Rain washes out practices, qualifying for NASCAR at Fontana

FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — NASCAR has canceled practice and qualifying sessions for the weekend races at Fontana because of ongoing heavy rains.

Both the Cup Series and Xfinity Series drivers will race without practice on the track east of Los Angeles, with the starting orders determined by the metric used to set the qualifying order.

The Xfinity race scheduled for Saturday afternoon has not yet been postponed or canceled, but officials are monitoring the rain to determine whether it’s possible to run the second race of the new season.

Christopher Bell will be on the pole for Sunday’s Cup race, with Daytona 500 champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. joining him on the front row.

This is the final race weekend on the famously weathered asphalt of the 2-mile track at Auto Club Speedway. A half-mile track will be built on the site over the next two years, which means NASCAR won’t race in Southern California next year.

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