Frontstretch Newsletter: April 22, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition LVII |
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 Dover. We'll have entry lists and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Tyler Reddick Avoids the Big One, Wins at
Talladega 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick swept around a big wreck in the tri-oval on the final lap and held on to win the GEICO 500 at Talladega. Brad Keselowski was second, then Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Alex Bowman. |
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| Michael McDowell Spins from Lead, Corey LaJoie Flips in
Last-Lap Talladega Calamity Michael McDowell led the most laps Sunday in Talladega and was in position to win. However, one block too many resulted in McDowell spinning in front of the field and a large chunk of the pack piling in. |
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| Noah Gragson’s Upward Swing Continues With Career
Day Sunday was by far the best race of 2024 for Noah Gragson. Gragson led five laps and brought his Overstock Ford home in third with minimal damage. |
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| Drivers Wonder Aloud: Where’d the Pylon
Go? Recently, tracks have started to dismantle scoring pylons at tracks and not replace them. The move is angering drivers and fans alike. |
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| Jesse Love Saves Enough Fuel, Wins at
Talladega Richard Childress Racing's Jesse Love just made his fuel hold out Saturday to win the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win. Riley Herbst finished second, then Anthony Alfredo, Leland Honeyman and Brennan
Poole. |
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| Talladega Eludes Austin Hill as RCR Teammate Jesse Love
Triumphs In recent years, Austin Hill has been the man to beat on superspeedways in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Saturday was going to be another one of those races until he was caught up in a crash. |
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| Hectic Talladega Xfinity Finish Gives Underdog Teams
Season-Best Results Talladega Superspeedway is a place for unlikely winners. While we didn't get that Saturday, there were a number of unheralded drivers with excellent finishes, such as Anthony Alfredo, Leland Honeyman and Brennan Poole. |
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| Jake Finch Dominates, Wins ARCA Race at
Talladega Venturini Motorsports' Jake Finch led flag-to-flag to win the General Tire 200 for the ARCA Menards Series at Talladega. Kris Wright was second, then Tanner Gray, Gus Dean and Christian Rose. |
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| Scott Dixon Does It Again, Wins Long Beach Grand Prix on
Fuel Mileage Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon is considered a wizard when it comes to fuel conservation. His skills came to play as he stretched his fuel to win in Long Beach. Colton Herta was second, then Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden and Marcus
Ericsson. |
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| Late Collision Derails Josef Newgarden’s Late Charge at
Long Beach Team Penske's Josef Newgarden was excellent Sunday in Long Beach, but while battling for position late, Colton Herta lifted the rear of Newgarden off the ground in the hairpin, causing the anti-stall system to activate on Newgarden's
car. |
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| Long Beach Lobs Adversity at Arrow
McLaren For Arrow McLaren SP, Sunday in Long Beach was a tough day. Teammates Patricio O'Ward and Alexander Rossi collided during the race, resulting in a penalty for O'Ward, while Theo Pourchaire had to deal with making his INDYCAR debut on a tricky street
course. |
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| Max Verstappen Conquers Another Circuit by Winning the
Chinese Grand Prix Red Bull's Max Verstappen was never seriously threatened Sunday en route to victory in the Grand Prix of China in Shanghai. Lando Norris was second, followed by Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. |
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| Max Verstappen Takes Sprint Win in
China Max Verstappen qualified fourth for the first Sprint race of the Formula 1 season. He took the lead from Lewis Hamilton on lap 9 and drove away to win by 13 seconds. Hamilton was second, then Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Carlos
Sainz Jr. |
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| Chip Ganassi Racing Claims IMSA Long Beach
Victory Chip Ganassi Racing's Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais took advantage of a no tire change strategy Saturday to win the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. |
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| Toyota GAZOO Racing Wins Imola in Mixed
Conditions Toyota GAZOO Racing's Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi claimed victory in Sunday's FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Imola in what was a bit of a surprise after the Ferraris had dominated all weekend. |
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| Kole Raz Picks Up 1st ARCA West Win in Close Finish at
Kern Kole Raz raced Trevor Huddleston side-by-side for the final six laps Saturday night before just squeaking out the win in the ARCA Menards Series West MMI Oil Workers 150 at Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway. Tyler Reif was third, then Sean Hingorani and Nick
Joanides. |
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| Jason Daskalos Wins Long Beach GT America Race No.
1 Jason Daskalos passed Johnny O'Connell with five minutes to go and held on to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 1 in Long Beach Saturday. |
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| Jason Daskalos Scores Long Beach GT America
Sweep Jason Daskalos led flag-to-flag from pole to sweep the GT America powered by AWS weekend in Long Beach. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via James Gilbert of Getty Images, James Black, Travis Hinkle and Joe Skibinski of Penske Entertainment, Julien Delfosse of DPPI, Fabian Lagunas of SRO Motorsports Group, Lachlan Cunningham
of ARCA Racing, IMSA and our own Brad Harrison. 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 19-21 |
- Friday night saw the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series travel to Paudcah, Ky. for the first time in over a decade. Here, Sheldon Haudenschild swept past Bill Balog on the second lap and held on to take the victory. Haudenschild won the 30-lap feature by 4.039
seconds over Balog. Buddy Kofoid was third, then Cole Macedo and his brother Carson. The next night, the series moved to Haubstadt, Ind. to race at Tri-State Speedway. Here, Brady Bacon and David Gravel battled hard for the lead. The two fought for nearly 15 laps before Bacon was able to make the pass stick. From there, Bacon ran away to take his second career
victory.
Bacon won by 3.238 seconds over Gravel. Kofoid was third, then Carson Macedo and Logan Schuchart.
In the points, Gravel continues to lead by 34 points over Donny Schatz. Giovanni Scelzi is third, then Schuchart and Carson Macedo. |
This is just a sampling of the 26 videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channel from Talladega last weekend. For more from Talladega, 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. In addition, we have a second YouTube channel, Frontstretch2. We have coverage from Orange County Speedway and Long Beach on there. In the future, we will have additional coverage from INDYCAR, IMSA, the CARS Tour and more there. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Kyle Larson Isn't Hurt Much by Roof Rail Penalties
by Phil Allaway
Kyle Larson started horrible in Talladega. He was not allowed to qualify Saturday due to roof rails issues after inspection. That forced him to start in the rear and serve a drive-through penalty on the first lap that eventually put him a lap down. He ended up recovering to finish 21st. That allowed him to hold onto his lead. His
lead is now 15 points over Martin Truex Jr., a loss of only two. Chase Elliott is up one place to third after a 15th-place finish. Teammate William Byron is back up to fourth after finishing seventh.
Tyler Reddick moved up three places to fifth after taking his first win of the year
Sunday. Denny Hamlin was knocked out of the race in a crash on lap 155. The 37th-place finish dropped him three places to sixth. Ryan Blaney remains in seventh, while Ty Gibbs dropped two places to eighth. Ross Chastain is up two places to ninth after finishing 13th. Alex
Bowman is up four places to 10th after avoiding most of the contact on the final lap to finish fifth. Bubba Wallace was eliminated in the same crash at Hamlin and dropped down to 11th. Chase Briscoe remains in 12th after finishing 12th. Christopher Bell was eliminated in a crash on the
backstretch on lap 133 and finished 38th. That dropped him two places to 13th. Brad Keselowski is up three places to 14th after a second-place finish. Joey Logano and Chris Buescher are tied for 15th. Logano won stage two Sunday and ended up 19th, while Buescher was 25th. By virtue of Logano's
second-place finish at Richmond, he wins the tiebreaker over Buescher, and by extension, the final spot in the playoffs on points at the moment. Logano and Buescher are 12 points ahead of Kyle Busch, who finished 27th. Daniel Suarez is still in 18th, while Austin Cindric moves back up to 19th after winning stage one. Erik Jones dropped back to 20th after his hard crash. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 359, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -15, 3) Chase Elliott -22, 4) William Byron -24, 5) Tyler Reddick
-43, 6) Denny Hamlin -51, 7) Ryan Blaney -57, 8) Ty Gibbs -63, 9) Ross Chastain -82, 10) Alex Bowman -98, 11) Bubba Wallace -102, 12) Chase Briscoe -103, 13) Christopher Bell -104, 14) Brad Keselowski
-105, t-15) Joey Logano -114, t-15) Chris Buescher -114. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -138. 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, t-5) Chase Elliott -9, t-5) Tyler Reddick -9, 7) Daniel Suarez -10, t-8) Ty Gibbs -13, t-8) Austin Cindric -13, t-10) Martin Truex Jr. -14, t-10) Ryan Blaney -14, t-10) Ross Chastain -14, t-10) Joey Logano
-14, t-10) Michael McDowell -14. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 112, 2) Denny Hamlin -28, 3) Ryan Blaney -35, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -38, 5) Chase
Elliott -41, 6) Tyler Reddick -42, 7) Christopher Bell -54, 8) Austin Cindric -56, 9) William Byron -59, 10) Bubba Wallace -60, 11) Joey Logano -63, 12) Ty Gibbs -69, 13) Ross Chastain
-71, 14) Brad Keselowski -73, t-15) Alex Bowman -80, t-15) Kyle Busch -80. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: 18) Chase Briscoe -83, 22) Chris Buescher -93. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16):
1) William Byron 325, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -7, 3) Chase Elliott -14, 4) Ty Gibbs -27, 5) Kyle Larson -30, 6) Tyler Reddick -33, 7) Ross Chastain -44, 8) Denny Hamlin -52, t-9) Ryan
Blaney -55, t-9) Chase Briscoe -55, t-9) Alex Bowman -55, 12) Chris Buescjher -56, 13) Brad Keselowski -66, 14) Bubba Wallace -75, 15) Kyle Busch -79, 16) Joey Logano -81. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Christopher Bell -85, 18) Daniel Suarez -91.
Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were
created. WC Points (1-16): 1) William Byron 1425, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -24, 3) Chase Elliott -53, 4) Kyle Larson -85, 5) Ty Gibbs -89, 6) Tyler Reddick
-94, 7) Ross Chastain -150, t-8) Denny Hamlin -167, t-8) Ryan Blaney -167, 10) Alex Bowman -170, 11) Chris Buescher -186, 12) Brad Keselowski -191, 13) Chase Briscoe -200, 14) Bubba
Wallace -238, t-15) Christopher Bell -257, t-15) Joey Logano -257. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -302. 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), Tyler Reddick (Talladega)
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: Fuel Mileage Issues for Chandler Smith allows Cole Custer to Cut Lead
by Phil Allaway
Chandler Smith scored 12 stage points Saturday, but ended up running into fuel problems and finished 25th. That cost him a few points. His margin is down to 14 points over Cole Custer, who finished 10th after pitting late for a splash of fuel. Austin Hill remains in third after finished 14th, but he won a stage and had 18 stage points.
Jesse Love's first career win moved him up one place to fourth. Justin Allgaier crashed near the end of stage one and finished 38th. That dropped him to fifth in points. Riley Herbst finished second and remains in sixth. He went from 45 points behind Allgaier to just six. AJ Allmendinger stays in seventh, while Sammy
Smith is eighth. Parker Kligerman crashed out late while fighting for the lead, but stays in ninth. Sheldon Creed finished sixth and remains 10th. Ryan Sieg won the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus with a 17th-place finish. That keeps him in 11th, the last spot in the playoffs on points. Sieg has a five-point lead over Anthony
Alfredo, who moved up to 12th after finishing third. Brandon Jones crashed out early in the final stage and finished 33rd. That dropped him down to 13th. Shane van Gisbergen is up one place to 14th despite having fuel problems on a restart. Sam Mayer was eliminated in the same crash as Jones and dropped into a tie for 15th. Mayer is now tied with Brennan Poole, who made a move for the win Saturday on the final lap. Unfortunately, the revenge for 2016 (in a car sporting the same color scheme that he had the day he was first to the start-finish line, but not credited with the win) did not work out and Poole finished fifth. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 357, 2) Cole Custer -14, 3) Austin Hill -16, 4) Jesse Love -41, 5) Justin Allgaier -79, 6) Riley Herbst -85, 7) AJ Allmendinger -96, 8) Sammy Smith
-116, 9) Parker Kligerman -121, 10) Sheldon Creed -126, 11) Ryan Sieg -133, 12) Anthony Alfredo -138, 13) Brandon Jones -152, 14) Shane van Gisbergen -163, t-15) Sam Mayer -176, t-15) Brennan Poole -176. Playoff Points: 1) Chandler Smith 13, 2) Austin Hill -1, 3) Jesse Love -4, 4) Aric Almirola -5, 5) Sam Mayer -8, 6) 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 fifth in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Riley Herbst 90, 2) Justin
Allgaier -2, 3) Cole Custer -7, 4) Austin Hill -16, 5) Chandler Smith -17, 6) Jesse Love -30, 7) AJ Allmendinger -32, 8) Aric Almirola -36, 9) Sam Mayer -45, 10) Parker Kligerman
-46, 11) Sammy Smith -51, t-12) Ryan Sieg -54, t-12) Brandon Jones -54, 14) Sheldon Creed -59, 15) Ryan Truex -60, t-16) Anthony Alfredo -76, t-16) Jeb Burton -76. Note: If he were
eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 320, 2) Austin Hill -12, 3) Cole
Custer -18, 4) Jesse Love -23, 5) Anthony Alfredo -76, 6) AJ Allmendinger -77, 7) Sammy Smith -79, 8) Sheldon Creed -82, 9) Parker Kligerman
-87, 10) Justin Allgaier -89, 11) Ryan Sieg -93, t-12) Riley Herbst -99, t-12) Shane van Gisbergen -99, 14) Brennan Poole -112, 15) Brandon Jones -113, t-16) Sam
Mayer -137, t-16) Leland Honeyman -137. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: t-17) Sam Mayer -142. WC Points (1-16): t-1) Chandler Smith 1393, 2) Austin Hill -44, 3) Cole Custer
-74, 4) Jesse Love -95, 5) Sheldon Creed -272, 6) AJ Allmendinger -280, 7) Anthony Alfredo -282, 8) Sammy Smith -289, 9) Justin Allgaier -304, 10) Parker Kligerman -310, 11) Ryan Sieg -329, 12) Riley Herbst
-339, 13) Shane van Gisbergen -348, 14) Brandon Jones -398, 15) Brennan Poole -402, 16) Sam Mayer -472. 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) 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. 3
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will return to action May 4 with the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway. Christian Eckes will take a two-point lead in the standings to Kansas over Corey Heim. Ty
Majeski is third, then Nick Sanchez and Taylor Gray. At the playoff cutoff, Grant Enfinger in 10th is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He has a five-point lead over Daniel Dye. Ben Rhodes is 12th, then Stewart Friesen and a tie for 14th between Bayley
Currey and Jake Garcia. 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 our own Phil Allaway.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's GEICO 500 was brought to you by the T for Tame...at least until the final few laps. You saw a lot of the same things Sunday that you saw during the Daytona 500, including the intentional
slowing of the pace in order to save fuel. It is something that NASCAR needs to look into going forward because it is negatively affecting the races. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: GEICO 500 compiled by Phil Allaway
"Man, it’s incredible. Everyone on this No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry worked really hard today. Didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position. Was that crazy, fans? Chaos. That’s Talladega for you.
"Just got to give a lot of credit to Ty
Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. It was just us Toyota’s left and they pushed me with everything they had so a huge credit to Martin and Ty. Without those pushes we don’t win this race." - Tyler Reddick, race winner
"The Fords were really working well together. We cleared the Toyotas on the bottom lane and it was pretty clear it was gonna come down to the three of us. I
backed up. Noah gave me a great push and I went to make a move on Michael and he covered it, and I went back the other way and got another push from Noah and there was nowhere to go when Michael came back down. I hate that for him. He’s a good guy. I hope he’s alright. That’s just kind of the way this stuff goes, but, all in all it was a really solid day for us, for Ford and Castrol. It’s another second. It’s a solid day, but not the win we wanted." - Brad Keselowski, finished
second "We were definitely working together as Fords on the bottom. McDowell, Brad Keselowski and myself. All the Fords worked great all race. It’s coming to the end and [Keselowski] and [McDowell] were blocking coming to the checkers and unfortunately [Tyler Reddick] squeaked by. I really wanted to see a Ford in Victory Lane, but the Overstock team at Stewart-Haas did a
great job all day. We had clean pit stops, fast pit stops, a lot of horsepower under the hood. The Mustang Dark Horses and racing with these other Ford guys has been a lot of fun. I haven’t been up here very much in the Cup Series on these superspeedways, but I’m extremely grateful. It’s a privilege to race with guys like Keselowski and McDowell. I mean, they’ve won really big races on speedways, so, overall, I’m really thankful for everyone at Stewart-Haas and this Overstock team and we’ll keep
the momentum going." - Noah Gragson, finished third "Not a bad day, but it was somewhat frustrating every now and then just kind of being gridlocked there but you know our team we came in with a plan. We stuck to our plan and glad that it all worked out. I feel like we’ve been close all year with different things and you know just nothing seems to work out so for it
all to come together for the Thomas Bagels and Philadelphia Cream Cheese Camaro feels really good and we’ve got a really good month of racing coming up for us at really good racetracks that we enjoy and run well at so hopefully this will be a boost to our season and and kind of a Kickstart to get us going and just see what happens." - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished fourth "Beard Motorsports has worked really hard to come to a couple races a year, but when they do it, they do it right, and they know they have a shot to win. So, I take a lot of pride in being the one behind the wheel for them. I hope I can do a lot more with them. You know, we had an awesome car today drove to the front, let some laps stayed skid-mark free thanks to DUDE Wipes. And at the end there we were just kind of boxed in. I couldn’t really do a whole lot
especially when that third lane formed. I wanted to join that party earlier, but I was just trapped on the bottom so I pushed as hard as I could. In typical Talladega Superspeedway racing fashion things got a little crazy coming to the line and I just yanked it hard left, flew through the grass and somehow I crossed the line in sixth." - Anthony Alfredo, finished sixth "Today was just a lot of strategy, so I felt like we were just constantly trying to play the fuel-savings. My No. 24 Liberty University Chevy team did a really good job getting us out front for the stage finishes to give us a shot at the stage wins. In Stage Two, we just botched that a little bit, and in the final stage, we just got caught up by the caution and we didn’t have the track position at the end.
"Still happy to come home with a seventh-place finish. We’ll go to Dover [Motor Speedway] and have a really good Chevy there." - William Byron, finished seventh
"I think we had a really fast Generator Skills Ford Mustang. It’s just part of the racing. I didn’t do a great job on the last pit stop. It’s always really hectic and [Chris
Buescher] was kind of coming around me and I waited just a split second and we lost a bunch of spots there, but that’s part of it. We got in that big wreck and were able to stay straight and keep going. Hat’s off to Ford, to Front Row Motorsports for bringing us two cars that were really capable of winning today." - Todd Gilliland, finished eighth "It’s hard. I need
to see a replay to tell you everything perfectly, but we did a good job getting out front and controlling the race and putting ourselves in position. Brad is so good at this place and he drug back and I drug back as quick as I could and was able to block that first run that he made, but then when I came down for the second one he was just to my bumper. I mean barely, barely got me so it’s unfortunate. I hate it for him and I hate it for everybody that was behind that. It’s the last lap at
Talladega. We’re all going for it, but we really needed to get a Ford Mustang Dark Horse in Victory Lane and we had a shot at doing it there. Unfortunately, I just made a bad move there to put us in that spot." - Michael McDowell, finished 31st (Crashed out) "Yeah, I’m a little sore but I’ll be alright. I don’t know – [Bubba Wallace] was pushing us there. Obviously,
we were pushing and shoving and trying to make time with our strategy and I got pretty sideways getting into (turn) 3 and tried to gather it up and then ended up really hard into the wall. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for my team and my guys. Obviously, we wanted to have a good run but I’m alright. It’s a good thing. It was a hard hit and at the end of the day I guess if you’re going to be dumb you’ve got to be tough, so we’ll keep rolling." - Erik Jones, finished 35th (Crashed
out) "Just we were all pushing really hard to keep our line going. We had a plan and just didn’t execute it as well as we should. I hate it for our Leidos team. I look forward to running these places and then you just get trapped in somebody else’s mess. I hate it. It doesn’t make us look good at all. But all in all, we’ll just reset and go to Dover. We’ve got a long way
to go." - Bubba Wallace, 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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