The 2020 Auto Club 400 was a

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

held on March 1, 2020, at

Auto Club Speedway Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previ ...

Fontana, California Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It is now a regional h ...

. Contested over 200 laps on the D-shaped oval, it was the third race of the

2020 NASCAR Cup Series The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series was the 72nd season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 49th season for the modern era NASCAR Cup Series, Cup Series. The season began at Daytona International Speedway with the ...

season.

Report

Background

Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway) is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It is also used for open wheel racing events. The racetrack is located near the former locations of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway. The track is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation and is the only track owned by ISC to have naming rights sold. The speedway is served by the nearby Interstate 10 and Interstate 15 freeways as well as a Metrolink station located behind the backstretch.

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver. * (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Practice

First practice

Alex Bowman Alex Michael Bowman (born April 25, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Seri ...

was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 40.125 seconds and a speed of .

Final practice

was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 40.764 seconds and a speed of .

Qualifying

Clint Bowyer Driver Introductions Sonoma 2019

Clint Bowyer Clinton Edward Bowyer (born May 30, 1979) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and commentator for ''NASCAR on Fox''. He competed in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2005 to 2020, driving for Richard Childress Racing for eight yea ...

scored the pole for the race with a time of 40.086 and a speed of .

Qualifying results

Race

Stage Results

Stage One ''Laps:'' 60 Stage Two ''Laps:'' 60

Final Stage Results

Stage Three ''Laps:'' 80

Race statistics

* Lead changes: 16 among 8 different drivers * Cautions/Laps: 3 for 13 * Red flags: 0 * Time of race: 2 hours, 37 minutes and 7 seconds * Average speed:

Media

Television

The race was the 20th race

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

covered at the

Mike Joy Michael Joy (born November 25, 1949) is an American TV sports announcer and who currently serves as the lap-by-lap voice of Fox Sports' coverage of NASCAR. His color analyst is Clint Bowyer. Counting 2022, Joy has been part of the live broadcast ...

and three-time Auto Club winner

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

called the race in the booth for Fox.

Jamie Little Jamie Little (born April 9, 1978) is an American pit reporter for NASCAR coverage on Fox. Little is a former pit reporter for ESPN/ABC coverage of the Indy Racing League, although she returned to her pit reporting duty for the 2007 and 2008 In ...

, Regan Smith,

Vince Welch Vincent Welch (born August 4, 1964) is an American radio and television personality most recently for Fox Sports. Until 2022, Welch was the play-by-play commentator for NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and occasionally, a pit reporter for FOX ...

and

Matt Yocum Matthew Yocum (born April 8, 1968) is a long-standing reporter in motorsports, best known for being a NASCAR pit reporter. He works for CBS as a pit reporter to cover the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) as of 2021. He most recently worked in tha ...

handled the pit road duties for the television side.

Larry McReynolds Lawrence Joseph McReynolds III (born January 10, 1959) is a current NASCAR crew chief and current racing analyst on Fox Sports as well as a columnist on Foxsports.com. In the past, he has served as an advisor to Petty Enterprises, and as a mi ...

and

Jamie McMurray James Christopher McMurray (born June 3, 1976), nicknamed Jamie Mac, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and currently an analyst for ''Fox NASCAR''. He raced in the NASCAR Cup Series on a full-time basis from 2003 to 2018 b ...

provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

Radio

MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and 2001 race winner

Rusty Wallace Russell William "Rusty" Wallace Jr. (born August 14, 1956) is an American former NASCAR racing driver. He has won the 1984 NASCAR Cup series Rookie of the Year and the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. Over the course of his successful care ...

called the race from the booth when the field raced their way down the front stretch. Dan Hubbard called the race from a billboard outside turn 2 when the field raced their way through turns 1 and 2 & Kyle Rickey called the race from a billboard outside turn 3 when the field raced their way through turns 3 and 4. Kim Coon, Steve Post and Dillon Welch had the pit road duties for MRN.

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Manufacturers' Championship standings *Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

References

{{2020 NASCAR Cup

Auto Club 400 The Pala Casino 400 is a 400-mile (643.737 km) NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. It is the second race of the Cup Series season (after the Daytona 500) and has been since 2022 as well ...

NASCAR races at Auto Club Speedway