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Advance to Victory Lane: Projected Auto Club winner and race results

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This will be the final race at Auto Club Speedway on the 2-mile track before it undergoes renovations, so we start this week's projections by celebrating some of the special moments that have taken place there. Multi-time champions Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch got their first career NASCAR Cup Series wins at Auto Club, with Johnson's coming in 2002 and Busch landing his in 2005. Meanwhile, four-time champion Jeff Gordon won the inaugural premier series race in 1997. The wide, well-worn racing surface lends itself to multiple-groove strategies and plenty of stops on pit road for fresh tires. Active drivers with victories at Auto Club include Busch, with a series-leading four, Kyle Larson with two and one each for Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman. Larson is the defending winner of this race and opened atop the odds board at BetMGM. RELATED: Auto Club odds | Power Rankings To figure out what it all means, we're back with another edition of Advance to Victory Lane, sponsored by Advance Auto Parts. Our partners at Racing Insights will predict the winner and entire finishing order for Sunday's Pala Casino 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Racing Insights utilizes an advanced statistical formula that weighs factors such as current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a winner and full race results. NO BRAINER? Larson has finished in the top two in four of his eight starts at Auto Club Speedway, including two wins. He has five career wins on 2-mile tracks. USUALLY RELIABLE: Denny Hamlin had a streak of three straight top-10 finishes at Auto Club before coming in 15th last year because of an overheating issue. POINTS, POINTS, POINTS: Joey Logano earned 103 points on the West Coast swing of races in 2022, which was third to Larson (113) and Tyler Reddick (109). Projections updated on Sunday, Feb. 26: RACING INSIGHTS' PROJECTION FOR THE PALA CASINO 400
Finish Car No. Driver
1 5 Kyle Larson
2 11 Denny Hamlin
3 22 Joey Logano
4 19 Martin Truex Jr.
5 12 Ryan Blaney
6 4 Kevin Harvick
7 6 Brad Keselowski
8 48 Alex Bowman
9 99 Daniel Suarez
10 1 Ross Chastain
11 16 AJ Allmendinger
12 3 Austin Dillon
13 8 Kyle Busch
14 20 Christopher Bell
15 10 Aric Almirola
16 2 Austin Cindric
17 24 William Byron
18 17 Chris Buescher
19 9 Chase Elliott
20 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
21 14 Chase Briscoe
22 43 Erik Jones
23 45 Tyler Reddick
24 23 Bubba Wallace
25 7 Corey LaJoie
26 54 Ty Gibbs
27 41 Ryan Preece
28 34 Michael McDowell
29 31 Justin Haley
30 38 Todd Gilliland
31 21 Harrison Burton
32 77 Ty Dillon
33 42 Noah Gragson
34 51 Cody Ware
35 15 J.J. Yeley
36 78 BJ McLeod