California meltdown for MB2.

In last year's Auto Club 500 Joe Nemechek and his #01 MB2 Motorsports team were the class of the field only to have their day ruined by engine failure. In Sunday's 251-lap outing at Fontana, Nemechek and his MB2 teammate Sterling Marlin were also-rans.

Hoping to overcome a disappointing Daytona 500, neither Nemechek nor Marlin featured in a race dominated by long green flag runs, which highlighted any deficiencies in set-up. While for Marlin that was a major problem, Nemechek seemed to be a magnet for flying debris for the second straight week.

"I don't think the race was 10 laps old when I heard a thump," said Nemechek, who was credited with a 27th- place finish, two laps behind winner Matt Kenseth. "I didn't think much of it at the time, but it turned out to be very costly. I don't know what hit us, but whatever it was, it caused extensive damage to the right-front fender and the air dam.

"Last week we were aerodynamically handicapped on the first lap and today it was by lap 10," continued Nemechek. "This U.S. Army car really hasn't had a chance to show its stuff."

Nemechek, who qualified eighth and had an excellent practice session in race trim conditions Saturday, was feeling upbeat prior to the start of the Auto Club 500. But after that mysterious piece of debris struck the #01 car, Nemechek started to slide back in the field. He was running in 27th place at the time of the first pit stop on lap 30 and was in for a long day from that point on.

"There weren't enough cautions to get the damage fixed early in the race," said crew chief Ryan Pemberton. "By the time we got the car working better, it was late in the race and we were already two laps down. It's a shame what has happened to us the past two weeks. But we'll bounce back. We've been through these bad streaks before."

For Marlin, in the #14 Centrix Financial backed Chevrolet, the double Daytona 500 winner couldn't overcome a tight-handling car as he battled to a 32nd place finish.

"We just battled a tight car all day," said Marlin, who started the event 17th but, like his teammate went to the back quickly. "The CENTRIX Auto Finance Chevrolet didn't handle well in traffic so it was hard to get through the field. There wasn't any grip in the front or the rear, so the nose of the car skated and the back end slid. The motor ran great, we just need to work on our balance on the car."

While the #14 team, led by crew chief Doug Randolph, made one adjustment after another, nothing seemed to correct the handling problem.

"We just couldn't find the right combination," explained Marlin. "The team really worked hard at it, but it was one of those days when nothing seemed to click."

After two disappointing weeks for the team, the two MB2 drivers sit 32nd (Nemechek) and 37th (Marlin) in the early season standings with Marlin and the #14 team having just three races to get themselves in the top 35 or face the lottery of having to fight their way into the starting field on qualifying speed.