After a couple of long, tension-packed finishes at Daytona and Las Vegas, the Auto Club 400 was significantly more subdued for the NASCAR Cup Series. The third stage ran 80 laps without a caution, and Alex Bowman cruised to his second career win by nearly ten seconds over Kyle Busch. Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott, and Brad Keselowski. While race number three of the season wasn’t nearly as eventful or full of action as the first two, it still wasn’t too hard to differentiate the good weekends from the bad.
Winner: The Busch Brothers
Both Kyle and Kurt Busch got off to slow starts. Neither Daytona nor Las Vegas went very well for either brother. In race number three of the season, Kyle finished second and Kurt finished third. Kurt had a great car all weekend. While Kyle was able to work his way up from a mid-pack start and gradually make his way over the course of 200 laps. Neither car quite had race-winning speed, but the showing at Auto Club was encouraging for both.
Loser: Ryan Blaney’s Tires
Ryan Blaney’s season began when he was edged out by Denny Hamlin at Daytona. Then he pitted from the front at Las Vegas, finishing outside of the top-ten. At Auto Club, Blaney was running in the second spot and was making subtle gains on leader Alex Bowman. Well, until he wasn’t. With a few laps to go, Blaney’s pace slowed, and eventually, his right rear tire began to come apart. Blaney was forced to pit and finished 19th, off of the lead lap.
Winner: Hendrick Motorsports
After a fairly disappointing season in 2019, Hendrick Motorsports had relatively low expectations coming into this season. At least in terms of competing with the series’ top teams. So far, they have been arguably the fastest all-around team. Alex Bowman dominated at Auto Club, Chase Elliott finished fourth, and Jimmie Johnson finished seventh. All four Hendrick cars have shown good speed in both qualifying and the races, which is a pretty good combination.
Loser: Pole Awards
If Sunday’s race was any indication, the importance of a pole award in today’s NASCAR is declining. Time will tell whether that trend will last for an extended portion of the season, but Clint Bowyer’s pole on Saturday led to almost nothing on Sunday. His car ran well in the front of the pack, but it was clear he was built for single-car, short-run speed. Once the 14 slipped back into traffic, it was, as Bowyer said during the race, ‘garbage.’
Winner: Restoration to Order
Looking at the standings early in the season is always entertaining, and if you would have checked them after Las Vegas, the shock would have been real. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was inside the top-five, and Bubba Wallace and Corey LaJoie were both inside the Chase cut line. With the results from Auto Club taken into consideration, things are beginning to look a bit more predictable. Sucks for LaJoie fans, but good for the quality of the playoffs.
Loser: JTG Daugherty Racing
After Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished third at Las Vegas, life was looking up for JTG Daugherty Racing, a team that showed some promise last year and appears to have some decent speed so far in 2020. Auto Club was a big step back for the team. Ryan Preece finished outside of the top-25 and Stenhouse finished off of the lead lap in 20th but even worse was the penalty both drivers received prior to the race. Both Preece and Stenhouse were docked ten points in the standings for improper body modifications, a penalty that could hurt later in the season.
Winner: Stage Points
As mentioned earlier, Ryan Blaney finished off of the lead lap in Sunday’s race. Despite that, he is still the Cup Series points leader through three races. Blaney was aided by his 19 combined stage points, including a stage victory. The importance of stage points in today’s NASCAR should not be overlooked. It may be early in the season, but they’ve kept Blaney on top of the standings so far.
Loser: Christopher Bell
It’s been a rough go for the Cup rookies this season, but Christopher Bell has had the worst start of them all. He dropped a cylinder about midway through the race and finished dead last, in 38th, continuing his awful luck. Bell has a combined 13 points through three races. He’s currently behind Ryan Newman (who has one start), Brennan Poole, David Ragan (who has one start), and Daniel Suarez (who has two starts) in the standings.