Frontstretch Newsletter: June 6, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition
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- NASCAR teams are returning to their shops today from Gateway and Portland to get ready for the next cross-country haul. We'll have anything that breaks for you at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: June 3-5
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- Linus Lundqvist walked out of Belle Isle Park with a weekend sweep in Indy Lights competition. Race No. 1 on Saturday saw Lundqvist lead flag-to-flag and beat Benjamin Pedersen by 3.7232 seconds. Matthew Brabham was third, then Christian Bogle and Kyffin Simpson.
Race No. 2 on Sunday was more of the same. Lundqvist's charge was interrupted only due to full course cautions due to wrecks for Bogle and Christian Rasmussen. Lundqvist led all 30 laps to take the sweep by 3.7005 seconds over Hunter McElrea. Sting Ray Robb was third, then Brabham and Danial Frost.
With four victories, Lundqvist has an 84-point lead over Pedersen. Robb and Brabham are tied for third, then Brabham.
- After Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Pacific Office Automation 147, ARCA Menards Series West teams took on Portland International Raceway for a scheduled 112 miles. In wet conditions, Jake Drew earned his first career victory in a race shortened to 42 laps due to heavy rains. Connor Mosack was second, then Todd Souza, Daniel Dye and Takuma
Koga.
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| | Joey Logano Seizes Victory in Inaugural Gateway Cup
Race
Team Penske's Joey Logano was able to sweep past Kyle Busch on a Green-White-Checker restart Sunday and hold on to win the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by
TicketSmarter. Kyle Busch was second, then Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola.
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| | Ross Chastain Ruined Denny Hamlin’s Day at
Gateway
Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter will be best remembered for Denny Hamlin's crash after contact from Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin spending much of the rest
of the race trying to hinder Chastain's progress.
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| | Ryan Blaney Recovers from Cut Tire & Spin to Finish 4th at
Gateway
Team Penske's Ryan Blaney ran well all day Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway. However, a cut left rear caused him to crash on lap 94. From there, Blaney recovered to finish fourth.
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| | Parker Kligerman’s Next Gen Debut Marred By
Flames
Parker Kligerman finished on the lead lap in 31st Sunday. He did that in an unpainted backup car with no laps on it after an electrical fire broke out during practice
Friday.
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| | AJ Allmendinger Claims 2nd NASCAR Xfinity Win of 2022 at
Portland
Kaulig Racing's AJ Allmendinger came from the rear of the field and a lap down Saturday to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series' inaugural Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland
International Raceway. Myatt Snider was second, then Austin Hill, Josh Berry and Justin Allgaier.
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| | Restarts, Rain Prove to Be Troublesome in Xfinity Series Debut at
Portland
Saturday's Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway was a tricky one with adverse weather in play. Just getting the race restarted became a significant problem at
times.
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| | Corey Heim Takes Lead in Overtime, Wins Truck
Race at Gateway
With a friendly push from Chandler Smith, Corey Heim swept past Christian Eckes on a Green-White-Checker restart to win Saturday's Toyota 200 presented by CK Power for his second
win of the year. Eckes was second, then Smith, Stewart Friesen and Johnny Sauter.
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| | Chandler Smith Shows Championship-Caliber Effort With 3rd at
Gateway
Kyle Busch Motorsports' Chandler Smith had a truck that could have won Saturday's Toyota 200 presented by CK Power. However, a crash with Grant Enfinger crimped his plans. Smith was still able to charge back to
finish third.
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| | John Hunter Nemechek Loses Truck Series Points Lead After Gateway
Crash
John Hunter Nemechek entered Saturday with a narrow lead in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series point standings over Ben Rhodes. Crashing early in stage two while racing
with Stewart Friesen and Corey Heim put him out of the race and the points lead.
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| | Will Power Beats Alexander Rossi in Nail-Biting 2022 Detroit Grand
Prix
Will Power used a better tire strategy to beat out Alexander Rossi to win Sunday's Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear at The Raceway at Belle Isle. Rossi was second, then Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and
Patricio O'Ward.
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| | Marcus Ericsson Finishes a Solid 7th in
Detroit
Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson spent the week running around on his victory tour before returning to the site of his first NTT IndyCar Series win. While Ericsson
couldn't replicate that feat, he did end up seventh after a tough day at Belle Isle Park.
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| | Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande Dominate in Final IMSA Belle Isle
Event
Chip Ganassi Racing's Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande scored a street course sweep for 2022 by leading 69 of 73 laps to win the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at The
Raceway at Belle Isle.
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| | Kyle Kirkwood Starts Detroit Double Duty With an IMSA GTD
Win
Kyle Kirkwood had a busy weekend at The Raceway at Belle Isle. In addition to his regular gig driving for AJ Foyt in INDYCAR, he drove in GTD in VasserSullivan on Saturday,
picking up a class victory.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, IMSA, Chris Jones and Joe Skibinski of INDYCAR Media and our own Mark Kristl.
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: Chase Elliott Spins Out, Loses Significant Ground To Opponents
by Phil Allaway
Chase Elliott was running
decently on Sunday until he spun exiting turn 4 just after a restart. While his car was not significantly damaged, Elliott lost all his track position and was never really able to regain it. Elliott ended up 21st and lost a good chunk of his lead. His advantage is now just nine points over Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 66 laps and finished second. Ross Chastain dropped one place to third after finishing eighth. He
might have lot a bit more than that, though. Ryan Blaney recovered from a cut tire to finish fourth and stays in fourth with a 25-point gain on Elliott.
Martin Truex Jr. was in position to win late before cautions got him. Regardless, he's still in fifth after a strong run. Joey Logano's victory keeps him in sixth, but he's only three points Truex. Kyle Larson is up two places to seventh despite a quiet run to 12th. Alex
Bowman is still in eighth.
William Byron is down two places to ninth after a disappointing 19th-place finish. Christopher Bell is still in 10th, while Aric Almirola was strong all weekend. A fifth-place finish moved him up three spots to 11th. Tyler Reddick finished 16th after his own
tire issue to stay in 12th, the last driver in the playoffs on points.
Reddick's margin is two points over Kevin Harvick, who would have stayed in the playoffs until he cut a right rear tire and crashed in the closing laps. Chase Briscoe had of the best cars early, then cut a left rear tire on lap 27. While he did race back up front, he faded late to 24th, dropping him one place to
14th. Erik Jones is up one place to 15th after a seventh-place finish. Austin Dillon is down one place to 16th.
Kurt Busch's third-place finish, along with a victory in stage two, moved him up three places to 17th. Austin Cindric won stage one and finished 11th to move up to 18th. Denny Hamlin is an upset man after getting crashed by Chastain early on. He had to struggle with a wounded car to the finish
in 34th, 11 laps down. That dropped him down to 19th. A disappointing 23rd-place finish dropped Daniel Suarez to 20th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 507, 2) Kyle Busch -9, 3) Ross Chastain -17, 4) Ryan Blaney
-28, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -37, 6) Joey Logano -40, 7) Kyle Larson -63, 8) Alex Bowman -68, 9) William Byron -69, 10) Christopher Bell -73, 11) Aric Almirola -122, 12) Tyler Reddick
-128, 13) Kevin Harvick -130, 14) Chase Briscoe -145, 15) Erik Jones -154, 16) Austin Dillon -157.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Kurt Busch -174, 18) Austin Cindric
-177, t-19) Denny Hamlin -188.
Playoff Points: t-1) William Byron 13, t-1) Ross Chastain 13, 3) Denny Hamlin -1, 4) Joey Logano -2, 5) Chase Elliott -5, 6) Kurt Busch -6, t-7) Alex Bowman -7, t-7) Kyle Larson -7, t-7) Chase Briscoe -7, t-7) Kyle Busch -7, t-7) Austin Cindric -7, 12) Ryan Blaney -9, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -10, t-14) Tyler Reddick
-11, t-14) Daniel Suarez -11, 16) Darrell Wallace Jr. -11.
Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott
142, 2) Ryan Blaney -18, 3) Ross Chastain -21, 4) William Byron -22, 5) Joey Logano -28, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -31, 7) Kyle Larson -32, 8) Kyle Busch -44, 9) Christopher Bell
-47, 10) Tyler Reddick -64, 11) Chase Briscoe -67, 12) Erik Jones -79, 13) Denny Hamlin -80, 14) Daniel Suarez -90, 15) Alex Bowman -93, 16) Austin Cindric
-97.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Aric Almirola -99, 20) Kurt Busch -105.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Busch 472, 2) Alex Bowman -29, 3) Ross Chastain -38, 4) Chase Elliott
-41, 5) Ryan Blaney -42, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -46, 7) Joey Logano -50, 8) Kevin Harvick -65, 9) Christopher Bell -67, 10) Kyle Larson -68, 11) Aric Almirola -69, 12) William Byron
-84, 13) Austin Dillon -87, 14) Tyler Reddick -105, 15) Kurt Busch -110, 16) Chase Briscoe -111.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Austin Cindric -125, 22)
Denny Hamlin -150.
Note: These
standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Kyle Busch 2124, 2) Ross Chastain
-126, 3) Alex Bowman -151, 4) Ryan Blaney -152, 5) Chase Elliott -179, 6) Joey Logano -188, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -196, 8) Kyle Larson -226, 9) Christopher Bell -246, 10) Kevin Harvick
-252, 11) Aric Almirola -286, 12) William Byron -302, 13) Austin Dillon -324, 14) Tyler Reddick -354, 15) Kurt Busch -381, 16) Chase Briscoe -399.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Austin Cindric
-468, 22) Denny Hamlin -521.
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, Martinsville), Ross Chastain (Circuit of the Americas, Talladega), Denny Hamlin (Richmond, Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Bristol), Chase Elliott (Dover), Joey Logano (Darlington, Gateway), Kurt Busch (Kansas)
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 our own Phil
Allaway.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: AJ Allmendinger's Unexpected Portland Victory Increases His Advantage
by Phil Allaway
AJ Allmendinger spun extremely early Sunday and actually ended up a lap down early in the race. He was able to recover from there to earn his second win of the year. That, combined with issues for his rivals resulted in Allmendinger gaining in the standings. He is now 43 points ahead of Ty Gibbs, who dominated early before getting spun out
under yellow and eventually finishing seventh. Noah Gragson finished ninth and dropped down to third. JR Motorsports teammates Josh Berry and Justin Allgaier are tied for fourth in points. Berry gets the spot since he has two wins to Allgaier's one. Berry finished fourth Saturday while Allgaier was fifth.
Brandon Jones is up one place to sixth despite being all over the place for a decent chunk of the race before finishing 11th. Sam Mayer was caught up in an early chain reaction that put him out of the race. The 38th-place finish dropped Mayer down to seventh. Austin Hill remains in eighth and made some gains after finishing third.
Daniel Hemric is up one place to ninth after finishing sixth. Landon Cassill is also up a spot after a decent day in the rain. Riley Herbst crashed out exiting the Festival Curves and ended up 35th. That puts him down two places to 11th. Ryan Sieg remains in 12th, the last driver in the playoffs.
Sieg's advantage is now 58 points, nearly a full race over Anthony Alfredo. Alfredo, like teammate Jeb Burton, who is still 14th, both crashed out of the race. Brett Moffitt is up one place to 15th despite a 20th-place finish. Brandon Brown is back up to 16th despite fading late.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 573, 2) Ty Gibbs -43, 3) Noah Gragson -44, t-4) Josh Berry -64, t-4) Justin Allgaier -64, 6) Brandon Jones
-145, 7) Sam Mayer -149, 8) Austin Hill -157, 9) Daniel Hemric -184, 10) Landon Cassill -207, 11) Riley Herbst -209, 12) Ryan Sieg -228, 13) Anthony Alfredo -286, 14) Jeb Burton -295, 15) Brett Moffitt
-299, 16) Brandon Brown -300.
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 18, 2) Noah Gragson -2, 3) Josh Berry -4, 4) AJ Allmendinger -6, 5) Justin Allgaier -10, 6) Brandon Jones -12, 7) Austin Hill
-13, t-8) Daniel Hemric -16, t-8) Trevor Bayne -16, t-8) Sam Mayer -16, 11) Myatt Snider -17.
Note: If they were eligible, Cole Custer would be tied for sixth, Tyler Reddick tied for eighth and John Hunter Nemechek 13th in playoff points.
Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 150, t-2) Noah Gragson -12, t-2) Josh Berry -12, 4) Ty Gibbs -19, 5) AJ Allmendinger -21, 6) Sam Mayer -47, 7) Brandon Jones
-62, 8) Daniel Hemric -71, 9) Austin Hill -82, 10) Landon Cassill -107, 11) Trevor Bayne -110, 12) Ryan Sieg -111, 13) Riley Herbst -115, t-14) Brandon Brown -125, t-14) Ryan Truex -125, 16) Jade
Buford -128.
Note: If he were eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be 10th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 508, 2) Ty Gibbs -43, 3) Noah Gragson -52, 4) Josh Berry -74, 5) Justin Allgaier -97, 6) Austin Hill
-99, 7) Brandon Jones -106, 8) Riley Herbst -126, 9) Sam Mayer -128, 10) Landon Cassill -131, 11) Daniel Hemric -139, 12) Ryan Sieg -144, 13) Jeb Burton -182, 14) Anthony Alfredo -186, 15) Brett Moffitt
-189, 16) Sheldon Creed -195.
WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 2191, 2) Noah Gragson -150, 3) Ty Gibbs -156, 4) Josh Berry -253, 5) Justin Allgaier -315, 6) Justin Allgaier
-290, 7) Riley Herbst -309, 8) Austin Hill -316, 9) Brandon Jones -329, 10) Landon Cassill -398, 11) Ryan Sieg -451, 12) Daniel Hemric -458, t-13) Jeb Burton -537, t-13) Anthony Alfredo
-537, 15) Sheldon Creed -556, 16) Brett Moffitt -589.
Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Cole Custer (Fontana), Ty Gibbs (Las Vegas, Atlanta, Richmond), Noah Gragson (Phoenix, Talladega), AJ Allmendinger (Circuit of the Americas, Portland), Brandon Jones (Martinsville), Josh Berry (Dover, Charlotte), Justin Allgaier (Darlington), Tyler Reddick (Texas)
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 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs: Ben Rhodes Retakes Points Lead After John Hunter Nemechek Crash
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek ran well early in the race Saturday, but got caught on the inside of a three-wide situation in turn 4. Nemechek spun, hit the wall, then got hit by Blaine Perkins and Ty Majeski, ending his day. As a result, he finished 35th and lost the points lead. Ben Rhodes won stage two and finished
eighth. This was enough to put him back in the points lead. His advantage is 17 points over Chandler Smith. Chandler won stage one and finished third despite a spin in turn 1 after contact with Grant Enfinger. Zane Smith recovered from a tire issue to finish ninth and stay in third. Nemechek's crash dropped him to fourth.
Stewart Friesen finished fourth and stayed in fifth. He is only two points behind Nemechek. Christian Eckes came close to victory again, but had to settle for second. That moved him up one spot to sixth. Majeski crashed with Nemechek, but continued. Then, he was parked for an incident that occurred on pit road with his crew nearly fighting a NASCAR
official. The finish itself dropped Majeski to seventh. Depending on how NASCAR looks at the situation, there could be more penalties on the way. Carson Hocevar is still in eighth, but was injured after getting t-boned by Tyler Hill in a last-lap crash Saturday. We'll see if he'll have to miss any time as a result.
Matt Crafton is up one place to ninth after finishing 12th. His gain came at the expense of Enfinger, who crashed with Chandler Smith and drove a wounded truck to 28th. He is the last driver in the playoffs. Enfinger's advantage is 44 points over Derek Kraus, who led late before Eckes got past. A bad lane choice on the restart dropped him to seventh.
Tanner Gray crashed out late and dropped to 12th in points as a result. Matt DiBenedetto finished sixth and continues to make inroads in 13th. Tyler Ankrum finished 13th and stays in 14th. Chase Purdy finished 10th and gained three places to 15th. The idle Ryan Preece drops to
16th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ben Rhodes 415, 2) Chandler Smith -17, 3) Zane Smith -21, 4) John Hunter Nemechek -22, 5) Stewart Friesen -24, 6) Christian Eckes -34, 7) Ty
Majeski -60, 8) Carson Hocevar -78, 9) Matt Crafton -98, 10) Grant Enfinger -104, 11) Derek Kraus -148, 12) Tanner Gray -152, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -163, 14) Tyler Ankrum -182, 15) Chase Purdy
-216, 16) Ryan Preece -221.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 20, 2) Ben Rhodes -8, 3) Corey Heim -11, 4) John Hunter Nemechek -12, t-5) Stewart Friesen -14, t-5) Chandler Smith -14, 7) Ryan Preece
-18, t-8) Carson Hocevar -19, t-8) Parker Kligerman -19.
Note: If they were eligible for Playoff Points, William Byron and Ross Chastain would be tied for sixth.
Stage Points: 1) Ben Rhodes 129, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -14, 3) Zane Smith -37, 4) Chandler Smith -42, 5) Ty Majeski -43, 6) Stewart Friesen -51, 7) Christian Eckes
-55, 8) Carson Hocevar -62, 9) Derek Kraus -73, 10) Matt Crafton -78, 11) Corey Heim -86, t-12) Grant Enfinger -88, t-12) Ryan Preece -88, 14) Tanner Gray -91, 15) Parker Kligerman -94, 16) Matt
DiBenedetto -106.
Note: If he were eligible, Ross Chastain would be 16th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Stewart Friesen 274, 2) Chandler Smith -2, 3) Christian Eckes -4, 4) Zane Smith -7, 5) Ben Rhodes -23, 6) John Hunter Nemechek
-29, 7) Carson Hocevar -40, t-8) Ty Majeski -45, t-8) Grant Enfinger -45, 10) Matt Crafton -50, 11) Matt DiBenedetto -86, 12) Tanner Gray -90, 13) Derek Kraus -100, 14) Tyler Ankrum -103, 15) Chase Purdy
-120, 16) Timmy Hill -133.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 1593, 2) Chandler Smith -8, 3) Stewart Friesen -20, 4) Zane Smith -41, 5) Ben Rhodes -63, 6) John Hunter Nemechek -85, 7) Carson
Hocevar -136, 8) Ty Majeski -149, 9) Grant Enfinger -154, 10) Matt Crafton -192, 11) Tanner Gray -317, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -318, 13) Derek Kraus -364, 14) Tyler Ankrum -370, 15) Timmy Hill -464, 16) Chase
Purdy -497.
Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Circuit of the Americas, Kansas), Chandler Smith (Las Vegas), Corey Heim (Atlanta, Gateway), William Byron (Martinsville), Ben Rhodes (Bristol), John Hunter Nemechek (Darlington), Stewart Friesen (Texas), Ross Chastain (Charlotte)
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter was brought to you by the letter S for Success. The 1.25-mile track enjoyed a grandstand sellout, good weather (not too hot and not humid at all) and decent racing. There are a lot of things that need to be improved
on, but it seems like the track ownership will address that in the coming months. - Phil
Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter
complied by Phil Allaway
"I hope you enjoyed that race. It doesn’t get much better than that. Racing for the lead like that with Kyle, one of the best. It was a lot of fun. Crossing each other back and forth. I knew it was coming. I did it to him; I knew he was going to do it to me. We crossed back and forth there in the last lap there a couple of times. Good for Pennzoil Mustang for sure. Nice to get a few wins on the season here, start collecting those points, playoff points. I’m
out of breath. Jamie, I’m way out of breath here. What a great car, though. Really fast. I kind of messed up in qualifying, and Paul made a great call putting two tires on. Blaney did a great job with the push down in the one, which kept me close at least and being able to make the move. Good racing there." - Joey Logano, race winner
"My car was better on the outside,
but it took a few laps for it to get rolling up there. Cold tires, firing off on that restart – didn’t have the help behind me. I was going to put my hand out the window and signal to Kurt [Busch] to push me along and Joey [Logano] was half a car back out my window trying to see it, so the hand signal was going to be irrelevant, so I didn’t do it, which kind of made Kurt too far back. Got into turn one by myself and was too far back. When you are the guy on the inside, you just flush the guy on
the outside and it’s over. I got a crossover though but threw it into [turn 3] too far. It chattered all four tires. Just didn’t have any grip to get off the corner well enough to be on his outside, so I don’t know. Way better than Phoenix overall. We were more in the running than there for sure. The guys on this [Joe Gibbs Racing], Toyota, Snickers, M&M’s, Interstate Batteries, Rowdy Energy, Breathe Right team did a good job to improve and it’s something to work off of." - Kyle
Busch, finished second
"I thought there was going to be a
hand signal on when it was going to be go time and I was going to push the hell out of the 18 (Kyle Busch). We did the whole brother miscommunication. We should have won that. There should have been a Toyota in victory lane, a Busch in victory lane. (Joey) Logano, he didn’t do anything smart – we just messed up on getting the launch. Then I wanted Kyle all on my own running 1-2, but what an awesome day for our Monster Toyota. We won a stage. I gambled on that, and then the team had my back."
- Kurt Busch, finished third
"We had a really fast car. I had a
great shot to win and just made a mistake in the pits and came out 17th and by the time we got back to race with the lead I just had no tires left. I am proud of the Dent Wizard team all day. The car was super fast, just didn’t do a good job with execution there on that last pit stop." - Ryan Blaney, finished fourth
"It was a solid day for us. We
really needed that. It kind of turned the last month around. We have been running top 10 and finishing 20th or worse the last month and a half. Really proud of the effort today. It was kind of a mistake free day and ran inside the top five all day. Drew and the guys on the team did a great job. We are just so close to having what we needed to go challenge those guys for the lead." - Aric Almirola, finished
fifth
"Our day was up all day. We lost
some spots there at the end with just the restarts and getting tighter. We kind of struggled with that during the day. It was a good day for us. We needed a top 10 run and we got that today with the No. 43 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevy.
"I’m happy with that. Obviously,
we want to be a bit better. I think we have some things we can work on to get up there and be a little bit faster than some of those guys. We’ll keep going, but it was a solid day for us." - Erik Jones, finished seventh
"It was just terrible driving.
It’s one thing to do it once, but I just kept driving into guys. At this level, I’m supposed to be better than that. It’s just a shame for Moose Fraternity, Advent Health, Jockey, Worldwide Express. I have all these people believing in me with Justin Marks and Pitbull putting me in this car. They deserve better.
"I owe half of the field an
apology. Words aren’t going to fix it, so I’ll have to pay for it on the track. I almost did today and I deserve everything that they do. I can’t believe I continued to make those same mistakes; overdrive the corners and drive into guys. I had time under caution to get reset; and we’d go green and I would drive into somebody. Terrible." - Ross Chastain, finished eighth
"I’m really happy with today. I
didn’t know what to expect with no practice or qualifying and the car having to be fixed. The team made the car better all day. Ultimately, we needed a little bit of track position, but we were really good at the end there. I’m proud of the effort from start to finish to get a top-10 to cap off a great weekend." - AJ Allmendinger, finished 10th
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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