Frontstretch Newsletter: July 31, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition CXXVIII |
- NASCAR teams are back at their shops today, preparing for this
weekend's action at Michigan International Speedway, for the most part.
- Monday Night Racing's MRN Summer Bash resumes tonight with the third
Gen4 race at the virtual Auto Club 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 Fontana sim race and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
| | Chris Buescher Gets 1st Win of Season at
Richmond RFK Racing's Chris Buescher rose to the front late Sunday in Richmond, then held on during a late restart to win the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, his
first win of the year. Denny Hamlin was second, then Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece. |
| | Ryan Preece Comes Up Shy of Playing Playoff
Spoiler Ryan Preece had one of his best days of the season Sunday, driving up to third prior to the final caution before finishing fifth. It could have been even better
than that. |
| | RFK Shines at Richmond With Chris Buescher Victory, Brad
Keselowski Top 10 Sunday saw RFK Racing have one of their best races in years. Not only did Chris Buescher win, but Brad Keselowski finished sixth and the duo combined to lead 190
of 400 laps. |
| | Wisconsin-Born Sam Mayer Scores 1st Career Xfinity
Series Win at Road America JR Motorsports' Sam Mayer was able to slip around Parker Kligerman in turn 14 coming to the white flag Saturday and was able to hold on to win the Henry 180 at
Road America for his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win. Kligerman was second, then Austin Hill, Sage Karam and Riley Herbst. |
| | Sage Karam Finishes 4th, Battles for Lead Late in Career
Day at Road America For a third of a lap Saturday at Road America, Sage Karam was in the lead and had a chance to give Sam Hunt Racing their first victory. Unfortunately, an
off-course excursion dropped Karam back to fourth, but the result was still a career-best for the Pennsylvania native. |
| | Carson Hocevar Steals Truck Series Win at
Richmond With fresher tires, Carson Hocevar ran down the dominant Ty Majeski and took the lead with four laps to go Saturday night. From there, he held on to win the NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series Worldwide Express 250. Majeski was second, then Zane Smith, Jake Garcia and Matt Mills. |
| | Ty Majeski Dominates, Rebounds, Falls Short at
Richmond Quite simply, Ty Majeski had by far the best truck Saturday night in Richmond. Not only did he lead 168 laps, but he recovered from a pit road speeding penalty to
get all the way to second before the final pit stops began. Choosing not to stop is the only reason that he didn't win the race. |
| | Linus Lundqvist Substituting for Simon Pagenaud at
Nashville Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian announced Monday that Simon Pagenaud will miss Nashville this weekend. Firestone Indy NXT racer Linus Lundqvist will make
his series debut in Pagenaud's place. |
| | Max Verstappen Dominates Spa for 8th Straight
Win Red Bull's Max Verstappen recovered from a grid penalty to take the lead from teammate Sergio Perez and win the Grand Prix of Belgium by 22 seconds. Perez was
second, then Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. |
| | Max Verstappen Takes Wet Sprint Win at
Spa In changeable conditions Saturday at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Red Bull's Max Verstappen easily won the Sprint race, which was shortened to 11 laps due to
four extra formation laps. McLaren's Oscar Piastri was second, then Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc. |
| | Sean Hingorani Wins 3rd ARCA West Race of 2023 at
Shasta Venturini Motorsports' Sean Hingorani took the lead with 40 laps to go from Trevor Huddleston Saturday night and held on to win the ARCA Menards Series Shasta 150.
Huddleston was second, then Kole Raz, Landen Lewis and Eric Nascimento. |
| | Paul Tracy Hit With SRX Suspension After Pulaski
Incident Superstar Racing Experience announced Friday that Paul Tracy has been suspended indefinitely from the Camping World SRX Series due to a series of incidents,
culminating in his crash Thursday night at Pulaski County Motorsports Park. |
| | Johnny Benson to Make SRX Debut at
Berlin Superstar Racing Experience announced Saturday that Johnny Benson, who actually served as the Camping World SRX Series' pace car driver in 2021, will make his
series debut Thursday night at his home track, Berlin Raceway. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Francois Nel of Getty Images, Wayne Riegle of SRX, Nic Antaya of ARCA Racing, Joe Skibinski of INDYCAR Media and our own Adam Cheek. 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 28-30 |
Sunday night saw David Gravel take the lead away from Danny Varin on lap 4, then
set sail to win $20,000. Carson Macedo, who had quick time in qualifying, was second. Dave Blaney, making a rare World of Outlaws appearance, was third, then Brad Sweet and Giovanni Scelzi. By virtue of the win, Gravel broke a tie with Sweet and retook the points lead
after 44 races. His advantage is eight points over Sweet. Macedo is third, then Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild. - IMSA teams spent Friday and Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for an
open test session ahead of September's TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks. This is only a sprint race, but has a fair degree of importance. After two days of testing, BMW M Team RLL's Connor de Phillippi was fastest
overall with a lap at 117.613 mph in his BMW M Hybrid V8. The lap was .103 seconds faster than teammate Jesse Krohn. Chip Ganassi Racing's Sebastien Bourdais was third, then Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian's Colin Braun. Porsche Penske Motorsport's Matt Campbell was fifth. Every driver in the GTP class that tested was within a second of de Phillippi's best lap during the weekend. In LMP2, TDS Racing's Mikkel Jensen was
fastest with a lap at 114.728 mph, .043 seconds faster than Crowdstrike Racing by APR's Ben Hanley. Only Andrew Wojteczko Autosport (AWA) represented the LMP3 class with Wayne Boyd turning in a lap at 108.906 mph. In the GT ranks, US RaceTronics' Misha Goikhberg was fastest overall in his
Lamborghini at 104.290 mph. The lap was .084 seconds faster than VasserSullivan's Frankie Montecalvo. Team Korthoff Motorsports' Mike Skeen was third, then AO Racing's Sebastian Priaulx and Wright Motorsports' Trent Hindman. The TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks is scheduled for Sept. 17.
Frontstretch will be on-site at Indianapolis to bring you the action. |
This is just a sampling of the 52 videos that we posted to our YouTube channel from Richmond and Road America last weekend. For more content from Richmond, Road America, or any other weekend, please subscribe to our channel and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Martin Truex Jr. Survives Alternate Pit Strategy, Expands Lead
by Phil Allaway
Martin Truex Jr. spent the vast majority of the race on an alternate pit
strategy that eventually unified with everyone else when the last caution came out. Truex ultimately ended up seventh and extended his points lead. His advantage is now 39 points over new second-place man Denny Hamlin, who finished second. William Byron is down to third after a disappointing day where he finished 21st. Christopher Bell is still in fourth after being on an alternate pit strategy and finishing 20th. Kyle Busch finished third and moved up one place to fifth. Kevin Harvick is up from a tie for seventh to sixth after a quiet run to 10th. Ross Chastain wasn't all that competitive Sunday, spending much of the race outside of the top 20 before finishing 24th. That dropped him two places to seventh. Kyle Larson is down to eighth after finishing 19th. Ryan Blaney is still in ninth after getting a free pass late and finishing 14th. Joey Logano drove up to fourth and gained some points on Blaney while staying in 10th. Brad Keselowski moved up to 11th after leading the most laps and finishing sixth. Keselowski jumped over Tyler Reddick, who scored the most stage points (18) Sunday, but a commitment box penalty dropped him back to a 16th-place
finish. Chris Buescher claimed his first win of the year and gained a bunch of points, but remains in 13th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 14th after a quiet day. He is now only eight points ahead of Bubba Wallace, who scored 16 stage points Sunday, but faded late to 12th. Michael McDowell is still in 16th. McDowell still has the last spot in the playoffs. His advantage is 18 points over
Ty Gibbs, who moved up two places with a 15th-place finish. AJ Allmendinger dropped back to 18th after a really mediocre day. The move to have him race in Wisconsin instead of practicing and qualifying the No. 16 in Richmond will be debated if it costs him a playoff berth. Daniel Suarez had a miserable weekend and dropped down to 19th, while Chase Elliott moved up to 20th, 40 points behind McDowell. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Martin Truex Jr. 744, 2) Denny Hamlin
-39, 3) William Byron -43, 4) Christopher Bell -91, 5) Kyle Busch -96, 6) Kevin Harvick
-110, 7) Ross Chastain -118, 8) Kyle Larson -125, 9) Ryan Blaney -130, 10) Joey Logano -135, 11) Brad
Kesleowski -141, 12) Tyler Reddick -142, 13) Chris Buescher -146, 14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -230, 15) Bubba Wallace -238, 16) Michael McDowell -274. 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) Denny Hamlin
-8, 5) Denny Hamlin -9, 6) Ross Chastain -12, 7) Tyler Reddick -13, t-8) Ryan Blaney -14, t-8) Joey Logano -14, 10) Christopher Bell -15, 11) Chris Buescher -16, t-12) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -17, t-12) Shane van Gisbergen -17, 14) Brad Keselowski -19, t-15) Kevin Harvick -21, t-15) Austin
Cindric -21, t-15) Aric Almirola -21, t-15) Ryan Preece -21, t-15) Chase Elliott -21. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 207, 2) Denny Hamlin -28, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -32, 4) Tyler Reddick -43, t-5) Kyle Larson
-59, t-5) Ross Chastain -59, 7) Christopher Bell -60, 8) Ryan Blaney -66, 9) Joey Logano -86, 10) Kevin Harvick -90, 11) Brad Keselowski -99, 12) Kyle Busch -113, 13) Chris Buescher
-129, 14) Alex Bowman -141, 15) Bubba Wallace
-149, 16) Michael McDowell -155. Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: 25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -173. Note: The Stage Points also include the
Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16):
1) Martin Truex Jr. 670, 2) Kyle Busch -20, 3) Denny Hamlin -37, 4) Kevin Harvick -56, 5) Chris Buescher -57, 6) William Byron -59, 7) Christopher Bell -63, 8) Brad Keselowski
-73, 9) Joey Logano -84, 10) Ross Chastain -91, t-11) Kyle Larson -98, t-11) Ryan Blaney -98, 13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -102, 14) Tyler Reddick -134, 15) Bubba
Wallace -138, 16) Michael McDowell -169. 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. 3008, 2) Kyle Busch -70, 3) Denny Hamlin -140, 4) Kevin Harvick -210,
5) Christopher Bell -211, 6) Chris Buescher -232, 7) William Byron -233, 8) Brad Keselowski -255, 9) Joey Logano -257, 10) Kyle Larson -296, 11) Ross Chastain -303, 12) Ryan Blaney -325, 13) Ricky Stenhouse
Jr. -385, 14) Tyler Reddick -439, 15) Bubba Wallace -479, 16) Michael McDowell -591. 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-1, Martinsville),
Christopher Bell (Bristol), Martin Truex Jr. (Dover, Sonoma, Loudon), Denny Hamlin (Kansas, Pocono), Ross Chastain (Nashville), Shane van Gisbergen (Chicago), Chris Buescher (Richmond-2)
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: Austin Hill Regains Points Lead After John Hunter Nemechek Junks Splitter
by Phil
Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek ran well early Saturday, but went off in turn 13 on
lap 31 and junked his front end, putting him out of the race. Meanwhile, Austin Hill avoided the late chaos to finish third and retake the points lead. His advantage over Nemechek is 14 points. Justin Allgaier dominated the race, but spun in turn 8 with two laps to go. Despite the spin and an 18th-place finish, he still moved up to third. Cole Custer was eliminated in a late crash and dropped to fourth. Josh Berry finished sixth and moved up one place to fifth. Sam Mayer moved up three places to sixth as a result of claiming his first career win. Chandler Smith had a brake rotor failure that resulted in a huge crash in the braking zone for turn 1. The 37th-place finish dropped him two places to seventh. Daniel Hemric is down one spot to eighth after finishing 11th. Sammy Smith was eliminated in the same crash with Custer and dropped to ninth. Riley Herbst moved up to 10th after finishing fifth. Sheldon Creed had a lot of trouble Saturday, including a late flat tire that dropped him to 26th. He is down to 11th in points, the last driver in the playoffs on points. Creed has a 22-point lead on Parker Kligerman, who finished a career-best second. Jeb Burton remains in 13th, while Brandon Jones moved up one place to 14th after finishing 10th. Brett Moffitt is down to 15th after dropping out with an axle failure, while Kaz Grala remains in 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill
775, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -14, 3) Justin Allgaier -40, 4) Cole Custer -84, 5) Josh Berry -163, 6) Sam Mayer -182, 7) Chandler Smith -187, 8) Daniel Hemric -196, 9) Sammy
Smith -218, 10) Riley Herbst -245, 11) Sheldon Creed -248, 12) Parker Kligerman -270, 13) Jeb Burton -302, 14) Brandon Jones -309, 15) Brett Moffitt -330, 16) Kaz Grala -384. Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek
24, 2) Austin Hill -1, 3) Cole Custer -9, 4) Justin Allgaier -12, t-5) Chandler Smith -17, t-5) Ryan Truex -17, t-7) Jeb Burton -18, t-7) Sammy Smith -18, 9) Sam Mayer -19, t-10) Sheldon Creed -21, t-10) Josh
Berry -21, t-12) Riley Herbst -23, t-12) Parker Kligerman -23. 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 11th and Ty Gibbs tied for 12th. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier
208, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -4, 3) Cole Custer -31, 4) Austin Hill -41, 5) Sheldon Creed -59, 6) Chandler Smith -81, 7) Josh Berry -85, 8) Riley Herbst -93, 9) Sammy Smith
-106, 10) Sam Mayer -107, 11) Daniel Hemric -112, 12) Brandon Jones -121, 13) Parker Kligerman -146, 14) Ryan Truex -167, t-15) Brett Moffitt -177, t-15) Ryan Sieg -177. Outside of the top-16, but still in playoffs: 17) Jeb
Burton -182. Note: If they were eligible for points, AJ Allmendinger would be 14th and Ty Gibbs 15th in stage
points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 698, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -48, 3) Justin Allgaer -82, 4) Cole Custer -96, 5) Josh Berry -120, 6) Sam Mayer -121, 7) Daniel Hemric -135,
8) Chandler Smith -148, 9) Sammy Smith -157, 10) Jeb Burton -171, 11) Parker Kligerman -175, 12) Riley Herbst -201, 13) Brett Moffitt -202, 14) Sheldon Creed -226, 15) Brandon Jones
-236, 16) Kaz Grala -244. WC Points (1-16): 1) Austin Hill
3034, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -141, 3) Justin Allgaier -246, 4) Cole Custer -323, 5) Josh Berry -400, 6) Sam Mayer -414, 7) Daniel Hemric
-480, 8) Chandler Smith -510, 9) Sammy Smith -543, 10) Parker Kligerman -606, 11) Jeb Burton -637, 12) Riley Herbst -677, 13) Brett Moffitt -719, 14) Sheldon Creed -785, 15) Brandon Jones
-825, 16) Kaz Grala -856. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Las Vegas, Atlanta-1, Pocono), 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), Sam Mayer (Road America) 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 Championship: Corey Heim Wins Regular Season Title, Starts Playoff in Lead by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim had a real easy time winning the regular season
championship. He had it clinched by the end of stage two Saturday night. He ultimately finished sixth and won the regular season title by 51 points over Ty Majeski. Majeski had by far the best truck Saturday night and led 168 laps before being beaten by fresher tires. The second-place finish still moved him up from a tie for third. Zane Smith dropped one place to third despite a charge from a lap down to finish third. Ben Rhodes is fourth after
he had a commitment line penalty during his final stop and ended up a lap down in 12th. Grant Enfinger dropped from a tie for third to fifth despite
finishing ninth. Christian Eckes finished 11th and ended the regular season in sixth. Carson Hocevar's third win of the year kept him in seventh. Nick Sanchez and Matt DiBenedetto ended the regular season tied for eighth. Sanchez won the tiebreaker. Matt Crafton ended up snagging the final playoff spot in 10th after
finishing seventh. His margin was 39 points over Stewart Friesen, who never seemed like he had a chance. A failed hail mary move resulted in a 27th-place finish. Tanner Gray is 12th. Chase Purdy is still in 13th, followed by Tyler
Ankrum and Jake Garcia after a career-best fourth-place finish. Taylor Gray is 16th. When the playoffs start at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Heim will have an
eight-point lead over Smith, then Hocevar, Eckes and Enfinger. DiBenedetto and Crafton will start the Round of 10 in the danger zone, three points behind Sanchez. Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 616, 2) Ty Majeski -51, 3) Zane Smith -56, 4) Ben Rhodes -63, 5) Grant Enfinger -78, 6) Christian Eckes -96, 7) Carson Hocevar
-126, t-8) Nick Sanchez -164, t-8) Matt DiBenedetto -164, 10) Matt Crafton -167, 11) Stewart Friesen -206, 12) Tanner Gray -233, 13) Chase Purdy -243, 14) Tyler Ankrum -254, 15) Jake Garcia
-259, 16) Taylor Gray -320.
Round of 10 Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 2030, 2) Zane Smith -8, 3) Carson Hocevar -9, 4) Christian
Eckes -11, 5) Grant Enfinger -13, 6) Ty Majeski -16, 7) Ben Rhodes -17, 8) Nick Sanchez -25, t-9) Matt DiBenedetto -28, t-9) Matt Crafton -28.
Best of the Rest: 11) Stewart Friesen 410, 12) Tanner Gray -27, 13) Chase Purdy -37, 14) Tyler Ankrum -48, 15) Jake Garcia -53, 16) Taylor Gray -114, 17) Daniel Dye
-127, 18) Rajah Caruth -130, 19) Hailie Deegan -133, 20) Colby Howard -157. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for the playoffs. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 30, 2) Zane Smith -8, 3) Carson Hocevar -9, 4) Christian Eckes -11, 5) Grant Enfinger -13, 6) Ty Majeski -16, 7) Ben Rhodes -17, 8) Nick Sanchez -18, t-9) Matt Crafton -19, t-9) Matt DiBenedetto -19. Stage Points: 1) Zane Smith
164, 2) Corey Heim -5, 3) Ty Majeski -15, 4) Ben Rhodes -33, 5) Christian Eckes -36, 6) Carson Hocevar -69, 7) Matt DiBenedetto -75, 8) Grant Enfinger -76, 9) Nick
Sanchez -81, 10) Stewart Friesen -87, 11) Matt Crafton -93, 12) Tanner Gray -116, 13) Tyler Ankrum -118, 14) Chase Purdy -121, 15) Rajah Caruth -129, 16) Dean Thompson -135. Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be 12th and William Byron
13th. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 411, 2) Grant Enfinger -22, 3) Ben Rhodes -46, 4) Ty Majeski -51, 5) Zane Smith
-69, 6) Carson Hocevar -73, 7) Christian Eckes -77, 8) Matt Crafton -93, 9) Nick Sanchez -97, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -110, 11) Jake Garcia -131, 12) Tanner Gray -134, t-13) Stewart Friesen -139, t-13) Chase Purdy -139, 15) Tyler Ankrum -157, 16) Taylor Gray -176. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 2309, 2) Grant Enfinger -63, 3) Ty Majeski -96, 4) Ben Rhodes
-133, 5) Zane Smith -163, 6) Christian Eckes -206, 7) Carson Hocevar -215, 8) Nick Sanchez -297, 9) Matt Crafton -302, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -341, 11) Stewart Friesen
-410, 12) Tanner Gray -425, 13) Chase Purdy -441, 14) Jake Garcia -491, 15) Tyler Ankrum -506, 16) Daniel Dye -629. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Austin), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, Pocono), Christian Eckes (Atlanta, Darlington), Carson Hocevar (Texas, Nashville, Richmond), 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 Cook Out 400 was brought to you by the letter C for
Clean. Aside from the final 10 laps of the race, there was very little if any contact and no actual spins. Pit strategy reigned supreme. It remains to be seen if that
is considered to be a good thing for short track racing. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Cook
Out 400 compiled by Phil
Allaway
"I don’t get too stirred up most of the time (laughing). I was sitting
there and we had a nice easy lead going there. I was taking care of it and then shifting and about the time Scott came on the radio and said, ‘Let’s work it just like that. Keep it smooth.’ I don’t think he even got off the button and, caution.’ So, I knew it was gonna take some work to get back going, but our Fastenal Mustang was so good firing off today, so good in practice. I didn’t get the job done in qualifying. I had to pass a bunch of cars today and have some great strategy and some great
pit stops. Everybody at RFK Racing who has worked so hard to get us to this point. This is awesome. I knew that last restart was gonna be tough, but I knew we had the speed in this thing.
"I love it when it gets hot and slick out here. I like searching for grip. I like that line moving around
and it made it fun. I felt like the spring race we were pretty decent, but didn’t have everything go our way. That was just textbook execution from everybody. We had a clean day, good strategy, good pit stops, good choices and that got us here to Victory Lane with our Fastenal Mustang. I just feel that the hot, slick weather lets us move around and chase what we need to have that speed in our race cars." - Chris Buescher, race winner "The whole last couple laps were not good on my end. I got a bad restart. I spun them coming to the green. Kyle [Busch] actually gave me a really good push down the front straightaway to get me going. I got great run through [turns 1 and 2]. I just needed to be beside him. I had to recover too much ground from what I lost on the front stretch. Almost got to the outside, and then on turn four, almost got to the
outside again, and then in turn one, I was like I’m just going to ship it in there and try to get to the outside one more time and I just carried way too much speed and locked up the left front tires. Happy for Chris [Buescher] that team really deserved it too. It was going to be luck for us to get a caution to get a second chance to go at him there. They deserved it. RFK, hats off to them. I know how hard they’ve worked to get to this point. Proud of them, and proud of this whole Mavis Toyota
team to get to this second-place finish." - Denny Hamlin, finished second "We certainly fought hard on the long runs. It was after about lap 50
that we really dropped off and fell off. But the first 50 laps, we could hang on and do OK. Really appreciate the No. 8 Chevy team, X World Wallet, Netspend, Chevrolet. We just had a really good day on pit road and just a solid effort. We needed something like this to be solid on the short-tracks and to kind of get our momentum back heading in the right direction. Happy with what we’ve got right here.
"We certainly fought hard on the long runs. It was after about lap 50 that we really dropped off and fell off. But the first 50 laps, we could hang on and do OK. Really appreciate the No. 8 Chevy team, X World Wallet, Netspend, Chevrolet. We just had a really good day on pit road and just a solid effort. We needed something like this to be solid on
the short-tracks and to kind of get our momentum back heading in the right direction. Happy with what we’ve got right here." - Kyle Busch, finished third "We weren't that bad with the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang, just a little bit off from the best cars. Really couldn't hang. If you put us at fifth, we could probably hang at fifth, but just qualifying as poorly as we did, slowly getting our way up there, a couple setbacks during the race, kind of made us hang around 7th and 10th place range for a little bit. I knew we just had to get there. Paul did a good job. Must have been a special set of tires. I don't know, but it
fired off pretty good and was able to roll the outside of two lanes there. When Denny screwed up and slid up, got me down the middle and I was like, ‘Maybe this is okay,’ and then it allowed the 8 to get back to the outside. We gave up a spot there. I saw him. I got excited. I was like, I'm also there. I need one more caution. It wasn't fun."- Joey Logano, finished fourth "My confidence was I’ve seen what
Chad [Johnston] has given here in year’s past and we talked a lot about what we were gonna need and I said, ‘Man, if you can get me to roll the center, I’ll deal with loose in,’ so that’s what he gave me today and this United Rentals Ford Mustang was pretty stout. Fifth, we lined up in that second row at the end, but we run more like this we’re gonna have more opportunities to challenge for wins.
"We all did
(run well). I think that’s just a product of working hard. Sitting and twiddling your thumbs isn’t gonna get you the results that you really want. I know that from racing, so we’ve just been working hard and trying to find what I like, find what Aric likes, Kevin likes, Chase likes and I feel like we’re all trending in that direction." - Ryan Preece, finished fifth "I’m happy for Chris. We’re incrementally building. It was a solid day for both teams here at RFK. I’m happy for everybody that works on these teams, everybody that supports us with Fastenal and Ford and Build Subs. We led a lot of laps with both cars. Neither of our cars started up front and drove through and great job with the pit crews and just a lot to be proud of today. Of
course, I want to win as a driver, but I’m just happy we’re as competitive as we are and we just want to keep building and keep getting more competitive every week." - Brad Keselowski, finished sixth "It was
tough – honestly, the whole day was tough. This place is never easy, but I felt like as loose as we were all day, that was a handful. It was so on edge. It was really, really difficult to drive and make two laps the same. We just really had to battle. Good job by the guys to do what they did to come up with that strategy. I was flipping out because I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t hear James [Small] again on the radio. Just really a hard fought, battle of a day for our Bass Pro Shops
Camry. I thought we were probably going to run fifth there without the caution. We were just so bad on the short runs today, for whatever reason, just luckily only lost two spots there at the end. All-in-all, a decent day, but man, it was tough." - Martin Truex Jr., finished seventh
"It was a solid race for us all day. We weren’t that great in the
beginning and we just kind of tuned on it. We got really good at the end of Stage Two and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy was pretty solid. I want to thank all of our partners. Last week was tough – I feel like that should have been two top-10’s in a row, but we’ll take it. We’ve had a rough year all-in-all, but to get a top 10 here at Richmond [Raceway], it means the world." - Austin Dillon, finished ninth
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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