Frontstretch Newsletter: Aug. 8, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition CXXXI |
- NASCAR teams are back at their shops after yesterday's race in Michigan. Entry lists for Richmond should be released today. We'll have those and
anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
Around the World in Motorsports: Aug. 5-7 |
- In Indy Lights competition, Linus Lundqvist led flag-to-flag Sunday to win the Indy Lights Music City Grand Prix. He finished 7.2221 seconds ahead of Sting Ray Robb. Hunter McElrea
was third, then Matthew Brabham and Christian Rasmussen. With four races remaining, Lundqvist now has a 95-point lead over McElrea. Robb is third, then Brabham and Rasmussen.
- In Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America competition, Giano Taurino and Loris Spinelli won Race No. 1 Saturday at Road America by .727 seconds over Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal. Edoardo Piscopo and Patrick Kujala were third, then Bryson Lew and John Capestro-Dubets. Sebastian Carazo and Bryan Ortiz were fifth.
Race
No. 2 on Sunday after the WeatherTech race saw Taurino and Spinelli claim the weekend sweep by .757 seconds over Joel Miller. Lew and Capestro-Dubets were third, followed by Formal and Marcelli. Jordan Missig and Aidan Yoder were fifth.
- Porsche Carrera Cup North America action
saw JDX Racing's Parker Thompson win after Kay van Berlo was forced to start from the rear due to a qualifying infraction. Thompson won by 1.094 seconds over Trenton Estep. Michael McCarthy was third, then van Berlo and Dimitri Dimakos. Race No. 2 was run in the rain Sunday
morning. Estep emerged victorious by 3.657 seconds over Thompson. Travis Wiley was third, then TJ Fischer and Sean Varwig.
Van Berlo is still in the points lead despite scoring no points in Race No. 2. He is 16 points ahead of Thompson. Estep is third in points, then Riley Dickinson and
Fischer. - World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 for the Ironman weekend. Friday night's The Night Before the Ironman was dominated by Brad Sweet. That is until the last lap. Here, Carson Macedo snuck up from
behind and pulled the grandpappy of slide jobs on him to snatch victory away. Sweet was second, then James McFadden, Donny Schatz and Logan Schuchart. Saturday night was the Ironman 55, a 55-lap race on the tricky Pevely oval. Sweet was once again the class of the field and wasn't
just about to get snookered again. He led flag-to-flag to win the Ironman 55 and take home the winner's $20,000 check. Macedo ended up in second, followed by McFadden and Schatz. Sheldon Haudenschild was fifth. Through 47 races, Sweet has increased his points lead up to 68 points over David Gravel. Macedo is third, then Haudenschild and Schatz. - World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series teams were at Cedar Lake Speedway for the 35th Annual USA Nationals. This race was dominated by Jonathan Davenport, who led flag-to-flag to successfully defend his victory from last year and take home $50,000. Chris Madden finished second, then Tyler Erb, Ricky Weiss and Brandon Sheppard. For more on Cedar Lake, check out today's edition of Thinkin' Dirty at Frontstretch. |
| | Kevin Harvick Breaks Winless Streak
with Michigan VictoryKevin Harvick brought his A-Game to Michigan International Speedway Sunday, leading a race-high 38 laps (tied with Denny Hamlin) and pulling away after the final
restart to win the FireKeepers Casino 400 for his first win since 2020. Bubba Wallace was second, then Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. |
| | Kyle Busch on ‘Chaos’ of Mall of
America ShootingBack on Thursday, Kyle Busch was in Bloomington, Minn. at the Mall of America with wife Samantha and son Brexton for some fun. Suddenly, gunfire ran
out. Busch described his experience during a press conference in Michigan. |
| | Bubba Wallace Tries to Stay
Positive After Michigan Runner-UpBubba Wallace led 22 laps from the pole Sunday and finished second, his best-ever intermediate track finish. Afterwards, he was sad and rather angry with
himself, believing that he had blown it. |
| | Ryan Blaney Leaves Michigan Last
Driver Above Playoff CutlineWith Kevin Harvick's victory on Sunday, there is only one spot remaining in the playoffs for a driver without a victory. Ryan Blaney has that spot after
finishing fifth, 19 points ahead of Martin Truex Jr. |
| | Ty Gibbs Wins 5th Xfinity Race of
2022 at MichiganJoe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs overcame the dominant early form of Noah Gragson to win Saturday's New Holland 250 at Michigan International Speedway.
Justin Allgaier was second, then Gragson, Brandon Jones and Austin Hill. |
| | Marco Andretti to Make NASCAR Debut at Charlotte
Roval Xfinity RaceBig Machine Racing announced Sunday morning that INDYCAR racer and 2022 Camping World SRX Series champion Marco Andretti will make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut
at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October. |
| | Nick Sanchez Takes Points Lead With
ARCA Win at MichiganRev Racing's Nick Sanchez held off a late charge from Corey Heim to win the ARCA Menards Series Henry Ford Health 200 Saturday at Michigan International
Speedway. Daniel Dye was third, then Sammy Smith and Gus Dean. |
| | Scott Dixon Wins in Nashville,
Passes Mario Andretti for 2nd on All-Time Win ListScott Dixon took the lead from Josef Newgarden with 14 laps to go and held on through a series of incidents to win the lightning-delayed Big Machine Music City
Grand Prix Sunday. Scott McLaughlin finished second, then Alex Palou, Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta. |
| | Wayne Taylor Racing Wins IMSA
Fastlane SportsCar Weekend at Road AmericaWayne Taylor Racing's Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor took the lead with 25 minutes to go Sunday and held on to win the IMSA Fastlane SportsCar Weekend
race at Road America for their fourth win of the year. |
| | IMSA Announces 2023 Schedules in State of the
Sport AddressDuring IMSA's State of the Sport address Friday night at Road America, IMSA announced the 2023 schedules for their series, revealed some rule changes and revealed
the finalists for the IMSA Diverse Driver Scholarship. |
| | Murillo Racing Wins Wreck-Strewn Road America
240Murillo Racing's Eric Foss and Kenton Koch claimed victory in an attrition-fille IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Road America 240 Saturday, a race where only 23
of the 39 starters finished. KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering's Roy Block and Tim Lewis Jr. won in TCR on a last-lap pass. |
| | Onofrio Triarsi Wins Nashville GT
America Race No. 1 in Triarsi Competizione 1-2 FinishTriarsi Competizione's Onofrio Triarsi, on debut in GT America Powered by AWS competition, led flag-to-flag Saturday evening to win
Race No. 1 on the streets of Nashville. Robb Holland won the GT4 class in his Porsche. |
| | Justin Wetherill Wins Nashville GT
America Race No. 2Triarsi Competizione's Justin Wetherill took the lead just past halfway Sunday and held on to win his first GT America race in Nashville. Robb Holland
secured a weekend sweep in the GT4 class. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, James Black and Chris Owens of INDYCAR Media, IMSA, SRO Motorsports Group 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: Quiet Day Costs Chase Elliott 6 Points
by Phil Allaway
Chase Elliott had a quiet day Sunday in Michigan. He drove to an 11th-place finish. Ultimately, he lost a little bit of his lead. His lead is down to 119 points, just less than two full races over Ryan Blaney, who finished fifth. He is now the last driver in the playoffs on points.
Ross Chastain had a chance to win, but got trapped a lap down when Christopher Bell hit him and put himself in the wall to bring out the final yellow. He ended up 24th, but stays in third. Martin Truex Jr. is the first driver out of the playoffs at the moment despite being fourth in points. He is 19 points behind Blaney. Kyle Larson remains in fifth after a seventh-place finish. Joey Logano is up one place to sixth after finishing fourth. Bell is down a spot to seventh after the aforementioned crash. His losses were tempered by 17 stage points. Kyle Busch was eliminated in the big crash after the competition caution. He is
still eighth, but lost a bunch of ground. Kevin Harvick's victory Sunday moved him up one place to ninth in points, jumping over William Byron. Byron finished 12th. Alex Bowman is up one place to 11th after a ninth-place finish.
Tyler Reddick ran well, but engine problems put him out. That dropped him to 12th in points. Daniel Suarez ran very well Sunday, but a tire failure in the final laps dropped him back to 25th. He is still in 13th. Erik Jones is up
three places to 14th after a strong eighth-place finish with 13 stage points. Chase Briscoe had a quiet day, but did enough to earn sole possession of 15th. Austin Cindric's head-on crash into the wall dropped him two places to 16th. Denny
Hamlin is up two places to 17th after tying with Harvick for the most laps led, earning the most stage points (19) and finishing third. Aric Almirola is down two places to a season-low 18th after crashing out in the big wreck. Bubba Wallace's second-place finish moved him up one place to 19th, while Kurt Busch sitting out for the third straight week dropped him to 20th. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 847, 2) Ryan Blaney -119, 3) Ross Chastain -137, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -138, 5) Kyle Larson -142, 6) Joey Logano -174, 7) Christopher Bell -179, 8) Kyle Busch -213, 9)
Kevin Harvick -229, 10) William Byron -230, 11) Alex Bowman -275, 12) Tyler Reddick -290, 13) Daniel Suarez -291, 14) Erik Jones -309, 15) Chase Briscoe -314, 16) Austin Cindric -316. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17)
Denny Hamlin -323, 20) Kurt Busch -362. Playoff Points: 1) Chase Elliott 25, 2) Ross Chastain -11, t-3) William Byron -12, t-3) Denny Hamlin -12, t-5) Joey Logano -13, t-5) 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-9) Christopher Bell -18, t-13) Alex Bowman -19, t-13) Kyle Busch -19, t-13) Austin Cindric -19, t-16) Kevin Harvick -20, t-16) Ryan Blaney -20, 18) Darrell Wallace Jr. -24. Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott 216, 2) Ryan Blaney -32, 3) Kyle Larson -45, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -52, 5) William Byron -57, 6) Joey Logano -59, 7) Ross
Chastain -62, 8) Christopher Bell -72, 9) Kyle Busch -83, 10) Denny Hamlin -108, 11) Erik Jones -115, 12) Chase Briscoe -116, 13) Tyler Reddick -128, 14) Daniel Suarez -135, 15) Kurt Busch -137,
16) Kevin Harvick -140. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Alex Bowman -147, 20) Austin Cindric -162.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at
Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 734, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -75, t-3) Ross Chastain -78, t-3) Ryan Blaney -78, t-5) Kyle
Larson -96, t-5) Kevin Harvick -96, 7) Christopher Bell -109, 8) Joey Logano -124, 9) Kyle Busch -128, 10) Alex Bowman -146, 11) Daniel Suarez -161, 12) Austin Cindric -163, 13) Tyler Reddick -165,
14) William Byron -173, 15) Aric Almirola -186, 16) Austin Dillon -188. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Chase Briscoe -192, 21) Denny Hamlin -215, 23) Kurt Busch -240. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 3237, 2) Ross Chastain -211, 3) Ryan Blaney -227, 4) Kyle Larson -282, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -292, 6) Kevin Harvick
-324, 7) Christopher Bell -353, 8) Joey Logano -365, 9) Kyle Busch -389, 10) Alex Bowman -507, 11) Tyler Reddick -508, 12) Daniel Suarez -530, 13) Austin Cindric -548, 14) William Byron -572, 15) Austin Dillon -633, 16) Aric Almirola -641. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Chase Briscoe -643, 19) Denny Hamlin -690, 24) Kurt Busch -875. 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), Kevin Harvick (Michigan)
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 Makes A Small Gain In Michigan
by Phil Allaway
Saturday's New Holland 250 saw nine of the top 10 drivers in points finish in the top 10 in the race. AJ Allmendinger finished seventh and scored 16 stage points. That allowed him to gain a couple of points. His lead is now 19 points over Justin Allgaier, who finished second. Ty Gibbs took his fifth win of the year and gained
all of two points on Allmendinger to stay in third. Noah Gragson won the first two stages and finished third. That moved him up one place to fourth. Gragson jumped over his JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry, who finished sixth and dropped to fifth. Austin Hill finished fifth and is still in what amounts to no man's land in
sixth. He's more than a full race behind Berry and 30 points ahead of Brandon Jones, who finished fourth. Riley Herbst is up one place to eighth after finishing ninth. Sam Mayer had a terrible day Saturday and finished 33rd, dropping himself down to ninth. Daniel Hemric is still in 10th after an eighth-place
finish. Landon Cassill is still 11th, while Ryan Sieg is the last driver in the playoffs in 12th. Sieg has a 52-point lead on Sheldon Creed after Creed finished 11th. Anthony Alfredo is still in 14th, but gained a little on Creed after finishing 14th and earning stage points. Brandon Brown is
15th, while Brett Moffitt is holding on in 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 835, 2) Justin Allgaier -19, 3) Ty Gibbs -28, 4) Noah Gragson -87, 5) Josh Berry -98, 6)
Austin Hill -171, 7) Brandon Jones -201, 8) Riley Herbst -252, 9) Sam Mayer -257, 10) Daniel Hemric -290, 11) Landon Cassill -322, 12) Ryan Sieg -336, 13) Sheldon Creed -388, 14) Anthony Alfredo -411, 15) Brandon Brown -423, 16) Brett Moffitt
-452. 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 28, 2) Noah Gragson -3, 3) Justin Allgaier -7, 4) AJ Allmendinger -11, 5) Josh Berry -12, 6) Austin Hill -17, 7) Brandon Jones -22, t-8) Daniel Hemric -26, t-8) Trevor Bayne -26, t-8) Sam Mayer -26,
t-11) Ryan Sieg -27, t-11) Myatt Snider -27. 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 223, 2) Ty Gibbs -10, 3) Noah Gragson -22, 4) Josh Berry -28, 5) AJ Allmendinger -39, 6) Brandon Jones -94, 7) Sam Mayer -105, 8) Daniel Hemric -122, 9) Austin
Hill -128, 10) Riley Herbst -152, 11) Trevor Bayne -156, t-12) Landon Cassill -166, t-12) Ryan Sieg -166, 14) Sheldon Creed -170, 15) Brandon Brown -177, 16) Anthony Alfredo -190. Note: If they were
eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be 14th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 740, 2) Ty Gibbs -45, 3) Justin Allgaier -62, 4) Austin Hill -79, 5) Noah Gragson -99, 6) Josh
Berry -101, 7) Brandon Jones -144, 8) Riley Herbst -146, 9) Sam Mayer -193, 10) Landon Cassill -203, 11) Daniel Hemric -208, 12) Ryan Sieg -209, 13) Sheldon Creed -257, 14) Anthony Alfredo -263, 15) Brandon Brown -286, 16) Brett Moffitt
-287. WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 3204, 2) Ty Gibbs -144, 3) Justin Allgaier -189, 4) Austin Hill -266, 5) Noah Gragson -294, 6) Josh Berry -319, 7) Riley Herbst -502, 8) Brandon Jones -512, 9) Sam Mayer -631, 10) Landon Cassill -709, 11) Daniel Hemric -718, 12) Ryan Sieg -744, 13) Sheldon Creed -869, 14) Anthony Alfredo -911, 15) Brandon Brown
-979, 16) Brett Moffitt -1034.
Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, 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) 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 Update No. 8
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was off last weekend. They are scheduled to be back in action Saturday night at
Richmond Raceway. When the series continues the Round of 10 there this weekend, Zane Smith will have a 14-point lead
over Ben Rhodes. Grant Enfinger, who won at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, is tied for third with Stewart Friesen, while Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith are tied for fifth. At the cutoff for the Round of 8, Carson Hocevar currently has the spot. He is seven points ahead of
Matt Crafton and Christian Eckes. Round of 10 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. Best of the Rest (11-20): 11) Derek Kraus 436, 12) Tyler Ankrum
-18, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -50, 14) Tanner Gray -69, 15) Chase Purdy -102, 16) Corey Heim -139, 17) Colby Howard -147, 18) Ryan Preece -148, 19) Timmy Hill -152, 20) Parker Kligerman -154. 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 FireKeepers Casino 400 was brought to you by the letter S for Surprise. There weren't a lot of people
that expected Kevin Harvick to bring the pain and drive away from everyone late in the race. Sure enough, he did just that to take his 59th career victory and put himself into the playoffs for now. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: FireKeepers Casino 400
complied by Phil Allaway
"Just good timing for sure. We’ve had several good runs the last few weeks – Loudon and Pocono where the car ran good and just didn’t have everything work out. I’m just really proud of everybody on our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang. They’ve been digging all year long trying to make these Mustangs run faster. They haven’t been great this year,
but our guys have done a good job in trying to take what we have, maximize it and do the things that we need to do. I’m just really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing.
"Everybody who doubted us doesn’t know us. They obviously know we thrive in these types of situations and a lot of things went our way today, which we haven’t had
all year long things go our way and have things fall our way. There at the end we pitted and didn’t go a lap down and then the caution came out and got control of the race. That’s the thing I struggled with most today was traffic and restarts and just having to make up ground, but once I got clear track that baby was hunting. "Replaying everything I could have done – should have taken the top on the restart. Thought I could hang with [Kevin Harvick] and just got to racing [Kyle Larson] and [Joey Logano]. [Logano] did a great job of getting another Ford contract by helping another Ford win. All in all, an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team. Wish we could have gotten Toyota in victory lane. Wish we could have got McDonalds in victory lane again. She was fast all
weekend. I will wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody." - Bubba Wallace, finished second
"It’s just frustrating. We’ve had really fast cars throughout the year and Dover comes to mind and Pocono comes to mind and this race comes to mind and a bunch of others. Just can't get a W in the [win] column. Hats off to Joe Gibbs Racing for giving me a car that fast and
my team for setting it up really good. This is a piece of the puzzle you have to have to win races. Everyone has to do their job to the best of their ability and we just are lacking in one little section of our team that we just can’t hem up.
{on 23XI Racing's performance and what he told Bubba Wallace after the race. "Just great job all weekend. [Bubba Wallace] did a great job and
Ty [Gibbs] did a great job. The whole 23XI team just did a phenomenal job from beginning to end and they gave him a rocket. This was a well put together weekend for all of them. It’s Dave Rogers, it’s Mike Wheeler, it’s Billy Scott helping setup both of these cars. It’s just a lot of puzzle pieces that those guys are starting to do right and have good results." - Denny Hamlin, finished third "That was a hard-fought one, that’s for sure. The boys did a good job executing today, keeping us towards the front. Paul had some good strategy. I had a car that was about where it finished. If you put us further back, that’s probably where we would finish, but we had some good track position and good restarts – some good choosing – so Coleman did a good job upstairs helping me out with the right lanes. It was an execution day, which is playoff
type racing. I feel good about what we did today as the playoffs come around the corner." - Joey Logano, finished fourth
"We were terrible all day. We ran 20th all day long and just struggled a lot and worked on it a ton and got a little bit better and better there and ended up with a decent finish out of it. It was big gains from where we
started.
"I have no idea [what the plan is going forward]. We’ll see. We’ll race [Martin Truex Jr.], obviously, for points and try to win the race. We’ll try to do both.
"It’s a shame that another car won. I’m happy for Ford for winning, but we didn’t need [Kevin
Harvick] to win. We’ll just try to win the next few weeks and battle [Truex] in points. It’ll be exciting, that’s for sure, so hopefully we can do it." - Ryan Blaney, finished fifth
"It was an up and down day for the FOCUSfactor Chevy. We had track position early and got up there towards the top five and just kind of got farther and
farther back through the day a little bit. Lost the handle a bit toward the back half of the top 10 and thankfully we got that late yellow and were able to make some changes and get a good restart with about 37 laps to go and drive back up to a top 10 finish. So, [it was a] solid day, had a decent car and just needed to do things a little bit cleaner, [a] little bit smoother and I think we could have had a better finish." - Erik Jones, finished eighth
"We don’t really know what started all of that. I mean, we blew three left-front tires in probably a matter of 20 laps, so I don’t know what happened and why they kept blowing. It just seems like that’s the way our year has gone. We can’t seem to catch a break in most of these races. I don’t know. It just sucks to have another day end short, but we’ll move on to the next one." - Cole Custer, finished 31st
(Fire)
"I couldn’t really see much of what happened, honestly. I really didn’t hit anything hard. I guess we just broke a part in the steering rack or something, but I couldn’t steer the car. That’s obviously not gonna be able to make minimum speed and felt it was probably too dangerous to try, so just a bummer. I felt like we weren’t really that good to start, but I knew we had some
good changes coming I was excited for. We fired up on that last restart and through one and two I thought I was gonna gain a lot of spots and then, all of a sudden, the world came crashing in. It’s just a bummer, but we’ll keep pushing on." - Harrison Burton, finished 32nd (Crashed out)
"Just chaos ensued on the restart there and I don’t know what started it, but the 10 (Aric Almirola) got spun in front of me and
then I got wedged between him and the wall. When you get back there, things happen on restarts especially when you have guys that stayed out and don’t have tires versus those that have four tires. Was not really in a hurry and knew we were coming to stage points in another 40 laps or so and it was going to be a long run to get there and then we all just crashed.
"[My frustration level,
on a scale of] one [to 10 is] infinity." - Kyle Busch, finished 36th (Crashed out) "I don’t know what started all of it. I saw [JJ Yeley] sideways and everything stacked up. I got tagged in the left-rear and shoved me up the racetrack and then got turned head-on into the fence. It looked like [Yeley] just got loose and backed everybody up and then got ran into the back. It’s not Ty [Gibbs'] fault, just everybody stacking up.
Obviously, it was a complete mess. I hit the outside wall head-on. I’m glad to be OK. It’s such a waste to do all of this and finish last. It’s pretty unfortunate. I hate it for the guys on the team and for Discount Tire." - Austin Cindric, finished 37th (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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