Larson wins at Auto Club, The Future of the Track remains in Question

Now that the Daytona 500 has come and gone, it’s time for teams to start focusing on the rest of the season and work towards earning stage points and getting a win to clinch a spot in the playoffs. NASCAR returned to Auto Club for the first time since March 2020, since the track did not host races in 2021 due to the pandemic, and we now get to see a real first look at the NextGen car.

In the Xfinity Series, Cole Custer ended up taking the checkered flag after an extensive red flag from Brandon Jones crashing into the sand barriers at the entrance of pit road. Not only did Custer win, but it was a win for a smaller organization, Bobby Dotter and SS-Greenlight Racing. This was the team’s first-ever victory after running as a team in the Xfinity Series dating back to 2016.

In practice, a lot of drivers had issues coming off the corner, especially in turn four, which can be said that the car handles much differently than the previous Gen Six car. That and the 670 HP Package has really changed up the racing. Austin Cindric picked up from where he left off at Daytona and scored the pole. Throughout the race, it is interesting to note that teams like Petty-GMS, Richard Childress Racing, JTG-Daughtry Racing, among others, were performing well and peaking into contention. Tyler Reddick swept both stages in the race and his teammate Austin Dillon came very close to winning the race, as he finished in second. Erik Jones also led for a bit early in the race and was contending in the top ten for most of the race, scoring a third-place finish. Trackhouse Racing also showed some speed as Daniel Suarez was leading the race coming to two laps to go and was passed by the eventual winner, Kyle Larson. The NextGen car is so far doing what was advertised, to tighten the competition and make racing even more competitive than ever before. This could be a season where we may see those teams pop out in front more often. As Kyle Larson took the checkered flag at Auto Club, there was some feuding between him and his teammate Chase Elliott, when they made contact late in the race. Elliott was very outspoken about his teammate’s actions and even spun a few laps later after fading back into the pack. The ones who struggled the most throughout the race have the be the folks over at Toyota. Kyle Busch had a couple of issues, Bubba Wallace was involved in a wreck, and Christopher Bell has quite a few flat tire issues. Martin Truex Jr was the highest finishing Toyota, finishing in 13^th.

At the conclusion of this past weekend’s race, it has been asked if Auto Club will still become a short track. The plans were announced back in 2020 and the plan was for NextGen to run on the current configuration in 2022, then reconfigure to a short track in 2023. However, nothing official has been made and there is no work being done. So, the plans of it becoming a short track for 2023 are now most likely not happening. However, after what we all saw, I don’t think Auto Club has to become a short track necessarily. With the new car and new package, it made for a rather fantastic race. There was a lot of competition that I think fans want to see, so I would say maybe, for now, let’s pump the brakes on this reconfiguration. I was always on the ‘wait and see’ train when it came to this project, but now, I’m leaning towards Auto Club staying the same as a two-mile oval.

Next up on the West Coast Swing is Las Vegas, where we will see all three circuits take to the track, and once again a lot of eyes will be on how the NextGen car operates at each track NASCAR goes to. We will truly see how things are on the 1.5-mile tracks and will showcase what could be in store for racing there. After that will be Phoenix, then back to the next question mark on the schedule, Atlanta with its new reconfiguration.