The 2017 Auto Club 400 was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race that was held on March 26, 2017, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Contested over 202 laps, extended from 200 laps due to overtime, on the D-shaped oval, it was the fifth race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. The race was won by Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing for his second Cup Series victory, leading the most laps from pole position.

Entry list Driver Team Manufacturer 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 13 Ty Dillon (R) Germain Racing Chevrolet 14 Clint Bowyer Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 15 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Toyota 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 19 Daniel Suárez (R) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21 Ryan Blaney Wood Brothers Racing Ford 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 23 Gray Gaulding (R) BK Racing Toyota 24 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 32 Matt DiBenedetto Go Fas Racing Ford 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Circle Sport – The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 34 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 37 Chris Buescher JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 38 David Ragan Front Row Motorsports Ford 41 Kurt Busch Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51 Timmy Hill (i) Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet 55 Derrike Cope Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 72 Cole Whitt Tri-Star Motorsports Chevrolet 77 Erik Jones (R) Furniture Row Racing Toyota 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 83 Corey LaJoie (R) BK Racing Toyota 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 95 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing ChevroletOfficial entry list

Practice

First practice Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 38.081 seconds and a speed of .

Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 38.081 189.071 2 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 38.204 188.462 3 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 38.228 188.344Official first practice results

Second practice Erik Jones was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 38.451 seconds and a speed of . PosDriverTeamManufacturerTime177Erik Jones (R)Furniture Row RacingToyota38.451187.251224Chase ElliottHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet38.535186.843331Ryan NewmanRichard Childress RacingChevrolet38.558186.732Official second practice results

Final practice Chase Elliott was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 38.404 seconds and a speed of . PosDriverTeamManufacturerTime124Chase ElliottHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet38.404187.480278Martin Truex Jr.Furniture Row RacingToyota38.425187.378321Ryan BlaneyWood Brothers RacingFord38.489187.066Official final practice results

Qualifying Kyle Larson scored the pole for the race with a time of 38.493 and a speed of . “It was an interesting qualifying for us,” Larson said. “I ran the bottom in Turns 3 and 4. I knew everybody was running the top in 3 and 4 and my plan was to go up there in the second round, but thought I maybe got through 1 and 2 okay enough to run the bottom. I knew the third round I was going to have to move up. Our Target Chevy was really good, really balanced up there. I was surprised."

Qualifying results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer 142 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 38.551 38.679 38.493 211 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 38.552 38.519 38.507 32 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 38.454 38.847 38.606 478 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 38.775 38.818 38.630 531 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 38.735 38.948 38.684 620 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 38.646 38.570 38.702 74 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 38.245 38.549 38.710 81 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 38.818 38.628 38.768 918 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 38.487 38.668 38.835 1019 Daniel Suárez (R) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 38.890 38.799 38.958 113 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 38.937 38.860 38.980 125 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 38.805 38.910 39.139 1324 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 39.923 38.954 — 1477 Erik Jones (R) Furniture Row Racing Toyota 39.311 38.973 — 1541 Kurt Busch Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 38.878 39.005 — 1617 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 38.923 39.050 — 1714 Clint Bowyer Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 38.855 39.152 — 1888 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 38.829 39.180 — 1921 Ryan Blaney Wood Brothers Racing Ford 39.141 39.207 — 2037 Chris Buescher JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 39.130 39.286 — 2113 Ty Dillon (R) Germain Racing Chevrolet 38.935 39.322 — 2210 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 38.901 39.341 — 2327 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 39.217 0.000 — 2447 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 39.240 0.000 — 2595 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 39.408 — — 2634 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 39.409 — — 2738 David Ragan Front Row Motorsports Ford 39.640 — — 2872 Cole Whitt TriStar Motorsports Chevrolet 39.708 — — 2915 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Toyota 40.028 — — 3083 Corey LaJoie (R) BK Racing Toyota 40.039 — — 3143 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 40.948 — — 3233 Jeffrey Earnhardt Circle Sport – The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 41.128 — — 3355 Derrike Cope Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 41.455 — — 3451 Timmy Hill (i) Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet 41.783 — — 3522 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 0.000 — — 366 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 0.000 — — 3748 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 0.000 — — 3832 Matt DiBenedetto Go Fas Racing Ford 0.000 — — 3923 Gray Gaulding (R) BK Racing Toyota 0.000 — —Official qualifying results

Race First stage Kyle Larson led the field to the green flag at 3:50 p.m. On the initial start, Denny Hamlin spun his tires and forced Brad Keselowski to check up. He backed into Ryan Newman – and Kevin Harvick, who was lined up behind Newman – and was turned up the track, damaging the left-rear quarter panel in the process. Keselowski kept going, but got loose exiting Turn 4, with help from Jimmie Johnson, and spun through the frontstretch grass, bringing out the first caution of the race on the third lap.

The race restarted on the eighth lap. Harvick made an unscheduled stop for damage on lap 23. A cycle of green flag stops started on lap 30 and resulted in Martin Truex Jr. cycling to the lead. Larson took it back exiting Turn 4 on lap 49, won the first stage and the second caution flew for the completion of the stage on lap 60. Truex exited pit road first. Ryan Blaney (removing equipment from the pit box) and Austin Dillon (speeding) restarted the race from the tail end of the field for pit road infractions.

Second stage The race restarted on lap 68. The second stage was only broken up by green flag stops on lap 91, which resulted in Truex retaining the lead. It ended with him winning the stage and the third caution flew on lap 120 for its completion.

Final stage

The race restarted with 73 laps to go. Larson powered by Truex on the bottom in Turn 1 to retake the lead on the restart. For most of the stage, it was a repeat of the second stage. It was broken up with 49 to go when cars started pitting under green, Larson and Truex pitted together with 45 to go and Larson regained it with 37 to go. During the cycle, Kyle Busch led for a few laps, followed by Ty Dillon and Johnson was turned by Truex on pit road. Gray Gaulding suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 1, bringing out the fourth caution with 20 to go. Truex, who entered pit road under the caution second, left seventh after he "stopped too deep in the box."

The race restarted with 16 to go. Exiting Turn 2 on the restart, Truex hooked the left-rear corner of Matt Kenseth, then sent him spinning down the track and into the inside retaining wall, bringing out the fifth caution.

The race restarted with 11 to go. Two laps later, Corey LaJoie spun out in Turn 2, bringing out the sixth caution. Hamlin, taking the lead as a result, Truex and Jamie McMurray elected to stay out under the caution, while everyone else hit pit road.

The race restarted with five to go. Larson quickly took second from Truex on the backstretch and had a run on Hamlin, but found himself boxed in by Truex to his left and the outside wall to his right. He made the pass for the lead exiting Turn 2 with three to go seconds before the seventh caution flew for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spinning out in Turn 2.

Overtime The race restarted in overtime with two to go and Larson drove on to score the victory.

Post-race

Driver comments In victory lane, Larson said of the final two restarts that he was "staying as calm as [he] could," but he was "frustrated" as well. "It seems like every time I get to the lead at the end of one of these things, the caution comes out and I've got to fight people off on restarts," he added. "Our Target Chevy was amazing all day. We were able to lead a lot of laps today. Truex was better than us that second stage by quite a bit. We were able to get the jump on him the following restart and led pretty much the rest of the distance. I had to fight them off there after the green flag stops (before the final caution), and that was a lot of fun. This is just amazing. We've been so good all year long, three seconds in a row. I've been watching all the TV like 'He doesn't know how to win,' but we knew how to win today, so that was good."

"Great perseverance from this team," Keselowski said on pit road after rallying from a Lap 3 spin to finish runner-up. "I got out of the car and looked at the damage. It's torn to pieces. I feel lucky to finish second and curious what we could have done if we weren't torn up. Great day for us to persevere, despite adversity. You'll have that in a 36-race season, so proud of team for that."

Clint Bowyer, who earned his first top-five finish since the 2015 Irwin Tools Night Race with a third-place finish, said his team is "getting closer. This is a good track for me. I wanted to win that damn thing, but to come home with a wild finish and everything that it was, we’ll take it.”

Truex, who finished fourth after electing not to pit under the penultimate caution, said it was "not the situation we wanted to be in, but we thought more guys would stay out there. I think we only ran a few laps. It was definitely a disadvantage at the end and just really tight. Holding on for fourth was good for points.”

Race results

Stage results

Stage 1 Laps: 60

Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Points1 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 102 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 93 24 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 84 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 75 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 66 14 Clint Bowyer Stewart–Haas Racing Ford 57 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 48 77 Erik Jones (R) Furniture Row Racing Toyota 39 21 Ryan Blaney Wood Brothers Racing Ford 210 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 1Official stage one results

Stage 2 Laps: 60