Tony Stewart leads Auto Club 400 at 200-mile mark

The Auto Club 400 will finish today, regardless of the weather. The race reached the halfway point, so should there be a permanent stoppage the race will be declared official.

The race leader at the 200-mile point was Tony Stewart, who took the lead from Kyle Busch on the 85th lap. Until that point, Busch had led all but four laps.

The second round of pit stops started about Lap 67. Busch and Stewart pitted at the same time, and Busch beat Stewart back onto the track. But, there was little doubt that Stewart had the car to beat. Jimmie Johnson pitted two laps later and surrendered the lead back to Busch.

The drivers continued to race furiously trying to get to 101 laps in case rain caused a permanent halt to the race.

The Fontana track, despite being very wide, has a reputation of having strung out fields leading to the mystery debris on the track so they can bunch up the cars on a restart. But, with the impending weather the race was all green flag so they could get past the halfway point.

After 200 miles, Denny Hamlin was second followed by Busch, Johnson, Jeff Gordon,Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle.

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Tony Stewart leads Auto Club 400 after 200 miles