An unpredictable race at Auto Club Speedway ended up with a predictable winner.
Pre-race favorite and 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson held off Austin Dillon in the final two laps of the race as Chevrolet cars ended up sweeping the top four spots.
Larson had the lead on the race's final restart with five laps to go after Chase Elliott spun with less than 10 laps to go. Elliott's spin came from damage after he hit the wall while racing for the lead with Larson and Joey Logano. Larson moved to the outside to pass Logano and said he was unaware that Elliott had made a move to his outside. That pushed Elliott into the wall and ruined his chances at the win.
LARSON PUTS CHASE IN THE WALL! pic.twitter.com/aXUfQUCtCc
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 28, 2022
Larson briefly lost the lead to Daniel Suarez after the race's final restart but grabbed it back with two laps to go as Dillon swooped past Suarez for second. Erik Jones then passed Suarez for third while Logano finished fifth.
"There were definitely some guys that were quicker than us but they had their misfortunes," Larson said after getting out of the car.
Misfortune may be an understatement. The race featured 12 cautions and 10 of them were either for crashes or spins.
Wreckers off of Turn 2! pic.twitter.com/CfXE1s74Np
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 27, 2022
Tyler Reddick wins first 2 stages, has flat tire
Tyler Reddick led 90 laps and had the car to beat for most of the race but his chances at a win disappeared with 50 laps to go. Reddick got a flat left-rear tire entering Turn 1 and was able to keep the car off the wall through Turns 1 and 2. But William Byron hit him as Byron passed him exiting Turn 2. The damage from the wreck ended Byron’s day and and ended up relegating Reddick to a 24th-place finish.
Two strong cars see their day go up in smoke at @AutoClubSpdwy.@TylerReddick | @WilliamByronpic.twitter.com/XT8CsIFhgH
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 27, 2022
He wasn’t the only driver who led laps and ended up far away from the top five at the end of the race. Elliott had a fast car and led 12 laps but ended up 26th after the spin. His contact with Larson was the second time he had hit the wall and ended up spinning. He first spun on lap 37 and caused the race’s second caution.
Byron led four times for 16 laps while Chase Briscoe finished 16th after leading 20 of the race’s 200 laps. His chances for a win were essentially extinguished when he was the only driver to stay out on the track after a caution for Ross Chastain’s spin on lap 171.
Kyle Busch finishes 14th after early spin
Kyle Busch got multiple laps back after early troubles and ended up getting a top-15 finish by the end of the race. Busch got five laps back through cautions after he spun on lap 14 and had to come to pit road later in the race because of a flat tire.
The entire Joe Gibbs Racing team struggled at California with various issues. Martin Truex Jr. finished 13th, Denny Hamlin was 15th and Christopher Bell ended up 36th and last after he spun on lap 90 and had engine issues.
Drivers could pass!
The first race at Auto Club Speedway since 2020 was a refreshing reminder of what a NASCAR race is like with drivers pushing hard in cars that are on the edge of grip. Sunday was the first intermediate track race for NASCAR’s brand-new 2022 car and that newness was undoubtedly a big reason for all the crashes and spins throughout the race.
Drivers and teams are still trying to figure out the intricacies of the cars and just how hard they can be pushed in the corners. And that was fun to watch, even if the race dragged on for more than three hours.
It was also nice to see a Cup Series race at a bigger track where drivers were able to pass each other with relative ease. The increased horsepower to downforce ratio compared to previous seasons led to passing throughout the field.
Teams will undoubtedly figure out how to make the cars more stable and the crashfest that happened on Sunday likely won’t be replicated on a regular basis the rest of the season. But the race was a promising sign for the new Cup Series car and potential proof that drivers simply won’t get stuck in dirty air behind other cars when they lose track position.
Flat tires still a big problem
The new car still has a massive flaw, however. Much like at Daytona, cars kept getting stuck when one or more tires went flat. A car shouldn’t be underivable after a flat tire, but these cars’ underbody components are so low to the ground that many drivers who would normally be able to get their cars back to pit lane were unable to get them to budge after a spin or crash.
NASCAR is aware of the issue and working on a potential fix to at least hurry up the process of getting a car with flat tires back to the pits. And that’s a welcome development. But it also doesn’t explain how NASCAR and its car designers totally overlooked the possibility of flat tires making cars unmovable in the first place.
Race results
1. Kyle Larson
2. Austin Dillon
3. Erik Jones
4. Daniel Suarez
5. Joey Logano
6. Aric Almirola
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Kurt Busch
9. Daniel Hemric
10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
11. Cole Custer
12. Austin Cindric
13. Martin Truex Jr.
14. Kyle Busch
15. Denny Hamlin
16. Chase Briscoe
17. Ty Dillon
18. Ryan Blaney
19. Bubba Wallace
20. Todd Gilliland
21. Garrett Smithley
22. BJ McLeod
23. Justin Haley
24. Tyler Reddick
25. Alex Bowman
26. Chase Elliott
27. Brad Keselowski
28. Corey LaJoie
29. Ross Chastain
30. Josh Bilicki
31. Michael McDowell
32. Cody Ware
33. Harrison Burton
34. William Byron
35. Chris Buescher
26. Christopher Bell
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