Frontstretch Newsletter: July 10, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition XCII |
- NASCAR teams are back at their shops today, preparing for this weekend's action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Entry lists will be released
today. - Monday Night Racing's MRN Summer Bash resumes tonight with the second Superspeedway race at the virtual Atlanta Motor Speedway. Coverage will
begin at 8 p.m. ET on Frontstretch's YouTube channel and Podium eSports' Twitch channel. We'll have the entry lists, a recap of the Atlanta sim race and anything else
that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
| | William Byron Wins Rain-Shortened Cup Race at
Atlanta William Byron claimed his fourth win of the season in Sunday night's Quaker State 400 by being in the right place when the rains came. Daniel Suarez was second,
then AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch. |
| | Frontrunners See Chances Of Win Rained
Out William Byron was most definitely vulnerable Sunday night. AJ Allmendinger, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell were right there. The rain ultimately prevented them
from having a chance to win. |
| | JJ Yeley Earns Best Cup Finish Since
2008 JJ Yeley took advantage of a split pit sequence to race himself up into the top five Sunday night. He eventually dropped back to seventh, but it was enough to give
him his first top 10 finish since 2013 and his best finish since a third at Loudon in a rain-shortened race in 2008. |
| | John Hunter Nemechek Wins Xfinity Series Race at
Atlanta Joe Gibbs Racing's John Hunter Nemechek took the lead Saturday night on the final restart when Justin Haley's car sputtered. He then held off Daniel Hemric to win the ALSCO Unfiorms 250. Cole Custer was
third, then Haley and Sam Mayer. |
| | Austin Hill Frustrated After Spin with Parker Kligerman
Denies Atlanta 3-Peat Austin Hill had a chance to win his third straight race at Atlanta and his fourth of the season Saturday night. Contact late eliminated that opportunity. Despite
standing pat in the points, he was still quite upset afterwards. |
| | Late Caution Unravels Kaulig Racing’s Hopes of Atlanta
Sweep Speaking of the Austin Hill incident, that incident prevented a potential Kaulig Racing 1-2-3 finish as the race going over the scheduled distance resulted in
Justin Haley and Chandler Smith both having trouble getting up to speed on the final restart. |
| | Corey Heim Wins Truck Series Race at
Mid-Ohio In changeable conditions Saturday, Corey Heim led 30 of 67 laps to win the O'Reilly Auto Parts 150 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series win of the year. Zane Smith was second, then Christian Eckes, Stewart Friesen and Ben Rhodes. |
| | Ben Rhodes Finishes Fifth, Clashes with ThorSport
Teammates at Mid-Ohio Ben Rhodes ended up finishing fifth in Saturday at ThorSport Racing's home track, but it was not the greatest day for team morale. Contact with Ty Majeski nearly ruined a great
day. |
| | Marco Andretti: ‘I Would Never Say Never’ to Full-Time
NASCAR Gig INDYCAR veteran Marco Andretti made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut Saturday, finishing 19th. On Friday, he discussed with the media about whether he'd
like to race in NASCAR more in the future. |
| | Max Verstappen Continues Dominance in British Grand Prix
Victory After a bad start, Max Verstappen retook the lead from Lando Norris on lap 5 Sunday, then held on to win the British Grand Prix for his sixth straight win. Norris
was second, then Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri in a career-best fourth and George Russell. |
| | Tyler Ankrum Spins-and-Wins in Mid-Ohio ARCA
Race Tyler Ankrum recovered from a trip into the sand trap on a restart to win Friday's ARCA Menards Series Zinsser SmartCoat 150k at Mid-Ohio. William Sawalich was
second, then Jack Wood, Jesse Love and Dale Quarterley. |
| | Sean Hingorani Suspended for 1
Race ARCA announced Monday that Venturini Motorsports' Sean Hingorani has been suspended for one race as a result of him intentionally wrecking teammate Dean Thompson
on the last lap of Friday's Zinsser SmartCoat 150k at Mid-Ohio. |
| | Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun Claim CTMP Victory via Energy
Conservation Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian's Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun managed their energy in order to go the final 52 laps without a stop in order to win
the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. |
| | Toyota GAZOO Racing Wins Competitive 6 Hours of
Monza Toyota GAZOO Racing's Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez earned their third win of 2023 Sunday in the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of
Monza. |
| | Billy Johnson, Parker Thompson Win CTMP 120 After Turner
Motorsport Cops Penalties Hattori Motorsports' Billy Johnson and Parker Thompson inherited the overall victory in Saturday's IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120
after Turner Motorsport's No. 95 failed post-race inspection. JDC-Miller MotorSports' Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor won in TCR. |
| | South Point Sponsoring Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick in
SRX Superstar Racing Experience announced Monday morning that the South Point, the Gaughan family owned Las Vegas resort, will serve as the primary sponsor for both
Ryan Newman and Kevin Harvick in the Camping World SRX Series this year. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Alex Slitz of Getty Images, Ryan Pierse of Getty Images, IMSA, Alisha Jucevic of ARCA Racing, Jan Patrick Wagner of Focus Pack Media and our own Anthony Damcott. 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: July 7-9 |
- In IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge action, Jonathan Woolridge won Race No. 1 Saturday
morning in his series debut. He won by 1.262 seconds over Bijoy Garg. Courtney Crone was third, then Dan Goldburg and Brian Thienes. Keith McGovern's weekend came to an early end thanks to a nasty crash entering Moss Corner where he lost control, hit the wall, then went into the tire barrier head-on. In the GSX (GT4) class. Accelerating Performance's Michael Cooper took the victory in his
Porsche by 1.018 seconds over Francis Selldorff. Sebastian Carazo was third, then Adam Adelson and Tim Probert. Race No. 2 on Sunday morning saw Goldburg lead flag-to-flag to take his third win of the season
by 1.347 seconds over Garg. Alex Kirby, after a rough race on Saturday, finished third. Crone and Thienes were fourth and fifth. In GSX, Greg Liefooghe led flag-to-flag to win in his BMW after electing to skip Race No. 1. He
won by 33.060 seconds over Moisey Uretsky. Adelson was third, then Selldorff and Patrick Wilmot. Saturday night, the sprinters were at Wilmot Raceway for the Federated Auto Parts Badger 40. Here, Carson Macedo took the lead from Donny Schatz on lap 16. From there, he was able to hold back the pack to take the win. Brad Sweet was second, then Sheldon Haudenschild, Schatz and Kasey Kahne. Points-wise, Sweet continues to lead by 12 points over Gravel through 37 races. Macedo is third,
then Logan Schuchart and Schatz. Next up is the Ohio Logistics Brad Doty Classic at Attica Raceway Park on Tuesday night. |
This is a sampling of the 37 videos that we posted to our YouTube channel from Atlanta and Mid-Ohio. For more content from either Atlanta or Mid-Ohio, or from any other race weekend this year, please subscriber to our channel and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: William Byron Takes Points Lead With 4th Win of 2023
by Phil Allaway
Martin Truex Jr. had a strong car Sunday, one that could use the outside line to swing around drivers. However, he was caught up in a late incident and finished 29th. Meanwhile, William Byron just so happened to be leading when the rains came and claimed his fourth victory of
the year. That boosted Byron into the points lead despite having a 60-point penalty earlier in the season. Byron's advantage is 21 points over Truex. Kyle Busch finished fifth despite a run-in with Noah Gragson late in
the race. The finish moved him up two places to third. Christopher Bell remains in fourth after finishing 23rd. Ross Chastain was eliminated in a crash with Corey LaJoie and finished 35th, dropping him
two places to fifth. Denny Hamlin remains in sixth after spinning with Alex Bowman, then recovering to finish 14th. Ryan Blaney is up two places to seventh after winning stage one and finishing ninth with the most points on the day. Kyle Larson is still in eighth despite having a tire blowout under yellow that destroyed the right front corner of his car. Kevin Harvick spun a few laps before the final caution flew after contact with Hamlin. Putting around on the apron under green cost him four laps. The 30th-place finish dropped Harvick two places to ninth. Joey Logano was strong early on, but remains in 10th after a
17th-place finish. Chris Buescher led laps in stage two, but couldn't recover from his last stop and remains in 11th. Teammate Brad Keselowski has sole possession of 12th after winning stage two and finishing sixth. Tyler Reddick is down to 13th after getting involved in an incident and finishing 27th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remains in 14th while Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell are tied for 15th. Suarez finished second while McDowell was fourth. They are the final two drivers in the playoffs on points. Suarez and McDowell are three points ahead of Bubba Wallace, who was in position to potentially gain positions in the points until he was hit by Ryan Preece and spun to bring out the final yellow. AJ Allmendinger is up one place to 18th after finishing third, only 13 points behind McDowell and Suarez. Ty
Gibbs is down three places to 19th after getting in a wreck and ending up 34th. Austin Cindric is back up to 20th after leading 10 laps and finishing 12th. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) William Byron 628, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -21, 3) Kyle Busch -36, 4) Christopher Bell -37, 5) Ross Chastain -53, 6) Denny Hamlin -67, 7) Ryan Blaney -75, 8) Kyle Larson -97, 9) Kevin Harvick -98, 10) Joey Logano -110, 11) Chris Buescher -122, 12) Brad Keselowski -124, 13) Tyler Reddick -153, 14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -183, t-15) Daniel Suarez -221, t-15) Michael McDowell -221. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) William Byron 22, 2) Kyle Busch -5, 3) Kyle Larson
-10, 4) Martin Truex Jr.
-11, 5) Ross Chastain -12, 6) Denny Hamlin
-13, t-7) Tyler Reddick -14, t-7) Ryan Blaney
-14, t-8) Joey Logano -15, t-8) Christopher Bell -15, t-11) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -17, t-11) Shane van Gisbergen -17, 13) Brad Keselowski -20, t-14) Kevin Harvick -21, t-14) Austin Cindric -21, t-14) Aric Almirola -21, t-14) Ryan Preece -21, t-14) Chase Elliott -21. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 186, 2) Ross Chastain -38, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -44, 4) Christopher Bell -45, 5) Denny Hamlin -46, 6) Kyle Larson -57, 7) Ryan Blaney
-61, 8) Tyler Reddick -62, 8) Kevin Harvick -80, 10) Joey Logano -86, 11) Brad Keselowski -93, 12) Kyle Busch -97, 13) Chris Buescher -119, 14) Alex Bowman -120, 15) Austin Cindric -125, 16) Michael McDowell -130.
Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: 25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -152. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Busch 587, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -36, 3) William Byron -43, 4) Christopher Bell
-49, 5) Chris Buescher -67, 6) Ross Chastain -71, 7) Denny Hamlin -72, 8) Ryan Blaney -74, 9) Kevin Harvick -79, 10) Joey Logano -85, 11) Brad Keselowski -88, 12) Kyle Larson
-98, 13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -101, 14) Bubba Wallace -148, t-15) Tyler Reddick -152, t-15) Justin Haley -152. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Daniel Suarez
-153, 19) Michael McDowell -156. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Kyle Busch 2618, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -116, 3) Christopher Bell
-155, 4) William Byron -170, 5) Ross Chastain -222, 6) Ryan Blaney -236, 7) Chris Buescher -249, 8) Denny Hamlin -251, 9) Joey Logano -265, 10) Kevin Harvick -279, 11) Kyle Larson -290, 12) Brad Keselowski -295, 13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -367, 14) Bubba Wallace -493, 15) Tyler Reddick -494, 16) Daniel Suarez
-513.
Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: t-18) Michael McDowell
-533. 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, Gateway), William Byron (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Darlington, Atlanta-2), Joey Logano (Atlanta-1), Tyler Reddick (Austin), Kyle Larson (Richmond, Martinsville), Christopher Bell (Bristol), Martin Truex Jr. (Dover, Sonoma), Denny Hamlin (Kansas), Ross Chastain (Nashville), Shane van Gisbergen (Chicago)
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: John Hunter Nemechek Keeps The Same Advantage On Austin Hill
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek was able to claim the lead on the final restart Saturday night and hold on to take his third victory of the year. However, he didn't score any stage points. Austin Hill finished 12th after a late incident, but scored 15 stage points. As a result, they both scored 40 points. Nemechek will head to New Hampshire with the same 16-point lead that he
brought to Atlanta. Cole Custer finished third and stays third in points. Justin Allgaier had fuel issues late and finished 17th, but stays in fourth. Chandler Smith had a chance to win Saturday night, but ran into the same fuel issues. A 20th-place finish keeps him in fifth, but he's nearly 100 points behind Allgaier. Josh
Berry also had issues on the final restart and stays in sixth. Sam Mayer was involved in a crash early, but recovered to finish fifth to stay in seventh. Daniel Hemric is up one place to eighth after finishing second. Sammy Smith is up one spot to ninth after finishing 10th. Sheldon Creed won stage two, but was
eliminated in a crash. That dropped him two places to 10th. Riley Herbst won stage one and was taken out in the same crash as Creed. He remains in 11th, the last driver in the playoffs on points. Herbst's advantage dropped from 26 points to six over Parker Kligerman, who finished eighth. Jeb Burton is still in 13th after finishing 13th, followed
by Brett Moffitt. Brandon Jones crashed out early, but remains in 15th. Ryan Sieg is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 678, 2) Austin Hill -16, 3) Cole Custer
-45, 4) Justin Allgaier -54, 5) Chandler Smith -152, 6) Josh Berry -160, 7) Sam Mayer -198, 8) Daniel Hemric -203, 9) Sammy Smith -215, 10) Sheldon Creed -218, 11) Riley Herbst -238, 12) Parker
Kligerman -244, 13) Jeb Burton -285, 14) Brett Moffitt -291, 15) Brandon Jones -319, 16) Ryan Sieg -354. Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 19, 2) Austin Hill
-1, 3) Cole Custer -4, 4) Justin Allgaier -10, t-5) Chandler Smith -12, t-5) Ryan Truex -12, 7) Jeb Burton -13, 8) Sammy Smith -14, 9) Sheldon Creed -16, t-10) Josh Berry -18, t-10) Riley Herbst -18, t-10) Parker
Kligerman -18. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, AJ Allmendinger would be fourth in playoff points, while Kyle Larson would be sixth. Aric Almirola would be tied for 10th and Ty Gibbs 12th. Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek
169, 2) Austin Hill -7, 3) Justin Allgaier -8, 4) Cole Custer -24, 5) Sheldon Creed -34, 6) Chandler Smith -51, 7) Riley Herbst -62, 8) Josh Berry -76, 9) Daniel Hermic
-86, 10) Sam Mayer -87, 11) Sammy Smith -92, 12) Brandon Jones -106, 13) Parker Kligerman -110, 14) Ryan Truex -128, t-15) Brett Moffitt -138, t-15) Ryan Sieg -138. Outside of the top-16, but still in playoffs: 17) Jeb Burton -143. Note: If they were eligible for points, Ty Gibbs would be 14th and AJ Allmendinger tied for 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter
Nemechek 589, 2) Austin Hill -11, 3) Cole Custer -26, 4) Justin Allgaier -53, 5) Josh Berry -89, 6) Chandler Smith -104, 7) Sam Mayer -118, 8) Daniel Hemric -129, 9) Sammy Smith
-130, 10) Parker Kligerman -146, 11) Jeb Burton -154, 12) Brett Moffitt -163, 13) Sheldon Creed -182, 14) Riley Herbst -187, 15) Parker Retzlaff -204, 16) Kaz Grala -213. WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 2580, 2) Austin Hill -56, 3) Cole Custer -108, 4) Justin Allgaier -165, 5) Josh Berry -309, 6) Chandler Smith
-386, 7) Sam Mayer -419, 8) Sammy Smith -469, 9) Daniel Hemric -471, 10) Parker Kligerman -527, 11) Jeb Burton -583, 12) Brett Moffitt -600, t-13) Sheldon Creed -646, t-13) Riley Herbst
-646, 15) Parker Retzlaff -717, 16) Kaz Grala -760. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Las Vegas, Atlanta-1), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana, Martinsville. Atlanta-2), Sammy Smith (Phoenix), AJ Allmendinger (Austin, Nashville), Chandler Smith (Richmond), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Ryan
Truex (Dover), Kyle Larson (Darlington), Justin Allgaier (Charlotte), Cole Custer (Portland, Chicago), Aric Almirola (Sonoma) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs: Corey Heim Expands Lead In Wild and Woolly Mid-Ohio Quagmire
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim managed to avoid the chaos, lead a race-high 30 of 67 laps and win the O'Reilly Auto Parts 150 Saturday for his second win of the year. That allowed him to expand his points lead to 26 over Zane Smith, who finished second. Ty Majeski is back up to third after finishing seventh.
He is not locked in on points yet, but is nearly 100 points ahead of the cutoff with two races remaining. Ben Rhodes is up one place to fourth after finishing an acrimonious fifth (see above). Grant Enfinger dropped two
places to fifth after finishing 11th. Christian Eckes remains in sixth after finishing third. Carson Hocevar was in and out of the pits early, but still finished 12th and stays in seventh. Matt DiBenedetto is still eighth after an eighth-place finish. The final playoff spots are extremely tight. Nick Sanchez moved up one place to ninth after finishing ninth. Matt Crafton was hurt by gambling on staying on wet tires too long. He still recovered to finish sixth, but dropped one place to 10th because he didn't score any stage points. He is the last driver in the playoffs on points and has an advantage of only a single point over Stewart
Friesen, who finished fourth. Tanner Gray is 12th, 23 points behind Friesen. Chase Purdy remains in 13th, while Tyler Ankrum's 10th-place finish jumped him over Jake Garcia into 14th.
Daniel Dye is up to 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim
530, 2) Zane Smith -26, 3) Ty Majeski -51, 4) Ben Rhodes -53, 5) Grant Enfinger -61, 6) Christian Eckes -80, 7) Carson Hocevar -112, 8) Matt DiBenedetto -141, 9) Nick Sanchez -144, 10) Matt Crafton
-145, 11) Stewart Friesen -146, 12) Tanner Gray -169, 13) Chase Purdy -194, 14) Tyler Ankrum -221, 15) Jake Garcia -222, 16) Daniel Dye -283.
Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for the playoffs. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 15, 2) Christian Eckes -1, t-3) Carson Hocevar -3, t-3) Zane Smith -3, 5) Grant Enfinger -4, 6) Ben Rhodes -9, t-7) Nick Sanchez -13, t-7) Ty Majeski -13, t-9) Matt Crafton -14, t-9) Tyler Ankrum -14. Note: If he were eligible for playoff points, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch would be tied for sixth with seven points while William Byron would be tied for 12th. Stage Points: 1) Zane Smith 144, 2) Corey Heim -5, 3) Ty Majeski -15, 4) Christian Eckes -30, 5) Ben Rhodes -36, 6) Carson Hocevar
-55, 7) Grant Enfinger -65, 8) Matt DiBenedetto -71, 9) Stewart Friesen -78, 10) Nick Sanchez -80, 11) Matt Crafton -84, 12) Tanner Gray -96, 13) Tyler Ankrum -102, 14) Chase Purdy
-104, 15) Rajah Caruth -112, 16) Dean Thompson -115. Note: If they were eligible for stage points, William Byron would be 12th and Kyle Busch 14th. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 350, 2) Grant Enfinger
-13, 3) Ben Rhodes -31, 4) Zane Smith -40, 5) Ty Majeski -50, 6) Christian Eckes -64, 7) Carson Hocevar -70, 8) Nick Sanchez -76, 9) Matt Crafton -77, 10) Stewart Friesen -85, 11) Matt DiBendeetto -88, 12) Tanner Gray -91, 13) Jake Garcia -100, 14) Chase Purdy -104, 15) Tyler Ankrum -137, 16) Daniel Dye -160. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 1974, 2) Grant Enfinger -23, 3) Zane Smith -59, 4) Ben Rhodes -68, 5) Ty Majeski
-91, 6) Christian Eckes -147, 7) Carson Hocevar -190, 8) Nick Sanchez -215, 9) Stewart Friesen -224, 10) Matt Crafton -234, 11) Matt DiBenedetto -252, 12) Tanner Gray -260, 13) Chase Purdy
-312, 14) Jake Garcia -374, 15) Tyler Ankrum -422, 16) Daniel Dye -506. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Austin), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas), Christian Eckes (Atlanta, Darlington),
Carson Hocevar (Texas, Nashville), Joey Logano (Bristol), Corey Heim (Martinsville, Mid-Ohio), Grant Enfinger (Kansas, Gateway), Ben Rhodes (Charlotte)
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 Quaker State 400 was brought to you by the Letter B for Bad
Luck. NASCAR continues to struggle with weather and Sunday was no different. After a dry Saturday, the entire race Sunday night was run under the threat of rain that
eventually shortened the race. At least there was some good racing before the rain showed up. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Quaker State 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"We made a lot of adjustments [after the spin]. We changed a lot of things, rounds in all four corners and probably air pressure, too, and got it to where it was competitive. It was competitive for 15 laps, and then I was just kind of on pins and needles after that. I would make some mistakes because
either I'd put myself in some bad positions aero wise and lose grip or just not trust the car. I knew when we got out front, we were in the probably lower teens, like 12th, 13th running and we were doing okay, but I knew when we got out front we'd have more air on the car and be okay. Then it was just about playing the air game with my spotter Brandon and trying to manage all that." -
William Byron, race winner "I feel like I have mixed feelings, but overall, very proud of my No. 99 Quaker State Chevy team. It’s been a little bit rough lately because we’ve had the speed, but we haven’t had the results, so this feels good. "We’ve had trouble the last few weeks, as well. I’m just trying to take one race at a time and let it play out. We had the speed today, once again, and we showed that." - Daniel Suarez, finished second
"At the end of the day, I am proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. We brought a really, really good Nutrien Ag Solutions FARMSMART Chevy. We didn’t quite have the speed, but it really handled well and I could maneuver it like it needed to. We didn’t have enough speed to lead, but it was a lot of fun to drive. I’m proud walking away from this one. We had a good points day, top five finish, our best finish of year. We rebounded after the disappointment
last week and we moved on to the next one." - AJ Allmendinger, finished third
"I think Travis did a great job of maximizing our track position when we needed to. Obviously, that pit road incident with Martin took us out of the track
position we needed, so we had to get a little bit creative there. I’m thankful to be able to recover, but really wish I’d have held those guys off at the end. We had a shot on that restart, obviously, starting on the front row. I thought I executed the start pretty well, but just couldn’t quite get clear of AJ [Allmendinger] like I needed to, but it didn’t work out. We were close, though." - Michael McDowell, finished fourth "It's been really dicey. A lot of things kind of been going on – a lot of lanes, a lot of options, which has been pretty good. It’s all about momentum obviously. You break momentum or have something happen, it knocks you back or slows you down, you get blown over by four or
five guys. So it’s all about just minimizing your mistakes and minimize those that can get by you while you’re trying to make moves. Definitely a different game, but overall, just really happy with the No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Camaro. We’ve adjusted on it every pit stop today. We stayed out on that set of tires and it felt really good. Wish we could have continued. I felt like we had more than fifth." - Kyle Busch, finished fifth "It was a good day. We were right where we needed to be, but didn’t get the breaks we needed. I was really happy with our performance and quality of the cars we had. My teammate, Chris Buescher, did a good job, but just didn’t catch the
breaks we needed at the end. "We had 12-14 laps left of fuel [when we pitted] and that was not enough. We ended up running 15 laps or so. I think we made the right call, we just needed the rain to be 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later." - Brad Keselowski, finished
sixth
"I feel great with the race car, it’s just the weather that’s not cooperating. You say mixed strategies. Some guys played the game of it may be raining before stage two was over and that’s the chance we took and had to restart in the back, and then it looked like we might run the whole race and then this rain happened. I thought our car was
super fast. The Wurth Ford Mustang was really good, just weird split strategy with rain kind of throws everything off and we just ran out of time." - Ryan Blaney, finished ninth "On the spin – I haven’t seen a replay, but I think I was just late and slow to protect the top, and the [Erik Jones] must have been just really close to me and got me loose.
I spun and got the flat. And then I thought we were going to get lucky enough to just be able to drive right to my pit stall and change the tire. We changed the right rear [tire] and didn’t get the right front [tire] changed. And then that exploded on the apron and I had to lose a lap for the damage. Just had a little bit of a tire rub still and ultimately it just ended up giving out and I got into the wall.
"Hate that I made the mistake there to put us in this position, but I was having fun up until the spin. I thought I was doing a decent job – finishing second in the stage. Just wish I could have got to the end. Most of the time I feel like it’s other peoples’ fault why I DNF, but tonight it was my fault. Little bit of a bummer." - Kyle Larson, 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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