FONTANA, Calif. – California’s own Kyle Larson drove by Daniel Suarez with less than five laps left and held on to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway.
Larson, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5, started the race from the rear of the field after his team was forced to change a part in the ignition system prior to the start of the 200-lap race.
Undeterred, Larson powered his way into contention in the final 50 laps after race-long leader Tyler Reddick was taken out of contention after a blown tire and subsequent wreck that also eliminated William Byron.
“It’s always fun here to win in the home state. Hard work all weekend there. (It) didn’t feel great in practice yesterday,” Larson said immediately after taking the checkered flag. “Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) and everybody made some good adjustments overnight, and the car handled a lot better.”
Larson moved to the point shortly after a restart with 35 laps left when he dove under Joey Logano in turns one and two. Another caution with 28 laps left for Ross Chastain spinning in turn four brought the entire field down pit road for fresh tires.
Chase Briscoe opted not to pit, but he was a sitting duck on the subsequent restart. Larson, who restarted behind Briscoe on the outside, pushed Briscoe into turn one and then dove under him to take the lead.
One lap later Larson was trying to fend off a challenge from Logano when his teammate, Chase Elliott, made a move to the top. Larson moved up to block and made contact with Elliott, who bounced off the wall and faded through the field as a result.
Larson managed to hang on to the lead and began to set sail as Logano fell into a battle with Austin Dillon for the runner-up spot. However, Elliott looped his NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet with nine laps left to bring out the caution flag.
The entire field returned to pit road for tires, with Larson holding the lead and Daniel Suarez jumping up several spots to restart second.
When the race resumed with four laps left Suarez gave Larson everything he had. Larson managed to hold the lead on the restart lap, but Suarez got a big push from Erik Jones coming down the frontstretch and dove under Larson entering turns one and two.
Suarez emerged with the race lead down the backstretch, but Larson returned the favor through turns three and four and was back in the lead by the time the field reached the start/finish line.
Larson would hold serve from there, beating Dillon to the checkered flag by .195 seconds.
“There were definitely some guys that were quicker than us, but they had their misfortunes,” Larson said. “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.”
Erik Jones, who ran inside the top-five throughout Sunday’s race for Petty GMS Motorsports, finished third. Suarez faded to fourth after leading in the final five laps, with Logano finishing fifth.