Frontstretch Newsletter: Oct. 23, 2023
Volume
XVII, Edition CLXXXVII |
- Teams are back at their shops today, preparing for the doubleheader this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, We'll have entry lists for this weekend's races and any other news that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Christopher Bell Rallies for Homestead Win Christopher Bell snatched the lead away from William Byron with 16 laps to go Sunday and held on to win the 4Ever 400 presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to lock into the Championship 4. Ryan Blaney was second, then Tyler Reddick, Byron and
AJ Allmendinger. |
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| Kyle Larson’s Day Ends In Sand Barrels At
Homestead Kyle Larson likely had the best car at Homestead for the second straight year, leading a race-high 96 laps. However, he tried to charge onto pit road too quickly and proceeded to run into the back of Ryan Blaney before hitting the sand barrels and
knocking himself out of the race. |
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| Ryan Blaney Calls Denny Hamlin ‘Hack’ After Chaotic Miami
Race Ryan Blaney finished second Sunday in Homestead, but he wasn't very happy afterwards with Denny Hamlin, whom he had contact with multiple times late in the race. |
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| Sam Mayer Locks Into Championship 4 With Homestead
Win JR Motorsports' Sam Mayer took the lead on a restart with 31 laps to go from Sheldon Creed and held on to take his third win of the year in the Contender Boats 300, locking himself into the Championship 4 in the process. Riley Herbst was second, then
John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Hill and Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
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| Cole Custer Sees Shot At Xfinity Title Go Flat at
Homestead Cole Custer led 114 laps Saturday in Homestead, but wall contact on lap 151 cut his right front tire and ended any chance of victory. |
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| Chandler Smith, Kaulig Racing to Part Ways in
2024 Kaulig Racing announced Sunday morning that Chandler Smith will be leaving the team at the end of the season. |
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| Ryan Sieg Running Full-Time With SciAps as Sponsor in
2024 RSS Racing announced Friday that the No. 39 team will return full-time to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2024. SciAps will serve as the team's primary sponsor for the full year. |
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| Carson Hocevar Wins Homestead, Advances to Championship
4 Niece Motorsports' Carson Hocevar ran down Ben Rhodes, who was on an alternate strategy, and took the lead with 11 laps to go. From there, he held on to win the Baptist Health Cancer Care 200. Zane Smith finished second on the road before being
disqualified. As a result, Ben Rhodes was second, then Corey Heim, Grant Enfinger and Bayley Currey. |
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| Christian Eckes Eliminated After Downward Spiral at
Miami Christian Eckes entered Saturday with a good chance at getting into the Championship 4. A restart violation and a speeding violation took away any possibility for advancement. |
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| Reaume Brothers Racing Gives Update on Injured Crew
Member During Saturday's Baptist Health Cancer Care 200, Reaume Brothers Racing's Cory Selig was hospitalized with multiple cracked bones after being hit by Memphis Villarreal's Ford on pit road. |
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| Max Verstappen Survives Brake Issues for Anxious Win in
Texas Red Bull's Max Verstappen passed Lando Norris for the lead and held on despite braking issues to win the United States Grand Prix for his 15th win of the year. Norris was second, then Carlos Sainz Jr., Sergio Perez and George
Russell. |
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| Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc Disqualified From US Grand
Prix The rare disqualifications came out to play Sunday in Austin. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc were both DQ'd after the United States Grand Prix due to excessive legality plank wear. |
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| Max Verstappen Dominates F1 Sprint at COTA Red Bull's Max Verstappen easily won the 19-lap Sprint race Saturday at Circuit of the Americas. Lewis Hamilton was second, then Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Sergio Perez. |
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| Kaden Honeycutt Nails Restarts, Wins at Madera Kaden Honeycutt led flag-to-flag Saturday night to win the ARCA Menards Series West 51Fifty Jr. Homecoming ARCA 150 at Madera Speedway. Todd Souza was second, then Joey Iest, Bradley Erickson and Sean Hingorani. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, along with Chris Graythen and Mark Thompson of Getty Images. 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. 20-22 |
- The European Le Mans Series wrapped up their season this weekend with a doubleheader at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal. Both races ended up being affected by rain. Friday's 4 Hours of the Algarve (added to the schedule to replace a scheduled race at Imola) saw United Autosports' Oliver
Jarvis take the lead from Algarve Pro Racing's Alex Lynn with 10 minutes to go and hold on to take the win for himself, Phil Hanson and Marino Sato in mixed conditions.
The margin of victory was .808 seconds over Lynn, James Allen and Kyffin Simpson. Panis Racing's Manuel Maldonado and Job van Uitert were third, then COOL Racing's Rashad de Gerus, Jose Maria Lopez and Vladislav Lomko. Duqueine Team's Rene
Binder, Neel Jani and Nico Pino were third,
In LMP2 Pro-Am, COOL Racing's Alexandre Coigny, Malthe Jakobsen and Nicolas Lapierre took the class victory in sixth overall. They were 1.333 seconds ahead of Nielsen Racing's Mathias Beche, Ben Hanley and Rodrigo Sales. AF Corses's Ben Barnicoat, Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere were third, then United Autosports' Andy
Meyrick, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Daniel Schneider. DragonSpeed's Henrik Hedman, along with Juan Pablo and Sebastian Montoya were fifth. LMP3 saw WTM by Rinaldi Racing's Torsten Kratz, Oscan Tunjo and Leonard Weiss take their first class victory. Their margin of victory was 20.263 seconds over Ultimate's Jean-Baptiste Lahaye, Matthieu Lahaye and Eric Trouillet. DKR
Engineering's Alexander Bukhantsov, Pedro Perino and James Winslow were fourth, then COOL Racing's Adrien Chila, Alejandro Garcia and Marcos Siebert. RLR MSport's James Dayson, Valdemar Eriksen and Jack Manchester were fifth. The fourth-place was enough to clinch the LMP3 title for Chila, Garcia and Siebert. In GTE, Proton Competition had a one-two finish with the No.
77 Porsche of Julien Andlauer, Giammarco Levorato and Christian Ried beating the No. 16 Porsche of Ryan Hardwick, Alessio Picariello and Zacharie Robichon by .570 seconds. Iron Lynx's Matteo Cairoli, Matteo Cressoni and Claudio Schiavoni completed the Porsche podium sweep. Kessel Racing's Ferrari for Scott Huffaker, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra were fourth, while TF Racing's Valentin Hasse-Clot, along with Arnold and Maxime Robin were fifth. - Sunday's 4 Hours of Portimao was delayed by an hour due to heavy rains. When the race finally started behind the safety car, the conditions were so still so poor that the race was stopped after five minutes and red-flagged. Following a 39-minute red flag, the race ran to the scheduled conclusion.
Hanson, Jarvis and Sato dominated the proceedings, nearly leading the whole way to take the weekend sweep. APR was second once again, 5.785 seconds back. Panis Racing was third, then AF Corse's No. 83 and COOL Racing's No. 37.
In LMP2, the top three teams were in the LMP2 class. Inter Europol Competition's Jonathan Aberdein, Rui Andrade
and Oliver Caldwell were fourth, while Duqueine Team was fifth after a late penalty for spinning out the Panis Racing entry. APR won the LMP2 championship with their second-place finish. Barnicoat, Perrodo and Vaxiviere's fourth-place finish gave them the Pro-Am victory and the LMP2 Pro-Am championship. Their margin of victory was .631 seconds over COOL Racing's No. 37.
Nielsen Racing was third, then Racing Team Turkey's Louis Deletraz, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc. DragonSpeed was fifth. In LMP3, Eurointernational's Matt Bell and Adam Ali led most of the way to take the class win in 16th overall. They were a lap ahead of the championship trio from COOL Racing. DKR Engineering was third, then Inter Europol Competition's Kai Askey,
Wyatt Brichacek and Miguel Cristovao. Team Virage's Nick Adcock, Manuel Espirito Santo and Michael Jensen were fifth. Proton Competition's No. 16 claimed the last-ever GTE class victory Sunday by 6.285 seconds over their teammates in the No. 77 Porsche. Spirit of Race's Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and David Perel were third in their Ferrari, then JMW Motorsport's Martin
Berry, Lorcan Hanafin and Jon Lancaster. TF Sport's Jonny Adam, John Hartshorne and Ben Tuck were fifth. - The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series closed down Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Tex. over the weekend with the Sprint Car Stampede. Friday night saw Carson Macedo get the pole by winning the Dash, then lead the 25-lap feature flag-to-flag to win
by .677 seconds over David Gravel. Brad Sweet was third, then Spencer Bayston and Robbie Price. Donny Schatz finished third, followed by Giovanni Scelzi. Cory Eliason was
fifth. Brad Sweet flipped over in a crash with teammate Kasey Kahne just a couple of laps into the race. Despite the roll, Sweet was able to come back to finish seventh. The seventh-place finish allowed Sweet to maintain a 50-point lead over Gravel heading into the World Finals. Macedo is third, then Scelzi and Logan Schuchart. |
This is just a sample of the 31 videos from Homestead and Tri-County Speedway that were posted to our YouTube channel last weekend. For more content from Homestead, or other race weekends, please subscribe to our channel and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: William Byron Claims Lead After Kyle Larson Hits Barrels
by Phil Allaway
Kyle Larson had the best car for much of the race Sunday in Homestead. Then, he got overzealous trying to get into the pits and hit the sand barrels protecting the blunt end of the pit wall. That put him out for the day. William Byron faded late, but still finished fourth. That was enough to give him the points lead. His
advantage is 16 points over race winner Christopher Bell. Ryan Blaney got his disqualification in Las Vegas rescinded Monday, then finished second. As a result, he is now third in points, the final driver in the Championship 4 on points. Larson's crash dropped him to fourth in points. Blaney currently has a 10-point lead
over Tyler Reddick, who finished third Sunday to move up one place to fifth. Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin both dropped out at nearly the same time and are currently tied for sixth. Truex dropped out with an engine failure, while Hamlin wrecked in turn 1 after an apparent steering failure. Chris Buescher had a miserable day Sunday and is now 43 points behind Blaney in eighth. Of those eliminated from the playoffs, Brad Keselowski ran well until he was caught up in a crash on the backstretch. From there, he struggled to finish 28th. Despite that, he still has a 43-point lead over Ross Chastain, who was eliminated in the same crash. Bubba Wallace finished sixth and moved up to 11th. Kyle Busch dropped to 12th after finishing 18th. Joey Logano remains in 13th after finishing eighth. Kevin Harvick remains in 14th, then Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Of those who did not qualify for the
playoffs, Chase Elliott still leads that group. His advantage is 52 points over both Daniel Suarez and Ty Gibbs. AJ Allmendinger's fifth-place finish Sunday moved him up to 20th. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) William Byron
4126, 2) Christopher Bell -16, 3) Ryan Blaney -20, 4) Kyle Larson -21, 5) Tyler Reddick -30, t-6) Martin Truex Jr. -37, t-6) Denny Hamlin -37, 8) Chris Buescher -63. Round of 8 Owners Point Standings: 1) Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 (William Byron) 4126, 2) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 (Christopher Bell) -16, 3) Team Penske No. 12 (Ryan Blaney) -20, 4) Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 (Kyle Larson) -21, 5) 23XI Racing No. 45 (Tyler Reddick)
-30, 6) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) -37, 7) RFK Racing No. 17 (Chris Buescher) -63, 8) Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 (Chase Elliott) -97. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9) Brad Keselowski 2262, 10) Ross Chastain
-43, 11) Bubba Wallace -46, 12) Kyle Busch -52, 13) Joey Logano -64, 14) Kevin Harvick -92, 15) Michael McDowell -117, 16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -126.
Best of the Rest: 17) Chase Elliott
779, t-18) Daniel Suarez -52, t-18) Ty Gibbs -52, 20) AJ Allmendinger -101, 21) Alex Bowman -103, 22) Aric Almirola -163, 23) Austin Cindric -183, 24) Ryan Preece -189, 25) Corey LaJoie -197, 26) Justin Haley -201. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 1139, 2) Denny Hamlin -34, 3) Christopher Bell -53, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -96, 5) Kyle Larson
-101, 6) Tyler Reddick -137, 7) Brad Keselowski -146, 8) Ryan Blaney -169, 9) Chris Buescher -191, 10) Ross Chastain -214, 11) Kyle Busch -221, t-12) Joey Logano -244, t-12) Kevin Harvick -244, 14) Bubba
Wallace -303, 15) Chase Elliott -360, t-16) Daniel Suarez -412, t-16) Ty Gibbs -412. 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, t-3) Denny Hamlin -9, t-3) Kyle Larson -9, t-5) Chris Buescher -20, t-6) Christopher Bell -20, 7) Tyler Reddick
-25, 8) Ryan Blaney -26. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 295, 2) Denny Hamlin -2, 3) Kyle Larson -13, 4) Tyler Reddick -36, 5) Christopher Bell
-52, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -60, 7) Ryan Blaney -87, 9) Brad Keselowski -88, 9) Ross Chastain -108, 10) Joey Logano -148, 11) Kevin Harvick -153, 12) Kyle Busch -161, 13) Bubba Wallace -167, 14) Chase Elliott
-171, 15) Daniel Suarez -187, 16) Alex Bowman -190. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Chris Buescher -193. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 1014, 2) Christopher Bell -13, 3) Chris Buescher
-23, 4) Denny Hamlin -38, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -53, 6) Brad Keselowski -72, 7) Kyle Busch -84, 8) Kyle Larson -100, 9) Ryan Blaney -101, 10) Kevin Harvick -116, 11) Joey Logano -117, 12) Tyler Reddick
-119, 13) Ross Chastain -125, 14) Bubba Wallace -158, 15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -211, 16) Ty Gibbs -238. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were
created. WC Points (1-16): 1) William Byron 4543, 2) Christopher Bell -9, 3) Denny Hamlin -82, 4) Chris Buescher -101, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -150, 6) Brad
Keselowski -218, 7) Kyle Busch -247, 8) Kyle Larson -259, 9) Ryan Blaney -317, 10) Joey Logano -348, 11) Tyler Reddick -353, 12) Ross Chastain -390, 13) Kevin Harvick -399, 14) Bubba Wallace
-530, 15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -728, 16) Ty Gibbs -802. 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 Vega1, Phoenix, Darlington-1, Atlanta-2, Watkins Glen, Texas), Joey Logano (Atlanta-1), Tyler Reddick (Austin, Kansas-2), Kyle Larson (Richmond-1, Martinsville, Darlington-2, Las Vegas-2), Christopher Bell (Bristol-1, Homestead), 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 Expands Advantage With Strong Homestead Run
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek had a strong day Saturday, running up front all day and finishing third. While he isn't locked into the Championship 4, Nemechek expanded his lead up to 41 points over both Cole Custer and Austin Hill. Custer was dominant early on before hitting the wall and cutting his right front tire. He would eventually finish 13th.
Hill finished fourth. Sam Mayer scored his first career oval victory and moved up to fourth. Custer and Hill are tied for the final spots on points in the Championship 4. They are three points ahead of Justin Allgaier, who was forced to pit with a loose left rear wheel that put him off-sequence. He ended up a lap down in 15th and dropped three spots to fifth.
Sammy Smith finished ninth, but is still 49 points out of third. Chandler Smith crashed out and dropped to seventh, while Sheldon Creed ended up pitting in the final couple of laps due to a tire issue and remains in eighth. Of those drivers eliminated from the playoffs, Daniel Hemric continues to lead in ninth after finishing
sixth. He is 16 points ahead of Parker Kligerman. Josh Berry got in the wall late after cutting a tire. He stays in 11th, but is more than a full race behind Kligerman. Jeb Burton is 12th. Riley Herbst continues to lead those who failed to make the playoffs. He is now 96 points ahead of Brandon Jones and will
more than likely lock up 13th in points in Martinsville. Jones is 96 points ahead of Brett Moffitt and will lock up 14th in points in Martinsville. Moffitt remains in 15th after crashing out, while Parker Retzlaff is 16th. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 3154, t-2) Cole Custer
-41, t-2) Austin Hill -41, 4) Sam Mayer -43, 5) Justin Allgaier -44, 6) Sammy Smith -90, 7) Chandler Smith -95, 8) Sheldon Creed -106. Round of 8 Owner Point Standings: 1) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20
(John Hunter Nemechek) 3154, t-2) Stewart-Haas Racing No. 00 (Cole Custer) -41, t-2) Richard Childress Racing No. 21 (Austin Hill) -41, t-4) JR Motorsports No. 1 (Sam Mayer) -44, t-4) JR Motorsports No. 7 (Justin Allgaier) -44, 6) Kaulig Racing No. 10 (Daniel Hemric) -74, 7) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 (Sammy Smith)
-90, 8) Kaulig Racing No. 16 (Chandler Smith) -97. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9) Daniel Hemric 2177, 10) Parker Kligerman -16, 11) Josh Berry -81, 12) Jeb Burton -104. Best of the Rest (13-22): 13) Riley Herbst 832, 14) Brandon Jones -96, 15) Brett Moffitt -192, 16) Parker Retzlaff -229, 17) Ryan Sieg -247, 18) Kaz Grala -257, 19) Jeremy Clements -336, 20) Kyle Sieg -406, 21) Josh Williams
-421, 22) Anthony Alfredo -425. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 1242, 2) Austin Hill -65, 3) Justin Allgaier -75, 4) Cole Custer -141, 5) Sam Mayer -316, 6) Sheldon
Creed -351, 7) Josh Berry -352, 8) Daniel Hemric -354, 9) Chandler Smith -371, 10) Parker Kligerman -385, 11) Riley Herbst -410, 12) Sammy Smith -437, 13) Brandon Jones -506, 14) Jeb Burton -558, 15) Brett
Moffitt -602, 16) Parker Retzlaff -639.
Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 55, 2) Austin Hill -16, 3) Justin Allgaier -20, 4) Sam Mayer -30, 5) Cole Custer -35, 6) Chandler Smith -46,
7) Sheldon Creed -47, 8) Sammy Smith -49. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 3498, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -14, 3) Cole Custer -47, 4) Austin Hill -68, 5) Sheldon Creed -138, 6) Chandler Smith
-159, 7) Josh Berry -181, 8) Sam Mayer -182, 9) Riley Herbst -186, 10) Daniel Hemric -191, 11) Sammy Smith -202, 12) Brandon Jones -224, 13) Parker Kligerman -240, 14) Brett Moffitt
-303, 15) Ryan Truex -308, 16) Ryan Sieg -315. 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 1051, 2) Austin Hill -18, 3) Justin Allgaier -93, 4) Cole Custer -106, 5) Sam Mayer -163, 6) Parker Kligerman
-184, t-7) Josh Berry -194, t-7) Daniel Hemric -194, 9) Sheldon Creed -230, 10) Chandler Smith -235, 11) Riley Herbst -255, 12) Sammy Smith
-263, 13) Jeb Burton -270, 14) Brandon Jones -312, 15) Brett Moffitt -332, 16) Parker Retzlaff -348. WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek
4628, 2) Austin Hill -95, 3) Justin Allgaier -319, 4) Cole Custer -384, 5) Sam Mayer -578, 6) Parker Kligerman -666, 7) Josh Berry -677, 8) Daniel Hemric -710, 9) Chandler Smith -834, 10) Sheldon Creed
-839, 11) Riley Herbst -887, 12) Sammy Smith -937, 13) Jeb Burton -1025, 14) Brandon Jones -1114, 15) Brett Moffitt -1196, 16) Parker Retzlaff -1235. Race Winners: Austin Hill
(Daytona-1, Las Vegas-1, 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,
Homestead), Ty Gibbs (Indianapolis), Denny Hamlin (Darlington-2), Riley Herbst (Las Vegas-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: Corey Heim Wins Round of 8; Championship 4 Set by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim has had an incredible season this year and it continued Saturday. Heim won the first two stages and finished third. The performance was good enough to win the Round of 8 by 13 points over Carson Hocevar, who won Saturday in Homestead for his fourth triumph of the year. Grant Enfinger moved up two spots to third after finishing
fourth. Ben Rhodes drove up from 21st on the grid to finish second via pit strategy. That scored Rhodes the fourth and final spot in the Championship 4. Rhodes got the final spot via a tiebreaker with Nick Sanchez. Rhodes gets it thanks to a second-place finish at Talladega. Sanchez ran well, but finished 17th after he ran in the back of Tanner
Gray entering pit road for his final stop. Christian Eckes got busted for speeding on his final stop and finished 20th, dropped three places to sixth. Ty Majeski was ninth Saturday and stayed in seventh. Zane Smith finished second on the road Saturday, but was disqualified due to issues with the windshield. As a result, he ended up in eighth, over 100 points behind Heim. Matt Crafton finished seventh Saturday afternoon and stays in ninth. Matt DiBenedetto is locked into 10th. Of those that didn't make the playoffs, Chase Purdy finished 10th, but saw his advantage over Stewart Friesen fall from 26 to 15 points. Friesen finished sixth.
Tanner Gray remains in 13th, followed by Jake Garcia. Taylor Gray is 15th, while Rajah Caruth moved up to 16th with an eighth-place finish. The Championship 4 drivers have all had their points reset to 4000. Behind them, Christian Eckes has a 43-point lead over Nick Sanchez for fifth. Sanchez has a full race over Zane
Smith, then Majeski, Crafton and DiBenedetto. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 3175, 2) Carson Hocevar -13, 3) Grant Enfinger -47, t-4) Ben Rhodes -52, t-4) Nick Sanchez
-52, 6) Christian Eckes -56, 7) Ty Majeski -60, 8) Zane Smith -117. Championship 4 Point Standings: t-1) Corey Heim 4000, t-1) Carson Hocevar 4000, t-1) Grant Enfinger 4000, t-1) Ben Rhodes
4000. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 5) Christian Eckes 2268, 6) Nick Sanchez -43, 7) Zane Smith -103, 8) Ty Majeski -114, 9) Matt Crafton -127, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -166.
Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 905, 2) Grant Enfinger -137, t-3) Carson Hocevar -141, t-3) Christian Eckes -141, 5) Ben Rhodes -175, 6) Zane Smith -201, 7) Ty Majeski
-202, 8) Nick Sanchez -234, 9) Matt Crafton -317, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -353, 11) Chase Purdy -366, 12) Stewart Friesen -381, 13) Tanner Gray -400, 14) Jake Garcia -408, 15) Taylor Gray
-436, 16) Rajah Caruth -448.
Best of the Rest: 11) Chase Purdy 539, 12) Stewart Friesen -15, 13) Tanner Gray -34, 14) Jake Garcia -42, 15) Taylor Gray -70, 16) Rajah Caruth -82, 17) Tyler Ankrum
-98, 18) Daniel Dye -155, 19) Hailie Deegan -176, 20) Dean Thompson -199. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for the playoffs. Playoff
Points: 1) Corey Heim 37, 2) Carson Hocevar -10, 3) Christian Eckes -11, 4) Grant Enfinger -13, 5) Zane Smith -15, 6) Ty Majeski -21, 7) Ben Rhodes -24, 8) Nick Sanchez
-30. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim 247, 2) Ty Majeski -36, 3) Zane Smith -50, 4) Christian Eckes -54, 5) Carson Hocevar -76, 6) Nick Sanchez
-91, 7) Ben Rhodes -93, 8) Grant Enfinger -105, 9) Matt DiBenedetto -156, 10) Stewart Friesen -157, 11) Matt Crafton -165, 12) Chase Purdy -180, 13) Tanner Gray -182, 14) Rajah Caruth
-198, 15) Tyler Ankrum -200, 16) Taylor Gray -213. 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 593, 2) Grant Enfinger -50, 3) Carson Hocevar -78, 4) Ben Rhodes -96, 5) Christian Eckes -99, 6) Nick Sanchez -152, 7) Ty Majeski -160, 8) Zane Smith -161, 9) Matt Crafton
-169, 10) Chase Purdy -201, 11) Jake Garcia -203, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -209, 13) Taylor Gray -230, 14) Tanner Gray -232, 15) Stewart Friesen -242, 16) Rajah Caruth -268. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 3296, 2) Grant Enfinger -172, 3) Carson Hocevar -237, 4) Christian Eckes -274, 5) Ben Rhodes -306, 6) Zane Smith -484, 7) Nick Sanchez -500, 8) Ty
Majeski -525, 9) Matt Crafton -575, 10) Chase Purdy -671, 11) Jake Garcia -762, 12) Tanner Gray -770, 13) Stewart Friesen -773, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -808, 15) Rajah Caruth -906, 16) Tyler Ankrum -945. Race Winners: Zane Smith (Daytona, Austin), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, Pocono), Christian Eckes (Atlanta, Darlington, Kansas-2), Carson Hocevar (Texas, Nashville, Richmond, Homestead), 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 4Ever 400 presented by Mobil 1 was brought to you by the letter O for Overzealous. Kyle Larson had the best car for most of Sunday's race, but a classic case of impatience led him to slide
into the sand barrels, ending his day. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: 4Ever 400 presented by Mobil 1 compiled by Phil Allaway
"I’ve got the best team behind me. Honestly, I don’t know, man. That race was a whirlwind. I was ready to throw the towel in there in the second stage. I got frustrated on the radio. Adam [Stevens] kept after it. Adam, Tyler [Allen], William [Hartman], the guys back at the shop were working over the adjustments and gave me what I needed. Whenever we got some clean air, this
thing was really good. I cannot say how proud I am to be here with our partners, with Rheem and DeWalt, driving these Toyota Camrys. I’ve been with Toyota since day one. Thank you, everyone, that’s supported me. This is better than a dream come true. "I let my emotions get to me, that’s for sure. Normally, I don’t do that. But yeah, that was frustrating. It’s
no secret this track hasn’t been my favorite. The first stage, I thought we were onto something. Started 14th and got all the way up to ninth, I thought if we can improve just this much, we’d have a great day. And then, it went the opposite as soon as we got to stage two. I have no idea what adjustments Adam made. We threw the kitchen sink at it, as we went from being one of the worst cars on the track to being one of the best at the end. Adam and the engineers back at the shop have the magic.
What they can do on the pitstops, it’s pretty incredible the turnaround we had today." - Christopher Bell, race winner
"We were trying. We just needed laps. The long run car was really good. I just couldn’t fire off for 10 laps or so. I think the track cooling off helped those guys. I think we were better in the hotter, slicker conditions when fire off speed didn’t matter as
much and it fell off quicker. That played into our benefit. It got a little cooler at the end and we never really [had] the front end speed and they did. We ran out of laps a little bit. I am proud of the effort. It was a really good day, we just got beat a little bit there at the end." - Ryan Blaney, finished second "It was a frustrating day. I was really
hoping we were going to get a little more out of that. The finish was what we needed, but we didn’t run as well as we wanted to all day, which was the disappointing part. I don’t know, it’s been a gripe of mine ever since we went to the composite body on the Cup side. Everyone runs the fence, and there’s no penalty when you have a mistake and hit the wall. Everyone just ran up there and hit it all day long. Gotta be more willing to take that risk in this car as there’s no penalty." - Tyler
Reddick, finished third "We just didn’t have the turn in our car to go into a run, so we just struggled there to fire-off. I was doing all I could to air-block; move my line around and try to take his air, but it just wasn’t enough. I couldn’t get through the middle well enough to maintain pace. "But our No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet was really solid all day. We just needed more there at the end, but we had good execution, good pit stops and put ourselves in position to win." - William Byron, finished fourth "Our No. 16 Campers Inn RV Chevy was really good. We started the race in
the 25th position and drove right up into the top 10 there. The track was tricky – you got on one side of the race track and we fought tight through the middle-half of the race. Our crew chief made some really good adjustments there, and we got some more clean air and I was able to make some moves. I thought maybe we were one of the fastest cars there at the end, but overall, just a really solid day. It’s always great when you can get a top-five finish." - AJ Allmendinger, finished
fifth "Ooh, frustrating day, frustrating sixth-place [finish]. But, proud of our effort today, that’s what it takes. Never give up. We just need to be better. Have to look at what we did from Saturday night into today and not do that again and start better to put ourselves in contention. I thought our pit crew put us back in the game there today. Just not what we
had for our No. 23 McDonald’s Grimace Toyota team, but all in all, a good result for sure." - Bubba Wallace, finished sixth "We ended up with a solid top 10 today even after a mistake on pit road by me. We finally had something go our way with that caution that brought us back in the game. We found some speed in our Smithfield Ford Mustang today. We needed a
top-10 as a team after the year we’ve had and to do it at Homestead is awesome. We never gave up today after coming back from 30th, to that penalty, and then back up again. We kept taking a swing at the balance all day and found something when it mattered. I love it here at Homestead and in my home state. Really excited to carry this momentum to Martinsville next weekend where we had a shot at a win and ran up front all day." - Aric Almirola, finished ninth "We were outside the top 10 and needed to work our way back up into the top-five there. We needed to catch a lucky caution to be back into the mix. Just ran out of room — I don’t think it was anyone’s fault, just four-wide coming off turn 2." - Ross Chastain, finished 31st (Crashed out) "I was just trying to push it as much as I could. [Ryan Blaney] had a great car and I felt like if he was to come off pit road the leader, he was going to end up winning the race or beating me. I was just trying to maximize my pit-in, and honestly I felt like I was doing a really good job. I just didn’t anticipate him slowing down as much as he did. But on the replay, it looks like I just missed it by a lot. I need to look at data. I knew where
the yellow line was and thought I was going to be under control getting there, and then yeah, he just slowed down – I locked the brakes up, slid to the right and clipped him and the barrels. "I’m pretty upset at myself, more than anything. Whether he got to pit road speed sooner than the yellow line or not, I could have just done a little bit better job judging it. I hope they
are able to recover. I hope he can get a good finish or get a win and get the finish that he deserves. "Just a bummer, but we had a great No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy today." - Kyle Larson, finished 34th (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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