The 3-race "NASCAR Goes West" swing came to a conclusion earlier at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. Throughout the first 5 races of the season, Kyle Larson waited in the wings for a chance at victory, coming up with 3 straight 2nd place finishes at Atlanta, Vegas & Phoenix. However, Larson's luck changed today, grabbing his 2nd career win, dominating the Auto Club 400. Larson won Stage 1, but his car had a setback which allowed Martin Truex, Jr. to be out front to win Stage 2. However, it was go time, and Larson was able to hold off multiple challengers and have good restarts en route to victory.
The race was mostly clean for the first 180 laps, only seeing Brad Keselowski spin out in the early stages of the race and the 2 stage conclusions. However, the heat was turned on wit multiple incidents. The first one being Gray Gaulding hitting the wall. Then on the ensuing restart, Matt Kenseth's Peak Toyota got loose and hit the outside retaining wall, bringing out yellow #5. With 7 laps to go, Corey LaJoie made contact with the wall, bringing out a yellow. With 3 laps to go, Roush-Fenway teammates Trevor Bayne & Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. made contact with each other, forcing the race to go overtime. At the restart, Larson's Target Chevrolet pulled out front and never looked back.
Kyle Larson's win secured a playoff spot and became the 5th different driver (Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex, Jr. and Ryan Newman) to win a race in 2017.
The NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series returns East with short-track racing at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia next Sunday.
FORMULA ONE
The 2017 Formula One season kicked off this weekend at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Throughout the weekend, it was former series champion Lewis Hamilton dominating practices and won pole for the race. Hamilton led the first 16 laps, but had to make an early pit stop due to tires going down. This proved to be a key factor as Sebastian Vettel claimed the lead, pitted a few laps later (Lap 22 to be exact) and went on to grab the checkered flag to win in Australia. Hamilton's pit stop costed him a win since he had trouble passing Red Bull's Max Verstappen after returning to the track. He did however finish 2nd, while new teammate Valtteri Bottas came home 3rd.
This race definitely proved that Mercedes (Hamilton & Bottas) now have competition in the Scuderia Ferrari, which won the race. Ferrari's have worked all offseason to make the cars better, more competitive and be able to get on top. So far, their plan has worked, but it's a very long season. The next race on the F1 docket will be April 9th at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
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