NASCAR race at Auto Membership reside updates: Kyle Busch wins

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Charlotte Observer NASCAR reporter Alex Zietlow will be tossing along live updates throughout Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway in the section below. Refresh for the latest news. Full results will be posted at the end of the race.

Unofficial results for NASCAR race

POS	CAR	DRIVER	DELTA	LAPS	BEST TIME
1	8	Kyle Busch	—	200	40.973
2	9	Chase Elliott	2.998	200	41.184
3	1	Ross Chastain	7.353	200	40.992
4	99	Daniel Suarez	11.866	200	41.161
5	4	Kevin Harvick	13.268	200	41.159
6	11	Denny Hamlin	13.296	200	41.112
7	6	Brad Keselowski	13.541	200	41.479
8	48	Alex Bowman	16.289	200	41.07
9	3	Austin Dillon	16.795	200	41.517
10	22	Joey Logano	17.013	200	41.093
11	19	Martin Truex Jr	17.105	200	41.331
12	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	23.231	200	41.407
13	17	Chris Buescher	24.082	200	41.496
14	7	Corey LaJoie	29.296	200	41.631
15	21	Harrison Burton	34.796	200	41.854
16	54	Ty Gibbs #	36.726	200	41.399
17	38	Todd Gilliland	36.869	200	41.847
18	34	Michael McDowell	41.379	200	41.952
19	43	Erik Jones	42.406	200	41.702
20	14	Chase Briscoe	43.955	200	41.746
21	31	Justin Haley	-1	199	41.944
22	42	Noah Gragson #	-1	199	41.769
23	15	JJ Yeley	-1	199	42.28
24	78	BJ McLeod	-1	199	42.067
25	24	William Byron	-2	198	41.285
26	12	Ryan Blaney	-4	196	41.028
27	51	Cody Ware	-5	195	42.605
28	2	Austin Cindric	-6	194	41.876
29	5	Kyle Larson	-15	185	41.493
30	23	Bubba Wallace	-28	172	41.368
31	77	Ty Dillon	-60	140	42.199
32	20	Christopher Bell	-112	88	41.648
33	41	Ryan Preece	-113	87	42.027
34	45	Tyler Reddick	-113	87	41.72
35	10	Aric Almirola	-114	86	41.857
36	16	AJ Allmendinger	-125	75	41.354

Live updates: Auto Club Speedway

Stage 3

Lap 200: Kyle Busch! That’s his 61st career Cup win and his first with Richard Childress Racing. What a dominant day for the No. 8 car.

Lap 180: Kyle Busch has taken the lead! The new leader, who has won here at Auto Club Speedway four times, has chased down Michael McDowell thanks to his fresh tires. Busch is extending his lead over the rest of the field, too — including over Ross Chastain, who has been his biggest competition all day. Can the No. 8 car finish what he’s started? Also of note: William Byron speeds on pit road and will serve a pass-through penalty. That effectively ends the No. 24 car’s chase for the win.

Lap 175: He wasn’t a threat to win the race, but Bubba Wallace is officially done for the day. His hood was steaming on pit road. He was the only Toyota teammate giving Denny Hamlin any help today. Hamlin now running P9, while Busch and Chastain are closing in on Michael McDowell for the lead.

Lap 167: And the final pit stops under green begin: Joey Logano goes in there first for fuel and tires, and then Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott follow suit. This race is still shaping up to be between Busch and Chastain.

Lap 153: Wow! Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain putting on an exciting display of racing. The two are separated by less than 0.2 seconds while the rest of the field is over a second behind the leader. Busch is reportedly eight laps short on fuel, so he’ll be hitting pit road soon. This should shape up for quite the run for the checkered!

Lap 132: A summary of the race through two stages: 16 lead changes, eight different leaders and six cautions for 28 laps.

Stage 2

Lap 130: Ross Chastain has won another stage! That’s the first time Chastain has swept the first two stages of a Cup race in his career. The 1 car finished 6-plus seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Those who finished in the Top 10 in Stage 2 to get stage points (in order): Chastain, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie.

Lap 100: The days of Aric Almirola and Christopher Bell, among others, are done. That aforementioned hit proved too much. Top 5 running right now: Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and William Byron.

Lap 83: I know it’s not a superspeedway… but that might qualify as today’s version of “The Big One.” A bunch of cars are involved in an incident right as we go green again at another restart. Ten cars officially. Among them: Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs. Chase Briscoe slithers through the carnage and is now in decent position.

Lap 81: Well, you know what they say? Cautions breed more cautions. Corey LaJoie gets shoved into the grass, and we’re back under yellow again.

Lap 79: Martin Truex Jr. has a tire fall off on the racetrack! That means a two-lap penalty under NASCAR’s new rules. Perhaps the bad luck of 2022 has followed Truex into 2023 after all.

Lap 76: And there goes AJ Allmendinger! What happened: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. appeared to lift, prompting a few other cars behind him to check-up. Allmendinger then knocked into Corey LaJoie and spun out into the wall. The 16 car has a bunch of damage on its left-front.

Lap 73: Green green green!

Lap 69: Some Stage 1 stats: seven lead changes, two cautions for eight laps and five different leaders. Those leaders are Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano and Christopher Bell (who began Sunday’s race on the pole). Kyle Busch has recovered quickly since his speeding on pit road penalty. Kyle Larson is still running 17 laps down. Brad Keselowski and Cody Ware are each starting Stage 2 one lap down.

Stage 1

Lap 65: And that makes a second-straight week with Ross Chastain earning a stage win. That 1 car is fast and has been running out in front all day. Those who earned stage points (in order): Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott.

Lap 42: Brad Keselowski gets loose on a turn and appears to get spun out by Corey LaJoie. Caution comes out. Second caution of the day. Just over 20 laps to go in Stage 1. The pit stop opportunity wasn’t ideal for Kyle Busch. He incurred a speeding penalty exiting pit road — something he did at last week’s Daytona 500 too. Busch’s radio team tells him to “shake it off” because the 8 team “has a winning car.”

Lap 32: Kyle Larson had to miss a few laps after the competition caution. He eventually re-enters the race 15 laps down. The race’s favorite likely won’t be hitting Victory Lane here in back-to-back years.

Lap 22: We’re green once more! Martin Truex Jr. is at the back thanks to a penalty earned on pit road. The Top 5 have pretty much been the same thus far: Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez. Ford and Chevy cars are dominating. The only Toyota in the Top 10 is Bubba Wallace in P6.

Lap 14: Kyle Larson takes a trip down pit road. Appears to be engine issues. The No. 5 car had to make that trip twice in the first 14 laps to diagnose a mechanical issue in real-time. Fortunately for the 5 team, a competition caution comes out (by virtue of no practice/qualifying this weekend because of rain) on Lap 15. Larson gets to earn one lap back — so he’s now only one lap down — and has more time to figure out what’s going wrong under the hood.

Lap 3: And we’re off! Alex Bowman takes a big lead from the start. A bunch of water sprays as the racetrack finally has the Cup cars run over the track. Already going four-wide here. Some classic Auto Club racing early. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., last week’s Daytona 500 winner who started in P2, has already fallen to P12. The 47 car found a way to notch a Top 10 here a year ago — so you can’t count that team out just yet.

Green flag! 3:52 p.m. Let’s do it!

3:34 p.m.: Per CBS, Kyle Larson is the 5-1 favorite, right in front Denny Hamlin (17-2) and Chase Elliott (9-1). After them: Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain all came in at 10-1.

3:04 p.m.: Some updates about the racetrack’s condition considering the inclement weather: Air Titan track driers spent a chunk of Sunday morning drying off parts of the frontstretch at Auto Club after a Saturday night of showers. The track is reportedly ready. The green flag will drop at 3:47 p.m. The Xfinity Series race will begin at 8 p.m. on FS2 — it began last night, but rain forced the race to be postponed to after Sunday’s Cup race.

2:46 p.m.: This will be the last race run on Auto Club Speedway’s two-mile oval. Several drivers have weighed in on the matter ahead of Sunday’s race, many going as far to say that it’s “a shame” it is getting reconfigured into a half-mile short track. The silver lining? A good race might ensue, as drivers said they are now motivated to be the final winner on a racetrack that has featured some of the best racing the Cup Series has to offer in the past 25 years.

2:40 p.m.: After rain (and snow… somehow?!) fell in Fontana, California, on Saturday afternoon — canceling Cup qualifying — an Xfinity Series race still began on Saturday night (although it was postponed shortly after). Sunday’s forecast looks much more promising for racing: expect partly cloudy skies with the temperature in the low 40s.

How to watch Auto Club 400

• Race: Pala Casino 400
• Place: Auto Club Speedway
• Date: Sunday, Feb. 26
• Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
• Purse: $8,484,302
• TV: FOX, 2:30 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 400 miles (200 laps)
• Stages: Stage 1 (Lap 65), Stage 2 (Lap 130), Stage 3 (Lap 200)

Starting lineup for Fontana NASCAR Cup race

Position	Driver	Car No.
1	Christopher Bell	20
2	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	47
3	Joey Logano	22
4	Alex Bowman	48
5	Chris Buescher	17
6	AJ Allmendinger	16
7	Daniel Suarez	99
8	Ross Chastain	1
9	Ryan Blaney	12
10	Kevin Harvick	4
11	Cody Ware	51
12	Corey LaJoie	7
13	Denny Hamlin	11
14	Martin Truex Jr.	19
15	Kyle Larson	5
16	Brad Keselowski	6
17	Aric Almirola	10
18	Bubba Wallace	23
19	Austin Cindric	2
20	Noah Gragson	42
21	Kyle Busch	8
22	JJ Yeley	15
23	Ty Gibbs	54
24	Harrison Burton	21
25	Todd Gilliland	38
26	Michael McDowell	34
27	Ryan Preece	41
28	Austin Dillon	3
29	Justin Haley	31
30	BJ McLeod	78
31	Chase Briscoe	14
32	William Byron	24
33	Chase Elliott	9
34	Erik Jones	43
35	Tyler Reddick	45
36	Ty Dillon	77

This story was initially revealed February 26, 2023, 2:46 PM.