Frontstretch Newsletter: April 1, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition XLII |
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 back at their shops today. Preparations are already underway for this weekend's racing in Martinsville. We'll have entry lists and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Denny Hamlin Wins in Overtime Finish at
Richmond Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin won the race off pit road late and used that track position to win Sunday night's Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Joey Logano was second, then Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr. and Chase
Elliott. |
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| Martin Truex Jr. Angry After Dominant Richmond Run Comes
Up Short Martin Truex Jr. led a race-high 228 laps Sunday night in Richmond. However, a late caution cost him the win. He was then forced into the wall coming to the checkered flag, angering the veteran driver. |
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| Historic Debut of Wet-Weather Tires Deemed ‘Success’ at
Richmond Raceway Sunday night's Toyota Owners 400 started off with the use of wet-weather tires on an oval, the first time that this has happened in the NASCAR Cup Series in the Modern Era of NASCAR. It has been deemed a success. |
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| Chandler Smith Scores 2nd Xfinity Win of 2024 at
Richmond Joe Gibbs Racing's Chandler Smith took the lead with 60 laps to go Saturday and held on to win the ToyotaCare 250 for his second win of the year. Aric Almirola was second, then Taylor Gray, Corey Heim and Jesse Love. |
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| Bubba Pollard Overcomes Qualifying Woes, Finishes 6th in
Xfinity Debut Making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut, Bubba Pollard recovered from a terrible qualifying run to charge from the last row to finish a strong sixth. |
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| Kris Wright Added to TRICON Truck
Lineup TRICON Garage announced Friday that Kris Wright, who is currently racing in the ARCA Menards Series, will compete in two Truck races in the No. 1 Toyota starting at Texas. |
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| Kaden Honeycutt Wins Inaugural Orange Krush 200 at Orange
County On Friday night, part-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racer Kaden Honeycutt emerged victorious in the Orange Krush 200 at Orange County Speedway after a race-long battle with Deac McCaskill. Bobby McCarty was third, then Kade Brown and Camden
Gullie. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography and our own Adam Cheek 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: March 29-31 |
- The FIA officially disqualified Chip Ganassi Racing from the FIA
World Endurance Championship season opener in Qatar Friday. According to the official release, the No. 2 Cadillac VSeries.R was found in post-race inspection to have rear diffuser strakes mounted too high and aligned incorrectly in a 3D scan.
As a result, the team loses their fourth-place finish. However, Dallara (manufacturer of the chassis) indicated to the FIA that the offending parts were shipped to the team in a
rush and did not go through proper quality control. As a result, the DQ is the team's only punishment.
- In addition, the FIA fined Vista AF Corse 60,000 Euros (30,000 payable up front, 30,000 suspended) due to violations of team roster policy. Specifically, the team had three people that were engineers with the team in Qatar that were originally declared on the roster as "non-operating
staff." After the FIA disapproved of the roster, a subsequent one was submitted without the three offending people on it at all, which was approved. In reality, the team had no intention of keeping the three engineers home. They hid the engineers in a Ferrari reception area so they could work with full capabilities. An inspection by an FIA Sporting Delegate discovered the
ruse. - In World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series action, Friday night's Thunderbird Showdown was cancelled due to high winds. The event will not be made up. - Saturday night saw Rico Abreu start from the pole and lead all 30 laps en route to victory in the Wichita Sprint Car Showdown at 81 Speedway. Abreu won by 1.804 seconds over David Gravel. Donny Schatz was third, then
Sheldon Haudenschild and Buddy Kofoid. |
This is just a sampling of the 22 videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channel from Richmond Raceway and Orange County Speedway last weekend. For more from Richmond and Orange County, or from other race weekends, be sure to 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: Martin Truex Jr., Despite Disappointment, Expands Lead in Richmond
by Phil Allaway
Martin Truex Jr. was dominant for much of the race Sunday night, leading 228 laps. He was within 15 seconds of having the race won before Kyle Larson spun out. A substandard pit stop and some contact later, Truex finished fourth. That fourth-place finish was enough for Truex to expand his points lead up to 14 over Larson. Larson only lost two positions in the spin, then recovered to finish third and gain three spots. Denny Hamlin's second win in three races moved him up to third. Ty Gibbs had a quiet run to 16th and dropped back to fourth. Ryan Blaney struggled all night before finishing 19th, which dropped him two places to fifth. Christopher Bell recovered from a speeding penalty to finish sixth and claim sole possession of sixth. William Byron is now seventh, while Chase Elliott moved up a spot to eighth after finishing
fifth. Ross Chastain dropped to ninth with a 15th-place finish, while Tyler Reddick remains in 10th. Alex Bowman got burned by a caution that took him from a top-five run to struggling to stay on the lead lap. He remains in 11th. Chris Buescher is
12th. Kyle Busch struggled with a tight Chevrolet for nearly the entire and stays in 13th after finishing 20th. Bubba Wallace is up four places to 14th after running strong all night before a bad pit stop dropped him to 13th. Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski are tied
for 15th. Keselowski was eighth, while Suarez was 22nd. Keselowski and Suarez are the final drivers in the playoffs on points at the moment. They have a seven-point lead over John Hunter Nemechek, who dropped two spots after finishing 25th. Chase Briscoe is down a spot to 18th, while Joey
Logano's second-place finish moved him up three places to 19th. Austin Cindric is down to 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Martin Truex Jr. 270, 2) Kyle Larson -14, 3) Denny
Hamlin -18, 4) Ty Gibbs -34, 5) Ryan Blaney -41, 6) Christopher Bell -51, 7) William Byron -55, 8) Chase Elliott -61, 9) Ross Chastain -63, 10) Tyler Reddick -71, 11) Alex Bowman -77, 12) Chris Buescher
-85, 13) Kyle Busch -103, 14) Bubba Wallace -105, t-15) Daniel Suarez -107, t-15) Brad Keselowski -107. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for
points. Playoff Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 11, 2) William Byron -1, 3) Kyle Larson -3, 4) Christopher Bell -4, 5) Daniel Suarez -6, 6) Ty Gibbs
-9, t-7) Martin Truex Jr. -10, t-7) Chase Elliott -10, t-7) Ryan Blaney -10, t-7) Austin Cindric -10, t-7) Tyler Reddick -10, t-7) Michael McDowell -10. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 76, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -8, 3) Denny Hamlin -14, 4) Ryan Blaney -19, 5) Tyler Reddick -20, 6) Christopher Bell -31, 7) Ty Gibbs -36, 8) Chase Elliott
-37, t-9) William Byron -39, t-9) Austin Cindric -39, 11) Brad Keselowski -45, 12) Daniel Suarez -46, 13) Joey Logano -48, 14) Alex Bowman -50, 15) Kyle Busch -51, t-16) Bubba Wallace -52, t-16) John Hunter
Nemechek -52. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: 18) Ross Chastain -53, 21) Chris Buescher -61. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Martin Truex Jr. 237, 2) Ty Gibbs -10, 3) Denny Hamlin
-12, 4) Ross Chastain -22, 5) Kyle Larson -24, 6) William Byron -29, 7) Christopher Bell -31, 8) Ryan Blaney -34, 9) Chase Elliott -36, 10) Chris Buescher -37, 11) Alex Bowman
-40, 12) Tyler Reddick -61, 13) Kyle Busch -63, t-14) Bubba Wallace -64, t-14) Chase Briscoe -64, t-16) Daniel Suarez -74, t-16) Brad Keselowski -74. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Martin Truex Jr. 1036, 2) Ty Gibbs -37, 3) Denny Hamlin
-48, 4) Kyle Larson -81, 5) Ross Chastain -83, 6) Christopher Bell -92, 7) William Byron -107, 8) Ryan Blaney -110, 9) Chris Buescher -126, 10) Alex Bowman -130, 11) Chase Elliott -137, 12) Tyler Reddick
-196, 13) Kyle Busch -213, 14) Bubba Wallace -215, 15) Chase Briscoe -232, 16) Brad Keselowski -238. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Daniel
Suarez -255. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race
Winners: William Byron (Daytona, COTA), Daniel Suarez (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas), Christopher Bell (Phoenix), Denny Hamlin (Bristol, Richmond)
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 Retakes Lead with Richmond Victory
by Phil Allaway
Chandler Smith took the lead away from Cole Custer with 60 laps to go on Saturday in Richmond, then pulled away to take his second win of the year. The triumph also gave him the points lead back. Smith has a 10-point lead over Austin
Hill, who finished outside of the top-five for the first time this year in eighth. Custer cut a tire late, dropped two laps down, then recovered to finish 10th. He stays in third. Jesse Love is still in fourth. Riley Herbst is fifth after a 13th-place finish. AJ Allmendinger was very quiet in finishing 14th, but stays in
sixth. Justin Allgaier moves up one place to seventh with an 11th-place finish thanks to 12 stage points. Allgaier jumps over Parker Kligerman despite Kligerman finishing seventh. Sammy Smith is up two places to ninth after finishing ninth. Brandon Jones drops one place to 10th after blowing his engine early and
crashing in turn 1. Sheldon Creed dropped two places to 11th with his own engine problems. Anthony Alfredo struggled most of the day, but leaves Richmond in sole possession of 12th in points. Alfredo is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He is one point ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, who finished 15th. Ryan
Sieg is down to 14th after he crashed in Jones' oil and finished 32nd. Parker Retzlaff started from pole and ran well, but stays in 15th. Brennan Poole holds onto 16th thanks to his early pit strategy that got him nine stage points. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith
265, 2) Austin Hill -10, 3) Cole Custer -41, 4) Jesse Love -67, 5) Riley Herbst -71, 6) AJ Allmendinger -80, 7) Justin Allgaier -84, 8) Parker Kligerman -88, 9) Sammy Smith -112, 10) Brandon Jones
-125, 11) Sheldon Creed -128, 12) Anthony Alfredo -134, 13) Shane van Gisbergen -135, 14) Ryan Sieg -137, 15) Parker Retzlaff -138, 16) Brennan Poole -155. Playoff Points:
1) Chandler Smith 13, 2) Austin Hill -2, 3) Jesse Love -10, 4) Aric Almirola -11, t-5) Cole Custer -12, t-5) Riley Herbst -12, t-5) Parker Kligerman -12. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity
Series points, Kyle Larson and John Hunter Nemechek would be tied for third in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Riley Herbst 69, 2) Justin Allgaier -11, 3) Cole Custer -17, 4) Chandler Smith -20, 5) Austin Hill
-24, 6) Jesse Love -31, 7) Sam Mayer -32, 8) Aric Almirola -34, 9) AJ Allmendinger -35, 10) Parker Kligerman -39, 11) Sammy Smith -43, 12) Ryan Truex -49, 13) Sheldon Creed -52, 14) Ryan Sieg
-54, 15) Parker Retzlaff -59, t-16) Brandon Jones -60, t-16) Brennan Poole -60, t-16) Alex Labbe -60. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: t-20) Anthony Alfredo -62. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 11th and Corey Heim 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 237, 2) Austin Hill
-1, 3) Cole Custer -38, 4) Jesse Love -49, 5) AJ Allmendinger -58, 6) Parker Kligerman -64, 7) Brandon Jones -82, 8) Sammy Smith
-85, t-9) Riley Herbst -86, t-9) Justin Allgaier -86, t-11) Anthony Alfredo -89, t-11) Shane van Gisbergen -89, 13) Sheldon Creed -92, 14) Parker Retzlaff
-95, 15) Ryan Sieg -99, 16) Jeremy Clements -109. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 16th in Old points.
WC Points
(1-16): t-1) Chandler Smith 1007, 2) Austin Hill -5, 3) Cole Custer -134, 4) Jesse Love -170, 5) AJ Allmendinger -215, 6) Parker Kligerman -230, 7) Brandon Jones -292, 8) Sheldon Creed -297, 9) Riley Herbst -298, 10) Sammy
Smith -301, 11) Justin Allgaier -302, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -303, 13) Anthony Alfredo -318, 14) Parker Retzlaff -321, 15) Ryan Sieg -347, 16) Jeremy Clements -378. Note: If he were eligible
for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 16th in WC points. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas), Chandler Smith (Phoenix, Richmond), Kyle Larson (COTA) 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. 2
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They are scheduled to race Friday night at Martinsville Speedway. When the teams get to Martinsville, Corey Heim will have the points lead after his victory in Austin. He has a 10-point lead over
Ty Majeski. Tyler Ankrum is third, then Taylor Gray and Rajah Caruth. Tanner Gray is currently the last driver in the playoffs on points. He has a one-point lead over defending champion Ben Rhodes. Bret Holmes is 12th, then Stewart Friesen and
Jake Garcia. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 207, 2) Ty Majeski -10, 3) Tyler Ankrum -11, 4) Taylor Gray -28, 5) Rajah Caruth
-29, 6) Christian Eckes -30, 7) Nick Sanchez -37, 8) Matt Crafton -59, 9) Grant Enfinger -68, 10) Tanner Gray -86, 11) Ben Rhdoes -87, 12) Bret Holmes -104, 13) Stewart Friesen
-105, 14) Jake Garcia -106, 15) Daniel Dye -108, 16) Bayley Currey -110. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be ninth in points. Playoff Points: t-1) Corey Heim 6, t-1) Christian Eckes 6, t-1) Nick Sanchez 6, 4) Rajah Caruth -1, 5) Ty Majeski -4, t-6) Tyler Ankrum -5, t-6) Johnny Sauter -5. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be leading with eight points. Stage Points: 1) Ty Majeski 77, 2) Tyler Ankrum -16, 3) Christian Eckes
-32, 4) Nick Sanchez -38, 5) Corey Heim -44, 6) Taylor Gray -47, 7) Ben Rhodes -48, 8) Grant Enfinger -51, 9) Rajah Caruth -53, 10) Matt Crafton -60, 11) Tanner Gray -62, 12) Stewart Friesen
-63, t-13) Bayley Currey -67, t-13) Johnny Sauter -67, t-15) Daniel Dye -68, t-15) Jack Wood -68. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be fourth and Zane Smith 12th in stage
points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 156, 2) Rajah Caruth -21, 3) Taylor Gray -26, 4) Tyler Ankrum -38, 5) Christian Eckes -39, 6) Nick Sanchez
-42, 7) Matt Crafton -45, 8) Ty Majeski -49, 9) Grant Enfinger -61, 10) Tanner Gray -68, 11) Bret Holmes -77, 12) Jake Garcia -78, 13) Johnny Sauter -84, t-14) Daniel Dye -86, t-14) Dean Thompson
-86, 16) Stewart Friesen -87. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 11th in Old Points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim
840, 2) Rajah Caruth -88, 3) Taylor Gray -93, 4) Tyler Ankrum -136, 5) Christian Eckes -142, 6) Nick Sanchez -157, t-7) Ty Majeski -170, t-7) Matt Crafton -170, 9) Grant Enfinger -227, 10) Tanner
Gray -251, 11) Bret Holmes -272, 12) Jake Garcia -292, 13) Ben Rhodes -298, 14) Dean Thompson -305, 15) Daniel Dye -308, 16) Stewart Friesen -311. Note: If he were eligible
for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 11th in WC Points. Race Winners: Nick Sanchez (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Rajah Caruth (Las Vegas), Christian Eckes (Bristol), Corey Heim (COTA) 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 night's Toyota Owners 400 was brought to you by the Letter R for Rain. Afternoon and early evening rain in Richmond resulted in the race starting on wet-weather tires, the first time that
this has ever happened on an oval in a points race. It allowed the race to start almost on time, but the top of the track never fully dried. As a result, the racing groove was noticeably narrower than in recent Richmond races. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Toyota Owners 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"This is a team win for sure. This trophy needs to go to each one of these pit crew members. They just did an amazing job. They've been killing it all year. "I went right at it, for sure. I did that because I saw those guys rolling to me.
[Joey Logano] was laying back. [Martin Truex Jr.] was rolling a couple miles an hour quicker than I was. I wasn't going to let them have an advantage that my team earned on pit road. "Certainly made sure I went to my nose, got there. But I took off right away. Still, we were side by side down the water into turn 1." - Denny Hamlin, race
winner "[I couldn't get the lead] once [Denny Hamlin] cleared [Martin Truex Jr.]. I had a chance. I didn’t get a good enough restart. I really wanted to pressure them down into one and force them to work up Truex, but I spun my tires there just trying to stay with them and that ultimately cost me to be close enough to do something. I don’t know. It feels good to be towards
the front again. We haven’t had a run like that in a while, but it also stings to be that close and not capitalize on the win. I guess I have mixed emotions. We had a really good car, a car that was capable of winning if we were in the front, but we didn’t execute everywhere else good enough to get there.
"This is definitely the hardest start to a season we’ve had, but last
week we started scratching and clawing and got a little bit of momentum through the last three races and ultimately get to here to where we were in the hunt again. It feels good. It’s Richmond. It’s a unique racetrack. It’s our best racetrack as a team, so we expect to run good here. I don’t know if this completely takes us out of the deep end, but I think ultimately it’s a good momentum-builder for sure." - Joey Logano, finished
second
"Just got spun there down the frontstretch. Thankfully, I didn’t get turned all the way around and I only lost one or two spots there. My pit crew did a great job all night to gain those couple of spots back on pit road for us to lineup fourth and get one spot out of it. Proud of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. I’m really, really happy about the execution all night
long. My pit crew kept putting us in position to have a shot to win, so can’t say much more." - Kyle Larson, finished third
"Yeah, it’s unfortunate. Unfortunately, this has happened to be a few times over the years. We were in a great spot and had a great Auto-Owners Toyota Camry all night long. The guys did a really good job all night. We got beat out of the pits and then – I don’t know.
He jumped the start and then used me up into turn one. Definitely sucks, but a good solid day and a car capable of winning, so we will just have to come back next week and try to get them then." - Martin Truex Jr., finished fourth
"I probably made the most of it there at the end. I honestly never felt like our UniFirst Chevy was all that bad. The caution came out there in the middle
of that one-stop, two-stop strategy, and it set us back a little bit. I had a couple poor restarts there in a row, and then it was like after that, everybody was just the same. We would run around there and just kind of run the same pace. I felt like we kind of found a little pace there those last two runs, and we were able to actually pass a couple of cars under green. We got ourselves in a position there to have a good pit stop there at the end. I stopped a little short in my box. I think we
could have been one spot better there off of pit road, but nonetheless, had a good restart and gave ourselves a top-five." - Chase Elliott, finished fifth "To come out of here with a top 10 is something that ended up being a really good day. It was such a disappointing mistake on pit road. I was right there in the hunt, and it was going to be a race under the
green flag there, so I’m disappointed, but happy to have a good showing for this Mobil 1 Camry. It stings to have a car that fast and make a mistake with it." - Christopher Bell, finished sixth "It was a grind today. I think we really got the car handling well there at the end, we just needed a little bit more. I’m proud of my guys though for pushing through
and turning it around when things weren’t going right early on. We’ll take what we learned tonight and build for next weekend." - William Byron, finished seventh "That was respectable. I don’t think we had the speed to win the race, but we had the speed to run in that eighth to 12th range and we kind of did that most of the night. We ended up
executing at the end to get an eighth, so it was respectable. We took a little step backwards, but we’ll learn from it and be better." - Brad Keselowski, finished eighth
"It was a solid night. We had a really good car and a really good practice. We didn’t qualify like we should have, but we were able to come up through there and get some track position back. It
was just little things. We lost a little track position and got stuck in the back half of the top 10, but, all in all, it was a really good night. We have a lot to be proud of. It was a good points night and we’ll go to Martinsville." - Josh Berry, finished 11th 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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