{"id":37199,"date":"2022-02-26T17:08:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T23:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=37199"},"modified":"2022-02-26T17:08:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T23:08:39","slug":"nascar-saturday-auto-club-speedway-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/26\/nascar-saturday-auto-club-speedway-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Auto Club Speedway Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric stays on top with Fontana pole<\/b><\/p>\n

In a qualifying session that should have merited hazard pay for the 10 final-round drivers, Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric backed up his victory in the Great American Race with a pole-winning run on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Menards\/Quaker State Ford, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway on February 26, 2022 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Cindric will start where he finished the 500 in Sunday\u2019s Wise Power 400 NASCAR Cup Series event at the 2-mile track (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford posted a lap in 41.226 seconds (174.647 mph) to score the first pole of his Cup career six days after claiming his first win.<\/p>\n

The last driver to attempt a lap, Chase Elliott, tested the apron in Turn 3 and spun in Turn 4, posting no time. As a result, Erik Jones will start second after a lap in 41.342 seconds (174.157 mph).<\/p>\n

In a session that featured two groups of 18 drivers each in Round 1, with the five fastest drivers from each group advancing to the final round, four-time Fontana winner Kyle Busch qualified third, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway on February 26, 2022 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a challenging race track, and, obviously, a lot of newness for everybody,\u201d Cindric said while waiting for Elliott to run his qualifying lap. \u201cOverall, it\u2019s been an awesome week for me, and I\u2019m honestly real happy to get back to work and figuring out this process. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you the last time I\u2019ve had to talk myself into doing a lap like that for quite a while. There are so many unknowns. Everybody\u2019s constantly learning. I think we\u2019ll be halfway through the race until anyone knows what they really have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliott wasn\u2019t the only casualty in the final round. Joey Logano, who was fastest in Group A in Round 1, also tried the apron and smacked the outside wall at the exit of Turn 4. Brad Keselowski and William Byron also spun during their money laps but kept their cars off the wall.<\/p>\n

Daniel Hemric and Ryan Blaney will occupy the third row for the start of Sunday\u2019s race, with Logano, Elliott, Keselowski and Byron sixth through 10th on the grid, respectively.<\/p>\n

Reigning series champion Kyle Larson starts 13th after failing to advance to the final round, and 2020 race winner Alex Bowman will take the green flag from 14th. There was no event at Auto Club Speedway in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Note: Bubba Wallace, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick and Ross Chastain did not post qualifying times and will start from the bottom six positions in the 36-car field. Busch\u2019s No. 45 Toyota failed inspection three times and was not allowed to qualify; Almirola spun on his Round 1 qualifying lap; and the other four drivers wrecked during practice.<\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick\u2019s car spins into wall on first lap of practice<\/b><\/p>\n

In the first 15-minute practice session of 2022, Kevin Harvick stopped the clock early in the session when his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford snapped loose in Turn 4 on the first lap of practice and backed into the outside wall.<\/p>\n

As soon as practice resumed, Ross Chastain\u2019s Chevrolet jumped out of control near the same spot where Harvick wrecked and slammed nose-first into the outside SAFER barrier. Behind Chastain, the Ford of Chris Buescher slid sideways but avoided a collision with the wall.<\/p>\n

With inventories of backup cars spread thin, it was not an auspicious start to the Cup weekend. Stewart-Haas had one backup for its entire four-car organization and rolled it out for Harvick. The primary car was towed to the garage, rendering Harvick ineligible to participate in time trials.<\/p>\n

But Harvick has faced adversity before. In 2020, he won a NASCAR Cup Series-best nine races. Last season he won none. In both years, however, he made the Playoff and finished fifth in the final standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year is irrelevant,\u201d Harvick said during a question-and-answer session with reporters before practice. \u201cThere is nothing to take from last year. It\u2019s all so much different. We could have a good week or a bad week, and last week is irrelevant, too. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no different. In the end, you look at the box score, and we finished fifth in the points both years. Top-10s, top-fives\u2014we were about the same. We just didn\u2019t get to Victory Lane, but we had our chances to win a few of them and didn\u2019t get to Victory Lane. It\u2019s just the way this works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle Larson has a vision with new late model race he\u2019s promoting<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Kyle Larson has a dream\u2014or, more precisely, a prelude to a dream.<\/p>\n

Partnering with streaming service FloSports, Larson is promoting a dirt late model race at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., on April 14, three days before the NASCAR Cup Series is scheduled to run on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of came together late, just through my relationship with FloRacing,\u201d Larson said on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway. \u201cInitially, the idea of it started because I want to someday, somehow, bring back something similar to the Prelude to the Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prelude was a charity dirt late model event organized by Tony Stewart at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. It preceded the annual Dirt Late Model Dream at the half-mile track and attracted drivers from a variety of racing disciplines, including an array of Cup stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I got talking with (FloSports vice president of motorsports) Michael Rigsby about that. That kind of turned into\u2014well, there\u2019s no (late model) race at Bristol leading up to the Cup race like they had last year where a lot of the Cup guys went and ran. So then, Bulls Gap kind of got thrown around and we ended up putting on that event. It should be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located roughly 50 miles southwest of Bristol, Volunteer Speedway is a .4-mile track banked at 32 degrees in the corners and should provide racing characteristics similar to those found at half-mile Bristol.<\/p>\n

Interviews:<\/h3>\n

Aric Almirola (No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford), Chase Briscoe (No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford) – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ACSNCSAAlmirolaCBriscoe022622.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford) – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ACSNCSKHarvick022622.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kyle Larson (No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ACSNCSKyLarson022622.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kyle Busch (No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ACSNCSKyBusch022622.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service   Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric stays on top with Fontana pole In a qualifying session that should have merited hazard pay for the 10 final-round drivers, Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric backed up his victory in the Great American Race with a pole-winning run on Saturday at Auto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":37201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[399,16],"class_list":["post-37199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-auto-club-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/No2PoleWinnerCar_AutoClub_02262022-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-9FZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37207,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37199\/revisions\/37207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}