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All times ET

Monday, March 21
3 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 (re-air), FS1
5:30 a.m., NASCAR Victory Lane (re-air), FS1
6 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series 300 (re-air), FS1
8 a.m., The 10: Greatest Soundbites in NASCAR History (re-air), FS1
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 (re-air), FS1
Noon, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 (re-air), FS2
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m., The 600: History of NASCAR’s Toughest Race (re-air), FS1

Tuesday, March 22
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
9:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series 300 (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Wednesday, March 23
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Thursday, March 24
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Friday, March 25
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
4:30 p.m., NASCAR Scan All 43 (2016), NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
9 p.m., NASCAR K&N Pro Series Race (taped), NBCSN
2 a.m., NASCAR K&N Pro Series Race (re-air), NBCSN

Saturday, March 26
6:30 p.m., WeatherTech Sportscar Championship: Sebring (re-air), FS1

Sunday, March 28
2:30 p.m., Contintental Tire Sportscar Challenge: Sebring (taped), FS1

 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Complete race results | See photos from Sunday’s race
SHOP: Batman vs. Superman gear

FONTANA, Calif. — Jimmie Johnson won the battle between hometown heroes on Sunday, outdueling Kevin Harvick in overtime at Auto Club Speedway.

 

“Awesome teamwork, boys!” Johnson shouted on his radio after taking the 77th checkered flag of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, breaking a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all-time victory list. “There’s nothing like winning at home.”

 

The six-time series champion from El Cajon, California, got the chance he needed when Kyle Busch blew a tire and hit the Turn 3 wall on Lap 198 of a scheduled 200 to cause the sixth and final caution of the afternoon. With the race destined for overtime, the lead-lap cars came to pit road for new tires, with Denny Hamlin leading Harvick and Johnson back onto the track.

 

Hamlin chose the outside lane for a restart on Lap 204, leaving Johnson behind Harvick in the inside lane. Johnson pushed Harvick clear of Hamlin into Turn 1 and dived to the inside of the race’s dominant driver, who had led 142 laps to that point.

 

Johnson stayed in the gas off Turn 2, ultimately clearing Harvick and pulling away to win by .772 seconds. The victory was Johnson’s second of the 2016 season and his sixth in 22 starts at the 2-mile track.

 

“I got a great run off of Turn 2, and I thought ‘Man I’ve got a shot at this thing,'” Johnson said of the opening lap of the final restart. “Which I didn’t expect to have. Harvick has been so fast. I cleared him and kind of got away. 

 

“We saved our best for last, for sure. I told everybody Superman kicked Batman’s butt and it happened (teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. was driving the Batman car and finished 11th).”

 

Driving a No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet adorned with a “Superman” logo to plug the movie “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Johnson led 25 laps, but his rival from Bakersfield had dominated the event until the final restart.

 

“That sucks,” said Harvick, who has finished second 20 times in 77 events since joining Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, his championship season. “Just way too tight right there. Couldn’t put the throttle down. Wouldn’t turn.”

 

Harvick described the late-race caution as a “worst-case scenario.”

 

“We weren’t very good on restarts for four or five laps, unless we were all by ourselves,” said Harvick, who nevertheless retained the series lead by 11 points over Johnson. “The No. 48 was able to hang with us, and we just weren’t able to drive it in like I needed to, just didn’t have the front tires turning and the back wouldn’t grip. 

 

“Still, a good day for us. … We’ll keep at it.”

 

Hamlin ran third, overcoming radio problems that left him mired in traffic early in the race. Joey Logano ran fourth, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who notched his first top five since last year’s spring race at Bristol.

 

Rookie Chase Elliott, Carl Edwards, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski and Jamie McMurray completed the top 10. Polesitter Austin Dillon finished 24th, after a loose wheel forced him to return to pit road after stops under caution on Lap 110.

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Full race results | Series standings

FONTANA, Calif. — Kyle Busch thought NASCAR should have thrown the caution flag.
 
Austin Dillon called it a “great decision.”
 
And NASCAR officials said they saw no reason to throw the yellow on the final lap of Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series TreatMyClot.com 300 by Janssen at Auto Club Speedway.
 
Busch, winner of three consecutive races in the XFINITY Series entering Saturday, had led 133 of 150 laps when he took the white flag, nursing his fuel and a one-plus second lead over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez.
 
But the left-front tire on his No. 18 Toyota let go as Busch took the white flag and headed off into Turn 1, damaging the fender and hood and scattering debris on the track.
 
Busch continued to race on, trying to hold his lead. Suarez eventually ran out of fuel and Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) overtook both to capture the victory.
 
“Debris all over the race track and they don’t throw a yellow,” Busch said on his radio. “I’m just so pleased with you NASCAR. Thanks. Y’all are awesome.”
 
RELATED: Busch frustrated by losing on last lap

Because Busch had taken the white flag at the start/finish line, if NASCAR had thrown the caution flag, the field would have been frozen at that point.
 
According to the rulebook, under such circumstances each vehicle is required to complete the lap without assistance while maintaining a reasonable speed based on track conditions. Vehicles aren’t permitted to pass and must maintain their position; reasonable speed and track conditions are a NASCAR judgment determination.
 
NASCAR officials said they saw no reason to throw the caution at that point, and that Busch was continuing to race; they saw nothing that posed a safety risk to others. It was their decision, an official said, to “let it play out.”
 
Danny Stockman Jr., No. 3 team’s crew chief, said he and his race engineer had discussed the situation as it unfolded, “but we came to the white (flag) right there.
 
“I guess we wouldn’t have won the race, right?” Stockman said. “He (Busch) would have won it if they had thrown the white right then.”
 
Dillon said it was “plenty good out there; I didn’t see any debris. I didn’t see any out there.”

RELATED: Dillon discusses frantic finish
 
Busch, incredibly, finished second. It was the third time he had entered an XFINITY Series race riding a three-race win streak only to see the streak broken.
 
Darrell Wallace Jr. (Roush Fenway Racing), Suarez and Elliott Sadler (JR Motorsports) completed the top five.

RELATED: Wallace Jr. fails post-race inspection | Suarez sees victory slip by

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Full race results | Race recap | Updated series standings

FONTANA, Calif. — Daniel Suarez was less than two miles from what would have been his first victory in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series when his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota began running out of fuel.
 
At that point it no longer mattered that teammate Kyle Busch, once again dominant, had cut a left front tire on the white-flag lap, yielding the lead to Suarez as the two raced through Turn 2 Saturday at Auto Club Speedway. The only thing that mattered was getting back to the finish line before anyone could overtake him.
 
But Suarez, the series points leader, dropped to the inside on the backstretch, trying to urge his car around one final time.
 
Incredibly, Busch sped back past Suarez on three good tires and one not-so-good one.
 
But even Busch couldn’t hold off a hard-charging Austin Dillon, who shot around Suarez, went outside of Busch, clipped the wall and made slight contact with Busch as a result before streaking across the finish line for the win.
 
“In the whole run we were saving fuel,” Suarez, who nursed his car back to the line for a fourth-place finish, said. “I knew that we were one to one-and-a-half laps short. I was saving fuel. I wasn’t worrying about the 20 (Erik Jones) or 18 (Busch); I was just trying to finish the race because I knew that we were short.”
 
Jones, one of three JGR drivers that ran in the top three nearly all day, began to run out of fuel with three laps remaining. Suarez knew he had more fuel than his teammate, he said, “but not a lot.”
 
“I passed the 18 when he blew the left front tire in (Turns) 1 and 2 and on the exit of 2 I ran out of fuel and on the exit of 4, the 2 (Austin Dillon) and the 18 passed me back. Very unfortunate but it’s part of racing. I really think that our first victory is coming and hopefully we can get it very soon.”
 
Suarez, 24, has finished no worse than eighth this year; he’s been second, third and fourth in his last three outings and now leads Elliott Sadler by 10 in the points standings.
 
As disappointing as the near-miss was, Suarez said there was a bright side.
 
“We have a really fast race car and won the pole,” he said. “I think it’s been the closest race that I ever had and would have loved to get that first victory.”
 
Busch led 133 of the race’s 150 laps. Suarez led once for four laps, as the race got underway.
 
“It’s not bad,” he said. “The team is amazing with the chemistry that we have. We win and we lose together and today we were close and that’s pretty much all I can say. I can tell you our first victory is coming, and it’s coming fast.”

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FONTANA, Calif. — Adam Stevens, crew chief for Kyle Busch, said his team hasn’t resolved a left rear tire wear issue that surfaced during Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions at Auto Club Speedway.



“I don’t know what it was,” Stevens said. “We tried multiple things to remedy it and it’s getting better, but it’s not like it’s gone. We still have some concerns after final practice.”



Goodyear officials said the problem was traced to air pressures and camber settings, but Stevens said his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team was not “out of the box on any one of those things compared to every car that we’re capable of looking at and past history.”



JGR fields four Sprint Cup entries and has a technical alliance with Furniture Row Racing.



“But we’re the only ones that seem to be having a problem,” he said. “I don’t know what to do to fix it because everybody else is quite similar.”



Busch qualified sixth for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM Radio). He was fourth fastest in Saturday’s opening practice under cool conditions and 16th in Happy Hour after track temperatures had increased.



The wear improved in the final practice, according to Stevens, “but you (still) saw excessive wear,” he said.



“When it gets hot and gets slick and slows down, a lot of those problems tend to go away,” he said. “I don’t know that anything that we’ve done has made it any better, other than just the normal rubbering in of the track and the lap times falling off to be honest.”



“It’s a worn surface, guys are searching for grip; one of the ways they’ve attacked that in the past and are doing it still is (by) trying to reduce air pressures, trying to run a little bit more camber,” Goodyear’s Greg Stucker said. “Just trying to push the envelope and get as much as they can.”



Stucker said Goodyear has “gone, in very general terms … softer at every track.”



“One of the goals was increased falloff and we certainly have seen that, significantly more at Atlanta,” he said. “About the same (falloff) at Las Vegas. … More at Phoenix and we’re trending right now at least as much if not more here.”



As for the No. 18 team, Stucker said officials “are over there working with them and trying to make sure they know where they stand … what kind of changes they’re making.



“It’s just one of those levers that they pull,” he said. “(NASCAR) took aero away so they are going to go about getting grip back mechanically and that’s one way they do it.”



Stevens said his team didn’t see the wear issues here last season, but a similar problem did surface at Atlanta earlier this year.



“A lot of times you’ll see (that) when it’s real fast and gripped up,” he said. “It was (at Atlanta); it was a concern the entire race. And it’ll be a concern tomorrow until we get a couple of sets across it tomorrow, too.”

Posted on by Nascar

MORE: Full race lineup | Practice 1 | Practice 2

 

FONTANA, Calif. — Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kurt Busch will go to a backup entry for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 after the former series champion made contact with the wall during Saturday’s opening practice session. The means the SHR driver will start from the rear of the field — and so will AJ Allmendinger, whose team changed a rear gear.

 

“It just kind of got loose and sucked him in,” Greg Zipadelli, competition director at Stewart-Haas Racing, said as the No. 41 team began preparing a second entry for Busch. The veteran had completed 29 laps and was 15th fastest overall prior to the incident.

 

While there appeared to be only minimal body damage to the Chevrolet, Zipadelli said the contact “cleaned the whole right side.”

 

“It bent the splitter bar down, bent the lower control arm. It hit really flat … moved the deck lid over.

 

“It would take all damn day to fix it and I don’t know if it would be right. At a place like this, you don’t want to take (chances).”

 

Busch qualified 26th on Friday at ACS. Because of the car change, he will drop to the rear prior to the start of Sunday’s 200-lap race (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

A second practice for Sprint Cup teams is scheduled for 2:30-3:25 p.m. ET today, giving Busch and the team an opportunity to get on the track with the backup car.

 

The only other incident saw Richard Petty Motorsports driver Aric Almirola also make contact with the wall, however damage to the No. 43 Ford wasn’t severe enough to warrant going to a backup.

Posted on by Nascar

FONTANA, Calif. — A well-worn racing surface, multiple racing grooves and generous tire falloff await NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams here at Auto Club Speedway for Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

 

Will it be the perfect combination or the perfect storm?

 

NASCAR’s 2016 aero package, which features less downforce, has gotten high marks thus far this year, as has Goodyear’s development of tires to go with the package.

 

Long green-flag runs have been the rule rather than the exception, and tire management has become crucial. But late caution flags have kept teams guessing.

 

“I think you’re going to see that short-run, long-run balance,” Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski said Friday after qualifying 15th. “The guys that are good on the short run here will have a huge advantage if there’s a yellow at the end.”

 

The difference between the two is immense, the 2012 series champ noted.

 

“It was two years ago where the 24 car (then driven by Jeff Gordon) was heads and tails the best car on the long run, but didn’t have any short-run speed,” Keselowski said. When a late caution created a green-white-checkered finish, Gordon went from contending for the win to finishing outside the top 10.

 

“That shows how you can get eaten up really quick if you don’t have that short-run speed at the end,” Keselowski said. “I think a lot of what is going to dictate who is going to win the race is going to be exactly how the yellows fall.”

 

At ACS, last-lap passes have become almost routine. Keselowski won here a year ago with a pass on the final lap; Kyle Busch managed the feat in both 2014 and ’13. In 2011, it was Kevin Harvick that shot into the lead with one lap remaining for the win.

 

The 2-mile layout at ACS promotes high speeds, but it’s more than just holding the gas pedal to the floor and hanging on, Harvick said.

 

“Oh, you are going to have to lift a lot,” Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) said. “You are probably going to have three seconds of fall-off, maybe more, as you go through the run because the tires just fall off so fast. 

 

“You are going to have a lot of straightaway speed because of the low drag, so yeah, there is definitely going to be a lot of off-throttle time. I think the amount of time is going to change dramatically from the first lap to Lap 30. It’s going to be a huge pace swing.”

 

The Goodyear tires for Sunday’s race mirror those used at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this year. Right-side multi-zone tires feature a harder compound on the inner two inches while the outer 10 inches is softer.

 

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Carl Edwards, fresh off a last-lap battle with Harvick a week ago at Phoenix, said, “You could write a book about this place.”

 

“There’s so much happening out there,” Edwards said. “Where you place your tires, how you enter the corner, what the guy in front of you is doing. All those things add up to a lot different balance.

 

“Turns 1 and 2, as many times as I’ve been here I still don’t feel like I have it figured out. There are spots that I like to run, things I like to do, but there are some spots out there and it’s like, ‘Man, I can’t quite figure out what’s happening.’

 

“It’s a little bit unpredictable, it’s definitely tough and to me that’s part of the fun.”

 

Nine former winners are in the field; pole winner Austin Dillon is not among them. The Richard Childress Racing driver scored his second-career pole on Friday and is still looking for his first Sprint Cup victory.

 

“I’m very confident in my guys that they will give me something to work with,” Dillon, 25, said. “They already have and the speed is there.

 

“Just focus on running that wall because that is where the race is going to be, I think, in the long run. Everybody is going to be running right by the wall.”

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RELATED: Full race results | Race recap | Standings post-race

 

FONTANA, Calif. — A strong top-three finish for Darrell Wallace Jr. in Saturday’s TreatMyClot.com 300 by Janssen at Auto Club Speedway was slightly marred, as NASCAR announced the No. 6 Ford failed post-race inspection.

According to NASCAR officials, Wallace’s Roush Fenway Racing entry failed to meet the minimum ride height requirement. Potential penalties for the team would be addressed early next week at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina. (UPDATE: No penalties were issued to the No. 6 team)

The third-place finish for Wallace tied the 22-year-old driver’s career-best finish in the XFINITY Series and was his top result thus far in the 2016 season.

 

MORE: At-track photos

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RELATED: Full practice results | Kenseth, Edwards pace wreck-filled practices



FONTANA, Calif. — “Happy Hour” practice at Auto Club Speedway wasn’t so happy for Kyle Larson and Greg Biffle.



Midway through the final practice session on Saturday, Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet became loose and went high on the race track, brushing the wall. Biffle’s No. 16 ride, equipped with a fresh set of Goodyear tires, was unable to stop and made significant contact with Larson.



“We were on new tires … (and) the 42 was on old tires, so our closure rate was super-fast,” Biffle said in the garage afterward. “I was kind of looking at my mark on the wall and on the race track and he wrecked in front of me and I just couldn’t get stopped. There wasn’t anywhere for me to go. 



“The groove is right up against the fence and I was going probably 15-20 miles an hour faster than he was. By the time I saw him sideways I was catching him so fast that I don’t know what happened.”



The wreck was especially unfortunate for Larson, who has struggled to find speed throughout the weekend.



“It’s been the first time all week that I’ve felt decent speed, especially long-run speed,” Larson said in the garage, following a brief conversation with Biffle. “So, disappointed in myself. … Hopefully not too much work for them.”



Both cars have significant damage, but neither Larson nor Biffle are sure whether or not their teams will defer to a backup car for Sunday’s race. Both drivers would need to forgo their qualifying positions (Larson, 32nd; Biffle, 22nd) if they decided to switch to backup cars.



“We’re still trying to decide if we need to go to a backup or not, it’s more just body damage,” Larson said.  “… Hate it those (No. 16) guys have to work really hard on their car, as well. Hopefully we can get our car fixed up, and so can they, to have some speed.”

MORE: At-track photos, Auto Club

Posted on by Holly Cain

SEBRING, Fla. — Fans practically contorted themselves to get the perfect “selfies” and random close-ups of Chip Ganassi’s two Ford GT cars on the grid awaiting Saturday’s green flag for the 64th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Dressed in their finest Ford, Chevrolet Corvette and even Ferrari and Porsche T-shirts and hats, the crowd around Ganassi’s two red-white-and-blue entries was easily the largest on the starting grid. The curious and adoring fans examined the rear wing, peered into the car’s windows and asked crewman to pose for photos.

And there were audible bursts of “ohhh and ahhh” in various inflections and languages.

Unlike most race events, the fancy sports cars parked in the infield lots didn’t belong to the drivers or team executives, but instead to the highly devoted sports car fans who attend the famous Twelve Hours of Sebring dressed in Mark Donohue shirts with prototype car silhouettes on their cap.

NASCAR Hall of Famers Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte have competed at Sebring as have Ricky Rudd and Michael Waltrip.

While no former NASCAR drivers were entered this weekend, Sprint Cup team owners Ganassi and Rob Kauffman, who competed here with Michael Waltrip in 2012, were on hand to see their Fords compete in what is considered one of the world’s greatest races.

Ganassi’s team won this race in a prototype class car in 2014.

“The big thing is to get some distance in them,” Ford driver Joey Hand told the crowd Saturday. “But the cars look fast and they are fast.”

Going the distance is the big challenge. The brand new Ford GT EcoBoosts had a few hiccups in their Rolex 24 debut, but in all fairness, had only turned laps a couple weeks before the race during a massive test session.

It was a tricky debut at Daytona for the new cars, but the team is quite confident it has learned from the growing pains and repaired the glitches. They led laps and kept pace at Daytona and Saturday was all about increasing the performance further.

“The good thing about it all, and the thing we are pleased about, is the car is showing some pace, it is showing some opportunity, and overall we are happy that we have a fast car and we need to work on reliability,’” Ford Motor Company’s executive vice president, Product Development, and chief technical officer, Raj Nair said after Daytona.

“That’s a lot better than having a slow car that’s reliable, but you don’t know how to get speed out of it. Overall, this is racing and this is what can happen in racing. If we don’t win every race, we are disappointed, but at the same time we know how to fix our issues and we’ll be better the next time we come out.”

The whole program is a major undertaking for Ganassi, who has won Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400, Rolex 24 and 12 Hours of Sebring trophies already. But the quest is as sentimental as it is ambitious.

A win at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans is the next great trophy Ganassi desires — and a victory there would certainly add to what is absolutely already one of the greatest resumes in racing history.

“I think it’s obviously something that’s been on our radar screen for a couple years,” Ganassi said standing alongside his car Saturday, enjoying the large and curious crowd. “It’s going to be a challenge and we’re hopeful we can put Ford forward the way they want to be represented. We look forward to it.

“The greatest events attract the greatest teams and the greatest challenges. That’s why we look forward to it.

“And it’s nice to go over there with an American company. That’s pretty cool.”