Frontstretch Newsletter: April 10, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition XLVII |
- NASCAR teams are back at their shops, preparing for this weekend's tripleheader at Martinsville Speedway. Entry lists should be
released later today. We'll have those for you, along with anything else that breaks today at Frontstretch. |
| | Christopher Bell Survives Bristol Dirt For First Win of
the Season Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell stayed out during the final stage break and held off charges to win the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Tyler Reddick was second, then Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chase Briscoe. |
| | Matt Crafton Replacing Cody Ware for Bristol Dirt
Race Rick Ware Racing announced Saturday morning that Matt Crafton would drive the No .51 Ford in the Food City Dirt Race in place of Cody Ware, who stepped out of the
car for personal reasons. |
| | Michael McDowell Does Dual 360 Spins & Nearly Earns
Top 10 Michael McDowell spun twice in a span of 10 laps Sunday, avoiding contact on both occasions. From there, he was able to recover for an 11th-place
finish. |
| | Joey Logano Dominates, Wins 2023 Bristol Dirt Truck
Race In a one-off appearance with ThorSport Racing, Joey Logano led 138 of 150 laps Saturday night to win the Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol Motor
Speedway. Ty Majeski was second, then William Byron, Matt Crafton and Grant Enfinger. |
| | ThorSport Displays Dirt Race Speed With Dominance at
Bristol ThorSport Racing was the team to beat all day at Bristol Motor Speedway. The team led all but 11 laps and only pit stops could keep them from controlling the
race. |
| | Daniel Suarez Running SRX at Thunder
Road Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) announced Monday morning that Daniel Suarez will make his SRX debut in the round at Vermont's Thunder Road International
Speedbowl on July 20. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography. 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: April 7-9 |
Owen was not a regular with the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, but a regular competitor at Lawrenceburg who was the
reigning track champion. Frontstretch extends our condolences to the Owen family. For more on the situation, check out today's edition of This Weekend in Dirt at Frontstretch. - The
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series traveled to Osborn, Mo.'s US 36 Raceway Friday night for the Osborn Sprint Car Showdown. This race turned out to be a war between Sheldon Haudenschild, Carson Macedo, David Gravel and Brad Sweet. Macedo led early before Gravel swept into the lead. While those two battled, Haudenschild whipped to the outside of both drivers
to take the lead. After cautions, Haudenschild took the lead for good on lap 24, then pulled away for the win. Macedo ended up second, then Sweet, Logan Schuchart and Brock Zearfoss. - Saturday night saw the Outlaws pull into 81 Speedway near Wichita for the Jason Johnson Classic. This race was a little calmer.
Rico Abreu led from flag-to-flag to win the classic and take home a check for $20,000. Macedo was second, then Gravel, Spencer Bayston and James McFadden. Through 12 races, Macedo has taken the lead by eight points over David Gravel. Sweet is down to third after a 14th-place finish
Saturday night, then Schuchart and Buddy Kofoid. |
These are just some examples of the 29 videos that we posted to our YouTube channel last weekend in Bristol. For more from Bristol, or from any other weekend, be sure to subscribe. Also, don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future YouTube posts. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Christopher Bell Snags Points Lead With Dirt Race Victory
by Phil Allaway
Christopher Bell led a race-high 100 laps Sunday night and held off Tyler Reddick to claim his first victory of the year. That win
catapulted him into the points lead. His advantage is 13 points over Ross Chastain, who struggled all night before getting wrecked at the end and finishing 28th. Kevin Harvick remains in third after finishing ninth. Kyle Larson has sole possession of fourth despite crashing out. Reddick's second-place
finish moved him up seven places to fifth. Kyle Busch is still in sixth despite dropping out late with suspension issues. Martin Truex Jr. is up one place to seventh after finishing seventh. Joey Logano dropped out early with crash damage and finished 37th. He is down from a tie for fourth to eighth. Brad Keselowski had multiple spins, but recovered to finish 17th, good enough to keep him in ninth. Ryan Blaney and Alex
Bowman are tied for 10th. Blaney was in the hunt late before a spin dropped him to 23rd, while Bowman had issues that dropped him to 29th. Denny Hamlin is down to 12th after a couple of issues dropped him to 22nd. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth and moved up three
places to 13th. William Byron is now tied for 14th with Austin Cindric. Byron finished 13th, while Cindric was 19th. Chris Buescher is down one place to 16th. He is the last driver in the playoffs on points. Cindric is one point ahead of Michael McDowell, who
finished 11th despite two 360-degree spins in traffic where he didn't hit anything. Ty Gibbs is up two spots to 18th after his fourth straight top 10 finish. Daniel Suarez dropped back two places to 19th after getting involved in multiple incidents. Chase Briscoe is up to 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 281, 2) Ross Chastain -13, 3) Kevin Harvick -26, 4) Kyle
Larson -39, 5) Tyler Reddick -46, 6) Kyle Busch -47, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -49, 8) Joey Logano -58, 9) Brad Keselowski -65, t-10) Ryan Blaney -70, t-10) Alex Bowman -70, 12) Denny Hamlin -78, 13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -87, t-14) William Byron -88, t-14) Austin Cindric -88, 16) Chris Buescher -98. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff
Points: 1) William Byron 10, t-2) Kyle Larson -3, t-2) Tyler Reddick -3, 4) Joey Logano -4, t-5) Christopher Bell -5, t-5) Kyle Busch -5, t-5) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -5, 8) Ross Chastain -7, t-9) Brad Keselowski -9, t-9) Austin Cindric -9, t-9) Denny Hamlin -9. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 84, 2) Kyle Larson -8, 3) Ross Chastain -16, 4) Christopher Bell -18, t-5) Joey Logano -30, t-5) Alex Bowman -30, 7) Denny Hamlin -31, 8) Kevin Harvick
-34, 9) Brad Keselowski -36, 10) Tyler Reddick -37, 11) Austin Cindric -41, 12) Ryan Blaney -43, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -44, 14) Kyle Busch -51, 15) Chris Buescher -53, 16) Austin Dillon -57.
Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: t-21) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -71.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 253, 2) Kevin Harvick -12, 3) Ross Chastain -15, 4) Kyle Busch -17, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -26, 6) Tyler Reddick -33, 7) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
-39, 8) Brad Keselowski -46, t-9) Joey Logano -48, t-9) Ryan Blaney -48, 11) Kyle Larson -50, 12) Ty Gibbs -53, 13) Alex Bowman -55, 14) Michael McDowell -58, 15) Denny Hamlin -60, 16) Chris
Buescher -66. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Austin Cindric -69, 24) William Byron -93. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 1142, 2) Ross Chastain -63, 3) Kevin Harvick
-66, 4) Kyle Busch -81, 5) Tyler Reddick -117, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -127, 7) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -157, 8) Brad Keselowski -169, 9) Joey Logano -171, 10) Kyle Larson -173, 11) Ryan Blaney
-181, 12) Alex Bowman -203, 13) Ty Gibbs -215, 14) Michael McDowell -230, t-15) Denny Hamlin -243, t-15) Chris Buescher -243. Outside the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 19) Austin Cindric -256, 26) William Byron -361. Note No. 1: 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), William Byron (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Joey Logano (Atlanta), Tyler Reddick (Austin), Kyle Larson (Richmond), Christopher Bell (Bristol)
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: Off-Week Update No. 1
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Xfinity Series was off this past weekend. They will be back in action Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway for the
Call811.com 250. When the teams roll into Martinsville, Austin Hill will have a 12-point lead over Riley Herbst.
John Hunter Nemechek is third, then Chandler Smith and Josh Berry. At the playoff cutoff, Parker Kligerman is currently in 12th and has a 13-point lead over Ryan
Sieg. Brandon Jones is 14th, then Jeb Burton and Brett Moffitt. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 277, 2) Riley Herbst
-12, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -18, 4) Chandler Smith -24, 5) Josh Berry -43, 6) Justin Allgaier -46, 7) Sheldon Creed -58, 8) Sam Mayer -69, 9) Sammy Smith -74, 10) Cole Custer -81, 11) Daniel Hemric
-84, 12) Parker Kligerman -89, 13) Ryan Sieg -102, 14) Brandon Jones -116, 15) Jeb Burton -128, 16) Brett Moffitt -136. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 18, t-2) John Hunter Nemechek
-12, t-2) Chandler Smith -12, 4) Sammy Smith -13, 5) Justin Allgaier -15, 6) Cole Custer -16, t-7) Josh Berry -17, t-7) Sheldon Creed -17, t-7) Parker Kligerman -17. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, AJ Allmendinger would be tied for second in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Riley Herbst 69, 2) Austin Hill -2, 3) Sheldon Creed -4, 4) Justin Allgaier -6, 5) Chandler Smith -14, 6) John Hunter Nemechek -21, 7) Cole Custer -23, 8) Brandon Jones
-25, 9) Josh Berry -32, 10) Sammy Smith -33, 11) Daniel Hemric -35, 12) Parker Kligerman -38, 13) Sam Mayer -40, 14) Ryan Sieg -50, 15) Brett Moffitt -52, 16) Anthony Alfredo -58. Note:
If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 13th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek
245, 2) Austin Hill -4, 3) Chandler Smith -14, 4) Josh Berry -16, 5) Riley Herbst -19, 6) Sam Mayer -35, 7) Justin Allgaier -44, 8) Sammy Smith -47, 9) Parker Kligerman -57, 10) Daniel Hemric
-58, 11) Sheldon Creed -60, 12) Ryan Sieg -61, 13) Cole Custer -64, 14) Jeb Burton -76, 15) Brett Moffitt -93, 16) Parker Retzlaff -97. WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 1074, 2) Austin Hill -28, 3) Chandler Smith -56, 4) Josh Berry -64, 5) Riley Herbst -83, 6) Sam Mayer -135, 7) Justin Allgaier -139, 8) Sammy Smith -177, 9) Parker Kligerman
-211, t-10) Sheldon Creed -213, t-10) Daniel Hemric -213, 12) Ryan Sieg -235, 13) Cole Custer -236, 14) Jeb Burton -287, 15) Brett Moffitt -331, 16) Parker Retzlaff -341. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Las Vegas, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana), Sammy
Smith (Phoenix), AJ Allmendinger (Austin), Chandler Smith (Richmond) 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 Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs: Ty Majeski Expands Lead After Competitors Wreck
by Phil Allaway
Ty Majeski was the second-best driver all day Saturday in Bristol. He finished second to Joey
Logano and scored 53 points, most of anyone eligible for points. As a result, he significantly increased his points lead. The advantage is now 34 over Zane Smith, who was involved in a crash and finished 21st. Ben Rhodes was involved in two incidents and finished 19th. Despite that, he stays in third. Matt Crafton is up one place to fourth after finishing fourth. Christian Eckes is down one place to fifth after
getting involved in multiple incidents and finishing 30th. Grant Enfinger remains in sixth after finishing fifth. Corey Heim stays in seventh despite getting in an incident and finishing 15th. Tanner Gray is up from a tie for 11th to eighth after finishing eighth. Matt DiBenedetto is up five places to ninth after a strong run to 10th. He is the last driver in the
playoffs on points. DiBenedetto is two points ahead of Nick Sanchez, who lost a couple of laps due to a flat tire Saturday. He got them back and finished 18th. Chase Purdy is down three places to 11th after crashing and finishing 28th. Carson Hocevar and Stewart Friesen are currently tied for 12th. Tyler
Ankrum is down four places to 14th after crashing out and finishing 33rd. Jake Garcia is still in 15th, while Hailie Deegan is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ty Majeski
259, 2) Zane Smith -34, 3) Ben Rhodes -47, 4) Matt Crafton -61, 5) Christian Eckes -65, 6) Grant Enfinger -71, 7) Corey Heim -89, 8) Tanner Gray -103, 9) Matt DiBenedetto -109, 10) Nick Sanchez
-111, 11) Chase Purdy -112, t-12) Carson Hocevar -117, t-12) Stewart Friesen -117, 14) Tyler Ankrum -130, 15) Jake Garcia -131, 16) Hailie Deegan -134.
Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for the playoffs
Playoff Points: 1) Zane
Smith 11, 2) Christian Eckes -3, 3) Carson Hocevar -5, 4) Nick Sanchez -9, t-3) Matt Crafton -10, t-3) Tyler Ankrum -10.
Note: If he were eligible for playoff points, Joey Logano would be third with seven points, while Kyle Busch would be fourth with six. Stage Points: 1) Ty Majeski 68, 2) Matt Crafton -13, 3) Zane Smith -14, 4) Christian Eckes -15, 5) Ben Rhodes -20, 6) Matt DiBenedetto -31, 7) Nick Sanchez
-33, 8) Grant Enfinger -35, t-9) Chase Purdy -44, t-9) Stewart Friesen -44, 11) Corey Heim -46, t-12) Carson Hocevar -50, t-12) Tyler Ankrum -50, 14) Hailie Deegan -51, 15) Tanner Gray -52, 16) Dean Thompson
-56. Note: If he was eligible for stage points, Joey Logano would be
12th and Kyle Busch would be 16th. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ty Majeski 170, 2) Zane Smith -21, 3) Ben Rhodes -27, 4) Grant Enfinger -38, 5) Corey Heim -44, 6) Matt Crafton
-48, 7) Christian Eckes -49, 8) Tanner Gray -54, 9) Jake Garcia -63, t-10) Carson Hocevar -67, t-10) Chase Purdy -67, 12) Nick Sanchez -74, 13) Stewart Friesen -75, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -80, 15) Tyler Ankrum -81, 16) Hailie Deegan -83. WC Points (1-16): 1) Ty Majeski 945, 2) Zane Smith
-81, 3) Ben Rhodes -106, 4) Grant Enfinger -147, 5) Christian Eckes -166, 6) Corey Heim -168, 7) Matt Crafton -181, 8) Tanner Gray -194, 9) Chase Purdy -239, 10) Carson Hocevar -244, 11) Nick Sanchez
-257, 12) Stewart Friesen -263, 13) Tyler Ankrum -282, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -283, 15) Jake Garcia -291, 16) Hailie Deegan -304. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona,
Austin), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas), Christian Eckes (Atlanta), Carson Hocevar (Texas), Joey Logano (Bristol)
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 Food City Dirt Race was brought to you by the letter W for Wide. The third try to run the NASCAR Cup
Series on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway resulted in the most raceable surface so far. However, the latter part of the race was marked by holes developing in the racing surface. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Food City Dirt
Race compiled by Phil Allaway
"Man, those were some of the longest laps of my life. This place is so much fun whether it’s dirt or concrete and whenever the cushion got up there on the top, it was very, very tough because you couldn’t drive it super hard
otherwise you would get sucked in. If you got your right-front into it, you would push a little and if you got your right-rear into it, you would slide. It was just a lot of fun, but just so grateful to be here driving this No. 20 DeWalt Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. That was a lot of fun." - Christopher Bell, race winner
"It was a lot of fun honestly and really intense. Towards the end there, definitely felt like I had a little bit more on the edge and there in the closing laps I thought I found it. Just hate it for everybody on this SiriusXM Toyota Camry TRD. Just needed to be a little bit closer than I was. Maybe with two to go I could have made that move work. Obviously, coming into three and four on the white flag lap we were going to see, but we’ll
never know if it would have worked. Still a good rebound for us. We thought the track was going to take a different direction than it did as the race unfolded. As it worked out, our strategy wasn’t the best, but that was on me." - Tyler Reddick, finished second
"I just have to thank SMI for all of the hard work they’ve done with this dirt racing. I don’t care what anybody says, that was an amazing show throughout the field. I felt like it was some great racing.
"I really wish we could have brought home the No. 3 BREZTRI
Chevy into victory lane. We were second in both stages and getting a third-place finish was big for us. Getting the momentum rolling. I had a lot of fun out there. Just wasn’t good enough against the fence when it mattered. We needed the track to kind of go back to our run. Right there at the end, we were kind of circling the middle and the car was really good. The No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy was fast, just not enough at the end." - Austin Dillon, finished
third
"It honestly felt like I hadn’t run dirt cars much. We just struggled a little bit yesterday. The guys worked really hard all night coming up with something different. We changed our No. 47 Irish Spring Camaro around and we were better.
We still didn’t have enough to run up front there, but we methodically kind of picked and chose lanes. We got to running the bottom really well and made up a lot of time on restarts. They all just kind of fell our way there.
"Really good to get a top-five and a bounce-back after last weekend. I hope that was a good show. I thought
the race track was as good as it could be. You could run kind of all over the place, so hats off to the track." - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished fourth
"I thought the track was awesome. I thought that was the most realistic dirt race you’re gonna get with real dirt cars. I felt like
we finally saw the dirt guys shine for that same reason, so I had a lot of fun running the top like that. It actually built a little bit of a cushion. It’s still not much, but it was just a lot of fun. I hope the fans enjoyed it. Hopefully, we can do it again in the future. I’m not really sure what the future of this race is, but I thought it was an awesome race from my vantage point and hopefully it was for everybody else, too." - Chase Briscoe, finished fifth
"I think our car was good when it was really tacky. I got in that very first wreck and when I was a lap down it was so fun. I passed like 10 to 15 cars, so I think we were more just set up for when it was tackier. We didn’t really have the entry grip or the exit
grip we needed when it got really slick. That’s how this place goes, though. It goes through such a big swing. I feel like for a majority of the race we were OK. Frustrating because I thought we could have got a better finish, but that’s racing sometimes." - Todd Gilliland, finished eighth
"I was excited to start on the front row. I thought that we were kind of making the middle work and I was really pumped to start on the front row and see what we had, but we never got a shot. [Chase Briscoe] hit us from behind and that was it.
"I think the caution came at a good time because it gave
us a shot to win the race. I kind of got the middle going there pretty good and I was able to drive to third and not a lot of guys could really run the middle, so that’s why I was really excited to get a restart at it because I thought the middle could have been pretty good for a handful of laps and I could get to the lead, but I just never could get that shot." - Ryan Blaney, finished 23rd
"I think if we could have kept track position, we had I feel like a top 10 car, but when it got slick like that I don’t know how many people were actually moving forward, but it was just try to hold on. Those last 75 laps or so, I mean, once you lose track position after Stage 1, man, you guys saw it, guys stayed out and they maintained it. What are you
gonna do at that point? I don’t care if Chad had a magic wand and I had a special set of tires that were staggered special, it wouldn’t have mattered. You just can’t do anything. There’s no grip anywhere. "I was just trying to run the top. You guys saw it. [Kyle Larson] was
running the top and making ground and I tried to move up and it’s really slick if you’re not in the right spot, not racing dirt, I guess you figure that out." - Ryan Preece, finished 24th "I’m guessing he was paying me back for whatever I did earlier. He ran me straight into the fence and my car was broke and we crashed. It sucks, but I should just be mad at myself for spinning out earlier and putting myself back there. Just sucks." - Kyle Larson, finished 35th (Crashed out) "Someone wrecked in front of me and I can’t say I really saw it and they came down the racetrack and hit it with the right-front and it broke the steering and then I hit the wall really hard after that. That just kind of killed our car. It’s a bummer. We got caught up in pretty much everything from the beginning of the race. I was in the first couple of cautions right off the bat. We had a really good Mustang that
could run its way back through the field and we got our way back to 14th by the end of the first stage and I was like, ‘Alright, I think we’re pretty good.’ And then just got caught up in more of them." - Joey Logano, 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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!["I Classify This [NASCAR race] More as a Show Than a Race Really." -Jonathan Davenport Talks Bristol](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/b47fd0b893d644378c02fce0d3d1ba34.png?t=1681146311)
