Frontstretch Newsletter: Oct. 17, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition CLXXXI |
- NASCAR teams are currently en route back east after Sunday's race in Las Vegas. Entry lists for this weekend's races in Homestead should be released
today. We'll have those and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
Around the World in Motorsports: Oct. 14-16 |
- In European Le Mans Series action, Prema's Louis Deletraz, Juan-Manuel Correa and Ferdinand Habsburg claimed victory in Sunday's 4 Hours of Portimao, the season finale. The win gives Deletraz
and Habsburg the LMP2 championship, the second in a row for Deletraz. The margin of victory was 49.262 seconds over Panis Racing's Julian Canal, Nico Jamin and Job van Uitert. COOL Racing's Niklas Kruetten, Nicolas Lapierre and Yifei Ye were third, then Inter Europol Competition's Pietro
Fittipaldi, David Heinemeier Hansson and Fabio Scherer a lap down in fourth. Algarve Pro Racing's Filip Ugran and Bent Viscaal were fifth. In LMP3, COOL Racing's Michael Benham, Malthe Jakobsen and Maurice Smith claimed the class victory. With a late steering failure for Inter Europol
Competition's Guilherme Oliveira in the closing minutes of the race resulting in a crash that also took out the GTE class No. 95 Aston Martin, Benham, Jakobsen and Smith also claimed the LMP3 championship. Due to the positioning of the leaders, the COOL Racing trio were a full lap ahead of
United Autosports' Josh Caygill, Finn Gehrsitz and Bailey Voisin. COOL Racing's No. 27 for Antoine Doquin, Jean-Ludovic Foubert and Nicolas Maulini were two laps down in third, then United Autosports' No. 3 for Andrew Bentley, Jim McGuire and Kay van Berlo. RLR MSport's Nick Adcock, Mikkel Jensen and Alex Kapadia finished fifth despite multiple spins. In GTE, it was a historic day for the Iron Dames trio of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Doriane Pin as they claimed the first-ever class victory for an all-female team. This wasn't a squeaker either. They dominated much of the race, leading by a lap and a half at one point. They won by a full lap over Oman Racing with TF Sport's No. 69 Aston Martin for Ahmad Al-Harthy, Samuel de Haan and Marco Sorensen. Kessel
Racing's Mikkel Jensen, Takeshi Kimura and Frederic Schandorff were third in their Ferrari, followed by the No. 60 Iron Lynx Ferrari for Matteo Cressoni, Davide Rigon and Claudio Schiavoni. Proton Competition's No. 77 driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Lorenzo Ferrari and Christian Ried was the highest placed Porsche in fifth, two laps down. That was still good enough to earn the No. 77 team the GTE title. With the end of the season comes the automatic invites to the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. Prema's LMP2 championship will give the team two cars in the class (they also have a full-time WEC entry). Joining Prema will be Panis Racing by virtue of finishing second in class. LMP3 champions COOL Racing have also earned a berth in the LMP2 class
for Le Mans. The top three GTE teams also earn automatic berths. Those teams are Proton Competition's No. 77 Porsche, Kessel Racing and Iron Lynx via the Iron Dames. For Iron Lynx, this guarantees that they will have at least three cars on the grid at Le Mans next year (they run Iron Lynx and
Iron Dames entries full-time in the WEC). They join three other teams that have earned invites. From IMSA, John Farano has an invite by virtue of winning the Jim Trueman Award for the best amateur in LMP2. He has already indicated that he will take it up. Wright Motorsports' Ryan Hardwick won
the Bob Akin Award as the best amateur in GTD. It is unclear whether he intends to go or not. Finally, GMB Motorsport won the Michelin Le Mans Cup GT3 title Sunday and earned an automatic invite for the GTE-Am class. - The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series had a doubleheader
last weekend. Friday night saw the series run their final race at Greenwood, Neb.'s I-80 Speedway. David Gravel led flag-to-flag to claim the win. Sheldon Haudenschild was second, then Carson Macedo, James McFadden and Brad Sweet. - Saturday night saw the Sprint Cars move to Lakeside Speedway
near Kansas City. Here, McFadden took the lead from Giovanni Scelzi with 11 laps to go and held on to score his first win in over a year. Scelzi was second, then Gravel, Sweet and Haudenschild. With four races remaining, Sweet has a 54-point lead over Gravel. Macedo is third, then Donny Schatz
and Haudenschild. - In MotoGP action late Saturday night, Suzuki's Alex Rins claimed the win in the Grand Prix of Australia by .186 seconds over Marc Marquez. Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia was third, then Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini. Bastainini finished fifth despite having an air
bag failure in his racing leathers on the second lap. Points leader Fabio Quartararo crashed out of the race. As a result, Bagnaia has taken the points lead by 14 with two races remaining. Aleix Espargaro is third, then Bastianini and Jack Miller. - In Portsmouth, Oh. Saturday night, Garrett Smith led flag-to-flag to win the 42nd Annual General Tire Dirt Track World Championship, the season finale of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Smith walked out of Portsmouth Raceway Park with a check for $100,000. Tim McCreadie was second, then Mike Marlar,
Hudson O'Neal and Earl Pearson Jr. McCreadie won the 2022 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship before the race even began. His final margin was 265 points over Brandon Sheppard, then Ricky Thornton Jr., O'Neal and Pearson. Read more about Saturday night's action in Portsmouth
in today's edition of Thinkin' Dirty at Frontstretch. |
| | Joey Logano Takes Lead From Ross Chastain to Win Las
VegasTeam Penske's Joey Logano took the lead away from Ross Chastain with three laps to go Sunday and held on to win the South Point 400 and advance to the Championship
4. Ross Chastain was second, then Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin. |
| | Tempers Flare as Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson Crash Out in Las
VegasSunday's South Point 400 will likely be best remembered for an incident that occurred on lap 94 when Bubba Wallace was squeezed into the outside wall by Kyle
Larson. Wallace then came across the track and took out Larson. Afterwards, Wallace expressed his displeasure towards Larson by shoving him multiple times. |
| | Kyle Larson: Bubba Wallace ‘Had a Reason to be Mad,’ Made ‘Mistake’
with RetaliationWhile Bubba Wallace was very upset with Kyle Larson in the aftermath of their crash Sunday, Larson was a bit more calm and understanding of the situation. Still
wasn't happy with being wrecked, though. |
| | Kurt Busch Stepping Away From Full-Time Racing, Tyler Reddick To Take
Over No. 45 in 2023In an early morning press conference Saturday morning, Kurt Busch announced that he will no longer drive full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, citing his current
health issues. Tyler Reddick will move over from Richard Childress Racing a year early to take over the No. 45 Toyota in 2023. |
| | After Rough Las Vegas Start, Chase Briscoe Rebounds to Top-5
FinishFor the first 100 laps or so, Chase Briscoe was nowhere on Sunday. Once he was able to get his car fixed up right, Briscoe was able to charge through the field to
battle at the front by the finish, taking home fourth-place. |
| | NASCAR Continues All-Driver Safety Meetings In Las
VegasSaturday saw NASCAR hold another driver safety meeting at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for NASCAR Cup Series drivers. Unlike Charlotte, which devolved into something
resembling a shouting match, this one was a little more calm. |
| | Josh Berry Wins at Las Vegas, Locks Into Xfinity Championship Race at
PhoenixJR Motorsports' Josh Berry took the lead from AJ Allmendinger with 34 laps to go Saturday after bouncing off the wall. From there, he held on to take his third win
of the year and lock into the Championship 4. Noah Gragson was second, while Justin Allgaier completed a JR Motorsports 1-2-3. Ty Gibbs and Trevor Bayne rounded out the top five. |
| | Marco Andretti Returning for 2023 Indy
500Andretti Autosport announced Monday morning that Marco Andretti will return for the Indianapolis 500 next May in a No. 98 entry sponsored by
KULR. |
| | 3 Fined, 1 Suspended After ARCA
FinaleARCA announced penalties Friday stemming from the Shore Lunch 200 at Toledo Speedway on Oct. 8. Billy Venturini has been suspended for his role in a post-race
fight, while three others have been fined. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Chris Owens of INDYCAR Media and Timothy T. Ludwig of ARCA Racing. 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 Championship: Joey Logano Snatches Points Lead With Las Vegas Victory
by Phil Allaway
Joey Logano was able to run down Ross Chastain in the closing laps Sunday and make the pass stick with three laps to go. Once out front, Logano held on to take the win. The victory not only locked him into the Championship 4, but also gave him the points lead. His advantage is 21 points over Chastain, who held
on for second. Chase Elliott had a miserable day, failing to score any stage points and finishing 21st. That dropped him down to third. Denny Hamlin recovered from 31st on the grid to finish fifth. That moved him up to fourth from seventh. Hamlin is currently the last
driver in the Championship 4 on points. He has an advantage of six points over William Byron, who ran well early on before fading to 13th. Chase Briscoe dealt with an ill-handling Ford early, but recovered to finish fourth. That moved him up two places to sixth. Ryan Blaney crashed late and ended up 28th, dropping him to seventh. Christopher Bell got caught up in the big wreck of the day and finished 34th. That dropped him to
the back of the playoff contenders, 23 points behind Hamlin. Of those eliminated from the playoffs, Kyle Larson remains in ninth despite crashing out early (see above) and finishing 35th. His margin is down from 38 points to seven over Daniel Suarez. Suarez finished
16th after a spin, but earned 16 stage points. Tyler Reddick is up one place to 11th after finishing sixth, displacing Austin Cindric. Austin Dillon finished a quiet 10th Sunday and holds onto 13th. Kyle Busch is still in 14th after finishing third,
followed by the idle Alex Bowman. Kevin Harvick is still 16th. Martin Truex Jr. finished seventh and still leads Erik Jones by 154 points. He can clinch 17th in points in Homestead. Bubba Wallace crashed hard with
Larson and Bell, finishing 36th. He is still in 19th, while Aric Almirola is 20th. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Joey Logano 4084, 2) Ross Chastain -21, 3) Chase Elliott -22, 4) Denny Hamlin -33, 5) William Byron -39, 6) Chase Briscoe
-42, 7) Ryan Blaney -44, 8) Christopher Bell -56.
Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the Round of
12. Note No. 2: Drivers in italics have been eliminated from the playoffs, or never qualified for the playoffs. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9) Kyle Larson 2206, 10) Daniel Suarez -7, 11) Tyler Reddick -20, 12) Austin Cindric -37, 13) Austin Dillon -45, 14) Kyle Busch -48,
15) Alex Bowman -102, 16) Kevin Harvick -171. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 1116, 2) Joey Logano -79, 3) Ryan Blaney -102, 4) Ross Chastain -125, 5) Kyle Larson
-140, 6) Christopher Bell -160, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -180, 8) William Byron -197, 9) Kyle Busch -245, 10) Denny Hamlin -251, 11) Daniel Suarez -297, 12) Tyler Reddick -301, 13) Erik Jones -334, t-14) Chase Briscoe
-339, t-14) Austin Cindric -339, 16) Alex Bowman -381. Playoff Points: 1) Chase Elliott 46, 2) Joey Logano -15, 3) Ross Chastain -25, 4) Christopher Bell -28, 5) Ryan Blaney -30, 6) William Byron -31, 7) Denny Hamlin -33, 8) Chase Briscoe -37.
Best of the Rest (17-26): 17) Martin Truex Jr. 936, 18) Erik Jones -154, 19) Bubba
Wallace -217, 20) Aric Almirola -232, 21) Chris Buescher -262, 22) Justin Haley -266, 23) Michael McDowell -326, 24) Brad Keselowski -352, 25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -398, 26) Cole Custer -419. Stage Points: 1) Chase
Elliott 272, 2) Joey Logano -8, 3) Ryan Blaney -11, 4) Kyle Larson -31, 5) Ross Chastain -47, 5) William Byron -49, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -60, 8) Kyle Busch -69, 9) Christopher Bell -70, 10) Denny Hamlin
-98, 11) Daniel Suarez -131, 12) Chase Briscoe -137, 13) Tyler Reddick -154, 14) Erik Jones -157, 15) Bubba Wallace -170, 16) Alex Bowman -176.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 995, 2) Joey
Logano -80, 3) Ross Chastain -82, 4) Ryan Blaney -84, 5) Christopher Bell -98, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -112, 7) Kyle Larson -113, t-8) William Byron -151, t-8) Tyler Reddick -151, 10) Denny Hamlin -155, 11) Austin Cindric
-162, 12) Daniel Suarez -174, t-13) Kyle Busch -178, t-13) Austin Dillon -178, 15) Erik Jones -184, 16) Chase Briscoe -202. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before
stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 4473, 2) Joey Logano -224, 3) Ross Chastain -229, 4) Ryan Blaney -261, 5) Christopher Bell -318, 6) Kyle Larson -358, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -428, 8) Tyler Reddick
-461, 9) Denny Hamlin -499, 10) William Byron -526, 11) Kyle Busch -559, 12) Austin Cindric -581, 13) Daniel Suarez -601, 14) Austin Dillon -640, 15) Erik Jones -652, 16) Kevin Harvick -655. Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Chase Briscoe -703. 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-1), Chase Briscoe (Phoenix), William Byron (Atlanta-1, Martinsville), Ross Chastain (Circuit of the Americas, Talladega), Denny Hamlin (Richmond-1, Charlotte-1), Kyle Busch
(Bristol-1), Chase Elliott (Dover, Nashville, Atlanta-2, Pocono), Joey Logano (Darlington-1, Gateway, Las Vegas-2), Kurt Busch (Kansas-1), Daniel Suarez (Sonoma), Tyler Reddick (Road America, Indianapolis), Christopher Bell (Loudon, Charlotte-2), Kevin Harvick (Michigan, Richmond-2), Austin Dillon (Daytona-2), Erik Jones (Darlington-2), Bubba Wallace (Kansas-2), Chris Buescher (Bristol-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.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship: Noah Gragson Extends Points Lead With Strong Run At Home
by Phil Allaway
Noah Gragson finished second Saturday and scored 18 stage points for a race-high 53 points. That allowed him to extend his points lead to 19 points over Ty Gibbs, who won stage one and finished fourth. Justin Allgaier is up one place to third after finishing third. He is currently the last driver in the Championship 4 on points. Josh
Berry took the lead on lap 168 and held on to win. That locked him into the Championship 4 and moved him up to fourth. Allgaier's advantage is 15 points over Austin Hill, who finished sixth on Saturday. AJ Allmendinger had a mediocre day Saturday before his pit crew failed to get his wheels tight on the final stop. An unscheduled stop dropped him to
22nd, two laps down. As a result, Allmendinger is down from second to sixth. Brandon Jones is still in seventh, while Sam Mayer is a somewhat distant eighth. Of those eliminated from the playoffs, Daniel Hemric finished eighth and stays in ninth position. He is 23 points ahead of a tie for 10th between Riley Herbst and
Ryan Sieg. Sieg dropped out early with steering issues while Herbst finished 18th. Jeremy Clements remains in 12th. Landon Cassill still leads those who failed to qualify for the playoffs after finishing 13th. He is 41 points ahead of Sheldon Creed, who dropped out early with a dropped valve in his engine. Anthony
Alfredo finished 10th Saturday, but is a full 100 points behind Cassill. Brandon Brown did not compete Saturday and is still in 16th. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Noah Gragson 3109, 2) Ty Gibbs -19, 3) Justin Allgaier -29, 4) Josh Berry
-40, 5) Austin Hill -44, 6) AJ Allmendinger -45, 7) Brandon Jones -56, 8) Sam Mayer -65.
Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the Round of 8. Note No. 2: Drivers in italics have failed to
qualify, or were otherwise ineligible for the playoffs. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9) Daniel Hemric 2122, t-10) Riley Herbst -23, t-10) Ryan Sieg -23, 12) Jeremy Clements -54. Non-Playoff Point Standings
(1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 1220, 2) Noah Gragson -62, 3) Ty Gibbs -72, 4) Justin Allgaier -78, 5) Josh Berry -168, 6) Austin Hill -259, 7) Brandon Jones -290, 8) Sam Mayer -348, 9) Riley Herbst -412, 10) Daniel Hemric
-463, 11) Ryan Sieg -516, 12) Landon Cassill -525, 13) Sheldon Creed -566, 14) Anthony Alfredo -625, t-15) Jeremy Clements -701, t-15) Brandon Brown -701. Best of the Rest:
13) Landon Cassill 695, 14) Sheldon Creed -41, 15) Anthony Alfredo -100, 16) Brandon Brown -176, 17) Jeb Burton -203, 18) Myatt Snider -218, 19) Alex Labbe -277, 20) Brett Moffitt -279, 21) Bayley Currey -310, 22) JJ Yeley -361. Playoff Points: 1) Noah Gragson 57, 2) AJ Allmendinger -13, 3) Ty Gibbs -18, 4) Justin Allgaier -24, 5) Josh Berry -30, 6) Austin Hill -39, 7) Brandon Jones -46, 8) Sam Mayer -52. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 332, 2) Ty Gibbs -16, 3) Noah Gragson -25, 4) AJ Allmendinger -56, 5) Josh Berry -90, 6) Brandon Jones -124, 7) Austin Hill -153, 8) Sam Mayer -161, 9) Daniel Hemric
-191, 10) Riley Herbst -226, 11) Sheldon Creed -241, 12) Trevor Bayne -250, 13) Ryan Sieg -264, 14) Landon Cassill -270, 15) Brandon Brown -280, 16) Anthony Alfredo -287. Note: If he was eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be 13th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 1074, 2) Noah Gragson -86, 3) Ty Gibbs -97, 4) Josh Berry -130, 5) Justin Allgaier
-140, 6) Austin Hill -158, 7) Brandon Jones -220, 8) Sam Mayer -249, 9) Riley Herbst -251, 10) Ryan Sieg -314, 11) Landon Cassill -323, 12) Daniel Hemric -332, 13) Sheldon Creed -384, 14) Anthony Alfredo
-402, 15) Jeremy Clements -454, t-16) Brandon Brown -488, t-16) Jeb Burton -488. WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 4646, 2) Noah Gragson -250, 3) Ty Gibbs -307, 4) Josh Berry
-448, 5) Justin Allgaier -451, 6) Austin Hill -536, 7) Brandon Jones -780, 8) Sam Mayer -841, 9) Riley Herbst -873, 10) Ryan Sieg -1123, 11) Landon Cassill -1135, 12) Daniel
Hemric -1160, 13) Sheldon Creed -1302, 14) Anthony Alfredo -1405, 15) Jeremy Clements -1564, 16) Jeb Burton -1686.
Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Atlanta-2), Cole Custer (Fontana), Ty Gibbs (Las
Vegas-1, Atlanta-1, Richmond, Road America, Michigan), Noah Gragson (Phoenix, Talladega-1, Pocono, Darlington-2, Kansas, Bristol, Texas-2), AJ Allmendinger (Circuit of the Americas, Portland, Indianapolis, Talladega-2, Charlotte-2), Brandon Jones (Martinsville), Josh Berry (Dover, Charlotte-1, Las Vegas-2), Justin Allgaier (Darlington-1, Nashville, Loudon), Tyler Reddick (Texas-1), Kyle Larson (Watkins Glen), Jeremy Clements (Daytona-2) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Seeking the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship: Off-Week Update No. 14
by Phil
Allaway
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was off last weekend. They will be back in action at Homestead-Miami Speedway
with the Baptist Health 200 on Oct. 22. When the teams descend upon Homestead for the final race of the Round of 8, Chandler Smith will have a
12-point lead over Zane Smith. Ben Rhodes currently has the last spot in the Championship 4 on points in third. He has a three-point advantage over both Christian Eckes and Stewart Friesen. Ty Majeski, by virtue of his win at Kansas, is the only driver currently locked into the Championship 4.
Round of 8 Point Standings:
1) Chandler Smith 3116, 2) Zane Smith -12, 3) Ben Rhodes -27, t-4) Christian Eckes -30, t-4) Stewart Friesen -30, 6) John Hunter Nemechek -32, 7) Ty Majeski -48, 8) Grant Enfinger -56.
Eliminated Playoff Driver Point Standings: 9) Matt Crafton 2140, 10) Carson Hocevar -6.
Best of the Rest (11-20): 11) Derek Kraus 547, 12) Tyler Ankrum -13, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -59, 14) Tanner Gray -101, 15) Corey Heim
-122, 16) Chase Purdy -136, 17) Colby Howard -174, 18) Parker Kligerman -177, 19) Ryan Preece -179, 20) Timmy Hill -206.
Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 803, 2) Chandler Smith
-16, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -22, 4) Ty Majeski -68, 5) Stewart Friesen -87, 6) Christian Eckes -90, 7) Ben Rhodes -108, 8) Grant Enfinger -169, 9) Carson Hocevar -183, 10) Matt Crafton -234, 11) Derek Kraus -256, 12) Tyler Ankrum -269, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -315, 14) Tanner Gray -357, 15) Corey Heim -378, 16) Chase Purdy -392.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 37, 2) Chandler Smith -6, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -12, 4) Ben Rhodes -20, t-5) Stewart Friesen -24, t-5) Ty Majeski -24, t-7) Grant Enfinger -30, t-7) Christian Eckes -30. Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 228, 2) Zane Smith -40, 3) Chandler Smith -42, 4) Ben Rhodes -54, 5) Ty Majeski -63, 6) Stewart Friesen
-74, 7) Christian Eckes -79, 8) Carson Hocevar -99, t-9) Grant Enfinger -116, t-9) Corey Heim -116, 11) Derek Kraus -125, 12) Matt Crafton -153, 13) Ryan Preece -155,
14) Tyler Ankrum
-162, 15) Parker Kligerman -168, 16) Tanner Gray -179. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 545, 2) Chandler Smith -17, 3) Ty Majeski -40, 4) Christian Eckes
-51, 5) John Hunter Nemechek -59, 6) Stewart Friesen -62, 7) Ben Rhodes -97, 8) Grant Enfinger -101, 9) Carson Hocevar -105, 10) Matt Crafton -130, 11) Tyler Ankrum -160, 12) Derek Kraus -176, 13) Matt DiBenedetto
-177, 14) Tanner Gray -229, 15) Chase Purdy -235, 16) Colby Howard -264. WC Points (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 3123, 2) Chandler Smith -83, 3) Ty Majeski -168, 4) John Hunter Nemechek -189, 5) Christian Eckes
-190, 6) Stewart Friesen -250, 7) Ben Rhodes -331, 8) Grant Enfinger -356, 9) Carson Hocevar -359, 10) Matt Crafton -495, 11) Tyler Ankrum -604, 12) Derek Kraus -620, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -659, 14) Tanner Gray
-810, 15) Chase Purdy -913, 16) Colby Howard -937. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Circuit of the Americas, Kansas-2), Chandler Smith (Las Vegas, Pocono, Richmond), Corey Heim (Atlanta, Gateway), William Byron (Martinsville), Ben Rhodes (Bristol-1), John Hunter Nemechek
(Darlington, Kansas-2), Stewart Friesen (Texas), Ross Chastain (Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Sonoma), Todd Gilliland (Knoxville), Ryan Preece (Nashville), Parker Kligerman (Mid-Ohio), Grant Enfinger (Lucas Oil IRP), Ty Majeski (Bristol-2)
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's South Point 400 was brought to you by the letter C for Competitive. Even though last year's race had more
lead changes, Sunday's event had a lot more passing and a number of drivers were in the hunt to win it. That said, most of the action will ultimately be overshadowed by what happened on lap 94. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: South Point 400
complied by Phil Allaway
"We’re racing for a championship! Let’s go! Man, what a great car. Penske cars were all fast. All of them were really fast today. Oh, man, all you want to do is get to the Championship 4 when the season starts and race for a championship, and we’ve got the team to do it. I don’t
see why we can’t win at this point. Things are looking really good for us, awesome Pennzoil Mustang, this bad boy, and man, just a lot of adversity fought through the last 50 laps or so. I thought we were going to win and then we kind of fell out and then had the tires, and racing Ross was fun. He was doing a good job air-blocking me, and just trying to be patient, and eventually, I was like, I’ve got to go here. Just great to win out here in Vegas again, and it means so much getting to the
championship." - Joey Logano, race winner "It hurts, right? It hurts to lose like that with just a few laps to go to fresher tires. It’s so good to be driving these Trackhouse Racing Chevy’s for everybody at
AdventHealth, Moose Fraternity, Jockey and Worldwide Express. To keep bringing this kind of speed in the playoffs is a dream come true." - Ross Chastain, finished second
"We certainly clawed our way back from a lot. To begin with, we had a really fast M&M’s Toyota Camry TRD so that certainly helped a lot of
things to be able to come back up through the field there a couple times. Had tires there at the end, had a good restart, punched a couple holes and got ourselves in good position there. A good, solid finish, but wish we had a little more obviously, want to win before the year’s out and that would mean a lot to a lot of people. We got a top 10 in points to go get and we’re working on it." - Kyle Busch, finished
third
"We weren’t the greatest at the start of the race and obviously it didn’t really matter there at the end. We put ourselves in position and I wish that when I was running second and Justin [Haley] was in the lead, that run would have gone to the end. I feel like I was probably going to get by him in the next five laps. We had such a big gap
compared to everyone else. Nobody else had tires. We were all on equal tires. On that last restart, I just didn’t get the job done. [Haley] stalled me out and let Ross [Chastain] put us three wide which put me in a really bad spot into three. When you give up the lead you are kind of just stuck. Who knows? Those guys were coming on tires and I doubt I would have been able to hold them off but I would have felt better about it if I had the opportunity. We kept ourselves in the ballgame and still
have a lot of work to do but we still have a chance. We are running the best we have all year long and that is about all you can ask for." - Chase Briscoe, finished fourth "Honestly, I thought we were going to be a little bit better than we were today but starting 31st and to get a
top-five in the second stage and top-five for the race is pretty decent. We just had one bad stop there at the end that kind of took away our track position, but we got most of that back. Pit crew did great. The guys did a great job adjusting from yesterday. We moved in the right direction and moved up in points. Just need to keep plugging along." - Denny Hamlin, finished fifth "We had a good, uneventful day in Las Vegas with another solid top-10 finish. We had speed all weekend, didn’t qualify where we wanted, but were able to adjust on our FOCUSfactor Chevy all race to improve throughout the day. We were there at the end, just needed a little more to get up front and be in the mix for the win.
We’ll head to Homestead next weekend where I feel like we made gains at the test a few weeks ago and see what we can do." - Erik Jones, finished sixth "Overall, I felt like it was a solid day for our No. 16 Celsius
Chevrolet team. We fought being a little bit tight most of the day. Track position was critical and we lost that a couple of times. I was fairly happy with the speed we had. The car was fairly comfortable. We had one run where we got really loose, but other than that, we just fought the front issue. We had good speed and it’s something to build on when we come back to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. To get another top 10 was really solid and I’m proud of both cars. Justin [Haley] was fast.
We’ll keep working on that." - AJ Allmendinger, finished ninth "I think we would have been fine with those two tires there in clean air. As soon as that caution came out, the tires cycled and they just cycled too tight. I got into some dirty air and just fell back after
that.
"Awesome effort by everyone on this No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet. It’s cool to run up here and start slowly building up these finishes. We started a little slow, but I feel like the speed is where we want it right now at the end of the season." - Justin Haley, finished
14th "I just did a really bad job. I’m obviously missing something at places like this to compete with the gentlemen that know what they’re doing. "Homestead is definitely different, but I need to re-evaluate myself, in general, to have a shot next week." - Chase Elliott, finished 21st "Just [that Bubba Wallace] got run into the wall and obviously,
retaliation on his side. We got the short end of the stick. "The good thing is I feel better about winning one of those two races than I did winning the Roval. We’ve just had really, really strong Camrys – really all year long. We will see if we can go pull another rabbit out of the hat." - Christopher Bell, finished 34th (Crashed out) "No, it didn’t surprise me. I obviously made an aggressive move into [turn 3]; got in low, got loose and chased it up a bit. [Bubba Wallace] got to my right front, and it got him tight
and into the wall. I knew he was going to retaliate. He had a reason to be mad, but his race wasn’t over until he retaliated. "It is what it is. Just aggression turned into frustration and he retaliated." - Kyle Larson, finished 35th (Crashed out) "Cliff [Daniels] is smart enough to know how easy these cars break. When you get shoved in the fence, deliberately like [Kyle Larson] did, trying to force me to lift – the steering was gone, and he just so happened to be there. I hate it for our team. We had a super-fast car – not on short run speed, we were kind of falling back there and Larson wanted to
make it a three-wide dive bomb. He never cleared me. I don’t lift. I know I’m kind of new to running up front, but I don’t lift. I wasn’t even in a spot to lift, he never lifted either and now we are junk. Piss poor move on his execution." - Bubba Wallace, finished 36th (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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