Second to None, Kyle Larson Wins Auto Club 400

Could he be the next big thing? That's what you have to wonder after Kyle Larson dominated the Auto Club 400 on Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Larson led 110 laps and crossed the finish line first at the checkers to claim his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory for Chip Ganassi Racing. He also won the first stage and took second in the second stage. Those bonus points will come in handy when Larson begins the chase for the NASCAR title with 10 races remaining, and the way he's going, that opportunity can't come soon enough.

"This is just amazing," said Larson, who is five races into a 26-race regular season. "We've been so good all year long. Three seconds in a row and I've been watching all the TV that 'He doesn't know how to win.' But we knew how to win today."

There were six cautions in the final 20 laps; there was only one caution in the first 180, when Larson had a two-second lead in his Target Chevrolet.

"I was staying as calm as I could be," Larson said, "but also frustrated at the same time because it seemed like every time I get to the lead at the end of one of these things, the caution comes out and I have to fight people off on restarts."

Larson had to survive some anxious moments in the final laps. He pitted from the lead after a caution period, and when he emerged from pit road with eight laps remaining, he found himself fourth. But with fresher tires on the restart with five laps remaining, Larson passed Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., and leader Denny Hamlin before another caution flag fell with four laps remaining. That set up a green-white-checker restart, making the race two laps longer than the scheduled 200. Larson started from the outside and checked out, winning by more than 7/10ths of a second over Brad Keselowski, who had also pitted with eight laps remaining for fresh tires.

Larson's only other victory took place last year at Michigan, a two-mile track that provided the blueprint when Roger Penske built what was then known as California Speedway.

Larson would have tied a NASCAR record had he finished second for the fourth race in a row, but he was OK with trading a footnote in the record book for his victory in the history book on the two-mile oval celebrating its 20th anniversary. It capped a monster weekend for Larson; he won the NASCAR Xfinity race on Saturday, and started from the pole and won on Sunday. He is only the second driver to win from pole at Auto Club Speedway -- the other being southern California native Jimmie Johnson.

Larson, 24, is also a California native, but from the north; he is from Elk Grove, near Sacramento. After finishing 12th in the season-opening Daytona 500 restrictor plate race, Larson took second on the 1.5-mile ovals in Atlanta and Las Vegas, and the 1-mile bullring in Phoenix.

But on Sunday, he was second to none and extended his series lead to 29 points over Chase Elliott and 38 over Truex.

Larson won what was essentially a two-man race between him and Truex, who led 73 laps. Only 17 of the 200 laps were led by drivers other than Larson and Truex; Kyle Busch led seven of the 17.

Truex finished fourth and Busch seventh. The remainder of the Top 10 included Brad Keselowski second, Clint Bowyer third, Joey Logano fifth, McMurray sixth, rookie Daniel Suarez seventh, Ryan Blaney ninth, and Chase Elliott 10th. Elliott led four laps. Hamlin, who led four laps and restarted from the lead with five laps remaining, finished 14th after some late race contact.

Bowyer finished in the top five for the first time since 2015, a span of 52 races. Keselowski's performance was particularly striking because he had to come back from two incidents early in the race, including being spun by Johnson on Lap 3.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who seems to always struggle at Auto Club Speedway, finished 16th in his 600th career start; Johnson, who has won seven championships and has six victories at Auto Club Speedway, finished 21st.

About the author: Martin Henderson has written about sports for the Los Angeles Times and ESPN Los Angeles, and in 2013 was named Online Journalist of the Year while working for Patch.com.