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NASCAR: Larson holds off Dillon to win Wise Power 400

Posted by AR1 staff

Checkered flag. New Car. New Year. Same Kyle.

Kyle Larson out dueled Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez and Joey Logano on the final restart with 4 laps to go to win the Wise Power 400 NASCAR Cup race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.

The lead changed hand 3 times in the final 4 laps with America’s best driver Larson taking the lead from Daniel Suarez with 2 laps to go with a daring inside dive.

The reigning Cup champion Larson crossed the line 0.195s ahead of Dillon in his home state, his 2nd straight win at Fontana.

Kyle Larson wins Wise Power 400 with a daring pass down on the apron with 2 laps to go

It was Larson’s 17th Cup win, and he did it leading a Chevy 1-2-3-4 leading 28 laps.  Tyler Reddick led the most laps at 80, but blew a Goodyear tire and crashed.

Larson appeared headed to an easy win with 10 laps to go with a 2.2s lead and pulling away from 2nd place Joey Logano. But a late caution saw all the leaders head to the pits with four new tires and Larson lost the lead on the restart in the draft but came back to win.

In a race that featured 12 cautions for 59 laps, Larson, who started from the rear of the field because of unapproved adjustments to his Camaro, took the lead from Joey Logano on Lap 167 of 200 and held it for 27 of the final 34 circuits on the way to the victory.

Before a full house, Five-Wide on the pace lap. Photo Getty Images for NASCAR

That was after the dominant car of Tyler Reddick suffered a flat left rear tire while leading on Lap 152, and in the aftermath of that incident was collected by the sliding car of William Byron.

Reddick had led 90 laps to that point—17 more than in his first 75 Cup starts combined—and had won the first and second stages in convincing fashion.

Larson, however, outlasted arguably stronger cars and was in position to win at the end of the race.

“It’s always fun to win here in the home state,” said the Elk Grove, Calif., native Kyle Larson. “There were definitely some guys who were quicker than us, but they had their misfortunes.

“Just kept our heads in it all day—long race. Restarts were crazy. The whole runs were crazy. So definitely wild, but cool to get a win here in California and hope we get on a little streak.”

Larson’s victory came at the expense of teammate Chase Elliott, who fell two laps down after scraping the wall on Lap 33 and spinning off Turn 2 five laps later.

As the beneficiary under two cautions, Elliott regained the lead lap, drove through the field and was battling Larson and Logano for the lead when Larson shot up the track and pinched Elliott’s Chevrolet into the outside wall. Larson said on his radio that he didn’t know Elliott was there.

It was Elliott who spun on Lap 192 to cause the final caution and set up a dramatic four-lap sprint to the finish that saw Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez briefly wrestle the lead from Larson, thanks to a push from Petty GMS Motorsport’s Erik Jones. But Larson regained the lead off Turn 4 with just over two laps left and held it the rest of the way.

In a testament to the relative parity achieved by NASCAR’s new Next Gen race car—admittedly with a small sample size so far—nine different Cup organizations finished in the top 10 at Fontana.

One of those was the Trackhouse Racing team of Suarez, who rolled home fourth behind the Chevrolets of Larson, Dillon and Jones.

“We’re going to win a few races very soon here,” Suarez said. “I just can’t thank everyone enough on my team. We had a fast car, but we went through a lot of adversity. We had a few issues. We hit the wall once. We had an issue with a diffuser. My pit crew, those guys are legends, it’s unbelievable.

“It’s the best pit crew I’ve ever had, and it’s a lot of fun to race like that. The Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, everyone who helps Trackhouse out, to be able to be here and perform this way… I can tell you that I’m going to work very, very hard to go to Victory Lane very, very soon here.”

Logano ran fifth, followed by Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch (who started from the rear and served a pass-through penalty to start the race because of three inspection failures). Daniel Hemric and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10.

Polesitter and Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric finished 12th after suffering damage in a four-car accident involving Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton on Lap 158.

Larson, who won 10 races last year in his first season at Hendrick Motorsports, led four times for 28 laps, second only to Reddick’s 90. All told, there were 32 lead changes among nine drivers in an event in which radical shuffling of the running order was commonplace.

Spanning back to last year, Larson has won 5 of the last 7 races in the NASCAR Cup Series.  That does not happen very often.

Winner Post-Race Quote

Kyle, it doesn’t matter the car, it doesn’t matter the track, you just get in it, you go fast. Your second career victory at California Speedway.

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, thanks. It’s always fun here to win in the home state. Hard work all weekend there. Didn’t feel great in practice yesterday.

Cliff and everybody made some good adjustments overnight, and the car handled a lot better. There was definitely some guys that were quicker than us, but they had their misfortunes. Just kept our heads in it all day. Long race. Just restarts were crazy. The whole runs were crazy.

Definitely wild but cool to get a win here in California and hopefully get on a little streak.

Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, and crew chief Cliff Daniels celebrates in the Ruoff Mortgage victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway on February 27, 2022 in Fontana, California. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Race Results

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME

Average Speed of Race Winner:  114.222 mph.

Time of Race:  3 Hrs, 3 Mins, 7 Secs. Margin of Victory:  .195 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  12 for 59 laps.

Lead Changes:  32 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   A. Cindric # 0;E. Jones 1-10;T. Reddick 11-15;E. Jones 16;T. Reddick 17-22;C. Elliott 23-34;T. Reddick 35-38;W. Byron 39;T. Reddick 40-53;W. Byron 54;K. Harvick 55;T. Reddick 56-67;E. Jones 68;T. Reddick 69-73;K. Larson 74;C. Briscoe 75-91;W. Byron 92;T. Reddick 93-99;W. Byron 100-112;T. Reddick 113-121;E. Jones 122;T. Reddick 123-132;E. Jones 133;T. Reddick 134-151;E. Jones 152-155;J. Logano 156-166;K. Larson 167-174;R. Blaney 175;C. Briscoe 176-178;J. Logano 179-180;K. Larson 181-192;J. Logano 193;K. Larson 194-200.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Tyler Reddick 10 times for 90 laps; Kyle Larson 4 times for 28 laps; Chase Briscoe 2 times for 20 laps; Erik Jones 6 times for 18 laps; William Byron 4 times for 16 laps; Joey Logano 3 times for 14 laps; Chase Elliott 1 time for 12 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 1 lap; Kevin Harvick 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 8,43,24,14,5,48,22,12,2,47

Stage #2 Top Ten: 8,43,22,12,5,41,2,10,24,11