The Associated Press

FONTANA, Calif. - Kurt Busch became the first two-time Winston Cup winner of the season Sunday, passing Jamie McMurray 12 laps from the end of the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

The 24-year-old "Young Gun" regained the form he showed late in the 2002 season, when he won three of the last five races.

Since winning last month at Bristol, Busch had slumped a bit, finishing ninth in Texas, 19th in Talladega and 28th in Martinsville. But his win Sunday on the 2-mile California oval gave the youngster five wins and three runner-up finishes in his last 15 starts.

"We went on a little slide. No biggie," Busch said of the previous three races. "We just struggled a little bit. Today, we put together a great effort."

Busch led briefly in the middle of the race and stayed close to the leaders for most of the 250-lap event. Meanwhile, McMurray, Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace were battling for the top spot most of the second half.

McMurray and Labonte, who swapped the lead several times in the late going, were battling ahead of Busch when the last of eight caution flags came out after Dale Jarrett hit the wall to start a nine-car accident on lap 230.

Busch and Wallace took advantage of the situation to pass Labonte as they raced back to the flagstand to take the yellow.

Wallace tried hard to track down the leaders after the ensuing restart on lap 238. On the second lap after the green flag waved, Wallace, who now has gone 72 races without a win since his victory here in 2001, dove low on the banked oval and nearly got past McMurray and Busch.

But Wallace's Ford got a little high in the second turn, and Busch nosed under him and drove past both Wallace and Labonte to take the lead for the first time since lap 145.

Busch, who finished second to Jimmie Johnson here last year, said: "This makes up for what we did last year. We came up a bit shy."

A different driver had won in each of the first nine races, but Busch's victory left intact the record of 10 consecutive different winners at the start of the season, set in 2001.

NOTEWORTHY: A spokesman for McDonald's acknowledged the world's largest fast food chain has met with NASCAR to discuss the possibility of replacing Winston as the sponsor of its top stock car series.

Other names mentioned in recent speculation about a new series sponsor include Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and VISA. That speculation has been growing since January, when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said it had given NASCAR permission to look for a new sponsor.