Production Alliance Group 300 moved to Sunday due to rain

The final NASCAR race on Auto Club Speedway‘s two-mile configuration will be the Xfinity Series. The Production Alliance Group 300 was initially to take place on Saturday, but rain during pace laps forced the race to be postponed to Sunday at 5 PM Pacific, following the Cup Series‘ Pala Casino 400.

Auto Club and the state of California have undergone a rather bizarre weather wave in recent days as days of typical sunshine interspersed with rain, wind, and even snow. Los Angeles County, near where the speedway is located, received a blizzard warning on Friday for the first time since 1989. Snow fell on the track on Saturday morning, much to the bewilderment of those in the garage, before seemingly subsiding in time for the race to start. However, rain arrived following the command to fire engines and NASCAR lost the track in the middle of formation laps.

The weather forced qualifying for both the Xfinity and Cup races to be cancelled. Using the metric-based formula introduced in 2020, Austin Hill will start on the pole ahead of John Hunter Nemechek as the two finished 1–2 in last week’s season opener at Daytona. Christopher Bell will be the pole-sitter for the Pala Casino 400 alongside Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

With the Xfinity race taking place after Cup, NASCAR’s second tier will bow out Fontana’s era as an intermediate oval before beginning its transformation into a half-mile short track. A report from the Sports Business Journal on Friday revealed NASCAR had sold off 433 of 522 acres of land on the speedway property, virtually sealing the track’s fate despite varying protests from fans and drivers. The track was removed from the 2024 schedule to make way for the reconfiguration.

Starting lineup