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

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
2	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
3	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
4	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet
5	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
6	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
7	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet
8	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
9	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
10	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
11	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet
12	8	Gray Gaulding	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
13	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
14	19	Joe Graf Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
15	10	Austin Dillon*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
16	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford
17	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet
18	38	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford
19	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
20	45	Rajah Caruth*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
21	02	David Starr	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
22	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
23	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet
24	24	Tyler Reddick*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota
25	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford
26	44	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
27	53	C.J. McLaughlin	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet
28	28	Alex Labbé	RSS Racing	Ford
29	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota
30	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
31	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
32	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
33	07	Blaine Perkins	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
34	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota
35	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
36	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
37	66	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Ford
38	91	Ross Chastain*	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ	99	Garrett Smithey	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ	74	Ryan Vargas	CHK Racing	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points