Kyle Larson wins Cup race at Auto Club Speedway

Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, picking up where he left off in 2021.

The reigning series champion, who won four of the final five races last season, held off late charges by Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez to claim his first victory in Fontana, California, since 2017 after a chaotic restart with four laps to go.

“It’s always fun to win in the home state,” Larson, an Elk Grove, California native, told Fox. “Hard work all weekend there. Didn’t feel great in practice yesterday. (Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) and everybody made some good adjustments overnight and the car handled a lot better.”

Dillon finished second while Erik Jones, Suarez and Joey Logano completed the top five.

Tyler Reddick won each of the opening two stages and led a race-high and career-best 90 laps Sunday. But the Richard Childress Racing driver suffered a flat left-rear tire while leading with 49 laps to go. William Byron swerved to avoid Reddick exiting Turn 2 but lost control and collided with Reddick, ending Byron’s day prematurely and significantly damaging Reddick’s No. 8 car. Reddick finished 24th.

Stage 1 winner: Tyler Reddick

Stage 2 winner: Tyler Reddick

Next race: The series competes March 6 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on Fox)