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RELATED: Race results | Detailed breakdown | Driver standings

 

FONTANA, Calif. — Even though he had just posted his best Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finish since 2015, Clint Bowyer didn’t expect effusive praise from the driver he succeeded in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

 

So when Bowyer pulled onto pit road at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday after running third behind race winner Kyle Larson and runner-up Brad Keselowski in the Auto Club 400, Stewart’s reaction, as a car owner, was predictably restrained.

 

"Good job," Stewart said to his driver.

 

Bowyer hadn’t expected anything more.

 

"Tony wins a lot of races," Bowyer elaborated. "He’s won a lot of races. Anything less than a win, you know …  he expects that. And I love that about Tony. Obviously, I know he’s proud. He was happy with that. But that’s what you want in an owner. You know what I mean? To have that instilled in everything, in your DNA, I mean, this is the way I was raised. 

 

"Anything else but a win is a bad day. You are miserable with anything less than that. It’s just the way we’re wired as a race car driver from 5 years old and on. The problem is, is everybody else on that race track is wired the same way. So there’s really only one guy happy, and everybody else is pissed at the end of the day. That’s what it boils down to."

 

In his first season with Stewart-Haas Racing, and back in top-of-the-line equipment, Bowyer earned his best result since June 2015 at Sonoma, where he also ran third.

 

But to get a bona fide celebration, he knows he’ll have to improve two positions.

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RELATED: Race results | Detailed breakdown | Driver standings


FONTANA, Calif. — When Corey LaJoie’s brush with the Turn 2 wall brought out the sixth of seven cautions on Lap 192 of a scheduled 200, Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Cole Pearn gambled.


They stayed out on old tires for a restart on Lap 196, but only two other drivers — Denny Hamlin and Jamie McMurray — followed suit. That left race winner Kyle Larson in the fourth starting position, and one lap after the resumption of action, he had the lead.


Truex considered himself fortunate to hold onto fourth place on old rubber, after the race went to overtime and extended two laps beyond its posted distance.


"It was definitely not the situation we wanted to be in, but we thought more guys would stay out there (under the sixth caution)," said Truex, who led 73 laps, second only to Larson’s 110. "I think we only ran a few laps. It was definitely a disadvantage at the end and just really tight.

"Holding on for fourth was good for points. Overall, it was a good day for everybody. We just had that one pit stop and I slid a little bit — a foot or so further than I had all day. The guys got the air hose caught on the splitter and we lost six spots or whatever it was (during a stop under caution on Lap 181). All in all, it was a good day, and we ran up front and led laps. The 42 (Larson) and I felt like we were the class of the field — he just got it done, and we didn’t."


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PRACTICE 1: RESULTS

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 42 Kyle Larson 1 10 182.404
2 1 Jamie McMurray 1 10 180.880

PRACTICE 2: RESULTS 

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 77 Erik Jones # 1 10 183.048
2 48 Jimmie Johnson 1 10 182.874
3 1 Jamie McMurray 1 10 182.788
4 42 Kyle Larson 1 10 182.341
5 31 Ryan Newman 1 10 182.081
6 14 Clint Bowyer 5 14 182.050
7 11 Denny Hamlin 1 10 181.688
8 18 Kyle Busch 1 10 181.650
9 43 Aric Almirola 1 10 181.150
10 3 Austin Dillon 13 22 180.353
11 78 Martin Truex Jr. 7 16 180.279
12 24 Chase Elliott 11 20 179.950
13 34 Landon Cassill 1 10 179.764
14 95 Michael McDowell 1 10 179.751
15 21 Ryan Blaney 7 16 179.635
16 20 Matt Kenseth 9 18 179.453
17 32 Matt DiBenedetto 1 10 178.673

FINAL PRACTICE: RESULTS

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 78 Martin Truex Jr. 1 10 182.180
2 24 Chase Elliott 1 10 182.049
3 42 Kyle Larson 12 21 181.894
4 77 Erik Jones # 1 10 181.873
5 4 Kevin Harvick 15 24 181.603
6 21 Ryan Blaney 1 10 181.551
7 1 Jamie McMurray 1 10 181.436
8 22 Joey Logano 18 27 181.417
9 20 Matt Kenseth 1 10 181.375
10 2 Brad Keselowski 1 10 181.300
11 14 Clint Bowyer 1 10 181.250
12 5 Kasey Kahne 1 10 181.243
13 18 Kyle Busch 1 10 180.845
14 48 Jimmie Johnson 19 28 180.836
15 11 Denny Hamlin 1 10 180.786
16 31 Ryan Newman 18 27 180.613
17 43 Aric Almirola 1 10 180.551
18 3 Austin Dillon 1 10 180.509
19 6 Trevor Bayne 1 10 180.034
20 47 AJ Allmendinger 20 29 179.620
21 41 Kurt Busch 1 10 179.524
22 19 Daniel Suarez # 18 27 179.298
23 27 Paul Menard 11 20 178.671
24 10 Danica Patrick 1 10 178.289
25 32 Matt DiBenedetto 1 10 178.224
26 95 Michael McDowell 1 10 177.971
27 37 Chris Buescher 18 27 177.859
28 34 Landon Cassill 1 10 176.988
29 51 * Timmy Hill(i) 9 18 167.128

 
* Car must run 10 consecutive laps on the track to be included in the above chart.
* Required to qualify on time
# Indicates driver is a rookie in the series
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

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In celebration of winning his first 2017 Coors Light Pole Award at Auto Club Speedway, Kyle Larson took the No. 42 team out to dinner on Friday.

Notice anything unusual? Yup, that looks like a credit card on display for Twitterverse, which promptly freaked out.

But looks like the joke’s on everyone else, as the numbers on the credit card read "1234 5678 9010" — a promotional card.

Oops.

So, Kyle outsmarted Twitter and will start from the pole this Sunday at Auto Club Speedway — but looking more closely at the bill, it also appears that the pizza and taco-loving driver is still not eating his vegetables.ud83dude33

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RELATED: Final practice results | Practice 2 results | Best 10-lap averages

 

Chase Elliott posted the fastest lap in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, but a scrape with the outside retaining wall early in the session left his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet team with work to do.

 

Elliott posted his best speed at 187.480 mph before making contact with the wall just 10 minutes into the final session. He cited a parts failure on the left-front corner of the car that his crew was investigating ahead of Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

"We don’t really know why it did," Elliott told FS1. "It was nothing fancy or anything we were doing, it’s just something that needs to be together to go. We’ll look into why. I don’t know if it’s just the roughness of the race track that bounced it loose or something like that, but I hate it. I was really happy with the NAPA Chevy throughout that run. I thought we were close, maybe needed a tick more initially in a run.

 

"I thought it was decent, so I was pleased with that. Unfortunately, this now puts us behind and we’ll have to go to work and hopefully try to get it tuned back up. It’s hurt pretty good."

 

The 21-year-old driver indicated that his crew was working to hopefully avoid going to a reserve car. Elliott is scheduled to start 13th in Sunday’s 400-miler.

 

"We’re going to try to fix this one," Elliott told FS1. "I mean, we’d love to keep our primary. … We would love to keep this car. I don’t know if we can or not, but like I said, it definitely puts us in a hole. I know they’ll work hard and try to get it tuned up as best we can for tomorrow."

 

Martin Truex Jr. posted the second-fastest lap (187.378 mph) in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota. Ryan Blaney was third-fastest in the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Ford, with Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Erik Jones — Truex’s Furniture Row teammate — fourth-best in the No. 77 Toyota.

 

Coors Light Pole Award winner Kyle Larson was fifth-fastest in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. He drove away from a slight brush with the wall shortly after Elliott’s incident.

 

WATCH: Busch’s smoky slide in practice

 

Kyle Busch, a three-time Auto Club winner, was involved in a solo spin at the 34-minute mark of the 50-minute session, avoiding contact with the wall or other cars. He limped his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota back to the garage. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford and Kurt Busch’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Ford were also among several cars to brush the wall during Saturday’s final tune-up.

 

"No, I think I was above the seam by the time the car got loose," Busch told FS1. "It over-rotated on me. I tried getting in the throttle and getting it to rotate a little bit and it just kept going too far. Spun it out on exit there, and unfortunately just didn’t keep all the air in the tires in order to be able to drive it back and not damage the car a little bit more than we already did. Not too bad.

 

"We’re just missing it a little bit. There’s just something that we can’t get right on (corner) entry this weekend and we’ve been trying to work on that, and it’s kind of messing up the rest of the corner for us."

 

WATCH: Harvick hits the wall in practice

 

Kevin Harvick, who made contact with the wall in Saturday’s earlier practice, returned for the final session and posted the eighth-best lap (185.706 mph) in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford.

 

Erik Jones fast in Saturday’s early session


Erik Jones topped Saturday’s opening practice session at Auto Club Speedway ahead of Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the fifth race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

 

Jones posted a lap of 187.251 mph in the Furniture Row Racing No. 77 Toyota to pace the 55-minute session. He was also fastest in the category of consecutive 10-lap averages. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate will start 14th in Sunday’s 400-miler, the last of three races in the NASCAR Goes West swing.

 

RELATED: Consecutive 10-lap average speeds

Chase Elliott registered the second-fastest lap, ringing up 186.843 mph on the speed chart in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet. Ryan Newman, last week’s winner at Phoenix Raceway, was third-fastest in the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet. 

 

Jimmie Johnson, who damaged his primary car in Friday’s opening practice, turned his first laps with his reserve Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet on Saturday morning. He was fourth-fastest at 186.384 mph. Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five in the first practice of the day.

RELATED: Johnson passes on qualifying after practice wreck

Pole sitter Kyle Larson, who also topped Friday’s lone practice, placed 22nd on the board in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet.

 

The practice was marked by two incidents late in the session. Kevin Harvick scraped the right side of his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford on the Turn 4 wall with just over 10 minutes left in the session. Harvick managed the sixth-fastest speed in the 14 laps he turned before the incident.

 

A more significant impact for David Ragan’s No. 38 Ford into the outside retaining wall brought the session to a close with less than two minutes of practice remaining. His Front Row Motorsports team will opt for a reserve car for the balance of the race weekend.


WATCH: Ragan hits wall, will go to backup

"We just cut a left-rear tire going down the back straightaway and I tried to start slowing it down as quick as I could, and just couldn’t slow it down fast enough," Ragan said. "By the time I got to Turn 3, I was wrecking before I even got to the corner. It’s certainly unfortunate. I felt like our Camping World Ford was pretty decent. We made a few adjustments and hadn’t put new tires on yet, and I felt like our speeds hadn’t fallen off a lot, so it’s unfortunate. Hopefully, we can get our backup out in time to make a few laps in the second practice."

 

Five teams were held out of the opening 15 minutes of practice because of technical violations Friday. Trevor Bayne’s team was docked for failing on two passes through the Laser Inspection Station (LIS). The cars of Joey Logano, Gray Gaulding and Matt DiBenedetto failed LIS on their second pass through. The No 38 Ford of David Ragan was penalized for an improper seal for transmission or gears.

 

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RELATED: Starting lineup for Sunday’s race | Buy tickets for Auto Club

 

At a Glance
What: Auto Club 400
Where: Auto Club Speedway, 2-mile oval in Fontana, California.
Green flag: 3:47 p.m. ET
TV/Radio: FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Forecast: Mostly sunny with a high near 69, according to the National Weather Service. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph possible.
National anthem: Skylar Stecker
Grand Marshal: Scott Eastwood, star of the upcoming film, "The Fate of the Furious"
Race distance: 200 laps, 400 miles
Pit road speed: 55 mph
Caution car speed: 65 mph
Stage lengths: Stage 1 ends on Lap 60. Stage 2 ends on Lap 120. Final stage is scheduled to end on Lap 200.

 

More: Race-day schedule | Kyle Larson on the pole

 

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RACE DAY: Full starting lineup | Race-day rundown | Key info


FONTANA, Calif. — Kyle Larson carried his 2-year-old son Owen into the Auto Club Speedway Media Center on Friday afternoon, minutes after winning the pole position for Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Young father and young son were smiling, interacting, just enjoying the together time on stage — Larson thoughtfully answering reporters’ questions, Owen playfully leaning into the microphone to add his own toddler commentary.

 

Life is especially good like that when you’re leading the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings.

 

For the first time in his four-year Monster Energy Series career, the 24-year old Californian Larson tops the championship standings, assuming the lead last week at Phoenix after scoring his third consecutive runner-up finish — just in time for his return home.

 

It’s not only a career milestone for Larson, but also marks the first time his No. 42 Target Chevrolet Chip Ganassi Racing team has been Numero Uno since retired Ganassi driver Sterling Marlin held the point in 2002.

 

RELATED: Larson’s year of feats

 

"I know I’ve won a handful of championships throughout my racing, but I’ve never been one to be a points racer or be as consistent as I’ve been," Larson said. "Going into this year I made it a goal of mine to be more consistent and make fewer mistakes. It’s only been four races, but we have been off to a good start on limiting our mistakes and running up front. That has helped put ourselves in position to win each race this season. 

 

"Just been really proud of everybody on our race team and happy with kind of how I’ve been performing. Been trying to work a little bit harder this year and it seems to all be paying off."

 

Sunday’s starting spot is Larson’s second career pole position — the last came at Pocono in his 2014 rookie season — and leading the field to the green flag this week feels appropriate considering Larson’s current place in the standings. And … he won Saturday’s XFINITY Series race for the second time.

 

"I think it’s really cool to see," Elliott said. "I’ve enjoyed racing with those guys throughout the season. I can’t speak for them. But for me, I’ve just tried to take what I learned last year and improve on that and do some things better.

 

"I think the big thing is we all really have fast cars to drive right now, and that sure does make it a lot easier to run up front and contend and be there each week. Just having fast cars makes it a lot easier."

 

Sunday’s starting grid certainly reflects the sport’s youth movement with Larson on point, Elliott starting 13th alongside 21-year old rookie Erik Jones, and Ryan Blaney rolling off 19th.

 

Elliott led final practice. Blaney, Jones and Larson were third, forth and fifth quickest. Jones had the fastest 10-lap average of the weekend and led second practice.

 

It’s really cool to see kind of the future of the sport and them all running up front," Larson said. "I’m sure NASCAR is really happy about that and it’s fun to race with all of them on the race track because I feel like we’ve all gotten a little bit added aggression and excitement. So yeah, personality-wise the young guys are all pretty fun."

 

Fun seems to be the word of the moment for Larson. He’s enjoying himself and setting the pace — a perfect racing combination.

 

"Everybody is so good in this series that a lot comes down to how good your race cars are and how well your race team performs," Larson said, smiling. "We have kind of got it all going on right now. It’s pretty cool to show up to the race track. I know Jamie [Ganassi teammate McMurray] and I are both having a blast right now."

 

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FONTANA, Calif. — NASCAR concludes its Western swing this weekend in a historical manner. Jusan Hamilton, 26, became the first African-American to serve as a race director for a NASCAR national series event, controlling on-track activity in Saturday’s XFINITY Series race.


The Ithaca, New York, native and former short track racer sees his opportunity as a result of hard work and high goals. What started as a Drive for Diversity internship with the sanctioning body’s Integrated Marketing Communications department has turned into a four-year tenure with NASCAR, primarily working in race operations and event management.


"I never really thought of (being the first African-American national series race director) in those terms. … I’m proud of it, and I’m really thankful for the team in the control tower," said Hamilton, whose job this weekend as race director includes making split-second decisions regarding officiating, safety and emergency services.


"I’ve wanted to work in professional racing since I was a kid watching Kevin Harvick,’’ Hamilton said. "I’m very fortunate to have this opportunity. I’ve had the chance to learn so many different areas of the sport and business, that’s one of the things that’s best about working with NASCAR.


"Being race director is similar to being the quarterback in football — you have to know your job and the jobs of every other team member to be successful."

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FONTANA, Calif. – Kyle Larson won the race, but William Byron bested the field of XFINITY Series regulars in one of the most competitive, hard-fought XFINITY Series events of the year at Auto Club Speedway on Saturday.

It wasn’t a win, but it was a well-timed boost of confidence for the rookie.

Byron finished fifth in the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet, the top finishing XFINITY Series regular, just ahead of Roush Fenway Racing’s Darrell Wallace Jr. and JR Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler.

It was his second consecutive top-five finish and places the rookie second in the series standings, 17 points behind his veteran teammate Sadler.

A week ago Byron won the pole position at Phoenix and scored a career-best fourth place in the race – the showing buoying him for his debut on California’s two-mile oval.

"Been good lately to get some top-fives," said the 19-year old Byron, allowing a smile. "We were able to make some good adjustments during the race today. I felt like we kinda struggled some in traffic getting the car to handle right. Ultimately, we got it to handle right, the guys did a great job on pit road, led a lap and got a good finish."

Byron started the race from the sixth position and ran among the lead cars early on. Battling a rough handling car midway through the race, he praised his team for good pit stops and timely adjustments and was able to join in the dramatic final laps of tight racing.

"It was really fun," Byron said. "It was a blast out there. I’d never been here before. You have a lot of options, so many places to run your car. It makes the hard work pay off."