Frontstretch Newsletter: April 15, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition LII |
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 Texas. We'll have entry lists and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Chase Elliott Snaps 42-Race Winless Streak, Wins in
Texas Chase Elliott took the lead late Sunday after Denny Hamlin crashed and held on to win the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, his first win since 2022. Brad Keselowski was second, then William Byron, Tyler Reddick and Daniel
Suarez. |
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| Brad Keselowski Falls One Spot Short of 1st Win in 107
Races Brad Keselowski still hasn't won since 2021, but he's getting closer to victory lane. Sunday saw him finish second for the fourth time since his last win. |
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| William Byron Apologetic After Last-Lap Contact with Ross
Chastain Sunday's AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 ended under caution after William Byron got in the back of Ross Chastain exiting turn 2, turning him into the wall. It was not what Byron intended to do. |
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| Denny Hamlin Wipes Out with Texas Win in
Sight Denny Hamlin was in good position to win on Sunday. However, the late crash for John Hunter Nemechek put him side-by-side with Chase Elliott. While racing for the lead, Hamlin spun and hit the wall in turn 4. |
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| Sam Mayer Wins Xfinity Race at Texas in Photo
Finish JR Motorsports' Sam Mayer ran down Ryan Sieg in the closing laps and just barely had his nose ahead at the line to win the Andy's Frozen Custard 300 by .002 seconds for his first career win. Justin Allgaier was third, then AJ Allmendinger and Cole
Custer. |
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| Ryan Sieg Oh-So-Close, Yet Oh-So-Far from 1st Xfinity Win
at Texas Ryan Sieg has raced in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2011. He has never gotten to victory lane in a NASCAR National-level event. He came as close as he possibly could Saturday. |
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| Justin Allgaier Goes Cold in Final Laps of Texas Xfinity
Race JR Motorsports' Justin Allgaier was dominant for much of Saturday, leading 117 laps and winning the first two stages. However, he was shuffled back late and had to settle for third. |
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| Kyle Busch Hangs On for Truck Series Win at
Texas Kyle Busch led the most laps and swept the stages to win Friday night's SpeedyCash.com 250 for his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of the year. Corey Heim was second, then Nick Sanchez, Christian Eckes and Zane Smith. |
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| Lawless Alan Finishes 11th, Continues to Show
Improvement Friday night saw Reaume Brothers Racing's Lawless Alan take advantage of strategy to have an excellent run. He was in the top 10 until the closing laps before falling to 11th. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography and our own Phil Allaway. 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: April 12-14 |
- COOL Racing's Lorenzo Fluxa, Malthe Jakobsen and Ritomo Miyata claimed the overall victory in Sunday's 4 Hours of Barcelona, the opening round of the European Le Mans Series at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona. Their margin of victory was 16.161 seconds over Algarve Pro Racing's Olli Caldwell, Matthias Kaiser and Alex Lynn, whom COOL Racing did battle with for the majority of the race. United Autosports Ben Hanley, Marino Sato and Filip Ugran were third in their ORECA 07-Gibson, followed by IDEC Sport's Reshad de Gerus, Paul Lafargue and Job van Uitert. Panis Racing's Arthur Leclerc (younger brother of Charles), Manuel Maldonado and Charles Milesi were fifth. In the LMP2 Pro-Am sub-class, AF Corse's Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxiviere took the win in sixth overall. Their margin of victory was 18.314 seconds over Richard Mille by TDS' Mathias Beche, Rodrigo Sales and Gregoire Saucy. Nielsen Racing's Albert Costa, John Falb and Colin Noble were a lap down in third, followed by Algarve Pro Racing's Richard Bradley, Kriton Lentoudis and Alex Quinn. Proton Competition's Rene Binder, Giorgio Roda
and Bent Viscaal were fifth. LMP3 was won by Team Virage's Julien Gerbi, Gillian Henrion and Bernardo Pinheiro in their Ligier JS P320-Nissan in 20th overall. Their margin of victory was 8.043 seconds over COOL Racing's Miguel Cristovao, Manuel Espirito Santo and Cedric Oltramare. Eurointernational's Adam Ali and Matt Bell were third, then RLR MSport's Nick Adcock, Michael
Jensen and Gael Julien. BKR Engineering's Wyatt Brichacek, former W Series racer Belen Garcia and Alexander Mattschull were fifth. Finally, the all-Danish lineup of Conrad and Johnny Laursen, along with Nicklas Nielsen won the LMGT3 class in their Ferrari 296 GT3. Their margin of victory was 12.389 seconds over the similar Ferrari of GR Racing's Riccardo Pera, Davide Rigon
and Michael Wainwright. The Iron Lynx Lamborghini of Andrea Caldarelli, Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Axcil Jefferies were third, followed by Proton Competition's Porsche for Julian Andlauer, Matteo Cressoni and Claudio Schiavoni. Spirit of Race's Ferrari for Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and David Perel were fifth. - World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were at
Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 for the Spring Classic. Teams would have two nights of racing on the tricky small oval. Friday night saw David Gravel lead flag-to-flag to win the 40-lap feature. Buddy Kofoid was second, then Carson Macedo, Bill Balog and Giovanni Scelzi. Saturday night was a different race. Donny Schatz started fourth and slowly made his way up the order. On lap 11, he was able to snatch the lead when Balog got caught behind slower traffic From there, Scelzi opened up a big advantage of nearly five seconds. That allowed him to take it a little easy late. Regardless, he was able to hold
on to take his 313th career NOS Energy Drink World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series win. Schatz won by 1.591 seconds over Macedo. Kofoid was third, then Gravel and Balog. In the points, Gravel leads by 48 points over Schatz. Scelzi is third, then Logan
Schuchart and Macedo. - In the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series, Friday night's feaure came down to the final 100 feet. Nick Hoffman dominated the feature, but Bobby Pierce ran him down in the final laps. On the final lap, Pierce made a move for the lead coming to the checkered flag, but Hoffman was able to hold him off by .072 seconds. Cade Dillard
finished third, followed by Tyler Erb and Tim McCreadie. Saturday night's main feature of the Illini 100 saw Pierce sweep past Chris Madden on lap 13 to take the lead. From there, Pierce was off to the races as he pulled away to take the win and a check for $20,000. Pierce won by 8.825 seconds over Hoffman. Erb was third, then Kyle Bronson and Brandon Sheppard. In the points, Sheppard has a 24-point lead over Madden. Hoffman is third, then Dillard and Tyler Bruening. Pierce is seventh despite his penalty from earlier this year. |
This is just a sampling of the 38 videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channel from Texas Motor Speedway and New River All-American Speedway last weekend. For more from Fort Worth, Jacksonville, N.C., 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: Kyle Larson Increases Advantage Despite Lost Wheel
by Phil Allaway
Kyle Larson ended up leading the most laps Sunday, but lost his right rear wheel under yellow and was penalized two laps. That, plus a late spin, dropped him back to a 20th-place finish. Despite that, he actually expanded his advantage over Martin Truex Jr. to 17 points. Truex was in position to take the
points lead until a loose wheel put him to the rear. He would battle back to finish 14th. Denny Hamlin stays in third despite crashing late and finishing 30th. Chase Elliott's victory moved him up two places to fourth. William Byron is back in fifth spot despite finishing a strong
third Sunday. Ty Gibbs stood pat Sunday, neither gaining or losing points to Larson. That was enough to move him up one place to sixth. Ryan Blaney crashed in turn 2, then finished eight laps down in 33rd and dropped to seventh. Tyler Reddick was very disappointed with fourth Sunday, but still moved up a spot to eighth. Bubba Wallace recovered from a spin while fighting for second to finish eighth. That moved him up three places to ninth. Christopher Bell crashed early on, but still managed to recover to finish 17th. He actually moved up one place to 10th. Ross Chastain's last-lap crash dropped him from second to 32nd and moved him down to 11th in points. Chase
Briscoe finished sixth and moved up four places to 12th. Chris Buescher had a very quiet day Sunday to hold onto 13th in points after finishing 15th. Alex Bowman was eliminated in an early crash and dropped four places to 14th. Joey Logano and Kyle Busch are tied for 15th. By virtue of Logano's
second-place finish at Richmond, he has the last spot in the playoffs on points. Logano and Busch are one-point ahead of Brad Keselowski, who finished second Sunday. Daniel Suarez finished fifth, but dropped a spot and is now 18th. Erik Jones is up to 19th, while John Hunter
Nemechek is 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 335, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -17, 3) Denny Hamlin -28, 4) Chase
Elliott -32, 5) William Byron -38, 6) Ty Gibbs -55, 7) Ryan Blaney -57, 8) Tyler Reddick -66, 9) Bubba Wallace -79, 10) Christopher Bell -85, 11) Ross Chastain -88, 12) Chase Briscoe -104, 13) Chris
Buescher -106, 14) Alex Bowman -107, t-15) Joey Logano -118, t-15) Kyle Busch -118. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -125. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) William Byron 15, 2)
Denny Hamlin -3, 3) Kyle Larson -5, 4) Christopher Bell -8, 5) Chase Elliott -9, 6) Daniel Suarez -10, 7) Ty Gibbs -13, t-8) Martin Truex Jr. -14, t-8) Ryan Blaney -14, t-8) Ross Chastain -14, t-8) Austin Cindric
-14, t-8) Tyler Reddick -14, t-7) Michael McDowell -14. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 104, 2) Denny Hamlin -20, 3) Martin Truex Jr.
-30, 4) Ryan Blaney -34, 5) Tyler Reddick -41, 6) Chase Elliott -45, 7) Christopher Bell -50, 8) Bubba Wallace -52, 9) William Byron -59, 10) Ty Gibbs -62, 11) Joey Logano -65, 12) Austin Cindric
-67, 13) Brad Keselowski -68, 14) Ross Chastain -69, 15) Alex Bowman -73, 16) Daniel Suarez -74.
Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: 17) Chase
Briscoe -75, t-24) Chris Buescher -89. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old
Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 291, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -4, 3) Chase Elliott -7, 4) Ty Gibbs -13, 5) Kyle Larson -16, 6) Denny Hamlin -23, t-7) Ross Chastain -39, t-7) Chris Buescher
-39, t-9) Ryan Blaney -43, t-9) Chris Buescher -43, 11) Bubba Wallace -46,12) Chase Briscoe -51, 13) Christopher Bell -54, 14) Alex Bowman -57, 15) Kyle Busch -60, 16) Joey Logano -70. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: t-17) Daniel Suarez -72. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were
created. WC Points (1-16): 1) William Byron 1279, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -13, 3) Chase Elliott -30, 4) Kyle Larson -39, 5) Ty Gibbs -45, 6) Denny
Hamlin -78, 7) Tyler Reddick -128, 8) Ryan Blaney -129, t-9) Ross Chastain -133, t-9) Chris Buescher -133, 11) Bubba Wallace -147, 12) Christopher Bell -160, 13) Alex Bowman -179, 14) Chase Briscoe -186, 15) Kyle
Busch -203, 16) Brad Keselowski -220.
Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Joey Logano -222, 18) Daniel Suarez -241. 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), Christopher Bell (Phoenix),
Denny Hamlin (Bristol, Richmond), Chase Elliott (Texas)
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's Lead Shrinks Due to Fender Damage
by Phil Allaway
Chandler Smith had a fast car Saturday, but ended up getting damaged. He had to struggle to a 15th-place finish. That cost him part of his lead. The lead is now 19 points over Cole Custer, who finished fifth. Austin Hill is still in third after a sixth-place finish, while Justin Allgaier moved up to fourth after
winning the first two stages and finishing third. Jesse Love is down one place to fifth after starting from pole and finishing ninth. Riley Herbst finished 27th after multiple instances of contact in the closing laps. However, 16 stage points keeps him in sixth. AJ Allmendinger is up one place to seventh after finishing fourth
while fighting the flu. Sammy Smith is up one place to eighth after finishing eighth. Parker Kligerman is down two places to ninth after finishing 25th. Sheldon Creed stays in 10th after a mediocre run to 19th. Ryan Sieg came within a whisker of winning Saturday. The second-place finish moved him up four places to
11th in points, the final spot in the playoffs on points. Sieg has a five-point lead over Brandon Jones, who was quite strong Saturday, but finished 13th. Anthony Alfredo finished 10th, but dropped down to 13th. Sam Mayer's victory moved him up two places to 14th, while Shane van Gisbergen is now 15th. The idle
Aric Almirola dropped to 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 333, 2) Cole Custer -19, 3) Austin Hill -33, 4) Justin Allgaier -56, 5) Jesse Love -76, 6) Riley Herbst
-101, 7) AJ Allmendinger -104, 8) Sammy Smith -108, 9) Parker Kligerman -118, 10) Sheldon Creed -133, 11) Ryan Sieg -136, 12) Brandon Jones -141, 13) Anthony Alfredo -148, 14) Sam Mayer -153, 15) Shane van
Gisbergen -158, 16) Aric Almirola -173. Playoff Points: 1) Chandler Smith 13, 2) Austin Hill -2, t-3) Sam Mayer -8, t-3) Aric Almirola -8, t-5) Jesse Love
-10, t-5) Justin Allgaier -10, t-7) Cole Custer -12, t-7) Riley Herbst -12, t-7) Parker Kligerman -12. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson and John Hunter Nemechek would be tied for fourth in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 88, 2) Riley Herbst -3, 3) Cole Custer -7, 4) Chandler Smith -27, 5) Austin Hill -32, 6) Aric Almirola -34, 7) Sam Mayer
-43, 8) AJ Allmendinger -44, 9) Jesse Love -47, 10) Sammy Smith -49, t-11) Sheldon Creed -57, t-11) Parker Kligerman -57, 13) Ryan Sieg -59, 14) Brandon Jones -61, 15) Ryan Truex -63, 16) Anthony Alfredo -76. Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 13th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 303, 2) Austin
Hill -24, 3) Cole Custer -33, 4) Jesse Love -50, 5) Justin Allgaier -75, 6) AJ Allmendinger -82, t-7) Parker Kligerman -83, t-7) Sammy Smith
-83, 9) Anthony Alfredo -98, 10) Sheldon Creed -100, 11) Ryan Sieg -101, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -102, 13) Brandon Jones -105, 14) Riley Herbst
-122, 15) Sam Mayer -130, t-16) Jeremy Clements -131, t-16) Brennan Poole -131.. WC Points (1-16): t-1) Chandler Smith 1300, 2) Austin Hill
-82, 3) Cole Custer -120, 4) Jesse Love -182, 5) Justin Allgaier -260, 6) AJ Allmendinger -293, 7) Parker Kligerman -298, 8) Sammy Smith -301, 9) Sheldon Creed -329, 10) Ryan Sieg -353, 11) Shane van Gisbergen
-357, 12) Anthony Alfredo -359, 13) Brandon Jones -374, 14) Riley Herbst -421, 15) Sam Mayer -434, 16) Jeremy Clements -459. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona, Atlanta), John
Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas), Chandler Smith (Phoenix, Richmond), Kyle Larson (COTA), Aric Almirola (Martinsville), Sam Mayer (Texas) 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: Christian Eckes Claims Points Lead
by Phil Allaway
Ty Majeski finished 10th Friday night, but was never really in the hunt. He failed to score any stage points. Meanwhile, Christian Eckes finished fourth and scored 17 stage points. That was enough to give him the points lead after entering the race in fourth. His lead is two points over Corey Heim, who finished second. Majeski
is down to third, while Nick Sanchez moved up two places to fourth after scoring 17 stage points and finishing third. Taylor Gray remains in fifth after finishing seventh. Tyler Ankrum had a nightmare Friday. He crashed in practice and had to go to a backup truck. Then, he was eliminated on the second lap of the race in another
wreck. That dropped him from a tie for second to sixth. Rajah Caruth remains in seventh after finishing 12th. Matt Crafton is eighth. Tanner Gray crashed on his first lap of practice Friday. In a backup truck with no laps on it, Tanner drove to an eighth-place finish. That moved him up two places to ninth. Grant
Enfinger crashed out late and dropped to 10th, the last driver in the playoffs on points. Enfinger is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He has a five-point advantage over Daniel Dye, who finished a career-best sixth to move up two places to 11th. Ben Rhodes is down two positions to 12th after finishing two laps down in
24th. Stewart Friesen ran very well, but got collected in a crash with Kris Wright. Despite that, he still finished 13th and moved up to 13th in points. Bayley Currey and Jake Garcia are tied for 14th, while Bret Holmes is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 287, 2) Corey Heim -2, 3) Ty Majeski -12, 4) Nick Sanchez -27, 5) Taylor Gray -38, 6) Tyler Ankrum -43, 7) Rajah Caruth
-54, 8) Matt Crafton -92, 9) Tanner Gray -116, 10) Grant Enfinger -120, 11) Daniel Dye -125, 12) Ben Rhodes -126, 13) Stewart Friesen -137, t-14) Bayley Currey -144, t-14) Jake Garcia -144, 16) Bret Holmes
-156. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be eighth in points. Playoff Points: 1) Christian Eckes 13, t-2) Corey Heim
-7, t-2) Nick Sanchez -7, 4) Rajah Caruth -8, 5) Ty Majeski -11, t-6) Tyler Ankrum -12, t-6) Johnny Sauter -12. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be leading the
playoff points with 15. Stage Points: 1) Ty Majeski 93, 2) Christian Eckes -11, 3) Tyler Ankrum -19, 4) Nick Sanchez -31, 5) Corey Heim -43, 6) Taylor Gray
-53, 7) Ben Rhodes -59, 8) Grant Enfinger -62, 9) Rajah Caruth -69, 10) Stewart Friesen -73, 11) Layne Riggs -75, t-12) Matt Crafton -76, t-12) Daniel Dye -76, 14) Tanner Gray -78, t-15) Chase Purdy
-80, t-15) Bayley Currey -80, t-15) Jake Garcia -80. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be fourth and Zane Smith 10th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 210, 2) Christian Eckes -26, 3) Taylor Gray -27, 4) Rajah Caruth -28, 5) Nick Sanchez -35, 6) Ty Majeski -48, 7) Matt Crafton -60, 8) Tyler Ankrum
-63, 9) Tanner Gray -80, 10) Daniel Dye -93, 11) Grant Enfinger -100, 12) Jake Garcia -106, 13) Stewart Friesen -107, 14) Bayley Currey -108, 15) Ben Rhodes -110, 16) Bret Holmes -111. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 10th in Old Points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 1144, 2) Christian Eckes -96, 3) Taylor Gray
-101, 4) Rajah Caruth -119, 5) Nick Sanchez -126, 6) Ty Majeski -165, 7) Tyler Ankrum -224, 8) Matt Crafton -229, 9) Tanner Gray -298, 10) Daniel Dye -338, 11) Grant Enfinger -358, 12) Stewart Friesen
-385, 13) Bret Holmes -388, t-14) Jake Garcia -390, t-14) Bayley Currey -390, t-14) Jake Garcia -390. Race Winners: Nick Sanchez (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Texas), Rajah Caruth (Las Vegas), Christian
Eckes (Bristol, Martinsville), 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's AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 was brought to you by the letter B for Bumps. The bumps in turn 4 proved to be critical as a number of contenders were eliminated after they got loose on the outside of
other drivers. Michael McDowell, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace all spun up there. Only Wallace and Briscoe ended up with decent finishes. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"Oh, man, couldn’t feel any better. First off, thanks to everybody that came out today. You guys are unbelievable. "Hooters has been a partner of ours for a number of years now. It’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. Driving this car to a
victory and do a Polish victory lap – just really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me. He beat dad back in the day. Here we are sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today. "Man, couldn’t be more grateful for this journey and kind of the path that hasn’t always been fun, but certainly have enjoyed working with our
guys. We’ve been working really hard and really well together. Like I said, hasn’t always been fun, but we’ve enjoyed the fight together." - Chase Elliott, race winner "We didn’t have a ton of speed. Honestly, I am more frustrated than anything because I feel like we have a great team and we don’t have the speed to go with it. We are doing all we can do to overcome that.
The driver in me is frustrated because I feel like these are races I am good enough to win but don’t have the speed enough to do it. The owner in me is mad as hell because it is my fault for not making the cars faster. I am still proud of the team that we have with the pit stops and strategy and execution to put ourselves in position to get a finish we probably didn’t deserve but earned with some never-give-up spirit. It was a good job of executing with what we had. It is frustrating. You can
still get good finishes by running good smart days, executing on pit road, and having great strategy and I am proud of our team for doing that today." - Brad Keselowski, finished second "I just had a big run. Ross [Chastain] and I race really well, and I didn’t want to wreck him there, but he blocked me late, which is understood. It’s racing at the end, but I was
already there and unfortunately, we made enough contact to where it got him squirrelly and it happened. So, I hate that that happened, but it’s the last lap and I had the run so I am going to just take the run. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t want to do that to a fellow Chevy guy, and we always race really well." - William Byron, finished third "We had control of the
restart that mattered, and we didn’t execute. Just kept focusing on the wrong things. All day long, I’d been really aggressively blocking the car behind going me into turn one, and it really hurt us going into the center of turn two. Just made bad adjustments at the wrong time, and we gave away the race." - Tyler Reddick, finished fourth "It was tricky. I thought we
were going to be pretty strong, and we were pretty good in the first run. Then in the first green-flag cycle, I don’t know what happened to the car because we were super loose. And then after that, we started making adjustments and we got the car better. We started making progress and we got a penalty, and we went to the back again. We started making progress and we had another bad pit stop. It was just not a very clean day at all. It was a good result at the end of the day because the strategy
worked out good, and we got a couple of good restarts. But we have some work to do. We have to continue to in order to move forward." - Daniel Suarez, finished fifth "That was frustrating. Our Mustang was really good. Obviously, we were able to finish fifth in both stages, and we had done everything perfectly up until the point of the wreck. We were going to be the
leader. [Bubba Wallace] was on way older tires, and I knew if I was beside him going into three, I was going to come out the leader. We both ran into one so hard and let [Harrison Burton] put us three-wide. He was probably more worried about me, and honestly, it screwed both of us because we both wrecked. We kind of got lucky at the end when we went back to the back and caught a really lucky caution. Our Rush Truck Centers Ford was really good today. Way better than sixth place. I feel
like I keep saying it is frustrating because we are way better than that speed wise but overall it was a really solid day and really solid points day. I feel like our win is right around the corner. We just have to clean up a little bit of stuff." - Chase Briscoe, finished sixth
"I’m wore the hell out – mentally. Just from clean air to dirty air with the balance – it was just such a big deficit
between the two, just never had the confidence to make passes and that is what you have that to make moves at the Cup level. We just lacked that – it was just so mentally tough all day. Appreciate the team, letting me rant a little bit, getting me back in the game and to come away with a top 10, that’s good. It takes those grinding moments. It’s just having that mindset. Appreciate everyone on this No. 23 team. The Columbia Toyota was not good, but we got a top 10." - Bubba Wallace, finished
seventh
"I just got in those bumps, and the car got loose and took off. Track position was really important today, and I had the opportunity to take the lead and take control of the race. I just didn’t make it stick. It’s unfortunate, but we had a really fast car today. "I was
trying to get back to Pit Road. I was trying to straighten or backup or do whatever I could, and we wanted to be able to work on it and see if we could fix it. At the end of it, they told me to get out. I am not sure we could have fixed it, but it is all part of it." - Michael McDowell, finished 35th (Crashed out)
"The first time I felt like we got stacked on the bottom a little bit and when
[Ricky Stenhouse Jr.] moved down, either he barely clipped me or just the air off his car. It was super close. Honestly I think we made a little bit of contact and it just got me loose and out of control. The second time I was just out there riding around and I was just out there loose and trying to hang on to it and wrecked again." - Josh Berry, finished 36th (Crashed out) "Really what started it was what happened on pit road and getting buried back there. We should have been up in the top 10. But yeah, we were just racing those guys really hard. I was in a really bad spot to have a guy crash and have to climb into the brake pedal. [Joey Logano] saw it before I did, just because of how we were all stacked up. I had to climb into the brake pedal a little bit harder than I wanted to, and it just spun out as soon as I
did. "Definitely a bummer. We had a really fast No. 48 Ally Camaro there in the beginning of the first stage. We were going through the field pretty well. We just had that deal on pit road that put us in the back, and then that happened." - Alex Bowman, finished 37th (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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