Friday practice

 Crafton to sub for Menard Friday: Matt Crafton will substitute for #27-Paul Menard in practice and qualifying Friday at Auto Club Speedway as Menard remains in North Carolina with his wife and newborn daughter. Menard, whose daughter was born on Tuesday, will arrive in California in time for practice Saturday and the race on Sunday. He will have to start at the rear of the field because he will miss qualifying. NASCAR requires a driver to either qualify or race the car for every event in order to be eligible for a Chase for the Sprint Cup based on wins. NASCAR officials have indicated that an injury waiver would not be available for a driver for the birth of a child.

 SK Hand Tool sponsoring Go FAS Racing in Auto Club 400 SK Hand Tool will sponsor the #32 car and Go FAS Racing team in the Auto Club 400 Sprint Cup Series race this weekend. The #32 car will sport a wrap displaying SK's well-known Made-in-USA wrench design on the side of the Ford Fusion. The #32 car will continue to be driven by Travis Kvapil. Travis' background as an automotive technician and career in NASCAR has given Travis a strong appreciation of high quality, dependable tools. SK is proud to offer a hand tool line that is Made in the USA and created by American Craftsmen, for the professional technician

 Phil Parsons Racing gets Auto Club sponsor: Trench Shoring Company, a leader within the construction industry that provides customers the finest shoring equipment and services, will extend their marketing reach through a strategic partnership with Phil Parsons Racing and driver Josh Wise. The company will serve as the primary sponsor on Wise's #98 Chevy for this weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. This is Trench Shoring Company's second outing with Phil Parsons Racing this season. The Corona, Calif.-based company also served as an associate sponsor for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Las Vegas. Trench Shoring Company has the largest inventory of shoring equipment within Southern California and Southern Nevada

 NASCAR ok with Fox moving Bristol race to FoxSports 1: Fox Sports didn't break any agreements with NASCAR in moving the rain-delayed race at Bristol to Fox Sports 1 Sunday night. Once the Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway went past 7:00pm/et, Fox had the option of moving the remainder of the event to Fox Sports 1, according to NASCAR. Fox elected to use that option instead of keeping the telecast on network television and pre-empting its Sunday night lineup. The race started about 90 minutes late because of rain and then had a delay of 3 hours, 18 minutes because of more rain that pushed the final 376 laps to after 7:00pm. According to the SportsBusiness Journal, the last three-quarters of the Bristol race on FS1 drew a 1.8 overnight rating. According to the website TV By The Numbers, Fox's rating for ages 18-49 were 1.1 for Bob's Burgers, 1.4 for American Dad, 1.9 for the The Simpsons, 2.3 for Family Guy, and 2.0 for Cosmos. "We would prefer to start and finish race coverage on Fox," Fox Sports spokesman Erik Arneson said in an e-mail Wednesday. "Moving an audience from one channel to another is a disruption to fans, which we take very seriously."
"It's great to have broadcast partners who have multiple options so that we have a way to service the fans," NASCAR spokesman Scott Warfield said

 EcoPower joins Roush; will sponsor Stenhouse, Jr.: Fresh off its one-two finish at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend, Roush Fenway Racing announced a multi-year team-wide partnership with Safety-Kleen and its premium re-refined motor oil brand, EcoPower. EcoPower will serve as the official oil partner of NASCAR's winningest team, as well as the primary sponsor for multiple races with the #17 Sprint Cup Ford and driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The #17 EcoPower Ford Fusion will make its debut at Michigan International Speedway in June. EcoPower re-refined oil helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%. And it requires up to 85% less energy to produce than oil made from virgin crude, because it has already been refined. It also helps reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. Safety-Kleen is a founding partner of NASCAR Green; an initiative focused on making NASCAR the greenest sport. Safety-Kleen collects all used fluids from the tracks during race weekends - and from most team facilities year round - and then recycles or responsibly disposes of those fluids. The used motor oil collected from all of these sources, including RFR's race cars, will find its way back into EcoPower.

 Brooke Werner steps down as Miss Sprint Cup: Miss Sprint Cup Brooke Werner announced Wednesday on her Facebook page that she is resigning as Miss Sprint Cup due to personal reasons. Werner posted the following message on Facebook on Wednesday.
"Hey fans, difficult decisions are always tough to communicate to people you love so much...like you guys. I recently made the hard decision to resign as Miss Sprint Cup for personal reasons (all good!) and hang up my firesuit. It's been one of the greatest times of my life and I have you all to thank for that. I'll miss you all very much but I know that you'll all be excited to meet the new Miss Sprint Cup soon!"
Werner, a former Miss Vermont USA, had filled the role of Miss Sprint Cup with Kim Coon and Madison Martin. This is Martin's first year in the Miss Sprint Cup program, while it's Coon's fourth. Werner was beginning her second season on tour. Miss Sprint Cup serves as the representative for Sprint, entitlement sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

 Gordon starts year with top 10s: #24-Jeff Gordon finished seventh at Bristol on Sunday, giving him top-10 finishes in each of the first four races of the season. Gordon had never started the year with such a streak until this year

 Wurth debuts on #2 at Auto Club: The #2 Wurth Ford Fusion will make its competition debut this weekend at Auto Club Speedway. Wurth is entering its third year as a partner with Team Penske. The leading supplier of top-quality automotive chemicals, fasteners, hand tools and electrical supplies will be a primary sponsor at a total of four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events this season.

 Time Warner Cable on Kahne's car at Auto Club: Time Warner Cable will adorn the hood of Kahne's #5 Chevy SS this weekend at Fontana, Calif., and will be the primary sponsor on the car for four more Sprint Cup Series races this year: Texas Motor Speedway on April 6, Charlotte Motor Speedway's All-Star Race on May 17, Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27 and New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 21.

 Auto Club Speedway Goodyear Tire Notes: Teams in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series will run the same tire codes at Fontana this weekend . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that these teams have run at this track since 2012 . . . this right-side tire code (D-4408) has been run at Fontana since 2011, while this left-side tire code (D-4522) was introduced the following year . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Fontana . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire