Kyle Busch led 133 of 150 laps, but it was Austin Dillon who came home with the trophy in Fontana.
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Kyle Busch, who was looking for his record-tying fourth consecutive Xfinity victory, was in control for most of the race, with teammates pole-sitter Suarez and Jones. I was saving fuel. But after bee problems at Auto Club Speedway two years running, the track may just have to start charging them admission from this point forward.
“This is the first qualifying/practice and then going from practice to qualifying that I think we have all felt like the vehicle did exactly what we thought it was going to do”, noted Harvick.
In fact, Joe Gibbs Racing seemed headed for its third straight 1-2-3 finish before Erik Jones ran out of fuel on the next-to-last lap, Daniel Suarez emptied his tank a lap later, and Busch cut his tire after taking the white flag.
Denny Hamlin had a fast auto as well in qualifying, setting the track record in the second round of qualifying. “We need to find the last little details…and once we do we will have a shot at more success”. He has led more laps through five races than anybody in the series’ history – and he didn’t even run at Daytona.
Richard Childress Racing clearly had gotten it together when it comes to short runs, with Ryan Newman fourth and Paul Menard in 13th, just missing out on the 12-driver pole shootout.
“Honestly, in the last few weeks, I have been pushing myself more than what I used to, so definitely it’s good to be in this position, because at the end of the day if one day or the other or tomorrow or who knows when we get our opportunity to move up to Cup”, Suarez said.
“It’s just racing”, Dillon said. “It was a pretty easy day for us”. It shaded up in three and four and I just got too loose on that last run.
Despite the thrilling finish, a Sprint Cup regular has won every Xfinity race this year.
“We are learning from the best”, Suarez said. “I enjoy the encouragement and the push from those guys”.
“You could write a book about a lap at this place”, Edwards said.
The new lower downforce aerodynamic rules package and Auto Club Speedway’s worn out and rough surface are expected to combine for what Edwards believes will be an interesting fifth race of the Sprint Cup Series season.
“We had a good run in the first session but for some reason the vehicle got tight in the second round”, sighed Truex. Busch, victor of the 2013 and 2014 Xfinity races at the two-mile superspeedway, missed last year’s race recovering from injuries.
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Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. was second-fastest to Dillon on practice but could only manage 17th place in qualifying putting him alongside third Roush driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the grid.
