NASCAR at Fontana results: Martin Truex Jr. wins Auto Club 400

A Kyle Busch bobble was the opening Martin Truex Jr. needed late in the Auto Club 400, allowing him to capitalize and win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

When Busch’s car wiggled down the down the backstretch as he and Truex battled with 32 laps remaining, Truex dove low to pass Busch then drove away to handily score his first win of the season. Truex had a margin of victory of 11.685 seconds over runner-up Kyle Larson.

In winning for the 16th time in his career, Truex completed a weekend sweep having captured the pole in qualifying Friday then taking all three stages on Sunday. It was his first victory since winning the Cup championship finale last November, which earned Truex his first series title.

“People kept asking, ‘When are you going to win again?’” Truex said. “‘When are you going to win any stages?’ Well, here you go.

“To get that first win off your back is big. You can focus in on getting more wins. It means a lot to all of us here.”

Busch slid to finish third, followed by Brad Keselowski in fourth and Joey Logano in fifth. Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon completed the top 10.

Kevin Harvick was attempting to win three consecutive races, but his hopes ended early after contact with Larson caused him to crash. Harvick and Larson were racing for the third position when Larson unbeknownst to Harvick pulled to his inside, and when Harvick tried to go low himself he banged into Larson’s car turning himself into the outside backstretch wall.

Harvick’s No. 4 car sustained significant damage, and though his team was able to make repairs he wasn’t a factor the rest of the afternoon. He finished 35th, nine laps behind Truex.

“I went down to side draft and (Larson) was coming up and just knocked the thing to the right and just spun out,” Harvick said. ”I don’t know that that was his fault. I think that was my fault for coming down the racetrack and trying to side draft and we touched. I tried to get a little too much there.”

Had Harvick not crashed he in all likelihood would’ve been in the mix to win for a fourth straight race -- Larson thought Harvick had the fastest car -- but his rare mistake prevented him from becoming just the ninth driver to accomplish the feat in NASCAR’s modern era (1972-present).

Instead, it was Truex celebrating in victory lane after turning in a performance resembling what he frequently did a year ago when he won a series-best eight races and the championship.

“This is a reassurance that what we’re doing is working,” Truex said. “It just feels good to win. I don’t really worry about who’s winning or who else is fast. Obviously, (Harvick) has been quick and they have a great team. But, as we’ve seen today, we can put together a run like that, as well.

“It feels good to be able to find that speed.”