The Wise Power 400 took place at Auto Club Speedway in California Sunday (2/27) and defending NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson raced from back to front to win in his home state.
This was the second race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season and the second points race in the new next gen cars. These cars are intended to level the playing field between big race teams and small race teams. They are also supposed to be hard to driver putting more emphasis on the driver ability in the car. Sunday’s race made it look like both of those goals are being achieved.
Early in the race it was Tyler Reddick that looked to be the car to beat. While he ran through the first two stages racking up the most laps led in the race, he won both the first and second stages of the race. During those stages of the race there were both large team drivers and small team drivers racing in the top 10. That continued all race long.
Tyler continued to dominate in the third and final stage of the race. Unfortunately, he was one of several cars that experienced tire issues. A flat tire for Tyler with less than 50 laps remaining in the race ended his chance to win the race.
Kyle Larson started the race from the back of the field. It was a penalty after having to make repairs following practice and qualifying Saturday (2/26). He kept racing forward through the field all race long until he was racing for the win with the laps winding down. Kyle was able to race back to the lead after the re-start following the 12th and final caution period of the race. He held off the challenges over the final few laps to score his first win of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. It was his second career win at Auto Club Speedway.
Austin Dillon finished in the runner-up position. Erik Jones was also strong most of the day and claimed a third place finish. Daniel Suarez finished in fourth place with Joey Logano wrapping up the top five. See the complete race results for the Wise Power 400 here.
Next week the teams and drivers will gamble for the win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Pennzoil 400 Sunday afternoon March 6th.
By: Buck Stevens
