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Posted on February 26, 2022February 26, 2022 by Pat DeCola

Stewart-Haas Racing finally saw one of its drivers other than Kevin Harvick land in the top five of a NASCAR Cup Series race last year at Nashville Superspeedway — on June 20.

It’s a small encapsulation of the season-long drawdown in performance from what we’ve come to expect from the powerhouse Ford organization owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, who has seen a pair of championships under his watch since breaking into the ownership ranks in 2009.

This year? The team has already accomplished the feat twice, just one race in.

Sophomore Chase Briscoe piloted Stewart’s former No. 14 to a career-best third-place finish in last Sunday’s Daytona 500, followed closely behind by teammate Aric Almirola in fifth.

An SHR resurgence was on everyone’s “to watch” lists entering the season, but is it possible a rebound is here already?

“I feel really good, but we always do at this time of year,” Almirola said Saturday morning at Auto Club Speedway, site of Sunday’s Wise Power 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, Sirius XM). “There is so much optimism starting the year. Nobody starts out the year going, ‘Man, we are going to be terrible this year.’ You don’t think that or feel that way until you realize it and usually, it is too late and you are scrambling and trying to figure out how to turn the ship around and that takes time. I feel good about it.”

RELATED: Auto Club weekend schedule | Fontana 101

While Daytona results can sometimes be a mixed bag and not the truest test of a team’s capabilities, there are plenty of reasons for Almirola and Co. to feel good.

The No. 10 driver announced before the season he’d be hanging up the full-time fire suit to spend more time with his family. Almirola isn’t the type to just ride things out and accept his track retirement gifts on a weekly basis — expect the team’s only 2021 winner to be grinding out each race and competing for wins if his car performance is there. He’ll be doing so with a new but familiar crew chief in 2021 Daytona 500 winner Drew Blickensderfer, who worked with Almirola at Richard Petty Motorsports in 2017.

The change atop the box is part of a shakeup the team announced last month, seeing former No. 10 pit boss and longtime SHR employee Mike Bugarewicz promoted to a newly formed performance director role overseeing all four cars.

The full impact of the move can’t be fully measured with just one 2022 race under our belts, but it’s one that Almirola expects to pay tremendous dividends. After all, Bugarewicz has won with every driver he’s worked with, including his three-time champion owner.

MORE: SHR adds Blickensderfer; Bugarewicz promoted

“I feel like Mike Bugarewicz is one of the smartest individuals in this entire garage and I felt that way when he was my crew chief as well,” said Almirola. “Moving him to a more leadership position in the organization and allowing him to focus on our entire organization versus just one car is going to be hugely beneficial. Just even after Daytona we came back and had meetings at the shop and his insight and his recommendations and the things that he sees and just his work ethic is already proving beneficial for our entire organization.

“I think it is going to be a huge bonus for our team to have him in that role. On the flip side, I think Drew is a great team leader and a great crew chief and has a proven track record with a lot of success when he was at Roush and has been at teams that haven’t had as much resources as he has now at SHR. I think he is going to be a great addition to our organization.”

Consider also that Briscoe is just two seasons removed from a nine-win Xfinity Series campaign and appears primed for a ’22 breakout, No. 41 driver Cole Custer is still just 24 and has proven himself to be a Cup Series winner, and SHR’s outlook across the board isn’t just encouraging after a perceived down year, there’s actually very little to be concerned about whatsoever.

And then, of course, there’s the 2014 champ Harvick — whose winless ’21 after a nine-win ’20 season of his own was the spotlight of so much attention last year. Yet, when all was said and done, he finished in the same spot in the standings as the year before, with an average finish (10.9) two full positions higher than in his title campaign (12.9).

Thus, perhaps 2022 isn’t quite a “rebound” at all.

“I think for our team (2021) was probably our best year that we have had; last year, working through all the things that we did and wound up in the same spot we did winning nine races the year before,” Harvick said Saturday in his native California. ” … We are going to do the exact same thing that we have done for the last eight years. Last year is irrelevant. There is nothing to take from last year. It is all so much different. We could have a good week or a bad week and last week is irrelevant, too. It is no different.

“In the end, you look at the box score and we finished fifth in the points both years. Top 10s, top fives we were about the same. We just didn’t get to Victory Lane but we had our chances to win a few of them and didn’t get to Victory Lane. It is just the way this works.”

In other words, there was nothing quite amiss last year; just a team on the wrong side of in-race circumstances more often than not, and in racing sometimes them’s the breaks.

But now there’s one extra brain in the shop fully focused on orchestrating and spreading his knowledge throughout all four corners of its Kannapolis, North Carolina, shop as everyone continues to learn the intricacies of the new Next Gen racer.

“I think obviously Mike Bugarewicz is going to be a big key in the whole process and trying to speed that up and implement things and get the information to the crew chiefs and do the things that we need to do there,” said Harvick. “He has a great relationship with all the guys on the shop floor from his crew chief role and doing the things that he did. … I can’t speak for the others and what they think but I can speak on what I think of Mike and his position is ultra-important because the process that we are going to go through with these cars as we go to these race tracks is going to be pretty rapid as far as the evolution of the car and understanding everything that comes with the car.

“Right now it is just a guess. It is a very well-educated guess but you truly have no idea until you put all the cars on the race track.”

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

Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric kept his momentum rolling, securing the Busch Light Pole Award on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway as the NASCAR Cup Series debuted its new practice and qualifying format for intermediate tracks for the 2022 season.

Cindric clocked a clinching best lap of 174.647 mph in the final round of qualifying in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford. It marked his first pole this season and the first of his Cup Series career.

“Pretty dramatic. I thought my lap wasn’t going to stand,” said Cindric, who notched his first Cup Series win last weekend in the Great American Race. “I thought my (turns) one and two was money, but my three and four were a bit conservative mostly because my one and two was money. I didn’t talk myself into going deep like I wanted to in three. Anyway, just an awesome couple of days and an awesome way to start things out, but I don’t think it guarantees anything for the race but is certainly a lot of fun to be able to go through that.”

Erik Jones was second-fastest at 174.157 mph in the No. 43 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet, grabbing the other front-row starting spot for Sunday’s Wise Power 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’s Jones’ best starting position since a second-fastest qualifying effort at Texas Motor Speedway in November 2019.

Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Daniel Hemric finished out the top five in that order.

Different practice and qualifying formats were used at the Busch Light Clash exhibition in Los Angeles and in the season-opening Daytona 500. For Auto Club, the 36-car field was divided into two groups (A and B) for 15 minutes of practice/warm-up each, then for single-lap qualifying. The fastest five from each qualifying group advanced to the last round, where Cindric topped the 10 finalists.

Brad Keselowski made the final 10 but spun exiting Turn 2 during his qualifying lap. He did not make contact with the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, but the car was towed back to the garage area. Joey Logano was the next finalist to qualify, but he lost control and scrubbed the Turn 4 wall with the No. 22 Team Penske Ford during his lap. Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott suffered nearly the same fate during their final-round laps, but both managed to avoid contact.

In the opening round, Logano (174.090 mph) was fastest in Group A, and Elliott (174.855 mph) sat atop Group B.

Kurt Busch did not participate in time trials after his 23XI Racing No. 45 Toyota failed pre-qualifying inspection three times. The team will start at the back of the pack, and Busch will have to serve a pass-through penalty at its soonest opportunity after the green flag. Additionally, No. 45 car chief David Bryant was ejected.

Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace also did not register speeds in qualifying after incidents during practice.

Alex Bowman, the most recent Cup Series winner at the 2-mile California track, was 14th-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.

Hamlin, Reddick top incident-filled practice sessions

Denny Hamlin (173.415 mph) bested the Group A session, and Tyler Reddick (172.472 mph) was fastest in Group B – third overall.

The practice sessions were eventful from the start, with the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Kevin Harvick spinning and backing into the Turn 4 retaining wall just two minutes into the Group A session.

“I wasn’t even hardly in the throttle,” Harvick radioed his No. 4 crew after skidding to a stop. His car was towed back to the garage with significant rear-end damage.

Two minutes later, Ross Chastain crashed hard in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet in Turn 4, almost simultaneously while Chris Buescher looped the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford behind him in Turn 3. Christopher Bell capped the first 15-minute session with another Turn 4 spin in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

MORE: Kevin Harvick spins, hits wall in practice | Hard hit in practice for Ross Chastain

Bubba Wallace scraped the outside wall in Turn 1 nearly four minutes into Group B, causing minor right-rear damage to the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota.

The on-track activity was the first for the NASCAR Cup Series at Auto Club Speedway since 2020. COVID-19 concerns nixed last year’s scheduled event, which was reassigned to the Daytona International Speedway road course.

Posted on February 26, 2022April 14, 2023 by NASCAR Foundation Release

Daytona Beach, FL (February 26, 2022) – The NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Fun Day Festival powered by Kaulig Racing kicked off the season on Friday, February 25 at Auto Club Speedway. This season, the partnership between the Foundation and Matt Kaulig’s multi-car NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series organization expands to nine race markets, bringing healthy living programming to children across the country.

The NASCAR Foundation

The NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Fun Day Festival powered by Kaulig Racing will bring the sport of NASCAR to life for kids ages 7 – 12 through a specialized curriculum and a NASCAR-themed at-track festival before NASCAR race weekends at Auto Club Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, Darlington Raceway, World Wide Technology Raceway, Pocono Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, Daytona International Speedway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“The Speediatrics Fun Day Festival has continued to grow over the last six years into a meaningful program that introduces kids to the sport of NASCAR while inspiring them to live a healthy lifestyle,” said Mike Helton, NASCAR Foundation Chairman. “Thanks to Matt Kaulig and Kaulig Racing, we’re able to elevate our efforts with this program to a level that will provide even more momentum for future growth.”

As part of the partnership, and to enhance the curriculum provided to the Foundation’s community partners, Kaulig Media has produced six new videos featuring Kaulig, members of his race team — including NASCAR Cup Series driver Justin Haley — Motor Racing Network reporter Kim Coon and Executive Director of The NASCAR Foundation Nichole Krieger. The videos complement an activity book provided to participants and introduces them to healthy living concepts through the sport of NASCAR. The week-long program leads up to the main event the Speediatrics Fun Day Festival happening on track property.

“We are proud to team up with The NASCAR Foundation again and help provide an influential program for kids who are impacted by the Foundation’s Speediatrics Children’s Fund,” said Matt Kaulig, team owner of Kaulig Racing and founder of Kaulig Giving. “Our partnership with The NASCAR Foundation is a natural fit for us as both of our organizations look to improve lives beyond the track. We look forward to continuing to impact local communities by helping children live a healthier lifestyle and provide them with new opportunities.”

The partnership between The NASCAR Foundation and Kaulig Racing is facilitated by Kaulig Giving, the philanthropic arm of Kaulig Companies. As Kaulig’s community impact organization, Kaulig Giving supports the well-being of children and families and develops partnerships with like-minded nonprofits, especially in Northeast Ohio.

The NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Fun Day Festival powered Kaulig Racing is a program of the Foundation’s Speediatrics Children’s Fund, which supports needs expressed by hospitals, specialty clinics, camps and other organizations providing children’s medical and healthcare services.

Since 2017, The NASCAR Foundation has encouraged nearly 3,500 children to live a healthy lifestyle through the Speediatrics Fun Day Festival program. In addition, the Foundation also provides a charitable donation to the community partner in each market to help support ongoing healthy living programs long after the festival is over.

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.