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Loop Data Box Score

NASCAR Cup Series

PALA Casino 400

Auto Club Speedway

February 26th, 2023

Race #2 of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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PALA Casino 400
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Laps Scheduled: 200
Miles Raced : 400.0
Time of Race : 03 Hours 08 minutes 05 seconds
Average Speed: 127.603 mph
Margin of Victory : 02.998 seconds
Cautions: 8
Caution Laps: 38
Lead Changes: 28

Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr lead the field — Fontana, California - February 26th, 2023: Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Sirius XM Toyota, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr, driver of the #47 Ralphs/Tree Top Chevrolet, lead the field on a pace lap prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway. Photo by Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Kyle Busch	21	5	1	1	1	32	6.9	+20	126	87	+39	66	23	85.5%	27	200	124.9	49
Chase Elliott	33	13	3	2	1	35	10.9	+31	149	110	+39	78	6	79.5%	1	200	99.8	40
Ross Chastain	8	1	4	3	1	23	3.0	+5	49	42	+7	34	22	96.0%	91	200	137.6	54
Daniel Suarez	7	6	8	4	1	33	7.8	+3	98	76	+22	71	9	88.5%	0	200	113.9	47
Kevin Harvick	10	7	5	5	1	28	9.0	+5	109	101	+8	72	11	88.0%	5	200	103.4	42
Denny Hamlin	13	2	9	6	1	20	6.4	+7	98	81	+17	79	10	96.0%	11	200	106.3	42
Brad Keselowski	16	15	10	7	1	35	16.9	+9	113	99	+14	75	8	61.5%	2	200	89.0	32
Alex Bowman	4	8	11	8	1	17	7.5	-4	84	75	+9	69	4	98.5%	17	200	102.0	39
Austin Dillon	28	17	6	9	1	34	16.0	+19	165	158	+7	56	1	53.0%	3	200	75.6	28
Joey Logano	3	3	7	10	1	26	4.6	-7	80	88	-8	54	12	98.0%	19	200	111.8	39
Martin Truex Jr	14	30	12	11	4	35	19.2	+3	105	54	+51	44	1	46.5%	0	200	82.3	28
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	2	10	15	12	2	24	12.5	-10	113	128	-15	84	2	91.0%	0	200	83.6	25
Chris Buescher	5	11	13	13	3	33	16.2	-8	120	134	-14	59	1	62.0%	0	200	72.4	24
Corey Lajoie	12	18	17	14	5	32	14.4	-2	123	125	-2	70	1	68.0%	0	200	76.3	24
Harrison Burton	24	19	20	15	1	32	21.2	+9	128	137	-9	19	1	9.0%	0	200	59.9	22
Ty Gibbs	23	21	18	16	7	29	18.2	+7	145	146	-1	27	1	21.5%	0	200	62.3	21
Todd Gilliland	25	20	19	17	5	35	23.5	+8	98	109	-11	11	0	5.5%	0	200	52.0	20
Michael McDowell	26	16	2	18	1	31	18.6	+8	125	129	-4	17	0	21.0%	6	200	59.0	19
Erik Jones	34	12	16	19	6	34	16.2	+15	127	128	-1	50	0	52.0%	0	200	63.5	18
Chase Briscoe	31	24	21	20	9	35	25.7	+11	78	91	-13	13	3	5.5%	0	200	44.3	17
Justin Haley	29	22	22	21	10	29	22.0	+8	139	125	+14	2	0	4.5%	0	199	52.0	16
Noah Gragson	20	26	23	22	1	28	20.5	-2	116	135	-19	31	0	21.0%	1	199	49.7	15
JJ Yeley	22	25	24	23	16	35	26.8	-1	59	79	-20	0	0	0.0%	0	199	38.3	14
BJ McLeod	30	27	25	24	14	33	27.0	+6	70	78	-8	1	0	0.0%	0	199	41.3	13
William Byron	32	4	14	25	1	32	12.1	+7	98	102	-4	56	2	71.5%	0	198	74.4	17
Ryan Blaney	9	28	26	26	1	30	18.8	-17	44	29	+15	28	11	36.5%	16	196	72.1	20
Cody Ware	11	29	27	27	11	36	30.8	-16	12	41	-29	0	0	0.0%	0	195	31.2	10
Austin Cindric	19	14	28	28	11	29	20.6	-9	104	123	-19	27	0	24.5%	0	194	49.3	9
Kyle Larson	15	35	30	29	7	36	31.8	-14	23	38	-15	16	22	5.5%	0	185	47.6	8
Bubba Wallace	18	9	29	30	4	26	14.9	-12	108	115	-7	64	2	65.5%	0	172	67.1	7
Ty Dillon	36	23	31	31	17	36	28.6	+5	67	79	-12	0	0	0.0%	0	140	37.0	6
Christopher Bell	1	31	32	32	1	32	24.9	-31	63	68	-5	19	0	18.5%	1	88	49.8	5
Ryan Preece	27	32	33	33	1	31	27.6	-6	85	99	-14	2	0	5.0%	0	87	32.7	4
Tyler Reddick	35	33	34	34	14	35	28.4	+1	177	154	+23	2	0	0.0%	0	87	41.5	3
Aric Almirola	17	34	35	35	12	30	29.3	-18	57	72	-15	4	0	1.5%	0	86	33.5	2
AJ Allmendinger	6	36	36	36	4	35	27.5	-30	57	73	-16	28	0	19.5%	0	75	52.0	1

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Race Fast Facts

Auto Club Speedway
Pala Casino 400
Race Winner: Kyle Busch
Age: 37
Team: No. 8 - Lucas Oil Chevrolet
Owner: Richard Childress Racing
Crew Chief: Randall Burnett
Kyle Busch won the Pala Casino 400, his 61st victory in 644 Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in 2023.
This is his fifth victory and 17th top-10 finish in 24 races at Auto Club Speedway.
Chase Elliott (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in seven races at Auto Club Speedway. It is his first top-10 finish in 2023.
Ross Chastain (third) posted his first top-10 finish in five races at Auto Club Speedway.
Ty Gibbs (16th) was the highest finishing rookie.
With his win today, Kyle Busch has now won a Cup Series race in 19 consecutive seasons, breaking a tie with Richard Petty for first all time who had won a race for 18 consecutive seasons from 1960 - 1977.
With his win today, Kyle and Kurt Busch now have a combined 95 Cup Series wins making them the winningest brothers in NASCAR history, breaking a tie with Bobby and Donnie Allison.

Race Recap

Kyle Busch gets milestone NASCAR Cup victory in Fontana finale

February 26th, 2023

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

The Kyle Busch era at Richard Childress Racing began three weeks ago at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but the coronation was reserved for Sunday’s Pala Casino 400 in the last NASCAR Cup Series race at 2.0-mile Auto Club Speedway.

Busch grabbed the lead from Ross Chastain on Lap 165 and regained it on Lap 180 at the end of a cycle of green-flag pit stops, as the race ran under green for the final 55 laps. He crossed the finish line on Lap 200 with a 2.998-second advantage over runner-up Chase Elliott.

The victory was the 61st of Busch’s career, most among active drivers and ninth all-time. For the 19th straight season, Busch has won at least one NASCAR Cup Series race, breaking a tie with seven-time champion Richard Petty for the series record.

Kyle and Kurt Busch now hold the record for most combined Cup victories by brothers with 95, one more than the total accumulated by Bobby and Donnie Allison.

Coincidentally, Busch claimed the first Cup win of his career at Auto Club, the bulk of whose property was recently sold—with plans to replace the 2.0-mile speedway with a half-mile short track.

Busch’s victory at Auto Club came in his second start in the No. 8 Chevrolet for RCR, the team he joined after 15 seasons and two series championships with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I can’t thank Richard and Judy (Childress) enough, Austin (Dillon) for calling me and getting me talking and getting me the opportunity to come over here to RCR,” said Busch, who had to overcome a pit road speeding penalty under caution on Lap 43.

“The guys did a great job. (Crew chief) Randall (Burnett)—everybody that worked so hard in the offseason. We did a lot of sim stuff, a lot of testing in general, just trying to get up to speed. There is nothing more rewarding than being able to go to Victory Lane…

“You put yourself in a different situation and you’re able to reward your guys. It’s not about me always winning, but about the guys. I’ve worked with a lot of great people who’ve given me a lot of great opportunities in my career. It’s awesome to be able to reward them.”

With qualifying rained out on Saturday, Elliott started 31st according to a metric formula based on owner points and performance in the previous race (the DAYTONA 500). Throughout the race, Elliott’s crew made the No. 9 Chevrolet better. By race’s end, it was competitive with the fastest cars in the field.

“Yeah, just really proud of our team,” Elliott said. “We obviously didn’t run very good there toward the end of the year last year, and just everybody really went to work hard over the winter to try and get better…

“Obviously, I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that’s always a good thing…

“Congratulations to Kyle. For him to leave and then to go get the job done like that is pretty cool. He’s always been really good to me, so happy for them and looking forward to getting to Vegas and hopefully competing for some more wins.”

Chastain led a race-high 91 laps to Busch’s 27 and finished third after sweeping the first two stages, the second by 6.673 seconds. Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing teammate, Daniel Suárez ran fourth, followed by Kevin Harvick. Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano completed the top 10.

A multicar accident during a restart on Lap 86 eliminated polesitter Christopher Bell, as well as Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola and Tyler Reddick. Ryan Blaney, who ran at or near the front of the field in Stage 1, sustained heavy damage to his No. 12 Ford during the wreck and finished 26th.