Frontstretch Newsletter: July 18, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition CXVIII |
- Teams are currently preparing for this weekend's action in Pocono. We'll have any news that breaks for you today at Frontstretch. |
| | Martin Truex Jr. Wins 3rd Cup Race of Season With New
Hampshire Victory Martin Truex Jr. got some revenge for last year by leading 254 of 301 laps to win the Crayon 301 Monday for his third win of the year. Joey Logano was second, then
Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. |
| | Christopher Bell’s Winning Chances Go Awry With Pit Road
Mistakes, Late Crash Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell had a decent chance to defend his victory from last year at Loudon. However, pit issues set him back. A crash in the
closing laps ruined it altogether. |
| | Supercars Ace Brodie Kostecki to Race for RCR at
Indy Repco Supercars Championship racer Brodie Kostecki announced via his social media Monday night that he will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in a third Chevrolet
for Richard Childress Racing at Indianapolis. |
| | Entry List: 2023 HighPoint.com
400 For this weekend's 400- mile NASCAR Cup Series race in Pocono, there are 36 teams entered. The only change of note is that JJ Yeley will be back with Rick Ware
Racing. |
| | Conor Daly Filling In for Simon Pagenaud at
Iowa Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian announced that Simon Pagenaud will miss this weekend's INDYCAR doubleheader at Iowa Speedway. Conor Daly will be back to
substitute. |
| | Entry List: 2023 Explore the Pocono Mountains
225 For Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono, there are 41 teams entered. Richard Childress Racing has a third car entered for Ty Dillon, while Chase
Elliott will drive the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17. |
| | Entry List: 2023 CRC Brakleen
150 There will be 39 teams vying for 36 spots in Saturday's CRC Brakleen 150 for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Pocono Raceway. Ross Chastain is back with Niece
Motorsports, while Christopher Bell is back in Hattori Racing Enterprises' second truck. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography and INDYCAR Media. 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 17 |
- Last night, James Bickford won the Bryant Shock Technology 200 at the virtual Chicagoland Speedway, his second straight Gen4 victory as part of the MNR Summer Bash. Chase Cabre was second, then Fisher, Collin Fern and Leighton
Sibille. We'll have more on Monday night's race at Frontstretch later this week. |
This is just a sampling of the 13 videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channel from Loudon on Monday. For more Loudon coverage, or coverage from other races, please subscribe to our channel. Also, don't forget to hit the bell in order to be notified of future videos! |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Martin Truex Jr. Retakes Points Lead With Loudon Victory
by Phil Allaway
William Byron was strong early, leading laps and up in the hunt. That is until he had contact on pit road with Justin Haley. His day was never the same after that as Byron finished 24th. Meanwhile, Martin Truex Jr. led 254 of 301 laps and swept the stages en route to victory. That allowed him to regain the points lead that he
lost in Atlanta. His advantage is 17 points over Byron. Christopher Bell crashed in the closing laps, but still jumped over Kyle Busch to take third in the standings. Denny Hamlin is up two places to fourth after finishing seventh. Busch had an absolutely miserable
weekend in Loudon, marked by smacking the wall thrice. The third hit was at the end of stage one and put him out. The 36th-place finish dropped him to fifth. Ross Chastain was never really in the hunt Sunday and ended up 23rd, dropping down to sixth. Ryan Blaney was in the hunt to win until he ran over his air hose leaving his pit on his final stop. He ended up 22nd and stays in seventh. Kyle Larson is still eighth after finishing
third. Kevin Harvick remains in ninth after a fourth-place finish, while Joey Logano gained a few points with his second-place finish. Brad Keselowski jumped over teammate Chris Buescher again with his fifth-place finish. Tyler Reddick is 13th, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 14th. Bubba Wallace moved up two places to get back into the top 16 with an eighth-place finish Monday. Michael McDowell is still in 16th, the final driver in the playoffs on points. McDowell has just a one-point advantage over Daniel Suarez, who finished 16th Monday. Despite an early spin, AJ Allmendinger minimized his losses and stays in 18th. Ty Gibbs is 19th and Alex Bowman 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Martin Truex Jr. 667, 2) William Byron -17, 3) Christopher
Bell -62, 4) Denny Hamlin -66, 5) Kyle Busch -74, 6) Ross Chastain -78, 7) Ryan Blaney -86, 8) Kyle Larson -93, 9) Kevin Harvick -99, 10) Joey Logano -104, 11) Brad Keselowski -128, 12) Chris Buescher -139, 13) Tyler Reddick -151, 14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -203, 15) Bubba Wallace -234, 16) Michael McDowell -235. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or
ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) William Byron 22, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -4, 3) Kyle Busch -5, 4) Kyle Larson -10, 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 195, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -33, 3) Denny Hamlin -45, 4) Ross Chastain
-47, 5) Christopher Bell -48, t-6) Ryan Blaney -57, t-6) Kyle Larson -57, 8) Tyler Reddick -61, 8) Kevin Harvick -84, 10) Joey Logano -85, 11) Brad Keselowski -99, 12) Kyle Busch
-106, 13) Alex Bowman -125, 14) Chris Buescher
-128, 15) Austin Cindric -134, t-16) Michael McDowell -138, t-16)
Daniel Suarez -138. Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: 18) Bubba
Wallace -147, 25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -161.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Martin Truex Jr. 596, 2) Kyle Busch -4, 3) William Byron -34, 4) Christopher Bell -45, 5) Denny Hamlin
-47, t-6) Kevin Harvick -50, t-6) Chris Buescher -50, 8) Joey Logano -54, 9) Brad Keselowski -61, 10) Ross Chastain -62, 11) Ryan Blaney -64, 12) Kyle Larson -68, 13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
-86, 14) Bubba Wallace -124, 15) Tyler Reddick -126, t-16) Michael McDowell -137, t-16) Daniel Suarez -137, t-16) Justin Haley -137. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before
stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Martin Truex Jr. 2687, 2) Kyle Busch -14, t-3) William Byron -143, t-3) Christopher Bell
-143, 5) Joey Logano -159, 6) Denny Hamlin -174, 7) Kevin Harvick -183, 8) Kyle Larson -189, 9) Ross Chastain -197, 10) Chris Buescher
-200, 11) Ryan Blaney -208, 12) Brad Keselowski -209, 13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -322, 14) Tyler Reddick -413, 15) Bubba Wallace -420, 16) Daniel Suarez -467. Outside of the top-16, but still in the
playoffs: 17) Michael McDowell -478
Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Fontana, 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, Loudon), 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. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Letter of the Race: Monday's Crayon 301 was brought to you by the Letter W for Wide. Goodyear brought a new tire to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the first time. That tire, combined with
the revised 2023 rules package for short ovals, resulted in one of the widest grooves for a NASCAR Cup Series race ever at the 1.058-mile oval. Drivers had upwards of four lanes to choose from the race, quite the accomplishment for a track that has always had a reputation for not providing options. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Crayon 301 compiled by Phil Allaway
"What we’ve been able to do here over the years is pretty remarkable, and to not win was really getting frustrating. James (Small) and I talked about it many times. We thought about
it all weekend, talked about it with Christopher (Bell) before the race. He’s like, man, you’ve led more laps here than I’ve even raced in Cup. Just really an awesome job by everybody. What a race car we had today. Just proud of the whole team. Pit stops were flawless. Race car was unbelievable. We had some challenges at times throughout the race and it was a handful at times, but we just kept our heads down, kept digging. Thanks to everybody at racers, Bass Pro, Auto Owners, Toyota TRD,
everybody back at the shop, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), all our fans, Oakley, FlightSafety, just all the people that help us. This is feeling really, really good to do what we did today and finally cap it off with a lobster." - Martin Truex Jr., race winner
"I needed to go back to the store to get more tools. Not enough of them to beat the No. 19. They were fast. Gosh, I thought I had a shot to beat him right before the first caution after we put tires on – so two cautions to the end. I had a chance to roll to his outside there, right before the caution came out. That would have been my chance – if I got
in front of him, I think I had him beat. But, you have to get in front of him. He just seemed to refire better the next two runs. He didn’t refire on new tires that well, but the next two he refired pretty quickly. It’s just when you’re at your home racetrack, second hurts… more than anywhere else. There is no place where I want to win more than here, and came up one spot short. That one stings, but overall I guess you still have to say it was a good day. Just mad right now." - Joey Logano,
finished second
"Overall, it was a great race for the No. 5 Valvoline Chevy team. Honestly, I’m not sure how much work we had to do to the car. I think we were pretty good the whole
race. The initial start didn’t work out and we just got stuck on the bottom. At the end of Stage One, we were able to work our way up, and then Stage Two went well. The Final Stage went good, as well. The No. 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) was the class of the field – he definitely had the car to beat. I was hoping that maybe we could get to second. It looked like his car was so good that he didn’t have to run all the way up the race track. So I was hoping if we ever got to second, we could get a shot.
But it seemed like he adapted well and was able to hold off Joey (Logano). It would have been tough to get by him." - Kyle Larson, finished third
"We knew we just had to get rolling on the old tires. Just rolled the bottom. Probably should have rolled the fourth lane instead of the third
lane, but still a decent day. We’ll keep plugging along. This had just been a great racetrack for us – another top-five. These tracks and these fans here, especially, have been so good to me throughout the years. It’s always fun to come here." - Kevin Harvick, finished fourth "There were a handful of cars that were really just good on the short runs – we were one of them – and some that were really good on the long run than the short run. Just have to capitalize. You saw that on the restarts, where they got really wild – three and four wide. We were able to capitalize. We’re clawing – just clawing. We know we’re not fast enough on these types of tracks to win, but
we’re getting everything we can out of these days." - Brad Keselowski, finished fifth "It was an up-and-down day for the No. 43 Allegiant Chevy team. Just started out way deep in the field and had to work our way forward. We got our Chevy better
throughout the day. We had one bad run, but fortunately we ran long and ended up on the good side of it. We got some track position there with the late yellow that got us back up in the top 15. We restarted 20th and came home 11th there, so it was a good run for what we had. We’ve been getting better the last few weeks; we just have a little ways to go yet. We need to get the balance a little better. I think our speed is getting there, we just have to figure out the balance and I think we’ll be
in a good spot. Thank you to Allegiant and Chevrolet. We’ll keep rolling forward." - Erik Jones, finished 11th
"I’ve been lacking right-rear grip the whole time we’ve been here. Just couldn’t get the right-rear feel in the race track. You’re just going along trying to keep it under you as much as you can. It was getting
late in the run, and I was trying a different line and it was just too high. I didn’t like to be that high on entry. I couldn’t give it wheel and have the right-rear stick with the lateral grip that you need. "Hate it for our No. 8 Lenovo Chevy team. Our Chevy stuff was a little off this week,
at least for us anyways. We’ll get back to it at Pocono [Raceway]." - Kyle Busch, 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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