Brian Vickers started the weekend off right by winning the pole for Sunday's Auto Club 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at California Speedway. His speed of 183.439 mph just edged out Jimmie Johnson who qualified second. Vickers is eager to put the controversial incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in last week's Daytona 500 behind him. Unfortunately, Vickers will have to start at the rear of the field after the team found problems with the engine and opted to replace it with another.

Qualifying third was Jamie McMurray's Ford; fourth was Kurt Busch, and Greg Biffle fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann, A.J. Allmendinger, rookie Scott Speed and finally Kyle Busch.

Tony Stewart was 11th fastest, Mark Martin 18th, Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth qualified 24th, rookie Joey Logano 34th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 35th.

Those failing to qualify include Todd Bodine, Tony Raines, David Starr, Sterling Marlin, and Mike Garvey.

Kyle Busch won the pole for Saturday's San Bernardino County 200 NASCAR Camping World Series Truck race.

Fox Sports reported that its coverage of the 51st Daytona 500 earned a 9.2 rating, down almost 10% from last year's race which earned a 10.2 rating. The steep decline was blamed on rain washing out the event's last 48 laps. Fox says the final laps typically draw the most viewers.

Nevertheless, the race averaged 16 million viewers, just above the NBA Finals and more than twice that of last year's Indianapolis 500.

Meanwhile, ratings for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opener -- also at Daytona -- posted a 20% increase over last year's race. SPEED televised the Friday night race won by Todd Bodine.

NASCAR and Fox have been consistently pushing the start time for the 500 back the past several years. The intention is to move the race closer to primetime and pick up more West Coast viewers. The downside is what we saw on Sunday: fewer options for completing the race when rain moves in. As such, they lost the highest-rated part of the race. In 2000, the race was scheduled to start at 12:15pm. This year the green flag dropped after 3:30pm.

Daytona International Speedway added a lighting system in 1998 for its July 400-mile race.

"If he wants to come by the bus after the race and get his ass whopped, I'll do it."

Well that didn't take long.

Three hours into the NASCAR Sprint Cup season and already we have a major controversy. Everything was relatively calm and collected until this lap 124 accident between Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt Jr:

Vickers laid the blame for the incident on Earnhardt: "I beat him to the yellow line and then he just turned us. He hit me the first time on the way down — which is fine. We all do that. Then when he came back up he just hooked me in the left rear. To wreck somebody intentionally like that in front of the entire field is really kind of dangerous. That's my biggest problem with it, but apparently he wanted a caution pretty bad."

According to Lee Spencer at FOX Sports, when Earnhardt Jr.'s spotter relayed Vickers' comments, Earnhardt offered to "whop" Vickers' ass.

Something tells me that Earnhardt hasn't forgotten his last-lap tangle with Vickers at Talladega in 2006.

But Vickers does bring up a decent point. He compared the incident to one seen in Saturday's Nationwide race. In that incident, Jason Leffler hit Steven Wallace in the same part of the track and caused a scary crash. NASCAR responded with a 5-lap penalty. "I think the 38 [car of Jason Leffler] was penalized for doing the same thing. I guess they're not going to penalize [Earnhardt] for it. It's kind of sad."

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston addressed that aspect of the controversy: "Today's incident was nothing like yesterday's incident, which was deemed intentional. Today, the two cars were racing hard and got into each other. It was an unintentional racing incident that did not warrant further action."

So... who's ready for California?

Matt Kenseth was the driver up front when rain finally hit the Daytona International Speedway, bringing the Daytona 500 to a close 48 laps from the scheduled distance. The field had been racing the rain since before the halfway point.

Kevin Harvick helped push Matt Kenseth by Elliott Sadler and into the lead through turn two just before Aric Almirola spun on the backstretch bringing out the final caution. The race was never restarted.

Kyle Busch was the dominant leader throughout the race, but was involved in a lap 124 accident on the backstretch that involved several other cars. The accident began following a restart when Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were racing each other to be the first car one lap down. Vickers blocked Earnhardt Jr. to below the double yellow line and when Earnhardt Jr. came back onto the racetrack he made contact with Vickers' rear bumper, sending him spinning into Busch and much of the field.

Earnhardt Jr. was penalized a lap on the previous pit stop for having his right front tire on the pit box line.

Harvick finished second, A.J. Allmendinger third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Sadler fifth.

Eighteen year old Joey Logano's debut in the Home Depot #20 Toyota ended with heavy contact with the inside wall on the frontstretch. He attempted to avoid a bobble by fellow rookie Scott Speed and came across Greg Biffle's front bumper, spinning to the inside. He was unhurt in the accident.

Tony Stewart turned a disappointing day at Daytona into a victory lane celebration after winning the Camping World 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race. Stewart, who crashed earlier in Daytona 500 practice, held off a hard charge from Kyle Busch through the third and fourth turns and beat Carl Edwards to the finish line.

Clint Bowyer finished third. Busch's attempt to pass Stewart resulted in a fourth-place finish. Greg Biffle rounded out the top five.

Stewart drove a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Teammates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman will have to start at the rear of the Daytona 500 field after crashing in the same incident in final practice today. The accident occurred in turn two after Newman's right rear tire blew just in front of Stewart, who collected Newman's car after it had spun sideways.

Stewart showed his frustration in an interview for SPEED TV: "Same stuff that we always talk about every year, failures Goodyear has. I think that's part of their marketing campaign — the more we talk about it, the more press they get."

Some teams experienced tire blisters during the Gatorade Duel at Daytona qualifying races on Thursday.

After qualifying fifth, Stewart has more to lose than his teammate Newman for pulling out a backup car. Newman was expected to start 36th after crashing out of Duel 2. Both cars will have to start in the final row on Sunday.

Reed Sorenson topped the practice's speed charts at 191.575 mph.

Todd Bodine beat Kyle Busch to the line by about a truck length to win the season opening NextEra Energy 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona. Terry Cook finished third followed by J.R. Fitzpatrick and Ron Hornaday.

Pole winner Colin Braun finished 10th.

Brent Raymer walked away from a serious crash on the backstretch.