NASCAR at California 2016 Qualifying Results: Race Order, Final Times, Reaction

Austin Dillon made a last-lap pass of sorts Friday to claim the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.  

Dillon turned in the fastest lap at 38.200 seconds to surpass Kevin Harvick by 0.031 seconds just before the timer expired in the third and final round.

The driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing machine was visibly excited after claiming his second career pole and first since the 2014 Daytona 500, as shown by NASCAR:

Jeff Gluck of USA Today noted Dillon took a page from Cam Newton’s book in his celebration:

Here is a look at the result of Friday’s results:

Result	Driver	Fastest Time
1	Austin Dillon	38.200
2	Kevin Harvick	38.231
3	Denny Hamlin	38.372
4	Ryan Newman	38.446
5	Carl Edwards	38.457
6	Kyle Busch	38.459
7	Trevor Bayne	38.520
8	Chase Elliott	38.545
9	Joey Logano	38.594
10	Jame McMurray	38.638
11	AJ Allmendinger	38.775
12	Kasey Kahne	38.371
13	Paul Menard	38.401
14	Ryan Blaney	38.404
15	Brad Keselowski	38.455
16	Chris Buescher	38.471
17	Martin Truex Jr.	38.497
18	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	38.600
19	Jimmie Johnson	38.648
20	Matt Kenseth	38.654
21	Brian Scott	38.673
22	Greg Biffle	38.694
23	Casey Mears	38.757
24	Brian Vickers	38.797
25	Aric Almirola	38.627
26	Kurt Busch	38.690
27	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	38.693
28	Regan Smith	38.773
29	Clint Bowyer	38.785
30	Michael McDowell	38.817
31	Danica Patrick	38.898
32	Kyle Larson	38.921
33	Matt DiBenedetto	39.001
34	Landon Cassill	39.091
35	David Ragan	39.333
36	Cole Whitt	39.485
37	Josh Wise	39.571
38	Michael Annett	39.865
39	Jeffrey Earnhardt	39.908

Harvick, who considers Fontana his home track, having grown up in Bakersfield, California, 150 miles away, will roll off second and is seeking his second straight win. 

The 2014 Sprint Cup champion took the checkered flag last week in an incredible finish at Phoenix after holding off Carl Edwards on the last lap. 

Dillon has started this season with an average finish of 8.5, but he hasn’t claimed a Sprint Cup win in 89 starts. In two career races at Fontana, he’s finished 16th and 11th, respectively. 

A horde of bees surrounded the flag stand just before qualifying began, creating quite a buzz during Friday’s session. 

Auto Club Speedway officials attempted to remove them with a non-lethal spray, according to the Associated Press, but couldn’t get rid of the entire colony. 

Gluck shared insight on how NASCAR improvised to ensure there was still someone waving flags:

Here is a partial look at the hive, courtesy of NASCAR on NBC:

Doug Rice of the Performance Racing Network joked at how NASCAR has had to account for unsuspecting issues over the years, and Friday’s bee buzz shouldn’t have come as the biggest surprise:

Fontana's two-mile oval will present another race where NASCAR’s new downforce package will be on prominent display. 

It’s fast and slick, but it only has 14-degree banking in the turns, which creates lengthy green-flag runs. With the new package that has produced exciting finishes in the first four races this season, a similar result could be in store Sunday.

NASCAR shared a preview for this weekend’s event in Fontana, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles:

This young NASCAR season has featured some of the best racing this early in years. 

There have been four different winners and a pair of photo finishes with the winner edging out the runner-up by a bumper. 

Mark McClune of CBS 5 in Phoenix shared a side-by-side view of the narrow margins at Daytona and Phoenix, which were each won by 0.01 seconds:

California has also offered a few exciting finishes from time to time, such as in 2014 when Kyle Busch took the checkered flag with a last-lap pass, as shown by Fox Sports:

Busch, the reigning Sprint Cup champion, remains winless this season but enters this weekend as arguably the hottest driver. He'll roll off sixth Sunday. 

He’s the only competitor to tally top-four finishes in each of the first four races and was a tire vibration away from winning at Las Vegas two weeks ago. 

ESPN's Ricky Craven noted Busch’s success thus far has been manifested through his qualifying efforts. And when asked if he's on the brink of reaching Victory Lane, Craven shared context, noting there's no major rush:

"

Don't know, and it doesn't matter because he didn't win last year until late June, then went on to win his first title. Fact is, Busch and the No. 18 are the best in the series right now— four races, four top-four finishes. Qualifying is perhaps the most critical component to the success in the series. Busch has qualified in the top four in three of the four races.

"

This season has seen a new face emerge in Victory Lane each week thus far, and that trend could continue again Sunday—particularly with the momentum Busch and Dillon have built.