FONTANA — A freeway sign on the 210 Freeway just west of the 15 Freeway read: “Gusty winds ahead.” It was a warning to passenger car drivers, but it could have also served as a warning to the NASCAR drivers and their crews competing nearby.

Another warning sign specifically for the NASCAR people could have read: “Next Gen cars ahead.”

Morning winds of 30 to 40 mph, combined with the apparent difficulties of getting used to NASCAR’s newly designed Next Gen cars, turned Auto Club Speedway into crash city Saturday.

Another reason for the abundance of crashes and spinouts on a clear cool day may have been the fact this site had not hosted a NASCAR race in two years, due to last year’s cancellation caused by the pandemic.

The mishaps started with the Cup Series morning practice sessions and continued throughout midday qualifying.

Surviving it all to win the pole for Sunday’s WISE Power 400 was Austin Cindric, the surprise winner of last weekend’s Daytona 500. He gained the top qualifying spot Saturday by covering the two-mile course in 41.266 seconds with an average speed of 174.647 mph.

Sunday’s race, slated for 12:30 p.m., is only the 10th Cup Series race for the 23-year-old from Mooresville, N.C., so he is considered a rookie. A win in Fontana would go a long way in showing he is more than a one-race wonder.

It was quite a whirlwind week for Cindric. The highlight was getting a congratulatory post-Daytona voice message from the legendary A.J. Foyt. Fifty years ago, Foyt, who raced on multiple circuits, won the NASCAR Winston Cup Miller High Life 500 at the nearby Ontario Motor Speedway.

“I am going to put that message on a hard drive and save it,” Cindric said.

Cindric was brought back down Monday morning when he checked his mail and found a jury summons.

“I’m going to try and get out of that,” he laughed. “I hope being a NASCAR driver works.”

For NASCAR die-hards who like stats, Cindric is only the third driver to win the season-opening Daytona 500 and the pole for the race the following weekend. The others are Logano (2015, Atlanta) and Jamie McMurray (2010, Auto Club). And Cindric is only a rookie.

Asked what it is like to be called a Daytona 500 champion, Cindric said, “I smile every time someone says that.”

The topic of the day, though, was the Next Gen cars and all the mishaps.

“I’ve never talked to myself so much before making a qualifying run,” Cindric said. “After seeing all the trouble, all the mistakes, you have to go through everything in your mind.

“I had two good runs (around the track,) so I was pretty conservative with my third run.”

Eric Jones, the No. 2 qualifier, said, “I was nervous before I even went out for practice, just seeing guys out there making mistakes.”

Of the new cars, Jones, 25, of Byron, Michigan, said, “They are just so challenging. It is really an unknown. The driving style is 100 percent different.”

Veteran Kevin Harvick of Bakersfield didn’t even complete a lap of practice before he spun and hit the wall at turn 4. Soon, Ross Chastain, on his second lap, hit the wall at turn 4 as Chris Buescher at the same time spun out. Turn 4 was suddenly calamity corner.

Subsequent spinouts, including one by Daytona 500 runner-up Bubba Wallace, delayed qualifying by a half-hour.

Brad Keselowski spun on turn 2 during the second session of qualifying and then emphatically refused to have his car towed. He wanted it hauled on a rollback truck. Keselowski, also the team owner, sought to avoid further damage to his car due to a lack of inventory of parts.

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Daniel Hemric bumped the wall and William Byron Jr. and Joey Logano were among the spinout victims.

Kyle Busch, among the prerace favorites, will start 36th and last Sunday because his car failed a pre-qualifying inspection. Cars driven by Justin Haley, Chastain and Wallace were unable to be repaired in time for them to notch a qualifying mark, but all will be in the field.

NASCAR Cup Series WISE Power 400

When: 12:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Auto Club Speedway, Fontana

TV: Fox 11