NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Gasoline prices continued to retreat from record highs Wednesday as the cost of crude briefly dipped below $40 a barrel before the start of the summer driving season, but prices at the pump may be on the way back up.

The cost for a gallon of unleaded, self-serve gasoline fell to $2.038 Wednesday, down from a record $2.054 set a week earlier, according to the driving association AAA, which surveys more than 60,000 service stations.

A separate government survey released Tuesday showed the price of gasoline fell 1.3 cents to an average of $2.05 a gallon, the first decline in five weeks.

However, the latest pump price for regular unleaded gas is still up 58 cents from a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of about 800 service stations.

Dave Costello, an oil analyst with the EIA, told Reuters the drop in the gasoline price was caused by a decline in wholesale, or spot, fuel prices last week, which reflected lower crude oil costs at the time.

"A lot of the spot prices for gasoline have been falling off in many regions and those changes feed into the pump prices," he said.

But the relief for consumers may not last, as crude prices hit a record of $42.45 a barrel Wednesday before easing to $41.97. The spike in oil prices came after a weekend terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia killed 22 people and sparked concerns of possible supply disruptions for the No. 1 oil exporter.

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The West Coast had the most expensive regular unleaded gasoline, with the price up 0.2 cent to $2.291 a gallon. Los Angeles topped the agency's city survey of gasoline costs, as the price there increased half a penny a gallon to $2.361.

The Gulf had the cheapest fuel by region, with the price down 0.7 cent at $1.925 per gallon. Houston had the best deal at the pump at $1.881 a gallon, down half a penny.  

--from staff and wire reports