Frontstretch Newsletter: July 11, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition CXVI
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- NASCAR teams are back at work today at their shops, preparing for this weekend's action in New Hampshire. Entry lists should be released today. We'll have those and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: July 8-10
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- Signatech Alpine's Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere used a quick pit stop and good form to overcome a top speed disadvantage to win the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Monza Sunday afternoon. It is the team's second win of the year and allowed them to extend their points lead. They
finished 2.762 seconds ahead of the No. 8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa. The No. 7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez were two laps down in third.
Peugeot's first race for the new 9X8 was troubled. The No. 94 with Loic
Duval, Gustavo Menezes and James Rossiter finished, but they were 25 laps down after spending time in the garage. The No. 93 failed to finish.
In LMP2, Realteam by WRT's Rui
Andrade, Ferdinand Habsburg and Norman Nato claimed the class win in fourth overall. They ended up winning by 11.882 seconds over JOTA Sport's No. 38 for Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Will Stevens. Vector Sport's Sebastien Bourdais, Ryan Cullen and Nico Mueller were third, then Inter Europol Competition's Alex Brundle, Esteban Gutierrez and Jakub Smiechowski. United Autosports' No. 23 for Oliver Jarvis, Alex Lynn and Josh Pierson were
fifth.
Corvette Racing's Tommy Milner and
Nick Tandy claimed a somewhat unexpected GTE-Pro class victory Sunday thanks to superior fuel conservation skills. They ended up 19.412 seconds ahead of AF Corse's Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco. Teammates James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi were third.
GTE-Am was dominated by two teams,
TF Sport and Iron Lynx's "Iron Dames." The TF Sport team was eliminated just before the halfway point in a spectacular crash at the Variante Della Roggia.
Henrique Chaves had just come out of the pits when his Aston Martin appeared to
have some kind of brake failure. Chaves spun the Aston Martin and broadsided one of the curbs placed just off the track to discourage short-cutting. This not only broke the floor of the Aston Martin, but launched the car into a roll that blew a door off. Chaves was ok, but the crash has re-ignited discussion about how to keep drivers from course cutting. We will have an article about this issue, which is not just a WEC issue, later this weekend
at Frontstretch.
The Iron Dames were looking good
for victory until they had to pit in the closing minutes for a splash of fuel. That gave the win to Dempsey-Proton Racing's No. 77 Porsche for Sebastian Priaulx, Christian Ried and Harry Tincknell. Due to the positioning of the Signatech Alpine, they won by a lap over the Iron Dames Ferrari of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey, their best-ever WEC finish. Team Project 1's Matteo Cairoli, Mikkel Pedersen and Nicolas Leutwiler were third. Iron Lynx's Claudio
Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Giancarlo Fisichella were fourth, while Spirit of Race's Gabriel Aubry, Pierre Ragues and Franck Dezoteux was fifth.
- In Formula 2 action, Hitech
Grand Prix's Marcus Armstrong earned the Sprint race victory Saturday after leading flag-to-flag from the start. He ended up 1.098 seconds ahead of Theo Pourchaire. Jack Doohan was third, followed by Felipe Drugovich and Juri Vips.
Sunday's Feature race was a bit
sketchier. Early morning rains resulted in teams having to guess at the right tire choice. Trident's Richard Verschoor chose slicks and drove off to claim victory by a dominant 14.101 seconds. Or, so he thought he did.
Verschoor ran out of fuel on his cool-down lap and coasted to a stop. This meant that he could not provide the necessary 800 grams of fuel for testing purposes. That is a DQ in many FIA-sanctioned series and
it is here as well. Verschoor's DQ promotes Logan Sargeant to his second win of the year. Sargeant was .514 seconds ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi at the finish. Roberto Merhi, driving in place of Ralph Boschung, was third, then Dennis Hauger and Jake Hughes.
Through 16 races, Drugovich
continues to lead by 39 points over Sargeant. Pourchaire is third, then Jehan Daruvala and Fittipaldi.
- In Formula 3 competition, PREMA
Racing's Jak Crawford took the lead early from Caio Collet and held on to take his first F3 victory by .626 seconds. Collet was second, then Franco Colapinto, Arthur Leclerc and Roman Stanek.
Sunday's Feature race was run in
wet conditions. The track was extremely wet at the start but dried as the race continued on. Isack Hadjar took advantage of the all-important clear vision to lead flag-to-flag to earn the victory by 3.251 seconds over Victor Martins. Oliver Bearman was third, then Leclerc and Zack Maloney.
Through five of nine race
weekends, Martins has a one-point lead over Hadjar. Leclerc is third, then Crawford and Stanek.
Photo is courtesy of Jan
Patrick Wagner of FocusPackMedia.com.
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| | Hometown Hero Chase Elliott Wins Atlanta Cup
Race
Chase Elliott was able to get past Corey LaJoie with a couple of laps to go Sunday and complete a perfect score of 60 by winning the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart, his first
win at his home track. Ross Chastain was second, then Austin Cindric, Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney.
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| | Ross Chastain Draws Heat from Denny Hamlin, Austin
Dillon
2022 continues to be a career year for Ross Chastain, but the sheer number of people that he has angered continues to increase. Sunday saw Chastain trigger two different
wrecks en route to a second-place finish.
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| | Corey LaJoie Raises Eyebrows in Near-Upset
Bid
Late in Sunday's Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart, Spire Motorsports' Corey LaJoie was able to put himself in position to contend for the team's first victory. Unfortunately, he ended up in the wall on the final
lap.
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| | Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace Weigh In on NASCAR Cup Series Pit Crew
Changes
Ahead of the race weekend, Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 team and 23XI Racing's No. 23 swapped pit crews. Prior to Sunday's race, Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace discussed the swap.
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| | Austin Hill Wins Alsco Uniforms 250 at
Atlanta
Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill was able to hold off a series of charges Saturday to win the ALSCO Uniforms 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway for his second win of the year. Josh Berry was second, then Ryan Truex,
Tyler Reddick and Daniel Hemric.
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| | Ryan Truex Seizes Last-Minute Chance at JGR, Finishes Third at
Atlanta
Ryan Truex wasn't supposed to be at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday. A late call-up put him back in the No. 18 for a fifth appearance and he took advantage of it to finish
third.
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| | Parker Kligerman Holds Off Zane Smith, Wins Truck Race at
Mid-Ohio
Henderson Motorsports' Parker Kligerman led 56 of 67 laps Saturday and held off a charging Zane Smith to win the O'Reilly Auto Parts 150 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Carson
Hocevar was third, then Stewart Friesen and Christian Eckes.
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| | Zane Smith, Parker Kligerman Race Cleanly at Mid-Ohio
Finish
Compared to some of the more ludicrous races in recent years, the long battle between Parker Kligerman and Zane Smith for the win Saturday was a clean battle without shenanigans. The result was a substantial amount of
respect between the two drivers.
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| | Taylor Gray Emerges Late to Win the Dawn 150 ARCA Race at
Mid-Ohio
David Gilliland Racing's Taylor Gray was able to get past Kris Wright with a couple of laps to go (but not without significant contact in the Carousel). From there, he pulled
away to win the ARCA Menards Series Dawn 150 at Mid-Ohio Friday. Parker Chase finished second, then Sammy Smith, John Hunter Nemechek and Jesse Love.
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| | ARCA Championship Battle Stays Tight Between Rajah Caruth, Daniel Dye, Nick
Sanchez
Rev Racing's Rajah Caruth entered Mid-Ohio with a five-point lead over teammate Nick Sanchez. He left with a six-point advantage, but both drivers were given two-lap penalties
for illegal slick to slick tire changes.
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| | Charles Leclerc Holds On to Win in Austria in Spite of Throttle
Issues
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc had to deal with throttle issues for a chunk of the race Sunday, but he was able to hold on to win the Grand Prix of Austria at the Red Bull Ring for his
third win of the year. Max Verstappen was second, then Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Esteban Ocon.
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| | Ferrari Struck By Reliability Issues Once
Again
Ferrari has the pace to take the fight to Red Bull on a regular basis, but the Ferrari F1-75 has been fragile. Sunday in Austria saw Carlos Sainz Jr. have a rare traditional engine failure while fighting Max Verstappen for
second.
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| | Bobby Labonte Dominates Nashville, Scores Maiden SRX
Victory
Bobby Labonte dominated Saturday night at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, leading flag-to-flag to win the fourth round of the Camping World SRX Series. Marco Andretti was second, then Matt Kenseth, Paul Tracy and Helio
Castroneves.
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| | Matt Kenseth Pulls Off Another Classic Outing, Finishes Third At
Nashville
Saturday night's SRX event for Matt Kenseth was similar to his prime in the Cup Series. He wouldn't qualify well but would move up the order. Kenseth finished third Saturday in Nashville while doing just
that.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Bruce Nuttleman, Michael Kristl, Clive Owen of Getty Images, FIA Media, Jan Patrick Wagner of FocusPackMedia.com and our own Tom Bowles.
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 Expands Points Lead With Maximum Score In Atlanta
by Phil Allaway
Chase Elliott earned the
maximum possible points (60) with his third win of the season Sunday. That allowed him to expand his lead up to 47 points over Ryan Blaney, who finished fifth. Ross Chastain finished second and remains in third, despite creating more enemies. Kyle Larson remains in fourth, but lost significant ground after crashing and recovering to finish 13th.
Kyle Busch crashed Sunday as well and had to use multiple free passes to stay on the lead lap. His 20th-place finish was actually enough to move him up one place to fifth. Martin Truex Jr. was contending to win late before getting shuffled back. An 11th-place finish moved him up to sixth. Joey
Logano crashed out late and finished 26th, dropping two places to seventh. Christopher Bell remains in eighth but may be looking at crew suspensions after losing a wheel on pit road. He is still the last driver in the playoffs on points.
Alex Bowman crashed out of the race right near the end of stage two after blowing a right rear tire and crashing. He remains in ninth thanks to his stage points. William Byron was eliminated in a turn 4 crash and stays in 10th. Kevin Harvick is 11th, 19 points behind Bell for the last
spot in the playoffs on points. Aric Almirola is still 12th after an eighth-place finish.
Austin Cindric is up one place to 13th after finishing a strong third. Tyler Reddick drops one place to 14th after getting eliminated in the same crash as Byron. Daniel Suarez is up two places to 15th after finishing sixth. Kurt Busch is down a place to 16th
after crashing out on the final lap.
Erik Jones' fourth-place finish moved him up one place to 17th. Chase Briscoe had an early spin and ended up 16th. That dropped him down to 18th. Denny Hamlin is up one place to 19th despite two separate incidents. Austin Dillon had a hard crash in turn 2 and
ended up 35th. He's down to 20th in points.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 684, 2) Ryan Blaney -47, 3) Ross Chastain -50, 4) Kyle Larson
-105, 5) Kyle Busch -115, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -118, 7) Joey Logano -122, 8) Christopher Bell -161, 9) Alex Bowman -176, 10) William Byron -179, 11) Kevin Harvick -180, 12) Aric Almirola
-203, 13) Austin Cindric -219, 14) Tyler Reddick -226, 15) Daniel Suarez -233, 16) Kurt Busch -235.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Chase Briscoe -241, 19) Denny Hamlin
-275.
Playoff Points: 1) Chase Elliott 20, t-2) William Byron -7, t-2) Ross Chastain -7, t-4) Denny Hamlin -8, t-4) Joey Logano -8, t-6) Kurt Busch -13, t-6) Kyle Larson -13, t-6) Daniel Suarez -13, t-6) Tyler
Reddick -13, t-6) Chase Briscoe -13, t-11) Alex Bowman -14, t-11) Kyle Busch -14, t-11) Austin Cindric -14, t-14) Martin Truex Jr. -15, t-14) Ryan Blaney -15, 16) Darrell Wallace Jr. -19.
Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott
175, 2) Ryan Blaney -16, 3) Joey Logano -35, 4) Ross Chastain -40, 5) Kyle Larson -43, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -44, 7) William Byron -46, 8) Kyle Busch -54, 9) Christopher Bell
-67, 10) Tyler Reddick -87, 11) Chase Briscoe -90, 12) Denny Hamlin -92, 13) Erik Jones -103, 14) Kurt Busch -105, 15) Alex Bowman -109, 16) Daniel Suarez
-116.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Austin Cindric -121.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 595, 2) Ross Chastain -14, 3) Ryan Blaney -23, 4) Kyle Busch
-58, 5) Kevin Harvick -60, 6) Kyle Larson -61, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -65, 8) Alex Bowman -84, 9) Aric Almirola -95, 10) Joey Logano -96, 11) Christopher Bell -98, 12) Austin Cindric
-105, 13) Daniel Suarez -122, 14) Michael McDowell -127, 15) William Byron -132, 16) Kurt Busch -133.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 19) Tyler Reddick -142, 20)
Chase Briscoe -146, 22) Denny Hamlin -184.
Note: These
standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott -3, 2) Ross Chastain
-3, 3) Ryan Blaney -50, 4) Kyle Busch -156, 5) Kyle Larson -167, 6) Kevin Harvick -210, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -263, 8) Joey Logano -274, 9) Alex Bowman -300, 10) Christopher Bell -320, 11) Aric Almirola -345, 12) Austin Cindric -364, 13) Daniel Suarez -405, 14) Kurt Busch -414, 15) William Byron
-426, t-16) Tyler Reddick -439, t-16) Michael McDowell -439.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 20) Chase Briscoe
-486, 19) Chase Briscoe -423, 22) Denny Hamlin -596.
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-1, Martinsville), Ross Chastain (Circuit of the Americas, Talladega), Denny Hamlin (Richmond, Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Bristol), Chase Elliott (Dover, Nashville, Atlanta-2), Joey Logano (Darlington, Gateway), Kurt Busch (Kansas), Daniel Suarez (Sonoma), Tyler Reddick (Road America)
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 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: AJ Allmendinger Extends Lead After Ty Gibbs' Crash
by Phil Allaway
AJ Allmendinger had an up and down day Sunday in Atlanta. He was actually two laps down at one point before recovering to finish 10th. Ty Gibbs was in good position to take the points lead, but he ended up crashing out. As a result, Allmendinger expanded his points lead back up to 29 points. Justin
Allgaier is still in third, but just one point behind Gibbs. Josh Berry is up to fourth after finishing second and winning a stage.
After the 30-point penalty was levied last week, it would take a big day just to stay in fourth for Noah Gragson. He finished sixth, but he is still down to fifth. Austin Hill's victory moved him up two places to sixth. Brandon Jones is down one place to seventh after finishing 11th. Sam Mayer crashed out and dropped to
eighth.
Riley Herbst finished ninth and remains in ninth. Daniel Hemric is still 10th after finishing fifth. Ryan Sieg still holds onto 11th, but he is one point ahead of Landon Cassill, the last driver in the playoffs at the moment.
Cassill has an 80-point advantage over Anthony Alfredo, who finished 14th Saturday. Sheldon Creed moved up three places to 14th after finishing 12th and scoring nine stage points. Brandon Brown scored 15 stage points before being eliminated in a crash. That allowed him to stay in 15th in points. Our Motorsports teammates Brett
Moffitt and Jeb Burton are tied for 16th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 669, 2) Ty Gibbs -29, 3) Justin Allgaier -30, 4) Josh Berry -64, 5) Noah Gragson -67, 6) Austin Hill
-130, 7) Brandon Jones -141, 8) Sam Mayer -179, 9) Riley Herbst -187, 10) Daniel Hemric -215, 11) Ryan Sieg -247, 12) Landon Cassill -248, 13) Anthony Alfredo -328, 14) Sheldon Creed
-343, 15) Brandon Brown -348, t-16) Brett Moffitt -349, t-16) Jeb Burton -349.
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 23, 2) Noah Gragson -7, t-3) Justin Allgaier -8, t-3) Josh Berry -8, 5) AJ Allmendinger -11, 6) Austin Hill -12, 7) Brandon Jones
-17, t-8) Daniel Hemric -21, t-8) Trevor Bayne -21, t-8) Sam Mayer -21, 11) Myatt Snider -22.
Note: If they were eligible, Cole Custer would be tied for sixth, Tyler Reddick tied for eighth, Kyle Larson tied for 10th and John Hunter Nemechek tied for 14th in playoff points.
Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 185, 2) Ty Gibbs -19, t-3) Noah Gragson -28, t-3) Josh Berry -28, 5) AJ Allmendinger -47, 6) Sam Mayer -68, 7) Brandon Jones
-78, 8) Austin Hill -96, 9) Daniel Hemric -101, 10) Riley Herbst -124, 11) Trevor Bayne -130, 12) Landon Cassill -140, 13) Brandon Brown -145, 14) Ryan Sieg -146, 15) Sheldon Creed -149, 16) Ryan
Truex -157.
Note: If they were eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be 11th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 602, 2) Ty Gibbs -48, 3) Josh Berry -77, 4) Austin Hill -78, 5) Noah Gragson -80, 6) Justin Allgaier
-82, 7) Brandon Jones -106, 8) Riley Herbst -116, 9) Ryan Sieg -148, 10) Sam Mayer -158, 11) Landon Cassill -160, 12) Daniel Hemric -161, 13) Anthony Alfredo -214, 14) Jeb Burton -222, 15) Brett Moffitt
-225, 16) Sheldon Creed -240.
WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 2605, 2) Ty Gibbs -162, 3) Noah Gragson -239, 4) Josh Berry -247, 5) Austin Hill -259, 6) Justin Allgaier
-267, 7) Brandon Jones -382, 8) Riley Herbst -396, 9) Sam Mayer -510, 10) Ryan Sieg -535, 11) Landon Cassill -556, 12) Daniel Hemric -559, 13) Anthony Alfredo -743, t-14) Brett Moffitt -785, t-14) Jeb Burton
-785, 16) Sheldon Creed -809.
Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta-2), Cole Custer (Fontana), Ty Gibbs (Las Vegas, Atlanta-1, Richmond, Road America), Noah Gragson (Phoenix, Talladega), AJ Allmendinger (Circuit of the Americas, Portland), Brandon Jones (Martinsville), Josh Berry (Dover, Charlotte), Justin Allgaier (Darlington, Nashville), 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: Zane Smith All But Clinches Regular Season Title
by Phil Allaway
Zane Smith may not have been able to score the victory on Saturday at Mid-Ohio, but he did almost everything necessary to claim the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Regular Season Championship. With one race to go before the playoffs, he holds a 58-point lead over Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler
Smith. All Zane will need to do is finish 34th or better in Pocono to claim the regular season title.
Nemechek had a decent run going until his truck stalled in the closing laps. He would get back underway, but eventually finished 28th. Chandler Smith finished sixth. Stewart Friesen is up one place to fourth after finishing fourth.
Ben Rhodes had issues under the hood Saturday and finished 23rd. That dropped him back to fifth. Ty Majeski finished 12th and stays in sixth. Christian Eckes finished fifth and stays in seventh. He is 93 points ahead of Matt Crafton and 65 ahead of Grant Enfinger, so he is locked into the
playoffs on points. Carson Hocevar is still in eighth.
Enfinger remains in ninth after an 11th-place finish. Meanwhile, Crafton is still in the final playoff spot. He is 19 points ahead of Derek Kraus, who finished eighth. Tyler Ankrum is in 12th.
Matt DiBenedetto is still in 13th, but Saturday was a missed opportunity due to his truck dying while running in the top five early on. Tanner Gray is 14th, followed by Chase Purdy. Parker Kligerman's victory moved him back up to 16th despite missing six races.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 584, t-2) John Hunter Nemechek -58, t-2) Chandler Smith -58, 4) Stewart Friesen -69, 5) Ben Rhodes -70, 6) Ty Majeski
-81, 7) Christian Eckes -93, 8) Carson Hocevar -116, 9) Grant Enfinger -158, 10) Matt Crafton -186, 11) Derek Kraus -205, 12) Tyler Ankrum -232, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -249, 14) Tanner Gray
-258, 15) Chase Purdy -290, 16) Parker Kligerman -302.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 22, 2) Ben Rhodes -9, 3) Corey Heim -13, t-4) John Hunter Nemechek -14, t-4) Ryan Preece -14, 6) Parker Kligerman
-15, t-7) Stewart Friesen -16, t-7) Chandler Smith -16, 9) Carson Hocevar -19, 10) Ty Majeski -21, .
Note: If they were eligible for Playoff Points, Todd Gilliland would be tied for sixth, while Kyle Busch, William Byron and Ross Chastain would be tied for eighth.
Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 147, t-2) Zane Smith -4, t-2) Ben Rhodes -4, 4) Ty Majeski -38, 5) Chandler Smith -41, 6) Stewart Friesen -48, 7) Carson Hocevar
-50, 8) Christian Eckes -53, 9) Derek Kraus -65, 10) Corey Heim -73, 11) Grant Enfinger -77, t-12) Parker Kligerman -87, t-12) Ryan Preece -87,
14) Matt Crafton -94, 15) Tanner Gray -109, 16) Tyler Ankrum -111.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 392, 2) Chandler Smith -27, 3) Stewart Friesen -31, 4) Ty Majeski -43, 5) Christian Eckes -45, 6) John Hunter Nemechek
-61, 7) Carson Hocevar -68, 8) Ben Rhodes -71, 9) Grant Enfinger -91, 10) Matt Crafton -103, 11) Tyler Ankrum -135, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -146, 13) Derek Kraus -148, 14) Tanner Gray
-161, 15) Chase Purdy -167, 16) Colby Howard -190.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 2239, 2) Chandler Smith -107, 3) Stewart Friesen -129, 4) Christian Eckes -156, 5) Ty Majeski -173, 6) John Hunter Nemechek -197, 7) Carson
Hocevar -234, 8) Ben Rhodes -240, 9) Grant Enfinger -321, 10) Matt Crafton -388, 11) Tyler Ankrum -494, 12) Derek Kraus -506, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -533, 14) Tanner Gray -566, 15) Chase Purdy
-674, 16) Colby Howard -679.
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), Kyle Busch (Sonoma), Todd Gilliland (Knoxville), Ryan Preece (Nashville), Parker Kligerman (Mid-Ohio)
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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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart was brought to you by the letter S for Slippery. Hot and humid conditions, plus a lack of rubber on the track due to all the rain over the weekend, led to treacherous conditions at Atlanta Motor Speedway, especially early on. The drivers that could cope with those conditions the
best and avoided trouble were the ones that finished best. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart
complied by Phil Allaway
"I hate that I took the best car here and I tore it up a couple of times. Hats off to Chevrolet and Trackhouse Racing for bringing this fast of a Jockey Chevrolet. Our road crew and our pit crew did an awesome job to rebound through all of the damage repair. We had a shot and I got inside of [Chase Elliott] coming off of [turn 2] coming to the checkered and the caution came out. I hope everyone is alright back
there.
"Earlier, we had the option to
take the front row. We were second and I chose behind [Corey LaJoie] because we were worried about fuel. I knew better. I should have just taken the front row and dealt with the fuel. We were trying to make sure we were on offense at the end of the day for our Jockey Chevrolet.
"On a day like today, I feel like
we won way more restarts. I feel like my lane moved when I was in it and I’m proud of that. I’m proud of this car and this team to give me the ability to do that." - Ross Chastain, finished second
"It came to life. We had to do a
little CPR there early. We were struggling pretty bad. We were pretty loose to start the race and I’m just proud of the effort from the guys on the 2 car, being able to make the right adjustments and get us out of a hole there. We went from not being able to go full throttle by myself on the racetrack to being able to run close behind other guys wide-open, so I’m proud of that effort and proud of a top-three finish. I felt like we deserved to be up there by the end of the race after we
established track position. It was a solid day. I wish we could have gotten the Quaker State Ford in victory lane in the Quaker State 400, but a top-three is pretty good." - Austin Cindric, finished third
"I thought our day was good. Our
No. 43 FOCUSfactor Chevy was quick. We needed a tick more speed. I think we had to do some things for handling that slowed us down a little bit. We were up there, but I couldn’t really break out and do much. When I got in the lead there, I wasn’t really quick enough to hold it myself.
"We were close. It feels good to
just have a good race. We’ve had a rough month, so it’s nice to get a top five and get some points." - Erik Jones, finished fourth
"It was a pretty good day. We got
back in traffic there a little bit and it was just hard to make it back up. You just can’t go anywhere. It gets two-wide and you’re just stuck and you can’t really go anywhere, unless you were the 9 and you were the fastest car out there by a mile. It was pretty easy for him to go wherever he wanted. That looked fun, but, I’m just happy to end up decent. This race is just like a survival race pretty much. That’s what you’re gonna get when you’re speedway racing on a mile-and-a-half, so luckily
we were able to survive it and get out of here with an OK finish." - Ryan Blaney, finished fifth
"I just couldn’t do anything in
traffic. The car was really tight in traffic, which made it hard to race close to anybody. When they were side-by-side I would lose the nose really bad. We hung around and finished the race. Sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do at these places." - Kevin Harvick, finished 12th
"It’s just frustrating. We were in
pretty good position, but ultimately got taken out.
"We were in really good position
and we were about to be clear of [Ross Chastain] and be in third in the outside line. I was really happy with where I was at for sure. I think the 1 probably sensed that we were about to clear him so he chased us up there and got into us." - Denny Hamlin, finished 25th
"We had a great ALSCO Chevrolet
today at Atlanta Motor Speedway, so it’s a shame that we weren’t able to capitalize on it. The day was going well. We were running up front and competitive. We made a mistake in Stage 3 when I overshot my pit box. That hurt a lot because we didn’t have a lot of time to recover, and it put us far enough back to get caught up in a wreck. We had nowhere to go, but that is the situation I put ourselves in. It’s pretty frustrating because it was very obvious that we had a fantastic car. We’ll head to
New Hampshire Motor Speedway to try and rebound." - Tyler Reddick, finished 29th (Crashed out)
"The racing was fine. I thought
the track had a little bit less grip. Our No. 24 Axalta Chevy was good out front. We could hang around the top-five. We struggled a little bit there on the pit stop sequence. We took four tires and we started way back, and we just got into someone else’s mess.
"We were eighth to finish the
stage. Thinking that in the final stage some guys would stay out, we just seemed to net out further back than we thought we would. We ended up like 18th or 19th and had to restart there, and that’s where the wreck happened. It was just unfortunate that we were back there. I don’t know if there is anything we could have really done because we had taken right side tires before then and our tires were pretty old." - William Byron, finished 30th (Crashed
out)
"I don’t think we had a tire go
down in March. Fortunately, I was one of the guys that didn’t have an issue. But it sounds like I’m the one guy that had an issue today. No warning, we were just cruising around. We had a phenomenal race car. Really proud of Greg (Ives, Crew Chief) and the No. 48 team. We struggled pretty bad back here in March and our Chevy was really, really good today.
"[The] No. 48 Ally Milestone
Chevy was getting up through the field pretty good there. Bummer that it ended like that, but at least we had a fast race car." - Alex Bowman, finished 32nd (Crashed out)
"It’s a different racetrack. It’s
not the Atlanta that I grew up loving, but BJ [McLeod] came over and apologized already. I think coming off of trun two it flattens out a little bit and it took off on him. While we all checked up and spun out we made just a little bit of contact with him while we were sliding and it sounds like it may have been enough to bend a right-front component and ultimately ended up blowing a tire." - Chris Buescher, finished 33rd (Crashed
out)
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