FONTANA, Cal.: Before Cole Custer and Harrison Burton won back-to-back NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Auto Club Speedway in 2019 and 2020, respectively, the annual Xfinity Series event at the 2-mile track was a playground for moonlighting NASCAR Cup Series stars.
In a six-year stretch from 2008 through 2013, Kyle Busch powered his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory no less than six times, a track record. That was part of a nine-race winning streak for JGR Toyotas, all accomplished by drivers competing full-time in the Cup Series.
Custer, who graduated to the Cup Series in 2020, is the only former Fontana winner competing in Saturday’s Production Alliance 300 (5 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He’s racing in in the No. 07 Ford fielded by SS Greenlight Racing, a technical partner of Stewart-Haas Racing.
There are 41 cars on the entry list for Saturday’s race and just 38 spots available in the field. The event also marks the return to Xfinity Series competition for Trevor Bayne, who hasn’t driven in the series since 2016 and hasn’t run a NASCAR race since 2020, when he entered eight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events.
Bayne hopes to parlay a limited schedule in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into a full-time NASCAR ride.
In talking about the potential opportunity, Bayne told JGR executive vice president Steve DeSouza, “I know you have the best Xfinity program and I want to come back to win. I want to come back and make a statement and show what I can do as a driver, and if I can’t get it done, I want to know that I was in the best ride possible, and it just didn’t work out.”
Source: Reid Spencer/NASCAR Wire Service
