Frontstretch Newsletter: April 4, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition XLVI
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- Preparations for this weekend's action at Martinsville Speedway are already ongoing. Meanwhile, INDYCAR and IMSA teams are already en route to California for this weekend's Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Entry lists should be out later today. We'll have those and anything else that breaks today at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: April 1-3
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- Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro, making his 200th career start, claimed his first-ever motoGP victory in Sunday's Grand Prix of Argentina at Termas de Rio Hondo. Espargaro led flag-to-flag from the pole to claim the win. He was eight-tenths of a second faster than Jorge Martin. Alex Rins was second, then Joan Mir and Francesco
Bagnaia.
Through three rounds, Espargaro has a seven point lead over KTM's Brad Binder. Qatar winner Enea Bastianini is tied for third with Rins, while 2021 champion Fabio Quartararo is fifth.
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were rained out Friday night in Oklahoma, but traveled to Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Tex. for the DuraMAX Drydene Texas Outlaw Nationals. In the feature, Brent Marks took the lead on lap 3 by way of a slide job on Brian Brown. From there, he made prodigious use of lapped traffic to pull
away and take the win.
Donny Schatz was second, then Brown, James McFadden and Jacob Allen. Through 12 races, Brad Sweet has a 32-point lead on Carson Macedo. David Gravel is third, then Sheldon Haudenschild and Schatz.
- Friday evening saw the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour compete in the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway. Tommy Catalano was in position to earn his first career victory, but pole-sitter Justin Bonsignore ran him down and took the lead with 11 laps to go. From there, Bonsignose pulled away to take the victory. Catalano was second,
then Chuck Hossfeld, Kyle Ebersole and Tyler Rypkema. Ryan Newman led laps early, but faded to 13th.
Through two of 16 races, Catalano and Eric Goodale are tied for the points lead. They are one point ahead of Rypkema, then Jon McKennedy. Ron Silk is fifth in points.
- The Short Track Super Series Elite tour had their second race of the season, the Hard Clay Open, Saturday night at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y. Matt Sheppard started from pole, but immediately lost the lead to Mike Mahaney. However, Mahaney's rear-end broke on the second lap, giving the advantage back to
Sheppard.
No one else could even touch Sheppard for the remainder of the 50-lap race as the Super DIRTcar Series regular took home $25,362 for the win. Max McLaughlin was second, then Mat Williamson, Dan Creeden and Ryan Godown.
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| | Fresh Tires Bring Denny Hamlin Cup Win at
Richmond
Denny Hamlin used fresher tires Sunday to run down William Byron from more than a full lap behind to take the lead with five laps to go. From there, he held off Kevin Harvick to win the Toyota Owners 400. Byron held
on for third, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson.
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| | William Byron, Rudy Fugle Finish 3rd After Gamble Nearly Pays
Off
Unlike the majority of the field, Byron tried to run the final 130-lap green flag run with just one pit stop. On 90-lap tires at the end, he nearly got it done before fading to third.
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| | Ryan Blaney Dominates Early, Finishes 7th After Ross Chastain
Run-In
Early on, Ryan Blaney was untouchable, leading a race-high 128 laps. However, he faded in the second half of the race and ended up finishing seventh.
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| | Ty Gibbs Wins Richmond Xfinity Race On Last-Lap
Pass
Ty Gibbs led 113 laps in Saturday's ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway, but the race came down to a duel between himself and teammate John Hunter Nemechek. On the final lap, Gibbs bumped Nemechek out of the way to take his
third win of the year. Nemechek was second, then Sam Mayer, AJ Allmendinger and Riley Herbst.
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| | Sam Mayer Scores Best Career Xfinity Result, Dash 4 Cash
Bonus
A late charge Saturday at Richmond propelled JR Motorsports' Sam Mayer to a third-place finish, his best so far in the Xfinity Series. It also earned him the first $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus.
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| | SRX Signs Former NASCAR Weekly Series Champ Peyton
Sellers
Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) announced Saturday that Peyton Sellers will compete in the SRX event at South Boston Speedway on June 25.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Advance Auto Parts and our own Adam Cheek.
Have news for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising lead or tip.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott Tied At The Top
by Phil Allaway
Chase Elliott ran well on Sunday, but ended up on the bad side of the pit strategy. He had to get back onto the lead lap late in the race and ended up finishing 14th. Ryan Blaney led a race-high 128 laps and won stage one before finishing seventh. This results in Blaney and Elliott being tied for the
points lead. Due to a better finish earlier in the season, Blaney wins the tiebreaker.
Martin Truex Jr. had a very good chance at winning Sunday, but couldn't quite get to William Byron before he got overhauled. A fourth-place finish moved Truex up four places to third. Byron ran the final 80+ laps on tires and came within five laps of winning before he lost the advantage. A third-place finish moved him up from
sixth to fourth.
Joey Logano ran competitively all day, but he ran his tires off late and ended up a lap down in 17th. That dropped him two places to fifth. Ross Chastain was very fast Sunday and earned 16 stage points. However, the pit strategy put him a lap down late. He ran his tires off trying to get back on the lead lap. He eventually
got there, then fell back to 19th. He's down to sixth as a result. Alex Bowman recovered from a penalty to finish eighth. Despite that, he dropped from fourth to seventh. Kevin Harvick's second-place finish moved him up from a tie for 12th to eighth.
Chase Briscoe was as high as fifth in the final 40 laps before dropping back to 11th. He stays in ninth. Kyle Busch moves up one place to 10th after a ninth-place finish. Aric Almirola dropped three spots to 11th after finishing 21st. Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick are tied for
12th.
Larson is up four places after finishing fifth. Meanwhile, Reddick dropped two spots with a 12th-place finish. Daniel Suarez moves up one place to 14th after finishing 16th. He is the last driver in the playoffs on points right now. Austin Cindric dropped three places to 15th after crashing early in the final stage and
finishing 20th. Austin Dillon is the first driver outside of the playoffs, 13 points behind Suarez.
Erik Jones finished a disappointing 23rd, but stays in 17th. Kurt Busch's fuel pump issues in the opening laps dropped him all the way down to 18th. Chris Buescher is still in 19th, while Denny Hamlin's victory moved him up to 20th. Brad Keselowski finished 14th and moved up to
31st. He is 22 points behind 30th-place Corey LaJoie and 99 behind Suarez.
Point Standings (1-16): t-1) Ryan Blaney 241, t-1) Chase Elliott 241, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -19, 4) William Byron -23, 5) Joey Logano -26,
6) Ross Chastain -27, 7) Alex Bowman -29, 8) Kevin Harvick -48, 9) Chase Briscoe -49, 10) Kyle Busch -50, 11) Aric Almirola -57, t-12) Kyle Larson -58, t-12) Tyler Reddick -58, 14) Daniel Suarez -70, 15) Austin Cindric
-71, 16) Austin Dillon -83.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 20) Denny Hamlin
-93.
Playoff Points: 1) William Byron 7, t-2) Ross Chastain -1, t-2) Alex Bowman -1, t-2) Denny Hamlin -1, t-5) Kyle Larson -3, t-5) Chase Briscoe -2, t-5) Austin Cindric -2, t-8) Martin Truex Jr. -4, t-8) Ryan Blaney -4, 10) Tyler Reddick -5, 11) Daniel Suarez -6, .
Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 74, 2)
William Byron -10, 3) Chase Elliott -12, 4) Joey Logano -13, 5) Kyle Larson -21, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -23, 7) Ross Chastain -31, 8) Chase Briscoe -34, 9) Tyler Reddick -36, 10) Brad Keselowski -39, t-11) Alex Bowman -41, t-11) Kyle
Busch -41, 13) Erik Jones -42, 14) Denny Hamlin -45, 15) Christopher Bell -48, 16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -50.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: t-17) Kevin Harvick -51, t-17) Austin Cindric -51, t-17) Daniel Suarez -51, 21) Aric Almirola -58.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 210, 2) Alex Bowman -3, 3) Ryan Blaney -6, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -7, 5) Kevin Harvick -10, 6) Ross Chastain
-11, 7) Aric Almirola -13, 8) Kyle Busch -20, 9) Joey Logano -22, 10) William Byron -24, 11) Chase Briscoe -27, t-12) Tyler Reddick -33, t-12) Daniel Suarez -33, 14) Austin Cindric -34, t-15) Austin Dillon -36, t-15) Kurt Busch
-36.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Kyle Larson -48, 22) Denny Hamlin
-61.
Note: These
standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Ryan Blaney 937, 2) Chase Elliott -4, 3) Ross
Chastain -7, 4) Alex Bowman -11, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -21, 6) Kevin Harvick -31, 7) Aric Almirola -47, 8) Kyle Busch -59, 9) William Byron -61, 10) Joey Logano -69, 11) Chase Briscoe -83, 12) Tyler Reddick -96, 13) Daniel Suarez -102, 14) Kurt Busch
-110, 15) Austin Cindric -116, 16) Austin Dillon -118.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Kyle Larson -135,
t-21) Denny Hamlin -196.
Note No. 1: The WC points are based on the original points
system created by Bob Latford in 1975.
Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona), Kyle Larson (Fontana), Alex Bowman (Las Vegas), Chase Briscoe (Phoenix), William Byron (Atlanta), Ross Chastain (Circuit of the Americas), Denny Hamlin (Richmond)
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.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: AJ Allmendinger Takes Points Lead After Noah Gragson's Brakes Turn Traitor
by Phil Allaway
JR Motorsports' Noah Gragson had a very quick car, but the braking system let him down. After finishing stage one in second, he pitted with braking issues. The team put brake fluid in the car, only for a brake rotor to snap shortly after the restart. Gragson would limp to a 21st-place finish, losing the points lead in the
process.
AJ Allmendinger was decent all day and ended up finishing fourth. That was enough to claim the points lead. His advantage is 20 points over a tie for second between Gragson and Ty Gibbs. Gibbs' three victories, including Saturday's ToyotaCare 250, wins the tiebreaker over Gragson's one triumph. Josh Berry is up
one position to fourth after earning 16 stage points and finishing seventh.
Justin Allgaier faded in the closing laps and finished 14th. This dropped him one place to fifth. Sam Mayer won the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus after finishing third. That performance moved him up three places to sixth. Brandon Jones is down to seventh after dropping out of the top five to 13th
late. Daniel Hemric stays in eighth after coming from the rear to finish sixth.
Daytona winner Austin Hill is down from a tie for sixth to ninth after finishing 18th. Ryan Sieg got up to fourth late before dropping back to ninth. As a result, he remains in 10th. Riley Herbst finished fifth and moved up one place to 11th. Sheldon Creed and Brandon Brown are tied
for 12th in points. Creed was disappointing Saturday, finishing 22nd. Meanwhile, Brown finished in eighth. However, Creed has the better finish this year, so he has the final spot in the playoffs for now.
Creed and Brown are six points ahead of Anthony Alfredo in 14th. Alfredo finished 12th Saturday. Alfredo's Our Motorsports teammate Jeb Burton is up to 15th after crashing in qualifying, then coming from the rear to finish 11th. Landon Cassill dropped down to 16th after a late fade to 15th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 303, t-2) Ty Gibbs -20, t-2) Noah Gragson -20, 4) Josh Berry -76, 5) Justin Allgaier -87, 6) Sam Mayer -102, 7) Brandon Jones
-104, 8) Daniel Hemric -106, 9) Austin Hill -110, 10) Ryan Sieg -112, 11) Riley Herbst -124, t-12) Sheldon Creed -139, t-12) Brandon Brown -139, 14) Anthony Alfredo -145, 15) Jeb Burton -151, 16) Landon
Cassill -153.
Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics are either ineligible for the playoffs, or outside of the top 12.
Playoff Points: 1) Ty Gibbs 16, 2) Noah Gragson -8, 3) AJ Allmendinger -9, 4) Austin Hill -11, t-5) Daniel Hemric -14, t-5) Trevor Bayne -14, t-7) Josh Berry
-15, t-7) Sam Mayer -15.
Note: If they were eligible, Cole Custer would be fourth and John Hunter Nemechek tied for eighth in playoff points.
Stage Points: 1) Noah Gragson 79, 2) AJ Allmendinger -6, 3) Josh Berry -17, 4) Ty Gibbs -19, 5) Daniel Hemric -24, 6) Sam Mayer -25, 7) Justin Allgaier
-29, 8) Brandon Jones -39, 9) Trevor Bayne -46, 10) Austin Hill -51, 11) Ryan Sieg -52, 12) Jade Buford -58, 13) Riley Herbst -61, 14) Brandon Brown -65, 15) Sage Karam -68, 16) Alex Labbe
-70.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: t-21) Sheldon Creed -74.
Note: If they were eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be ninth and Cole Custer would be 14th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 264, 2) Ty Gibbs -10, 3) Noah Gragson -27, 4) Josh Berry -68, 5) Austin Hill -69, 6) Ryan Sieg -70, 7) Brandon Jones
-73, 8) Sheldon Creed -75, 9) Riley Herbst -77, 10) Justin Allgaier -81, t-11) Anthony Alfredo -84, t-11) Brandon Brown -84, 13) Sam Mayer -87, 14) Jeb Burton -90, 15) Daniel Hemric -91, 16) Landon Cassill
-95.
WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 1135, 2) Ty Gibbs -58, 3) Noah Gragson -80, 4) Josh Berry -228, 5) Austin Hill -232, 6) Brandon Jones -256, 7) Ryan Sieg
-262, 8) Riley Herbst -267, 9) Sheldon Creed -272, 10) Justin Allgaier -278, 11) Sam Mayer -297, 12) Anthony Alfredo -304, 13) Brandon Brown -307, 14) Daniel Hemric -311, 15) Jeb Burton -333, 16) Landon Cassill
-334.
Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Cole Custer (Fontana), Ty Gibbs (Las Vegas, Atlanta, Richmond), Noah Gragson (Phoenix), AJ Allmendinger (Circuit of the Americas)
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Seeking the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs: Off-Week Update No. 3
by Phil Allaway
The Camping World Truck Series was off this past weekend. They are scheduled to race once again Thursday night at Martinsville Speedway.
When the teams get to the paperclip, Kyle Busch Motorsports' Chandler Smith will have a 15-point lead over Ben Rhodes. Stewart Friesen is third in points, while Zane Smith is tied for fourth with Tanner Gray on the strength of two victories.
At the cutoff, Derek Kraus and Tyler Ankrum are tied for ninth, two points ahead of both Carson Hocevar and Matt Crafton. Austin Wayne Self is another eight points back.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 170, 2) Ben Rhodes -15, 3) Stewart Friesen -23, t-4) Zane Smith -31, t-4) Tanner Gray -31, t-6) Ty Majeski -38, t-6) Christian Eckes -38, 8) John
Hunter Nemechek -55, t-9) Derek Kraus -66, t-9) Tyler Ankrum -66, t-11) Carson Hocevar -68, t-11) Matt Crafton -68, 13) Austin Wayne Self -76, 14) Grant Enfinger -82, 15) Matt DiBenedetto -89, 16) Timmy Hill -92.
Note: If he were eligible for Camping World Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 14th.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 12, t-2) Chandler Smith -7, t-2) Corey Heim -7, 4) John Hunter Nemechek -9, 5) Ben Rhodes -10, 6) Stewart Friesen -11.
Stage Points: 1) Chandler Smith 49, 2) Ben Rhodes -3, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -7, 4) Stewart Friesen -16, t-5) Christian Eckes -22, t-5) Derek Kraus -22, t-7) Zane Smith -23, t-7) Matt Crafton
-23, 9) Tanner Gray -24, 10) Ty Majeski -25, 11) Tyler Ankrum -31, 12) Grant Enfinger -35, 13) Carson Hocevar -38, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -39, t-15) Corey Heim -42, t-15) Jack Wood -42.
Note: If he were eligible, Kyle Busch would be 11th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 108, t-2) Zane Smith -7, t-2) Stewart Friesen -7, 4) Tanner Gray -9, 5) Ben Rhodes -12, 6) Ty Majeski -24, 7) Christian Eckes -26, 8) Carson
Hocevar -32, 9) Austin Wayne Self -35, 10) Tyler Ankrum -37, t-11) Derek Kraus -46, t-11) John Hunter Nemechek -46, 13) Matt Crafton -47, 14) Kris Wright -48, 15) Grant Enfinger -49, t-16) Ryan Preece
-51, t-16) Timmy Hill -51.
Note: If he were eligible, Kyle Busch would be 11th in Old Points.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 610, 2) Ben Rhodes -25, 3) Stewart Friesen -27, 4) Zane Smith -35, 5) Tanner Gray -36, 6) Ty Majeski -82, 7) Christian Eckes -86, 8) Carson Hocevar
-119, 9) Austin Wayne Self -132, 10) Tyler Ankrum -135, 11) John Hunter Nemechek -145, 12) Derek Kraus -164, 13) Matt Crafton -165, t-14) Grant Enfinger -174, t-14) Kris Wright -174, 16) Timmy Hill -181.
Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Circuit of the Americas), Chandler Smith (Las Vegas), Corey Heim (Atlanta)
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Toyota Owners 400 was brought to you by the letter F for Fresh Tires. In order to score a good finish Sunday, you needed reasonably good tires towards the end of the race. Those teams that chose to skip a pit stop during stage two had an extra set of tires late in the final stage. Denny Hamlin is just one driver that did. He pitted
out of second with 46 laps to go, then drove up from a lap down to win. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Toyota Owners 400
complied by Phil Allaway
"Obviously we've been searching a little bit. The first six races haven't gone great, but we've had some -- over half of them we've had winning cars. I know that sounds crazy, but Daytona I'm sure we would be fine, Atlanta we were good, Vegas, I thought we had a great shot to win there. There's been some struggles in the other
ones.
"We go to work. I mean, Joe does a great job motivating all of our group, as if I need motivating (smiling). But we work really hard. We know that waiting seven races to win is not... We have a level of performance that we expect more than that.
"I'm glad we're able to kind of turn the ship around at least for a week, then next week we're going to see if we really started to build some momentum going forward." - Denny Hamlin, race winner
"Yeah, I’m just really proud of everyone on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for just staying in there and having a great strategy and doing everything that they did all day. It was really the first clean day that we’ve had all year. The cars have been fast and had a shot there at the end. I wanted to be close enough with the white to just take
a swipe at him, but the lapped cars kind of got in the way and I lost a little bit of ground. Still, it’s a great day for us and hopefully a little bit of momentum in a positive direction." - Kevin Harvick, finished second
"Thought we probably did the best job we could. It didn’t quite work out. I thought there at the end they told me I was just racing [Martin Truex Jr]. I’m like ok I got him, but then [Kevin Harvick] and [Denny Hamlin] were on a totally different planet. That’s just part of it. There wasn’t anything I could do about them, so it was
probably four or five to go and Brandon [Lines] was coaching me on keeping the tires underneath it and having good exits and entries. Especially making those guys go around me on the top was definitely better. The times that guys would get underneath me was really, really hard to get back connected and get a good lap put together. The middle of the race we were terrible and we just couldn’t get in the corner at all and if you can’t get into the corner you can’t put consistent laps together. It’s
nice to have a run like we had today." - William Byron, finished third
"It’s frustrating, but it’s part of it. It’s part of the whole day. We did good there for a while. James [Small] did a great job all day with the strategy – getting us up-front, getting us the lead. Our Auto-Owners Camry TRD was super-fast out front. Super-fast in clean air. At the end there, I think we just tried to gamble on beating
[William Bryon] and then he ended up doing our strategy and we both screwed up. Heads up the other way, I think we had the best car, but it doesn’t matter. Overall, just really proud of our guys and big step in the right direction for Phoenix. Completely different mindset coming here, after today what we can do going forward. Excited about that. Thanks to everybody at TRD, Toyota, everybody back at [Joe Gibbs Racing] for working their butts off. Very strong day for our team." - Martin Truex
Jr., finished fourth
"I assume we netted out good with our strategy or better than we were. I didn’t think [Denny Hamlin] and [Kevin Harvick] were going to get to us, but then all of a sudden, our tires kind of fell off a cliff there and got really slick. We just kind of had to nurse it home. Glad we got a top five after three bad finishes in a row. We will
move on to Martinsville and try to get a good run there." - Kyle Larson, finished fifth
"It’s tough. There were a handful of cars that could kind of run up and run in traffic pretty good and we just weren’t really good enough to run in traffic. Once we lost track position I struggled a little bit, but it’s nice to win a stage. It’s cool to get the pole and good stage points. We finished seventh, my best finish here.
Overall, a fun day. It was kind of frustrating because we were running so good early. I wanted to run better, but I can’t complain about it too much. Overall, not a bad day. We just have to find a little bit more speed, but it was nice that we kind of put together some decent notes and have an OK run at Richmond." - Ryan Blaney, finished seventh
"We obviously had a really good starting position, but in the beginning we fought a lot of balance issues and I think we fell all the way to 28th from fifth. It wasn’t looking the greatest, but we just continued to get our car better. That’s definitely the farthest off we’ve been all year and to still be able to finish 11th is a good
day. We got lucky and got a quick caution and was able to get the lucky dog, and from there our car was actually driving pretty good and was able to drive up in the top five at one point. We just tried the gamble strategy with the win already and it didn’t work out. To finish 11th, we probably could have run a little bit better if our tires had held on a little bit more, but after being 25th at one point and a lap down with about 200 to go, we’ll definitely take it." - Chase Briscoe,
finished 11th
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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