Frontstretch Newsletter: June 5, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition LXXXII |
- NASCAR Cup Series teams are back in Charlotte today for a short stay. Tomorrow, the haulers will begin the cross-country haul to
California. We'll have the entry lists and anything else that breaks today at Frontstretch. |
| | Kyle Busch Wins Marathon at Gateway, Gets 3rd Win of
2023 Kyle Busch led a race-high 121 laps Sunday and held on late to win the Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter for his third win of the year. Denny Hamlin
was second, then Joey Logano, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. |
| | Kyle Larson Overcomes Early Lack of Grip to Score Proud
4th Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson dropped back early Sunday to 32nd with no grip at all. He was able to recover from near rock bottom to finish fourth at
Gateway. |
| | Austin Dillon Irate With Austin Cindric After Gateway:
‘He Better Be Suspended Next Week’ Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were eliminated in a crash late on Sunday when Dillon was hit in the right rear corner on the frontstretch by Austin Cindric.
Dillon was very upset afterwards in a Frontstretch exclusive. |
| | Cole Custer Steals Xfinity Win at Portland After Leaders
Clash Stewart-Haas Racing's Cole Custer snatched the lead when Parker Kligerman, Sheldon Creed and Justin Allgaier collided on a late restart. He then held on to
win the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway. Allgaier was second, then Sam Mayer, Josh Berry and Austin Hill. |
| | John Hunter Nemechek and the Terrible, Horrible, No
Good, Very Bad Day at Portland John Hunter Nemechek finished 10th Saturday in Portland and kept the points lead. That doesn't begin to tell the story of one of the more chaotic NASCAR Xfinity
Series races of Nemechek's career. |
| | Grant Enfinger Scores Truck Series Win at
Gateway GMS Racing's Grant Enfinger was the beneficiary of Ty Majeski and Zane Smith crashing in turn 3 in the closing laps. Once there, he held on to win the Toyota
200 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Christian Eckes was second, then Stewart Friesen, Carson Hocevar and Chase Purdy. |
| | Gateway Truck Win Slips Away from Zane Smith, Ty Majeski
After Late Collision Saturday's Toyota 200 should have come down to a duel between Ty Majeski and Zane Smith. However, Majeski got loose underneath Smith in turn 3 on lap 156, cleaning
out both drivers. |
| | Alex Palou Keeps Calm, Wins Chaotic Detroit Grand
Prix Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou was able to keep a steady hand over the bumps with contact behind to win the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix for his second win of
the year. Will Power was second, then Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi. |
| | McLaren Teammate Contact Leaves Hard Feelings After
Detroit Generally speaking, the worst thing that you can do on the track is hit your own teammate. That came to pass Sunday in Detroit when Alexander Rossi and Felix
Rosenqvist collided. |
| | From Tow Truck to Top-10: Kyle Kirkwood Finishes
Sixth Andretti Autosport's Kirk Kirkwood had a much different street course experience Sunday in Detroit. On the first lap, Callum Ilott mounted the rear of the No.
27 and was partially dragged through the hairpin. After repairs, Kirkwood was able to recover to finish sixth. |
| | Marcus Armstrong Continues Solid Rookie Season with
8th-Place Finish at Detroit For former Formula 2 racer Marcus Armstrong, adjusting to road and street courses in INDYCAR has been a process. Sunday saw him score an eighth-place finish while
keeping himself out of trouble. |
| | Max Verstappen Untouchable in Barcelona, Wins Spanish
Grand Prix Max Verstappen claimed the grand slam Sunday in Barcelona, winning the race from pole, leading every lap and setting the fastest lap of the day. 24 seconds back in
second was Lewis Hamilton, then George Russell, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jr. |
| | Daniel Morad, Bryce Ward Win Chevrolet Detroit Sports
Car Classic Winward Racing's Daniel Morad took the lead with 34 minutes to go and pulled away to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic
Saturday with teammate Bryce Ward. |
| | Landen Lewis Grabs First 2023 ARCA West Race Win from
Pole Landen Lewis held off a late charge from Cole Custer to win the ARCA Menards Series West Portland 112 Friday afternoon at Portland International Raceway. Dale
Quarterley was third, then William Sawalich without his hood and Parker Retzlaff. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, James Black and Joe Skibinski of INDYCAR Media, Adam Pretty of Getty Images, IMSA and our own Stephen Stumpf. 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: June 2-4 |
- Sunday was the Le Mans Test Day ahead of this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans. After a day on the 8.467-mile road
course, Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Giovinazzi was fastest overall with a lap at 145.492 mph. He was .144 seconds faster than Porsche Penske Motorsport's Laurens Vanthoor. Toyota GAZOO Racing's Kamui Kobayashi was third, then Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 Ferrari and Felipe Nasr in the No. 75 Porsche run by the IMSA squad. LMP2 was topped by JOTA Sport's Pietro Fittipaldi with a lap at 141.462 mph, good for 17th overall. Fittipaldi's lap
was .771 seconds quicker than Team WRT's Ferdinand Habsburg. COOL Racing's Rashad de Gerus, who was fastest in the opening session in LMP2, ended up third for the day with his lap. Signatech Alpine teammates Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere were fourth and fifth. The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Next Gen car showed quite a bit of pace. In the morning, they were among
the fastest teams in the GTE-Am class. The afternoon saw the team improve by nearly three seconds. Mike Rockenfeller's lap at 130.395 mph was 41st overall, more than two seconds faster than any of the GT cars. In GTE-Am, JMW Motorsport's Thomas Neubauer was fastest in his Ferrari with a lap at 129.109 mph. Neubauer's lap was
.096 seconds faster than the similar Ferrari for AF Corse's Francesco Castellacci. Kessel Racing's Daniel Serra was third, then GR Racing's Riccardo Pera in his Porsche. Proton Competition's Harry Tincknell was fifth. - The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spent the weekend in the Upper Midwest. Friday night was
the first leg of the Northern Tour at River Cities Speedway. Here, James McFadden led for most of the race before fading late. That allowed David Gravel to slip past with five laps to go, then pull away to win. McFadden ended up second, followed by Brad Sweet and Carson Macedo. Logan Schuchart was fifth. Saturday night saw the tour make their first stop at Minnesota's Ogilvie Speedway for the Wagamon Brothers presents the World of Outlaws Big O Showdown. Here, Macedo passed pole sitter Schuchart on the first lap and led all 30 to take the win.
Schuchart was 4.888 seconds back in second, followed by Donny Schatz, Giovanni Scelzi and
McFadden. Through 26 races, Carson Macedo has taken over the points lead by 10 over Sweet. Gravel is only 22 points back in
third, followed by Schuchart and Schatz. |
This is just a sampling of the 40 videos we posted to our YouTube channel from Gateway and Portland this past weekend. For more content from either track, or from other weekends, please subscribe and don't forget to hit the bell to be informed when new videos are posted. Also, a bit of a celebration is in order as our YouTube
channel crossed over 15,000 subscribers this weekend. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Ryan Blaney Claims Points Lead
by Phil Allaway
Ross Chastain entered Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway with a slim points lead. He scored points in both stages, but collapsed late to a 22nd-place finish. That cost him the points lead. Ryan Blaney was dominant in the second stage, winning that and claiming 19 stage points. A sixth-place finish allowed him to take over the points lead. His advantage is 13 points over William Byron, who led some laps before finishing eighth. Kevin Harvick remains in third after a 10th-place finish. Martin Truex Jr.
is up one place to fourth after finishing fifth. Chastain's 22nd-place finish dropped him from the lead to fifth. Christopher Bell remains in sixth after finishing 11th. Kyle Busch's victory moved him up from 10th to a tie for seventh.
Busch with his series-high three wins claims the tiebreaker over former teammate Denny Hamlin, who finished second. Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick are tied for ninth. Larson finished fourth and moved up two spots. Meanwhile, Reddick lost
three positions after he exploded a brake rotor and hit the wall in turn 1. Brad Keselowski had terrible handling issues and problems under the hood that dropped him to 11th in points. Joey Logano is up two places to 12th after finishing third. Chris Buescher drops to 13th after finishing 12th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drops back to 14th after being an innocent victim and being put in the wall. Bubba Wallace stays in 15th despite a late crash, while Daniel Suarez moves back up into the top 16. Suarez is the last driver in the playoffs on points at the moment. He has a six-point advantage over Alex Bowman, who had a quiet day go back late as he dropped to a 26th-place finish. Ty Gibbs is down one place to 18th, while Austin Cindric moves up to 19th. Michael McDowell is 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ryan Blaney 495, 2) William Byron -13, 3) Kevin Harvick
-22, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -23, 5) Ross Chastain -29, 6) Christopher Bell -40, t-7) Kyle Busch -44, t-7) Denny Hamlin -44, t-9) Kyle Larson -84, t-9) Tyler Reddick
-84, 11) Brad Keselowski -92, 12) Joey Logano -94, 13) Chris Buescher -102, 14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -127, 15) Bubba Wallace -161, 16) Daniel Suarez -182. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) William Byron 17, 2) Kyle Busch -1, 3) Kyle Larson -5, t-4)
Ryan Blaney -10, t-4) Denny Hamlin -10, t-4) Tyler Reddick -10, t-4) Joey Logano -10, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -11, t-9) Christopher Bell -12, t-9) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -12, t-9) Ross Chastain -12, t-12) Kevin Harvick -16, t-12) Brad Keselowski -16, t-12) Austin Cindric -16, t-12) Aric Almirola -16, t-12) Ryan Preece -16, t-12) Chase Elliott -16. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 158, 2) Ross Chastain -35, 3) Denny Hamlin -44, 4) Ryan Blaney -52, 5) Kyle Larson -54, 6) Kevin Harvick -55, 7) Christopher Bell -62, 8) Martin
Truex Jr. -63, 9) Tyler Reddick -68, 10) Joey Logano -74, 11) Brad Keselowski -75, 12) Kyle Busch -83, 13) Alex Bowman
-94, 14) Chris Buescher -103, 15) Austin Cindric -108, 16) Daniel Suarez -113. Outside of the top-16, but in the playoffs: 17) Bubba Wallace -122, 25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -131. Note: The
Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ryan Blaney 457, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -13, 3) Kyle Busch -15, 4) Kevin Harvick -19, 5) Christopher Bell
-29, 6) Ross Chastain -43, 7) Denny Hamlin -44, 8) William Byron -48, 9) Chris Buescher -55, 10) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -57, 11) Brad Keselowski -67, 12) Tyler Reddick -70, 13) Joey Logano
-73, 14) Kyle Larson -80, 15) Bubba Wallace -95, 16) Daniel Suarez -125. Note: These standings are based on the old
point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Ryan Blaney 2050, 2) Martin Truex Jr.
-56, 3) Kyle Busch -60, 4) Kevin Harvick -81, 5) Christopher Bell -89, 6) Ross Chastain -133, 7) Denny Hamlin -164, 8) William Byron -182, 9) Chris Buescher -207, 10) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -218, 11) Brad Keselowski
-223, 12) Joey Logano -227, 13) Tyler Reddick -234, 14) Kyle Larson -239, 15) Bubba Wallace
-318, 16) Daniel Suarez -426. 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), Joey Logano (Atlanta), Tyler Reddick (Austin), Kyle Larson (Richmond, Martinsville), Christopher Bell (Bristol), Martin Truex Jr. (Dover), Denny Hamlin (Kansas)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of our own Phil Allaway.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: John Hunter Nemechek Maintains Lead Despite Wild Day In Portland
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek was spun out, rooted and gouged on the 1.95-mile road course in Portland Saturday. Despite all that, he came out of Portland with a 10th-place finish and 16 stage points. That allowed him to expand his points lead to 14 over Austin Hill, who finished fifth. Justin Allgaier remains in third after finishing second, while Cole
Custer's victory moved him up to fourth. Josh Berry dropped to fifth despite a fourth-place finish. Chandler Smith remains in sixth after finishing ninth and having a post-race confrontation. Sheldon Creed led the most laps and stays in seventh after being sent off the road late. Sammy Smith finished 30th, but stays in
eighth. Sam Mayer is up two spots to ninth after finishing third. Riley Herbst blew his engine in the closing laps and dropped to 10th. Daniel Hemric had a terrible day and finished 33rd, which dropped him to 11th, the last driver in the playoffs on points. Hemric has a 14-point lead over Brandon Jones, who came from the rear to
finish 13th. Jeb Burton dropped one place to 13th after a 25th-place finish. Parker Kligerman had a chance to win, but trouble on the final restart put him back to a 14th-place finish and keeps him 14th in points. Ryan Sieg is still in 15th, while Brett Moffitt moves back up to 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 522, 2) Austin Hill -14, 3) Justin Allgaier -44, 4) Cole Custer -65, 5) Josh Berry -91, 6) Chandler Smith
-120, 7) Sheldon Creed -126, 8) Sammy Smith -165, 9) Sam Mayer -169, 10) Riley Herbst -176, 11) Daniel Hemric -189, 12) Brandon Jones -203, 13) Jeb Burton -206, 14) Parker Kligerman -215, 15) Ryan
Sieg -246, 16) Brett Moffitt -255. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 18, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -4, 3) Justin Allgaier -9, 4) Cole Custer -10, 5) Ryan Truex -11, t-6) Sammy Smith
-12, t-6) Jeb Burton -12, 8) Sammy Smith -13, 9) Sheldon Creed -16, t-10) Josh Berry -17, t-10) Parker Kligerman -17. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Larson would be
tied for sixth in playoff points, while Ty Gibbs would be tied for 11th. Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 140, 2) Austin Hill -13, 3) Justin Allgaier -19, 4) Sheldon Creed -20, 5) Cole Custer
-38, 6) Chandler Smith -52, 7) Riley Herbst -56, 8) Josh Berry -66, 9) Sam Mayer -73, 10) Brandon Jones -77, 11) Sammy Smith -80, 12) Daniel Hemric -81, 13) Parker Kligerman -93, 14) Ryan Truex
-99, 15) Jeb Burton -114, 16) Ryan Sieg -117. Note: If he were eligible for points, Ty Gibbs would be 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek
445, 2) Austin Hill -5, t-3) Justin Allgaier -31, t-3) Josh Berry -31, 5) Cole Custer -33, 6) Chandler Smith -73, 7) Sammy Smith -92, t-8) Jeb Burton -103, t-8) Sam Mayer
-103, 10) Sheldon Creed -110, 11) Daniel Hemric -120, 12) Riley Herbst -131, 13) Parker Retzlaff -132, 14) Parker Kligerman -134, 15) Brandon Jones -135, 16) Ryan Sieg -138. WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 1960, 2) Austin Hill -35, 3) Justin Allgaier -86, 4) Josh Berry -118, 5) Cole Custer -131, 6) Chandler Smith
-274, 7) Sammy Smith -337, 8) Sam Mayer -367, 9) Sheldon Creed -384, 10) Jeb Burton -402, 11) Daniel Hemric -438, 12) Riley Herbst -465, 13) Parker Retzlaff -476, 14) Parker Kligerman
-477, 15) Brandon Jones -494, 16) Ryan Sieg -508. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Las Vegas, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana, Martinsville)), Sammy Smith (Phoenix), AJ Allmendinger (Austin), Chandler Smith (Richmond), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Ryan Truex (Dover), Kyle
Larson (Darlington), Cole Custer (Portland) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via James Gilbert of Getty Images.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs: Illness Nearly Costs Corey Heim Points Lead
by Phil Allaway
TRICON Garage announced Friday that Corey Heim was going to have to sit out Saturday's Toyota 200 due to an undisclosed illness. It was a prime opportunity for Ty Majeski or Zane Smith to claim the lead for themselves. Then, they crashed together with a few laps to go. As a result, Heim keeps the points lead despite missing the race, but his advantage is down to only one point over Majeski. Majeski was bailed out by scoring 18 stage points. Grant Enfinger's victory moved him up one place to third, only nine out of the
lead. Smith is down to fourth after the aforementioned crash. Ben Rhodes remains in fifth after a seventh-place finish. Christian Eckes stays in sixth after a second-place finish, while Carson Hocevar recovered
from contact that broke a frame rail to finish fourth and move up to seventh. Matt Crafton had a left front suspension issue right before the final restart while running in the top 10. As a result, he dropped to eighth. Stewart
Friesen's third-place finish moved him up two places to ninth. Matt DiBenedetto remains in 10th, the last driver in the playoffs. He has a seven-point advantage over Tanner Gray, who dropped two places after finishing 21st. Nick Sanchez is still in 12th. Chase Purdy actually lost ground to Sanchez despite finishing fifth and remains in 13th. Jake Garcia is 14th, while Tyler Ankrum is 15th. Rajah Caruth moved up one place to 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 425, 2) Ty Majeski -1, 3) Grant Enfinger -9, 4) Zane Smith -19, 5) Ben Rhodes -32, 6) Christian
Eckes -36, 7) Carson Hocevar -88, 8) Matt Crafton -93, 9) Stewart Friesen -100, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -107, 11) Tanner Gray -114, 12) Nick Sanchez -118, 13) Chase Purdy -145, 14) Jake Garcia
-165, 15) Tyler Ankrum -186, 16) Rajah Caruth -203.
Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for the playoffs. Playoff Points: 1) Christian Eckes 14, t-2) Zane Smith -3, t-2) Grant Enfinger -3, 4) Corey Heim -6, 5) Carson Hocevar -7, 6) Ben Rhodes -9, 7) Nick Sanchez -12, t-8) Ty Majeski -13, t-8) Matt Crafton -13, t-8) Tyler Ankrum -13. Note: If he were eligible for playoff points, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch would be tied for fourth
with seven points. Stage Points: 1) Zane Smith 116, 2) Ty Majeski -6, 3) Corey Heim -9, 4) Christian Eckes -15, 5) Ben Rhodes -32, 6) Grant Enfinger
-40, 7) Carson Hocevar -43, 8) Matt DiBenedetto -55, 9) Matt Crafton -56, 10) Stewart Friesen -57, 11) Nick Sanchez -69, 12) Tanner Gray -75, 13) Chase Purdy -77, t-14) Rajah Caruth
-87, t-14) Dean Thompson -87, 16) Tyler Ankrum -88. Note: If they were eligible for stage points, William Byron would be 11th and Kyle Busch 13th. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Grant Enfinger 295, 2) Corey Heim
-13, 3) Ty Majeski -24, 4) Ben Rhodes -29, 5) Zane Smith -48, 6) Christian Eckes -49, 7) Matt Crafton -68, 8) Tanner Gray -71, 9) Carson Hocevar -72, 10) Stewart Friesen -74, 11) Nick Sanchez -76, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -85, 13) Chase Purdy -96, 14) Jake Garcia -108, 15) Tyler Ankrum -130, 16) Daniel Dye -135. WC Points (1-16): 1) Grant Enfinger 1699, 2) Ty Majeski -37, 3) Corey Heim -80, 4) Ben Rhodes -91, 5) Zane Smith
-129, 6) Christian Eckes -131, t-7) Stewart Friesen -218, t-7) Tanner Gray -218, 9) Carson Hocevar -222, 10) Matt Crafton -232, 11) Nick Sanchez -248, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -270, 13) Chase Purdy
-311, 14) Jake Garcia -348, 15) Tyler Ankrum -423, 16) Daniel Dye -449. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Austin), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas), Christian Eckes (Atlanta, Darlington),
Carson Hocevar (Texas), Joey Logano (Bristol), Corey Heim (Martinsville), 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 Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter was brought to you by the letter E for Explosion. Four
separate drivers (Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, Noah Gragson and Bubba Wallace) all saw their days end when brake rotor explosions put them in the wall, each hit being quite substantial. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter compiled by Phil Allaway
"I guess I had a lot of experience of doing the same stuff last year, and unfortunately didn’t make the most of it there at the end and get the win last year. Was able to do it this year just racing against a few of those
guys. [Kyle] Larson was up there, Denny [Hamlin] was up there, [Ryan] Blaney, all the guys that were fast all day. So I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. "Just the restarts kind of went our way. We were able to get through on the outside on that one and push Larson out, then he took bottom of three and four, I was able to
carry the momentum around the high side to take the lead. That was really important. I think that was kind of the key moment of us being able to win today. Being able to control the rest of the restarts for the rest of the race. "Kyle [Larson] is one of the best. It’s good to be able to sit up here and race hard with him,
being a Team Chevy partner. He gave me great respect, I appreciate that. That will be given back down the road." - Kyle Busch, race winner "I thought we were
super dialed if it was 95 degrees like it was supposed to be with those delays – it kind of took away from the advantage I thought that we had. I’m proud of this whole Sport Clips Toyota team – pit crew did a phenomenal job keeping us in it and doing really good on the money stop with about 60 to go. We are going to have to wait another to get that 50th [win]." - Denny Hamlin, finished second
"I’m proud of the fight. We were mediocre – just outside the top-five all day long. There was a group of cars that were a tick better than us. Then we executed at the end and beat a few of them. We tried some new things from last year, and we learned some lessons. But
overall: Good. We needed a solid run. We’ve been going through hell here lately. So, it’s nice to get a top five, third-place, and some points there in each stage. Good day." - Joey Logano, finished third "I want to be upset with fourth after running second there the last little bit of
the race and having a shot to line up on the front row for a green-white-checkered. For a lot of the day, I thought I was going to run 20th on back. Huge thank you to Cliff Daniels and everybody on the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team for making the right adjustments. I don’t know if we were still amazing, but the strategy calls were perfect and at the right time and the late cautions fell at the right time. I think the car would have been fine had we just ran those last 50 laps under
green.
"Proud of the effort today. It’s been a couple tough races. We’ve been so good all year long and the last few have been pretty bad and we’ve had to work on it quite a bit. The team got us in a place where we could contend for the win, so you can’t ask for much more than that." - Kyle Larson, finished
fourth "It was interesting for sure. For us, we had a really strong Auto Owners Insurance Camry. Started off the race near the front and stayed there through stage one and thought we could get a little bit better and maybe have a shot at
the couple, three in front of us. We had a pit road penalty and had to go to the back, and it was just an uphill climb from there. Just really tough to get through the field. We got some damage from when someone’s brake rotor exploded, that slowed us down even more. Really with all we went through today, a top-five is a really good day for us. I’m proud of the effort." - Martin Truex Jr., finished fifth
"Yeah, we ran pretty good today. Won the second stage which was good, second in the first stage. Just kind of lost track position, lost the lead. Through a couple stops and restarts, we could just never really get
it back. I thought that the No. 8, No. 11 and I were similar. It was just a matter of who was out front. I just got a bad restart at the end and fell to sixth. But overall, it wasn’t a bad day. It was a good points day too, and we’ll keep going." - Ryan Blaney, finished sixth
"The entire weekend was very solid for
us. We barely missed the second run in qualifying and really, we missed it because of me and not because of the car. The car was capable of advancing. In the race, the car was strong right away. I can’t thank enough everyone at Trackhouse Racing, the No. 99 team, everyone at Freeway Insurance, and all the people that help us have a strong performance on the track.
"It was fun today and we really needed this as a team. We needed a result that we deserved, and I felt like lately it’s been a little difficult on us when it comes to that. Today, I felt like we deserved a top 10 or top five and we came home seventh, so we will take it." - Daniel Suarez, finished seventh
"Our No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Chevy was really good all day. We kept our track position just like we wanted to. We got stage points and I felt like we had a top-eight or so car, which was a big difference from last year. Obviously we’re striving to be better everywhere. We had a really good streak going of really good runs. It looked like the No. 2 (Austin Cindric) just, for some reason, right-reared the No. 3 (Austin Dillon) and took both of us Chevy guys out, so that’s a
bummer. We definitely had a top-10 car today." - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished 32nd (Crashed out) "Our day kind of went bad early on, but our McDonald’s Camry was able to get through traffic pretty well,
but as the track stated to cool off, it just started going away from us. It was starting to get frustrating out there for sure, to have a car that good, and it feltlike it was just going away. I had a bad feeling that was coming soon. I was just getting ready to have to back off with how soft the brakes got, but I obviously should have been thinking about that a lap or two sooner." - Tyler Reddick, finished 34th (Crashed out) "I thought it was great. I had a blast. Just so thankful for the opportunity. I don’t have a job for next year. I know Al Niece and Cody Efaw wants me to run
for them and I will forever run a race or however many. But man, I’m just so thankful that they gave me the opportunity – the opportunity to drive a Xfinity car and now driving a Cup car. I was running 16th.. just so surreal for the first time ever. I thought we were going to have a good day and be in a good spot
for Schluter Systems, Celsius, Spire Motorsports, Ryan Sparks and the No. 7 Chevy team. Hopefully that call for a Cup ride isn’t the only one I get in my life." - Carson Hocevar, finished 36th (Crashed out)
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached
at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via Jeff Curry of Getty Images.
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