Frontstretch Newsletter: March 11, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition XXIII |
Welcome our New Presenting Sponsor, Race Face Digital! |
The Frontstretch Newsletter is presented by Race Face Digital, the ultimate entertainment platform for race fans and collectors to collect, buy, sell and trade digital MP4 collectible racing cards. |
- NASCAR teams are still returning back to their shops after yesterday's race in Phoenix. Entry lists for Bristol should be released today. We'll have the entry lists and everything else breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Christopher Bell Dominant in the Desert, Wins at
Phoenix Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell charged up from 20th on the final restart to take the lead with 41 laps to go and hold on to win the Shriners Children's 500. Chris Buescher was second, then Ty Gibbs, Brad Keselowski and Ryan
Blaney. |
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| Denny Hamlin Leads Most Laps, Finishes 11th After Late
Phoenix Spin Denny Hamlin tied for the most laps led Sunday (68) with Tyler Reddick and was in position to battle for the win until he spun out of second with just under 100 laps to go. He recovered to finish 11th. |
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| Erik Jones Frustrated with Chase Briscoe After Late-Race
Phoenix Tangle On the final restart, Erik Jones and Chase Briscoe raced hard for eighth until contact was made and Jones ended up in the wall. Briscoe finished ninth, while Jones ended up seven laps down in 31st. |
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| Chandler Smith Wins Xfinity Race at Phoenix After Justin
Allgaier Loses Tire Joe Gibbs Racing's Chandler Smith led the most laps Saturday, but had to capitalize on a cut tire for Justin Allgaier to win the Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200 at Phoenix Raceway. Jesse Love was second, then Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill and Cole
Custer. |
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| Justin Allgaier Foiled by Flat Tire While Leading Late at
Phoenix JR Motorsports' Justin Allgaier had Saturday's Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200 won. Then, he ran over a piece of debris and crashed in turn 1. |
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| Preston Pardus Back for Partial Xfinity Season Starting at
COTA Pardus Racing announced Friday that Preston Pardus will return to the family's No. 50 Chevrolet for a partial schedule in 2024 that will start at Circuit of the Americas. |
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| Josef Newgarden Dominates St. Petersburg to Start 2024
Season Team Penske's Josef Newgarden led 92 of 100 laps to win the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Sunday. Patricio O'Ward was second, followed by Scott McLaughlin, Will Power and Colton Herta. |
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| Pato O’Ward Scores Third Runner-Up Finish at St.
Petersburg Arrow McLaren SP's Patricio O'Ward was very quick on Sunday in St. Petersburg, especially early on. Once Josef Newgarden pulled away, O'Ward had a fairly lonely run to second. |
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| Felix Rosenqvist Already Back to Speed With Meyer
Shank In the offseason, Felix Rosenqvist made the move from Arrow McLaren SP to Meyer Shank Racing. He lost nothing along the way, turning in fast laps all weekend en route to a seventh-place finish. |
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| Max Verstappen Wins Comfortably in Saudi
Arabia Red Bull's Max Verstappen claimed his ninth straight Formula 1 victory Saturday in the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah. Sergio Perez was second, then Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso. |
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| Oliver Bearman Impresses, Scores Points in F1
Debut For Oliver Bearman, his impromptu World Championship debut Saturday went fairly well. He kept himself out of trouble and finished seventh, earning six points. |
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| William Sawalich Outduels Gio Ruggiero, Wins ARCA Race at
Phoenix Joe Gibbs Racing's William Sawalich won a rain-shortened General Tire 150 Friday night at Phoenix Raceway in his 2024 ARCA debut. Gio Ruggiero was second, then Grant Enfinger, Connor Mosack and Sean Hingorani. |
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| Jagger Jones Sweeps VP Racing Challenge at St.
Petersburg Jagger Jones, driving for FastMD Racing with Remstar, swept both IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races on the Streets of St. Petersburg Saturday. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Ferrari Media, Rudy Carezzevoli of Getty Images, Chris Owens and Joe Skibinski of Getty Images, IMSA and our own Danny Peters. 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: March 8-10 |
- While we don't necessarily cover F1 Academy, last weekend's opening races were dominated by Doriane Pin. She won Race No. 1 Friday, then won Race No. 2 on-track Saturday. Then, Pin kept going at full speed. This is dangerous since marshals
are typically out on the track saluting the finishing drivers on the cool-down lap. As a result, Pin was assessed a 20-second
post-race penalty that dropped her to ninth. Abbi Pulling inherited the win. |
This is just a sampling of 43 videos that we posted to our YouTube channel from Phoenix and Southern National Motorsports Park this past weekend. For more content from either track, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Also, don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Ryan Blaney Claims Points Lead With Strong Finish
by Phil Allaway
Kyle Larson had an off-day Sunday in Phoenix, failing to score a stage point and finishing 14th. Ryan Blaney was able to move up the order and pipped Ross Chastain at the line for fifth. That performance was enough to give Blaney the points lead. His advantage is 10 points over Larson and Martin Truex Jr., who did not pit on the final caution and was forced to stop under green with 41 laps to go. He charged from a lap down to finish seventh. William Byron had a fast car and scored 12 stage points Sunday. However,
he was caught back in the pack after the last stop and couldn't recover, eventually finishing 18th. Despite that, he stays in fourth. Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs are tied for fifth. Gibbs led the first 57 laps before Reddick got him to win stage one. Gibbs finished third, while Reddick was 10th. Chastain and
Denny Hamlin are tied for seventh. Chastain finished sixth, while Hamlin recovered from a spin to finish 11th. Chase Elliott was in the same boat as Byron. The caution trapped him down the order and he ended up 19th. He fell three spots as a result. Daniel Suarez had a quiet run to 13th and dropped
two places to 10th. Kyle Busch had a day he'd like to forget with a spin and bad handling en route to 22nd. He's down five places to 11th. Christopher Bell's victory moved him up nine spots to 12th. Alex Bowman remains in 13th after finishing 20th. Bubba Wallace was also caught out
by the Hamlin spin. He was racing for fifth when it happened, ended up 16th and remains in 14th. Austin Cindric was eliminated in an early crash and dropped down to 15th. Chris Buescher's second-place finish moved him up seven places to 16th. Buescher is currently the last driver in the playoffs on points at the
moment. He is two points ahead of both Michael McDowell and Erik Jones, who had opposite days. McDowell benefitted from the Hamlin spin and finished eighth. Jones ended up getting in the wall after contact with Chase Briscoe and ended up seven laps down in 30th. Briscoe is up one place to 19th after finishing ninth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is down to 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ryan Blaney 151, t-2) Kyle Larson -10, t-2) Martin Truex Jr. -10, 4) William Byron -17, t-5) Tyler Reddick -21, t-5) Ty Gibbs
-21, t-7) Ross Chastain -22, t-7) Denny Hamlin -22, 9) Chase Elliott -28, 10) Daniel Suarez -37, 11) Kyle Busch -41, 12) Christopher Bell -49, 13) Alex Bowman -52, 14) Bubba Wallace -54, 15) Austin Cindric
-64, 16) Chris Buescher -65. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff
Points: 1) Kyle Larson 7, 2) Christopher Bell -1, t-3) William Byron -2, t-3) Daniel Suarez -2, t-5) Chase Elliott -6, t-5) Ryan Blaney 6, t-5) Austin Cindric -6, t-5) Tyler Reddick -6, t-5) Michael McDowell -6. Stage Points: 1) Tyler Reddick 53, 2) Kyle Larson -6, 3) Ryan Blaney -10, 4) Denny Hamlin -11, 5) Chase Elliott -18, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -19, 7) Austin Cindric
-23, 8) William Byron -25, 9) Kyle Busch -28, t-10) Daniel Suarez -32, t-10) Christopher Bell -32, 12) Ross Chastain -34, 13) Alex Bowman -35, 14) Ty Gibbs -36, 15) Erik Jones -39, 16) Michael
McDowell -40. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: t-17) Bubba Wallace -43, t-29) Chris Buescher -50.
Note: The Stage Points also include the
Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ty Gibbs 130, 2) Ross Chastain -2, t-3) Martin Truex Jr. -4, t-3) Ryan Blaney -4, 5) William Byron
-7, 6) Kyle Larson -17, 7) Daniel Suarez -19, 8) Denny Hamlin -22, t-9) Chase Elliott -25, t-9) Bubba Wallace -25, 11) Kyle Busch -26, 12) Chris Buescher -30, t-13) Christopher Bell -32, t-13) Alex
Bowman -32, 15) Tyler Reddick -34, 16) Chase Briscoe -36. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 25) Austin Cindric -55 Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Ryan Blaney 573, 2) Ty Gibbs -2, 3) Ross Chastain -7, 4) Martin Truex Jr.
-21, 5) William Byron -33, 6) Kyle Larson -60, 7) Daniel Suarez -68, 8) Denny Hamlin -76, 9) Bubba Wallace -80, 10) Kyle Busch -84, 11) Chris Buescher -94, 12) Chase Elliott
-96, 13) Christopher Bell -98, 14) Alex Bowman -104, 15) Tyler Reddick -105, 16) Chase Briscoe -126.
Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 24) Austin Cindric -175. 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), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas),
Christopher Bell (Phoenix)
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: Chandler Smith Snatches Points Lead with Phoenix Victory
by Phil Allaway
Austin Hill actually had a fairly off day on Saturday, but when the leaders wrecked, he was able to capitalize and finish fourth. That was not enough to keep the points lead as Chandler Smith led the most laps and took the win. In the process, he claimed the points lead by one point over Hill. Cole Custer is
up to third after finishing fifth. Riley Herbst was in contention until he got caught up in the Big One. He struggled afterwards to finish 24th and dropped one place to fourth. Jesse Love drove up to a second-place finish Saturday and moved up to fifth. Sheldon Creed has sole possession of sixth in points after
starting in the back due to an oil leak and finishing third. AJ Allmendinger struggled mighily Saturday and finished 18th, dropping three spots to fourth. Justin Allgaier had the race won before a cut tire put him in the wall late. Despite that, he managed to stay in eighth. Brandon Jones is up one place
to ninth after a seventh-place finish with a smashed-in nose. Sammy Smith is down one place to 10th despite finishing ninth. Parker Kligerman remains in 11th after finishing eighth. Anthony Alfredo is still 12th after finishing 10th. Alfredo is the last driver currently in the playoffs on points. Alfredo is two
points ahead of Ryan Sieg, who finished 12th Saturday after running as high as sixth. Shane van Gisbergen is up two spots to 14th after finishing sixth. Jeremy Clements is up four spots to 15th, while Parker Retzlaff and Brennan Poole are tied for 16th. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 183, 2) Austin Hill -1, 3) Cole Custer -33, 4) Riley Herbst -37, 5) Jesse Love -48, 6) Sheldon Creed -53, 7) AJ Allmendinger -59, 8) Justin Allgaier -64, 9) Brandon Jones
-65, 10) Sammy Smith -69, 11) Parker Kligerman -78, 12) Anthony Alfredo -85, 13) Ryan Sieg -87, 14) Shane van Gisbergen -92, 15) Jeremy Clements -110, t-16) Parker Retzlaff -113, t-16) Brennan Poole -113. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 11, 2) Chandler Smith -3, 3) Jesse Love -8, 4) Cole Custer -10. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter
Nemechek would be second in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Riley Herbst 48, 2) Justin Allgaier -2, t-3) Jesse Love -10, t-3) Cole Custer -10, 5) Chandler Smith -11, 6) Austin Hill
-12, 7) AJ Almendinger -25, t-8) Ryan Truex -28, t-8) Parker Kligerman -28, 10) Sheldon Creed -31, t-11) Sammy Smith -32, t-11) Sam Mayer -32, 13) Aric Almirola -33, 14) Ryan Sieg -37, 15) Brandon Jones
-39, 16) Anthony Alfredo -41. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be seventh in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16):
1) Austin Hill 163, 2) Chandler Smith -3, t-3) Cole Custer -33, t-3) Sheldon Creed -33, 5) Brandon Jones -38, 6) AJ Allmendinger
-44, 7) Jesse Love -46, t-8) Riley Herbst -48, t-8) Sammy Smith -48, 10) Anthony Alfredo -56, 11) Shane van Gisbergen -57, t-12) Parker Kligerman
-61, t-12) Ryan Sieg -61, 14) Justin Allgaier -71, 15) Jeremy Clements -74, t-16) Parker Retzlaff -77, t-16) Brennan Poole -77, t-16) Ryan Ellis -60. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 14th in Old points.
WC Points (1-16): t-1) Austin Hill 685, t-1) Chandler Smith 685, 3) Sheldon Creed -100, 4) Cole Custer
-111, 5) Brandon Jones -142, 6) Jesse Love -153, 7) AJ Allmendinger -158, 8) Riley Herbst -166, 9) Sammy Smith -172, 10) Shane van Gisbergen -191, 11) Anthony Alfredo -199, 12) Ryan Sieg -213, 13) Parker Kligerman
-214, 14) Justin Allgaier -239, 15) Parker Retzlaff -249, 16) Jeremy Clements -254. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 14th in WC points. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas), Chandler Smith (Phoenix) 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 Update No. 1
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will be back in action Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. When the series gets to Bristol, Tyler Ankrum will have a five-point lead over Ty Majeski.
Corey Heim is third, then Rajah Caruth and Nick Sanchez. At the playoff cutoff, Christian Eckes and Grant Enfinger are tied for the final two spots, 19 points ahead of Daniel Dye and Stewart Friesen. Tanner Gray is 13th, then Spencer
Boyd. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Ankrum 133, 2) Ty Majeski -5, 3) Corey Heim -7, 4) Rajah Caruth -10, 5) Nick Sanchez -29, 6) Taylor Gray
-30, 7) Matt Crafton -39, 8) Bret Holmes -44, t-9) Christian Eckes -48, t-9) Grant Enfinger -48, t-11) Daniel Dye -67, t-11) Stewart Friesen -67, 13) Tanner Gray -69, t-14) Spencer Boyd -78, t-14) Dean Thompson
-78, 16) Timmy Hill -80. Playoff Points: t-1) Nick Sanchez 5, t-1) Rajah Caruth 5, 3) Ty Majeski -3, t-4) Tyler Ankrum -4, t-4) Christian Eckes
-4, t-4) 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 earned in Atlanta. Stage Points: 1) Ty
Majeski 45, 2) Tyler Ankrum -3, 3) Grant Enfinger -20, 4) Corey Heim -22, 5) Christian Eckes -23, 6) Rajah Caruth -25, 7) Taylor Gray -26, t-8) Nick Sanchez -33, t-8) Ben Rhodes -33, t-10) Matt Crafton
-35, t-10) Stewart Friesen -35, t-10) Bayley Currey -35, t-10) Johnny Sauter -35, 14) Daniel Dye -36, t-15) Tanner Gray -38, t-15) Jack Wood -38. Outside of the
top-16, but still in the playoffs: t-17) Bret Holmes -40. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be fourth in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): t-1) Rajah Caruth
92, t-1) Corey Heim 92, t-3) Nick Sanchez -10, t-3) Tyler Ankrum -10, 5) Ty Majeski -17, t-6) Taylor Gray -19, t-6) Bret Holmes -19, 8) Matt Crafton -20, 9) Christian Eckes -38, 10) Grant Enfinger
-42, 11) Tanner Gray -46, 12) Daniel Dye -47, 13) Stewart Friesen -48, 14) Spencer Boyd -49, 15) Chase Purdy -50, 16) Timmy Hill -51. WC Points (1-16):
1) Corey Heim 505, 2) Rajah Caruth -13, 3) Tyler Ankrum -44, 4) Nick Sanchez -48, 5) Ty Majeski -66, 6) Taylor Gray -74, 7) Bret Holmes -83, 8) Matt Crafton -89, 9) Christian Eckes -139, 10) Grant Enfinger
-157, 11) Tanner Gray -173, 12) Daniel Dye -176, 13) Spencer Boyd -177, 14) Stewart Friesen -181, 15) Chase Purdy -183, 16) Timmy Hill -187. Race
Winners: Nick Sanchez (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Rajah Caruth (Las Vegas) 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 Shriners Children's 500k was brought to you by the letter W for Work in Progress. While it might not have looked like it Sunday, passing was up a little more than 8% over last year's race.
Despite that, it was still difficult to make moves with NASCAR's new package for short tracks and road courses. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Shriners Children's 500k compiled by Phil Allaway
"Man, this one feels really good. Just a credit to Adam (Stevens, crew chief), William (Hartman, engineer) My engineers and all of my mechanics, everyone on this JGR team. You don’t get cars like that very often as you know. Super, super proud to be on this 20 car. This Rheem Camry was amazing today. I feel like we have capability of running races like this a lot, so
hopefully this is the first of many this year. "I could kind of drive it wherever I wanted. That thing was amazing. I know that those race cars don’t come very often. It was really, really nice to capitalize on that when you have a race car that good. We knew after Friday that we had a pretty good piece. Glad that we were able to deliver." - Christopher
Bell, race winner "I was really impressed with our Ford Mustang today, that was awesome. A heck of a comeback after a rough go the last couple of weeks. We had really fast race cars and I am proud to be able to do that today. I didn’t quite see the 20 there at the end so I know they were lights out. We have some work to do to get to that point. What thrills
me is we were by no means perfect on balance so we have a lot of room to make this thing better which is awesome. It tells me we can go compete for that thing. I am proud of everybody and a great bounce back after a rough go last week and did it with the same team here today and it just goes to show that we are going to do these things together, win, lose or draw. That was almost a win today." - Chris Buescher, finished second "It was a good solid day for us. We want to win these races but we didn’t have anywhere near the speed the 20 car did, I don’t know if anybody did to be quite honest. We put ourselves in good position with a good pit call and a great restart at the end and we just tried to execute. The potential is there. We are just one step away and we are going to keep working on it until we get
there." - Brad Keselowski, finished fourth "That was a really long, hard-fought day to be honest. I thought we got better and better and through stage two2 we got better but then I slipped on one of those restarts and lost like five spots. All those cautions we had to restart way back behind the guys that pitted the stop before us. We just worked our
tails off to get back to fifth from where we were. I am worn out. That is the most worn-out I have been in a long time. I appreciate the 12 boys for sticking with it and fighting all day. Our Ford Mustang was fast. It was a long day but I am proud of the finish." - Ryan Blaney, finished fifth "There was a lot of fuel saving there at the end. We were not
a sixth-place car. We had a lot of promise yesterday in qualifying, but it didn’t transfer through. It was more of what we had in practice. We definitely have some work to do. We want more. I don’t like watching these guys drive by us. We’ll be back in the shop on Tuesday to go to work and get ready for Bristol [Motor Speedway]." - Ross Chastain, finished sixth "I want to apologize to Joey [Logano] and those guys. I’m going to reach out to Joey. I’ll probably reach out to Paul Wolfe and Roger Penske. I guess just misjudged it. I hit the brake pedal pretty hard, and it didn’t really slow down and I got in the back of him. It’s my fault. I made a mistake and I’ve got to learn from it and own it." - John Hunter Nemechek, finished 25th "I got ran into from behind. We were running horrible anyway but just went into turn one and I think it was John Hunter (Nemechek) behind me that sent me spinning. It is what it is. "You have to lift to make the corners. You can’t hold it wide open around Phoenix. Maybe he should take a
look and realize he can’t do that. He drove straight into the back of me. He needs to be man enough to own up to that." - Joey Logano, 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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![Joey Logano On Being Hit From Behind: "He [JHN] Needs To Be A Man And Own Up To That"](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/f21d954abc2a4c2eb99da4719cc5836d.png)
