The location may have changed - from Daytona to the eastern edge of Los Angeles - but one thing hasn't changed for Danica Patrick. How new this NASCAR thing still is to her. It hardly matters that Patrick has driven IndyCars around the two-mile Auto Club Speedway where she is scheduled to run in today's State Brothers 300 if rain doesn't get in the way. That was five years ago, and she can't drive the same line in her Nationwide car as she drove in her open-wheel car.

With only a crash-shortened run in the Nationwide race at Daytona last weekend on her resume, Patrick isn't even sure she would know what's right if she finds it. Asked Friday afternoon if she feels she's gained a measure of respect from her peers in her short NASCAR career, Patrick left that determination to others.

"I haven't had enough racing out there to know if they're playing nice and fair," Patrick said.

During her practice session Friday, Patrick made steady improvement though she wasn't among the fastest cars on the track. She had the 27th-fastest time in the final session, going 171.310 mph, more than 5 mph slower than Greg Biffle, who was fastest.

On the positive side, Patrick was only 37th-fastest in the first practice session.

She didn't run in traffic often during practice, but when she did Patrick learned it was vastly different from Daytona, where it's easier to put the nose of a car on the rear bumper of another than here.

Johnson agrees: Though the pothole that disrupted the Daytona 500 may have caused Jimmie Johnon's early departure from the race, he's glad officials have decided not to repave the entire 21/2-mile track.

"I'm excited that we're not going to change the surface," Johnson said. "I guess the fans may want it resurfaced so we run three-wide for all the laps, but Daytona has separated itself because it's rough and the asphalt is real porous and wears the tires out.

"I'm on the track's side and NASCAR's side and think they handled things very well, and I'm hopeful that patch gives us a few more years to use the race track as it is."

Firing it up: Driver Matt Kenseth understands that the timing of his crew chief change from Drew Blickensderfer to Todd Parrott was curious because it came one race into the new season.

But having not won a race since taking the checkered flag a year ago at Auto Club Speedway, Kenseth decided something needed to be done. Owner Jack Roush asked during the offseason if Kenseth wanted any changes, and he said no.

It didn't take long for him to change his mind.

Kenseth took responsibility for the timing.

"Who knows if it's even the right change?" Kenseth said. "It's just the whole dynamic of my team.

"... It's just hard to explain. You just didn't feel it there. You didn't feel like everybody came in the truck fired up to go win races. It's probably not the case, but you almost felt like they'd come in and they were just kind of going through the motions.

"I was like, 'We need to get some spark into the group somehow and get everybody back to what this is about.' ... I'm not a good leader. I just felt like there was something that needed to be changed."