Frontstretch Newsletter: Oct. 9, 2023
Volume
XVII, Edition CLXXVII |
- In Oswego, N.Y., the Super DIRTcar Series will wrap up Super DIRT Week 51 with the Billy Whitaker Cars & Trux 200. Coverage is ongoing at the moment on DirtVision.com. - Monday Night Racing Season No. 7 gets underway tonight with the Dallara IR-01 cars racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Coverage will start at 8 p.m. ET on Frontstretch's own YouTube channel and on the Podium eSports Twitch
channel. - Teams are back at their shops, preparing for this weekend's action in Las Vegas. We'll have entry lists for this weekend's races and any other news that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| AJ Allmendinger Wins Wild Elimination Race at Charlotte
ROVAL Kaulig Racing's AJ Allmendinger spoiled the playoff storyline Sunday by leading a race-high 46 laps en route to winning the Bank of America ROVAL 400 in Charlotte. William Byron was second, then Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Joey
Logano. |
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| Kyle Busch Scores First Top 5 Since July Despite Playoff
Elimination Kyle Busch was up against the wall in the playoffs Sunday and responded with his best run in months. While he was eliminated, Busch could hold his head high with a third-place finish. |
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| Bubba Wallace Frustrated With Chicane Rules Following Playoff
Elimination Bubba Wallace finished 16th Sunday and was eliminated from the playoffs. However, he ran better than that for most of the race before he was spun out in the backstretch chicane. He then had to stop to address cutting the chicane, which angered
him. |
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| Cup Drivers React to the 2024 Schedule In Charlotte this weekend, Frontstretch had the chance to talk to drivers about the recently announced 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Opinions were mixed. |
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| Austin Cindric Signs Contract Extension With Team
Penske Austin Cindric confirmed Saturday that he has signed a contract extension with Team Penske that will keep him in the No. 2 Ford for next season. |
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| Sam Mayer Earns Walk-Off Victory At The Charlotte
ROVAL With his back against the wall, JR Motorsports' Sam Mayer led 50 of 67 laps from the pole Saturday to win the Drive for the Cure 250 at Charlotte Motor Speedway's ROVAL to earn his spot in the Round of 8. Cole Custer was second, then Josh Berry, Riley
Herbst and Kaz Grala. |
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| Sheldon Creed In, Hemric & Kligerman First Ones Out in Charlotte
ROVAL Sheldon Creed finished 10th in Saturday's Drive for the Cure 250 in Charlotte. That was just enough for him to claim the final spot in the Round of 8 over Daniel Hemric and Parker Kligerman. |
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| Max Verstappen Speeds to Qatar Grand Prix
Victory In a race plagued by heat and tire issues, Red Bull's Max Verstappen claimed his 14th victory of 2023 in Qatar Sunday. Oscar Piastri was second, then Lando Norris, George Russell and Charles Leclerc. |
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| Oscar Piastri Breaks Through With F1 Sprint Win as Max Verstappen Clinches
Championship McLaren's Oscar Piastri won a crash-strewn Sprint race Saturday in Qatar, his first triumph in the World Championship. Max Verstappen was second, then Lando Norris, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. The second-place finish was enough to clinch the World
Championship for Verstappen. |
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| William Sawalich Earns 4th ARCA Win of 2023 at
Toledo Joe GIbbs Racing's William Sawalich took the lead from Jesse Love with 35 laps to go Saturday, then held on to win the ARCA Menards Series Shore Lunch 200 at Toledo Speedway. Love finished second, then Sean Hingorani, Andres Perez de Lara and
Christian Rose. |
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| Christian Rose Returning to AM Racing’s ARCA Seat in
2024 During the broadcast of Saturday's Shore Lunch 200, it was revealed that Christian Rose will return to AM Racing for the full ARCA Menards Series season in 2024. |
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| Team WRT Wins Indianapolis 8 Hour Team WRT dominated at Indianapolis, but after the No. 31 BMW hit a lapped car and had a suspension failure, it was the No. 30 BMW of Philipp Eng, Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor that won the Indianapolis 8 Hour Saturday. |
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| Random Vandals Racing Wins Indianapolis GT4 Race No.
1 Random Vandals Racing's Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch won Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 Friday in Indianapolis after Michai Stephens' Mercedes broke with four minutes to go. |
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| Conquest Racing Overcomes Penalty to Win Indy GT4 Race No.
2 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports' Michai Stephens and Jesse Webb overcame a pit penalty to take the lead with 15 minutes to go and held on to win the Pirelli GT4 America SprintX season finale at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sunday. |
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| Memo Gidley Wins Indy GT America Race No. 1, Clinches
Title TKO Motorsports' Memo Gidley led flag-to-flag Friday to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 1 in Indianapolis. In doing so, he clinched the SRO3 championship. |
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| Memo Gidley Caps Off GT America Season with Indy
Sweep Memo Gidley took the lead on the first lap and held on to take his eighth GT America win of the season Sunday. Jason Bell claimed the GT4 championship. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Clive Rose of Getty Images, Brian Cleary and Fabian Lagunas of SRO Motorsports Group and our own Phil Allaway and Chase Folsom. 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: Oct. 6-8 |
- In Australia Sunday, Triple Eight Race Engineering's Shane van Gisbergen, in what is likely one of his last races at Bathurst due to his move to NASCAR in 2024, won the Repco Supercars Championship Repco Bathurst 1000 with teammate Richie Stanaway. It is van Gisbergen's third Bathurst win, while Stanaway took his first triumph. Van Gisbergen and Stanaway's margin of victory was 19.932 seconds over Erebus Motorsport's Brodie Kostecki (the current points leader) and David Russell. Dick Johnson Racing's Anton de Pasquale and Tony d'Alberto were third, followed by Walkinshaw Andretti United's Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth. Penrite Racing's David Reynolds and Garth Tander finished fifth despite a penalty that put them at the back early on. - The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spent the weekend at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, Penn. for the Nittany Showdown. Friday saw Tyler Courtney start fourth and pass James McFadden for the lead on lap 12. From there, Courtney drove away from
McFadden to claim his first World of Outlaws victory in two years. He won by 3.348 seconds over David Gravel. McFadden finished third, then Logan Schuchart and Pennsylvania Posse member Lance Dewease. Saturday night saw Zeb Wise, who won the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions title in the rescheduled Tuscarora 50 Thursday night at Port Royal, earn the pole for the feature
by winning the dash. Wise ended up losing the lead on the first lap to Dewease, then stalked the veteran for the entire first half of the race before retaking the advantage on lap 19. From there, Wise held off Courtney to take his first career World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win. Wise won by .687 seconds over Courtney. Schuchart was third, then Gravel and Dewease. With four races remaining before the World Finals, Brad Sweet has a 68-point lead over Gravel. Carson Macedo is third, then GIovanni Scelzi and Schuchart. - In World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series action, Bobby Pierce had an excellent weekend. The "Smooth Operator" took the lead Friday night at Brownstown Speedway on lap 8 and drove away to take the win by 1.755 seconds over Chris Madden. Tyler Erb was third, then Gordy Gundaker and Adam Stricker. In Saturday night's FALS Frenzy at Fairbury Speedway, Pierce battled hard with Madden and Brian Shirley over the first 15 laps of the race before Pierce was able to seize control. From there, Pierce was able to hold on for the weekend sweep and his 14th victory of the year. Pierce won by 1.131 seconds over Nick Hoffman. Madden was
third, then Brandon Sheppard and Kyle Bronson. With only two races remaining before the World Finals, Pierce has expanded his points lead to 156 points over Madden. Sheppard is third, then Bronson and Ryan Gustin. - Rain has plagued Super DIRT Week at
Oswego Speedway. Precipitation wiped out a significant portion of Friday's schedule, then the weather forecast resulted in DIRTcar trying to consolidate the four main features onto Saturday. |
This is just a sampling of the 28 videos that we posted to our YouTube channel from Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend. For more coverage from Charlotte, or from other weekends, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to click the bell in order to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: William Byron Wins Round of 12
by Phil Allaway
William Byron had a quiet day Sunday in Charlotte, but in the closing laps, he was right up front, battling for the win. A second-place finish means that he wins the Round of 12. His margin was a healthy 54 points over both Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell. Hamlin ran decently Sunday, but spun out in the
frontstretch chicane was hit, breaking a toe link and ending his day. Bell finished 15th, but scored 15 stage points. Chris Buescher is up one place to fourth after finishing seventh. Tyler Reddick moved up four places to fifth after winning stage one, finishing sixth and scoring a race-high 17 stage points. Ryan
Blaney and Kyle Larson are tied for sixth (Blaney gets the tiebreaker by virtue of his Talladega win). Blaney finished 12th after running much of the race slightly off the pit sequence. Larson came from the rear in a backup car to finish 13th. Martin Truex Jr. finished 20th and dropped two places to eighth. He is the final driver in the Round of 8 on points. Truex ended up 12 points ahead of Ross Chastain, who finished 10th, but lost significant time when he nearly hit Austin Dillon while trying to get into his pit. Bubba Wallace got spun out late and failed to serve his penalty quick enough. After dropping to 31st, he drove back to 16th, but that kept him in 10th. Brad Keselowski's day was ruined by a course-cutting
drive-through penalty that dropped him back to 11th in points. Kyle Busch finished third Sunday, but that wasn't enough to get him out of 12th. When the Round of 8 starts in Las Vegas next weekend, Byron will have a five-point lead over Truex, who continues to benefit from the regular season. Hamlin is third, then Larson and
Buescher. Of those eliminated, Keselowski leads that group in ninth by 20 points over Chastain. Wallace is 11th, then Busch. Joey Logano is 13th, then Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell. Outside of the playoffs altogether, Chase Elliott finished ninth and has a 62-point lead over Ty Gibbs, who finished fourth. Daniel Suarez crashed late in the race after contact from Bell and finished 33rd, dropping to 19th. Alex Bowman is 20th. Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) William Byron 3171, t-2) Denny Hamlin -54, t-2) Christopher Bell -54, 4) Chris Buescher -64, 5) Tyler Reddick -65, t-6) Ryan Blaney -68, t-6) Kyle Larson -68,
8) Martin Truex Jr. -69, 9) Ross Chastain -81, 10) Bubba Wallace -86, 11) Brad Keselowski -92, 12) Kyle Busch -99. Round of 12 Owners Point Standings: 1) Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 (William
Byron) 3171, 2) Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 (Chase Elliott) -49, t-3) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) -54, t-3) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 (Christopher Bell) -54, 5) RFK Racing No. 17 (Chris Buescher) -64, 6) 23XI Racing No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) -59, t-7) Team Penske No. 12 (Ryan
Blaney) -68, t-7) Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 (Kyle Larson) -68, 9) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) -69, 10) Trackhouse Racing Team No. 1 (Ross Chastain) -81, 11) RFK Racing No. 6 (Brad Keselowski) -92, 12) Richard Childress Racing No. 8 (Kyle Busch) -99. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) William Byron 4041, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -5, 3) Denny Hamlin -9, 4) Kyle Larson -17, 5) Chris Buescher -20, t-6) Chris Buescher -25, t-6) Christopher Bell -25, 8) Ryan Blaney -27. Round of 8 Owners Point Standings: 1) Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 (William Byron) 4041, 2) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) -9, 3) Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 (Kyle Larson) -17, 4) RFK Racing No. 17 (Chris Buescher) -20, t-5) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 (Christopher Bell) -25, t-5) 23XI Racing No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) -25,
7) Team Penske No. 12 (Ryan Blaney) -27, 8) Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 (Chase Elliott) -39. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9) Brad Keselowski 2192, 10) Ross Chastain -20, 11) Bubba Wallace -32, 12) Kyle Busch -42, 13) Joey
Logano -49, 14) Kevin Harvick -71, 15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -78, 16) Michael McDowell -82. Best of the Rest: 17) Chase Elliott 752, 18) Ty Gibbs -62, 19) Daniel Suarez -68, 20) Alex Bowman
-96, 21) AJ Allmendinger -122, 22) Aric Almirola -187, 23) Austin Cindric -195, 24) Ryan Preece -197, 25) Justin Haley -203, 26) Corey LaJoie -205. Non-Playoff Point
Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 1054, 2) Denny Hamlin -6, 3) Christopher Bell -62, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -64, 5) Kyle Larson -97, t-6) Tyler Reddick -132, t-6) Brad Keselowski
-132, 8) Chris Buescher -148, t-9) Ryan Blaney -176, t-9) Ross Chastain -176, 11) Kyle Busch -196, 12) Kevin Harvick -208, 13) Joey Logano -214, 14) Bubba Wallace -274, 15) Chase Elliott
-302, 16) Ty Gibbs -364. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff
Points: 1) William Byron 41, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -5, 3) Denny Hamlin -9, 4) Kyle Larson -17, 5) Chris Buescher -20, 6) Kyle Busch -22, t-7) Christopher Bell -25, t-7) Tyler Reddick -25, 9) Ryan Blaney -27,
10) Brad Keselowski -29, 11) Ross Chastain -30, 12) Bubba Wallace -41. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 273, 2) Denny Hamlin -3, 3) Kyle Larson
-29, 4) Tyler Reddick -31, 5) Christopher Bell -49, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -55, 7) Ryan Blaney -91, t-8) Brad Keselowski -95, t-8) Ross Chastain -95, 10) Joey Logano -127, 11) Kevin
Harvick -133, t-12) Kyle Busch -146, t-12) Bubba Wallace -146, 14) Chase Elliott -149, 15) Daniel Suarez -165, 16) Alex Bowman -168. Outside of the top 16, but
still in the playoffs: 18) Chris Buescher -171. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point
Standings (1-16): t-1) William Byron 941, t-1) Chris Buescher 941, 3) Denny Hamlin -9, 4) Christopher Bell -24, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -26, 6) Brad Keselowski -51, 7) Kyle Busch
-72, 8) Kyle Larson -81, t-9) Kevin Harvick -98, t-9) Ross Chastain -98, 11) Ryan Blaney -103, 12) Joey Logano -106, 13) Tyler Reddick -118, 14) Bubba Wallace -149, 15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
-168, 16) Chase Elliott -203. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 4244, 2) William Byron -17, 3) Chris Buescher -32, 4) Christopher Bell -65, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -75, 6) Brad Keselowski -168, 7) Kyle Larson -216, 8) Kyle
Busch -222, 9) Ross Chastain -316, 10) Joey Logano -318, 11) Ryan Blaney -343, 12) Kevin Harvick -345, 13) Tyler Reddick -366, 14) Bubba Wallace -510, 15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -599, 16) Ty
Gibbs -710. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
(Daytona-1), Kyle Busch (Fontana, Talladega-1, Gateway), William Byron (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Darlington-1, Atlanta-2, Watkins Glen, Texas), Joey Logano (Atlanta-1), Tyler Reddick (Austin, Kansas-2), Kyle Larson (Richmond-1, Martinsville, Darlington-2), Christopher Bell (Bristol-1), Martin Truex Jr. (Dover, Sonoma, Loudon), Denny Hamlin (Kansas-1, Pocono, Bristol-2), Ryan Blaney (Charlotte, Talladega-2), Ross Chastain (Nashville), Shane van Gisbergen (Chicago), Chris Buescher
(Richmond-2, Michigan, Daytona-2), Michael McDowell (Indianapolis), AJ Allmendinger (Charlotte-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: John Hunter Nemechek Wins Round of 12
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek's Saturday started out terribly with an oil leak causing him to miss qualifying and start from the rear. He was able to recover to win stage two and finish eighth. That was more than enough for him to win the Round of 12. Nemechek ended the round 35 points ahead of Cole Custer, who moved up one spot with a second-place finish.
Justin Allgaier was eliminated in a late restart crash and dropped back to third. Austin Hill finished ninth and finished the round in fourth. Chandler Smith finished the round in fifth after a 12th-place finish. Sammy Smith is sixth in points, while Sheldon Creed finished 10th Saturday and claimed
the final spot in the Round of 8 on points. He ended up two points ahead of Daniel Hemric, who was just a tenth of a second away from a fifth-place finish and advancement via a tiebreaker. Parker Kligerman finished sixth, just one-thousandth of a second behind Kaz Grala. That kept him in ninth. Sam Mayer's victory
on Saturday boosted him to 10th and locked him into the Round of 8. Josh Berry finished third, but stayed in 11th. Jeb Burton triggered the crash that ultimately took Allgaier out of the race and finished the round in 12th. Outside of the playoffs, Riley Herbst finished fourth Saturday and increased his advantage over
Brandon Jones to 65 points. Jones spun out late and finished 29th. Brett Moffitt never really got going before ignition issues ended his race, leaving him nearly a full race behind Jones in 15th. Grala's fifth-place finish moved him up to 16th. Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 2187, 2) Cole Custer
-35, 3) Justin Allgaier -39, 4) Austin Hill -55, 5) Chandler Smith -68, 6) Sammy Smith -80, 7) Sheldon Creed -82, 8) Daniel Hemric -84, 9) Parker Kligerman -87, 10) Sam Mayer -119, 11) Josh Berry
-125, 12) Jeb Burton -146. Round of 12 Owner Point Standings: 1) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 (John Hunter Nemechek) 2187, 2) Stewart-Haas Racing No. 00 (Cole Custer) -35, 3) JR Motorsports No. 7 (Justin Allgaier) -39, 4) Richard Childress
Racing No. 21 (Austin Hill) -55, 5) Kaulig Racing No. 16 (Chandler Smith) -70, 6) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 (Sammy Smith) -80, 7) Kaulig Racing No. 10 (Daniel Hemric) -81, 8) Richard Childress Racing No. 2 (Sheldon Creed) -83, 9) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 (Myatt Snider) -96, 10) JR Motorsports No. 1 (Sam
Mayer) -120, 11) JR Motorsports No. 8 (Josh Berry) -126, 12) Jordan Anderson Racing No. 27 (Jeb Burton) -146. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 3055, 2) Austin Hill -16, 3) Justin Allgaier -20, 4) Sam Mayer -35, 5) Cole
Custer -37, 6) Chandler Smith -46, 7) Sheldon Creed -47, 8) Sammy Smith -49. Round of 8 Owner Point Standings: 1) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 (John Hunter Nemechek) 3055, 2) Richard Childress Racing No. 21 (Austin Hill) -16, 3) JR Motorsports No. 7 (Justin Allgaier) -20,
4) JR Motorsports No. 1 (Sam Mayer) -36, 5) Stewart-Haas Racing No. 00 (Cole Custer) -37, 6) Kaulig Racing No. 16 (Chandler Smith) -48, t-7) Kaulig Racing No. 10 (Daniel Hemric) -49, t-7) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 (Sammy Smith) -49. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9)
Daniel Hemric 2103, 10) Parker Kligerman -3, 11) Josh Berry -41, 12) Jeb Burton -62. Best of the Rest (13-22): 13) Riley Herbst 739, 14) Brandon Jones -65, 15) Brett Moffitt -120, 16) Kaz Grala -175, 17) Parker Retzlaff -184, 18)
Ryan Sieg -198, 19) Jeremy Clements -266, 20) Anthony Alfredo -344, 21) Kyle Sieg -351, 22) Josh Williams -352. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 1143, 2) Austin Hill
-40, 3) Justin Allgaier -51, 4) Cole Custer -137, 5) Josh Berry -287, 6) Sheldon Creed -292, 7) Sam Mayer -308, 8) Chandler Smith -322, 9) Daniel Hemric -329, 10) Parker
Kligerman -347, 11) Sammy Smith -396, 12) Riley Herbst -404, 13) Brandon Jones -469, 14) Jeb Burton -491, 15) Brett Moffitt -524, 16) Kaz Grala -579.
Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek
55, 2) Austin Hill -16, 3) Justin Allgaier -20, 4) Cole Custer -36, 5) Sam Mayer -36, t-6) Chandler Smith -46, t-6) Josh Berry -46, 8) Sheldon Creed -47, t-9) Sammy Smith -49, t-9) Jeb Burton
-49, 11) Daniel Hemric -52, 12) Parker Kligerman -53. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 327, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -22, 3) Austin Hill -57, 4) Cole
Custer -62, 5) Sheldon Creed -123, 6) Chandler Smith -151, 7) Josh Berry -163, 8) Sam Mayer -179, 9) Riley Herbst -182, 10) Daniel Hemric -184, 11) Sammy Smith -190, 12) Brandon Jones
-206, 13) Parker Kligerman -225, 14) Ryan Truex -286, 15) Brett Moffitt -287, 16) Ryan Sieg -293. Note: If they were eligible for points, Ty Gibbs would be 14th, AJ Allmendinger 15th and Kyle Larson 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 973, 2) Austin Hill -11, 3) Justin
Allgaier -77, 4) Cole Custer -97, 5) Josh Berry -155, 6) Sam Mayer -165, 7) Parker Kligerman -168, 8) Daniel Hemric
-184, 9) Sheldon Creed -194, 10) Chandler Smith -202, 11) Jeb Burton -232, 12) Sammy Smith -241, 13) Riley Herbst -261, 14) Brett Moffitt
-277, 15) Brandon Jones -300, 16) Kaz Grala -310. WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 4288, 2) Austin Hill -61, 3) Justin Allgaier
-252, 4) Cole Custer -348, 5) Josh Berry -536, 6) Sam Mayer -573, 7) Parker Kligerman -596, 8) Daniel Hemric -663, 9) Sheldon Creed -707, 10) Chandler Smith -720, 11) Sammy
Smith -847, 12) Jeb Burton -885, 13) Riley Herbst -902, 14) Brett Moffitt -1005, 15) Brandon Jones -1058, 16) Kaz Grala -1112. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Las Vegas,
Atlanta-1, Pocono), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana, Martinsville. Atlanta-2, Loudon, Michigan, Kansas, Texas), Sammy Smith (Phoenix), AJ Allmendinger (Austin, Nashville), Chandler Smith (Richmond), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Ryan Truex (Dover), Kyle Larson (Darlington-1), Justin Allgaier (Charlotte, Daytona-2, Bristol), Cole Custer (Portland, Chicago), Aric Almirola (Sonoma), Sam Mayer (Road America, Watkins Glen, Charlotte-2), Ty Gibbs (Indianapolis), Denny
Hamlin (Darlington-2) 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: Off-Week Edition No. 13 by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will return to action on Oct. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. When the season resumes, Corey Heim will have a 10-point lead over Carson Hocevar. In addition,
Heim is the only driver that is already locked into the Championship 4. Christian Eckes is third, then Nick Sanchez. Sanchez is the last driver currently in the Championship 4 on points. He has a three-point advantage over Grant Enfinger, then Ben Rhodes.
Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 3121, 2) Carson Hocevar -10, 3) Christian Eckes -24, 4) Nick Sanchez -30, 5) Grant Enfinger -33, 6) Ben Rhodes -35, 7) Ty Majeski -49, 8) Zane
Smith -66. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9) Matt Crafton 2103, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -1. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim
851, 2) Christian Eckes -109, 3) Grant Enfinger -123, 4) Carson Hocevar -138, 5) Zane Smith -150, 6) Ben Rhodes -158, 7) Ty Majeski -191, 8) Nick Sanchez -212, 9) Matt DiBenedetto -299, 10) Matt Crafton
-301, 11) Chase Purdy -345, 12) Stewart Friesen -371, 13) Tanner Gray -372, 14) Jake Garcia -376, 15) Taylor Gray -406, 16) Tyler Ankrum -423.
Best of the Rest: 11) Chase Purdy
506, 12) Stewart Friesen -26, 13) Tanner Gray -27, 14) Jake Garcia -31, 15) Taylor Gray -61, 16) Tyler Ankrum -78, 17) Rajah Caruth -79, 18) Daniel Dye -138, 19) Hailie Deegan -152, 20) Dean Thompson -187. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for the playoffs. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 35, 2) Christian Eckes
-9, 3) Grant Enfinger -11, t-4) Carson Hocevar -13, t-4) Zane Smith -13, 6) Ty Majeski -19, 7) Ben Rhodes -22, 8) Nick Sanchez -28. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim
227, 2) Zane Smith -30, 3) Ty Majeski -31, 4) Christian Eckes -39, 5) Carson Hocevar -67, 6) Ben Rhodes -75, 7) Nick Sanchez -83, 8) Grant Enfinger -92, 9) Matt DiBenedetto -136, 10) Stewart Friesen
-150, 11) Matt Crafton -153, 12) Tanner Gray -162, 13) Chase Purdy -166, 14) Rajah Caruth -179, 15) Tyler Ankrum -181, 16) Taylor Gray -193. Note: If they were
eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be 14th and William Byron tied for 15th. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 561, 2) Grant Enfinger -47, 3) Christian Eckes -80, 4) Carson Hocevar -82, 5) Ben Rhodes
-96, 6) Zane Smith -130, 7) Nick Sanchez -137, 8) Ty Majeski -153, 9) Matt Crafton -163, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -177, 11) Jake Garcia -189, 12) Chase Purdy -192, 13) Taylor Gray -218, 14) Tanner Gray
-223, 15) Stewart Friesen -237, 16) Tyler Ankrum -258. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 3121, 2) Grant Enfinger -157, 3) Christian Eckes -202, 4) Carson Hocevar -242, 5) Ben
Rhodes -306, 6) Zane Smith -370, 7) Nick Sanchez -442, 8) Ty Majeski -493, 9) Matt Crafton -546, 10) Chase Purdy -630, 11) Matt DiBenedetto -633, 12) Jake Garcia -705, 13) Tanner Gray -730, 14) Stewart
Friesen -748, 15) Tyler Ankrum -858, 16) Rajah Caruth -873. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Austin), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, Pocono), Christian Eckes (Atlanta, Darlington, Kansas-2), Carson Hocevar (Texas, Nashville, Richmond), Joey Logano
(Bristol-1), Corey Heim (Martinsville, Mid-Ohio, Bristol-2), Grant Enfinger (Kansas-1, Gateway, Milwaukee), Kyle Larson (North Wilkesboro), Ben Rhodes (Charlotte), Ty Majeski (Lucas Oil IRP), Brett Moffitt (Talladega) 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 Bank of America ROVAL 400 was brought to you by the letter Q for Questionable. One of the rule changes made for the race weekend meant that drivers had to traverse the frontstretch chicane
on starts and restarts. The idea was to cut down on chaos in turn 1. The NASCAR Cup Series race was clean there this year, but it is debatable whether it was necessary since it wasn't an issue last year. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Bank of America ROVAL 400k by Phil Allaway
"This is why you do it. This is the only reason you do it. You fight. All the blood, sweat, tears, everybody at Kaulig Racing has just been such – I wouldn’t say a down year, but an up-and-down year. It's our second year in the Cup Series.
"...You don't know when you're going
to do it again. I love all the men and women at Kaulig Racing so much. First of all, hi to my beautiful wife and my new baby boy. I usually give these checkered flags away but I'm going to have to wrap this around Aero. My mom and dad, all my family and friends - those people see how much anguish and how much I put it on my shoulders when we're struggling. It just means the world." - AJ Allmendinger, race winner "[I needed] just one final run to get within a car-length there. The air buffer is kind of tough there with three to four car lengths. But once you get within one, you can kind of manipulate his car a little bit, so I was hoping for that. It's been a great year for the No. 24 HP Chevy team and we’ve been great on all the road courses. I had that one shot with probably eight laps to go. AJ [Allmendinger] just did
a good job blocking the chicane there. He didn’t miss his marks and it was too early to make a dive bomb to him. "Just proud of the whole team. The Z by HP Camaro was awesome. We definitely improved a lot as the race went on. It was good to have Z by HP on the car – a new partner for us, so that was really fun. Just good momentum. We’ve got to keep it rolling. I’d like to finish
one-two-two in the next round, too. That would be ideal, but we just have to keep performing like this and we’ll be where we want to be." - William Byron, finished second "Just [needed] more overall grip [to win]. Those last couple of restarts, we were just fighting with traction up off the corners and with front-turn to be able to turn into the corners.
We gave it a valiant effort. That was about what we thought we would get out of here, at least what I thought. We wanted to come in here and win. This team is capable of running and they gave me a great car today. The Lenovo Camaro was fast. We had good speed in it, just wasn’t able to hold on with the tires as long as I wanted to. We’ll take that. It rides on my shoulders anyway with the previous two weeks – not getting anything out of Texas (Motor Speedway) and not getting a whole lot out of
Talladega [Superspeedway]. Just bad circumstances, but we’ll fight on another day." - Kyle Busch, finished third "It was a really good day for the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team. I need to be a little bit better and do a better job there towards the end. We made a couple adjustments on the car throughout the race, but overall, I just need to do a better job
and capitalize on the restarts and finish it off at the end." - Ty Gibbs, finished fourth "We executed a decent race for the most part. We could have gotten maybe a couple more on being a little quicker on some other things, but, overall, we had the speed to win if you would have put us first but I’m pretty sure anybody in the top seven would
say the same thing. It was whoever was out front goes there. We ran fifth most of the day and we finished fifth and that’s just what it is." - Joey Logano, finished fifth
"We executed for sure all day long. Selfishly, I wanted to go forward and win the race on top of it all. We were good, but I feel like we were just one of the other cars there at the very end unfortunately. It’s
hard to take any unnecessary risks when you’re in a good spot to advance to the Round of 8. It just doesn’t make sense to put it all on the line to try to win a race." - Tyler Reddick, finished sixth "That was probably a little bit more stressful from on top of the box than what it was inside the race car. We basically did what we talked
about doing, steadily moving up all day and being there to capture those end of day points. I sure would have loved some stage points, but at the same time didn’t want to throw away the race and it ended up being a great call from Scott and everyone on this No. 17 team. We had another fast race car. This Fifth Third Bank Mustang was good and I’m proud of that. I should have been able to run a little bit better than that, but certainly had to keep the big picture in
mind. Another top 10 for the road courses, just got to break forward a handful of spots, but that’s a heck of a way to go onto the next round." - Chris Buescher, finished seventh
"We knew coming in that it was going to be tough. We put together a heck of a day for us on road courses this year in this No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevy. Lately, we’ve just been lacking speed and I
can’t get over the curbs. There’s a lot of reasons. We’ve reverted on some of that through Watkins Glen (International) and to here (Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course) and it’s really paid off. I’m excited with the gains we’ve made. We came out of the box super strong in 2022 – won the first road course race in the Next Gen car. And then it just slowly kind of stepped back all the way until mid-season this year. "I can’t wait to get to work in the morning, to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) and every race after that." - Ross Chastain, finished 10th
"Texas. That’s what I thought about after we got spun there. This weekend was incredible. Just from the effort from the team and from myself. Just all clicking, right? And it felt really good to be competitive and run
upfront, pass cars on road courses and not be passed. There’s a lot to look at. What I analyze is what could I have done and not be in that situation? Could I have been faster and passed another car? How to be better to not put yourself — when you’re racing around there with squirrels. It is what it is. Just didn’t have enough and it wasn’t in the cards. I guess that’s what 30 is. I’m not mad. I’m happy for the team. I’m pumped for our season. It’s not over yet. I’m really excited for next week
and Homestead and Martinsville. Phoenix, eh, I might just go on vacation (laughter). But we’ve still got four races to go out and do it. I’m proud of the team so I appreciate them." - Bubba Wallace, finished 16th "It’s not the day we wanted for sure, but we’ve got a lot to be proud of. We kept clawing and it just wasn’t enough today. I
felt like I could have done a few things better and obviously it’s frustrating when you don’t advance and you don’t get what you want out of the day, but we’ve got a lot of great things going on and we’ll learn from it and come back stronger." - Brad Keselowski, finished 18th "Just once we got back there it’s just so hard to pass. Overdrove a corner that was
about it, really. Thanks to the whole Mavis team for giving me a solid car we qualified with. Obviously, with the scenarios going on it’s like if you stay out for a stage, you just go back to the back and you’re never to be seen again. Unless, maybe, unless you’re Tyler Reddick. He’s going to the front." - Denny Hamlin, finished 37th (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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