Frontstretch Newsletter: Feb. 27, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition XVII |
- Teams have a pretty brutal
stretch ahead of them in order to prepare for this weekend's action in Las Vegas. A number of teams did not have their Las Vegas equipment ready to go and are currently en route back to North Carolina to pick it up. Others are meeting part way across the country to swap. Entry lists for this weekend's tripleheader in Las Vegas should be
released either today or tomorrow. We'll have the entry lists and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
| | Kyle Busch Arrives in Earnest at RCR with Win at Auto
Club Kyle Busch took the lead with 21 laps to go and held on to win the Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway in only his second start for Richard Childress Racing.
Chase Elliott was second, then Trackhouse Racing Team teammates Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez. Kevin Harvick was fifth. |
| | Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain Fall Short to Kyle Busch on
Final Green-Flag Run at Auto Club After the final round of stops, Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott were right on Kyle Busch's tail, ready to strike. Unfortunately, neither driver could hang with the
Lucas Oil Chevrolet when it counted. |
| | F1 Champ Jenson Button Interested in NASCAR Road
Courses Prior to Sunday's Pala Casino 400, Frontstretch caught up with Jenson Button, who will be racing a modified Next Gen car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans later this
year. He indicated that he is interesting in racing in a Cup race on a road course. |
| | John Hunter Wins Final Xfinity Race Before Auto Club
Revamp Joe Gibbs Racing's John Hunter Nemechek took the lead with 22 laps to go and held on to win the rescheduled Production Alliance Group 300 at Auto Club Speedway
Sunday night. Sam Mayer was second, then Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith and Josh Berry. |
| | Sam Mayer Can ‘Taste That 1st Win’ After Runner-Up
Result at Auto Club Speedway JR Motorsports' Sam Mayer made a late charge up the order to finish second Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, which equals his best career finish. Seeing as he was
matching John Hunter Nemechek on speed late, victory seems to be getting closer. |
| | Kaz Grala Joins TRICON for Vegas Truck
Race TRICON Garage announced Friday that Kaz Grala will drive the No. 1 Toyota in next weekend's Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway. |
| | Tyler Reif Running Full ARCA East
Schedule Frontstretch has learned that Tyler Reif has expanded his racing schedule for 2023. In addition to his schedule in ARCA
Menards Series West, he will expand his schedule to include all seven ARCA Menards Series East races. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Meg Oliphant of Getty Images and our own Phil Allaway and Danny Peters. Have news for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know;
email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising lead or tip. |
Around the World in Motorsports: Feb. 24-26 |
- Team WRT's Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts scored a dominant win in Saturday's
Intercontinental GT Challenge Joburg Kyalami 9 Hour in South Africa. Despite leading for the vast majority of a race that was caution-free for the first eight hours, the margin of victory was 1.778 seconds over teammates Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus and Maxime Martin. Tresor Attempto Racing's Mattia Drudi, Ricardo Feller and Patric Niederhauser. Their teammates in the No. 99 Audi (Alex Aka, Dennis Marschall and Markus Winkelhock) were a lap down in fourth. SunEnergy1 Racing's Jules Gounon, Kenny
Habul and Yannick Mettler were fifth and won the Pro-Am class. |
This is just a sampling of the 25 videos that we posted at Auto Club Speedway this past weekend. For more from Auto Club Speedway, or any other venue that we cover events, please subscribe to Frontstretch's YouTube channel and click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Ross Chastain Wins 2 Stages, Claims Points Lead
by Phil Allaway
Ross Chastain led the most laps and won the first two stages Sunday in Fontana, but faltered late in the race. He still managed to finish third. That
was good enough to move him up five places and into the points lead. Chastain's lead is one point over Joey Logano, who scored 12 stage points and finished 10th. Alex Bowman finished eighth and moved up two places to third. Kevin Harvick finished fifth and moved up three places to fourth. Daniel Suarez finished fourth for the second straight year at Fontana. That moved him up seven places to fifth. Chris Buescher finished 13th
and dropped four spots to sixth. Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 12th and dropped four places to seventh. Fontana winner Kyle Busch gained 14 positions to move into eighth. Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski are tied fof ninth. Hamlin wins the tiebreaker as he finished sixth
on Sunday to Keselowski's seventh. Martin Truex Jr. is down to 11th after finishing 11th. Ryan Blaney is down five places to 12th after getting caught up in the Big One and finishing four laps down in 26th. Corey LaJoie moved up two places to 13th after scoring
a stage point and finishing 14th. Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell are tied for 14th. Elliott recovered from a miserable Daytona to finish second, while Bell was eliminated in the Big One and was credited with 32nd. Michael McDowell is 16th in points, the last driver currently in the playoffs. McDowell has a two-point advantage over Austin Cindric and Ty Gibbs. Cindric had a number of issues en route to a 28th-place ifnish, while
Gibbs moved up after finishing 16th. AJ Allmendinger crashed out early and finishing 36th, which dropped him 10 places to 19th. Harrison Burton is 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ross Chastain 92, 2) Joey Logano -1, 3) Alex Bowman -12, 4) Kevin Harvick -13, 5) Daniel Suarez -15, 6) Chris Buescher
-18, 7) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -19, 8) Kyle Busch -25, t-9) Denny Hamlin -28, t-9) Brad Keselowski -28, 11) Martin Truex Jr. -32, 12) Ryan Blaney -35, 13) Corey LaJoie -41, t-14) Chase Elliott -43, t-14) Christopher Bell
-43, 16) Michael McDowell -52. Playoff Points: t-1) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 5, t-1) Kyle Busch 5, 3) Ross Chastain -2, 4) Brad Keselowski
-4. Stage Points: 1) Ross Chastain 30, 2) Joey Logano -1, 3) Kevin Harvick -8, t-4) Alex Bowman -11, t-4) Brad Keselowski -11, t-6) Chris Buescher -13, t-6) Ryan Blaney -13, 8) Austin Cindric -15, 9) Daniel Suarez
-16, t-10) Chase Elliott -17, t-10) Denny Hamlin -17, t-10) Aric Almirola -17, t-13) Martin Truex Jr. -18, t-13) Michael McDowell -18, t-15) Christopher Bell -18, t-15) William Byron -18, t-15) Ryan Preece -18. Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: 18) Kyle Busch -21, 19) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -22.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations
Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): t-1) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 73, t-1) Ross Chastain 73, t-3) Joey Logano -1, t-3) Daniel Suarez -1, 5) Alex Bowman -2, t-6) Kyle Busch
-6, t-6) Kevin Harvick -6, 8) Chris Buescher -7, 9) Denny Hamlin -12, 10) Martin Truex Jr. -16, 11) Brad Keselowski -17, 12) Corey LaJoie -21, 13) Ryan Blaney -23, 14) Christopher Bell -24, 15) Chase Elliott
-30, 16) Harrison Burton -31. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used
before stages were created. WC Points (1-16):
1) Ross Chastain 318, 2) Joey Logano -4, 3) Daniel Suarez -7, t-4) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -11, t-4) Alex Bowman -11, 6) Kevin Harvick -26, 7) Kyle Busch -27, 8) Chris Buescher -29, 9) Denny Hamlin -46, 10) Brad
Keselowski -60, 11) Martin Truex Jr. -65, 12) Christopher Bell -76, 13) Ryan Blaney -81, 14) Corey LaJoie -82, 15) Chase Elliott -94, 16) AJ Allmendinger -108. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created
by Bob Latford in 1975. Race
Winners: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Fontana)
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 our own Danny
Peters.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship: Austin Hill Charges From Rear To Defend Daytona Victory, Claim Points Lead
by Phil
Allaway
Austin Hill started from the pole, but lost the lead early on. He would eventually get back up front for four
laps and would end up finishing sixth. That was enough for Hill to keep the points lead. His advantage is up to seven over both John Hunter Nemechek and Justin Allgaier. Nemechek led 46 laps en route to victory while Allgaier finished third. Chandler Smith is up one place to fourth after finishing fourth. Riley Herbst is down one place to fifth after finishing seventh. Despite a cut tire putting him in the wall late,
Cole Custer moved up three places to ninth thanks to winning the first two stages Sunday. Sam Mayer is up 12 places to seventh after finishing second. Joe Graf Jr., driving the first of five races in Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 19, moved up one place to eighth after a quiet run to 11th. Josh Berry and Ryan Sieg are tied for ninth. Berry finished fifth Sunday while Sieg was 14th.
Parker Kligerman moved up 11 positions to take 11th in points after finishing 10th. Parker Retzlaff dropped six places to 12th after finishing 20th. He is now the last driver in the playoffs. Retzlaff has a two-point advantage over Jeb Burton, who finished 22nd Sunday. Brett Moffitt is up 11 spots to
14th after finishing ninth. Sammy Smith was a threat to win before a late spin dropped him to a 19th-place finish. He is now 15th in points, while Josh Williams is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 98, t-2) John
Hunter Nemechek -7, t-2) Jusitn Allgaier -7, 4) Chandler Smith -22, 5) Riley Herbst -25, 6) Cole Custer -38, 7) Sam Mayer -40, 8) Joe Graf Jr. -42, t-9) Josh Berry -46, t-9) Ryan Sieg -46, 11) Parker Kligerman
-47, 12) Parker Retzlaff -48, 13) Jeb Burton -50, 14) Brett Moffitt -52, 15) Sammy Smith -54, 16) Josh Williams -55. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 6, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -1,
3) Cole Custer -4, 4) Justin Allgaier -5. Stage Points: 1) Austin Hill 27, 2) Justin Allgaier
-4, 3) Cole Custer -5, 4) Chandler Smith -9, 5) John Hunter Nemechek -11, t-6) Sam Mayer -14, t-6) Sheldon Creed -14, 8) Riley Herbst -15, t-9) Brett Moffitt -17, t-9) Parker Kligerman -17, 11) Josh Berry
-18, 12) Sammy Smith -19, t-13) Jeb Burton -20, t-13) Brandon Jones -20, t-13) Daniel Hemric, 16) Myatt Snider -26. Note: If they were eligible for points, Austin Dillon would be tied for ninth and Justin Haley tied for 14th in stage
points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek
85, 2) Austin Hill -4, 3) Justin Allgaier -7, 4) Riley Herbst -16, 5) Chandler Smith -18, 6) Joe Graf Jr. -21, 7) Ryan Sieg -25, 8) Parker Retzlaff -27, 9) Sam Mayer -31, 10) Josh Berry -32, 11) Josh
Williams -34, 12) Parker Kligerman -35, 13) Jeb Burton -36, 14) Cole Custer -37, 15) Jeremy Clements -38, 16) Kyle Sieg -39. WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 360, t-2) Austin Hill -20, t-2) Justin Allgaier -20, 4) Riley Herbst -64, 5) Chandler Smith -68, 6) Joe Graf Jr. -84, t-7) Parker Retzlaff -97, t-7) Ryan Sieg -97, 9) Sam Mayer -103, 10) Josh Berry
-110, t-11) Parker Kligerman -127, t-11) Josh Williams -127, 13) Cole Custer -130, 14) Jeb Burton -133, 15) Jeremy Clements -139, 16) Kyle Sieg -142. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana) 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. 1
by Brad Harrison
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will be back in action Friday night at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway in the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200. When the teams get to Las Vegas, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing's Christian Eckes will have the points lead
by five points over Matt Crafton. Ty Majeski is third after Daytona. Daytona winner Zane Smith is tied for fourth with Tyler Ankrum. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes
50, 2) Matt Crafton -5, 3) Ty Majeski -9, t-4) Zane Smith -10, t-4) Tyler Ankrum -10, 6) Tanner Gray -12, 7) Grant Enfinger -14, 8) Colby Howard -17, t-9) Ben Rhodes -20, t-9) Carson Hocevar -20, t-11) Corey Heim
-21, t-11) Chase Purdy -21, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -25, 14) Nick Sanchez -26, 15) Jason A. White -28, 16) Timmy Hill -29. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Chase Elliott would be 13th in points, while Travis Pastrana would be tied for 15th.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane
Smith 5, t-2) Christian Eckes -4, t-2) Tyler Ankrum -4. Stage Points: 1) Matt Crafton 17, 2) Christian Eckes -1, 3) Nick Sanchez
-4, t-4) Ty Majeski -7, t-4) Tyler Ankrum -7, 6) Chase Purdy -8, 7) Matt DiBenedetto -9, 8) Hailie Deegan -10, 9) Carson Hocevar -12, t-10) Grant Enfinger -13, t-10) Ben Rhodes -13, t-10) Jack Wood -13, 13) Tanner Gray
-14. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 36, 2) Christian Eckes -4, 3) Tanner Gray -5, 4) Colby Howard -6, t-5) Grant Enfinger -8, t-5) Ty Majeski -8, 7) Tyler Ankrum
-9, t-8) Corey Heim -11, t-8) Matt Crafton -11, 10) Ben Rhodes -14, 11) Carson Hocevar -15, 12) Jason A. White -18, t-13) Timmy Hill -19, t-13) Chase Purdy, 15) Derek Kraus -21, 16) Josh Reaume -22.
Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Chase Elliott would be 10th in old points, while Travis Pastrana would be
13th and Sammy Smith 14th. WC Points (1-16): 1) Zane Smith
180, 2) Christian Eckes -5, 3) Tanner Gray -10, 4) Colby Howard -15, t-5) Grant Enfinger -25, t-5) Ty Majeski -25, 7) Tyler Ankrum -29, 8) Matt Crafton -37, 9) Corey Heim -38, 10) Ben Rhodes -50, 11) Carson Hocevar
-53, 12) Jason A. White -62, 13) Chase Purdy -63, 14) Timmy Hill -65, 15) Derek Kraus -71, 16) Josh Reaume -74. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Chase Elliott would be 10th in old points, while Travis Pastrana would be 13th and Sammy Smith 14th. Race Winners: Zane Smith
(Daytona)
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 Pala Casino 400 was brought to you by the letter U for Unknown. As you know, Sunday's races were the final
ones at the current version of Auto Club Speedway. The plan is to create a short track out of the property, but there is no clear date as to when that will take place. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Pala Casino 400
complied by Phil Allaway
"Yeah, coulda-shoulda-woulda, right, last week. But no, I think it’s just phenomenal. I can’t thank Richard and Judy enough. I can’t thank Austin for calling me and getting me talking and getting me this opportunity to be able to come over here to RCR; and be a part of Chevrolet and be able to race this Lucas Oil Camaro today.
To be able to put it up front like that, man.
"I think [today's win] ranks high just because it ranks to the fact of I can do it. I never doubted myself, but sometimes you do. You kind of get down on it, you wonder what’s going on and what’s happening and you put yourself in a different situation and you’re able to come out here and reward your guys. It’s
not about me always winning but it’s about the guys. I’ve been with a lot of great people that have given me a lot of great opportunities in my career, so it’s awesome to be able to reward them." - Kyle Busch, race winner "Just really proud of our team. We obviously didn’t run very good there toward the end of the year last year, and everybody really went to work hard over the winter to try and get better. Appreciate everybody on our NAPA team for just sticking with it and sticking with each other. Obviously I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that’s always a good
thing. Appreciate everybody’s effort; everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet." - Chase Elliott, finished second "[Kyle Busch] got faster [in the final 30 laps].. I don’t know. Our balance was building loose
most of the day, so I thought we did everything right. We kept up with it and it would just build pretty loose late in the runs. At times, it was enough, and at times, they got way better. But I thought our No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet was the steady force. To start off the way that we have this year is a total 180 from last year when it was not like this. So, as much as it stings, and as much as it does hurt, hats off to Chevrolet for the top four there and for Trackhouse [Racing Team on our
finishes] at our first crack at big tracks here. That is all we can ask for." - Ross Chastain, finished third "I’m very, very proud of everyone at Trackhouse Racing. They keep building very fast race cars and it’s a lot of fun to race like this. My No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy team
did a great job on pit road with strategy and adjustments. I feel like I made a few mistakes today that maybe cost us a shot at the win. I feel like our car was capable of running up front, but I just made too many mistakes. I just have to clean up a few things on my end and I’m sure we’ll come back next weekend with another shot." - Daniel Suarez, finished fourth "Our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang was really good on the long runs, I just really struggled on the restarts with the front end. In the end, we had a chance, but I couldn’t put us in the right position on the restarts to guard our track position like we needed to. It was still a great day for our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang. The guys did a great job on pit road all day and kept us up in the front." -
Kevin Harvick, finished fifth "We didn’t have a great start to the race… wasn’t driving really good, and I wasn’t really happy with it. Matt [McCall] and the crew just kept working on it. We had a couple of good adjustments there, got spun out and then recovered it. It was good to be
able to recover. Just need a little more speed. Not quite where we need to be, but we weren’t terribly far off." - Brad Keselowski, finished seventh
"I saw it stacked up pretty bad. I saw the car behind me kind of laid off to get a really big run, so I kind of elected to make the decision to go to the bottom and get
around it. Unfortunately, I think Ryan (Blaney) had the same idea. We just got collected and went through the grass and the right front of The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry TRD was broke. Unfortunate end to my Cup racing career at this two-mile track, but thankfully I’ve got one more shot later on with GearWrench and Sam Hunt Racing in the Xfinity car." - Tyler Reddick, finished 34th (Crashed out)
"I took off on the restart and went from second to third gear and all of a sudden everybody in front of us just stopped. I think the leader was just playing games, trying to prevent the runs coming from behind and they stopped in the middle of the restart zone was right about where they should have been accelerating. It was just a huge accordion effect. We were back in 16th, so everybody
just started stacking up and you can’t stop on a dime. It’s disappointing to get wrecked out of the race like that on a silly Mickey Mouse restart, but I should have known better." - Aric Almirola, finished 35th (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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