Frontstretch Newsletter: Nov. 1, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition CXCVII
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- Preparation for this weekend's season-ending tripleheader at Phoenix Raceway is already underway. Entry lists should be released today. We'll have them and anything else that breaks at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: Oct. 29-31
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- Toyota GAZOO Racing's No. 7 Toyota GR010 shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez scored an easy victory in Saturday's 6 Hours of Bahrain, their third straight victory, which also clinched the first Hypercar World Championship. The margin of victory was 51.401 seconds over the No. 8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki
Nakajima. Signatech Alpine's Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere were a lap down in third.
In LMP2, Team WRT's Ferdinand Habsburg, Robin Frijns and Charles Milesi claimed their second straight victory and took the LMP2 points lead heading into the season finale. They won by 61.872 seconds over JOTA Sport's Tom Blomqvist, Sean Gelael and Stoffel Vandoorne. Teammates Antonio Felix da Costa, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez were third, then
United Autosports' Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Fabio Scherer. Racing Team Nederland's Giedo van der Garde, Frits van Eerd and Job van Uitert were fifth.
GTE-Pro was dominated by Porsche. The No. 92 Porsche of Kevin Estre and Neel Jani claimed the class win with the No. 91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz right behind. The No. 51 Ferrari of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi was 35 seconds back in third.
Victory in GTE-Am went to TF Sport's Felipe Fraga, Ben Keating and Dylan Pereira. They won by 5.553 seconds over Dempsey-Proton Racing's Jaxon Evans, Matt Campbell and Christian Ried. Team Project 1's Matteo Cairoli, Riccardo Pera and Egidio Perfetti were third, then the Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Augusto Farfus and Marcos Gomes. AF Corse's
Nicklas Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera were fifth.
- Anthony Davison announced Sunday that this upcoming weekend's Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain will be the final competitive race of his career. This career spans decades and includes years as a
factory driver for Toyota and Peugeot, in addition to a short stint in Formula 1.
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| | Alex Bowman Bumps Denny Hamlin From Lead at Martinsville, Claims 4th Win of 2021
Contact between Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman on lap 494 resulted in Hamlin spinning out. Bowman took the lead and held on through a Green-White-Checker restart to take his fourth win of 2021. Kyle Busch was second,
then Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron.
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| | Kyle Busch Narrowly Misses Out On Championship 4: ‘We Ran Like Dogs**t’
Kyle Busch may have finished second Sunday, but he failed to qualify for the Championship 4. He was none too pleased with his performance, and with Brad Keselowski, after the race.
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| | Martin Truex Jr. Overcomes Multiple Scares to Claim Final Championship 4 Spot
Martin Truex Jr. had a strong day at Martinsville, but dealt with a number of issues late (a busted fender, wall contact, a partially broken valve stem). Despite these issues, Truex still finished fourth and took the final
spot in the Championship 4.
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| | Noah Gragson Wins Martinsville, Clinches Championship 4 Berth
JR Motorsports' Noah Gragson led a race-high 153 laps Saturday night, but had to slip past Noah Gragson on the final restart and hold off Austin Cindric to win the Dead On Tools 250 and earn his spot in the Championship 4.
Daniel Hemric was third, followed by Sam Mayer and Justin Allgaier.
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| | Daniel Hemric Advances to Championship 4 But Falls Short at Martinsville: ‘I’m So Disappointed’
Daniel Hemric had a real chance Saturday night to finally earn his first NASCAR victory. However, a late caution closed everyone back up and allowed Noah Gragson to get past for the win. He gets another chance at a
title, but still wants the W.
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| | Harrison Burton Fails to Make Championship 4 After Bad Luck
For a good chunk of Saturday night's Dead On Tools 250, Harrison Burton appeared that he had the right stuff necessary to race into the Championship 4. However, he got caught up in a crash that ruined his night and ended
any chance at the title.
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| | Austin Hill Moving to Xfinity With RCR in 2022
Richard Childress Racing announced Friday that Austin Hill will join the team to race full-time in the Xfinity Series in 2022 as a teammate to Sheldon Creed.
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| | Zane Smith Clinches Championship 4 Berth With Martinsville Win
A three-wide battle for the lead on the final restart resulted in Todd Gilliland spinning at the white flag after contact from Stewart Friesen. The resulting crash that involved Gilliland, Friesen, Tyler Ankrum and Austin
Wayne Self meant the race ended under caution. Zane Smith avoided the mayhem and claimed his first career victory. Austin Hill was second, then Tanner Gray, Chandler Smith and Matt Crafton.
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| | Daniel Dye Running Full-Time ARCA Campaign for GMS in 2022
GMS Racing announced Friday that Daniel Dye will drive for the team full-time in the ARCA Menards Series in 2022 in the team's No. 21 Chevrolet.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography and James Gilbert of Getty Images.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Kyle Larson Officially Claims Round of 8; Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin Complete Championship 4
by Phil Allaway
Kyle Larson already clinched the Round of 8 in Kansas, but had the possibility of sweeping the round. While he led early, two speeding penalties dropped him to a 14th-place finish. He still won the round, but his margin was only 65 points over teammate Chase Elliott. Elliott led 289 laps before spinning out late and
finishing 16th. Denny Hamlin had a chance to win, but spun on lap 494 fighting for the lead. He eventually finished 24th, but held onto third. Martin Truex Jr. finished fourth despite fender damage and a nearly detached valve stem to gain two positions and take the final spot in the Championship 4.
Truex claimed the final spot by three points over Kyle Busch, who finished second. Brad Keselowski moved up one place to sixth with a third-place finish. Ryan Blaney dropped two places to seventh after getting early damage and struggling to an 11th-place finish. Joey Logano finished up the round in eighth.
With the point reset, Keselowski ends up in fifth, only five points ahead of Kevin Harvick, who had a quiet run to 12th. Team Penske teammates Blaney and Logano are tied for seventh.
Kyle Busch will enter Phoenix ninth in points, 23 behind the Team Penske duo. William Byron finished fifth and moved up one place to 10th, jumping over Kurt Busch, who finished seventh.. Christopher Bell remains in 12th after a 17th-place finish.
Tyler Reddick stays in 13th after a quiet run to 18th. Alex Bowman remains in 14th despite taking his fourth win of the year. Aric Almirola is still 15th, while Michael McDowell is 16th.
Of those who never made the playoffs, Austin Dillon is still 154 points ahead of Chris Buescher after recovering from two blown tires to finish 13th. Buescher finished ninth and stays in 18th. Matt DiBenedetto remains in 19th, while Ross Chastain is 20th.
Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Kyle Larson
4213, 2) Chase Elliott -65, 3) Denny Hamlin -89, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -94, 5) Kyle Busch -97, 6) Brad Keselowski -102, 7) Ryan Blaney -114, 8) Joey Logano
-136.
Note: Drivers in Bold have advanced to the
Championship 4.
Championship 4 Point Standings: t-1) Kyle Larson 5000,
t-1) Chase Elliott 5000, t-1) Denny Hamlin 5000, t-1) Martin Truex Jr. 5000.
Eliminated Playoff Contender Points: 5) Brad Keselowski
2323, 6) Kevin Harvick -5, t-7) Ryan Blaney -15, t-7) Joey Logano -15, 9) Kyle Busch -38, 10) William Byron -43, 11) Kurt Busch -49, 12) Christopher Bell -72, 13) Tyler Reddick -91, 14) Alex Bowman -102, 15) Aric Almirola
-139, 16) Michael McDowell -184.
Full Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 1416, 2) Denny Hamlin -30, 3) Chase Elliott -237, 4) Ryan Blaney -300, 5) Kyle Busch -302, 6) William Byron
-308, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -318, t-8) Kevin Harvick -322, t-8) Joey Logano -322, 10) Brad Keselowski -368, 11) Tyler Reddick -471, 12) Kurt Busch -482, 13) Austin Dillon -503, 14) Alex
Bowman -506, 15) Christopher Bell -558, 16) Chris Buescher -657.
Best of the Rest: 17) Austin Dillon
913, 18) Chris Buescher -154, 19) Matt DiBenedetto -164, 20) Ross Chastain -207, 21) Bubba Wallace -215, 22) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -248, 23) Chase Briscoe -260, 24) Erik Jones -287, 25) Daniel Suarez -295, 26) Cole Custer
-366.
Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 77, 2) Denny Hamlin -47, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -48, t-4) Ryan Blaney -53, t-4) Kyle Busch -53, 6) Chase Elliott -53, 7) Joey Logano -64, 8) Brad Keselowski -69.
Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 387, 2) Denny Hamlin -27, 3) Chase Elliott -112, 4) William Byron -126, 5) Kyle Busch -152, 6) Joey Logano -159, 7) Ryan Blaney -162, 8) Martin Truex Jr.
-193, 9) Brad Keselowski -195, 10) Kevin Harvick -212, 11) Kurt Busch -231, 12) Tyler Reddick -235, 13) Alex Bowman -268, 14) Austin Dillon -270, 15) Christopher Bell -274, 16) Bubba Wallace
-323.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 1176, 2) Kyle Larson -3, 3) Kevin Harvick
-114, 4) Chase Elliott -125, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -136, 6) Ryan Blaney -144, 7) Joey Logano -161, 8) Kyle Busch -165, 9) Brad Keselowski -177, 10) William Byron -192, 11) Austin Dillon
-238, 12) Alex Bowman -245, 13) Tyler Reddick -254, 14) Kurt Busch -265, 15) Christopher Bell -286, 16) Chris Buescher -309.
Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas-1, Charlotte-1, Sonoma, All-Star Race, Nashville, Watkins Glen, Bristol-2, Charlotte-2, Texas, Kansas-2), Martin Truex
Jr. (Phoenix, Martinsville, Darlington-1, Richmond-2), Ryan Blaney (Atlanta-1, Michigan, Daytona-3), Joey Logano (Bristol-1), Alex Bowman (Richmond-1, Dover, Pocono-1, Martinsville-2), Brad Keselowski (Talladega), Kyle Busch (Kansas-1, Pocono-2), Chase Elliott (Circuit of the Americas, Road America), Kurt Busch (Atlanta-2), Aric Almirola (Loudon), AJ Allmendinger (Indianapolis), Denny Hamlin (Darlington-2, Las
Vegas-2)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the Xfinity Series Championship: Austin Cindric Wins Round of 8; Noah Gragson Advances With Victory
by Phil Allaway
Austin Cindric was just a whisker away from claiming victory Saturday night. The second-place finish was enough to give Cindric the Round of 8 victory. He ended up 10 points ahead of AJ Allmendinger, who finished seventh. Daniel Hemric was so close to paydirt once again Saturday night, but dropped to third on the final restart. He ends the Round of 8 in third, the
final driver to qualify for the Championship 4 on points. Justin Allgaier was the first driver out of the Championship 4, six points behind Hemric.
Noah Gragson got past Hemric on the final restart and held off Cindric for the win to earn his spot in the Championship 4. The win also moved him up to fifth in the round. Justin Haley had a terrible night with braking issues almost from the start. The 33rd-place finish dropped him to sixth in the round. Brandon Jones finished sixth and finished the round in
seventh, while Harrison Burton crashed late and finished 20th, keeping him in eighth.
With the point reset, Allgaier enters Phoenix all but locked into fifth in points. He is 51 points ahead of Haley. Jones is seventh, then Harrison Burton.
Myatt Snider moved up one place to ninth after finishing 13th. Jeb Burton dropped to 10th after crashing out and being credited with 37th. Riley Herbst is 11th after a 10th-place finish, while Jeremy Clements is 12th.
Of those who never qualified for the playoffs, Ty Gibbs holds onto 13th despite a late spin dropping him to a 27th-place finish. He is 40 points ahead of Ryan Sieg, who was 31st. Michael Annett crashed out with Jeb Burton and finished 38th. He's 15th entering his final race, while Brandon Brown is 16th.
Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Austin Cindric 3190, 2) AJ Allmendinger -10, 3) Daniel Hemric -43, 4) Justin Allgaier -49, 5) Noah Gragson -63, 6) Justin Haley
-94, 7) Brandon Jones -100, 8) Harrison Burton -116.
Note: Drivers in Bold have advanced to the Championship 4
Championship 4 Point Standings: t-1) Austin Cindric 4000, t-1) AJ Allmendinger 4000, t-1) Noah Gragson 4000, t-1) Daniel Hemric 4000.
Eliminated Playoff Contender Points: 5) Justin Allgaier 2258, 6) Justin Haley -51, 7) Brandon Jones -54, 8) Harrison Burton -101, 9) Myatt Snider -104, 10) Jeb Burton -110, 11) Riley Herbst -137, 12) Jeremy Clements -151.
Full Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 1301, 2) AJ Allmendinger -36, t-3) Justin Allgaier -140, t-3) Daniel Hemric -140, 5) Noah Gragson -225, 6) Justin Haley
-245, 7) Harrison Burton -281, 8) Jeb Burton -373, 9) Brandon Jones -471, 10) Riley Herbst -557, 11) Myatt Snider -565, 12) Jeremy Clements -572, 13) Ty Gibbs -638, 14) Ryan Sieg
-678, 15) Michael Annett -694, 16) Brandon Brown -698.
Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics are ineligible for the playoffs.
Note No. 3: If he were eligible for Xfinity points for the full season, Brett Moffitt would be 14th in points.
Best of the Rest: 13) Ty Gibbs 663, 14) Ryan Sieg -40, 15) Michael Annett -56, 16) Brandon Brown -60, 17) Josh Berry -123, 18) Josh Williams -137, 19) Alex Labbe -168, 20) Tommy Joe Martins
-179, 21) Brett Moffitt -197, 22) Landon Cassill -198, 23) Jade Buford -232.
Playoff Points: 1) AJ Allmendinger 51, 2) Austin Cindric -4, 3) Noah Gragson -28, 4) Justin Allgaier -30, 5) Daniel Hemric -35, 6) Justin Haley -36, 7) Harrison Burton -43, 8) Brandon Jones -48.
Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 361, 2) AJ Allmendinger -15, 3) Daniel Hemric -32, 4) Noah Gragson -58, 5) Justin Allgaier -90, 6) Harrison Burton
-114, 7) Justin Haley -135, 8) Jeb Burton -197, 9) Ty Gibbs -200, 10) Brandon Jones -206, 11) Riley Herbst -251, 12) Myatt Snider -272, 13) Michael Annett -275, 14) Josh Berry
-287, 15) Jeremy Clements -296, 16) Ty Dillon -325.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 1088, 2) Austin Cindric -12, 3) Justin Allgaier -49, 4) Daniel Hemric -101, 5) Justin Haley -112, 6) Harrison Burton -133, 7) Jeb Burton -150, 8) Noah Gragson -157, 9) Jeremy Clements -280, 10) Brandon Jones
-281, 11) Myatt Snider -298, 12) Riley Herbst -316, 13) Ryan Sieg -341, 14) Brandon Brown
-345, 15) Josh Williams -420, 16) Michael Annett -435.
Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity points for the whole season, Brett Moffitt would be 15th in old points.
Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona-1, Phoenix, Dover, Pocono, Indianapolis), Ty Gibbs (Daytona-2, Charlotte-1, Watkins Glen, Kansas), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas-1, Mid-Ohio, Michigan, Bristol, Charlotte-2), Myatt Snider (Homestead), Justin Allgaier (Atlanta-1, Darlington-1), Josh Berry (Martinsville-1, Las Vegas-2), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Kyle Busch
(Circuit of the Americas, Texas-1, Nashville, Road America, Atlanta-2), Christopher Bell (Loudon), Justin Haley (Daytona-3), Noah Gragson (Darlington-2, Richmond, Martinsville-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Texas-2)
Note: Wins that are ineligible for playoff ineligibility are in italics.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the Camping World Truck Series Championship: Ben Rhodes Wins Round of 8 After Wild Martinsville Affair; Zane Smith Causes Chaos With Victory
by Phil Allaway
Saturday's United Rentals 200 will likely go down as one of the more ridiculous Camping World Truck Series races in recent memory. The entire look of the Championship 4 changed in the final couple of
laps.
Ben Rhodes finished seventh Saturday and that was enough to overcome the small deficit to win the Round of 8. He ended up 23 points ahead of both Matt Crafton and John Hunter Nemechek. Nemechek ran up front early, but
got hooked into the wall by Austin Wayne Self, putting him out. Crafton ended up fifth at the finish. Both drivers qualified on points. Sheldon Creed was the first driver out of the Championship 4, four points behind Crafton and Nemechek in fourth.
Stewart Friesen had a chance to win, but got caught up in a crash on the final lap. After finishing 17th, he ended the round in fifth. Zane Smith emerged from the Green-White-Checker restart mess with his first career victory and a berth
in the Championship 4. He also moved up two places to sixth in the Round of 8 points. Chandler Smith dropped one place to seventh despite finishing fourth. Carson Hocevar was eighth.
With the points reset, Creed has a near-stranglehold on fifth, leading Friesen by 48 points. Todd Gilliland, who dominated much of Saturday's race, is seventh, followed by Austin
Hill.
Chandler Smith is ninth, followed by Hocevar. Outside of the playoffs, Grant Enfinger is locked into 11th after finishing 21st. He is 84 points ahead of Johnny Sauter, who got wrecked intentionally by Parker Kligerman and finished
31st.
Derek Kraus is still 13th after finishing 24th. Self is 14th, while Tyler Ankrum and Ryan Truex round out the top
16.
Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Ben Rhodes 3146, t-2) Matt Crafton -23, t-2) John Hunter Nemechek -23, 4) Sheldon Creed -27, 5) Stewart Friesen -52, 6) Zane Smith -64, 7) Chandler Smith -73, 8) Carson Hocevar -80.
Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have advanced to the Round of 10.
Note No. 2: Drivers in Italics have been eliminated.
Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 5) Sheldon Creed 2274, 6) Stewart Friesen -48, 7) Todd Gilliland -55, 8) Austin Hill -91, 9) Chandler Smith
-104, 10) Carson Hocevar -107.
Full Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 838, 2) Ben Rhodes -82, 3) Austin Hill -116, 4) Sheldon Creed -128, 5) Todd Gilliland -130, 6) Matt
Crafton -145, 7) Zane Smith -183, 8) Stewart Friesen -229, 9) Carson Hocevar -270, 10) Grant Enfinger -275, 11) Chandler Smith -322, 12) Johnny Sauter -359, 13) Derek Kraus -381, 14) Austin Wayne Self
-402, 15) Tyler Ankrum -429, 16) Ryan Truex -452.
Best of the Rest: 11) Grant Enfinger 563, 12) Johnny Sauter -84, 13) Derek Kraus
-106, 14) Austin Wayne Self -127, 15) Tyler Ankrum -154, 16) Ryan Truex -177, 17) Hailie Deegan -223, 18) Tanner Gray -242, 19) Tanner Gray -260, 20) Tate Fogleman -286.
Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 51, 2) Sheldon
Creed -24, 3) Ben Rhodes -31, 4) Zane Smith -37, 5) Chandler Smith -44, 6) Matt Crafton -47, 7) Carson Hocevar -48, 8) Stewart Friesen
-49.
Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 243, 2) Sheldon Creed
-23, t-3) Ben Rhodes -70, t-3) Austin Hill -70, 5) Matt Crafton -87, 6) Todd Gilliland -89, 7) Zane Smith -91, 8) Stewart Friesen -95, 9) Chandler Smith -143, 10) Derek Kraus
-146, 11) Grant Enfinger -174, 12) Carson Hocevar -179, 13) Johnny Sauter -192, 14) Tyler Ankrum -194, 15) Raphael Lessard -203, 16) Ty Majeski
-220.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 504, 2) Ben Rhodes -15, 3) Todd Gilliland -29, 4) Austin Hill
-33, 5) Matt Crafton -66, 6) Zane Smith -74, 7) Carson Hocevar -85, 8) Grant Enfinger -90, 9) Sheldon Creed -92, 10) Stewart Friesen -130, 11) Johnny Sauter -161, 12) Chandler Smith
-165, 13) Austin Wayne Self -176, 14) Tyler Ankrum -222, 15) Derek Kraus -227, 16) Ryan Truex -231.
Race Winners: Ben Rhodes (Daytona-1, Daytona-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas-1, Richmond, Charlotte, Pocono), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Kansas), Martin Truex Jr. (Bristol-1), Sheldon Creed (Darlington-1, Gateway, Darlington-2), Todd Gilliland (Circuit of the
Americas), Ryan Preece (Nashville), Austin Hill (Knoxville, Watkins Glen), Chandler Smith (Bristol-2), Christian Eckes (Las Vegas-2), Tate Fogleman (Talladega), Zane Smith (Martinsville)
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of our own Phil Allaway.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Xfinity 500 was brought to you by the letter B for the Bleep button. Denny Hamlin is lucky that this isn't 2004. Otherwise, he would have been fined and docked
points for his audible F-bomb during his post-race interview. Dale Earnhardt Jr. found out the hard way that the FCC would not tolerate such a thing back then. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Xfinity 500
compiled by Phil Allaway
"I just got loose in. I got in too deep, knocked him out of the way and literally let him have the lead back. For anybody that wants to think I was trying to crash him, obviously wasn’t the case considering I literally gave up the lead at Martinsville to give it back to him.
"He’s been on the other side of that. He’s crashed guys here for wins. I hate doing it. Obviously I don’t want to crash somebody. I just got in, got underneath him, spun him out.
"Regardless, we get a free grandfather clock, which is pretty special. I struggled here for a long time. I was trying to get the flag, do a backwards victory lap. Mark Martin thinks that’s cool. Mark Martin is my hero. Obviously, like I said, hate we wrecked the 11. But how about that for Chevrolet, Ally, everybody on this 48 team.
48 car won here a bunch. Cool to do it again." - Alex Bowman, race winner
"We just missed last week. That’s where we lost all the ground. Could have come in here with 15 more points, we would have been fine on the cut. Just wasn’t it. Wasn’t meant to be. Obviously it was Truex’s day. We had a Hail Mary opportunity there at the end. Just didn’t materialize.
All in all, just proud of the effort for sure. We slung everything and anything at this thing M&M’S Halloween Camry today, couldn’t really make it come alive. Great effort. That was there for sure. We just got to get better, everybody included, the whole team, in order to be able to go race with the best and race for a championship. We’re not going to do that this year." - Kyle Busch, finished second
"We all just threw everything we had at it and nobody really had anything for the Hendrick and Gibbs cars. I felt we were getting closer at the end. Jeremy Bullins and the team really dialed the thing in as close as we could get, but that was just all we had." - Brad Keselowski,
finished third
"It kind of worked out there at the end. We had a set of tires we put on and the car kind of came back around to us, balance-wise, and we were able to come home with a top-10. Just good to keep the string going. We’ve had a good couple of runs here the last month. Hopefully, we can go
to Phoenix [Raceway] next week and finish it out on another good note." - Erik Jones, finished eighth
"We just weren’t fast enough. We couldn’t get the car to turn. It was just a struggle all day. We tried different things, but the car just wouldn’t fire off good and ultimately at the end you had to fire off good and we didn’t have that either. We tried compromising to try and make
everything better, but all that is is a compromise. The guys that win aren’t compromising and it just wasn’t there." - Joey Logano, finished 10th
"It was definitely a disappointing day. We started off kind of good and never really got better. We had one run I thought we kind of went forward and then we made a change to try and make it better and it got worse, so I don’t know. I’d love to tell you what kind of went wrong, but we
weren’t really any different than where we’ve been here the last three times, just small little tiny changes, but we were just way off today. It’s disappointing for sure. I was really looking forward to today’s race just knowing how strong we run here and it just wasn’t quite enough today and kind of missed it by a long shot. I appreciate everyone sticking with it all day and trying to get better, but it just wasn’t quite enough." - Ryan Blaney, finished 11th
"Not good. Just bad execution on my part on pit road. I felt like our car was probably top three, top five, at times; and there were times it was 10th or worse. But my team did a good job working on it. I just sped [on pit road] too late in the race there again. From then on, just tried to not make anybody upset, knowing that I’m not going to get back up there for a
win. Just try to keep everybody on my good side." - Kyle Larson, finished 14th
"Well, we’re moving on and that is all that matters. I had a really fast NAPA Chevy early and I made a couple of mistakes and kind of led us down the wrong path there for those last couple of runs, unfortunately. But the pace was certainly in the car.
"Super proud of this team. I know it hasn’t been super pretty at times, but for us to keep fighting through these Playoffs and to get to Phoenix. When you get there, it’s anybody’s game to go out there in that Final Four. So, really proud of this group to make it for a second consecutive year and being amongst those four cars is a
big deal. We’re excited to have a shot. I think we can run with the best of them and we are looking forward to the opportunity." - Chase Elliott, finished 16th
"He's just a hack. Just an absolute hack. He gets his ass kicked by his teammates every week. He's <expletive> terrible. He's just terrible. He sees one opportunity, he takes it.
"Obviously he's got the fast car of the week and he runs 10th. He didn't want to race us there. We had a good, clean race. I moved up as high as I could on the racetrack to give him all the room I could, he still can't drive." - Denny Hamlin, finished 24th
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via Brian Lawdermilk of Getty Images.
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