WATCH: NASCAR Drivers Pay Tribute to the Fans as Auto Club Speedway Sees Packed Grandstands

After a year’s hiatus, NASCAR was back at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Suffice to say, there was a lot of anticipation for this race, and it showed for the Auto Club 400. When race day dawned, the 36-driver grid saw the stands packed to the rafters.

As a result, NASCAR and the drivers elected to acknowledge the fans for their dedication. In fact, all of them elected to do a couple of parade laps in front of the crowd. The best part was that they were all running five-wide on the track, except for Kurt Busch, who was at the back.

At the front were Austin Cindric, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Daniel Hemric. Just like that, everyone ran in a row of five, with Kurt Busch all by his lonesome. The tribute was in place because there are talks of the 2-mile track being shortened in the near future.

How did the NASCAR race at the Auto Club Speedway pan out?

In the end, defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson won the race. This pretty much kicked off his title defense and signified that he is not going to hold back. In fact, he was pretty ruthless out on the track, even earning the wrath of teammate Chase Elliott. As for the general race itself, many fans were thrilled at seeing 4-wide action on a few occasions.

Admittedly, there were times when the race was chaotic, with a few multi-car crashes. Brad Keselowski made a nuisance of himself for the second race in a row. This time, he got on the bad side of 23XI Racing driver, Bubba Wallace. Coming back to the front of the field, Larson triumphed ahead of fellow Chevrolet drivers Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, and Daniel Suarez. Joey Logano was the best of the Fords in 5th place, while Kurt Busch clawed his way from the back to finish in 8th place.

READ MORE: NASCAR Fans Split Between Who to Blame for the Brad Keselowski – Bubba Wallace Incident at Fontana