Back at The Club: Drivers eager for ‘unknowns’ of long-anticipated Fontana return

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Pat DeCola

NASCAR last raced at Auto Club Speedway 727 days ago.

Alex Bowman led 110 laps and claimed his second career win — the final victory for Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet — in teammate Jimmie Johnson’s last race at his home track and site of his first Cup Series triumph. Former Auto Club winner Brad Keselowski claimed yet another top five for Team Penske, his longtime home as one of the sport’s most tenured drivers. Ross Chastain, filling in for an injured Ryan Newman, finished 17th in the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Bubba Wallace, in the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevy, finished 27th — a familiar part of the pack at the time for Wallace.

There was even, if you can believe it, a race at Phoenix the following weekend, won by Joey Logano.

Then everything changed.

Bowman is now driving the No. 48 that Johnson inhabited for nearly two decades — because the seven-time Cup Series champ retired from full-time racing and now has his hands on an IndyCar steering wheel. Keselowski hopped in the No. 6 in place of Newman before this season — and changed the team name to Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing because he left Penske to become part-owner at RFK. The 2012 champ’s former No. 2 Ford was taken to Victory Lane in this year’s Daytona 500 less than a week ago by Austin Cindric, who coincidentally becomes the first rookie to lead the points since Johnson, himself, did so in 2002 — the year of his first career victory, at Fontana. The journeyman Chastain now drives the No. 1 Chevrolet … for a new team co-owned by music mogul Pitbull.

And Wallace, well, he’s perhaps had the most interesting 727 days of ’em all. In short, he’s become a household cultural icon while also adding “Cup Series winner” and “driver for another fresh team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan” to his resumé.

Not to mention, you know, an entirely new car.

Got all that? Good.

Of course, the spark for much of the upheaval, game of musical drivers and interruption to Auto Club being a fixture on the annual NASCAR schedule is the global fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Racing was paused less than two weeks after the last Auto Club race for roughly two months in the initial stages of the crisis. And last year’s Fontana race wound up being run on the infield road-course layout at Daytona International Speedway as the sport continued to navigate uncharted waters in regards to public safety.

Sunday’s Wise Power 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the sport’s return to the deliciously worn, 2-mile tri-oval just east of Los Angeles, where the series raced earlier this month in the preseason Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum.

And drivers are pumped.

“It feels like it has been forever,” Bowman said Thursday during a teleconference with reporters. “… You know, I think it is an amazing race track. Super bumpy, really slick, the seams add a whole other element to it. It’s a track that drivers really like.”

Last year’s race on the Daytona Road Course was entertaining — and resulted in Christopher Bell’s first career win — but Auto Club left a noticeable, 2-mile-sized hole in last year’s schedule.

The track, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, also tends to produce marquee NASCAR moments — from Kyle Busch’s 200th career national series win to Johnson breaking his tie with Dale Earnhardt at 77 wins to Logano’s infamous, fiery run-in with former teammate Tony Stewart. And that’s all just in the past decade.

MORE: Memorable moments at Auto Club | Auto Club 101

Now, with a return imminent set to showcase the Next Gen racer in its first crack at a 2-miler — which Chastain calls “the coolest 2-mile track we go to as a driver” — competitors are on the edge of their seats in anticipation of the challenges to come.

“Heading back to Auto Club Speedway for the first time in two years and with the new Next Gen car will bring a lot of unknowns,” said Tyler Reddick in a team release. “I’ve only been to Auto Club in the Cup Series once and it was in 2020. It’s just that type of race track, even when you’ve got the best car, it’s easy to make mistakes and step over the line. This car has already proved it’s unforgiving, you’ve got to drive the daylights out of it, but it will fight you if you don’t respect it. Maybe the drivers will play it safe, maybe I’m wrong, but I expect some mistakes.”

Cliff Daniels, who sat atop the box as crew chief for Johnson’s No. 48 in his Fontana farewell, remembers that day and admits there’s very little, if anything, he can take from then to now.

“Last time we were there, we qualified on the front row with Jimmie and had a really strong race but missed an adjustment late that we needed,” said Daniels, who guided Kyle Larson to his first Cup title in 2021. “Now it’s a completely different car, different tire – everything is different. NASCAR is applying resin, which will change the characteristics and dynamics of the track surface. It’s going to be a big ‘guess’ for everyone in the field. And it’s a new weekend format with the short warmup followed by qualifying, but I have a lot of confidence in this HendrickCars.com team that we will be well prepared.”

Yeah, that’s right — new weekend format, as well, as Daniels alluded to. On most ovals this season, including this week at Auto Club, teams will be split into two groups based on odd/even finishing order from the week’s previous race for one 15-minute warm-up/practice session per group. That will lead directly into single-car, single-lap qualifying. The top five drivers from each group will then advance to the second round of qualifying to fight for the pole with another single-car, single-lap run.

MORE: Practice groups, qualifying order for Auto Club

Expect Martin Truex Jr., the 2018 Auto Club winner and top-10 finisher in three of the last four races there, to be among the quickest learners.

“We think we know what to expect based on the testing that we’ve done and just previous experience at the track, but it’s a new car with a new tire, so a lot of it is based on simulations, and you just hope you’re making the right assumptions,” said the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota wheelman. “This will definitely be one of the bigger unknowns that we’ve faced in a long time because we’re not getting a ton of track time for practice and once you practice and qualify, it’s impounded until Sunday. Hopefully, we unload where we need to be and can qualify up front and run well.

“It’s a very unique situation, but it’s the same for everyone so we just need to be able to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Posted on February 26, 2022February 27, 2022 by Staff Report

Seven NASCAR Cup Series teams failed pre-qualifying inspection multiple times Friday night at Auto Club Speedway and face penalties, with the most egregious impact coming to the No. 45 23XI Racing team of driver Kurt Busch.

The No. 45 Toyota failed pre-qualifying inspection three times, meaning it wasn’t eligible to qualify for Sunday’s 400-mile race (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and then must serve a pass-through penalty once the race goes green. In addition, car chief David Bryant was ejected from the event.

The following cars failed inspection twice, and will have a crew member ejected from the event and lose their respective pit stall selection for the race: the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team of driver Kevin Harvick (car chief Robert Smith ejected); the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing team of Brad Keselowski (car chief Nick Case ejected); the No. 12 Team Penske team of Ryan Blaney (car chief Raymond Fox ejected); the No. 22 Team Penske team of Joey Logano (car chief Jerry Kelly ejected); the No. 23 23XI Racing team of Bubba Wallace (engineer Etienne Cliche ejected); and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports team of B.J. McLeod (car chief Tyler Graf ejected).

UPDATE: The following cars were confirmed to be dropping to the rear before the green flag for Sunday’s race: No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet of Ross Chastain for backup car; No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Kevin Harvick, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Kyle Larson, No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford of Brad Keselowski, No. 22 Team Penske Ford of Joey Logano, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota of Bubba Wallace and No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet of Justin Haley, all for unapproved adjustments.

For the first time since March 2020, practice was back as a regular staple on the NASCAR schedule as the garage opened on Saturday.

On most ovals this season, including this week at Auto Club, teams will be split into two groups based on odd/even finishing order from the week’s previous race for one 15-minute warm-up/practice session per group. That will lead directly into single-car, single-lap qualifying. The top five drivers from each group will then advance to the second round of qualifying to fight for the pole with another single-car, single-lap run.

Posted on February 25, 2022February 25, 2022 by Chase Wilhelm

Trevor Bayne has high hopes in his NASCAR Xfinity Series part-time return. Making a comeback with a caliber of team like Joe Gibbs Racing, however, perhaps the better term is “expectations.”

The 2011 Daytona 500 champion will compete in his first of seven races during the 2022 Xfinity Series season in Saturday’s Production Alliance 300 at Auto Club Speedway (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bayne’s last stint in NASCAR occurred in 2020, when he ran eight races with Niece Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series. A second-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway was his best in that span.

Bayne’s last race in the Xfinity Series was in 2016, placing fifth at Watkins Glen International in a one-off race for what is now Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

In an effort to reignite his NASCAR career, Bayne will work with crew chief Jason Ratcliff, competing in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota Supra at Phoenix Raceway (March 12), Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 28), Nashville Superspeedway (June 25), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 16), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 15) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 22).

“I fought for another opportunity for the last three years,” Bayne said. “I did not want to be done in the race car. I still wanted to drive. I still wanted to be at the track. I just didn’t have another opportunity. I didn’t have a chance to go drive for another team where I feel like I could win, or really any chance for that matter.”

Bayne admitted that his coffee business located in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee was a way for him to run away from racing. But when he would view races on television, he was immediately drawn back.

MORE: Where are they now? Catching up with Trevor Bayne

Last year, Bayne built a dirt late model to scratch his competitive itch, participating in a handful of events, including Charlotte Motor Speedway’s dirt track. But the yearning for another quality NASCAR ride still burned within Bayne, which sparked conversations in mid-December with his primary sponsor, Devotion Nutrition, and his father. It was that discussion that led Bayne to call Joe Gibbs Racing’s Executive Vice President Steve deSouza for an opportunity.

“I want to come back to win,” Bayne said. “I want to come back to make a statement, show what I can do as a driver. If I can’t get it done, I want to know I was in the best ride possible and it just didn’t work out.”

Outside of his opportunity to win the 2011 Daytona 500 in Wood Brothers Racing’s famed No. 21 Ford, Bayne feels like this is the best shot of his career. Now, he just needs to back it up with victories.

“To me, this feels like the reset,” Bayne said. “I don’t know what comes of this. I don’t know if I end back up in a Cup car full time or an Xfinity car contending for championships that I would love to see happen. But I feel like in seven races, I need to go win three to five races if I’m going to have a shot at a comeback. That’s my goal.”

Posted on February 25, 2022February 25, 2022 by Terrin Waack

Kyle Busch is the only active driver with multiple Cup Series wins at Auto Club Speedway, claiming four in 22 career starts. The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota wheelman has led in 15 of those races for a total of 807 laps, another garage high.

Both those marks fall second on their respective all-time lists, coming short only to seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who accomplished six wins and 990 laps led in Fontana, California.

Another Kyle, however, could very well steal the spotlight Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM). Kyle Larson, the reigning champ, also has a strong, albeit more limited, history at Auto Club.

AUTO CLUB: Weekend schedule | Paint schemes | Betting odds

In seven career starts, Larson has won one race and finished runner-up twice on the 2-mile track. The kicker, Larson did that while with Chip Ganassi Racing. He now works for Hendrick Motorsports, which has won 11 of the 31 events held at Auto Club overall, including the last stop in 2020 with Alex Bowman. (COVID-19 prevented NASCAR’s visit in 2021.) Two of Bowman’s teammates placed within the top 10, too.

Once Larson joined the Hendrick Motorsports stable, bringing back the No. 5 Chevrolet last year, he won a series-best 10 races and the Cup Series championship.

Speaking of titleholders, 24 races at Auto Club have been won by a champion. Bowman is the only one without a title to win the last 15.

Those still racing include Bowman, Larson, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and both the Busch brothers.

Another interesting factoid, not necessarily centered around the Busch-Larson dynamic but does involve them, the Stage 1 winner is undefeated at Auto Club since the format was introduced in 2017. Larson was the first to pull off this feat. Truex did in 2018, Busch in 2019 and Bowman in 2020. Truex and Busch also won Stage 2 en route to their victories, while Larson and Bowman came in second during theirs.

Sunday’s stages will conclude on Laps 65, 130 and 200.

Practice and qualifying are back this season after a COVID-19 hiatus – learn all about the new format here – which means Larson could also snag yet another honor from Busch this weekend. Larson has won the last two poles – at Daytona International Speedway for last week’s season opener and Phoenix Raceway for last year’s season finale. The most recent competitor to land three straight No. 1 starting spots was Busch in 2017.

Busch and Larson currently own one Auto Club pole apiece with Larson winning in 2017 from the pole position.

The stats are skewed toward Busch, but BetMGM pegs Larson as the race favorite at 7-2 odds to win. Busch is listed at 7-1. Potential seems to be outweighing history.

Posted on February 24, 2022 by Reid Spencer

Before Cole Custer and Harrison Burton won back-to-back NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Auto Club Speedway in 2019 and 2020, respectively, the annual Xfinity Series event at the 2-mile track was a playground for moonlighting NASCAR Cup Series stars.

In a six-year stretch from 2008-13, Kyle Busch powered his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory no fewer than six times, a track record. That was part of a nine-race winning streak for JGR Toyotas, all accomplished by drivers competing full-time in the Cup Series.

Custer, who graduated to the Cup Series in 2020, is the only former Fontana, California, winner competing in Saturday’s Production Alliance 300 (5 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He’s racing in the No. 07 Ford fielded by SS Greenlight Racing, a technical partner of Stewart-Haas Racing.

There are 41 cars on the entry list for Saturday’s race and just 38 spots available in the field. The event also marks the return to Xfinity Series competition for Trevor Bayne, who hasn’t driven in the series since 2016 and hasn’t run a NASCAR race since 2020, when he entered eight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events.

Bayne hopes to parlay a limited schedule in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into a full-time NASCAR ride.

In talking about the potential opportunity, Bayne told JGR executive vice president Steve DeSouza, “I know you have the best Xfinity program and I want to come back to win. I want to come back and make a statement and show what I can do as a driver, and if I can’t get it done, I want to know that I was in the best ride possible, and it just didn’t work out.”

Posted on February 24, 2022February 24, 2022 by Reid Spencer

For the first time in two years, NASCAR is returning to Auto Club Speedway.

The 2-mile Fontana, California, track hosted the next-to-last NASCAR Cup Series race before the coronavirus pandemic brought professional sports in the United States to a sudden halt.

Alex Bowman was the winner of that race, picking up the second of his six career victories.

Sunday’s WISE Power 400 (3:30 p.m. on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will constitute the first competitive full-field test of NASCAR’s new Next Gen race car on a downforce track.

Kyle Busch, for one, is looking forward to the experience. With four wins, the last coming in 2019, the two-time series champion is the only active driver with more than one victory at Fontana.

MORE: Full weekend schedule | Auto Club 101: practice procedures, track facts

“I love going out to California,” Busch said. “It’s a driver’s track, and it’s aged over time … You can run all over it. Typically, recently you run up around the wall in the turns, but you can still move around a bit. I hope the Next Gen car will also allow us to move around and be pretty racy.”

With 59 career victories, Busch leads active drivers in that category. His first came at Fontana on Sept. 4, 2005, when he drove the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a .554-second win over Greg Biffle.

“We ran in the top-five all day long, but we really didn’t think we had a winning car,” recalled Busch, who has claimed his three most recent Auto Club Speedway victories since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. “When we got the lead a few times throughout the race, we just pulled away and led by quite a bit.

“It was really cool to have a really dominant race car. I remember having to drive the car really loose. That was the loosest I think I’ve ever driven a race car that was still moving forward.”

For Bowman, a pandemic and the development and debut of the Next Gen race car have occurred since his victory in 2020.

“It feels like it’s been forever,” Bowman said. “I feel like our mile-and-a-half program had gotten pretty good at that point… I felt like we had a really good car there and were really good from the time we unloaded.

“As far as applying that to this year’s car a couple of years down the road, I don’t think you can drive this year’s car as loose as you could with the previous gen car. I was really loose that whole weekend—it was just really fast.”

Track position should be an important factor in Sunday’s race, and that will put a premium on qualifying.

In 2005, Busch claimed the first pole position of his career at Fontana for the second race of the season. The driver of the No. 18 JGR Toyota will have a chance to earn a second Auto Club pole, with NASCAR implementing a two-hour-long session that incorporates both practice and qualifying on Saturday.

The 36-car field will be divided according to performance metric rank into two groups, each of which will get 15 minutes of practice before time trials. After a knockout single-lap qualifying session, the fastest five cars from each group will compete for the pole in a subsequent Round 2.

Posted on February 24, 2022February 27, 2022 by Zach Sturniolo

For the first time since 2020, NASCAR is back at Auto Club Speedway.

The Wise Power 400 rolls off on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Practice is back with a new format, history shows trends, and storylines fill the air as the Next Gen makes its racing debut around the 2-mile oval. Let’s get into it.

PRACTICE? WE TALKIN’ ABOUT PRACTICE?

For the first time since March 2020, practice is back as a regular staple on the NASCAR schedule. How it looks, however, will be quite different from what we saw at Daytona during Speedweeks.

“NASCAR is excited to return practice and qualifying to its race weekends,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition. “We missed seeing cars and trucks on track all weekend long, and so did our fans. We worked closely with our broadcast partners, teams and racetracks to create an exciting, unique qualifying format while keeping several of the efficiencies that helped our entire industry successfully navigate the pandemic.”

Practice begins at 2 p.m. ET (FS1) on Saturday with qualifying scheduled for 2:35 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN).

FONTANA HISTORY

— Sunday’s race will be the first at Fontana since March 1, 2020, a span of 728 days.

— Auto Club Speedway’s asphalt is the oldest on the Cup Series circuit, last repaved ahead of its 1997 race.

— Roger Penske and Kaiser Ventures announced the construction of the racing facility in April 1994. The site for the 2-mile oval was formerly held by the Kaiser Steel mill. Construction began in Nov. 1995.

— Part of the site is still producing steel, operated by California Steel Industries, the leading producer of flat-rolled steel and API grade pipe products in Western North America. As one of the few remaining heavy industry sites near Los Angeles, the site is a common filming location. It was used as a location for the film Black Rain, and for the Arnold Schwarzenegger showdown with the cyborg in Terminator II.

— Paul Tracy was the first driver to run on the track on January 10, 1997, driving for Team Penske in a CART FedEx Championship Series car. NASCAR held a test session in May.

— The first competition was a NASCAR West Series race won by Ken Schrader on June 21, 1997. Mark Martin won an IROC race the same day.

Source: Racing Insights

GOODYEAR TIRES

Auto Club’s old, abrasive asphalt means heavy tire wear on these 18” Goodyear tires. To alleviate some of the bumps – as well as the lower rear ride heights with the diffuser on the Next Gen race cars – NASCAR ground bumps out of the backstretch pavement to help smooth the surface.

“The track has had bumps on the back straightaway, we’ve ground out some bumps before,” Miller said.”Trying to make it smooth back there. Problematic and rough. Just trying to make that part as smooth as we possibly can, short of repaving it there. We’re also going to use some resin and tire dragon to get the corners prepped because it sat so long (without NASCAR events the past two years).”

Teams will use a single-tread compound as opposed to the multi-zone tread used in 2020. Additionally, with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in any of their tires in 2022.

UPDATE: Goodyear Racing revealed on social media that they would give each Cup team an extra set of tires for Sunday’s race, bumping the number up to 12 race sets plus one set transferred from practice/qualifying.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STORYLINES

— Clint Bowyer’s pole run in 2020 was Ford’s first Fontana pole since 2005.

— The last six races at Auto Club have been won by six different drivers, most recently Alex Bowman in 2020.

— Seven drivers have won the last eight pole awards, with only Austin Dillon repeating as a pole sitter in that time.

— Stage 1 winners have gone on to win each of the four races at Auto Club since stage racing was introduced in 2017.

— Austin Cindric leads the points standings after winning the Daytona 500. The last time a rookie led the Cup Series points standings was Jimmie Johnson in 2002.

— Alex Bowman is the only driver without a Cup series championship to win in the last 15 races at Auto Club.

— Hendrick Motorsports’ drivers won five of the last nine races on the West Coast.

Source: Racing Insights

NEW CAR, SAME FAVORITES

Despite the unknowns of how the Next Gen car will perform at Auto Club, sportsbooks believe the same guys who have been strong in the past will be strong again. Kyle Larson enters the weekend as the betting favorite with 7-2 odds, according to BetMGM. Larson scored his second career victory at this track back in 2017, and his recent dominance only implies he’ll be quick again Sunday.

Other favorites behind Larson include Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch, both listed at 7-1 odds. But the better play there would be Busch. The two-time Cup Series champion has four wins, 11 top fives and 16 top 10s in 22 Fontana starts; meanwhile, Elliott has just one top five and three top-10 finishes in five starts.

Defending race winner Alex Bowman may look like a tempting pick at 12-1 odds, but be careful – that victory is Bowman’s only finish higher than 13th in five career starts.

FANTASY LIVE

Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which is open now. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts by garaging a driver by the end of Stage 2, and there is a $25,000 prize for the winner.

The 2022 Fantasy Live points leaders are Austin Cindric (45 points), Brad Keselowski (44 points) and Martin Truex Jr. (44 points).

How to play: Fantasy Live | Set up a team today!

ALSO ON NASCAR.COM

Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.

NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.

Posted on February 24, 2022February 24, 2022 by Staff Report

Check out the practice groups (2 p.m. ET on FS1) and the qualifying order (2:35 p.m. ET on FS1) for Saturday’s on-track action at Auto Club Speedway ahead of Sunday’s Wise Power 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). To view the groups and order, click the printer icon above or click here to see the full order.

Posted on February 24, 2022February 24, 2022 by Staff Report

Two years ago at Auto Club Speedway, Alex Bowman was chasing job security. Now, the former midget racing prodigy is chasing history.

Facing an uncertain long-term future with Hendrick Motorsports upon arriving at the 2-mile tri-oval in 2020 for the Auto Club 400, Bowman led 110 laps en route to his second career NASCAR Cup Series win, after which he declared, “Hendrick Motorsports is where I want to be; where I want to stay for the rest of my career.”

Eleven weeks later, Bowman signed a deal with Hendrick through 2021 – then re-upped last summer for another two years – and now returns to Fontana, California, for the newly named Wise Power 400. After a race cancellation in 2021, he’s aiming to join Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch as the only back-to-back spring winners at the track. Bowman, however, is buried in race-winner odds at the BetMGM sportsbook, and is an underdog against William Byron in Featured Matchup odds.

Here’s a breakdown of Featured Matchup betting at the BetMGM sportsbook (odds and betting data as of Wednesday, Feb. 23):

Ryan Blaney (-200) vs. Austin Cindric (+165)

Ryan Blaney was “committed” to Penske teammate Austin Cindric at the Daytona 500 until he “was 100 percent sure” that one of the drivers would win on Roger Penske’s 85th birthday, Blaney said. And when the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series winner was 100 percent sure, he went for the checkered flag and his first win in the Daytona 500 after three top-10 finishes.

One week later, Blaney is still a seven-time winner thanks to Cindric’s block on the final lap, one Blaney admitted, “you’ve got to throw in that situation.” Now, Blaney returns to Fontana, where he also has three top-10 finishes and is favored to finish ahead of Cindric, though the public money isn’t behind Blaney.

As of Wednesday, despite receiving 60 percent of the ticket share in his Featured Matchup against Cindric, Blaney has only 40 percent of the handle. Prior to Sunday’s win, Cindric hadn’t finished ahead of Blaney in a Cup Series race in which they both started since the 2021 Daytona 500, a run of six races.

Chase Briscoe (-125) vs. Bubba Wallace (+105)

Bubba Wallace was happy with a second-place finish at Daytona in 2018. On Sunday, he called coming that close to a Daytona 500 win “a gut punch.” And he likely won’t respond with a win in California, the public is overwhelmingly predicting with their Featured Matchup betting.

While Wallace is receiving a modest 5 percent of the tickets – tied with Blaney for the fourth-highest among all drivers – to earn the second Cup Series win of his career, only 3 percent of the Featured Matchup tickets (and 2 percent of the handle) are on Wallace against Chase Briscoe. It’s the lowest head-to-head handle share of any driver this weekend.

Briscoe, meanwhile, is making his first Cup Series start at the Auto Club Speedway but is familiar with the low-banked, 75-foot wide track. He drove the No. 98 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300 in 2019 and 2020, finishing fifth and 19th, respectively.

Daniel Suarez (-120) vs. Erik Jones (+100)

The last time Daniel Suarez was in Fontana, he was driving the No. 96 Toyota for Gaunt Brothers and was two weeks removed from a failed Daytona 500 qualifying attempt – thanks to a crash on Lap 30 of the Bluegrass Vacations Duel 1 qualifying race. And, after four previous top-15 finishes at the Auto Club Speedway in the Xfinity Series (two) and Cup Series (two) – including a seventh-place run in 2017 – he finished 28th.

Suarez is now driving the No. 99 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing Team and one week removed from a career-best 18th-place finish at the Daytona 500. And he’s favored against Erik Jones, who posted a 10th-place finish here in 2020 when he was driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. He has yet to run this track with Petty GMS Motorsports.

Bettors are pounding Jones at the book; 95 percent of the handle and 96 percent of the ticket are on the 25-year-old Michigan native to top Suarez.

William Byron (-120) vs. Alex Bowman (+100)

Despite the nearly nine-second Auto Club win two years ago, Bowman is buried in race-winner odds (tied for eighth at +1200) and a Featured Matchup underdog to William Byron, who’s coming off a breakout season and has four top-15 finishes in four career races (three NASCAR Cup Series, one Xfinity Series) at the Auto Club Speedway.

Byron might get a fifth top-15 finish, but he’s not a popular pick to win, nor is he a popular pick to finish ahead of Bowman. Of the 15 drivers with winner odds of +5000 or better, Byron (+1000) has the lowest ticket (1 percent) and handle share (1.3 percent). And 91 percent of the handle is on Bowman in their Featured Matchup betting.

You can view updated Wise Power 400 odds and more NASCAR odds at the BetMGM sportsbook.

Posted on February 23, 2022February 23, 2022 by Staff Report

NASCAR penalized two Cup Series teams on Wednesday for losing wheels from their race cars during Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. The teams penalized were the No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, driven by Justin Haley, and the No. 50 The Money Team Racing Chevrolet, driven by Kaz Grala.

As a result of the safety violations by both teams, there were several suspensions announced. For the No. 31 team, crew chief Trent Owens and crew members Jacob Nelson (front changer) and Marshall McFadden (jackman) will miss the next four championship points events. And for the No. 50 team, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and crew members Chris Zima (jackman) and Aaron Powell (rear changer) will miss the next four championship events.

NASCAR, which did not issue further penalties to Team Penske and RFK Racing after confiscating wheels from both teams at Daytona, also released a statement in regards to a wheel specification change for Fontana.

The statement read: “NASCAR met with Next Gen suppliers and several race teams this week to discuss wheel specifications. Following that discussion, NASCAR made small adjustments to increase the upper tolerance on pin and pilot bores for Fontana. NASCAR will reevaluate with suppliers and race teams and determine a path forward following this weekend’s race.”

The penalties to the cars that lost wheels were referenced under Sections 10.5.2.6 of the NASCAR Rule Book: Loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle with the note: Loss of tire/wheel during the event.

Grala went on to finish in 26th place in the Daytona 500, while Haley finished 23rd. The Cup Series is back on track this weekend at Auto Club Speedway for Sunday’s Wise Power 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).