Frontstretch Newsletter: June 17, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition XCVII |
- NASCAR teams are arriving back at their shops today after yesterday's race in Iowa. We'll have anything that breaks for you, including entry lists for Loudon at Frontstretch. |
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| Ryan Blaney Wins Inaugural Iowa Cup Series
Race Ryan Blaney led 201 of 350 laps Sunday night to win the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway. William Byron was second, then Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
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| Martin Truex Jr. Announces Retirement From Full-Time Cup
Competition During a press conference Friday afternoon at Iowa Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. announced that he will no longer compete full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series after the 2024 season. |
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| Kyle Larson’s Blazingly Fast Car Damaged After Daniel
Suarez Contact Kyle Larson was the driver that could have challenged Ryan Blaney Sunday night. However, a crash at the beginning of the final stage relegated him to a 34th-place finish. |
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| Solid 7th For Josh Berry At Iowa As Stewart-Haas Racing
Shows It Won’t Go Quietly Josh Berry had a strong race Sunday at Iowa Speedway, leading 32 laps and finishing seventh. |
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| Sam Mayer Collects 2nd Win of 2024 in Xfinity Series’
Return to Iowa Sam Mayer took the lead with seven laps to go and held on on the final restart to win the Hy-Vee Perks 250 Saturday afternoon. Riley Herbst was second, then Corey Heim, Sammy Smith and Sheldon Creed. |
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| Corey Heim in the Hunt Late With 3rd-Place Finish At
Iowa Corey Heim had a very strong race Saturday in Iowa, scoring a third-place finish, tied for the best run on an oval for Sam Hunt Racing. |
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| Poor Restarts Keep Chandler Smith From Being Short Track
King Chandler Smith won the first two stages Saturday and led the most laps Saturday in Iowa. However, a bad restart ruined his day and dropped him to eighth. |
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| Ferrari AF Corse Wins 2nd Consecutive 24 Hours of Le
Mans Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen scored Ferrari's second straight overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sunday. |
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| Connor Zilisch Holds Off William Sawalich to Win ARCA at
Iowa Connor Zilisch was able to hold off William Sawalich in the closing laps Friday night to win the ARCA Menards Series Atlas 150. Gio Ruggiero was third, then Mason Mitchell and Andy Jankowiak. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Javier Jimenez of DPPI and Adam Glanzman of ARCA Racing. 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: June 14-16 |
- This past weekend, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series was at Knoxville Raceway for the Premier Chevy Dealers Clash, rescheduled from April.
Friday night saw David Gravel lead early before Kyle Larson, fresh from NASCAR Cup Series practice at Iowa Speedway, swept past. Larson was looking good to
win until the engine blew on his No. 57. That gave Gravel the lead back. From there, Gravel held on for his ninth win of the year.
Parker Price-Miller was second, followed by Rico Abreu and James McFadden. Tyler Courtney was fifth. Saturday night
saw Corey Day and Logan Schuchart duel early on in the feature. Schuchart emerged victorious in the battle and seemed like he would win. Then, he got held up by a lapped car. Day was able to use the cushion to sweep past. Unfortunately for Schuchart, he slid up and clipped the cushion wrong. The result was a crash that put him out. Day held on over the final few laps to
take the victory. Donny Schatz was second, then Larson, Gravel and Scott Bogucki. Through 29 races, Gravel has a 56-point lead over Schatz. Carson Macedo is third, then Giovanni Scelzi and Buddy Kofoid. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from last weekend. For more from this past weekend, or from other race weekends, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channels (Frontstretch, FS Open Wheel and Frontstretch Grassroots) and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Chase Elliott Snatches Lead After Kyle Larson's Crash
by Phil Allaway
Kyle Larson had one of the best cars Sunday and scored a race-high 19 stage points. However, he was involved in a crash with Denny Hamlin at the beginning of the final stage and limped home to finish 34th, 36 laps down. That cost him the points lead. Chase Elliott had a strong run to a third-place finish Sunday night that elevated him to the lead. He has an eight-point lead over his teammate. Hamlin ended up 24th after the crash and stays in third. William Byron finished second and moved up two places to fourth. Martin Truex Jr. got busted for
speeding on pit road and recovered to 15th, allowing him to stay in fifth. Tyler Reddick struggled Sunday to a 22nd-place finish and dropped two places to sixth. Ryan Blaney's first win of the year moved him up five places to seventh. Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell are tied for eighth. Bell came from the rear after a big crash in practice to finish fourth, while Keselowski finished 10th. Bell has the tiebreaker due to
multiple victories. Ross Chastain remains in 10th after an 11th-place finish. Ty Gibbs is down from a tie for seventh to 11th after a 25th-place finish. Alex Bowman is down one place to 12th despite an eighth-place finish. Chris Buescher finished 18th and stays in 13th. Bubba Wallace is still the final driver in the playoffs on points in 14th. Wallace's margin is six points over Joey Logano, who moved up to 15th after a sixth-place finish. Kyle Busch dropped out due to a water pump issue and is now 16th, 31 points behind Wallace. Chase Briscoe remains in 17th, followed by Daniel Suarez, who had a top 10 finish for the first time in two months that moved him up to 18th. Austin Cindric struggled in a backup car to 30th and dropped to 19th. Todd Gilliland is up to 20th after finishing 12th. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 591, 2) Kyle Larson -8, 3) Denny Hamlin -38, 4) William Byron -54, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -61, 6) Tyler Reddick -64, 7) Ryan Blaney
-90, t-8) Christopher Bell -93, t-8) Brad Keselowski -93, 10) Ross Chastain -112, 11) Ty Gibbs -113, 12) Alex Bowman -117, 13) Chris Buescher -156, 14) Bubba Wallace -177, 15) Joey Logano
-183, 16) Kyle Busch -208.
Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -239, 19) Austin Cindric -264. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs,
or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 23, 2) Denny Hamlin -5, t-3) William Byron -7, t-3) Christopher Bell -7, 5) Tyler Reddick -15, t-6) Ryan Blaney
-16, t-6) Austin Cindric -16, 8) Chase Elliott -17, t-9) Brad Keselowski -18, t-9) Daniel Suarez -18, t-11) Ty Gibbs -21, t-11) Martin Truex Jr. -21, t-11) Chris Buescher -21, t-14) Ross Chastain -22, t-14) Joey Logano
-22, t-14) Michael McDowell -22. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 188, 2) Denny Hamlin -45, 3) Ryan Blaney -52, 4) Tyler Reddick
-65, t-5) Chase Elliott -75, t-5) Martin Truex Jr. -75, 7) Christopher Bell -76, 8) William Byron -80, 9) Brad Keselowski -98, 10) Ty Gibbs -100, 11) Bubba Wallace -113, 12) Austin Cindric
-116, 13) Joey Logano -118, 14) Alex Bowman -119, 15) Ross Chastain -126, 16) Kyle Busch -129. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: 17) Chris Buescher -131, 18) Daniel Suarez
-147. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 554, 2) William Byron
-51, 3) Ross Chastain -62, t-4) Denny Hamlin -65, t-4) Martin Truex Jr. -65, 6) Brad Keselowski -70, 7) Tyler Reddick -71, 8) Alex Bowman -80, 9) Kyle Larson -83, 10) Ty Gibbs
-90, 11) Christopher Bell -92, 12) Chris Buescher -102, 13) Ryan Blaney -114, 14) Joey Logano -138, 15) Bubba Wallace -140, 16) Chase Briscoe -146. Outside of the top 16, but still
in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -171, 24) Austin Cindric -228.
Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 2429, 2) William Byron
-160, 3) Denny Hamlin -191, 4) Brad Keselowski -199, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -207, 6) Tyler Reddick -214, 7) Ross Chastain -227, 8) Alex Bowman -267, 9) Christopher Bell -277, 10) Kyle Larson
-283, 11) Ty Gibbs -292, 12) Chris Buescher -326, 13) Ryan Blaney -355, 14) Joey Logano -449, 15) Bubba Wallace -463, 16) Kyle Busch -501. Outside of the top-16, but still in the
playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -575, 24) Austin Cindric -746. 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), Ryan Blaney (Iowa)
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: Cole Custer Retains Slim Lead After Iowa
by Phil Allaway
Cole Custer finished sixth Saturday in Iowa. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith won the first two stages and finished eighth. That leaves Custer with a mere one-point lead over Chandler Smith. Austin Hill was eliminated in a late crash and finished 29th. Despite that, he remains in third. Justin Allgaier finished 29th after crashing
late and stays in fourth. Jesse Love and Sheldon Creed are tied for fifth, but Love gets the tiebreaker via his victory at Talladega. Love crashed out and finished 31st while Creed was fifth. Riley Herbst finished second and stays in seventh, while AJ Allmendinger is down two places to eighth after crashing out
early. Parker Kligerman is still in ninth after finishing 11th. Sam Mayer is up one place to 10th after scoring his second win of the year. Sammy Smith is up one place to 11th after a fourth-place finish. He is the last driver in the playoffs on points. Shane van Gisbergen is down two spots to 12th after writing off two cars in
Iowa and finishing 34th. Sammy Smith has a 31-point lead over Ryan Sieg, who finished 12th Saturday. Anthony Alfredo is up one place to 14th after a 15th-place finish. Brandon Jones scored minimum points for the third race in a row and dropped to 15th. Parker Retzlaff is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Cole Custer 547, 2) Chandler Smith -1, 3) Austin Hill -41, 4) Justin Allgaier -44, t-5) Jesse Love -105, t-5) Sheldon Creed -105, 7) Riley
Herbst -106, 8) AJ Allmendinger -137, 9) Parker Kligerman -142, 10) Sam Mayer -151, 11) Sammy Smith -166, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -182, 13) Ryan Sieg -197, 14) Anthony Alfredo -220, 15) Brandon Jones
-240, 16) Parker Retzlaff -271. Playoff Points: t-1) Justin Allgaier 15, t-1) Chandler Smith 15, 3) Austin Hill -3, 4) Shane van Gisbergen -4, 5) Sam Mayer -5, 6) Jesse Love
-6, 7) Aric Almirola -7, 8) Ryan Truex -10, 9) Cole Custer -13, t-10) Riley Herbst -14, t-10) Parker Kligerman -14. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and John Hunter Nemechek would be
tied for eighth in playoff points, while Ty Gibbs would be tied for 13th. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 176, 2) Austin Hill -47, 3) Chandler Smith -49, 4) Cole Custer -50, 5) Riley Herbst
-55, 6) Sheldon Creed -87, 7) AJ Allmendinger -88, 8) Sam Mayer -89, 9) Jesse Love -90, 10) Parker Kligerman -102, 11) Sammy Smith -109, 12) Aric Almirola -112, 13) Brandon Jones -121, 14) Ryan Sieg
-134, t-15) Shane van Gisbergen -140, t-15) Ryan Truex -140. 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 490, 2) Chandler Smith -9, 3) Austin Hill -39, 4) Jesse Love -67, 5) Sheldon Creed -72, 6) Justin Allgaier -92, 7) Parker Kligerman -95, 8) Shane van Gisbergen
-98, 9) AJ Allmendinger -104, 10) Riley Herbst -107, 11) Sam Mayer -110, 12) Sammy Smith -113, 13) Anthony Alfredo -117, 14) Ryan Sieg -119, 15) Brennan Poole -167, 16) Parker Retzlaff -174. WC Points (1-16): 1) Cole Custer 2159, 2) Chandler Smith -28, 3) Austin Hill -135, 4) Sheldon Creed -221, 5) Jesse Love -236, 6) Justin Allgaier
-291, 7) Parker Kligerman -341, 8) Shane van Gisbergen -343, 9) Sam Mayer -349, 10) AJ Allmendinger -354, 11) Riley Herbst -357, 12) Sammy Smith -376, 13) Ryan Sieg -417, 14) Anthony Alfredo
-419, 15) Brennan Poole -583, 16) Parker Retzlaff -586. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas), Chandler Smith (Phoenix, Richmond), Kyle Larson (COTA), Aric Almirola (Martinsville), Sam Mayer (Texas, Iowa), 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. 6
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 Iowa Corn 350 was brought to you by the letter T for Trepidation. After a nightmarish practice session Friday, fears of a race filled with wrecks due to blown tires were very high.
Yes, there were tire issues, but nowhere near as much as everyone feared. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Iowa Corn 350 compiled by Phil Allaway
"Oh, it's always nice [to win]. It's nice not to have that in the back of your head. If you get tore up in a handful of races, you're not biting your nails off. It's just nice to do it. "Honestly, we've been close to two or three [wins] this
year. Barely losing Atlanta. Having Gateway kind of sealed up, then [running out of fuel] happened. Not kind of seeing where we could finish. Where we got wrecked at Texas and Darlington, we were really good. I would have liked to see where we could finish. Felt like we could never get the runs we deserved, crappy things would happen to us, we couldn't finish it out.
"It was nice to finally
have one, the night go pretty smoothly, us get better through the night. They did a great job of getting better. Friday, honestly I didn't feel very good. I wasn't very confident in the speed in our car. We went to work, my guys did, got better qualifying. Got better through the night. I didn't think we were great at some points during the night, but the last two runs we were phenomenal. "It's just relief. Nice to get back in Victory Lane. Nice to get Ford back in Victory Lane. Cool to win with Advance Auto Parts. First win with them as a primary. They're great people." - Ryan Blaney, race winner "No, [Ryan Blaney] had a really good car, so he was up front and contending a lot, and him and [Kyle
Larson] were really good. So, we were just a step off of that, you know? I feel like I just needed to turn the center just a hair better and still kind of maintain the long run. Proud of the effort. It was a really good night, and I feel like we can learn from this and build from it to be a little bit better." - William Byron, finished second "Our
balance was just right, and I thought all day we had really good long run pace. I just really struggled to get going on restarts, and just was really loose and couldn’t. Just felt like I couldn’t attack like I needed to and just lost a lot of ground. Could make good pace there at the end of a run with our NAPA Chevy, just needed to be a little closer I think to keep the pressure on and keep things rolling. Anyway, I was proud of the effort and felt like we had a really good car and were right
there in the fight." - Chase Elliott, finished third "Yeah, I mean, a top-five, is a good day. Obviously, we had pace to be better than that, so that’s why I’m sitting here with mixed emotions. Great effort, and if we keep bringing cars like that, hopefully it’ll be our day one of these times.
"I was just not good until the tires got hot. Once the tires got hot, it came in. I was literally the slowest car in the field when we took off on stickers, and all of a sudden, it started to come in, and we were really fast. I don’t know. It was an up and down day, and I don’t really quite know how to feel about it." - Christopher Bell, finished fourth
"[On] that first run and starting at the back, we were really strong late in that run. So, I felt confident in what our NOS Energy Drink Camaro could do throughout this whole race. We had a little mishap on pit road that set us back again, to kind of that back row. So, we had to battle back from that. Those guys cleaned it up on pit road, and we had great strategy with those two tires to get us back to clean air at the front of the field. Really wanted
to go battle [Ryan] Blaney there. We got to second, just got a little too loose, and couldn’t hold those guys off. Really cool to do a Cup race here in Iowa after all our success and to do it in front of a great crowd." - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished fifth
"We put ourselves in position there to win the race with the two-tire call. I just didn’t re-fire good on two. I tried to race
Blaney and couldn’t hold him off and then I just kind of got swallowed up by a couple cars pretty quick. We just didn’t have enough fire-off. I think if I could have got out front, I probably would have been OK, but I couldn’t get out there." - Joey Logano, finished sixth
"I thought we had a really good race and a really good car. To score stage points like we did we had some great
restarts in there and just that last restart didn’t really go our way. We lost a little bit of track position and just could never get it back, but, all in all, just really proud of everybody on the No. 4 team. They did a great job. That was a lot of fun, for sure. We’re gonna keep digging to keep getting better." - Josh Berry, finished seventh
"Yeah, I don’t know what happened, but
Next Gen parts and pieces broke. Something in the left-rear suspension – I don’t know if it was a toe link or what it was, but it changed the skew of the back of the car and it was just undrivable doing that. We came in and fixed it. Rolling back out, we broke the belt. I have no idea, but frustrating, for sure. Not what we wanted for all of our No. 8 Zone Chevy guys; everybody from Kwik Star. We were having a pretty decent day. I thought we had a top 10 run going. We had an opportunity there to
score some points, but it wasn’t meant to be." - Kyle Busch, finished 35th (Retired due to suspension damage)
"The warning signs were there. I told my team the lap prior, two laps prior, that I thought we were going to blow a right front [tire]. The angle was a lot better, so I got it slowed down enough that I didn’t feel anything inside the car." - AJ Allmendinger, finished 36th
(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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![Kris Wright Talks Wreck With Cody Dennison: "I Knew {The Low Line] Was A Bad Place To Put Myself In"](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/85acb349f37c48cc89ee35af17c88bd0.png)
