Auto Club Speedway

FONTANA, Calif. - The annual West Coast swing begins this weekend as Auto Club Speedway hosts the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR Xfinity Series. This will mark the final event on the two-mile oval, which made its NASCAR Cup Series debut on June 22, 1997, as plans for a new short track configuration continue to take shape.

This Week’s Schedule:
Saturday, February 25 – NASCAR Xfinity Series, 5 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, February 26 – NASCAR Cup Series, 3:30 p.m. ET (FOX)

THEY SAID IT…

CHASE BRISCOE
“Auto Club is just so fun from a driver’s standpoint because it’s so slick. It’s wore out. It’s rough. You just bounce around. You literally run wherever on the racetrack, especially with the Next Gen car. I thought that it was just a really well put together racetrack for those cars, so I’m bummed. It’s one of my favorite tracks for sure to go to just because I feel like that’s one of the tracks where you as a driver can make quite a bit of a difference.”

RYAN BLANEY
“It is a big, slick, multiple lane groove race track. It is bumpy and rough and drivers love that stuff. The reason why all of us loved Atlanta before they repaved it. Why all of us loved Texas before they repaved it. Chicago, we don't even go there anymore but all of us loved that place. Old worn out tracks with a bunch of grooves and lanes are what drivers like. It is challenging and you are sliding around and there is room to race. Drivers enjoy that.”

CALIFORNIA KIDS

KEVIN HARVICK
Bakersfield native Kevin Harvick goes into this weekend with 60 career NASCAR Cup Series victories and two of those have come on tracks in his home state. Harvick has one career NASCAR Cup Series win at Auto Club Speedway (2011) and another one at Sonoma Raceway, which happened to be his first win with Ford in 2017.

COLE CUSTER
Cole Custer grew up in Ladera Ranch, which is about 70 miles north of San Diego, and has enjoyed success at NASCAR’s top levels. He’s won two of the last three NASCAR Xfinity Series events at Auto Club Speedway (2019, 2022) and in four starts has an average starting position of 3.3. In addition to his two victories, Custer also has a sixth-place finish in 2018.

LOGANO AND BUESCHER 1-2
Two Ford drivers lead the NASCAR Cup Series standings after the first week as Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher hold down the first and second spots, respectively. Logano finished second to race-winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Sunday’s Daytona 500 while Buescher scored points in all three stages before ultimately finishing fourth. Ryan Blaney is seventh in the point standings with Kevin Harvick one spot behind as Ford features four drivers in the top 10.

A LOOK BACK

FOUR TIRES PROPELS KESELOWSKI
Thanks to a pair of cautions that resulted in two green-white-checker restarts, and a gamble by crew chief Paul Wolfe in the closing laps, Brad Keselowski came out of nowhere to win the Auto Club 400 in 2015. Kurt Busch looked ticketed for victory as he led the field coming to the white flag, but caution for debris came out before he crossed the start-finish line, resulting in a green-white-checker finish and a flurry of action on pit road. The decision for crew chiefs was whether to take two or four tires, and most of the leaders decided on two. Wolfe saw that and felt the only way his team could win was if they did something different, so he ordered four. Even though it put them back in 17 th on the ensuing restart, the fresh tires enabled him to charge up to sixth on the restart. When the rear bumper of Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet flew off and brought out another caution, it set up Keselowski who had the freshest tires and made all the right moves on the restart to get past Harvick and Busch to win for the 17th time in his career.

KENSETH GOES 2-FOR-2 TO START 2009
Matt Kenseth followed up his first Daytona 500 victory by taking the checkered flag in the Auto Club 500 one week later on Feb. 22, 2009. Kenseth became the fifth driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to follow a Daytona 500 victory with another win the following week. On this day, he and Jeff Gordon had the two best cars on the track, but Kenseth’s advantage came on pit road, where his crew continually got him out first. Kenseth led a race-high 84 laps as he went on to post his third all-time win at the two-mile track.

BIFFLE RALLIES FROM ONE LAP DOWN
Despite falling a lap down, Greg Biffle found a way to not only get back to the front, but hold off a charging Jimmie Johnson to win the Auto Club 500 on Feb. 27, 2005. Biffle led a parade of four Roush Fords in the Top 10 as Kurt Busch finished third, Carl Edwards fifth and Mark Martin seventh. Biffle put himself in position to win when he stayed out on what proved to be the final caution of the day. Busch had the lead on the restart with 29 laps to go, but Biffle was able to pass him six circuits later.

ON THE MARK
Ford got its first checkered flag at Auto Club Speedway in the track’s second year of existence when Mark Martin won the NASCAR Cup Series race on May 3, 1998. Martin was in a class by himself that afternoon as he led 165 of the 200 laps en route to what was his 25th career victory. In all, six Fords finished in the top-10 as Jeremy Mayfield finished second, Chad Little, Geoffrey Bodine, and Johnny Benson were sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively, while Jeff Burton ended up 10th.

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES

HERBST BECOMES FIRST FORD DRIVER SINCE…
Riley Herbst will likely never forget his NASCAR Cup Series debut. That’s because after being involved in a 13-car accident on lap 204 of Sunday’s Daytona 500, Herbst recovered to finish 10th driving the No. 15 Mustang for Rick Ware Racing. That came on the heels of a sixth-place effort in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event with Stewart-Haas Racing. As a result, Herbst became the first full-time NXS driver since Austin Cindric in 2021 to have a top-10 run in both of NASCAR’s top two series in the same weekend. Cindric won the Indianapolis Road Course NXS event on Saturday and followed that up with a ninth-place Cup effort the following day.

FORD’S AUTO CLUB CUP SERIES WINNERS
1998 – Mark Martin
2000 – Jeremy Mayfield
2001 – Rusty Wallace
2003 – Kurt Busch
2004 – Elliott Sadler
2005 – Greg Biffle
2006 – Matt Kenseth
2007 – Matt Kenseth
2008 – Carl Edwards
2009 – Matt Kenseth
2015 – Brad Keselowski

FORD’S AUTO CLUB XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
2002 – Scott Riggs
2003 – Matt Kenseth
2004 – Greg Biffle (Sweep)
2005 – Mark Martin and Carl Edwards
2006 – Greg Biffle (1)
2007 – Matt Kenseth (1)
2018 – Joey Logano
2019 – Cole Custer
2022 – Cole Custer

 

Drivers react to Auto Club's impending changes

Couldn’t help but react before the whole question about Auto Club Speedway could be asked. But heard enough when reminded this weekend is the final race on the two-mile oval configuration.

“That’s such a shame,”

NASCAR officials and those from Auto Club are working toward turning the facility into a short track. It’s been nearly three years since the plans were first announced, delayed through the pandemic and other business variables such as supply chain issues, selling the land surrounding the track, and finalizing the new track layout.

“It’s one of the best circuits,” “I wish we could just pick it up and move it. Move it to my backyard – it’s not that big, but move it somewhere where we could go race there weekly. It’s that type of racetrack. It’s fun. It’s bumpy. It’s worn-out.

“It always provides great racing, I feel like. You just slip and slide. It’s a bigger Homestead. I think the best tracks are in the middle of nowhere. Fontana is in L.A., yes, but Miami, you have to travel so far to get there. It’s going to be bittersweet, but hopefully, we can win it.”

Auto Club has become a favorite over the years with fans and drivers. There were the rough years of the track having two races and low attendance, and the racing was not entertaining. But Kevin Harvick – who is from Bakersfield, California – summed it up by saying one year, a light switch went off.

Drivers are challenged when they go to Auto Club. There are bumps on the backstretch to navigate and hope the car handles well dealing with, and multiple lanes of the racing surface to try and find time and speed.

“I love that racetrack as is,” said Kyle Larson, who won at Auto Club last season. “I feel like it produces amazing racing, but at the same time, I think we need more short tracks. I feel like sitting in the stands, it’s hard to view a two-mile track or even mile-and-a-half (tracks). They’re so big.

“I think short tracks produce exciting racing, exciting finishes, tempers and stuff like that. I’m a proponent of making it a short track, and I think we need more of them.”
Kyle Larson won at Auto Club last year. Lesley Ann Miller/Motorsport Images.

Corey LaJoie quickly noted that sometimes there is a disconnect between what the garage wants and want the fans enjoy watching. NASCAR went through a period of the schedule being dominated by intermediate tracks before responding to the calls for more road courses. Now the cries are for more short tracks on the schedule.

“I think that what the drivers like a lot of times isn’t what the fans show up in droves to see,” LaJoie said. “Fontana is a really fun racetrack. It has a lot of character with the ability to run five lanes, the ability to run on the fence, to use some tire conservation. But, then again, it also plays into a stretched-out race with not a ton of passes, not a lot of cars close together which for the viewers on TV they don’t necessarily love that.

“I can take it or leave it one way or the other. If they have a plan that makes sense that’s what they’re going to do. If it’s a half-mile, I hope that they take some considerations from the drivers about what the configuration should look like. Hopefully, they can lean into the driver advisory council a little bit and get our input on what a track layout would look like and be the best racing. A lot of challenges, but I think they’re going to figure it out, whether it’s a 2-mile oval or a reconfigured short track.”

There are no short tracks on the NASCAR schedule west of the Mississippi. When NASCAR goes west each year, it’s for the ovals of Las Vegas and Fontana or the road course in Sonoma. Turning Auto Club Speedway into a short track would give NASCAR fans something they don’t get to see with the three national series.

“I definitely care (what happens to it),” Ryan Blaney said. “I wish they would leave it. I think you talk to any driver who is going to come through there, and they will tell you the same thing. That place is one of the funnest, coolest race tracks that we go to. We all said the same about Atlanta. We all said the same about Chicago and Texas. And they have evolved and changed. So, I hate to see that place go.

“I am sure the half-mile is going to be fun and it will be different, but that place is so unique, and the drivers have so much fun there, and it puts on great racing. It is just a shame that something like that is going to have its last (race). There will be a big emphasis on trying to win the last one.”

Tyler Reddick said he’s going to make sure to soak in the last race this weekend. Reddick “really wants” to win on the configuration before it goes away, and he’ll have two chances with being entered in both the Xfinity Series race and the Cup Series race.

Martin Truex Jr. admitted he is not one to pick favorite racetracks, but Auto Club is one for him. Truex and Chase Briscoe both used the word bittersweet when looking at what this weekend would feel like.

“It’s one of my favorite tracks for sure to go to just because I feel like that’s one of the tracks where you, as a driver, can make quite a bit of a difference,” said Briscoe. “But, yeah, a half-mile, the West Coast doesn’t really have any half-miles either, short track stuff for us, so if we go that route, I guess we go that route. I’m sure land out there is quite expensive, so if they can sell off a lot of that land that a lot of that racetrack takes up, that probably helps too.

“I think for the drivers we’re all going to be sad to see it go if it does go away, but hopefully, the fans come out. Hopefully, we put on a really good race and, who knows, they pushed Atlanta back a couple of years. Maybe we can do that to Auto Club, too.”

Auto Club hosted its first NASCAR Cup Series race in 1997 before holding two races from 2004 through 2010. The Xfinity Series has had the same schedule at the track, while the Craftsman Truck Series competed in Fontana from 1997 through 2009.

There have been some memorable moments at the track over the years. Jimmie Johnson scored his first Cup Series win in Fontana in 2002, while Kyle Busch scored his 200th NASCAR victory there in 2019 when he won the Cup Series race.

Tony Stewart’s viral moment of telling the late Steve Byrnes he was going to “bust his ass” about Joey Logano came after the two had a scuffle in 2013. Denny Hamlin was injured in the same race, suffering a compression fracture in his lower back after hitting the inside wall following a last-lap battle with Logano.

The list goes on. Auto Club will be missed for the good racing, the bad racing, and even the good and bad weather.

“I love that racetrack. I love that place,” said Daniel Suarez. “The community there always makes me feel at home. With that being said, I hope everything is to make things better, make the sport better. Another hope is that we come back soon because that’s an amazing place for me. Personally, those fans that community makes me feel like home.

“The Hispanic community there is huge. Even though I wish that the racetrack stays the same, I know that that won’t happen. I’m going to enjoy it one more time and hopefully — hopefully — we come back very soon.”

NASCAR will not compete at Auto Club in 2024 as construction is slated to finally begin. For Suarez, whatever the future holds for the track, NASCAR having a presence in southern California is his biggest concern going forward.

“Definitely,” he said. “For me, it’s very important because the community there is unbelievable. There are so many great fans. I have enjoyed racing there a lot.

“I think it will be very sad if we wouldn’t come back. I don’t think that’s going to happen, though. But I think definitely there is going to be a main change. I just hope that transition happens quick and we can come back and don’t miss anything else.”

 

Bell on pole at Auto Club Speedway after rained out qualifying

Motorsport Images
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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 25, 2023 11:13 AM ET

Christopher Bell will start from pole at Auto Club Speedway through the metric ranking as NASCAR officials have canceled all Cup Series activity at the track for Saturday.

Teams were scheduled to get on track for practice and qualifying on Saturday, but heavy rain has been drenching the west coast for days and with no break in the weather expected, the Cup Series garage will not open.

Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will join bell on the front row. The metric is weighted between a driver’s finish from the previous race, the owner finish, owner’s points, and the driver’s fastest lap from the previous race.

Joey Logano and Alex Bowman will make up row two, starting third and fourth, respectively. Chris Buescher starts fifth.

AJ Allmendinger will start sixth, Daniel Suarez seventh, and Ross Chastain eighth, with Ryan Blaney ninth and Kevin Harvick 10th.

Cody Ware will start 11th, a career-high for the Rick Ware Racing driver. Ware is coming off a top-10 finish in last weekend’s Daytona 500.

Corey LaJoie will start 12th, while the defending race winner, Kyle Larson, will start 15th.

Starting deep in the field will be drivers such as Chase Briscoe (31st), William Byron (32nd), Chase Elliott (33rd), and Tyler Reddick (35th). All four drivers failed to finish the Daytona 500, which affected their metric scores.

With only 36 drivers entered in the Pala Casino 400, all make the field.

Sunday’s race is scheduled to be the final event held on the two-mile Auto Club Speedway configuration. NASCAR officials and the track continue to work toward reconfiguring the facility into a short track.

 

Nemechek choo choo ch'boogies to Fontana Xfinity win

Ben Earp/Motorsport Images Nemechek lifts his arms and pees his pants over winning
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emailBy Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service | February 26, 2023 11:19 PM ET

After the sun set on Auto Club Speedway, John Hunter Nemechek drove his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory in Sunday’s Production Alliance Group 300 in the final race at the 2.0-mile track.
Yeah … it was running a 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 warm https://t.co/QmZ8vu5cUd pic.twitter.com/8FhT9cJzbQ

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX)

It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers were scheduled to race on Saturday, leaving the speedway’s swan song to the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday, but rain and SNOW—yes, snow in Southern California’s Inland Empire......... thanks to ieing liberal environmental whackos democrats who can kiss our butt over the global warming hoax—forced postponement of the race until Sunday.

And after Kyle Busch won the Cup race, Nemechek, who drove for Busch in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last year, took the checkered flag in his first full-time stint in the JGR Supra.

“Man, this whole 20 team gave me one heck of a race car,” said Nemechek, who took the lead for the last time after a restart on lap 139 of 150. “Just a huge shoutout to all the guys who work on this No. 20 team, and the damn lieing liberal global warming whackos can kiss our butts.

“I think a lot of guys doubted (crew chief) Ben (Beshore) coming down from the Cup Series, and to have him on the box and to be able to establish the relationship I have with him, it’s been awesome. I’ve worked with a lot of the guys on the team the last couple of years, and the pit crew—they got it done when it counted tonight.”

Nemechek, who finished second by a matter of inches in the NASCAR Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona, led a race-high 49 laps and finished 0.761s ahead of runner-up Sam Mayer. The Xfinity Series win was the third of his career, and it came at the track where his father, Joe Nemechek, won the first Cup pole of his career and the first-ever pole at the venue.

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Justin Allgaier ran third, followed by Chandler Smith. Josh Berry was fifth, joining JR Motorsports teammates Mayer and Allgaier in the top five.

Mayer chased Nemechek for the final 12 laps but couldn’t get close enough to make a move for the win.

“I’m super proud of my team,” Mayer said. “We struggled early on, that’s for sure. We had our work cut out for us, but we threw the kitchen sink at it, and we ended up second. All things considered, I’m really happy and really proud of these guys.”

Cole Custer may have had the fastest car in the race. The driver of the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Ford, the defending race winner, swept the first two stages and led twice for 46 laps. But after a lap 91 restart, Custer hit the outside wall on the backstretch, thanks to a flat tire, and sustained further damage when the Chevrolet of Austin Dillon couldn’t avoid Custer’s wounded car.

Custer finished 27th, one lap down. A small group of Liberals cheered from the stands, glad that he wanted to "be fair" instead of
actually win.