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RELATED: Entry list for STP 500 | Entry list for Alpha Energy Solutions 250

NASCAR heads to Martinsville Speedway for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Check out the full weekend schedule below.

 

Note: All times are ET

 

SUNDAY, APRIL 2:

ON TRACK

— 1:20:00 p.m.: MENCS Driver Introductions w/ NASCAR Special Awards

— 2:00:00 p.m.: Presentation of Colors by: Local Law Enforcement and Public Safety Honor Guard

— 2:00:20 p.m.: Invocation by: Martinsville Speedway Track Chaplin, Mike Hatfield

— 2:01:00 p.m.: National Anthem by: Martinsville, Bassett and Magna Vista High School Marching Bands

— 2:02:30 p.m.: Flyover: The Bandit Flight Team (Turn 4 to Turn 1)

— 2:07:30 p.m.: “Drivers, Start Your Engines” by: From Hit FOX TV Show “Prison Break,” Rockmond Dunbar

— 2:13:30 p.m.: Start of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series STP 500 (500 laps, 263 miles), FS1 (Results)

 

PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 10:45 a.m.: Rockmond Dunbar
— 11 a.m.: Edsel Ford
— 11:15 a.m.: STP availability with Richard Petty, Aric Almirola, Steve Letarte and Katina Walker, STP Director of Marketing
— 5:30 p.m.: (approx) Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 31:

ON TRACK
— noon-1 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 1:10-2 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 3-3:55 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final practice, FS1 — Canceled due to rain
— 5:05 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS1 — Canceled due to rain

PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 10 a.m.: AJ Allmendinger

— 10:30 a.m.: Kyle Larson

— 10:45 a.m.: Jimmie Johnson

— 11 a.m.: Timothy Peters, Harrison Burton

— 1:15 p.m.: Denny Hamlin

— 2 p.m.: Joey Logano

— 2:30 p.m.: Kyle Busch

— 2:45 p.m.: Daniel Suarez

SATURDAY, APRIL 1:

ON TRACK
— 11-11:55 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 12:05 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Keystone Light Pole Qualifying, FS1 (Results)
— 1:30-2:20 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, FS1 (Results)
— 3 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (250 laps, 131.5 miles), FOX (Results)

 
PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 5:45 p.m.: (approx) Post-Camping World Truck Series race

 

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RELATED: FAQ for race format

Stage 2 saw the top-two finishers of Stage 1 switch places with Martin Truex Jr. putting down a blistering pace for the stage win with Kyle Larson finishing second and Chase Elliott getting by Clint Bowyer late in the stage for third. Truex led all but five laps in the stage as he earned the lead on pit road on Lap 64 for a segment that stayed green throughout its run. Truex swept all three stages of the NASCAR Goes West opener at Las Vegas to take the checkered flag.

Larson and Truex traded the lead back and forth during Stage 1 of the Auto Club 400 and combined to be out front for 55 of the 60-lap segment (Larson led 43 laps, Truex led 12 laps). It ultimately was the polesitter Larson who took the top spot. This was the Chip Ganassi Racing driver’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stage win, and he earns a playoff bonus point. The driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet entered this weekend’s action at Auto Club Speedway as the series points leader.


The top 10 finishers in both Stage 1 and Stage 2 receive race points. The race winner will receive 40 points and five playoff points at the conclusion of the Final Stage.


MORE: 2017 season stage points

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RELATED: Full race results | Series standings | Detailed breakdown
MORE: Buy Larson gear

 

FONTANA, Calif. — What a difference one position makes.

 

After three straight second-place finishes in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, polesitter Kyle Larson finally found Victory Lane, pulling away after an overtime restart to win Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.

 

Larson took the checkered flag at the end of the second extra lap as team owner Chip Ganassi celebrated from his perch atop the pit box.

 

"It’s great to be Kyle Larson right now," said the 24-year-old driver.

 

Resilient Brad Keselowski, whose spin on Lap 3 caused the first caution of the afternoon — and damaged his No. 2 Team Penske Ford — rolled home in second place, .779 seconds behind the driver variously known as "Young Money" and "The California Kid."

 

Larson, who led a race-high 110 laps, kept his cool through four cautions and subsequent restarts over the final 21 laps, giving up the lead to pit for fresh tires on Lap 193 of a planned 200, as Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Jamie McMurray stayed on the track. 


RELATED: Stages 1,2 results from Auto Club

But Larson quickly surged back to the front after a Lap 196 restart, passing Hamlin for the top spot through Turn 2 a lap later and holding it through the overtime.

 

"I was staying as calm as I could be, but also frustrated at the same time," Larson said of the late-race stops and starts. "It seems like every time I get to the lead at the end of one of these things, the caution comes out and I’ve got to fight people off on restarts. Our Target Chevy was amazing all day. We were able to lead a lot of laps today. Truex was better than us that second stage by quite a bit. We were able to get the jump on him the following restart and led pretty much the rest of the distance. 

 

"I had to fight them off there after the green flag stops (before the final caution), and that was a lot of fun. This is just amazing. We’ve been so good all year long, three seconds in a row. I’ve been watching all the TV like ‘He doesn’t know how to win,’ but we knew how to win today, so that was good."

 

In posting his second career victory (the first coming at two-mile Michigan last year), Larson completed his first weekend sweep, having won Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series event.

 

Larson extended his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series lead to 29 points over second-place Chase Elliott, who finished 10th.

 

Clint Bowyer ran third, posting his best finish since June 2015 at Sonoma, where he also came home third. Truex, who opened a lead of more than eight seconds in winning the second 60-lap stage, was fourth, with Joey Logano recovering a lost lap with a late wave-around to finish fifth.

 

Keselowski cut a tire during a jam-up at the start of the race, the went for a ride off Jimmie Johnson’s bumper on Lap 3.

 

All things considered — among them a suspension to crew chief Paul Wolfe for an infraction last week at Phoenix — Keselowski was happy with his second-place result.

 

"We were tore all to hell," Keselowski said. "Got tore up there really early in the race. Went all the way to the back, just clawed all the way up to second … The last few restarts were obviously key for us. We seemed to get settled into about 10th there, maybe seventh or eighth. 

 

"Then kind of just executed the last few restarts. Good pit calls and so forth. Good timing with the yellows. We caught a few breaks, for sure, and made good adjustments to our car to make up for the damage. It takes a little bit of everything: good execution, good work by the team, and a little bit of luck on the last few yellows."

 

NOTES:
— Before the race, the track announced a three-year extension of its race entitlement sponsorship, keeping the name Auto Club 400 through 2020.

 

— With Keselowski having early troubles, Larson is now the only driver who has scored points in both the first and second stages in each of the five races this year.

 

— Twenty-first Jimmie Johnson maintained his perfect record at Fontana — but just barely. After a litany of issues throughout the race, Johnson got back on the lead lap as the "lucky dog" under the final caution. He has now finished on the lead lap in all 23 of his starts at Auto Club, completing all 5,306 laps raced at the speedway during his career.

 

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RELATED: Race results | Updated series standings

 

FONTANA, Calif. — Brad Keselowski will be the first to tell you it was "quite the day" at work on Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. After making contact with cars on the race start, then taking an infield spin — all within the first five laps — Keselowski rallied to a runner-up finish, only .779 seconds behind race winner Kyle Larson.

 

To hear Keselowski tell the story, it was simply a matter of keeping at it no matter the circumstance. And boy, did it pay off.

 

MORE: Watch Keselowski’s early spin

 

"Great perseverance from this team," Keselowski said on pit road. "I got out of the car and looked at the damage. It’s torn to pieces. I feel lucky to finish second and curious what we could have done if we weren’t torn up. Great day for us to persevere, despite adversity. You’ll have that in a 36-race season, so proud of team for that."

 

Keselowski’s late race rebound was certainly noted by his competitors. What looked like a Larson vs. Martin Truex Jr. trophy run, turned into an all-out scramble with a dozen cars in two laps of overtime.

 

"The 2 car, I went by him the first run, I just knew his day was over," third-place finisher Clint Bowyer said after the race. "I’ll be damned if he didn’t finish in front of me.

"How did he do that?" he continued, smiling. "Did you see that?"

 

MORE: Bowyer takes third at Auto Club

 

Keselowski’s No. 2 Wurth Ford didn’t lead a lap all day and spent time in the pits early in the race repairing damage from the opening-lap "adventures."

 

"The last few restarts were obviously key for us," Keselowski said. "We seemed to get settled into about 10th there, maybe seventh or eighth, then kind of just executed the last few restarts. Good pit calls and so forth. Good timing with the yellows. We caught a few breaks, for sure, and made good adjustments to our car to make up for the damage.

 

"It takes a little bit of everything: good execution, good work by the team, and a little bit of luck on the last few yellows.

 

"Glad I got the race on record on the DVR so I can see it."

 

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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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RELATED: Read more Inside Groove

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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BUY TICKETS: Celebrate Auto Club’s 20th anniversary
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.