NASCAR at California 2022: Odds, Preview and Top Storylines

Two years have passed since NASCAR was circling the track at Auto Club Speedway, but now it's back for the Wise Power 400.

Alex Bowman won the last time the Cup Series drivers raced the two-mile Fontana, California, track, and he's projected to be a threat to win it again this year.

While bettors should exercise caution on how the Next Gen car will perform at Auto Club, the odds have Kyle Larson as the betting favorite because of his performance on intermediate tracks.

Larson won at Fontana back in 2017, while Kyle Busch, who has more than one win on this track, won it back in 2019.

Not to be outdone, Chase Elliott is right there in the mix with a 9.4 average finish at Auto Club. As the second favorite, the Hendrick Motorsports stalwart is as good a bet as any in Sunday's field.

Wise Power 400 Info

Date: Sunday, February 27

Start Time: 3:30 p.m. ET 

TV: Fox

Live Stream: FoxSports.com or Fox Sports app

Kyle Larson: +400 (bet $100 to win $400)

Chase Elliott.: +800

Kyle Busch: +800

Denny Hamlin: +850

Martin Truex Jr: +1000

William Byron: +1200

Ryan Blaney: +1200

Alex Bowman: +1400

Joey Logano: +1400

Kevin Harvick: +1500

Via DraftKings Sportsbook

One major thing to keep in mind is that drivers only got 15 minutes of practice, which is about 20 laps, for this race.

So there will be a lot of unknowns, especially when it comes to the Next Gen cars they'll be racing.

Auto Club is the kind of track that will really grind the rubber off the tires, so drivers and their crews will need to account for that.

"The track has had bumps on the back straightaway, we've ground out some bumps before," Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, told Zach Sturniolo of NASCAR.com. "Trying to make it smooth back there. Problematic and rough. Just trying to make that part as smooth as we possibly can, short of repaving it there. We're also going to use some resin and tire dragon to get the corners prepped because it sat so long (without NASCAR events the past two years)."

To help ward off quick tire wear, driver teams will use a single-tread compound instead of the multi-zone tread used the last time they were on this track. They'll also use an 18-inch tire with a lower profile sidewall.

As for the winner's circle, Kyle Larson has 7-2 odds to see the checkered flag first at Fontana based on previous performances, but it might be smart for bettors to look at another Kyle: Busch.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has placed first, second and third, respectively, in the last three times on this two-mile track, and in nine starts, he has finished outside of the top three only two times.

And as the only driver with more than one win at Auto Club (four), he's a big threat to come in first, again.

"I love going out to California," Busch told Reid Spencer of NASCAR.com. "It's a driver's track, and it's aged over time … You can run all over it. Typically, recently you run up around the wall in the turns, but you can still move around a bit. I hope the Next Gen car will also allow us to move around and be pretty racy."

The two-time Cup Series champion drove his car "loose" when he won it in 2019, but things have changed a lot since then.

"It was really cool to have a really dominant race car," Busch added. "I remember having to drive the car really loose. That was the loosest I think I've ever driven a race car that was still moving forward.

"As far as applying that to this year's car a couple of years down the road, I don't think you can drive this year's car as loose as you could with the previous gen car. I was really loose that whole weekend—it was just really fast."

Another threat to take the checkered flag is Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has finished in the top seven four times in his last five starts at Fontana. He also has the fifth-most points in the last three races.

While Hamlin may or may not be a good bet to win outright, he's still a good value bet to finish top five.