NASCAR Cup Series

KASEY AT AUTO CLUB: The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series encounters the first two-mile track of the season this weekend at Auto Club Speedway. Kasey Kahne is familiar with Victory Lane at the Fontana, California, track, taking home the checkered flag in the September 2006 race.

Bayne will make his third career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) start at Auto Club Speedway this weekend.

Following a 27th-place finish in Phoenix, Brian Scott and the No. 44 Albertsons/Whitetail Ford team are powering ahead to the two-mile D-shaped speedway in Fontana, California. Scott struggled early in the race at Phoenix, battling a tight racecar and unable to find the grip needed to speed the Ford Fusion to the front.

Aric Almirola is riding the momentum of a Top-15 finish in the desert heading into southern California's Auto Club Speedway. The No. 43 Smithfield Ford team scored a 13th-place finish in Phoenix, NASCAR's first short track of the season, and currently sits 13th in the Sprint Cup Series Championship Point Standings.

Biffle has 21 Sprint Cup Series starts at Fontana, earning one win, four top-five and seven top-10 finishes, while also leading 297 laps total.

Richard Childress Racing's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history at Auto Club Speedway ... In 80 overall NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Auto Club Speedway, RCR Chevrolet teams have earned one win (Kevin Harvick - 2011), one pole award (Mike Skinner - April 2000), 12 top-five and 28 top-10 finishes.

If Martin Truex Jr. would have to describe the coarseness of Auto Club Speedway with an emoji on his smartphone, he would most likely insert a thumbs up along with a smiling face. The Furniture Row Racing driver calls the Southern California 2-mile oval “one of the most fun racetracks on the circuit.”

NASCAR’s western swing comes to a close this weekend at Auto Club Speedway, where Brad Keselowski is the defending champion. Keselowski, who won at Las Vegas two weeks ago, will look to become the first repeat winner in 2016 as the first four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races have been won by different drivers.

A phoenix rises from the ashes to be reborn. In Phoenix, Kevin Harvick rose from the tears of Carl Edwards to once again become the Cactus King, the driver to beat at Phoenix.

After one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, here was what was surprising and not surprising from the 12th Annual Good Sam 500.