FONTANA, CAL. – After narrowly losing last weekend’s Xfinity season opener at Daytona, John Hunter Nemechek won Sunday night’s race at Auto Club Speedway, led a race-high 49 laps at ACS. He emerged victorious in a neck-to-neck battle when he took the lead for the last time after a restart on Lap 139 of 150 and held off Sam Mayer until he took the checkered flag.
His margin over second-place Sam Mayer was .761 of a second.
There were 10 caution periods for a total of 41 laps. Twenty-six of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Nemechek leaves Fontana as the championship leader with a nine-point advantage over second-place Chandler Smith.
The victory is Nemechek’s third in the Xfinity Series and first since Oct. 2021 at Texas.
Format: 150 laps, broken into three stages (35 laps/35 laps/80 laps)
Race Winner: John Hunter Nemechek of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Cole Custer of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Cole Custer of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
SHR Race Finish:
- Riley Herbst (Started 6th, Finished 7th / Running, completed 150 of 150 laps)
- Cole Custer (Started 8th, Finished 27th / Running completed 149 of 150 laps)
SHR Points:
- Riley Herbst (6th with 38 points, 13 out of first)
- Cole Custer (11th with 30 points, 21 out of first)
SHR Notes
Riley Herbst earned his second top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in three career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Fontana. He finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and ninth in Stage 2 to earn two more bonus points.
“It’s tough. We finished seventh, but we had a top-five Monster Energy Ford Mustang all day. Just couldn’t catch a break. We’ll move on to Vegas,” said Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cole Custer won the first two stages to collect 20 bonus points and two playoff points. He led twice for 46 laps to increase his laps-led total at Fontana to 155.
“Our Production Alliance Group Ford Mustang was super fast. We had a car capable of winning but had one restart not go our way, and then in the next one our right front (tire) went down and we got damaged and, after that, we just couldn’t get back from there – just too much damage to overcome. It’s frustrating. We had such a fast car and couldn’t capitalize on it,” said Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Production Alliance Group Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Alsco Uniforms 300 on Saturday, March 4 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race begins at 4:30 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
