Fontana. The fifth race of the year, and the last of what I like to call the opening segment of the season, this race is fast, furious, and fun. And no matter the scenario, it almost always produces a wild finish with late race passing, and late race wrecking. A race to circle on your calendar.

Kyle Larson, the favorite coming into the race, won the pole, won the Xfinity race, and clearly seemed like the man to beat, After a scramble at t he start of the race, in which several notable drivers (Including Brad Keslowski and Kevin Harvick) were badly damaged, Larson pulled ahead of the field, and in a relatively calm segment one, he was the victor. However, he was pursued throughout the segment by a very fast Martin Truex Jr.

And as the second segment began, Truex managed to get past Larson. After that, Truex pulled away. A lot. He drove away to a multiple second lead. Larson was fast, but Truex was lightning fast. No one was remotely as fast as Truex, and he won segment two.

The first two segments had been relatively quiet, and had been caution free other than a lap seven caution for a cut tire by Brad Keslowski. However, segment three is always, always, the busy one. Strategy, wrecks, and all around chaos. While the start of the segment was calm, an epic battle for the lead began.

Truex and Larson dueled back and forth, each trying to gain the lead. However, this run, Larson was a little better than Truex. he was just barely able to pull ahead of Truex, and maintain about a one second lead. However, strategy was beginning to take a strange tone in the race. In Fontana, tire wear is extreme, and fresh tires can make you two second a lap faster than those on old tires. The final segment was 80 laps. So you could make it with just one stop. However, most drivers were considering two. It would nt only give you fresher tires, but less likely hood of cut tires. Most of the leaders, Larson and Truex among them, went with the two stop strategy. However, Kyle Busch went with the one stop strategy. It was a gamble, but it seemed as though it would pay off. Just as the second cycle of pit stops began, the unexpected happened. A caution. That was unexpected. And it caught third place Chase Elliot off guard as he was just now done with his pit stop. While he managed to get the lucky dog to return to the lead lap, it was a stroke of bad luck for the 24 team. It also didn’t work out so well for Busch, who was now back on the same strategy as everyone else, and not in the lead.

Everyone hit pit road, and Larson was the leader. However, on the restart, another caution flew just a few laps later. One or two laps of racing, and new tires were already considered useful. On the pit stop, Truex’s crew had it’s first bad stop of the day. Without Truex to challenge him, Larson drove to the lead like a madman. However, the caution waved about two seconds after he was in the lead. I don’t know about you, but if I were Larson, I’d be pretty annoyed about now.

Yet another restart began, and another caution occurred this time. Truex was scrambling, trying to maintain, his position, when he made contact with a loose Matt Knseth. Kenseth spun down the track, and slammed the inside wall, damaging his car beyond repair.

The caution was out again, and another restart for Larson. However, no one near him was nearly as fast, and he easily pulled away. But, another caution. This time, there had been enough laps that tires would prove helpful. Drivers turned down pit road, but Truex, Denny Hamlin, and Jamie McMurray stayed out, hoping that the lack of lap time left would offset the lack of fresh rubber.

Well, it didn’t. Less than a lap and a half later, Larson was in the lead, and Ricku Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne made contact, spinning Stenhouse and causing another caution. This was getting a little ridiculous. Will it ever end? Well, good news, this was the last time the caution flew.

Larson had one of the best restarts of his career, and leapt ahead of the field. His closest competitor was Brad Keslowski. Yeah, the guy who wrecked at the start of the race. Like he was going to challenge Larson.

After three straight runner up finishes, a heart breaking loss in the Daytona 500, and who knows how many other runner up finishes since his last win, Kyle Larson won in Fontana. It was his second career victory, and he had swept the weekend in California. Larson is now not only in the points lead, but clearly the dominant driver thus far in 2017. The 42 is on fire. How I do enjoy it when my predictions are right. It makes me happy. 🙂