Ross Chastain scored the Stage 1 win in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway. The 30-year-old Trackhouse Racing driver held off Ryan Blaney to score the Stage Win.
As a result of the Stage Win, Chastain will pocket 10 NASCAR Cup Series championship points, and he'll also add one Playoff Point to his 2023 totals.
Here are the top-10 finishers, which scored points in Stage 1 of Sunday's Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway:
- 1 - Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, 10 points, 1 playoff point
- 12 - Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford, 9 points
- 99 - Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, 8 points
- 48 - Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 7 points
- 11 - Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 6 points
- 24 - William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 5 points
- 22 - Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford, 4 points
- 4 - Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, 3 points
- 19 - Martin Truex Jr., Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2 points
- 9 - Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 1 point
Truex, who finished ninth in the Stage, rallied after an uncontrolled tire penalty on an early pit stop in the race. Here is video of the issue that hampered Truex in Stage 1:
It was a relatively clean opening Stage of the final race ever for the 2-mile layout at Auto Club Speedway, which will be converted to a half-mile short track after this weekend's race.
Trouble struck Kyle Larson, a two-time Auto Club Speedway winner, on Lap 12 of Sunday's race as electrical issues hampered his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.
Larson would take his car behind the wall for 15 laps as he received repairs. While the car was able to get Larson back on track, his bid for the win came to an end with the mechanical issue.
Following Larson's issues on Lap 12, RFK Racing's Brad Keselowski also found issues on Lap 42.
As Keselowski was battling Corey LaJoie for position just outside the top-10, LaJoie's No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro slid into Keselowski's Ford Mustang.
The contact sent Keselowski spinning from just outside the top-10 to next-to-last (35th) in the running order.
Here are replays of the incident between Keselowski and LaJoie:
Photo Credit: Craig White / TobyChristie.com
