Frontstretch Newsletter: March 6, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition XXII |
- Teams have another brutal
stretch ahead of them to get the necessary equipment for this weekend's races in Phoenix. A number of the teams are hauling all the way back to Charlotte in order to swap out, then leave again. Others have a swap truck coming to switch out the equipment.
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy
Drink Sprint Car Series has their second consecutive night of racing at Volusia Speedway Park tonight. That action is scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m. ET and will be streamed at DirtVision.tv - Entry lists for this weekend's tripleheader in Phoenix should be
released either today or tomorrow. We'll have the entry lists and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
| | William Byron Holds On With Vegas
Win William Byron dominated Sunday, but he had to pass Martin Truex Jr. on a Green-White-Checker restart to win the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway. Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman completed a Hendrick Motorsports top three sweep, while Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five. |
| | Chase Elliott Misses Las Vegas With Fractured Tibia, ‘No
Timeline’ For Return Hendrick Motorsports announced Saturday that Chase Elliott suffered a broken tibia in a snowboarding accident Friday and has had surgery to repair the fracture. He
will be out indefinitely. |
| | Martin Truex Jr. Only Driver to Gamble at Las
Vegas Martin Truex Jr. had a decent day in Las Vegas. However, the No. 19 team tried to go for glory by staying out on the final caution to get the lead. The strategy
was unsuccessful. |
| | Austin Hill Snatches Vegas Xfinity Win From Dominant
Chandler Smith Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill ran down Chandler Smith to take the lead with two laps to go. From there, he held on to win Saturday's ALSCO Uniforms
300, his second win of the year. Justin Allgaier was second, then Smith, Kyle Busch and Josh Berry. |
| | Chandler Smith Has ‘Good Disappointment’ with Near
Win Chandler Smith had a career day Saturday in Las Vegas, leading 118 laps. However, his Chevrolet faded in the final laps, allowing Austin Hill to take away what
would have been his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory. |
| | Return of Rowdy: Kyle Busch Wins Truck Race at Las
Vegas Friday night saw the return of Kyle Busch to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He did not disappoint as he led the most laps and won the Victoria's Voice
Foundation 200 by 4.981 seconds over Zane Smith. Ben Rhodes was third, then Corey Heim and Ty Majeski. |
| | Incredible Save for Christian Eckes, Rebounds to
6th Christian Eckes entered the race with the points lead and ran very well. However, he all but wrecked his NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet on lap 28. After keeping himself
out of the wall, Eckes ended up finishing sixth. |
| | Marcus Ericsson Masters the Chaos To Win Wild GP of St.
Petersburg Chip Ganassi Racing's Marcus Ericsson snatched the lead with three laps to go when Patricio O'Ward had a minor plenum explosion. He then held on to win the NTT
IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. O'Ward was second, then Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Callum Ilott. |
| | Scott McLaughlin, Romain Grosjean Collide in
Race-Defining Moment Sunday's INDYCAR race in St. Petersburg should have come down to a duel between Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin. However, after the final pit stops, the two
drivers collided in turn 4 and crashed out of the race. |
| | Devlin DeFrancesco Involved in Savage Crash in St.
Petersburg The exit of turn 3 was a dangerous place for most of the weekend in St. Petersburg. The start of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was no exception as a
pile-up resulted in Devlin DeFrancesco being launched into the air by Benjamin Pedersen. |
| | Max Verstappen Dominates in Bahrain, Fernando Alonso on
Podium Red Bull's Max Verstappen was never seriously threatened Sunday en route to victory in the Grand Prix of Bahrain. His margin of victory was 11.987 seconds over
teammate Sergio Perez. Fernando Alonso was third, then Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lewis Hamilton. |
| | A Stumble From 9th And A Rumble To 9th For
Alpine Sunday in Bahrain was a mixed bag for Alpine. While Esteban Ocon had mechanical problems that put him out, Pierre Gasly drove up to a ninth-place finish from the
rear of the field. |
| | Luke Fenhaus Running Full ARCA East Schedule for
PRG Pinnacle Racing Group announced Friday that late model racer Luke Fenhaus will drive full-time in ARCA Menards Series East for the team in
2023. |
| | Jason Daskalos Wins St. Petersburg GT America Race No.
1 CRP Racing's Jason Daskalos took advantage of lapped traffic to get past Memo Gidley with 17 minutes remaining Friday and held on to win the GT America season
opener in St. Petersburg. |
| | Memo Gidley Wins Crash-Filled St. Petersburg GT America
Race No. 2 TKO Motorsports' Memo Gidley swept around James Sofronas on the outside of the first corner and held on to win a crash-plagued GT America Race No. 2 in St.
Petersburg Saturday. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, James Black and Chris Owens of INDYCAR Media, Peter Fox of Getty Images, SAS via Alpine Media, Bruce Nuttleman and Brian Cleary of SRO Motorsports Group. 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: March 3-5 |
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series was back at Volusia Speedway Park Sunday night for the
first night of the Low-E Insulation Spring Showdown. Here, James McFadden led flag-to-flag to win $16,000. Brad Sweet finished second, followed by Brian Brown, Logan Schuchart and Donny Schatz.
The race also served as the final event of the Big Gator Championship for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink
Sprint Car Series. Schuchart trailed by 12 points entering the race, but points leader David Gravel was caught up in an incident and recovered to finish 12th. Schuchart's fourth-place finish was enough to earn him the Big Gator trophy.
Through four races, Gravel is still leading the full season points by four over Schuchart. Carson Macedo is third,
then Buddy Kofoid and McFadden. |
This is just a sampling of the 39 videos that we posted to our YouTube channel from this past weekend in Las Vegas. For more content like this, please subscribe and hit the bell to be notified about future uploads. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Ross Chastain Maintains Points Lead With Solid Run
by Phil Allaway
Ross Chastain ran towards the front for the vast majority of Sunday's Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube. However, he faded on the final restart and
ended up finishing 12th. Despite that, he still did enough to keep the points lead. His advantage is three points over Alex Bowman, who finished third. Kevin Harvick finished ninth and moved up one place to third. Daniel Suarez is up to fourth with a 10th-place finish. Martin Truex
Jr. gambled on staying out under the final caution Sunday. That didn't quite work out for him, but a seventh-place finish moved him up six spots to fifth. Denny Hamlin is up three places to sixth after finishing 11th. Christopher Bell dealt with a vibration for a decent chunk of Sunday, but recovered to finish fifth. He moved up seven places to seventh as a result. Kyle Busch is now in a tie for eighth with Joey Logano.
Busch finished 14th, while Logano crashed out and finished 36th. Chris Buescher is down four places to 10th after finishing a lap down in 21st following a squeeze play incident with Suarez. Brad Keselowski
was in the top 10 for much of the race, but got caught up in a last-lap crash and finished 17th. That dropped him down to 11th. Daytona winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped five places to 12th after finishing 24th. William Byron moved up 16 spots to a tie for 13th with
teammate Kyle Larson by virtue of his victory Sunday. Larson was a close second and likely would have won himself had the last caution not come out. Ryan Blaney struggled with handling for much of the race and finished 13th. He is now 15th in points. Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric are tied for 16th. Wallace gets the position via tiebreaker as a result of finishing fourth on Sunday to Cindric's sixth. The tiebreaker also gives Wallace the last spot in the playoffs at the moment. He and Cindric are one point ahead of Corey LaJoie. LaJoie is down five spots
after finishing 20th. AJ Allmendinger is still in 19th after crashing on the final lap, while Ty Gibbs dropped to 20th after struggling all day with an ill-handling Toyota. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ross Chastain 129, 2) Alex Bowman -3, 3) Kevin Harvick -21, 4) Daniel Suarez -25, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -27, 6) Denny Hamlin -30, 7) Christopher Bell -35, t-8) Kyle Busch
-37, t-8) Joey Logano -37, 10) Chris Buescher -39, 11) Brad Keselowski -42, 12) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -43, t-13) William Byron -44, t-13) Kyle Larson -44, 15) Ryan Blaney -48, t-16) Bubba Wallace -60, t-16) Austin Cindric
-60. Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs. Note
No. 2: Drivers in italics are either ineligible for the playoffs, or outside of the top 16. Playoff Points: 1) William Byron 7, t-2) Kyle Busch -2, t-2)
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -2, 4) Ross Chastain -4, 45) Brad Keselowski -6. Stage Points: 1) Ross Chastain 42, 2) Alex Bowman -11, 3) William Byron -12, 4) Joey Logano -13, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -18, t-6) Kevin Harvick -19, t-6) Christopher Bell -19, t-6) Kyle Larson -19, t-9) Denny Hamlin
-20, t-9) Brad Keselowski -20, t-11) Chris Buescher -25, t-11) Ryan Blaney -25, 13) Austin Cindric -27, 14) Daniel Suarez -28, t-15) Aric Almirola -29, t-15) Chase Elliott -29.
Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: t-17) Bubba Wallace -30, 19) Kyle Busch -31, 21) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -34.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Alex Bowman 110, 2) Daniel Suarez -7, 3) Ross Chastain -8, 4) Kevin Harvick -11, 5) Kyle Busch -16, t-6) Denny Hamlin -18, t-6) Martin Truex Jr. -18, 8) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
-20, 9) Chris Buescher -24, 10) Christopher Bell -25, 11) Brad Keselowski -29, t-12) Joey Logano -32, t-12) Ryan Blaney -32, 14) Kyle Larson -34, 15) Corey LaJoie -37, 16) Bubba Wallace -40. Outside the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) William Byron -42. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Alex Bowman 477, t-2) Ross Chastain
-32, t-2) Daniel Suarez -32, 4) Kevin Harvick -47, 5) Kyle Busch -65, 6) Denny Hamlin -70, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -73, 8) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -79, 9) Christopher Bell -80, 10) Chris Buescher -88, 11) Brad Keselowski
-102, 12) Joey Logano -103, 13) Kyle Larson -112, 14) Ryan Blaney -116, 15) Bubba Wallace -136, 16) Corey LaJoie -138. Outside the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) William Byron -143. 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)
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 Championship: Austin Hill Expands Points Lead With 2nd Win Of 2023
by Phil Allaway
Austin Hill staged a substantial charge in the closing laps to run down Chandler Smith to take the lead with just over a lap to go. Taking his second win of the year allowed Hill to expand his lead up to 21 points over Justin Allgaier, who finished second. John Hunter Nemechek finished sixth and dropped back to third. Chandler Smith
led a race-high 118 laps, but faded to third late. His performance moved him up one place to fourth. Riley Herbst finished eighth and maintains fifth in points. Sam Mayer is up one position to sixth after finishing seventh. Cole Custer struggled Sunday, especially early on. He ultimately finished 12th and dropped a spot to seventh. Josh
Berry came from the rear to finish fifth, moving up to eighth in points as a result. Joe Graf Jr. was quiet Saturday in the Joe Gibbs No. 19. A 15th-place finish dropped him one place to ninth. He is the only driver in the top 12 right now that does not have any stage points. Parker Kligerman is up to 10th after finishing 11th. Sammy
Smith is up four places to 11th after finishing 17th. Jeb Burton is up to 12th, the last spot in the playoffs. Burton has a six-point lead on both Ryan Sieg and Daniel Hemric. Sieg finished 24th Sunday, while Hemric was 10th. Brett Moffitt is down one place to 15th, while Sheldon Creed moves up to
16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 156, 2) Justin Allgaier -21, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -24, 4) Chandler Smith -34, 5) Riley Herbst -44, 6) Sam Mayer -61, 7) Cole Custer
-68, 8) Josh Berry -71, 9) Joe Graf Jr. -78, 10) Parker Kligerman -79, 11) Sammy Smith -83, 12) Jeb Burton -85, t-13) Ryan Sieg -91, t-13) Daniel Hemric -91, 15) Brett Moffitt -93, 16) Sheldon Creed -95. Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs. Note
No. 2: Drivers in italics are either ineligible for the playoffs, or outside of the top 12. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 12, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -6, 3) Cole Custer -10, 4) Justin Allgaier -11. Stage Points: 1) Austin Hill 45, 2) Justin Allgaier -13, 3) Chandler Smith -15, 4) John Hunter Nemechek -19, 5) Cole Custer -20, 6) Riley Herbst -23, 7) Sam Mayer -25, 8) Sammy Smith -28, t-9) Sheldon
Creed -29, t-9) Brandon Jones -29, t-11) Daniel Hemric -33, t-11) Brett Moffitt -33, t-13) Josh Berry -35, t-13) Parker Kligerman -35, 15) Jeb Burton -38, 16) Myatt Snider -44. Note: If they
were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be tied for 11th and Austin Dillon tied for 14th. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 125, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -4, 3) Justin Allgaier -7, 4) Chandler Smith -18, 5) Riley Herbst
-23, t-6) Josh Berry -35, t-6) Joe Graf Jr. -35, 8) Sam Mayer -36, 9) Parker Kligerman -45, t-10) Cole Custer -48, t-10) Ryan Sieg -48, 12) Jeb Burton -49, 13) Sammy Smith -56, 14) Kyle Sieg -58, 15) Daniel Hemric
-60, 16) Anthony Alfredo -61. WC Points (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 520, t-2) John Hunter Nemechek -5, t-2) Justin Allgaier -5, 4) Chandler Smith
-53, 5) Riley Herbst -82, 6) Josh Berry -110, 7) Sam Mayer -112, 8) Joe Graf Jr. -126, 9) Parker Kligerman -157, 10) Cole Custer -163, 11) Ryan Sieg -166, 12) Jeb Burton -172, 13) Sammy Smith -191, 14) Kyle Sieg
-199, 15) Daniel Hemric -204, 16) Parker Retzlaff -205. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Las Vegas), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana) 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: Zane Smith Claims Point Lead In Las Vegas
by Phil Allaway
Zane Smith had a strong run Friday night in Las Vegas, winning stage one and finishing second to Kyle
Busch. That was enough for him to take the points lead. The advantage is two points over Ty Majeski, who finished fifth. Christian Eckes, who was leading the standings after Daytona, is now tied for third with Matt Crafton. Eckes, who finished third in Daytona, has the tiebreaker. Eckes finished sixth Friday night, while Crafton was 11th. Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes are now tied for fifth.
Rhodes finished third to take the tiebreaker over Enfinger, who was ninth. Carson Hocevar won stage two and finished fifth to move up to seventh. Matt DiBenedetto is up five places to eighth after finishing 12th and scoring 16 stage points. Tanner Gray and Chase Purdy are tied for ninth and are currently the last two drivers
in the playoffs. Gray gets the tiebreaker by virtue of his second-place finish in Daytona. Friday night saw Gray finish 13th while Purdy was eighth. Gray and Purdy are three points ahead of Corey Heim and Tyler Ankrum. Heim gets the
tiebreaker by virtue of finishing fourth Friday night, while Ankrum was 15th. As you'll see below, Heim has finished much better than someone that is 11th in points should have. Colby Howard is down five places to 13th after finishing 18th. Timmy Hill is up two
places to 14th, while Stewart Friesen is 15th. Nick Sanchez is down two positions to 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 85, 2) Ty Majeski -2, t-3) Christian Eckes -4, t-3) Matt Crafton -4, t-5) Ben
Rhodes -8, t-5) Grant Enfinger -8, 7) Carson Hocevar -12, 8) Matt DiBenedetto -19, t-9) Tanner Gray -20, t-9) Chase Purdy -20, t-11) Corey Heim -23, t-11) Tyler Ankrum -23, 13) Colby Howard -33, 14) Timmy Hill
-49, 15) Stewart Friesen -53, 16) Nick Sanchez -54. Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs. Note
No. 2: Drivers in italics are either ineligible for the playoffs, or outside of the top 10. Note No. 3: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 14th.
Playoff Points: 1) Zane Smith 6, t-2) Christian Eckes -4, t-2) Tyler Ankrum -4.
Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff points, Kyle Busch would be second with five points. Stage Points: 1) Matt Crafton
27, 2) Matt DiBenedetto -3, 3) Ty Majeski -7, 4) Carson Hocevar -9, t-5) Grant Enfinger -10, t-5) Ben Rhodes -10, 7) Christian Eckes -11, t-7) Chase Purdy -11, 9) Nick Sanchez -14, t-10) Zane Smith
-17, t-10) Tyler Ankrum -17, t-10) Rajah Caruth -17, 13) Hailie Deegan -20, 14) Tanner Gray -21, 15) Jack Wood -23. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kaz Grala would be 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Zane Smith
68, 2) Christian Eckes -9, 3) Ty Majeski -12, 4) Corey Heim -14, t-5) Grant Enfinger -15, t-5) Ben Rhodes -15, 7) Tanner Gray -17, 8) Carson Hocevar -20, 9) Matt Crafton -21, t-10) Colby
Howard -23, t-10) Tyler Ankrum -23, 12) Chase Purdy -26, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -34, 14) Timmy Hill -40, 15) Stewart Friesen -43, 16) Jake Garcia -45.
Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 13th in old points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Zane Smith 355, 2) Christian Eckes -30, 3) Ty Majeski -45, 4) Corey Heim -53, 5) Ben Rhodes -55, 6) Grant Enfinger
-57, 7) Tanner Gray -61, 8) Carson Hocevar -77, 9) Colby Howard -81, 10) Matt Crafton -82, 11) Tyler Ankrum -86, 12) Chase Purdy -96, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -125, 14) Timmy Hill -143, 15) Stewart Friesen
-150, 16) Daniel Dye -171. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 16th in WC points.
Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas)
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 Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube was brought to you by the letter S for Swing. Aric Almirola's late
crash completely swung the outcome of the race. Had that not happened, Kyle Larson would be at his house right now, basking in the aura of triumph. Unfortunately for him, that just wasn't in the cards. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube
complied by Phil Allaway
"I’ve been really confident about this group of guys on the [No. 24] team. They work extremely hard. We spent a lot of time in the offseason just going through and running at the sim with Chevy and running on iRacing and just trying to get better as a racecar driver
and as a team. It’s all about the team. It’s a great pit crew. We’re also thinking of Chase [Elliott] back home. We wish he was out here. He’s a great racecar driver and great teammate. I wish he was out there. Thanks to Mr. H and Jeff Gordon. I know he’s watching. This RaptorTough.com Chevy was awesome. When we got back in traffic, it was a little tight but we knew we had speed so just had to have the right things play out. Rudy [Fugle] made a good call, so it was
good. "I was focused on getting a good launch and launch with [Martin Truex Jr.] and see what happened from there. I’m fortunate that it worked out the way it did. Rudy made a great call, and we were able to put a little bit of a block on the 11 to keep him behind us. It worked out." - William Byron, race winner "Damn. It’s just part of Cup racing. It seems like you count the laps down lap by lap, and then sure enough the yellow lights come on. You just have to get over that and try to execute a good
pit stop. I thought I did a really good job getting to my sign and getting to the commitment line. I had a gap to William [Byron] behind me, so their pit crew must have done a really good job and got him out in front of us. So that gave up the front row to us. I knew I was in trouble with [Martin Truex Jr.] staying out. I felt like [Byron] was going to get by him. It’s a bummer that we didn’t end up the winner, but all in all [Byron] probably had a little better car than I had today and their
pit crew executed when they needed to at the end." - Kyle Larson, finished second
"We were really fast in stage 2. I was a little indecisive with what I wanted in the racecar. There were times I was a little free and times where I
was a little snug. I hedged us to securing the back of the racecar a little bit and got us too tight for [the final stage], so that’s on me. Every change I wanted, I got. I just got us a little bit too tight. I’m really proud of the [No. 48] team. I’m really pumped for HMS to be 1-2-3. I’ve been on the good side of those consecutive finishes so now I’m on the other side. But it was a fun race with our teammates. I’m glad we were able to get a 1-2-3 on the last restart. Rudy is a little under the
weather so hopefully that gets him feeling a little better than he was this morning." - Alex Bowman, finished third "I will say that I hate two tires, it’s never worked for me. I’ve always been plowing tight. Bootie [Barker] and the team did a great job and it fired off money there. I
thought we were going to settle for sixth right before that caution came out and I think that’s about where we were all day. We have a lot of stuff to work on, but a good, solid day. Finally be able to finish a race where we deserve. The caution came out and I was like, the gloves are off and you just have to go out there and fight and scrap. Proud of our team to come home fourth and have Columbia on the car and give them a great run that they deserve and just try to keep it going now." -
Bubba Wallace, finished fourth
"Honestly, the finish to that ended up about as good as we could have asked for with the Sirius XM Toyota Camry TRD. I don’t know, really up and down strange day for us because we took off and I felt really good and drove right to [the] top five and I didn’t feel like I had anything
for the Hendrick cars. It seemed like we were the best of the rest and then we lost the handling." - Christopher Bell, finished fifth "[It was] a bit of a team effort there honestly. Definitely didn’t have the strength early on in the race. The second stage we definitely fell back
even a little bit further. Got the lucky dog, honestly thanks to the pit crew which was able to get us back out front. Caution comes out… just made the car better all day. Felt like we earned a top 15 from the depths of hell for awhile, but going two tires on the restart, getting a good launch and being able to be in a position in the green-white-checkered. So, a little bit of strategy, a little bit of good pit-stops – some good restarts on my end and a good recovery. You’ve got to run up-front
in these things to expect to win, but when we don’t have it, it’s good to know that we can get back." - Austin Cindric, finished sixth "Not very confident. We just hoped we would get to the
white (flag) and maybe they would crash. We did okay the first lap. We held second there for almost a whole lap and got into one in second after the white so we were in pretty good shape there, but got real tight in one and two and got freight-trained down the backstretch. But all in all, it was a good gamble and a strong day by our Bass Pro Camry and all of our guys. At the end, we just took a gamble. We were going to run probably at best third or fourth and threw a hail Mary and finished
seventh so not really a big deal there." - Martin Truex Jr., finished seventh
"We had a really good long run car today and this is our Fontana car. We’re one of like three teams, three individual cars that repaired our stuff and
brought it this week. I’m proud of the effort and the grind. They hung a body in this thing in the snow in Fontana a few days ago. That’s pretty awesome for our little team. I appreciate Matt, Chris, and everyone at Leaf Filter. This was a good run for us, especially with the start of season we’ve had." - Justin Haley, finished eighth
"It was a lot of fun. Really I thought the first half of the race went pretty well. We were really close, right on the edge of staying on the lead lap or not. We just needed a couple more cautions to just give ourselves a better chance.
"The second half of the race, we had an issue going on with the throttle or something because every time I was letting off, it was hanging wide-open. I was just trying to nurse it home and keep it out of trouble." - Josh Berry, finished 29th
"Considering how we’ve been here in the past, you kind of expect it a little bit more
performance today than what we had. Just off on overall speed. We had the balance somewhat close – just not fast. We have to go back to the drawing board for when we come back here.
"Yeah, [Brad Keselowski pinched me]. I’m sure he didn’t mean to do it. It is what it is. What are you going to do, right? We got fenced." - Joey Logano, 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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