The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity
Series compete this weekend at Auto Club Raceway in Fontana, California, with
the fifth races of their respective seasons. The Xfinity Series race is Saturday
while the Cup Series race is Sunday.
Here’s a quick look at some interesting statistics and
tidbits heading into the weekend.
Statistics – Auto Club
Speedway
- This weekend’s race marks the 144th for the series in the
state of California, and the 29th at Auto Club Speedway. Marshall Teague won
the first Cup Series race in California in 1951, at Carrell Speedway in
Gardena. Jeff Gordon won the first Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in
1997 in a Chevrolet.
- The winner of the most series races at Auto Club Raceway
is Jimmie Johnson, who owns six victories (2002, 2007 fall, 2008 fall, 2009
fall, 2010 spring and 2016). Johnson has won back-to-back races only once.
- Four California-born drivers have won 11 of the previous
28 races (Johnson, six; Gordon, three; Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson, one).
- Overall, a total of 16 drivers have won a Cup Series race
at California: Gordon, Johnson, Harvick, Larson, Mark Martin, Jeremy Mayfield,
Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth,
Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski.
- Kyle Larson is the defending race winner at Auto Club,
last March. It marked his second career victory and first from the pole
position. Larson swept the three races at two-mile tracks in 2017 (won both
races at Michigan International Speedway), and four of his five career
victories have been at California or Michigan.
- Only two drivers who have won at least one race at
California and gone on to win the series championship in the same season are: Jeff
Gordon (1997) and Jimmie Johnson (2008 fall; 2009 fall; 2010 spring; and 2016).
- Drivers who have won the Cup Series race and the Xfinity
Series race at California: Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Carl
Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson.
Larson is the most recent to do so in the same season, having won both races in
2017.
- The last driver to win consecutive races at California was
Kyle Busch, who won back-to-back races in 2013 and 2014. Jimmie Johnson is the
only other driver to win consecutive races at the track, having done so in the
2009 fall race and 2010 spring race.
- Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. are the only two drivers
to lead laps in each of the last three races at California, having led every
race at the track since 2015. Chase Elliott has led the last two races at
California.
- Chevrolet has won each of the last two races at California
and 14 of the 28 races, exactly half of them. Ford is close behind with 11,
followed by Toyota (two) and Dodge (one).
- Tony Stewart holds the record for race average speed,
winning the 2012 race at 160.166 mph (rain shortened to 129 laps). That was the
fifth consecutive victory for a Chevrolet, the most consecutive victories for a
manufacturer. Of a 400-mile race that has gone the entire distance, Kevin
Harvick holds the mark at 150.849 with his victory in 2011.
- The driver to lead the most
laps of a race at Auto Club Speedway has gone on to win the race half of the
races (14; most recently 2017 race won by Kyle Larson).
- Kevin Harvick (2011) and Brad
Keselowski (2015) have each led only one lap in their victories at Auto Club
Speedway.
- Greg Biffle holds the record for most laps led by a driver who
did not win the race, pacing 168 laps in the 250-lap, 2006 spring race. He
finished 42nd out of 43 cars, his engine expiring with 31 laps remaining.
- Jimmie Johnson holds the record for most laps led in a
race at Auto Club Speedway, 228 in winning the Pepsi 500 in the 2008 fall race
(500-mile race). Of the eight 400-mile races (first came in 2010), Kyle Busch
led 125 laps in his 2013 victory.
- Only one race has not gone the scheduled distance or more:
2012 race won by Tony Stewart (129). The race was cut short due to rain.
- Only two of the previous 28 races at Auto Club Speedway
have been won from the pole position: Jimmie Johnson won the 500-mile fall race
in 2008, and defending race winner Kyle Larson won from the top starting
position in 2017.
- Matt Kenseth started the furthest back of any race winner,
when he won from the 31st starting position in the 500-mile spring race in
2006. Of the eight 400-mile races, Kevin Harvick started the furthest back,
24th, in 2011. Overall in 28 total races, seven races have been won by drivers
who started outside the top 20.
- The record for most cars to finish on the lead lap at a
race at California was 32 in 2015. The fewest is nine, in the 1997 and 1999
races.
- Jimmie Johnson has completed
every lap of every race he’s contested in Cup Series competition at Auto Club
Speedway, with 5,306 laps contested in the last 23 races. Ryan Newman is second
among active in most consecutive races with every lap competed at Auto Club
Speedway, with eight straight races (completed every lap of the 400-mile
races). Dale Earnhardt Jr. has also completed every lap of the last eight races
at the track, though he retired following the 2017 season.
- Every car completed the 2015 race at Auto Club Speedway.
- Alex Bowman led his first career lap in the Cup Series in
the 2015 race at Auto Club Speedway.
Statistics – 2018
Season and Series Overall
- Kevin Harvick has won the last three races in the Cup
Series – at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and ISW Raceway.
It marks the first time a driver has won three straight races in the Cup Series
since Joey Logano won the 2015 playoff races at Charlotte Motor Speedway,
Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.
- The last driver to win four consecutive races was Jimmie
Johnson – at Martinsville Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas Motor
Speedway and ISW Raceway – during the 2007 playoffs. - Harry Gant was the last
driver over the age of 40 to win four consecutive races, when he won four
straight in 1991 at Darlington Raceway, Richmond International Raceway, Dover
International Speedway and Martinsville Speedway.
- Kevin Harvick has 101 career NASCAR national series
victories.
- Jimmie Johnson hasn’t finished in the top 10 in 10
consecutive races, the worst streak of his career. He is also on a 26-race
winless streak, also the worst of his career.
- Martin Truex Jr. is the only driver to lead laps in each
of the past five races – the 2017 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway and
the first four races of the 2018 season. Truex is the only driver to lead in
each of the first four races in 2018, though he’s only led 14 laps total.
- Six drivers entered this weekend are from California:
Kevin Harvick (Bakersfield); Matt DiBenedetto (Grass Valley); Kyle Larson (Elk
Grove); A.J. Allmendinger (Los Gatos); Jimmie Johnson (El Cajon); and Cole
Whitt (Alpine).
- Drivers entered for this weekend’s race that will be
competing for the first time in the Cup Series at Auto Club Speedway are: Ross
Chastain, William Byron and Darrell Wallace Jr.
- Jimmie Johnson is making his 584th consecutive series
start this weekend to lead all drivers.
- Points leader Kevin Harvick leads all drivers in victories
(3), top threes (3), top fives (3; tied with Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.), laps led (433) and stage
victories (3) this season, and is tied with Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Joey
Logano and Kyle Busch in top 10s (3).
- Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney lead all drivers in laps
completed this season, with 1,110 laps completed out of 1,111.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
(Roseanne 300; 5 p.m. ET Saturday)
- This is the 29th race at Auto Club Speedway. The first
race was in 1997, when Todd Bodine scored the victory in a Pontiac.
- Kyle Busch leads all drivers in Xfinity Series victories
at Auto Club Speedway with six.
- Kyle Larson is the defending race winner at Auto Club
Speedway. Larson also won the Cup Series race last year, making him the four
driver to sweep both races at the track in a single weekend (Kasey Kahne, 2006
fall; Matt Kenseth, 2007 spring; Kyle Busch, 2013).
- Overall, 16 drivers have won a race at Auto Club Speedway:
Todd Bodine, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Hank Parker Jr., Scott Riggs,
Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart,
Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Austin Dillon.
- The last time a Cup Series regular did not win the Xfinity
Series race at Auto Club Speedway was in 2002, when Scott Riggs won the race.
- Chevrolet and Toyota lead all manufacturers in wins at
Auto Club Speedway with nine each, followed by Ford with eight. Dodge and
Pontiac each own one. Chevrolet has won each of the last four races at the
track, while Toyota earned nine in a row between the 2008 spring and 2013 races.
- The Xfinity Series race has been won from the pole
position at Auto Club Speedway five times by two drivers: Kyle Busch (2008
fall; 2010 fall; 2013) and Joey Logano (2009 fall and 2012).
- Drivers who have led the most laps in a race at Auto Club
Speedway have gone on to win the race 13 times in 28 races.
- Kyle Busch holds the record for most laps led in a race
(144) at Auto Club Speedway, when he won the 2008 fall race.
- Austin Dillon led the fewest laps for a race winner at
Auto Club Speedway, leading only the final lap of the 2016 race.
- Kyle Busch holds the record for most laps led in a race at
Auto Club Speedway without winning – 133 laps in the 2016 race.
- Inaugural race winner Todd Bodine started from 28th, the
furthest a driver has started from and won (1997).
- Kyle Busch is the last driver to win consecutive races in
the Xfinity Series, when he won back-to-back events at Kentucky Speedway in
Sparta and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon last July.
- Points leader Elliott Sadler leads the series in top fives
(three) and top 10s (four) this season, though he has yet to win a race. Sadler
is tied with Matt Tifft as the drivers to complete the most laps this season, with 705 laps completed (out of 706).
- Christopher Bell and Justin Allgaier lead all drivers in
top threes with two each, while Bell has two pole positions to lead all
drivers.
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