1. Kyle Larson: Larson survived four late restarts and pulled away for the win at Fontana, finally snatching a win after three consecutive runner-up finishes.
Despite placing fourth on Sunday, no Ricky Stenhouse Jr. No Dale Earnhardt Jr. Neither Austin Dillon or Ty Dillon. No Danica Patrick. A.J. Allmendinger was third at Daytona, outside the Top Twenty ever since. One can have the name, the equipment, the marketing, but results are what matters and for some those results just have not been there just yet.
Ryan Newman ended his winless drought at Phoenix International Raceway. Newman stayed out while most of the front runners pitted for two tires after Joey Logano blew a right front tire that brought out the final caution flag of the day with six laps remaining. Newman held off Kyle Larson on the two-lap overtime restart to win his first race since 2013 on Sunday in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Camping World 500.
You had better luck finding Nemo than Ryan Newman in Victory Lane in recent years. He was there for the first time since July 28, 2013 in Indianapolis. That was surprising enough.
After their altercation both on track on the final lap and on pit road after the race in Las Vegas, NASCAR summoned Kyle Busch and Joey Logano to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series hauler for a meeting with series officials the following week in Phoenix.
Joey Logano launched his way to the top of the heap in Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Friday at Phoenix Raceway, claiming the first starting spot for Sunday's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event.
Wins mean everything, but doing well in the stages and coming home close to the front seems pretty important also this season. Last week, Matt Kenseth finished ninth, yet lost ground by 30 points to race winner Martin Truex Jr. in Las Vegas alone.
