Reigning California champion Dave Miller looks to recapture his West-Coast dominance with his first victory of the season. He will have to get by rookie Mark Murphy, who captured his first career pole on Friday and looks to beat out the veterans on this wide-smooth racetrack.

Race Results

Points Standings

Schedule

The first 40+ laps saw Tony Pizzaro lead every lap. Every car that could handle early broke into the first pack, leaving the #12 in charge of pulling the train. The rest were mired behind in agony, including the rookie pole-sitter.

After green flag pit stops, several issues befell the drivers running mid-pack. Donald Stewart and David Butterwoth blew their engines between laps 45 and 60. The Steven Spears machine suffered a flat left-front tire and fell a lap down, finishing in 37th.

The first lead change occurred on lap 51, as Ryan Heuser flew by the #12 machine on the frontstretch. He and John Tharp were able to pull away from the entire field , swapping the lead a couple of times until the second round of pit stops on lap 83.

Lap 92 saw something brake on the front of Zakk Miller's car. With no apparent contact from Jimmie Stevens, the car, Zakk's brakes locked on the frontstretch and slid hundreds of yards until coming to a stop in turn 1. This brought out the first caution, where Dan Johnston went for a spin coming out of the pit lane.

Zach Michael was penalized for an unsafe pit entry during the first round of stops. On the lap 97 restart, he pulled in front of Ryan to get his lap back. He maintained the position for the entire run, pulling the field along as the other lapped cars scurried four-wide with the leaders.

Matthew Dominique began his run of 12 laps led with Dave Miller sneaking up behind. The two swapped the lead several times with Tony Pizzaro and Ryan Heuser lurking behind. Ben Geer, Ken Pettit and Scott Jackson were also in the mix.

William "Tex" Perry and Scott Jackson made contact in turn 3 on lap 136. Tex's car went flying into the outside wall rear-first and hit hard, nearly rupturing the fuel tank. He would somehow continue on to finish 40th.

The late stages saw Pizzaro at the helm again after an excellent pit stop. On lap 141, Dave Miller and pole-sitter Mark Murphy came in to fix loose lug-nuts, both going a lap down. This would leave Heuser and Pizzaro as the remaining two cars battling for victory.

With 23 laps to go, Heuser was able to beat Pizzaro out of the pits and pull himself a half-second out front. Three laps later, the handling already fell off, and Pizzaro was able to scoot by in turn 2 without an issue. Barring a caution, this was Pizzaro's race to lose.

Pulling a head by two extra seconds, the Boston Red Sox machine flew to another victory at the Auto Club Speedway, making it his third victory in the last four years. Congrats to Tony, crew chief Neil Justice and the Race2Win team for an excellent victory!

Auto Club 400 Video