, times led, laps led): Kenseth, 3 times for 84 laps; Johnson, 2 times for 74 laps; J. Gordon, 5 times for 64 laps; Biffle, 2 times for 16 laps; Stewart, 1 time for 3 laps; Stremme, 1 time for 3 laps; Kurt Busch, 1 time for 2 laps; Edwards, 1 time for 1 lap; Montoya, 1 time for 1 lap; Andretti, 1 time for 1 lap; Martin, 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 12 in points: 1. Kenseth, 385. 2. J. Gordon, 304. 3. Kurt Busch, 294. 4. Stewart, 294. 5. Biffle, 268. 6. Bowyer, 266. 7. Waltrip, 264. 8. Ragan, 262. 9. Edwards, 260. 10. Montoya, 256. 11. E. Sadler, 248. 12. Reutimann, 248.