Frontstretch Newsletter: Aug. 29, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition CXLVI |
- The Interstate Batteries Monday
Night Racing season comes to an end tonight with the championship race, which will be run with Camping World Trucks at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway. Coverage of the event will begin at 7 p.m. on Podium eSports' Twitch channel.
- NASCAR teams are back at their
shops after yesterday's race in Daytona. Entry lists for Darlington should be released today. We'll have those and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
Around the World in Motorsports: Aug. 26-28 |
- In Saturday's Formula 2 Sprint, Carlin's Liam Lawson drove up to the lead from fifth on the grid on the first lap
and held on during a late restart to win at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Lawson was 3.868 seconds ahead of Virtuosi Racing's Jack Doohan. Ralph Boschung was third, then Felipe Drugovich and Richard Verschoor.
Sunday's Feature race saw Doohan drive up from fourth on the grid. An earlier pit stop allowed Doohan to jump
over Drugovich and take the lead. From there, he held on to win his third race of 2022 by 1.868 seconds over Drugovich. Lawson was third, then Verschoor and Logan Sargeant.
Through 22 of 28 races, Drugovich's points lead is up to 43 points over Theo Pourchaire, who scored three points to
Drugovich's 25 in Spa. Sargeant is third, then Doohan and Lawson.
- In Formula 3 action, Saturday's Sprint race was wild. Multiple drivers were eliminated from contention due
to cut tires and contact. A crash on lap 8 involving Zane Maloney and Oliver Goethe resulted in Maloney flipping after hitting the barriers. This brought out a red flag. Oliver Bearman took the lead on lap 3 and held on to take the victory by 4.762 seconds over Roman Stanek.
Alexander Smolyar was third, then Jonny Edgar and Arthur Leclerc. Sunday's Feature race saw Maloney recover from his huge crash on Saturday to lead a Trident one-two finish for his
first career F3 victory. Maloney beat Stanek to the lead by 1.046 seconds. Bearman was third, then Goethe and Edgar. A bad weekend for points leader Isack Hadjar has resulted in his points lead being reduced to just one point over
Bearman with four races remaining. Victor Martins is third, then Leclerc and Stanek.
- In European Le Mans Series action, Prema's Louis Deletraz, Lorenzo Colombo and Ferdinand Habsburg won the 4 Hours
of Barcelona on Sunday, their third win in four races this year. Their margin of victory was 22.926 seconds over Panis Racing's Julien Canal, Nico Jamin and Job van Uitert. COOL Racing's Niklas Kruetten, Nicolas Lapierre and Yifei Ye were third. United Autosports' Tom Gamble, Phil Hanson and Duncan Tappy were a lap down in fourth, while AF Corse's Nicklas Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera won the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass in fifth. In LMP3, Inter Europol Competition's Ligier JS P320-Nissan shared by Charles Crews, Nico Pino and Guilherme Oliveira took their second straight class victory by 5.205 seconds over the Duqueine of DKR Engineering's Sebastian Alvarez, Alexander Bukhantsov and Tom van Rompuy. COOL Racing's Michael Benham, Malthe Jakobsen and Maurice Smith were a lap down in third, followed by 360 Racing's Ross Kaiser, Mark Richards and Terrence Woodward.
Eurointernational's Freddie Hunt, Xavier Lloveras and Glenn van Berlo rounded out the top five. Proton Competition's No. 77 Porsche shared by Gianmaria Bruni, Lorenzo Ferrari and Christian Ried claimed the GTE
class victory by 14.392 seconds over Spirit of Race's Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and David Perel. JMW Motorsports' Ferrari for Sean Hudspeth, Miguel Molina and Giacomo Petrobelli was third, followed by the Car Guy Ferrari for Kessel Racing's Mikkel Jensen, Takeski Kimura and Frederic Schandorff. Absolute Racing's Porsche for Andrew Haryanto, Alessio Picariello and Martin Rump were fifth. - In IMSA Prototype Challenge action, Wulver Racing's Tonis Kasemets led
flag-to-flag to win the fourth round of the season at VIRginia International Raceway Sunday morning. Kasemets won by 9.56 seconds over JDC MotorSports' Memo Gidley and Alexander Koreiba. US RaceTronics' Patrick Kujala and Brian Thienes were third, followed by Riley Motorsports' Shane Lewis and Gar Robinson. JrIII Racing's Ari Balogh was fifth.
- In Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America action, Giano Taurino and Loris
Spinelli won Race No. 1 by 8.136 seconds over Edoardo Piscopo and Patrick Kujala. Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal were third, followed by Richard Antinucci and Luke Berkeley. Bryson Lew and John Capestro-Dubets won the Pro-Am class in fifth overall. Race No. 2 on Sunday saw Formal and Marcelli take the overall victory by 6.808 seconds over Dario Capitanio and
Edoardo Liberati. Billy Johnson was third for TPC Racing, while Lew and Capestro-Dubets swept the Pro-Am class for the weekend in fifth. Jordan Missig and Aidan Yoder were fifth.
- In MX-5 Cup competition, Tyler Gonzalez took the lead on the final lap and just barely held on to win Race No. 1
Saturday morning at VIRginia International Raceway. Gonzalez won by .076 seconds over Connor Zilisch. Gresham Wagner was third, then Matthew Dirks and Sam Paley. Race No. 2 Sunday morning saw Zilisch take the lead from Paley with two laps to go and hold on to take the
victory. Wagner was .551 seconds behind in second, then Paley, Jared Thomas and Dirks.
With two races remaining, Thomas has a 55-point lead over Wagner. Zilisch is third, then Selin Rollan and
Justin Piscitell.
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams had two races in North Dakota last weekend. Friday
night was the Second Leg of the Northern Tour in Grand Forks. Here, Brad Sweet passed Sheldon Haudenschild in lapped traffic on lap 11 and held on for his fourth win of the year. David Gravel was second, 1.776 seconds back. Carson Macedo was third, then Donny Schatz and Haudenschild. Saturday night was the Duel in the Dakotas at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo. Sweet was looking for
the weekend sweep, but Macedo ran him down in lapped traffic and made the pass stick. From there, Macedo held on to take his 10th win of the year. Ryan Timms was second, then Sweet, Gravel and Robbie Price. |
Videos From Frontstretch: |
This is just a sample of some of the 28 videos that we posted to our own YouTube channel from this past weekend at Daytona International Speedway. We will bring you media scrum interviews and exclusive clips on our channel for your pleasure.
Check it out here. |
| | Austin Dillon Wins Daytona Finale, Ryan Blaney Earns Final Playoff
SpotIn a race delayed multiple times by rain and decimated by crashes, Austin Dillon took the lead from Austin Cindric with two laps to go and held on to win the Coke
Zero Sugar 400 Sunday and locked himself into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Tyler Reddick was second, then Cindric, Landon Cassill and Noah Gragson. |
| | Martin Truex Jr.: Missing NASCAR
Playoffs ‘Tough Pill To Swallow’Martin Truex Jr. managed to make it through the Big One Sunday, but Austin Dillon winning and an eighth-place finish was not enough for him to make the playoffs
despite finishing the regular season fourth in points. |
| | Aric Almirola Not Retiring, Signs
Multi-Year Deal With SHRRemember when Aric Almirola announced that he was going to retire at the end of the season? Not only is that not happening anymore, it's not happening next
year either as Almirola and Stewart-Haas Racing announced a multi-year contract extension for himself and Smithfield Foods Friday. |
| | Greg Ives Retiring as Crew Chief
After 2022Hendrick Motorsports announced Friday that Greg Ives, crew chief for Alex Bowman, will retire from the pit box at the end of the 2022
season. |
| | Daniel Suarez Back With Trackhouse for
2023Trackhouse Racing Team announced Friday that Daniel Suarez has signed a one-year contract extension that will see him stay in the No. 99 Chevrolet through the end
of the 2023 season. |
| | Jeremy Clements Shocks What Was Left of the Daytona Field With 2nd
Xfinity WinIn the wee hours of Saturday morning, Jeremy Clements was able to snatch the lead on the third Green-White-Checker restart and held on until the yellow flew after
the white flag flew to win the Wawa 250 presented by Coca-Cola for his second career win. Timmy Hill was second, then AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Brown and Sage Karam. |
| | Brandon Brown’s Future Left Uncertain With Fourth-Place Finish at
DaytonaBrandon Brown viewed Friday night's Wawa 250 presented by Coca-Cola as a must win with only a couple more starts guaranteed this year. He managed to survive
the chaos and finished fourth, but that might not be enough to keep his career going. |
| | Craftsman Returning as Truck Series Title
SponsorNASCAR announced Friday that Stanley Black & Decker has signed on to serve as the title sponsor of the current NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starting in
2023, through their Craftsman division. That's right. The series will once again be the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. |
| | Max Verstappen Comes From 14th for Belgian Grand Prix
WinDespite having to start 14th after changing a power unit, Red Bull's Max Verstappen blasted through the field to win Sunday's Grand Prix of Belgium at the Circuit
de Spa-Francorchamps for his ninth win of the year. Sergio Perez was second, then Carlos Sainz Jr., George Russell and Fernando Alonso. |
| | Sammy Smith Wins 3rd ARCA Race of 2022 at
MilwaukeeKyle Busch Motorsports' Sammy Smith scored a dominant victory in Sunday's Sprecher 150, a ARCA Menards Series/ARCA Menards Series East combination race at The
Milwaukee Mile. Taylor Gray was second, then Daniel Dye, Rajah Caruth and Nick Sanchez. |
| | Taylor Gray Shows Flashes of Greatness But Falls Short to Sammy Smith
at MilwaukeeSammy Smith's biggest rival Sunday at The Milwaukee Mile was Taylor Gray. Gray led some laps and ran well, but ultimately had to settle for
second. |
| | Pfaff Motorsports Wins Michelin GT Challenge at
VIRPfaff Motorsports' Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet made their fuel hold out to win the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR Sunday. Winward Racing's Philip Ellis
and Russell Ward claimed their second straight GTD win. |
| | PF Racing Steals Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix Victory On
Fuel MileagePF Racing's Joey Hand took the lead when Scott Andrews ran out of fuel on the final lap and held on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Virginia Is For Racing
Lovers Grand Prix with teammate James Pesek. Bryan Herta Autosport's Taylor Hagler and Michael Lewis won in TCR. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via James Gilbert and Jared C. Tilton of Getty Images, Clive Rose of Getty Images, Jeremy Thompson of Daylon Barr Photography, IMSA 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. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Chase Elliott Wins Regular Season Championship; Claims Points Lead For Start Of Playoffs
by Phil
Allaway
Chase Elliott got caught out by the rain and was eliminated in the big wreck on lap 138. He was credited with a 29th-place finish after leading
the most laps (31). As a result, his final margin in the regular season was 130 points. That margin was over Joey Logano, who won stage one, but had to stagger to a 12th-place finish. That was enough to move him up two places. Ryan Blaney is down to third after getting caught up in an early crash and getting home in 15th, six laps down. He claimed the only spot in the playoffs on points. Blaney ended up three points ahead of
Martin Truex Jr., who got caught up in an incident, but still had a chance at the final spot until the last few laps before finishing eighth. Kyle Larson suffered an early engine failure and finished 37th. That dropped him three places to fifth. Ross Chastain was
eliminated in a lap 102 crash and was credited with 33rd. He dropped to sixth as a result. Christopher Bell was eliminated early, but stays in seventh. Kyle Busch moved up one place to eighth after finishing 10th. Kevin Harvick was second at the time of the red flag
for rain, but couldn't continue afterwards. That dropped him to eighth. William Byron is still in 10th, followed by Tyler Reddick, who gained two places with his second-place finish. Alex Bowman is down one place to 12th after finishing four laps down in 14th. Daniel
Suarez wiped out going for the lead to trigger the Big One. The 24th-place finish dropped him to 13th. Austin Cindric moved up to 14th after finishing third. Denny Hamlin dropped to 15th, while Erik Jones puttering around for a few laps after the Big One moved him up to a 17th-place finish and put him up to 16th. Chase Briscoe crashed out on lap 125 and finished 31st. That dropped him down to 17th. Aric Almriola was eliminated in the Big
One and stayed in 18th. Austin Dillon's victory did not move him out of 19th, but it did give him a spot in the playoffs. Bubba Wallace finished a lap down in 11th and stayed in 20th. When the playoffs begin Sunday night at Darlington Raceway, Elliott
will have a 15-point lead over Logano. Chastain is third, then Larson and Byron. Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 939, 2) Joey Logano -130, 3) Ryan Blaney -138, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -141, 5) Kyle
Larson -150, 6) Ross Chastain -174, 7) Christopher Bell -205, 8) Kyle Busch -216, 9) Kevin Harvick -229, 10) William Byron -272, 11) Tyler Reddick -298, 12) Alex Bowman
-301, 13) Daniel Suarez -312, 14) Austin Cindric -325, 15) Denny Hamlin -328, 16) Erik Jones -350. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Chase Briscoe -362, 19) Austin Dillon -374. Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 2040,
2) Joey Logano -15, 3) Ross Chastain -20, 4) Kyle Larson -21, 5) William Byron -26, t-6) Denny Hamlin -27, t-6) Ryan Blaney -27, t-8) Kevin Harvick -28, t-8) Tyler Reddick -28, 10) Christopher Bell -29, 11) Kyle Busch -30, 12) Chase Briscoe -31, 13) Daniel Suarez -33, t-14) Alex
Bowman -34, t-14) Austin Cindric -34, 16) Austin Dillon -35. Playoff Points: 1) Chase Elliott 40, 2) Joey Logano -15, 3) Ross Chastain -20, 4) Kyle Larson -21, 5) William Byron -26, t-6) Denny Hamlin -27, t-6) Ryan Blaney -27, t-8) Kevin Harvick -28, t-8) Tyler Reddick -28, 10) Christopher Bell -29, 11) Kyle Busch -30, 12) Chase Briscoe -31, 13) Daniel Suarez -33, t-14) Alex Bowman -34, t-14) Austin Cindric -34, 16) Austin Dillon -35. Best of the Rest (17-26): 17) Martin Truex Jr. 798, 18) Erik Jones -209, 19) Aric
Almirola -222, 20) Darrell Wallace Jr. -243, 21) Chris Buescher -276, 22) Justin Haley -309, 23) Kurt Busch -313, t-24) Kurt Busch -347, t-24) Cole Custer -347, 26) Michael McDowell -358. Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott 235, 2) Joey Logano -32, 3) Ryan Blaney -40, 4) Kyle Larson -44, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -55, 6) Ross Chastain -65, 7) William Byron
-70, 8) Kyle Busch -73, 9) Christopher Bell -90, 10) Denny Hamlin -102, 11) Chase Briscoe -123, 12) Erik Jones -132, 13) Tyler Reddick -134, 14) Daniel Suarez
-146, 15) Kevin Harvick -149, 16) Kurt Busch -156. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Alex Bowman -163, 21) Austin Cindric -181, 27) Austin Dillon
-203. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at
Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 824, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -79, 3) Kevin Harvick -92, 4) Ryan Blaney -93, 5) Joey Logano
-108, 6) Kyle Larson -110, 7) Ross Chastain -116, 8) Christopher Bell -122, 9) Kyle Busch -145, 10) Austin Cindric -157, 11) Alex Bowman -160, 12) Tyler Reddick
-170, 13) Daniel Suarez -175, 14) Austin Dillon -184, 15) William Byron -206, 16) Aric Almirola -211. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Denny Hamlin -229, 18) Chase Briscoe
-237. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before
stages were created. WC Points (1-16):
1) Chase Elliott 3653, 2) Ryan Blaney -295, 3) Joey Logano -319, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -321, 5) Kevin Harvick -330, 6) Kyle Larson -340, 7) Ross Chastain -349, 8) Christopher Bell
-402, 9) Kyle Busch -461, 10) Tyler Reddick -528, 11) Austin Cindric -543, 12) Alex Bowman -573, 13) Daniel Suarez -589, 14) Austin Dillon -637, 15) William Byron -695, 16) Aric Almirola -739. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the
Playoffs: 17) Denny Hamlin -745, 20) Chase Briscoe -802. 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, Watkins Glen), Alex Bowman (Las Vegas), Chase Briscoe (Phoenix), William Byron (Atlanta-1, Martinsville), Ross Chastain (Circuit of the Americas, Talladega), Denny Hamlin (Richmond-1, Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Bristol), Chase Elliott (Dover, Nashville, Atlanta-2, Pocono), Joey Logano (Darlington, Gateway), Kurt Busch (Kansas), Daniel Suarez (Sonoma), Tyler
Reddick (Road America, Indianapolis), Christopher Bell (Loudon), Kevin Harvick (Michigan, Richmond-2), Austin Dillon (Daytona-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 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: AJ Allmendinger Escapes Daytona Chaos With Minimal Losses
by Phil Allaway
Despite a late spin and running out of fuel before the final restart, AJ Allmendinger still managed to finish
third. That allowed him to hold onto the vast majority of his points lead. His advantage is 58 points over Ty Gibbs, who despite being involved in two wrecks, won stage one and finished seventh. Justin Allgaier nursed a car with nearly no front end bodywork home to finish 13th to stay in third. Noah Gragson was in position to potentially challenge for the win before wrecking hard. He remains in fourth. Josh Berry is in fifth after being involved in a late crash and finishing three laps down in 18th. Austin Hill was leading on the final restart, but his car slowed suddenly. He ended up 14th and stays in sixth. Brandon Jones finished 20th and is still seventh. Riley Herbst spun to end the race under yellow. He is still in eighth. Sam Mayer crashed out on lap 92 and ended up 34th. He is still ninth, but lost points to Herbst. Daniel Hemric is 10th, then teammate Landon Cassill, who is now the last driver in the playoffs on points. Cassill has a 12-point advantage over Ryan Sieg, who ended up 26th. Sheldon Creed ran well most of the night until he was eliminated in a crash and ended up 36th.
He is 13th, but now 55 points out of the playoffs. Anthony Alfredo crashed out and remains in 14th. Brandon Brown finished fourth, but was dejected that he couldn't get the win. He is now seven points behind Alfredo in 15th. Jeremy Clements' victory locked him into the playoffs and moved him up past the idle Brett Moffitt into 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 887, 2) Ty Gibbs -58, 3) Justin Allgaier -80, 4) Noah Gragson -115, 5) Josh Berry -128, 6) Austin Hill -225, 7) Brandon Jones
-259, 8) Riley Herbst -285, 9) Sam Mayer -306, 10) Daniel Hemric -359, 11) Landon Cassill -380, 12) Ryan Sieg -392, 13) Sheldon Creed -435, 14) Anthony Alfredo -471, 15) Brandon Brown -478, 16) Jeremy Clements
-525. 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 29, 2) Noah Gragson
-3, 3) Justin Allgaier -8, 4) AJ Allmendinger -12, 5) Josh Berry -13, 6) Austin Hill -18, 7 Brandon Jones -23, 8) Jeremy Clements -24, t-9) Daniel Hemric -27, t-9) Trevor Bayne -27, t-9) Sam Mayer
-27, t-12) Ryan Sieg -28, t-12) Myatt Snider -28, t-12) Sammy Smith -28. Note: If they were eligible, Kyle Larson would be seventh, Cole Custer tied for eighth, Tyler Reddick tied for 10th,
William Byron tied for 12th and John Hunter Nemechek tied for 16th in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Ty Gibbs 236, 2) Justin Allgaier
-6, 3) Noah Gragson -18, 4) Josh Berry -25, 5) AJ Allmendinger -28, 6) Brandon Jones -102, 7) Sam Mayer -108, 8) Austin Hill -132, 9) Daniel Hemric -135, 10) Riley Herbst
-157, 11) Sheldon Creed -167, 12) Trevor Bayne -169, 13) Ryan Sieg -177, 14) Landon Cassill -179, 15) Brandon Brown -190, 16) Anthony Alfredo -194. Note: If they were eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 819, 2) Ty Gibbs -74, 3) Justin Allgaier -109, 4) Austin Hill -119, 5) Noah Gragson -120, 6) Josh Berry -124, 7) Riley Herbst
-163, 8) Brandon Jones -185, 9) Sam Mayer -230, 10) Landon Cassill -239, 11) Ryan Sieg -245, 12) Daniel Hemric -254, 13) Sheldon Creed -298, 14) Anthony Alfredo -309, 15) Brandon Brown
-318, 16) Jeremy Clements -343. WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 3549, 2) Ty Gibbs -251, 3) Justin Allgaier -356, 4) Noah Gragson -372, t-5) Josh Berry -412, t-5) Austin Hill -412, 7) Riley Herbst -573, 8) Brandon Jones -663, 9) Sam Mayer -765, 10) Landon Cassill -845, 11) Ryan Sieg
-880, 12) Daniel Hemric -882, 13) Sheldon Creed -1017, 14) Anthony Alfredo -1075, 15) Brandon Brown -1092, 16) Jeremy Clements -1179.
Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Atlanta-2), Cole Custer (Fontana), Ty Gibbs (Las Vegas, Atlanta-1, Richmond, Road America, Michigan), Noah Gragson (Phoenix, Talladega, Pocono), AJ Allmendinger (Circuit of the Americas, Portland, Indianapolis), Brandon Jones (Martinsville), Josh Berry (Dover, Charlotte), Justin Allgaier (Darlington, Nashville, Loudon), Tyler Reddick (Texas), Kyle Larson (Watkins Glen), Jeremy Clements
(Daytona-2) 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 Championship: Off-Week Edition No. 10
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was off this past weekend. They are not scheduled to race again until the Kansas
Lottery 200 at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 9. When the teams get to Kansas, Chandler Smith will be leading the Round of 10 by two points over Zane
Smith. John Hunter Nemechek is third, then Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski. At the cutoff, Matt Crafton has the last spot in the Round of 8. He is three points ahead of Carson
Hocevar, while Christian Eckes is another three points back in third. Round of 10 Point Standings:
1) Chandler Smith 2111, 2) Zane Smith -2, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -5, 4) Grant Enfinger -7, 5) Ty Majeski -12, 6) Stewart Friesen -17, 7) Ben Rhodes -27, 8) Matt Crafton -45, 9) Carson Hocevar -48, 10) Christian Eckes -51.
Best of the Rest (11-20): 11) Derek Kraus 461, 12) Tyler Ankrum -13, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -55, 14) Tanner Gray -73, 15) Chase Purdy
-104, 16) Corey Heim -126, 17) Colby Howard -163, 18) Timmy Hill -171, 19) Ryan Preece -173, 20) Parker Kligerman -179.
Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 688, 2) Chandler
Smith -23, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -27, 4) Ty Majeski -56, 5) Stewart Friesen -62, 6) Ben Rhodes -89, 7) Christian Eckes -96, 8) Carson Hocevar -122, 9) Grant Enfinger -139, 10) Matt Crafton -193, 11) Derek Kraus -227, 12) Tyler Ankrum -240, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -282, 14) Tanner Gray -300, 15) Chase Purdy -331, 16) Corey Heim -352.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 37, 2) Chandler Smith -9, t-3) Ben Rhodes -20, t-3) John Hunter Nemechek -20, 5) Stewart Friesen -24, 6) Ty Majeski -29, t-7) Grant Enfinger -30, t-7) Christian Eckes -30, 9) Carson Hocevar -32, 10) Matt Crafton -36. Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 186, 2) Zane Smith -25, 3) Ben Rhodes -30, 4) Chandler Smith -40, 5) Ty Majeski -41, 6) Stewart Friesen -58, 7) Carson Hocevar
-66, 8) Christian Eckes -70, 9) Grant Enfinger -86, 10) Corey Heim -96, 11) Derek Kraus -98, 12) Matt Crafton -116, t-13) Ryan Preece -126,
t-13) Parker Kligerman -126, 15) Tyler Ankrum
-130, 16) Tanner Gray -148. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane
Smith 466, 2) Chandler Smith -11, 3) Ty Majeski -34, 4) Stewart Friesen -35, 5) John Hunter Nemechek -48, 6) Christian Eckes -51, 7) Carson Hocevar -78, 8) Grant Enfinger -84, 9) Ben Rhodes -85, 10) Matt Crafton
-109, 11) Tyler Ankrum -145, 12) Derek Kraus -158, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -161, 14) Tanner Gray -185, 15) Chase Purdy -194, 16) Colby Howard -243. WC Points (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 2666, 2) Chandler Smith -50, 3) Ty
Majeski -137, 4) John Hunter Nemechek -140, 5) Stewart Friesen -145, 6) Christian Eckes -179, 7) Carson Hocevar -267, 8) Ben Rhodes -282, 9) Grant Enfinger -296, 10) Matt Crafton -413, 11) Tyler Ankrum -532, 12) Derek Kraus
-547, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -591, 14) Tanner Gray -650, 15) Chase Purdy -768, 16) Colby Howard -851. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Circuit
of the Americas, Kansas), Chandler Smith (Las Vegas, Pocono, Richmond), 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), Grant Enfinger (Lucas Oil IRP) 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 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was brought to you by the letter O for Old School Start. After the rains washed
the race out Saturday night, NASCAR made the decision to start the race at 10 a.m. Sunday. This allowed them to get all but 23 laps in before the rains came Sunday (the event was completed after a long rain delay). When this happened in 2014, they chose to start at Noon. It rained eight laps into the race to cause a delay. It was ultimately the reason why that race was rain-shortened after 112 laps. - Phil
Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Coke Zero Sugar 400
complied by Phil Allaway
"Feels amazing. I prayed before, let God have all the glory and light shine through me. Today getting through
that wreck, I mean, it was — I don’t know what you call that. We went from 15th to first. I know what it’s called. It’s called the good Lord was looking after us.
"There was a lot going on there
[when I went for the lead]. I knew that if we got to the white; I was afraid that if I waited too long, I was afraid somebody would wreck behind us, so I wanted to go ahead and get the lead. We were able to get it.
"I had a big run to him and then I had my teammate, [Tyler Reddick], back there. I knew we were in good shape
there to the end. He did a good job checking up any kind of run. Just a little too much push there and got him loose." - Austin Dillon, race winner
"Because we had to pit before pit road was open, before the rain came; I never got to line up behind all the
lead lap cars when they started to pull up for the restart. I knew I was going to have to try really, really hard on that restart. Thankfully, [Kyle Busch] and some of those cars let us go and we were able to get in the mix. "Just had to fight really, really hard when everyone singled out and there weren’t many cars left at the end
there and tried to get to Austin [Dillon]. I knew he was going to need some allies there at the end of the race to go make the move on [Austin Cindric]. As it just kind of turned out, he didn’t really use his teammates for that move, but after everything kind of happened with the second pack catching us, I was really glad to be on his rear bumper to pretty much keep anyone from really creating that energy to pass the lead car. A lot of energy comes from that second car and when you have a
teammate in that position to be that car absorbing those runs, you can really kind of control what is happening in front of you." - Tyler Reddick, finished second "I got hit by another race car going 190, 200 miles an hour. I’m glad I saved it and glad I had a shot to come
back through the field. He is racing for a playoff spot and totally expected to get drove through. It was just a matter of time. I’m pretty bummed. We had a shot to win today. The Maytag/Menard Ford Mustang was obviously quick. We put ourselves in position. Not a scratch on it. Dang it. "I knew I was a sitting duck. I felt like it was an Xfinity race again as the only Ford out there. Honestly,
[David] Ragan saved me a little bit there and we were able to work with both [of the Rick Ware Racing] cars there to get back up through. One lap longer and I might have had a shot, I don’t know. It’s frustrating to be that close. You know it’s gonna come down to when they’re gonna take the run. I was lifting all the way into the tri-oval trying not to leave the gap that big, and they were just backing up to each other together as they should. I’m kind of pissed about it, but can’t be too upset.
In the playoffs and have a lot to fight for. Great opportunity." - Austin Cindric, finished third "It really is awesome. We were sitting in a good spot with the rain delay; and even if they would have called
it, we would have been happy with that finish. But we wanted to race for it and earn the top five finish at the end. We did have to survive. There were a lot of fast cars that weren’t in contention at the end, but it’s pretty cool to see the checkered flag that close." - Landon Cassill, finished fourth "It was strong run for this team, considering that we have one employee at Beard Motorsports. To come home
with a top five, that is big for us. We were in a good spot running third there when [Austin Cindric] was out front and [Austin Dillon] was running second. It seemed like [Cindric] got loose and started down the racetrack and it was a hell of a save by Cindric, but that killed all our momentum. We were in a four-car breakaway; I thought I was going to set myself up to be in a pretty good spot and it just didn’t transpire. We had to regroup and come back for a fifth-place finish and we will take
it. "Congrats to everybody at RCR and the ECR motor department. They help us out tremendously on this Beard
Motorsports team and with one employee, this is a pretty big deal to go up against these organizations with 500-600 employees. So, for the goals that we have, the budget that we are on and the race team that we are; it’s pretty rewarding to be kicking yourself over a fifth-place finish in the Cup series. Very grateful for the opportunity and appreciate all the fan support and for NASCAR in letting us go to the end. I just want to say congratulations to Austin Dillon and his team. It was a lot of
fun." - Noah Gragson, finished fifth
"I’m just super proud of everyone with the No. 51 team. I just want to thank Nurtec ODT and Ford Performance
and everybody who has made this possible. There’s a lot more downs and ups in NASCAR, but to be here and to get my first top 10 and have both RWR cars in the top 10 this weekend is really phenomenal. I can’t think Steve Barkdoll and my crew and everyone who was involved in making this happen today. "I think the big thing was just perseverance. There was a lot of attrition in this race and we made sure to be
cautiously aggressive in the first part of this race, so to walk away from it and get the chance to race with the leaders and battle all the way up to third and try to fight for the win was really an awesome day. I think this will give us a lot of positive energy and momentum heading into Darlington next weekend, another track where we’ve had some success this year already, so being sixth is a good day. I wish we could have got more. I think it just shows how good of a day we had and I'm
definitely gonna go to sleep tonight happy." - Cody Ware, finished sixth "First off, it was a crazy day but it was fun executing our plan and getting it to work in our favor because
we’ve been doing this a lot, but it’s still hard to pull off. We’ve had small wrecks in the back take us out. There’s really no safe spot, other than the front row or really conservative and today we were able to put it all together and not lose a lap under that first green flag stop and just made things work. There at the end we had a couple cars behind us to help. [Joey] Logano helped us for a second and when they were helping me I had a shot, but coming to three and four on the last lap I
tried to get the right of [Noah Gragson] and it stalled out a little bit and [Gragson] pulled up. When he pulled up, I had to wait until he went back down to even try to get another run and it was just too late. Still, an awesome day for a small team." - BJ McLeod, finished seventh "We just had too much damage at the end. We had a good spot on the restart and we got a good restart. We got
[Austin Cindric] up front, which is what we were trying to do, but just couldn’t keep up. Just too much damage. It’s s shame. We knew it was going to be tough with so many cars out of the race and the distance between me and [Ryan Blaney]. It was going to be hard to hang on to fourth or better with a car that torn up." - Martin Truex Jr., finished eighth "Honestly, it was just the previous lap, there was nothing there and then
that lap it was just – it just dropped. So what do you do? You can’t checkup that fast so you just have to try to drive through it. Thankfully, I was on the high side and I saw water and I saw everything and saw everybody wrecking in front of me and I got on the fence right there and started rolling right on the wall. Everybody was coming across the track in front of me. I was then just trying to figure out everybody to slide back down and get out of the way and for me to continue on my merry
way. There’s really nothing you can do in that situation. It was way too late to call anything and overall I felt good about our car all day. Our Interstate Batteries Camry was fast and we had good speed. Ran up front, led some laps and won a stage." - Kyle Busch, finished 10th
"It definitely didn’t start our very good. We had to battle through adversity all day, but props to the whole
12 group for continuing to work on it and fix it and just trying to keep it in the game. After that wreck everything was kind of out of our hands and we were just trying to do the best we could to try and complete all the laps. You never know what can happen, so props to them. Fortunately, we were able to gain some points there at the end and locked us in. It was definitely nerve racking, but a lot of props to the 12 team." - Ryan Blaney, finished 15th "We knew the rain was coming.. it was raining next door. It was just a matter of time. Why would we wait for that.. I don’t know. Maybe I’m a little biased because I was in the front, but there’s nothing you can do. Sometimes you are running 200 mph and you’re able to turn left. And then you see a few drops hard and you’re just spinning." - Daniel Suarez, finished 24th (Crashed out) "Yeah, it was raining for a good lap before we got into turn one my spotter said. Coming out of [turn 2] the previous lap, it was raining and we just lost traction. It’s pretty unacceptable.
"I thought we did a good job all day with our Celsius Chevrolet and we put ourselves in position. Brett
Griffin and Trent Owens called that; we stayed out hoping for rain earlier. It’s just tough. I fight for my ride, fight for my life, every day. We take these small opportunities and try to make something of it." - Justin Haley, finished 28th (Crashed out)
"Down on the back straightaway off of two, Joey decided to go to the bottom, so I felt like following him was
probably my best decision there. We got such a big run that I kind of shoved him out that I felt like if I could get up, I could maybe take the lead. Looking back on it, I should have just stayed behind and shoved him. He’s just really good around this place and is always there at the end. When I got up in front of the 48 he started shoving me pretty hard through three and four and was getting me loose. He got to my left-rear and that was a little bit on me just being lazy covering it and not
knowing and whenever we lost the banking out of four it just spun me around. It’s unfortunate for my Mahindra Tractor guys. We kind of just rode around early in the race just trying to get to the end and then once we got our track position was just gonna try to maintain it. I don’t have a lot of experience leading races here and that’s what happens whenever you aren’t aggressive enough making moves, so I just have to put it in the notebook and go onto Darlington next week to start the playoffs
and hopefully start a good run." - Chase Briscoe, finished 31st (Crashed out) "I guess it was the timing belt maybe or something like that. I didn’t really have much of an indication. I’m
sure they’ll dig through the data and see if it was happening earlier than when it really let go there.
"Bummer. I’m sure we’ll drop a few spots in the points, so that will hurt for the playoffs. But I guess
there’s one positive.. that I didn’t get caught up in a crash. We’re safe, good to go race next weekend and get our playoffs started." - Kyle Larson, finished 37th (Blown engine) 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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