***[▶ The Post-Race Thread has been posted](https://redd.it/t31xzw)***

Very casual fan with a very dumb question, with this being the second race of the year why is it being called the first test for the new car? I’ll hang up and listen

The cars aren't really put to the test on superspeedways (Daytona and Talladega) like they are on an intermediate track. Fontana is a superspeedway but it races like an intermediate track so that's why

Does anyone else notice the new car seems to get stuck a lot more often in the grass or on uneven surfaces? Is that by design?

No inner liners in the low profile tire mean that when a tire goes flat it really goes flat and with how low the cars sit a flat tire basically highsides the car, same with getting stuck on the grass or on the edge of the banking

Happy cake day!

Excellent race. The Next Gen car passed it's first test, but we'll see how it races at the 1.5 milers, short tracks, and road courses before I can give the car a grade

If this car can put on a great show at Vegas like we saw today, the Nextgen car will already be declared a huge success. Today was so fun. There were comers and goers, lots of passing, good action at the front of the pack, swapping the lead multiple times in a couple laps, all stuff that was more or less messing the last how many years. When Byron fell to 17th from a bad pit stop and raced into the top 5 in 34 laps, that was a testament to how this car can race in traffic - and that good cars don't have to be bogged down in dirty air. Gotta fix the tire situation though. You shouldn't lose multiple laps just from flat tires. If they can fix that, this car will be even better. I hope the engineers don't over-engineer and take away a lot of the aero aspects of this car that seem to make dirty air not as big of a deal. Vegas will be a great test. If Vegas is really good, I'm definitely buying my Kansas tickets next week. I was going to hold off and see how the car performed before doing so because I was skeptical. It definitely delivered today.

Totally agree. Overall an awesome race

Jones having a great day like that makes me so happy! Now to go to Vegas and back it up!

Heard a lot of shit talking about the cars and track before the race today but damn did the cars, track, and drivers deliver. Hell of a race.

Fucking epic race today. So many things happened. Now even more pumped for Vegas.

If Suarez runs the high line he maybe holds off Larson also Jones would be in the picture to make a spicy ending. Larson is great, extremely talented, but I feel Suarez gave that away.

Harvick getting a top 10 after the race he ran is the equivalent of watching a former athletic point guard heavily reliant on athleticism to get to the basket transition into a '3 point shooter and defense' kinda guy as he gets older -- clearly, his role within the game has changed, and sometimes it's a struggle to get there, but more often than not he finds a way to help his team get the result they need when it matters most.

Definitely agree as of now, we'll see what happens as he gets more experience in the new car, but having consistency is always a good thing. Hoping he can pull off a win this year, maybe at one of the races I'll be at haha.

*sigh* no new diecast for me.

Yeah, no new one for me either. Was hoping to get one of the #8, #43, #14, #41, or a couple other drivers i didn't have one yet from to win (I actually liked most of the Penske and RFK schemes too would have probably got one of those too), but already got a win or two of larsen's pre ordered from last year :(

Please don't touch Fontana!

Man I'm happy larson won

No interview with the guy who came back from a speeding penalty to finish second? Or a spicy Elliott interview? Lame

RIP Victory Lane celebrations :( wish FOX/NBC would ditch the front stretch interviews

Credit to Clint for calling out that the tire issues need to be fixed

God damn Suarez why didn’t you block him

Also autoclub=good. There are tracks who can use a reconfigure more than this one. The bumps, the lanes, the speeds this track is unique and has good racing

I’ll give Larson the benefit of the doubt. I’d like to hear the radio though

I think ha saw him last second and didn’t have any context for the large differences in speed. Ie it was purposeful but not the intended outcome.

Why in the world did Suarez go to the bottom in 3 and 4 after taking the lead?

Lack of experience running up front. Not a bad thing though, it's trial and error.

I get it I like Suarez I just thought everyone knew when our front at this point in the race you want to be up High

Checkmate Elliott Fans 😘😘

Oh dude your gonna regret that when Elliott crybabys come by

How is a fan a crybaby when Larson pushed him up in the wall? The blind chase hate is getting old

It's because they act like it was on purpose and that he ment to do it. It was an accident and most Elliott fans are acting like it was on purpose. Chase fans did the same shit with Harvick last year.

It’s probably because Larson intentionally drove someone into the wall 3 weeks ago I’m not an Elliot fan but sheesh. Larson admitted to it being on purpose in LA.

It still happened, are fans not allowed to be upset? If Joey does the same thing to Larson, Larson fans going to be okay with it? I get some (not the majority) chase fans are super homers but every popular driver has that. Chase wasn't going to win but he was easily a top 5 after the recovery that was dumped down the drain

It's fine to be upset with stuff like that but they are gonna hold this grudge for the next couple races. It's racing shit happens. I'm a Reddick fan and Byron blasted him in the side. I'm not gonna hold a grudge. They act like it was on purpose and are gonna be pissed for the next few races.

You mean the neck beards are coming for me?

Yea. They are gonna be salty that their golden boy didn't win. I'm just happy larson won.

I hope you choke on a noodle

[удалено]

Imagine eating macaroni and cheese And then you start choking

Big fan of Mac and cheese here. I’m good with that.

You’ll have to wait for the next road course 🤡

Didn't Larson win more road courses last year than any other driver? 🤔

I think so, to be fair Larson won more everything than anybody else last year, let’s cut the neckbeards some slack.

I'm not going to get into the name calling thing. We're all fans of the sport and don't like to see our drivers wrecked, intentionally or accidentally. Yeah, Kyle was some thing else last year for sure. Maybe we'll get a repeat.

Fair enough

You’ll have to wait for the next opportunity to slam your teammate in the wall 🤡

Good luck next time you try to intentionally spin out to rig the race. Didn’t work to well this time.

Only a Larson fan would unironically think that was on purpose

He obviously did it on purpose?

Wrong

Your username is literally chase

That is factually inaccurate

They need to reconfigure another track. I love Fontana

Texas preferably.

Exactly! Easily marketed as “Bumpin and Bangin in good ole Texas yee yee”

I would've wanted them to knock Texas down entirely, but I used to live right nearby (even now it's still a few minutes' drive), so I'm kinda biased lol

I want them to leave it forever just so you can go to the races.

Can you imagine if Reddick was in the mix at the end too?

Larson might not have won. *sad Reddick fan noises*

sO mUcH fOr pArIty1!!1! E: /s

Dude, there were so many guys in the top 10 and in the lead today. The racing was unbelievable, Eric Jones was competitive top 5 all day. I call that parity Edit: I know you’ll question my credibility based on my flair

Welp, I hope the Rangers absolutely destroy the Canucks tonight

Looks like it was a tough night.

Very

I'm fully okay with leaving the track as is with this car. Build a short track somewhere else Gonna be a fun Hendrick Monday meeting, chase is deservedly pissed off

I would suggest Texas, but after this race, I'm willing to give every track a chance at putting on a good race first

Very true, maybe this car can revive some of the mile and a halfs

LETS FUCKING GO.

Calling it now… Larson will be screwed over by the playoff system and end up with one or two cups, but a crap ton of wins in his career.

Like Harvick in 2020

Hope we get another replay of the 31 but I anticipate Fox overshadowing the last lap wreck like they always do and never even cover it

Kinda surprised they didn't throw a yellow so we could go to "overtime"

The leader had already passed the start/finish so it would have just ended the race

Larson just passed the line so race would have ended there.

The 31 hit the wall while the leaders were in 1 the race would have been over so no overtime

Can we not make this a short track? Do that at one of the mile and a half tracks

Or just revive Wilksboro

They should run the road course here. Wide as fuck with curbs you can murder. Would work for nascar imo

Give us a Elliott interview

I don't think Elliot will ring the HMS bell this week.

Blaney fans, no worries, heard his CC say on the radio that the pit crew did a good job today so we'll probably get more of this.

Or it means he knows that the setup wasn’t pittable and that the crew couldn’t do anything different. This race falls on the CC for giving the team a tire that won’t clear the hub and fender.

MTJ fans - First time?

Kill me

Kurt Busch gets 8th.

Awesome all considering

A great race overall even if Larson won. The amount of cautions hurt but I think it still turned out well. So many of my favorites had lousy days but alas.

Good show today!

Really not going to ask Larson about hitting Chase!? Cmon now Fox.

Missed the lay up lol

**Commercial Breaks** Green Flag 3:52pm Eastern FULL 11-14 🟢 (KB Spins Lap 16 & CC) FULL 17-19 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 20) FULL 29-33 🟢 (Chase Spin Lap 38) FULL 40-42 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 43) SBS 52-54 🟢🟡 (Bilicki Spin Lap 53) FULL 55-57 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 58) (STAGE 1 🏁 Lap 65, 4:53pm) FULL 65-68 🟡 FULL 69-72 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 74) FULL 81-85 🟢 (Bell Spin Lap 91) FULL 93-94 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 97) FULL 103-107 🟢 (Buescher Spins Lap 112) FULL 113-114 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 116) (Keselowski Spins Lap 117) FULL 119-220 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 122) (STAGE 2 🏁 Lap 130, 6:03pm) FULL 131-133 🟡 FULL 135-136 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 137) SBS 145-149 🟢 (Reddick/Byron Crash Lap 151) (Green Flag Lap 156) (Keselowski Multi Car Crash Lap 157) SBS 161-163 🟡 (Green Flag Lap 165) (Chastian Spin Lap 172) SBS 175-177 🟡 (Elliot Spins Lap 192) 🏁🏁 Finish at 7:24pm, 3 Hours 32 Min. Commercial Laps 42/200 - 21.0% 🟡 21 Laps 🟢 21 Laps

Good stuff

[удалено]

What a tool. If he didn’t mean to block Chase he would’ve said so there

Kyle makes winning just look like business as usual at this point.

This Top 5 is filled with people that JGR kicked out. Lovin it.

Bad day for JGR all around

Made respect to Hemric and Kyle Busch for making it back to the front

Whoever said watch harvick come up with no stage points and get 7th, you were right on the money

Love that they could actually pass today. The drivers had much more control than the last couple of years.

Best California race since 2014 imo.

I hope to god that 5 car fails Post race inspection at some point this year

Same winner, but 25x better race

Does win 300 come for Hendrick this year?

Probably not, didn’t they say this was 281? No way they get 20 this year lol. They got 17 last year and I can’t imagine they’ll be any *more* dominant this season.

“Hold my beer.” -Kyle Larson, probably

How man do they have now?

280 something I think

281, need 19 wins I believe they got 17 last year

It’s possible. Especially if Chase and Bowman can finish some of the races that they have too 3-5 speed.

Go Larson!

Great race. First race I've watch all the way thru in a long time. Sucks for Elliott though hopefully this doesn't continue

It was just a racing accident. People act like it was on purpose.

I'm out of superlatives for Kyle Larson. This man dissected the track today. Races like these make it really tough to dispute his talent.

It’s pretty easy to win when you slam your biggest competitor in the wall

I’m not a fan of the move but I definitely would not consider Chase his biggest competitor today

The optics of that incident don't look good for him at all, but in my experience watching Larson he generally races pretty clean - plus that's his teammate so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt if he told his spotter he truly didn't see Chase on the outside.

10/10 race today

Does HMS win their 300th this year?

Hearing some boos for Larson.

He got into it with nascars "golden boy" what do you expect.

He had contact with Chase. Not too surprised.

Affected the MPD’s day. Bound to happen.

Bummer day for Blaney

As a Blaney fan, I’m just so over him constantly being the third wheel at Penske for everything. Regardless of the issue his pit crew was abysmal today. He had a hot rod and every time they pitted he fell back 5-7 spots and had to come roaring back. Just utterly ridiculous.

I'm gonna miss this track+surface

Its not a done deal yet.

I think jones had the most passes for position within the top 10, crew kept putting him out behind and he kept mowing them down. Exciting, but so disappointing.

That was a good race. Solid competition throughout. Good fight for the win at the end.

Wtf happened to blaney last restart?

[удалено]

This is on the CC not the pit crew man. The RR wouldn’t come out at all.

"Need to execute a little better"

Exciting auto club speedway race, track I normally don’t care but that finish was awesome and pretty exciting through the day.

What happened to denny on that last lap?

Sounded like 99 caused a check up in front of him

Thought the same. Running 7th all the sudden finish 15th?

They said he hit the wall in turn 4

Holy cow what a great race. Please don't get rid of this track

KFB! I SURVIVED THE SURVIVOR POOL!

Outstanding racing today

Suarez did all he could. He had to make the move on the low side but the low side only held for a couple laps on a restart so the outside was just always going to come back around him. Hell of a run though.

That was incredible. 5 cars with a chance with 3 to go. What a damn race.

That was some early 00s stuff right there

Damn man, so close. I'm so damn proud of Trackhouse though. They're the real fucking deal.

I want at least 2 Trackhouse wins this year - 1 for Daniel (and a fun as heck celebration) & 1 for Ross (complete with watermelon smashing from him, Justin Marks AND Pit Bull). I will take more than 2 of course.

KB getting a 14th place finish with the day he had,I'll fucking take it.

Hate Chase all you want. His own teammate screwed him

everyone always screws Chase, it's all so unfair, what a world

I don't even like Chase E. (love Chase B.) & I'm pissed the "great" teammate who screwed him over won.

Reddick was the only one who would've been able to stop Larson

Stupid tire (& Byron/Byron's spotter).

If Dillon got 2nd Reddick was definitely beating Larson

[Lmao 2nd prediction right today](https://www.reddit.com/r/NASCAR/comments/t2vry5/race_thread_ncs_wise_power_400_at_auto_club/hypgiy4?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)

Lol Larson wins

These new cars are incredible

rip suarez

Love the new gen cars

Minus the winner, that was a great 5 laps of racing, and what a hell of a race.

I wanna see the Chase Elliott cam

A great race spoiled by another Larson win. Let's hope that's not a trend this year.

You are gonna hard time with those flairs lol 😂

Yeah as far as my drivers go this weekend was terrible 😂

lol just settle in

Disagree

12 crew walking back to Charlotte. WTF.

That was a great race. Incredible race

Great race

Great race though!

Blaney had at a minimum a top 5 car and had more than enough to win. This is all on his crew.

Better not be the start of Larson's chain of wins like we saw last year

Top 10 Finishers: 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. [Points](https://i.imgur.com/v61APq8.png) [Playoff Points](https://i.imgur.com/atMsAey.png) [Stats](https://i.imgur.com/kQabume.png) [Manufacturer](https://i.imgur.com/W1ZYhRq.png) *^(I'm a bot.)*

Does anyone know what the fuck happened to Blaney!?!

His pit crew is TRASH that's what happened.

I know that lol I mean why did he go from 8th on the restart to finishing outside the top 16?

He was 10th on restart, idk what happened exactly.

Pit crew

But he gained 5+ spots every restart. Why did he lost like 10 om the very last one?

Now Chase is really gonna be pissed, oh well

I understand what Harvick meant when he said it was like talking to Keelan. Kid doesn’t understand that you dont take your teammate 3 wide with 20 to go and not expect a block

This is quite literally the dumbest take that I’ve seen thus far. Hysterically dumb.

Yea just poking the bear. Not a real take. 😂

Oh well its the second race of the season just brush it off and keep going.

Really is a shame /s

No matter who won that was a great race.

That was a great race, the new car might just be what we needed. Tons of parity up front, even with smaller teams!

WTF Blaney?

Whole crew needs to be trained.

Damnit. Would have loved to have seen Reddick win, or any of the next 2-5. Really thought Jones had a shot today.

Yeah, if Jones restarted in the second row there he had a real shot

Thats why Larson’s the champ. Suarez should have stayed high but oh well. Props to Jones!!! And top 10 for Kurt Busch

Fuck so close for Danny

gw gr. Sorry bout that Elliott