Frontstretch Newsletter: Feb. 26, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition XIX |
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- Teams are back at their shops after a busy weekend in Atlanta. Entry lists for this weekend's action in Las Vegas will likely be released today. We'll have those and anything else of note that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Daniel Suarez Victorious After Epic Atlanta
Finish Daniel Suarez was able to sweep around the outside of Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch on the final lap Sunday night to win the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Suarez won by .003 seconds over Blaney, with Busch in third. Austin Cindric and Bubba
Wallace rounded out the top five. |
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| Austin Cindric Makes 4-Wide Move Work at
Atlanta Ever since Atlanta Motor Speedway was renovated, the track is much narrower and moves difficult to pull off. Austin Cindric was game to be aggressive Sunday and successfully pulled off a four-wide move to get to the front. |
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| Front Row Motorsports Comes Up a Few Rows
Short In Atlanta, Front Row Motorsports showed that they have some of the best cars on superspeedways. Michael McDowell won the pole and stage one, while Todd Gilliland led the most laps in the race. |
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| Joey Logano Penalized for Unapproved Gloves Before
Atlanta NASCAR announced Sunday morning that multiple penalties will be assessed to Joey Logano after he was found to have worn an unapproved driving glove during qualifying for the Ambetter Health 400. The penalties applied before the race and will be further
applied later this week. |
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| Austin Hill Wins Back-to-Back After Saving
Fuel Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill managed to save enough fuel to sweep around teammate Jesse Love on the final restart and hold on to win the Raptor King of Tough 250 for his second straight win. Chandler Smith was second, then Shane van
Gisbergen, Sheldon Creed and Parker Retzlaff. |
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| Fuel Tank Sputter Denies Dominant Jesse Love at
Atlanta Richard Childress Racing's Jesse Love led 157 laps Saturday in Atlanta, but his Whelen Chevrolet sputtered on the final restart. While he was able to get the power back, he ended up back in 12th. |
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| Choo Choo: Drivers’ Thoughts on Another Single-Filer at
Atlanta Unlike Sunday's 400-miler, it was very difficult to bass for NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers. Much of the race was run single-file in a series of packs. |
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| Kyle Busch Wins Atlanta, Scores 65th Truck Series
Triumph In his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start with Spire Motorsports, Kyle Busch won Saturday's Fr8 208 for his record-extending 65th career victory in the series. Ty Majeski was second, then Corey Heim, Taylor Gray and Nick
Sanchez. |
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| Bayley Currey’s Truck Acquires Sunroof in Bizarre Atlanta
Incident Saturday's Fr8 208 will likely be best remembered for Bayley Currey drawing a caution while running fourth when part of his roof blew off, an extremely rare instance that literally never happens outside of terrible crashes. |
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| Misfortune for Christian Eckes, Jack Wood Sour Brilliant
Day for MHR Atlanta was shaping up to be a great weekend for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. Christian Eckes had the best truck Saturday, but brake issues put him out. Jack Wood crashed out as well. |
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| Christopher Bell Running Vegas Truck Race for
TRICON TRICON Garage announced Monday morning that Christopher Bell will return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Friday night in Las Vegas in their No. 1 Toyota. |
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| KBM Suing Rev For Alleged Outstanding
Payment NBC affiliate WSOC out of Charlotte is reporting that Kyle Busch Motorsports has filed a lawsuit against Rev Racing for $325,000 for breach of contract surrounding their alliance. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography 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: Feb. 23-26 |
- The FIA World Endurance Championship was forced to delay the start of the Prologue from Saturday to this morning due to delays in teams getting their equipment to Qatar. The WEC itself was caught up in the delays since their inspection equipment was also delayed. The teams were
originally only going to have three on-track sessions, but that was increased to four. Everyone can choose to either run the first session today, or the last session Tuesday. - In the first Prologue session, Hertz Team JOTA's Norman Nato was fastest overall in his Porsche 963 with a lap at 119.043 mph. His lap was 1.384 seconds faster than teammate Jenson Button.
Isotta Fraschini's Jean-Karl Vernay was third. Most of the Hypercar teams chose to run the final Tuesday instead of the first one today. in the LMGT3 class, United Autosports' Nicolas Costa was fastest in his McLaren with a lap at 103.971 mph.. His lap was .051 seconds faster than TF Sport's Charlie Eastwood in the No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Nico Pino in the
second United Autosports McLaren was third, then Iron Dames' Michelle Gatting. Daniel Juncadella in the second TF Sport Chevrolet was fifth. |
This is just a sampling of the 39 videos that we posted to our YouTube channel from Atlanta Motor Speedway. For more Atlanta coverage, or coverage from other race weekends, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Kyle Busch Misses Out on Victory, Snags Points Lead
by Phil Allaway
William Byron was doing well Sunday until he collided with Michael McDowell while trying to pit under green. The incident trapped him a lap down. While he eventually recovered to finish 17th, the incident cost him the points lead. Kyle Busch also got trapped a lap down at one point due to a penalty, but recovered to finish third. That moved him up from a tie for sixth into the points lead. His advantage is just one point over a tie between Byron and Austin Cindric (Byron wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his Daytona 500 victory). Cindric finished a strong fourth Sunday. Bubba Wallace recovered from a second-lap
crash to finish fifth for the second week in a row. That moved him up to fourth. Ryan Blaney came within .003 of a second of winning Sunday. That moved him up 18 positions to fifth. Chase Elliott was caught up in multiple incidents, but still managed to finish 15th. That dropped him to sixth. Daniel Suarez's
victory moved him all the way up to seventh, while Ross Chastain is up to eighth. Alex Bowman and Martin Truex Jr. are tied for ninth. Bowman crashed early and struggled to finish 27th. Truex ended up 12th after leading laps. Kyle Larson was eliminated in a late crash, but not before scoring 16
stage points. As a result, he only fell to 11th in points. Corey LaJoie is down to 12th after finishing 13th. John Hunter Nemechek slipped from a tie for sixth to 13th after a quiet run to 21st. Ty Gibbs is up to 14th after finishing 10th. Chris Buescher is up six spots to 15th after finishing
ninth. Christopher Bell and Erik Jones are tied for 16th. Both drivers were caught up in the Big One. Bell made minimum speed, then went to the garage for repairs. He returned to the race, then retired later on. Jones capped off a miserable weekend with a 25th-place finish. Bell claims the final spot in the playoffs via the
tiebreaker over Jones. Bell and Jones have a three-point lead over Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Hamlin was in contention to win until he crashed with Chase Briscoe and finished 23rd. Meanwhile, Stenhouse finished sixth. McDowell and Daniel Hemric are tied for 20th. Point
Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Busch 77, t-2) William Byron -1, t-2) Austin Cindric -1, 4) Bubba Wallace -3, 5) Ryan Blaney -8, 6) Chase Elliott -12, 7) Daniel Suarez -13, 8) Ross Chastain -15, t-9) Alex Bowman
-17, t-9) Martin Truex Jr. -17, 11) Kyle Larson -19, 12) Corey LaJoie -20, 13) John Hunter Nemechek -24, 14) Ty Gibbs -27, 15) Chris Buescher -28, t-16) Christopher Bell -30, t-16) Erik Jones -30. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: t-1) William Byron 5, t-1) Daniel Suarez
5, t-3) Chase Elliott -4, t-3) Ryan Blaney -4, t-3) Austin Cindric -4, t-3) Michael McDowell -4. Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 28, t-2) Ryan Blaney
-1, t-2) Kyle Larson -1, 4) Daniel Suarez -7, 5) Chase Elliott -8, 6) Kyle Busch -10, t-7) William Byron -12, t-7) Ross Chastain -12, t-7) Tyler Reddick -12, 10) Alex Bowman -13, 11) Martin Truex Jr.
-15, 12) Denny Hamlin -16, t-13) Bubba Wallace -18, t-13) Christopher Bell -18, t-13) Michael McDowell -18, 16) Harrison Burton -19.
Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: t-18) John Hunter
Nemechek -21, 26) Ty Gibbs -25, 27) Chris Buescher -26. Corey LaJoie has not scored a stage point yet.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Bubba Wallace 74, 2) Kyle Busch -5, 3) William Byron -6, 4) Corey LaJoie -8, 5) Austin Cindric -16, t-6) Martin Truex Jr. -18, t-6) Chris Buescher -18, t-8) Ross Chastain
-19, t-8) Ty Gibbs -19, t-10) Chase Elliott -20, t-10) John Hunter Nemechek -20, 12) Alex Bowman -21, t-13) Daniel Suarez -22, t-13) Ryan Blaney -22, 15) Erik Jones -25, 16) Daniel Hemric -26. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: t-17) Christopher Bell -28, t-21) Kyle Larson -33 Note: These standings are based on the old point
system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Bubba Wallace 320, 2) Kyle Busch -18, 3) William Byron -28, 4) Corey LaJoie -31, 5) Austin Cindric
-53, 6) Ryan Blaney -67, t-7) Alex Bowman -68, t-7) Chris Buescher -68, 9) Ross Chastain -69, 10) Martin Truex Jr. -70, t-11) Daniel Suarez -74, t-11) John Hunter Nemechek -74, t-13) Ty Gibbs -74, 14) Chase Elliott
-76, 15) Christopher Bell -89, 16) Erik Jones -90. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: t-21) Kyle Larson -113. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: William Byron (Daytona), Daniel Suarez (Atlanta)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not
count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: Austin Hill Continues Streak, Extends Points Lead
by Phil Allaway
Austin Hill was reasonably strong Saturday in Atlanta, but he made a crucial move. He spent much of the final 40 laps of the race running around fifth, which allowed him to save fuel. He was able to make his fuel last the final 86 laps of the race. With that fuel, he drove around teammate Jesse Love when Love's Chevrolet burbled and held on to
defend his victory from last year for the second week in a row. Hill's second straight victory boosted his points lead up to 17 points over Sheldon Creed, who finished fourth. Riley Herbst ran out of fuel late and ended up a lap down in 15th. Despite that, he remains in third. Chandler Smith and Love are tied for fourth. Smith
ended up second, while Love led all but 12 laps, but ended up 12th after his burble. Parker Retzlaff scored his second straight top five finish (a fifth), but still dropped two places to sixth. Ryan Truex finished ninth with 14 stage points and moved up all the way from a tie for 16th to seventh. AJ Allmendinger is in eighth after
finishing 13th. Shane van Gisbergen finished third in only his second series start. That moved him up to ninth in points. Sammy Smith finished 10th and moved up to 10th. Justin Allgaier and Cole Custer are tied for 11th. Allgaier ran out of gas coming to the final restart and finished 28th while Custer ran out when
the yellow flew and ended up 16th. Allgaier and Custer are currently the last two drivers in the playoffs on points. They have a four-point lead on Brandon Jones, who finished 14th Saturday. Anthony Alfredo is up to 14th after a seventh-place finish. Parker Kligerman is in 15th, while BJ McLeod is
16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 102, 2) Sheldon Creed -17, 3) Riley Herbst -28, t-4) Chandler Smith -30, t-4) Jesse Love -30, 6) Parker Retzlaff -36, 7) Ryan
Truex -38, 8) AJ Allmendinger -39, 9) Shane van Gisbergen -43, 10) Sammy Smith -45, t-11) Justin Allgaier -46, t-11) Cole Custer -46, 13) Brandon Jones -50, 14) Anthony Alfredo -52, 15) Parker Kligerman -58, t-16) BJ
McLeod -61. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 11, 2) Jesse Love -8. Stage Points: 1) Jesse Love 30, 2) Austin Hill
-8, 3) Riley Herbst -9, 4) Ryan Truex -10, 5) Justin Allgaier -12, 6) Sheldon Creed -13, 7) Sammy Smith -14, t-8) Parker Kligerman -16, 9) AJ Allmendinger -18, 10) Cole Custer -19, t-11) Ryan Sieg
-22, t-11) Sam Mayer -22, 13) Anthony Alfredo -23, 14) Jeb Burton -24, 15) Brandon Jones -29. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 88, 2) Sheldon Creed -11, 3) Chandler Smith -12, 4) Parker Retzlaff
-14, 5) Shane van Gisbergen -21, 6) Riley Herbst -26, 7) AJ Allmendinger -27, 8) Brandon Jones -29, t-9) Jesse Love -34, t-9) Cole Custer
-34, 11) Ryan Truex -36, 12) Anthony Alfredo -37, 13) Sammy Smith -38, 14) BJ McLeod -39, t-15) Justin Allgaier -41, t-15) Jeremy Clements
-41, t-16) Ryan Ellis -41. WC Points (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 360, 2) Sheldon Creed -25, 3) Chandler Smith -30, 4) Parker Retzlaff -40, 5) Shane van Gisbergen -68, 6) Riley
Herbst -87, 7) AJ Allmendinger -92, 8) Brandon Jones -101, 9) Jesse Love -110, 10) Cole Custer -116, 11) Ryan Truex -122, 12) Anthony Alfredo -123, 13) Sammy Smith -127, 14) BJ McLeod -133, t-15) Justin Allgaier
-134, 16) Jeremy Clements -134. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta) 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 Camping World Truck Series Championship: Tyler Ankrum Expands Lead With Strong Run
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Ankrum spent much of Saturday's race at the front of the field, leading a race-high 46 laps and scoring 18 stage points. A seventh-place finish was enough for Ankrum to expand his points lead up to 10 points over Ty Majeski. Majeski finished second and moved up five places. Nick Sanchez dropped one place to third despite
finishing fifth. Corey Heim is up two places to fourth after finishing third. Rajah Caruth finished eighth and moved up three places to fifth. Bret Holmes was 11th Saturday and dropped two places to sixth. Matt Crafton spent a lot of time stuck in the middle Saturday, but finished 13th and stayed in seventh.
Taylor Gray came from the rear of the field to finish fourth and moved up seven places to eighth. Christian Eckes won stage one, but had a brake failure that put him out. The 32nd-place finish dropped him six places to ninth. Daniel Dye started from pole and finished ninth. That moved him up from a tie for 16th to 10th, the final
spot in the playoffs at the moment. Dye has a two-point lead over Grant Enfinger, who was in position for an excellent finish until a flat tire dropped him back to 25th. Timmy Hill is 12th, then Spencer Boyd and Tanner Gray are tied for 13th. Dean Thompson is 15th, while Bayley
Currey dropped to 16th after being forced to retire from fourth when part of his roof blew off.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Ankrum 91, 2) Ty Majeski -10, 3) Nick Sanchez -12, 4) Corey Heim -14, 5) Rajah Caruth
-25, 6) Bret Holmes -27, 7) Matt Crafton -29, 8) Taylor Gray -32, 9) Christian Eckes -37, 10) Daniel Dye -38, 11) Grant Enfinger -40, 12) Timmy Hill -43, t-13) Spencer Boyd -44, t-13) Tanner Gray
-44, 15) Dean Thompson -49, 16) Bayley Currey -50. Playoff Points: 1) Nick Sanchez 5, t-2) Tyler Ankrum -4, t-2) Christian Eckes -4, t-2) Johnny Sauter
-4. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be leading with the six points he would have early Stage Points: 1) Tyler Ankrum 35, 2) Ty Majeski
-10, 3) Christian Eckes -13, 4) Grant Enfinger -16, 5) Ben Rhodes -23, t-6) Bayley Currey -25, t-6) Johnny Sauter -25, 8) Daniel Dye -26, t-9) Corey Heim -27, t-9) Matt Crafton -27, t-9) Taylor Gray
-27, t-12) Nick Sanchez -28, t-12) Tanner Gray -28, t-12) Jack Wood -28, t-15) Bret Holmes -30, t-15) Jake Garcia -30. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Rajah Caruth
-32. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be fifth in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Nick Sanchez 65, 2) Corey Heim
-4, 3) Rajah Caruth -9, 4) Bret Holmes -13, 5) Tyler Ankrum -14, 6) Ty Majeski -15, 7) Matt Crafton -19, 8) Taylor Gray -22, 9) Timmy Hill -25, 10) Spencer Boyd -26, 11) Daniel Dye -29, t-12) Tanner Gray
-32, t-12) Dean Thompson -32, 14) Stewart Friesen -36, t-15) Kaden Honeycutt -38, t-15) Stefan Parsons -38. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Christian Eckes -39 WC Points (1-16): 1) Nick Sanchez 3405, 2) Corey Heim -5, 3) Rajah Caruth -28, t-4) Bret Holmes -45, t-4) Ty Majeski -45, 6) Tyler Ankrum -49, 7) Matt Crafton -70, 8) Taylor Gray
-74, 9) Spencer Boyd -88, 10) Timmy Hill -89, 11) Daniel Dye -102, 12) Dean Thompson -110, 13) Tanner Gray -111, 14) Stewart Friesen -125, 15) Christian Eckes -129, 16) Grant Enfinger -130. Race Winners: Nick Sanchez (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta) 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 Ambetter Health 400 was brought to you by the letter C for Competitive. As compared to the other two races last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series race was way more exciting to watch. People
were willing to battle a lot more. Lead changes more than doubled over last year. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Ambetter Health 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"It’s an amazing feeling. This team did an amazing job all race long. We wrecked on lap two. The guys fixed the car and we were able to make it good again, make it fast again. It took some tweaking, but unbelievable. Freeway Insurance, Trackhouse, Chevrolet, and all the people that believed in us from day one – it’s unbelievable to do this in this
fashion. "Those four Penske’s were pretty strong. We knew that it was going to take something special today to beat them. But at the start/finish line, Kyle Busch was doing a hell of a job pushing me and when it mattered, he tried to go for the win. I felt like if Kyle wasn’t going to go for the win, I wasn’t going to win it. That really helped me to go
three-wide and to the top, so it was amazing. You have no idea how happy I am right now." - Daniel Suarez, race winner
"I’m sure it was close. I’ve won some by a few inches and lost some by a few inches. It was a fun night, fun racing. I didn’t think they’d get that big of a run on me. I thought I did a good job of getting close off of two to where I kind of had some of their energy.
I guess they just got hooked up super good and got a massive run, and I can’t block both lanes. It was fun racing, but just a couple inches short. I’m happy for Daniel, though. That was fun racing him and Kyle. That was fun." - Ryan Blaney, finished second "It’s frustrating. I mean I hate it because I felt like we were one of the top five cars today and
had a good shot. [Ryan Blaney] was deservingly one of the faster cars, and with all the carnage, it took out some other guys early.
"I just got a little too far ahead of [Daniel Suarez] and he got a good side draft through the corner. I didn’t think the outside would prevail, but with the run down the frontstretch and the side draft, that is what hurt us. I was looking at [Blaney] and I swore I
was ahead of [Blaney] at the line, but obviously my eyes are bad. Need more powerful glasses, I guess." - Kyle Busch, finished third
"It’s really unfortunate to have two weeks in a row where I feel like Team Penske has brought three of the best race cars to the racetrack and not come home with a win. Obviously, we got really close with [Ryan Blaney]. It
was fun to lead laps and win the stage. I got in a real tight aero spot while I was following Ryan and washed up the track a bit. He was, honestly, in a really tough spot with the runs that were coming from behind. I thought he was gonna be able to hold on, but the first win for the Mustang Dark Horse has to wait another race, but I’m really proud of the effort. It should be a really great points day for us, so that puts us on the right side of things heading into Vegas." - Austin Cindric,
finished fourth "Yeah, shout out to Daniel [Suarez]. Know he needed that. He’s been in that situation before, so nice to see him rise to the occasion. What a day. I’m so glad we’re done with superspeedway racing for a while. The mental toll it takes on you, to just making sure you make the right move for 260 laps, including the race last week too, is a lot.
Team did a great job. I put us behind with that speeding penalty on pit road. Never gave up, though. Came from the back. Enjoying where we’re at right now. Just can’t get complacent. We get to go race the next couple weeks and really got to dig deep and figure out where we need to be better. I thought we had a fifth-place car and came home fifth. We checked all the things off, I just got to stop making mistakes and give ourselves a shot." - Bubba Wallace, finished
fifth "My car was really fast. The Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang Dark Horse is really fast. We’ve shown that the last couple of weeks. Just the progress from my team. Right at this moment, it definitely feels like a huge missed opportunity. I lost some track position and got caught in the middle and then just got behind that wreck, which ultimately bent a
toe link. I feel like I made a lot of good moves, but obviously the one at the end where it all counts I didn’t. I’ll put the emphasis on a really fast car and my team did an amazing job. I just wish I could have done a little bit better at the end." - Todd Gilliland, finished 26th
"Brad [Keselowski] just got sideways. I don’t know if he got tight, got into clean air and just got sideways
– but there wasn’t anything I could do from my seat. I just tried to check-up as much as I could. It was just a chain reaction and I kind of got pushed into the wreck. Just a bummer to end the race early again here at Atlanta [Motor Speedway]. We had a really good No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy. I actually had a lot of fun today. It was super intense and it’s been a great race. It’s been the opposite from last weekend with no fuel saving and guys going at it, so it’s been fun." - Kyle
Larson, finished 32nd (Crashed out)
"I don’t know. My car just took off in the middle of the corner. I don’t know if dumped or I lost the rear tire. Once I got up to the wall I couldn’t get it off the wall. It’s a shame. We were in good position. We ran up front most of the day and made good adjustments on the car. I’m just really proud of my crew chief and
the team and weren’t able to make it count with a solid finish I feel like we deserved today. It’s a bummer, but we’re running up front and that’s a good thing. We just weren’t able to finish it off.
"This is super intense racing. The track cooled off and now you can really, really push hard. I think it’s some of the best racing you’ll ever see." - Brad Keselowski, finished 33rd (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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