Frontstretch Newsletter: June 10, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition CXII |
- NASCAR teams are en route back to their shops today after last weekend's racing in Sonoma. We'll have anything that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Kyle Larson Snags Sonoma
Win Kyle Larson took the lead from Martin Truex Jr. with less than 10 laps to go and held on to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350k for his third win of the year. Michael McDowell was second, followed by Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott and Ross
Chastain. |
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| Sonoma: The Race JGR Would Like to
Forget For Joe Gibbs Racing, Sunday was a pretty terrible day. Denny Hamlin blew his engine at the end of lap 2, Ty Gibbs crashed out and Martin Truex Jr. ran out of fuel. |
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| Tough Luck Doesn’t Stop Will Brown, Cam Waters from
Enjoying Cup Debuts Sunday saw Repco Supercars Championship regulars Will Brown and Cam Waters both make their NASCAR Cup Series debuts. Neither had great days, but they're happy with the experience. |
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| Shane van Gisbergen Wins 2nd Straight Xfinity
Race Shane van Gisbergen once again proved that he is the best on road courses Saturday, dominating to win the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250k for his second straight win. Sheldon Creed was second, then Sam Mayer, Austin Green and Austin
Hill. |
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| Austin Hill Pleads the 5th After Late Dust-Up with Shane
van Gisbergen Shane van Gisbergen won Saturday after roughing up Austin Hill on the final restart. Hill was not happy about it, but chose not to go into detail after the race. |
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| Will Power Uses Overcut to Win Road America & Snap
Winless Streak Team Penske's Will Power took the lead during the final round of pit stops Sunday and held on to win the Xpel Grand Prix at Road America for his first win in two years. Josef Newgarden was second, then Scott McLaughlin, Alex Palou and Kyle
Kirkwood. |
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| ‘It’s Insane to Me’ – Colton Herta Frustrated by Lack of
Penalties at Road America Colton Herta was unhappy after Sunday's Xpel Grand Prix at Road America due to two early spins that did not result in offending drivers being penalized. |
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| Romain Grosjean Finishes a Satisfying 7th at Road
America 2024 has been a tough season for Romain Grosjean at Juncos Hollinger Racing. Sunday saw him finish a decent seventh at Road America. |
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| Nolan Siegel Replacing Agustin Canapino at Road
America Juncos Hollinger Racing announced Friday afternoon that Agustin Canapino would sit out the weekend (despite being on site and ready to go) after the social media issues following Detroit. |
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| Max Verstappen Returns to Form at Canadian Grand
Prix Red Bull's Max Verstappen returned to the top of the podium Sunday in the Grand Prix of Canada at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Lando Norris was second, then George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri. |
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| Yuki Tsunoda Confirmed for 2025 RB
Lineup Visa Cash App RB announced Saturday that Yuki Tsunoda will continue to race for the team full-time in 2025. |
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| Sam Mayer Scores ARCA West Win at
Sonoma Sam Mayer, in a one-off appearance, dominated at Sonoma Raceway Friday to win the ARCA Menards Series West General Tire 200k. |
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| Archangel Motorsports Wins 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio on Fuel
Mileage Archangel Motorsports' Aaron Telitz and Todd Coleman stretched their fuel for 54 laps (121.932 miles) to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O'Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio Sunday. |
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| Jagger Jones Wins Mid-Ohio VP Challenge Race No.
1 Jagger Jones paid tribute to his late grandfather Parnelli the best way that he knew how on Saturday. He blitzed the field to win IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 2 at Mid-Ohio for his third straight
win. |
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| Jagger Jones Sweeps VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at
Mid-Ohio Jagger Jones led flag-to-flag Sunday morning to win IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 2 at Mid-Ohio, giving him his second straight weekend sweep. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Chris Owens and Joe Skibinski of Penske Entertainment, Clive Rose and Mark Thompson of Getty Images, and our own Phil Allaway and 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. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from last weekend. For more from Sonoma, Road America, Mid-Ohio, or from other race weekends, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube 000 and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Kyle Larson Regains Lead With Sonoma Victory
by Phil Allaway
Denny Hamlin's day was over before it really started. The engine blew on the FedEx Toyota at the end of the second lap. Kyle Larson ended up taking his third win of the year. That allowed him to re-assume the points lead. His advantage is now 14 points over Chase Elliott, who is up a place after finishing fourth.
Hamlin's minimum point haul dropped him to third. Tyler Reddick led the most laps, but was neutralized by a flat-spotted tire. Despite that, an eighth-place finish moved him up two places to fourth. Martin Truex Jr. ran out of fuel on the final lap while running second. That dropped him one place to fifth. William
Byron finished 30th Sunday and dropped one place to sixth. Brad Keselowski and Ty Gibbs are tied for seventh. Keselowski had a decent run despite starting 36th, while Gibbs was eliminated in a crash. Christopher Bell is down to ninth after a finish. Ross
Chastain finished fifth and now has sole possession of 10th. Alex Bowman is 11th, while Ryan Blaney is 12th. Chris Buescher's third-place finish allowed him to move up to 13th. Buescher jumps over Bubba Wallace, who finished 20th. Wallace is the last driver currently in the playoffs on points. Wallace has an eight-point lead over Kyle Busch, who ran well Sunday until he ran out of gas on the final lap. Joey Logano got caught up in a crash in the Esses after leading early and stays in 16th. Chase
Briscoe broke his transmission Sunday and dropped out early. That booted him down to 17th. Austin Cindric remains in 18th after taking a wild ride in turn 1a. Daniel Suarez remains in 19th, while Michael McDowell's second-place finish moved him up to 20th. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 561, 2) Chase Elliott -14, 3) Denny Hamlin -26, 4) Tyler Reddick -49, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -53, 6) William Byron -66, t-7) Brad Keselowski
-95, t-7) Ty Gibbs -95, 9) Christopher Bell -96, 10) Ross Chastain -108, 11) Alex Bowman -116, 12) Ryan Blaney -117, 13) Chris Buescher -149, 14) Bubba Wallace -173, 15) Kyle Busch
-181, 16) Joey Logano -189. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Austin Cindric -241, 19) Daniel Suarez -245. Note:
Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 22, 2) Denny Hamlin -4, t-3) William Byron -6, t-3) Christopher Bell
-6, 5) Tyler Reddick -14, t-5) Austin Cindric -15, 7) Chase Elliott -16, t-8) Brad Keselowski -17, t-8) Daniel Suarez -17, t-10) Ty Gibbs -20, t-10) Martin Truex Jr. -20, t-10) Chris Buescher
-20, t-13) Ryan Blaney -21, t-13) Ross Chastain -21, t-13) Joey Logano -21, t-13) Michael McDowell -21. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 169, 2) Denny Hamlin
-31, 3) Tyler Reddick -46, 4) Ryan Blaney -50, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -56, 6) Christopher Bell -57, 7) Chase Elliott -66, 8) William Byron -68, 9) Ty Gibbs -81, 10) Brad Keselowski
-84, 11) Austin Cindric -97, t-12) Bubba Wallace -100, t-12) Alex Bowman -100, t-13) Joey Logano -104, 15) Ross Chastain -107, 16) Kyle Busch -111. Outside of the top-16, but
Still in the Playoffs: 17) Chris Buescher -116, t-19) Daniel Suarez -136. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 515, 2) Denny Hamlin -43, t-3) William Byron -51, t-3) Tyler Reddick -51, t-5) Kyle Larson -52, t-5) Martin Truex Jr. -52, 7) Ross Chastain
-53, 8) Brad Keselowski -63, 9) Ty Gibbs -67, 10) Alex Bowman -74, 11) Chris Buescher -87, 12) Christopher Bell -91, t-13) Ryan Blaney -120, t-13) Kyle Busch -120, t-13) Chase Briscoe -120, 16) Bubba
Wallace -125. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -165, 24) Austin Cindric -200.
Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 2259, 2) Denny Hamlin -112, 3) Tyler Reddick -141, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -155, 5) William Byron -160, 6) Brad Keselowski
-168, 7) Kyle Larson -179, 8) Ross Chastain -187, 9) Ty Gibbs -210, 10) Alex Bowman -239, 11) Chris Buescher -270, 12) Christopher Bell -272, 13) Ryan Blaney -370, 14) Kyle Busch -389, 15) Bubba
Wallace -404, 16) Chase Briscoe -412. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -548, t-23) Austin Cindric -649. Note: The WC points
are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: William Byron (Daytona, COTA, Martinsville), Daniel Suarez (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Kansas, Sonoma), Christopher Bell (Phoenix, Charlotte), Denny Hamlin (Bristol, Richmond, Dover), Chase Elliott (Texas), Tyler
Reddick (Talladega), Brad Keselowski (Darlington), Austin Cindric (Gateway)
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 our own Danny Peters.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: Cole Custer Retains Lead in Sonoma
by Phil Allaway
Cole Custer finished ninth Saturday in Sonoma but earned less points than any of his rivals. Chandler Smith finished seventh and Austin Hill fifth. Both earned six more points than Custer and remain tied for second, 12 points back. Justin Allgaier finished sixth and remains in fourth. Jesse Love finished 12th and remains in fifth. AJ Allmendinger was spun out late and finished 17th. He stays in sixth, while Riley Herbst is in seventh. Sheldon Creed finished second and has closed his margin to Herbst from 24 points to seven. Parker
Kligerman finished 10th and stays in ninth. Shane van Gisbergen's second win in a row moved him up four places to 10th. Sam Mayer is up one place to 11th after finishing third. Sammy Smith drops two places to 12th and is now the last driver in the playoffs on points. Sammy Smith has an 11-point lead over Ryan
Sieg, who finished 20th. Brandon Jones crashed out for the second straight week and dropped to 14th. Anthony Alfredo had a part failure that put him out late, keeping him in 15th. Parker Retzlaff is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Cole Custer 509, t-2) Austin Hill
-12, t-2) Chandler Smith -12, 4) Justin Allgaier -24, 5) Jesse Love -74, 6) AJ Allmendinger -100, 7) Riley Herbst -106, 8) Sheldon Creed -113, 9) Parker Kligerman -130, 10) Shane van Gisbergen
-147, 11) Sam Mayer -170, 12) Sammy Smith -173, 13) Ryan Sieg -184, 14) Brandon Jones -203, 15) Anthony Alfredo -204, 16) Parker Retzlaff -238. Playoff Points: 1) Justin Allgaier
15, 2) Chandler Smith -2, 3) Austin Hill -3, 4) Shane van Gisbergen -4, 4) Jesse Love -6, 5) Aric Almirola -7, t-6) Sam Mayer -10, t-6) Ryan Truex -10, 8) Cole Custer -13, t-9) Riley Herbst
-14, t-9) Parker Kligerman -14. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and John Hunter Nemechek would be tied for sixth in playoff points, while Ty Gibbs would be tied for 13th. Stage Points:
1) Justin Allgaier 165, 2) Austin Hill -37, 3) Cole Custer -46, 4) Riley Herbst -47, 5) Chandler Smith -58, 6) AJ Allmendinger -77, 7) Jesse Love -80, 8) Sheldon Creed -90, 9) Parker Kligerman
-91, 10) Sam Mayer -95, 11) Aric Almirola -101, t-12) Brandon Jones -110, t-12) Sammy Smith -110, 14) Ryan Sieg -123, t-15) Shane van Gisbergen -129, t-15) Ryan Truex -129. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Cole Custer 455, 2) Chandler Smith -9, 3) Austin Hill -16, 4) Jesse
Love -42, 5) Justin Allgaier -69, 6) Shane van Gisbergen -70, t-7) Sheldon Creed -73, t-7) AJ Allmendinger -73, 9) Parker Kligerman -90, 10) Anthony Alfredo -108, 11) Riley Herbst -112, 12) Ryan Sieg
-114, 13) Sammy Smith -115, 14) Sam Mayer -119, 15) Brennan Poole -145, 16) Brandon Jones -147. WC Points (1-16): 1) Cole Custer 2009, 2) Chandler
Smith -30, 3) Austin Hill -61, 4) Jesse Love -156, 5) Justin Allgaier -219, 6) Sheldon Creed -226, 7) Shane van Gisbergen -254, 8) AJ Allmendinger -256, 9) Parker Kligerman -321, 10) Sam Mayer
-379, 11) Riley Herbst -382, 12) Sammy Smith -386, 13) Anthony Alfredo -387, 14) Ryan Sieg -399, 15) Brandon Jones -495, 16) Parker Retzlaff -503. Race
Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas), Chandler Smith (Phoenix, Richmond), Kyle Larson (COTA), Aric Almirola (Martinsville), Sam Mayer (Texas), Jesse Love (Talladega), Ryan Truex (Dover), Justin Allgaier (Darlington), Chase Elliott (Charlotte), Shane van Gisbergen (Portland, Sonoma) 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. 5
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will return to action at Nashville Superspeedway on June 28. When teams get to Tennessee, Christian Eckes will have a 31-point lead over Corey Heim. Nick Sanchez is third, then
Ty Majeski and Taylor Gray. Grant Enfinger is the last driver currently in the playoffs on points. He has a 26-point lead over Stewart Friesen. Daniel Dye is 12th, then Matt Crafton and Chase Purdy. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 506, 2) Corey Heim -31, 3) Nick Sanchez -53, 4) Ty Majeski -64, 5) Taylor Gray -141, 6) Rajah Caruth -149, 7) Tyler Ankrum
-164, 8) Ben Rhodes -177, 9) Tanner Gray -185, 10) Grant Enfinger -187, 11) Stewart Friesen -213, 12) Daniel Dye -224, 13) Matt Crafton -233, 14) Chase Purdy -239, 15) Jake Garcia -256, 16) Layne Riggs
-263. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 24, 2) Christian Eckes -11, 3) Nick Sanchez -13, t-4) Rajah Caruth -19, t-4) Ty Majeski -19, t-6) Tyler Ankrum -22, t-6) Tanner Gray
-23, t-6) Kaden Honeycutt -23, t-6) Johnny Sauter -23. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be second in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Ty
Majeski 151, 2) Christian Eckes -10, 3) Corey Heim -42, 4) Tyler Ankrum -63, 5) Nick Sanchez -66, 6) Ben Rhodes -81, 7) Taylor Gray -91, 8) Rajah Caruth -99, 9) Grant Enfinger -103, 10) Layne Riggs
-106, 11) Chase Purdy -109, t-12) Tanner Gray -110, t-12) Kaden Honeycutt -110, 14) Stewart Friesen -114, t-15) Dean Thompson -123, 16) Daniel Dye -127. Note: If they were eligible for
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be seventh and Zane Smith 11th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 330, 2) Corey Heim -1, 3) Nick Sanchez -3, t-4) Taylor Gray
-71, t-4) Rajah Caruth -71, 6) Ty Majeski -75, 7) Tanner Gray -94, 8) Grant Enfinger -104, t-9) Tyler Ankrum -117, t-9) Ben Rhodes -117, 11) Daniel Dye -119, 12) Stewart Friesen -121, 13) Matt Crafton
-127, 14) Chase Purdy -147, 15) Jake Garcia -148, 16) Bret Holmes -161. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 1857, 2) Corey Heim -14, 3) Nick
Sanchez -18, 4) Ty Majeski -260, 5) Taylor Gray -261, 6) Rajah Caruth -279, 7) Tanner Gray -364, 8) Grant Enfinger -377, 9) Tyler Ankrum -412, 10) Ben Rhodes -420, t-11) Stewart Friesen -443, t-11) Daniel Dye
-443, 13) Matt Crafton -462, 14) Chase Purdy -512, 15) Jake Garcia -542, 16) Bret Holmes -571. Race Winners: Nick Sanchez (Daytona, Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Texas), Rajah Caruth (Las Vegas), Christian
Eckes (Bristol, Martinsville), Corey Heim (COTA, Kansas, North Wilkesboro, Gateway), Ross Chastain (Kansas) 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 Toyota/Save Mart 350k was brought to you by the letter T for Two-sided. The first half of the race was a complete wreckfest. Eight cautions in 55 laps. The second half was much more along the lines of what
we've seen in recent years at Sonoma. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Toyota/Save Mart 350k compiled by Phil Allaway
"I didn't know what we were doing as far as strategy. I was just out there banging laps away. I don't know.. we study all the strategy, but it's like doing homework. I don't really know what I'm looking at. "Yeah, I was like - well, man, these guys
are going to have to pit another time maybe. Then we said we had to go race and pass these guys, I got a bit nervous. I knew I'd be quick from the get go, but I thought once the tires would come up to temp, it would even off too much. "Just an awesome, awesome race car. Valvoline, every time we have Valvoline on the car, I feel like we're really fast. Thanks to Valvoline,
Hendrickcars.com, Chevrolet, Jinya Ramen Bar, Prime. "Just cool to win at home - drink some wine here in a little bit and go celebrate." - Kyle Larson, race winner
"The first stage went well for us, just kind of executing our plan and our strategy, but, unfortunately,
when we got towards the back on that restart and they piled up in the esses we just got drove into and into the barriers. That really hurt our track position because then we had to come back down pit road and fix the damage and that kind of killed our chances of restarting up front when it did cycle out, but, fortunately, we had a really fast Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang. We were able to get about half of them back before the end of stage two, and then the last stage we just had to
fight really hard to get track position. I feel like we had the speed today, which it hurts. It hurts to finish second. We desperately need a win to make the playoffs, but I’m proud of the effort and proud of the speed we had, but just a little bit short." - Michael McDowell, finished second "It was really good strategy on the day and an awesome
finish. I wasn’t quite able to hold the lead there and that bums me out. I was trying. I’ve got to be better and ultimately figure out how to make that last a little bit longer, but our team did a really nice job. To start where we did and finish right here at the front with our BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of that. Just another close one at the end of the day." - Chris Buescher, finished third "I’m not sure how [Kyle Larson] won, or how I got back to fifth. I don’t really know. I don’t now how the lap times worked out. I didn’t feel very good in the second or third set of tires for awhile, but it worked out somehow to get back up here. "I’m super proud of
the effort by this No. 1 Kubota Chevy team. It’s so good to be in a fast race car. I’m in them most weeks, but to be able to put it together and finish fifth is really, really rewarding." - Ross Chastain, finished fifth
"We had a really fast Cirkul Chevy. Travis [Mack] did a great job with strategy with everything that happened adversity wise. I thought overall we maximized our day. If everything
fell right, we could have and a top-five finish, but we’re happy with the result." - AJ Allmendinger, finished sixth "I don’t know [how much the damage hurt us]. Visually on the body, it doesn’t look like it much. The wheel was off a little bit – just stupid. I was on cold tires, and it was going to be really hard to hold him off anyway. I kind of just fell for
it. I don’t know. I guess we will know once we go back to the shop – just weren’t as good. I didn’t have a great restart – that also played a big factor. Even when we kind of got some clean air after, we got the second set of tires on it – it didn’t seem as good. We will go back and look at it, and try to understand what got away from us, but at least we got a Playoff point out of it with the Monster Energy Toyota Camry. [Kyle Larson] was on a similar strategy to us – and he won the race, and we
finished eighth. We were doing the right things; we just didn’t have the restart we needed." - Tyler Reddick, finished eighth
"It was a tough day. Got spun out early and had to work hard to get some track position back. James [Small] did a good job on our strategy. Our car was pretty good out front. Thought we were going to have a shot to win there and just couldn’t quite get by [Chris
Buescher] quick enough. I finally cleared him; I made a mistake and [Kyle Larson] was right there to pounce and then obviously ran out of gas so it didn’t matter. I’m not sure why we didn’t try to save a little at the end. I was clearly not going to catch [Larson] or pass him. It’s a shame that we went around the last corner and went from second to wherever we finished. It sucks, but it was a tough day, and we had a good car. We battled and did a good job. We were going to have a good day, but
just one corner short." - Martin Truex Jr., finished 27th
"I had so much fun. This weekend and the whole experience coming to a road course in a Cup car was sensational. I had so much fun and I can’t thank everyone enough for making that happen. The start of the race, I took it easy the first couple of laps and then I pressed on and tried to
pass some cars. The car was super fast. It could absolutely make some ground passing cars, which was really good. The cautions fell our way a bit and I guess effectively we were right up there somewhere. It was all looking really good." - Cam Waters, finished 35th 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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