FONTANA, Calif. -- Kevin Harvick glanced at the scoring pylon where Matt Kenseth's No. 17 shined in the first-place spot and conceded his team has more work to do.

Maybe so, but only a flat left front tire with five laps remaining kept Harvick from challenging Kenseth for the win at California Speedway and Richard Childress Racing from grabbing three of the top seven spots.

Sunday's Auto Club 500 provided a hint as to what teams will be strong the next few months. Childress' team and Hendrick Motorsports, which placed three drivers in the top 10, look to be those teams.

"It's going to be a slugfest," car owner Rick Hendrick said.

While the season opens with the Daytona 500, only four of the 36 races use restrictor plates. California Speedway provides a better clue to which teams will do well because nearly half the season is run at similar tracks. Six of the top 10 in this race last year made the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Seven of the top 10 made the Chase in 2005.

That's not a good sign for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who failed to finish his second consecutive race and is 40th in the driver points. He trails Brian Vickers, who gave Toyota its first top-10 Cup finish a week after missing the Daytona 500.

Another clue as to who will be the top teams comes later this week in the Car of Tomorrow test at Bristol Motor Speedway. Childress' teams are expected to be among the best since they have been involved in testing throughout the early stages. The new car will be used in 16 races this year, so run well with it and good fortune likely will follow.

Sunday, RCR teammates Jeff Burton placed fourth, Clint Bowyer finished sixth and Harvick was 17th after his late pit stop. Harvick, who won last week's Daytona 500, was running second to Kenseth when he cut a left front tire after driving over debris from David Reutimann's crash.

Harvick sought solace in his finish by how well he ran. He has not finished in the top five in 10 races at this track and calls this and Atlanta his two worst. This was a major step for his team to contend for the driving championship.

Hendrick Motorsports also had reason to be excited, despite Kenseth's win. Jeff Gordon finished second with Jimmie Johnson third and Kyle Busch ninth.

Johnson said their run shows how strong Hendrick should be for at least the first quarter of the season and "we feel good."

Gordon said that even though it's early in the season, "we're trying to build a championship right now, not just in points with the team.

"There's nothing better than to get a good start to build confidence," said Gordon, whose back-to-back top-10 finishes have him third in the points behind Mark Martin and Burton.

Not many at this 2-mile track east of Los Angeles noticed, though. Thousands of red and yellow seats sat empty on the overcast day. The 92,000-seat grandstand looked barely half full when Kenseth took the checkered flag.

Regardless, the victory gave Kenseth a boost. His team faded at the end of the Chase last season although he managed to finish second to Johnson for the title. The team struggled for top-10s and Johnson passed Kenseth for the points lead with three races to go.

Kenseth was headed for a top-four finish at Daytona last week before he was collected in the last-lap crash. This win -- without crew chief Robbie Reiser, who remains suspended for violations at Daytona in qualifying -- healed wounds from last season.

"There's probably been, at least on my part, more uncertainty than any offseason just because at the end of the year we didn't exactly set the world on fire the last five or six weeks," Kenseth said after his 15th career Cup victory and a day after he won the Busch race.

"We took our cars, we've done a lot of different stuff [to them]. I just wasn't sure it was all necessarily going to be the right stuff or if it was going to be the stuff we were going to come right out the box and run fast with or if it was going to take a couple of months to figure out."

Now he'll have wonder if he can continue to hold off the Childress and Hendrick cars, among others, over the next few months.

Auto Club 500

Top 10 finishers

1. Matt Kenseth $342,316

2. Jeff Gordon $249,011

3. Jimmie Johnson $212,811

4. Jeff Burton $173,441

5. Mark Martin $171,708

6. Clint Bowyer $119,875

7. Kurt Busch $140, 583

8. Tony Stewart $148, 161

9. Kyle Busch $109,525

10. Brian Vickers $94,400

MORE INSIDE

n California notebook.

n Race replay.

Page 6

TOP 10

Points leaders

1. Mark Martin 335

2. Jeff Burton -5

3. Jeff Gordon -26

4. Kevin Harvick -28

5. David Ragan -65

6. Clint Bowyer -71

7. Joe Nemechek -76

8. J.J. Yeley -84

9. Kyle Busch -96

10. David Stremme -99

DUSTIN LONG'S ANALYSIS

Winner Matt Kenseth had the strongest car, but Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports showed they might be the top two teams with strong performances in the season's first two weeks.