Frontstretch Newsletter: May 8, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition LXVIII |
- NASCAR Cup Series teams will be arriving back at their shops today after hauling nearly halfway across the continent back from Kansas.
Meanwhile, preparations are already underway for Darlington. Entry lists should be released either today or tomorrow. We'll have those and anything else that breaks today at Frontstretch. |
| | Denny Hamlin Wins Kansas Cup Race With Last-Lap
Pass Denny Hamlin had contact on the final lap with Kyle Larson exiting turn 2. Larson turned into the outside wall, while Hamlin held on to win the AdventHealth 400.
Larson was second, then William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain. |
| | Tempers Flare Between Noah Gragson, Ross Chastain in One
Hot Afternoon at Kansas On lap 202 Sunday, Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson rubbed fenders in turn 4, which resulted in Gragson hitting the outside wall. Gragson was upset with Chastain
afterwards, leading to a post-race confrontation. |
| | Ryan Newman Joins Ware for Multiple
Races Rick Ware Racing announced Friday that Ryan Newman has joined the team and will drive the No. 51 Ford in a series of races starting at
Darlington. |
| | Carl Edwards in FOX Booth at Darlington for Cup
Race During the AdventHealth 400 Sunday, FOX Sports announced four special guest analysts for next weekend's broadcast of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington. One of those
analysts will be Carl Edwards, who is making an extremely rare appearance at a NASCAR race. |
| | Grant Enfinger Runs Away With Win at
Kansas GMS Racing's Grant Enfinger made a confident three-wide move to take the lead with 31 laps to go Saturday night and pulled away from there to win the Heart of
America 200 at Kansas Speedway. Corey Heim was second, then Zane Smith, Stewart Friesen and Ross Chastain. |
| | Rajah Caruth, Ty Majeski ‘Agree to Disagree’ After
Kansas Crash Ty Majeski and Rajah Caruth were both having excellent runs Saturday night, but a mistimed block by Caruth put both drivers in the wall, ending Caruth's night.
Majeski was none too pleased with the rookie afterwards. |
| | Max Verstappen Steals Miami Grand Prix on Tire
Strategy Red Bull's Max Verstappen used a one-stop strategy and the hard tires to come from ninth on the grid to win Sunday's Grand Prix of Miami. Sergio Perez was second,
then Fernando Alonso, George Russell and Carlos Sainz Jr. |
| | Mercedes Finds Silver Lining, Recovers for Double Points
At Miami Mercedes did not have a great weekend in Miami Gardens as Lewis Hamilton started out of the top 10 and the team was down on speed. In the race, the speed seemed to
return, allowing George Russell and Hamilton to finish fourth and sixth. |
| | Jesse Love Scores Dominant ARCA Victory at
Kansas Venturini Motorsports' Jesse Love led all but four laps Saturday afternoon en route to winning the ARCA Menards Series Dawn 150 at Kansas Speedway. Dean Thompson
was second, then Taylor Gray, Connor Mosack and Jack Wood. |
| | Billy Venturini Running ARCA East Race at Flat
Rock In an interview with Frontstretch in Kansas Saturday, Billy Venturini confirmed that he will come out of retirement to compete in the ARCA Menards Series East race
at Flat Rock Speedway on May 20. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Jared C. Tilton of Getty Images, Jiri Krenek of Mercedes-AMG and our own Dalton Hopkins. 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: May 5-7 |
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spent last weekend at Eldora Speedway for the #LetsRaceTwo. Friday night saw a duel between Logan Schuchart and Rico Abreu on the quick half-mile. Abreu slid ahead with a lap to go, but Schuchart was able to get him back with his own slide job to take the win. Behind Schuchart and Abreu was Donny Schatz in third. Brad Sweet and David Gravel rounded out the top five. Kyle
Larson was disqualified from his heat race and forced to come up through the Last Chance Qualifier. He was able to finish 10th. Saturday night saw Abreu hold off a charge from Schatz with 12 laps to go, then pull away to take the victory.
Schatz was second, then Gravel, Brian Brown and Justin Peck. Sweet's performances allowed him to retake the points lead. HIs advantage is two points over Carson Macedo. Gravel
is third, then Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild. |
This is just a sampling of the 28 videos posted to our YouTube channel last weekend from Kansas. For more Kansas coverage and a lot more, please subscribe to our channel and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future video uploads. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Ross Chastain Extends Lead After Christopher Bell Crashes Out
by Phil Allaway
Christopher Bell ran well early on, but spun out right before the
end of stage two and hit the inside wall on the backstretch. That put Bell out for the day with a 36th-place finish. Ross Chastain finished fifth despite a run-in on pit road with Noah Gragson. That finish allowed Chastain to expand his lead over Bell to 31 points. Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin are now tied for third. Hamlin won the race Sunday, while Truex finished eighth. Kevin Harvick is down two places to fifth after finishing 11th. Tyler Reddick remains in sixth after finishing ninth. Ryan Blaney is down two spots to seventh after finishing 16th. Kyle Larson finished second and led the most laps, which moved him up two places to eighth. William Byron is up to ninth after coming back from two laps
down to finish third. Brad Keselowski is down to 10th after bad pit strategy put them a lap down. He would eventually finish 19th. Joey Logano is up to 11th after winning stage two and finishing sixth. Kyle Busch crashed out just after Bell and dropped four places to 12th. Chris Buescher is down one spot to 13th after a 17th-place finish.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remains in 14th, while Alex Bowman is still 15th despite missing his second straight race. Daniel Suarez is back up to 16th, last driver in the playoffs on points. Suarez has a four-point advantage over Chase Briscoe, who had a
miserable day Sunday, including a lost wheel on pit road. He ended up seven laps down in 32nd. Bubba Wallace is up three places to 18th after finishing fourth. Ty Gibbs had a great day, but was forced to retire after getting stuck in the tri-oval grass, which dropped him to 19th. Michael McDowell remains in 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ross Chastain 404, 2) Christopher Bell -31, t-3) Martin Truex Jr. -36, t-3) Denny Hamlin -36, 5) Kevin Harvick -46, 6) Tyler Reddick -50, 7) Ryan Blaney -54, 8) Kyle Larson -66, 9) William Byron -73, 10) Brad Keselowski -83, 11) Joey Logano -89, 12) Kyle Busch -96, 13) Chris Buescher
-102, 14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -109, 15) Alex Bowman -134, 16) Daniel Suarez -145. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for
points. Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 12, 2) William Byron -1, 3) Kyle Busch -2, t-4) Denny Hamlin -5, t-4) Tyler Reddick -5, t-4) Joey Logano -5, t-7) Martin Truex Jr. -7, t-7) Christopher Bell -7, t-7) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -7, 10) Ross Chastain -8, t-11) Kevin Harvick -11, t-11) Brad Keselowski -11, t-11) Austin Cindric -11, t-11) Aric Almirola -11, t-11) Ryan Preece -11, t-11) Chase Elliott -11. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 111, 2) Ross Chastain -12, 3) Denny Hamlin
-18, 4) Kyle Larson -23, t-5) Christopher Bell -35, t-5) Kevin Harvick -35, 7) Tyler Reddick -39, 8) Joey Logano -44, t-9) Martin Truex Jr. -48, t-9) Alex Bowman -48, 11) Brad Keselowski -50, 12) Ryan Blaney -51, 13) Austin Cindric -63, 14) Chris Buescher -66, 15) Daniel Suarez -73, 16) Aric Almirola -76.
Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: 19) Kyle Busch -78, 26) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -95.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point
Standings (1-16): 1) Ross Chastain 363, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -5, 3) Christopher Bell -10, 4) Ryan Blaney -20, 5) Denny Hamlin -26, 6) Kevin Harvick -27, 7) Tyler Reddick -32, 8) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
-35, 9) Kyle Busch -36, 10) Brad Keselowski -45, 11) Chris Buescher -55, 12) Kyle Larson -58, 13) Joey Logano -60, 14) William Byron -72, 15) Chase Briscoe -85, 16) Bubba Wallace
-86. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Daniel Suarez -90, 21) Alex Bowman -106. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Ross Chastain 1642, 2) Christopher Bell -28, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -48, 4) Ryan Blaney -75, 5) Tyler Reddick -116, 6) Kevin
Harvick -117, 7) Denny Hamlin -121, 8) Kyle Busch -138, 9) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -152, 10) Brad Keselowski -160, 11) Kyle Larson -182, 12) Joey Logano -193, 13) Chris Buescher -207, 14) William
Byron -276, 15) Chase Briscoe -295, 16) Bubba Wallace -303. Outside the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17)
Daniel Suarez -316, 24) Alex Bowman -444. 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, Talladega), William Byron (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Joey Logano (Atlanta), Tyler Reddick (Austin), Kyle Larson (Richmond, Martinsville), Christopher Bell (Bristol), Martin Truex Jr. (Dover), Denny Hamlin (Kansas)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: Off-Week Update No. 2
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Xfinity Series was off last weekend. They will return to action in the Shriner's Children 200 at Darlington
Raceway on May 13. When the Xfinity teams reach Darlington, Austin Hill will have a four-point lead over John Hunter
Nemechek. Chandler Smith is third in points, then JR Motorsports teammates Josh Berry and Justin Allgaier. At the playoff cutoff, Sam Mayer in 11th is the last driver in the playoffs on points at the moment. He has a
nine-point lead over Brandon Jones. Parker Kligerman is tied for 13th with Talladega winner Jeb Burton, while Ryan Sieg is 15th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 377, 2) John
Hunter Nemechek -4, 3) Chandler Smith -38, 4) Josh Berry -43, 5) Justin Allgaier -49, 6) Cole Custer -59, 7) Sheldon Creed -63, 8) Riley Herbst -65, 9) Sammy Smith -81, 10) Daniel Hemric -93, 11) Sam Mayer
-110, 12) Brandon Jones -119, t-13) Jeb Burton -129, t-13) Parker Kligerman -129, 15) Ryan Sieg -147, 16) Brett Moffitt -161. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 18, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -5,
3) Ryan Truex -11, t-4) Chandler Smith -12, t-4) Jeb Burton -12, 6) Sammy Smith -13, 7) Justin Allgaier -14, 8) Cole Custer -16, t-9) Josh Berry -17, t-9) Sheldon Creed -17, t-9) Parker Kligerman -17. Note:
If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, AJ Allmendinger would be tied for third in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Austin Hill 94, 2) Sheldon Creed
-5, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -9, 4) Justin Allgaier -13, 5) Riley Herbst -15, 6) Chandler Smith -16, 7) Cole Custer -23, 8) Josh Berry -32, 9) Sammy Smith -35, 10) Brandon Jones -37, 11) Daniel Hemric
-44, 12) Sam Mayer -48, t-13) Ryan Truex -58, t-13) Parker Kligerman -58, 15) Jeb Burton -69, 16) Ryan Sieg -75. Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 335, 2) Austin Hill -6, 3) Josh Berry -18, 4) Chandler Smith -28, 5) Cole Custer -43, 6) Justin Allgaier -46, 7) Sammy Smith -54, 8) Riley Herbst
-60, 9) Daniel Hemric -62, 10) Sheldon Creed -65, 11) Sam Mayer -71, 12) Jeb Burton -72, 13) Parker Kligerman -82, 14) Ryan Sieg -83, 15) Brandon Jones -92, 16) Brett Moffitt -94. WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 1481, 2) Austin Hill -36, 3) Josh Berry -63, 4) Chandler Smith -112, 5) Justin Allgaier -142, 6) Cole Custer -162, 7) Sammy Smith
-195, 8) Riley Herbst -223, 9) Sheldon Creed -228, 10) Daniel Hemric -235, 11) Sam Mayer -258, 12) Jeb Burton -284, 13) Parker Kligerman -292, 14) Ryan Sieg -316, 15) Brandon Jones -338, 16) Brett Moffitt
-345. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Las Vegas, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana, Martinsville)), Sammy Smith (Phoenix), AJ Allmendinger (Austin), Chandler Smith (Richmond), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Ryan Truex (Dover) 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, Zane Smith Tied For the Points Lead
by Phil Allaway
Ty Majeski ran well Saturday night in Kansas, winning stage two. However, he was eliminated in a wreck
with Rajah Caruth. Zane Smith finished third and was able to tie Majeski. By virtue of his two wins, Smith has the tiebreaker for now. Smith and Majeski are 41 points ahead of Ben Rhodes, who finished 16th. Corey Heim remains in fourth, but made significant point gains after finishing second. Grant Enfinger's victory moved him up one place to fifth, jumping over Christian
Eckes. Eckes crashed out during the final stage and was credited with 30th. Matt Crafton is still in seventh after finishing 11th. Tanner Gray is still despite an 18th-place finish. Nick Sanchez is up one place to ninth after finishing sixth. He is the last driver in the playoffs on
points at the moment. Sanchez is 12 points ahead of Matt DiBenedetto, who crashed out with Eckes. Chase Purdy also crashed out with Eckes and DiBenedetto, dropping back to 11th. Stewart Friesen is up to 12th after finishing fourth with new crew chief Blake Bainbridge. Despite finishing eighth Saturday night, Jake Garcia dropped a spot back to 13th. Tyler
Ankrum is up two places to 14th after finishing 10th, while Hailie Deegan stays in 15th. Carson Hocevar crashed out and is down to 16th. Point Standings (1-16): t-1) Zane Smith
323, t-1) Ty Majeski 323, 3) Ben Rhodes -41, 4) Corey Heim -47, 5) Grant Enfinger -56, 6) Christian Eckes -82, 7) Matt Crafton -88, 8) Tanner Gray -103, 9) Nick Sanchez -118, 10) Matt DiBenedetto
-130, 11) Chase Purdy -136, 12) Stewart Friesen -139, 13) Jake Garcia -142, 14) Tyler Ankrum -149, 15) Hailie Deegan -155, 16) Carson Hocevar -165. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for the
playoffs. Note No. 2: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be tied for 12th.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 11, 2) Christian Eckes -3, 3) Corey Heim -4, 4) Carson Hocevar -5, 5) Grant Enfinger -6, 6) Nick Sanchez -9, t-7) Ty Majeski -10, t-7) Matt Crafton -10, t-7) Tyler Ankrum -10. Note: If he were eligible for playoff points, Joey Logano would be tied for third with seven points, while Kyle Busch would be tied for fifth with six. Stage Points: 1) Ty Majeski 87, 2) Zane Smith
-3, 3) Christian Eckes -16, 4) Ben Rhodes -21, 5) Matt Crafton -32, 6) Corey Heim -34, 7) Grant Enfinger -38, 8) Matt DiBenedetto -45, 9) Nick Sanchez -52, 10) Chase Purdy
-54, 11) Tanner Gray -58, t-12) Stewart Friesen -61, t-12) Tyler Ankrum -61, 14) Carson Hocevar -62, 15) Rajah Caruth -65, 16) Hailie Deegan -70. Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be eighth. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 211, 2) Ty Majeski -3, 3) Corey Heim -16, t-4) Grant Enfinger -23, t-4) Ben Rhodes -23, 6) Tanner Gray
-51, 7) Jake Garcia -59, 8) Matt Crafton -60, 9) Nick
Sanchez -66, 10) Christian Eckes -68, 11) Stewart Friesen -83, 12) Chase Purdy -84, 13) Hailie Deegan -90, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -91, 15) Tyler Ankrum -93, 16) Carson Hocevar -105. WC Points (1-16): 1) Zane Smith
1204, 2) Ty Majeski -6, 3) Corey Heim -67, 4) Ben Rhodes -95, 5) Grant Enfinger -100, 6) Tanner Gray -184, 7) Matt Crafton -225, 8) Christian Eckes -229, 9) Nick Sanchez -236, t-10) Jake Garcia
-284, t-10) Stewart Friesen -284, 12) Chase Purdy -300, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -320, 14) Tyler Ankrum -325, 15) Hailie Deegan -333, 16) Carson Hocevar -372. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Austin), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas), Christian Eckes (Atlanta), Carson Hocevar (Texas), Joey Logano (Bristol), Corey Heim (Martinsville), Grant Enfinger (Kansas)
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 AdventHealth 400 was brought to you by the letter C for Competitive. Rarely these days do you see a truly competitive intermediate race in the NASCAR Cup Series. Instead, you
hear gripes about clean air and so on. Sunday's race saw a 67.6% increase in passes under green and more than double the lead changes over this race last year. Rather amazing when you truly think about it. |
Quotes to Remember: AdventHealth
400 compiled by Phil
Allaway
"I knew we were better. I saw [Kyle Larson] starting to get loose pretty early in the run, but we were able to kind of pick through William [Byron] there, and then it was just a slow, slow march towards Kyle. "It really started with about three laps to go or so. I was able to get beside him a few times. "But there was one where we caught a couple lap cars and I got to the inside of him and the lap car chose my lane on the bottom, and that really hurt us.
I thought that was our best opportunity to pass him. "I knew the only way I was going to have an attempt to get near him was to get a huge run off of turn 4, so I ran way up high in turn 3, really kind of a Kyle Larson line, way up by the fence, and I just pulled it down and got a huge run, and that run down the front straightaway allowed me to pack air on him
getting into the corner and get him up the racetrack so I could get beside him. "We were both pedaling the throttle on the exit. I was sideways and he was sideways, and as he started to -- I knew it was going to be close whether he was going to clear me, and I'm just trying to grind on his left side, trying to keep the side draft as tight as I could, and it's
just a super sensitive part of the car if you get to the left rear, and obviously it hooked him to the right, and we won. The end." - Denny Hamlin, race winner
"I was really loose. I was trying to do
what I could to manage it. I was really loose at that end and, yeah, [Denny Hamlin] was just a little better than me at the end. I haven’t seen a replay either, but obviously, he was side-drafting really aggressively like he would but he was touching me, it felt like. It just had me out of control, so I wish we could see what we could do." - Kyle Larson, finished second "It was an amazing effort by our No. 24 Liberty University Chevy team. We all but wrecked twice, went three laps down and came back to finish third – it’s just incredible. It’s just a testament to the strength of this race team. The tail wasn’t exactly right there at the end. It was knocked over and the car was really loose towards the end of any longer run. A tough situation, but really happy
with that effort. Just a great job by this whole Liberty University Chevy team. They gave us a really hard fight, so good to come home third." - William Byron, finished third
"I don’t know. I was terrible on restarts. We would lose spots in (turns) one and two and gain about 50 back in (turns) three and four. Just a
grind all day trying to figure out what we needed for our Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar Toyota Camry. Happy for Dr. Pepper. All four corners of the car, we were just missing a little something. Good day, we have to keep climbing the ladder. It’s been a frustrating start to the season, when you are thinking it is going to be your best start. We’ve got to do a little personal reset, mental reset and come out and fight and claw for everything and put together a solid race. This is our second clean race
(this season). This is what happens when we have good clean races." - Bubba Wallace, finished fourth
"Well, if we had the right tires on, it’s pretty good. Seems like it’s an inconsistency in tires. We’ve been fighting that the last few weeks. So we got to get to the bottom of that to understand it a little better.
Overall, the stage points were big. Getting a stage win was a big one – decent points with the 10 points as well. Probably with a better restart, I could have finished top-two or three. But, oh well. We just need more horsepower – all of us." - Joey Logano, finished sixth "I feel fine.
We didn’t really show it with the results, but I was excited about how the day went for our No. 9 UniFirst Chevy team. We had a couple of high spots. Got the lead there when we were racing with Kyle [Larson]. That’s better than normal for me, so we’ll just try to build on that and get better.
"We fired off tight there a couple of times and then lost the
track position. I thought we were pretty decent again that last run. Ryan [Blaney] and I got together off [turn 4] and I hit him pretty good with my right-front, and I don’t think that was doing me any favors." - Chase Elliott, finished seventh
"Just tried to get below [Brad Keselowski] off of [turn 2]. I wasn’t
quite clear, got clipped and spun out. I feel bad for my guys. We’ve been fighting hard all day long to get ourselves up there and get further up with track position. We finally got it and then all of the cautions kind of came to kind of throw off strategy. We weren’t able to get stage points and then ruined our race there with getting clipped.
"Just bad
luck situations. A lot of guys up there on older tires – you’re trying to get by them, make the most of your stage and then stuff like this keeps happening." - Kyle Busch, finished 35th (Crashed out)
"I think I made a mistake trying to get off of turn two and got into [Ross Chastain] and spun out. Disappointing day. I felt like our SiriusXM Camry was everything I needed to compete for a good finish at least and I’m out of the race." - Christopher Bell, 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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