Rain washes out practices, qualifying for NASCAR

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.

Christopher Bell will be on the pole for the Feb. 26 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.

MLB

PADRES’ MACHADO GETS FIRST VIOLATION >> Tick, tock, Manny Machado. Better

watch that pitch clock. Baseball’s new pitch clock made its competitive debut during a limited schedule of spring training openers Feb. 24, and Machado, San Diego’s All-Star slugger, was called for the first violation. Machado found out the hard way that the pitch clock works both ways. He wasn’t fully in the batter’s box and alert to the Seattle Mariners lefty Robbie Ray as the 15-second clock wound under 8 seconds in the first inning. Umpire Ryan Blakney called time and signaled strike one against Machado. Machado got a hit anyway.

College basketball IOWA MEN RALLY PAST MICHIGAN

STATE >> Kris Murray scored 26 points, Tony Perkins scored Iowa’s last six points in overtime, and the Hawkeyes defeated Michigan State 112-106, capping a remarkable rally that extended the game. Iowa trailed 9178 with 1:34 remaining before catching fire from 3-point distance.