Frontstretch Newsletter: August 1, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition CXXVI
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- NASCAR teams are arriving back at their shops after yesterday's race in Indianapolis. Entry lists for Michigan 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 29-31
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- In World of Outlaws
NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series action, David Gravel stomped the field Saturday night to win Night No. 1 of the Empire State Challenge at Weedsport Speedway. Gravel won by 8.034 seconds over Donny Schatz. Local racer Paulie Colagiovanni was third, then Brad Sweet and Jacob Allen.
Sunday night saw Schatz sweep the
night with a victory after being fastest in qualifying, winning his heat and the dash. Gravel was .48 seconds back in second, then Logan Schuchart, Brock Zearfoss and James McFadden.
Brad Sweet finished seventh and
holds onto the points lead by 36 over Gravel. Carson Macedo is third, then Haudenschild and Schatz.
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| | Tyler Reddick Has Masterful Cup Indy Road Course
Win
Richard Childress Racing's Tyler Reddick had an exquisite day Sunday, leading a race-high 38 laps and holding off the pack to win the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard for his second win of the year. Austin Cindric
was second, then Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Bubba Wallace.
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| | Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland Surge to Career-Best Cup Finishes in Frantic Ending at
Indianapolis
Sunday was a day for the rookies in Indianapolis. While Austin Cindric finished second, fellow rookies Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland both posted career-best finishes in
third and fourth.
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| | Bubba Wallace Finishes 5th at Indy Road Course for 3rd Straight Top
10
Bubba Wallace has shown significant improvement in recent weeks. Sunday saw him have his best-ever run on a road course, bringing him a fifth-place
finish.
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| | Kyle Busch: Contract Situation a ‘Mess’ With ‘A Lot of Sleepless
Nights’
For Kyle Busch, the past couple of months have been nerve-wracking. He is trying to get a new contract done to stay at Joe Gibbs Racing, but the two sides have been unable to
come to terms, forcing him to look at other possibilities.
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| | AJ Allmendinger Battles Dehydration, Finishes 7th at Indy Road
Course
During Sunday's Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, the cool suit failed in AJ Allmendinger's car, leading him to have to overexert himself. He finished seventh, then nearly
collapsed after getting out of the car.
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| | Erik Jones Signs Multi-Year Extension With Petty
GMS
PettyGMS Racing announced Saturday that Erik Jones has signed a multi-year contract extension that will keep him in the No. 43 Chevrolet for the next few
years.
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| | Drivers Voice Safety Concerns About Next Gen Car After Kurt Busch
Injury
Recently, drivers have been critical of the Next Gen car and how they are more likely to be injured in the car as compared to the previous Gen6. The injury to Kurt Busch at
Pocono is just the latest example.
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| | Roger Penske: Possibility of Cup Alternating Between Indy Oval, Road Course in
Future
During a press conference Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, track owner Roger Penske stated that while 2023 is locked in for the road course, the NASCAR Cup Series is not
permanently tethered to it.
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| | AJ Allmendinger Kisses the Bricks, Wins Xfinity Race at Indy Road
Course
Kaulig Racing's AJ Allmendinger led 42 of 62 laps Saturday to win the Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard for his third win of the year. Alex Bowman was second, then Justin
Allgaier, Ross Chastain and Chase Briscoe.
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| | Noah Gragson Finishes 10th at Indy After Another Run-In With Sage
Karam
Noah Gragson had an exciting day Saturday in Indianapolis. He won stage one, then got collected in a crash with Sage Karam. He recovered from there to finish
10th.
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| | Grant Enfinger Back in Victory Lane in Truck Return to
IRP
PettyGMS Racing's Grant Enfinger took the lead away from John Hunter Nemechek on a Green-White-Checker restart and held on to win Friday night's TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, his first victory in over 18
months. Ben Rhodes was second, then Zane Smith, Stewart Friesen and Corey Heim.
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| | Ty Majeski Nearly Scores 1st Truck Win at IRP Before Late-Race Tire
Woes
ThorSport Racing's Ty Majeski was in good position to claim his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win Friday night. However, a leaky tire dropped him down the order late. He would ultimately finish
eighth.
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| | Alexander Rossi Wins at Indianapolis Road Course After Colton Herta Clutch
Woes
Alexander Rossi inherited the lead after Colton Herta suffered a clutch failure Saturday. Once in the lead, Rossi opened a comfortable lead and held on to win the Gallagher Grand Prix for his first win since 2019.
Christian Lundgaard was second, then Team Penske teammates Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden.
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| | Christian Lundgaard Earns Career Best 2nd Place at Gallagher Grand
Prix
Saturday was a career day for Christian Lundgaard at Indianapolis. The RLL Racing rookie drove up to a second-place finish.
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| | Max Verstappen Wins in Hungary as Ferrari Fumbles
Again
Red Bull's Max Verstappen used strong pace and good tire strategy to come from 10th on the grid to win the Grand Prix of Hungary. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was second, then
George Russell, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sergio Perez.
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| | Aston Martin Signs Fernando Alonso for 2023 &
Beyond
Aston Martin announced Monday morning that Fernando Alonso will join the team full-time in 2023, replacing the retiring Sebastian Vettel.
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| | George Russell Ends Promising Hungarian Grand Prix in
3rd
George Russell ultimately had a very good weekend in Hungary. He claimed his first career pole and ran towards the front all day, bringing home a third-place
finish.
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| | Chandler Smith Outlasts Sammy Smith to Win Reese’s 200 at
IRP
Friday night's ARCA Menards Series Reese's 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park was a battle of the Smiths. Chandler Smith, in a rare ARCA appearance, triumphed over
Sammy Smith. Taylor Gray was third, then Daniel Dye and Connor Mosack.
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| | Sammy Smith Finishes Strong 2nd in ARCA Race at
IRP
Kyle Busch Motorsports' Sammy Smith was dominant early on Friday night at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. After Chandler Smith took the lead, he stalked Chandler for the
remainder of the race en route to a second-place finish.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Tim Nwachukwu of Getty Images, Chris Jones and Joe Skibinski of INDYCAR Media, Clive Owen of Getty Images, Steve Etherington of Mercedes-AMG F1, Zach Catanzareti, and our own Danny Peters and
Stephen Stumpf.
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: Despite Late Spin, Chase Elliott's Lead Exceeds 2 Full Races
by Phil Allaway
Chase Elliott had a chance
to win again on Sunday until he was spun out on a late restart. He ultimately ended up finishing 16th. Even with that, he was still able to expand his advantage. His lead is now up to 125 points, more than two full races, with four races remaining in the regular season. That 125-point margin is between Elliott and Ryan Blaney, who moved back up to second despite finishing 26th. Ross Chastain is down to third after a
bizarre instance on the final restart that saw him bail on the chicane, use the alternate route, then try to race for the win before NASCAR penalized him back to 27th. Martin Truex Jr. is up one place to fourth after finishing 21st. He is still the last driver in the playoffs on points.
Kyle Larson had a miserable day. Issues with his right front corner after contact with Aric Almirola dropped him a couple of laps down. Later, a brake failure resulted in a spectacular crash that ended his day. Christopher Bell won a stage and was very competitive, but a blown tire put
him back to a 12th-place finish. He remains in sixth. Joey Logano is seventh after a sixth-place finish. Kyle Busch finished 11th after a late spin and stays in eighth.
William Byron was eliminated in the crash with Elliott, Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe. The 31st-place finish keeps him in ninth, though. Kevin Harvick was involved in two crashes Sunday and ended up 33rd. He is still 10th, but he's now 96 points behind Truex. Tyler
Reddick's second win of the year moved him up three places to 11th, while Alex Bowman is down one place to 12th.
Daniel Suarez was dumped on the final lap by Blaney Sunday and ended up 28th. That dropped him to 13th. Austin Cindric is up one place to 14th after finishing second. Briscoe and Almirola are tied for 15th. Briscoe finished 23rd after a late spin, while Almirola dropped out early after contact
with Larson.
Erik Jones is up one place to 17th after a 15th-place finish. Kurt Busch missed the race as he recovers from the concussion from Pocono. That dropped him to 18th in points. Denny Hamlin is up one place to 19th after finishing 14th. Bubba Wallace is now
20th after a fifth-place finish.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 821, 2) Ryan Blaney -125, 3) Ross Chastain -129, 4) Martin Truex Jr.
-150, 5) Kyle Larson -154, 6) Christopher Bell -181, 7) Joey Logano -184, 8) Kyle Busch -188, 9) William Byron -235, 10) Kevin Harvick -246, 11) Tyler
Reddick -272, 12) Alex Bowman -280, 13) Daniel Suarez -286, 14) Austin Cindric -291, t-15) Chase Briscoe -306, t-15) Aric Almirola -306.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Kurt Busch -336, 19) Denny Hamlin
-350.
Playoff Points: 1) Chase Elliott 25, 2) Ross
Chastain -11, 3) William Byron -12, t-4) Denny Hamlin -13, t-4) Joey Logano -13, t-4) Tyler Reddick -13, t-7) Kyle Larson -17, t-7) Chase Briscoe -17, t-9) Kurt Busch -18, t-9) Daniel Suarez -18, t-9) Martin Truex Jr. -18, t-12) Alex Bowman -19, t-12) Kyle Busch -19, t-12) Austin Cindric -19, t-12) Christopher Bell -19, 16) Ryan Blaney -20, 17) Darrell Wallace Jr. -24.
Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott
216, 2) Ryan Blaney -32, 3) Kyle Larson -53, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -59, 5) Joey Logano -62, 6) William Byron -63, 7) Ross Chastain -67, 8) Kyle Busch -83, 9) Christopher Bell
-89, 10) Chase Briscoe -117, 11) Denny Hamlin -127, t-12) Tyler Reddick -128, t-12) Erik Jones -128, 14) Kurt Busch -137, 15) Kevin Harvick -143, 16) Daniel Suarez
-144.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Alex Bowman -150, 20) Austin Cindric -162.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 704, 2) Ross Chastain -66, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -80, 4) Ryan Blaney
-84, 5) Christopher Bell -95, 6) Kyle Larson -100, 7) Kyle Busch -103, 8) Kevin Harvick -111, 9) Joey Logano -131, 10) Aric Almirola -137, 11) Tyler Reddick
-147, t-12) Alex Bowman -148, t-12) Daniel Suarez -148, 14) Aric Almirola -163, 15) William Byron -172, 16) Chase Briscoe -183.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 20) Kurt Busch -210, 22)
Denny Hamlin -225.
Note: These
standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 3107, 2) Ross Chastain
-177, 3) Ryan Blaney -252, 4) Kyle Larson -298, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -312, 6) Christopher Bell -313, 7) Kyle Busch -314, 8) Kevin Harvick -379, 9) Joey Logano -395, 10) Tyler Reddick
-454, 11) Austin Cindric -470, 12) Daniel Suarez -493, 13) Alex Bowman -515, 14) William Byron -569, 15) Aric Almirola -572, 16) Chase Briscoe -616.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 20) Denny Hamlin
-735, 22) Kurt Busch -745.
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, Pocono), Joey Logano (Darlington, Gateway), Kurt Busch (Kansas), Daniel Suarez (Sonoma), Tyler Reddick (Road America, Indianapolis), Christopher Bell (Loudon)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: AJ Allmendinger Makes the Slimmest of Gains After Winning
by Phil Allaway
AJ Allmendinger led 42 laps Saturday and took his third win of the year. Despite this victory, he barely stood pat as compared to his closest opposition. Justin Allgaier finished third and lost only one point to Allmendinger. The margin is 17 points. Ty Gibbs is still in third after an eighth-place
finish. Josh Berry is still in fourth after a stage victory and a 14th-place finish.
Noah Gragson won stage one and finished 10th (see above). That keeps him in fifth. Austin Hill remains in sixth after finishing ninth. Brandon Jones is still seventh, followed by Sam Mayer.
Riley Herbst finished sixth and holds onto ninth. Daniel Hemric is 10th despite a 22nd-place finish. Landon Cassill is up one place to 11th after finishing 11th. Ryan Sieg is down to 12th after a miserable day. He is the last driver in the playoffs on points.
Sieg has a 50-point advantage over Sheldon Creed, who ran well before colliding with Ross Chastain and eventually finishing 23rd. Anthony Alfredo is up one place to 14th after finishing 18th. Brandon Brown is down to 15th after a suspension failure in the Mike Harmon Chevrolet he was driving put him out. Brett
Moffitt remains in 16th, but that will likely change since he will no longer be driving the No. 02 going forward.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 789, 2) Justin Allgaier -17, 3) Ty Gibbs -30, 4) Josh Berry -92, 5) Noah Gragson -95, 6) Austin Hill
-161, 7) Brandon Jones -193, 8) Sam Mayer -215, 9) Riley Herbst -234, 10) Daniel Hemric -277, 11) Landon Cassill -312, 12) Ryan Sieg -318, 13) Sheldon Creed -368, 14) Anthony Alfredo
-393, 15) Brandon Brown -401, 16) Brett Moffitt -406.
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: t-1) Ty Gibbs 23, t-1) Noah Gragson 23, 3) Justin Allgaier -2, 4) AJ Allmendinger -6, 5) Josh Berry -7, 6) Austin Hill -12, 7) Brandon Jones
-17, t-8) Daniel Hemric -21, t-8) Trevor Bayne -21, t-8) Sam Mayer -21, t-11) Ryan Sieg -22, t-11) Myatt Snider -22.
Note: If they were eligible, Cole Custer would be tied for seventh, Tyler Reddick ninth, Kyle Larson tied for 10th, and John Hunter Nemechek and William Byron tied for 14th in playoff points.
Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 214, 2) Ty Gibbs -9, 3) Josh Berry -28, 4) Noah Gragson -33, 5) AJ Allmendinger -46, 6) Brandon Jones -90, 7) Sam Mayer
-96, 8) Daniel Hemric -117, 9) Austin Hill -123, 10) Riley Herbst -143, 11) Trevor Bayne -147, 12) Sheldon Creed -161, 13) Ryan Sieg -163, 14) Landon Cassill -166, 15) Brandon Brown -168, 16) Ryan Truex
-186.
Note: If they were eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be 12th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 705, 2) Ty Gibbs -55, 3) Justin Allgaier -67, 4) Austin Hill -81, 5) Josh Berry -102, 6) Noah Gragson
-103, 7) Riley Herbst -143, 8) Brandon Jones -146, 9) Sam Mayer -166, 10) Landon Cassill -199, 11) Ryan Sieg -201, 12) Daniel Hemric -206, t-13) Sheldon Creed -252, t-13) Brett Moffitt
-252, 15) Anthony Alfredo -256, 16) Brandon Brown -279.
WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 3053, 2) Ty Gibbs -178, 3) Justin Allgaier -213, 4) Austin Hill -275, 5) Noah Gragson -313, 6) Josh Berry
-323, 7) Riley Herbst -489, 8) Brandon Jones -521, 9) Sam Mayer -544, 10) Landon Cassill -692, 11) Daniel Hemric -709, 12) Ryan Sieg -716, 13) Sheldon Creed -848, 14) Brett Moffitt
-883, 15) Anthony Alfredo -886, 16) Brandon Brown -952.
Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta-2), Cole Custer (Fontana), Ty Gibbs (Las Vegas, Atlanta-1, Richmond, Road America), 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)
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: Zane Smith Effectively Stands Pat After Wild Night
by Phil Allaway
Zane Smith had a very interesting Friday night. He ran well early despite a bad qualifying run, then got put in the wall. He recovered from all of this to finish third. He maintains the lead but loses one point of his lead. He is 14 points ahead of Ben Rhodes, who finished second. Grant Enfinger earned
his first victory since 2020, which moved him up from ninth to a tie for third and locked him into the Round of 8. Enfinger is tied with Stewart Friesen, who finished fourth.
John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith are tied for fifth. Nemechek was in position to leave with the points lead before dumping Taylor Gray to force a GWC. He ended up in the wall on the final restart and finished 10th, dropping him a spot. Nemechek is tied with Chandler Smith, who was the other man in the wall with Zane Smith. He would finish
18th. Ty Majeski is still in seventh, the same 31 points behind Zane Smith that he was before the race. He could have won had his tire not sprung a leak. Carson Hocevar is still in eighth.
Matt Crafton and Christian Eckes are tied for ninth. Crafton finished ninth, while Eckes finished 16th. Outside of the playoffs, Derek Kraus remains in 11th after a 14th-place finish. Tyler Ankrum is in 12th.
Matt DiBenedetto is still in 13th after an 11th-place finish. Tanner Gray is 14th, followed by Chase Purdy. Corey Heim moved up to 16th after a fifth-place finish.
Playoff Point Standings: 1) Zane Smith 2079, 2) Ben Rhodes -14, t-3) Grant Enfinger -22, t-3) Stewart Friesen -22, t-5) John Hunter Nemechek -26, t-5) Chandler Smith -26, 7) Ty Majeski -31, 8) Carson
Hocevar -43, t-9) Matt Crafton -50, t-9) Christian Eckes -50.
Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 658, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -50, 3) Chandler Smith -51, 4) Stewart Friesen -69, 5) Ty Majeski -77, 6) Ben Rhodes -78, 7) Christian Eckes -97, 8) Carson Hocevar
-119, 9) Grant Enfinger -156, 10) Matt Crafton -200, 11) Derek Kraus -222, 12) Tyler Ankrum -240, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -272, 14) Tanner Gray -291, 15) Chase Purdy -324, 16) Corey Heim -361.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 37, 2) Chandler Smith -15, t-3) Ben Rhodes -20, t-3) John Hunter Nemechek -20, 5) Stewart Friesen -24, t-6) Grant Enfinger -30, t-6) Christian Eckes -30, t-6) Ty Majeski
-30, 9) Carson Hocevar -32, 10) Matt Crafton -36.
Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 168, 2) Zane Smith -9, 3) Ben Rhodes -12, t-4) Chandler Smith -40, t-4) Ty Majeski -40, 6) Carson Hocevar -48, 7) Stewart Friesen -51, 8) Christian Eckes
-54, 9) Derek Kraus -80, 10) Grant Enfinger -82, 11) Corey Heim -84, 12) Matt Crafton -105, t-13) Ryan Preece -108,
t-13) Parker Kligerman -108, 15) Tyler Ankrum -118, 16) Tanner Gray -130.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 442, 2) Chandler Smith -24, 3) Stewart Friesen -33, 4) Ty Majeski -41, 5) Christian Eckes -52, 6) John Hunter Nemechek -56, 7) Ben Rhodes -76, 8) Carson Hocevar
-77, 9) Grant Enfinger -89, 10) Matt Crafton -111, 11) Tyler Ankrum -141, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -153, 13) Derek Kraus -155, 14) Tanner Gray -178, 15) Chase Purdy -189, 16) Colby Howard -224.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 2528, 2) Chandler Smith -97, 3) Stewart Friesen -137, 4) Ty Majeski -169, 5) John Hunter Nemechek -177, 6) Christian Eckes -183, 7) Ben Rhodes -253, 8) Carson Hocevar
-263, 9) Grant Enfinger -318, 10) Matt Crafton -421, 11) Tyler Ankrum -518, 12) Derek Kraus -536, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -565, 14) Tanner Gray -627, 15) Chase Purdy -751, 16) Colby Howard -792.
Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Circuit of the Americas, Kansas), Chandler Smith (Las Vegas, Pocono), 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 Verizon 200 at the Brickyard was brought to you by the letter Q for Quirky. NASCAR created a situation in which it is possible to skip the first chicane when things got too clogged. The sight of Ross Chastain taking a "Joker" as if the race was a Rallycross event was very weird to watch. The
rules will need to be tightened up going forward.. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Verizon 200 at the Brickyard
complied by Phil Allaway
"I was like, uh-oh. But that was a scenario that had been talked about. If you get bottled up, what do you do? Take the access road.
"I couldn’t believe he got ahead
of me. I was kind of waiting to see if he was going to have a penalty because I didn’t want to move him out of the way and make his race worse than what it was. Yeah, I was really surprised by that; but hey, we made it work. Hats off to Ross [Chastain] for trying to do that, but really glad it didn’t end up working out because I’d have been pretty pissed off." - Tyler Reddick, race winner
"That was nuts. Oh my gosh. I hope
the race fans enjoyed that. Obviously, those green-white-checkereds it’s just caution out the window and everyone has fenders and bumpers to use, I guess. A lot to take in, a lot to handle. I’m glad we survived it all. It’s probably not the day I wanted with the Discount Tire Ford Mustang, but to come away with a good finish we’ll take it." - Austin Cindric, finished second
"[Survival is what] what it was,
really. I mean, we honestly had a bad execution day to start the race. We tried to stay out for stage points and more people stayed out than we thought and got buried there, and then I made a mistake and got into Custer. I was spun out at one point. I was all over the place. It was a tough day for me and then got some new tires there before the last caution and started picking guys off and just got in a good place for those restarts. That was the big thing was being on the inside for those
restarts and kind of plugging the middle and missing the chaos." - Harrison Burton, finished third
"It's just really exciting. This
rookie season has been really tough. The Cup Series is hard. I’ve learned that. It’s easy to give up and that’s one thing, too. You have confidence when you come to the Cup Series, but you get beat down quick. Even just having a ninth-place qualifying effort and just to run up front the first stage. We stayed out and got stage points and kind of had to come from the back again, but that’s what me and my crew chief was talking about. That’s really our best weekend start to finish by far, so
hopefully that’s just something to build on. For me, that’s a lot of confidence. Road course racing is tough, too. I’ve always loved it, but it hasn’t really loved me so much this year, especially the first time here at Indianapolis. That’s really cool." - Todd Gilliland, finished fourth
"Luck. I don’t know where we
stacked up – top-20 all day. I’ve made improvements on road courses, but out there I feel like I’m busting out qualifying laps and it’s just good enough to get that position. I got to figure out where to gain speed. I’ve got a great team behind me. Everybody at 23XI, I appreciate it. They gave me a decent car – a decent car to go out and learn with and survive. A good day for Embrace – in their first race for us with our Toyota Camry TRD. It was a good day. Good day to come out of Indy with a
surprising top-five.
"It’s a really cool place. The
last couple of races on the oval we were top-10, so it’s good come back and be competitive somewhat today. I still have to do a lot of learning on these road courses, but surviving, staying in the game. Crew chief (Bootie Barker), crew, everyone at 23XI kept us in the game to have a finish like this, so it’s good." - Bubba Wallace, finished fifth
"Once you get green, you suck it
up and we had a shot to win the race – so that is all that mattered. The way turn one is here – when you are on the outside front row on one of those late race restarts, you are just going to get run into. We saw it with Chase [Elliott] on the restart before and we saw it with Chase Briscoe last year. You just get shoved off the racetrack so I figured I was going to get shoved off the racetrack into [turn 1]. I tried to make the best of it and felt like we did. But at the end of the day, we gave
ourselves a shot to win two in a row and that is pretty badass.
"It was hot from the start of the
race until I figured out that I still had the cooling shirt (turned) on, which made it even hotter in the car. But yeah, I was doing okay but with 20 to go, I ran out of water and the helmet blow was starting to feel hot as well. So, just riding around under yellow just makes it worse. During green I was okay, but you get heat-soaked in the car under yellow and those last few laps were pretty brutal." - AJ Allmendinger, finished
seventh
"It was a situation where we had
to try to get that first stage win and just kind of buried us after that. We got back there and struggled to get back up there. A couple times we thought we were gonna be OK and then I just made a mistake. There at the end that restart was just chaos and tore us up. Obviously, I wish we would have finished a lot better than where we ended up. I don’t think we had anything for [Tyler Reddick], but us and [Austin Cindric] were pretty close and he ended up second. That was kind of the strategy we
had to kind of play today and for our points and playoff situation. Obviously, the playoffs are more important than trying to win here. It’s unfortunate we had to be in that situation, but overall we were able to get a playoff point, which will be big come playoff time." - Chase Briscoe, finished 23rd
"Just trying not to be in the
corners there in Turn 1. I thought we were four wide, and couldn’t go any farther right, and decided to take the NASCAR access lane out there.
"No, no, just pure reaction there
for our Worldwide Express Chevy. I took it in practice on exit, overshooting Turn 1. You know where they’re at and in 12 you have to go around the loop there, and there is around the pole. Just wanted to not get hit and merged back on where I merged." - Ross Chastain, finished 27th
"All I saw was a blue flash and
that’s about the hardest I’ve been hit by anything. First, I’m just grateful to God that I’m OK and these cars are safe enough to take a shot like that.
"We were having a good run with
our No. 42 Ferris Camaro ZL1 and I was just blindsided, really. I’m all good. It’s been a tough year, but I’m never going to quit. We’re going to keep getting better. We’ve been running good, just things are happening. You’ll have days like that, you’ll have times like that. You just never give up and go onto the next one." - Ty Dillon, finished 34th (Crashed out)
"We broke the left-front
suspension I got into turn one and locked up the rear tires and it just kind of took off on me and I got into the 5. I hate it for those guys. I hate it for our guys. Man, this was just a frustrating weekend. I felt like the guys did a great job of bringing me a car that was pretty good and thought we were gonna have a good day. Just not the day we were hoping for. I made a mistake or I’m not sure what happened, but I locked up the tires getting into one and killed our day and tore up the 5 car
at the same time." - Aric Almirola, finished 38th (Crashed out)
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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