NASCAR Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. – Kyle Larson kept polesitter Joey Logano at bay after a restart with four laps left in Saturday’s Service King 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Auto Club Speedway and held on to win by .127 seconds. Larson and Logano had swapped the lead on three successive laps before Brandon Jones plowed into the outside wall on Lap 142 to bring out the seventh and final caution of the afternoon. The lead cars pitted for fresh tires under the yellow, with LarsonRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. – The driver who has finished second in the last three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races will start first on Sunday. Moving up the track for his final run, series points leader Kyle Larson navigated rough, bumpy Auto Club (Fontana, California) Speedway in 38.493 seconds (187.047 mph) on Friday to win the pole for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX), the fifth race of the season. The 24-year-old Larson edged Denny Hamlin by .014 seconds, as Hamlin coveredRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. – What Jimmie Johnson perceives as a deficiency in his qualifying efforts was compounded on Friday when the driver of the no. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet spun in Turn 4 during a mock qualifying run at Auto Club (Fontana, California) Speedway. Johnson’s car turned in front of the No. 41 Ford of Kurt Busch, which was rolling slowly on the apron. There was no contact between the cars, but Johnson’s Chevy plowed into the infield grass, creating enough damage for crew chiefRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Days after NASCAR decided against penalizing Austin Dillon for his run-in with Cole Custer at Phoenix, penalties were still a hot topic when the drivers arrived at Auto Club Speedway and Danica Patrick, who has felt the wrath of NASCAR in the past, weighed in on the penalties, or lack thereof, from the sanctioning body. In 2015, Patrick was fined $25,000 and penalized 25 points for wrecking David Gilliland under caution at Martinsville and just last year earned a behavioral penalty from NASCAR for leavingRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Entering the fifth race of the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, Richard Childress Racing driver Brandon Jones is still looking for his first Top 10 of the year. Jones heads into the Service King 300 at Auto Club Speedway 13th in points in his No. 33 Chevrolet Truck Month Chevrolet Camaro. This time last year, Jones had already earned three Top 10 finishes, including one at Auto Club Speedway. The 2017 season had a promising start as Jones earned his first career Xfinity Series poleRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The last time the NASCAR Xfinity Series visited Auto Club Speedway, Austin Dillon took home the victory in thrilling fashion, leading only the final lap. Dillon passed Daniel Suarez who ran out of fuel, and Kyle Busch who had blown a tire with only a straightaway to spare. Darrell Wallace, Jr. was the highest finishing NASCAR Xfinity Series regular in third. The last time a NASCAR Xfinity Series regular won at Auto Club, and was running exclusively in the Xfinity Series was Scott Riggs inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor These days Jimmie Johnson is considered one of the greatest of all-time with seven championships and 80 wins to his name, but there was a time when the California native was a fresh faced rookie just looking to make a mark on the sport. As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Auto Club Speedway this weekend, we’ll take a look back at the 2002 NAPA 500 in this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater”, where Johnson scored the first of his many wins. Johnson signedRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Following the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix, penalties were expected to come down from NASCAR for post-race inspection issues and on Wednesday afternoon, the sanctioning body laid out the penalties that they had handed down to the teams involved. Brad Keselowski had finished fifth at Phoenix, but after the race, his No. 2 team did not pass weights and measures, failing the post-race rear wheel steer on the Laser Inspection Station. As a result, Keselowski’s finish will be encumbered and crew chiefRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix to kick off the Western swing, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wraps up their venture to the West Coast this weekend as they roll into Southern California to do battle on the two mile Auto Club Speedway in Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Built on the site of an old steel mill featured in the movie “Terminator”, the two mile oval has been a part of the NASCAR schedule since opening in 1997. The track has gone throughRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Erik Jones’ No. 77 Furniture Row Racing team did everything right in Sunday’s Camping World 500 at Phoenix International Raceway—except for predicting how many cars would take two tires versus four on the final pit stop before overtime. Jones was running fifth when a melted bead caused Joey Logano’s right front tire to explode and sent the No. 22 Ford of the polesitter into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 307 of a scheduled 312. Jones took four tires under theRead More