Sunday’s Pala Casino 400 saw Kyle Busch outrun Chase Elliott’s late race charge to win NASCAR’s final Cup race at Auto Club Speedway in its two-mile superspeedway format before being taken off the schedule to be reconfigured most likely into a short track of one mile or less.  

• Race summary
• Rest of race recap
• Full race results
• Point standings

Kyle Busch’s first win of the 2023 Cup Series season, in just his second points paying race with Richard Childress Racing, sees him go above Richard Petty for the most consecutive seasons with at least one win, making it 19-consecutive seasons, starting in 2005.

Busch mirrored his previous triumph here when he won the 2005 Auto Club Cup race, his first Cup win, in just his fourth start for Hendrick Motorsports.

Talking on the frontstretch after the race Busch said: “I death gripped that wheel throughout the second half of that race, we held on man, we got it today.”

The four-time Fontana winner teared back through the field in what seemed like a handful of laps, after being penalised and sent to the rear for speeding on pit road on lap 43 under caution, after running inside the top 10.

Busch took the lead of the race for the first time with 63 laps to go, then again with 36 laps to go after passing Chastain through the green flag pit cycle and then again following green flag pit stops on lap 180 of the 200-lap race where he would stay.

Busch added: “I’ve worked with a lot of great people who’ve given me a lot of great opportunities in my career. It’s awesome to be able to reward them.”

It was Busch’s 61^st Cup career win, ninth-all time.

The track proved to entertain much like last year with drivers using all five lanes to race and search for clean air, but this time without any sudden tyre failures.

It was Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain that spent the most time upfront, winning both stages convincingly, leading the most laps with 91 and coming home third. He has won three of the four stages this year, including winning stage two of last week’s Daytona 500.

Chastain’s teammate Daniel Suarez showed speed, racing in the top 10, and was looking for a way past Chastain for the lead on the opening laps of a stage one restart. Suarez finished fourth.

Chase Elliott was in the mix during the second half of the race, slowly working his way through the top 10 until he got past Chastain for second with 21 laps to go and narrowed the gap to Busch down to 3.4 seconds before the gap levelled out. Elliott finished 2.998-seconds behind Busch.

Joey Logano had been a contender for most of the race, taking the lead multiple times from Chastain and Hamlin, until the final stint following green flag pit stops with under 40 laps to go, where he dropped back throughout the final run to finish 10th.

It had been the Chastain-Logano-Busch show previous to final green flag pit stops. With 55 laps to go, Chastain threw an aggressive block on Logano when he and Busch got stalled out side-by-side for the lead, but Logano swept down to the apron and cleared both going into turn one.

Rest of race recap

Saturday’s qualifying was cancelled due to a historic weather event that swept the racetrack including blizzard-like conditions of snow, sleet and wind, hitting Fontana and the surrounding LA area Friday and Saturday.

A five-wide salute was shown to the sell-out crowd on the warm-up laps in appreciation of their continued support and love given to Auto Club Speedway.

It was Bakersfield, California’s Kevin Harvick 750^th straight Cup start, only behind Jeff Gordon and Ricky Rudd for all-time.

JGR’s Christopher Bell led from the off after being awarded the pole due to having the best fastest lap speed and finishing position combination from last week’s Daytona 500.

Alex Bowman, who finished eighth, took the lead on lap two going into turn one and went straight to the top groove while the rest of the field searched all over the race track for grip.

A lack of rubber being laid down prior to the race due to the weather, saw everyone run the top groove following Bowman but before long drivers throughout the field were diving to the middle and bottom lanes again to find extra speed and clean air while the top was still preferred.

On lap 13, Kyle Larson, last year’s Fontana winner, came down pit road and went to the garage to fix an electrical problem. Larson did go back out but was not operating under full power. The Cali kid finished 29th, 15 laps down.

Chastain took over the lead on pit road during the competition caution period on lap 17.

Team Penske’s Logano and Ryan Blaney traded the lead after surpassing Chastain before Brad Keselowski was sent spinning down the back straightaway after Corey LaJoie tagged his left rear on lap 42.

Keselowski was running 13^th place at the time and came back to finish seventh, in what was a solid day for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing with teammate Chris Buescher running inside the top 10 throughout the race before finishing 13th.

Blaney and Suarez kept Chastain honest at the end of the first stage but it wasn’t enough to beat the eighth-generation watermelon farmer to the finish line.

Denny Hamlin passed Chastain for the lead on lap 72 before he threw an aggressive block three-laps later on Logano, much like Chastain would later on in the race, but Logano dived to the inside to take the lead on the frontstretch.

Austin Dillon and Noah Gragson briefly led during stage two after staying out on older tyres before Logano seized back the lead.

Corey LaJoie continued to find himself in trouble. On lap 76, he clipped AJ Allmendinger trying to avoid Blaney and Stenhouse Jr. in front, sending the Californian skidding into the inside wall on the backstretch.

LaJoie became the victim of the next caution several laps later when Tyler Reddick ran into the back of him sending him into the infield grass.

The biggest incident of the day was yet to come. On the lap 86 restart a 10-car crash occurred when the field stacked up sending Ty Dillon spinning into the grass, and Bell, Reddick, Preece, and Almirola crashing into the pack among others.

All four except Ty Dillon would retire from the race, only for Dillon to retire later with 61 laps to go due to engine trouble. Blaney received heavy damage from the crash and had to settle for 26^th.

Kyle Busch would take second away from former teammate Hamlin on lap 93 while Chastain led. Busch was filling Chastain’s mirrors inside of 20 to go in stage two; a blanket could be thrown over second to sixth place in the closing laps. Chastain won stage two with a six second lead over Busch.

Kevin Harvick, in his final season before retiring, got the lead on pit road during the stage break before Kyle Busch took the lead for the first time on lap 138.

Michael McDowell led for a handful of laps during the final green flag run as he held out for a caution compared to most of the field pitting 10+ laps earlier. On fresher tyres following his final pit stop, McDowell managed to finish 18^th.

Bubba Wallace spent the first half of the race inside the top 15, often inside the top 10, but overheating issues would force him out of the race on lap 172.

The third race of the season sees the Cup Series go to the 1.5 mile speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway this Sunday, Kyle Busch’s home track, for the Pennzoil 400 with the race starting at 3:30pm ET.

Full race results 

1. Kyle Busch, 200
2. Chase Elliott, 200
3. Ross Chastain, 200
4. Daniel Suarez, 200
5. Kevin Harvick, 200
6. Denny Hamlin, 200
7. Brad Keselowski, 200
8. Alex Bowman, 200
9. Austin Dillon, 200
10. Joey Logano, 200
11. Martin Truex Jr., 200
12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 200
13. Chris Buescher, 200
14. Corey LaJoie, 200
15. Harrison Burton, 200
16. Ty Gibbs, 200
17. Todd Gilliland, 200
18. Michael McDowell, 200
19. Erik Jones, 200
20. Chase Briscoe, 200
21. Justin Haley, 199
22. Noah Gragson, 199
23. JJ Yeley, 199
24. BJ McLeod, 199
25. William Byron, 198
26. Ryan Blaney, 196
27. Cody Ware, 195
28. Austin Cindric, 194
29. Kyle Larson, 185
30. Bubba Wallace, Engine, 172
31. Ty Dillon, Engine, 140
32. Christopher Bell, Accident, 88
33. Ryan Preece, Accident, 87
34. Tyler Reddick, Accident, 87
35. Aric Almirola, Accident, 86
36. AJ Allmendinger, Accident, 75

Stage 1 

1. Ross Chastain
2. Ryan Blaney
3. Daniel Suarez
4. Alex Bowman
5. Denny Hamlin
6. William Byron
7. Joey Logano
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Martin Truex Jr.
10. Chase Elliott

Stage 2 

1. Ross Chastain
2. Kyle Busch
3. Joey Logano
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Chase Elliott
8. Alex Bowman
9. Brad Keselowski
10. Corey LaJoie

Points standings 

1. Ross Chastain – 92
2. Joey Logano – 91
3. Alex Bowman – 80
4. Kevin Harvick – 79
5. Daniel Suarez – 77
6. Chris Buescher – 74
7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.* – 73
8. Kyle Busch* – 67
9. Denny Hamlin – 64
10. Brad Keselowski – 64
11. Martin Truex Jr. – 60
12. Ryan Blaney – 57
13. Corey LaJoie – 51
14. Chase Elliott – 49
15. Christopher Bell – 49
16. Michael McDowell – 40
    

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17. Ty Gibbs – 38
18. Austin Cindric – 38
19. AJ Allmendinger – 35
20. Harrison Burton – 35
21. Todd Gilliland – 35
22. Cody Ware – 33
23. Austin Dillon – 32
24. Kyle Larson – 32
25. Aric Almirola – 31
26. Bubba Wallace – 28
27. Noah Gragson – 28
28. Travis Pastrana – 26
29. William Byron – 25
30. Justin Haley – 21
31. BJ McLeod – 20
32. Erik Jones – 19
33. Chase Briscoe – 19
34. Ryan Preece – 15
35. J.J. Yeley – 14
36. Jimmie Johnson – 10
37. Ty Dillon – 7
38. Tyler Reddick – 4

Featured Image: Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet, celebrates with the checkered flag after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway (Photo by Meg Oliphant | Getty Images)