After two weeks of racing out west, Nascar held the last race of the new western sweep. The Auto Club 400. This race has been known to have some spectacular finishes, and 2015 doesn’t disappoint.

The race started with Kurt Busch on the pole and Kevin Harvick in second. And the two of them ran that way for most of the race. After the green flag waved the race was calm, for twenty laps. Jeff Gordon and David Ragan were racing for position when Jeff, apparently tired of David slowing him down, got Ragan loose and spun him. David hit nothing, so the race resumed not long after.

After that skirmish, nothing happened for the next hundred and fifty laps. There was the occasional debris caution or something of the like, but no major problems. However, come the final fifty laps, it was a totally different race. Multiple cautions flew, for debris or spins. Strategy was constantly in everyone’s mind.

Fact is, ten laps on tires is a huge factor. So with cautions flying late, some people toward the back of the pack could gamble to get the front. Passing is not exactly easy at Auto Club, so by taking the gamble, there is a good chance of finishing up front. So when debris brought the caution with two laps left, people were racking their brains trying to think of what to do.

All the leaders came to pit road, and three drivers, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Greg Biffle, stayed out to be near the front of the pack. Of the drivers who went to pit road, many took just two tires. Kevin Harvick was supposed to take four tires, but before his crew could start changing his left side tires Kevin drove away. And some drivers, such as Brad Keslowski and Danica Patrick, took four tires.

On the ensuing restart things got crazy. Before drivers even made it down the back stretch there was a spin, thus another caution. On this restart, which became the final restart, drivers got off to a cleaner start. Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch were the leaders as the pack came to the back stretch, but the two Stewart-Hass drivers had company. Brad Keslowski had made his way through the pack and was stalking the two. He made quick work of Kevin, and as the white flag flew he was right on Kurt’s bumper. Busch was passed in turns one and two, but he stayed with Brad down the back stretch, and in the final corner gave every last bit of speed he had. Kurt pushed his car to the red line limit, so hard that he slammed the wall off the final corner, but it wasn’t enough to pass Brad, who claimed his first win of 2015. Kevin managed to pass Kurt down the front stretch, and claimed second, his eighth consecutive top two finish.