FONTANA, Calif. – Chase Elliott climbed from 33rd to the top five with 50 laps to go while Ross Chastain swept the stages and led the most laps (91) of any NASCAR Cup Series driver at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 26).
But neither one took the checkered flag first.
The duo was running second and third after the final round of green flag pit stops, but neither was any match for Kyle Busch, who controlled the final quarter of the race and cruised to victory in his second start for Richard Childress Racing.
It was Busch’s 61st Cup win, breaking a tie with Kevin Harvick for ninth on the all-time win list. It was also his fifth win at Auto Club, and he broke Richard Petty’s record for the most consecutive winning seasons in Cup with 19 in a row.
With 2023 being the Last Dance for the two-mile configuration in Southern California, Elliott and Chastain fell just short of scoring their maiden wins at Auto Club in the final chance to do so.
Elliott was fast enough to pass Chastain, but he was left with the tall order of passing Busch, who was more than three seconds out front. Elliott was unable to make up much ground in the final laps, and Busch took home the checkered flag by 2.998 seconds.
“It’s always really tough to say [what I needed at the end],” Elliott said. “I didn’t feel like I had a very good pit sequence on and off pit road, you know, that would’ve been a big one if I could’ve gained a big chunk of time there.
“But still, even if we were good enough to get by Ross [Chastain], [passing Busch] was going to take some time, and [Busch] was really stretching his lead at that juncture. By the time we got to second, I think [Busch] was probably just pacing himself out front.”
Like many drivers this weekend, Elliott also expressed the bittersweet emotions surrounding the final race in Auto Club’s current configuration.
“I hate to see [Auto Club] go, it was a great racetrack,” Elliott said. “We didn’t have many good runs here, but today was good. I guess it was nice to send it off on a somewhat high note. Hate to see it go, but obviously, it sounds like this is it.”
Elliott’s runner-up finish on Sunday comes on the heels of a 38th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and an inconsistent end to 2022. For a season that has 34 races left to be written, it’s a good start.
“I hope this [performance]…
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