The 2010 Pepsi Max 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race that was held on October 10, 2010, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

Throughout the race, some of the Chase participants (such as Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle) retired due to part failures.

The result moved him up to fifth in the Drivers' Championship, one hundred seven points behind Jimmie Johnson and fifty-one ahead of Kurt Busch.

[6] The standard track at Auto Club Speedway featured four turns and was 2 miles (3.2 km) long.

[7] Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,503 points, and Denny Hamlin stood in second with 5,495.

[11] During the first practice session, Jamie McMurray of the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team was quickest ahead of A. J. Allmendinger in second and Greg Biffle in the third position.

[12] Juan Pablo Montoya, David Ragan, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top ten quickest drivers in the session.

[14] Kevin Harvick, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified twenty-first, while Denny Hamlin was scored thirty-fourth.

[17] Martin was scored seventh, Kahne took eighth, Hamlin was ninth, and Kenseth took tenth.

[17] The race, the 30th out of a total of 36 in the season, began at 3:00 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN.

[18] Jeff Hammond and Motor Racing Outreach began pre-race ceremonies, by giving the invocation.

Next, soft rock singer Kenny Loggins performed the national anthem, and Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for Governor of California, gave the command for drivers to start their engines.

On the pace laps, Denny Hamlin had to move to the rear of the grid because of a transmission change.

Hamlin continued to move toward the front, passing both Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards for twenty-fifth.

Mark Martin took over seventh, ahead of Biffle, as David Reutimann passed Joey Logano.

After the pit stops, Kenseth was the leader once again, ahead of Bowyer and Johnson in second and third places.

On lap 40, Kenseth's lead over Bowyer was reduced to nothing, as the caution was given when Biffle's engine failed.

The front runners made pit stops during the caution, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not which resulting in him being the leader.

Kenseth moved to sixth on the seventy-fourth lap after falling to tenth earlier in the race.

On lap 97, the rest of the frontrunners made pit stops, giving the lead to David Gilliland.

One lap later, pit stops concluded, as Martin reclaimed the lead, ahead of Johnson, Gordon, Bowyer, and Stewart.

Three laps later, Truex took over seventh, as Martin's lead of five seconds reduced to nothing when debris caused the fourth caution.

Bowyer led on the restart one lap after Travis Kvapil gave up the lead to pit.

[18] On the two laps following the lead change, Hamlin dropped to the ninth position after Kahne and Montoya passed him.

Two laps later, Kurt Busch and David Ragan collided, prompting the final caution.

Jeff Gordon, who struggled to recover from a drive through penalty late in the race, took ninth on the line, ahead of Reutimann.

Stewart appeared in victory lane to celebrate his second win of the season in front of 70,000 people who attended the race.

"[22] Hamlin, who finished eighth, remained optimistic about his championship chances: "All in all, it's a decent day.

"[23] Smith was also pleased with his twelfth-place run after briefly holding the lead: "We had a good car early on and got back in dirty air and bad traffic.

"[24] All three Roush Fenway chasers, meanwhile, finished 30th or worse, damaging their position in the point standings.