Frontstretch Newsletter: Aug. 26, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition CXLVII |
- The Kubota High Limit Sprint Car Series will be in Oregon tonight for the Showdown on the River presented by Seven Feathers Casino Resort at Douglas County Speedway. Coverage will begin at 8:45 p.m. ET on FLORacing. - NASCAR teams are back at their shops today after the races last weekend in Daytona and Milwaukee. We'll have entry lists for Darlington and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
|
| Harrison Burton Upsets Field, Wins 1st Cup Race At
Daytona Harrison Burton was pushed to the lead on the final lap Saturday night by Parker Retzlaff. From there, Burton held off Kyle Busch to win the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Busch was second, then Christopher Bell, Cody Ware in a career-best fourth, and Ty
Gibbs. |
|
| Wood Brothers Racing Earns 100th Win at Its Own
Playground Harrison Burton's victory Saturday night in Daytona was the first victory for the Wood Brothers since 2017. It also came in their most successful race, as they have won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 10 times. |
|
| Daytona Crashes Highlight a Persistent Flipping
Problem The past week saw significant discussion on flipping in the NASCAR Cup Series. Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 did nothing to soothe the issues as Josh Berry had a blowover flip. |
|
| Shane van Gisbergen Moving to Cup for Trackhouse in
2025 In Daytona Saturday, Trackhouse Racing announced that the team will field a third car for Shane van Gisbergen full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025. |
|
| Zane Smith Leaving Trackhouse After
2024 Trackhouse Racing announced Friday afternoon that Zane Smith will not be back with the organization in 2024. |
|
| Ryan Truex Snags Daytona Xfinity
Win Joe Gibbs Racing's Ryan Truex took the lead on lap 95 Friday night, then held on during the final restart to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series Wawa 250 powered by Coca-Cola for his second win of the year. Chandler Smith was second, then Parker
Kligerman, Riley Herbst and Ryan Sieg. |
|
| AJ Allmendinger, Parker Kligerman Clash on Final Lap at
Daytona AJ Allmendinger led the most laps Friday night in Daytona, but he spun off of Parker Kligerman's bumper on the final lap. He ended up finishing 24th and was very disappointed afterwards. |
|
| Daytona Proves Beneficial to Xfinity Points
Mid-Packers Superspeedway races often give opportunities to underdog drivers for great finishes. Friday night saw Jordan Anderson, Kyle Sieg and Leland Honeyman earn good finishes. |
|
| Daniel Dye Moving to Xfinity With Kaulig in
2025 Kaulig Racing announced Friday afternoon that they will field three full-time teams in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025. Josh Williams will return, while Daniel Dye will drive the No. 10 full-time. |
|
| Layne Riggs Plays Playoff Spoiler, Wins 1st Career Truck
Race at Milwaukee Layne Riggs took the lead away from Ty Majeski with 53 laps to go Sunday and held on to win the LiUNA! 175 at The Milwaukee Mile for his first Truck victory. Majeski was second, then Christian Eckes, Nick Sanchez and Taylor Gray. |
|
| Layne Riggs ‘Stomps on ‘Em’ at
Milwaukee For Layne Riggs, his rookie year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has been a bit of a struggle. However, he has really come on in the past few races. Sunday saw him taste the fruits of his labor, even if he managed to hurt himself in the
process. |
|
| Ty Majeski Comes Up Short in Potential Final Race at Home
Track The Milwaukee Mile is the home track for Ty Majeski and he was racing like he really wanted to taste victory at home. He ended up having to settle for second in a good playoff-opening run. |
|
| Will Power Keeps His IndyCar Title Hopes Alive After
Portland Win Team Penske's Will Power held off his rivals Sunday to win the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland. Alex Palou was second, then Josef Newgarden, Colton Herta and Marcus Armstrong. |
|
| Scott McLaughlin Gains Over a Dozen Positions, Finishes
7th at Portland Portland International Raceway isn't the easiest place to pass at for INDYCAR drivers. However, Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin was able to move up from 20th on the grid to finish seventh. |
|
| Lando Norris Cruises to Victory in the 2024 F1 Dutch Grand
Prix McLaren's Lando Norris took the lead early from Max Verstappen, then ran away and hid to win Sunday at Zandvoort. Verstappen was second, then Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz Jr. |
|
| William Sawalich Goes Back-to-Back, Wins ARCA Race at
Milwaukee Joe Gibbs Racing's William Sawalich led all but two laps on his way to victory in the ARCA Menards Series Sprecher 150 at The Milwaukee Mile. Connor Zilisch was second, then Lavar Scott, Kris Wright and Lawless Alan. |
|
|
Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) announced Monday morning that they are suing the Skip Barber Racing School and owner Anthony DeMonte for breach of contract surrounding the acquisition of the series. |
|
| Paul Miller Racing Wins Michelin GT Challenge at
VIR Paul Miller Racing's Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers were dominant at VIRginia International Raceway Sunday, taking their first GTD Pro victory. |
|
| BGB Motorsports Claims VIR Victory, 1st Pilot Challenge
Win Since 2013 BGB Motorsports chose to stay out during a caution, which gave Spencer Pumpelly the lead. From there, Pumpelly saved enough fuel and held off the pack to win the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix with teammate Thomas
Collingwood. |
|
| Jagger Jones Wins VIR VP SportsCar Challenge Race No.
1 FASTMD Racing with Remstar's Jagger Jones was able to hold off a charge from Steven Aghakhani to win VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 1 at VIRginia International Raceway Saturday afternoon. |
|
| Jagger Jones Sweeps VP Racing Challenge at
VIR Jagger Jones continued his winning ways Sunday, scoring his seventh win of the year in eight starts. Luca Mars swept the weekend in GSX. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Travis Hinkle and Chris Owens of Penske Entertainment, McLaren Media and IMSA. 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: Aug. 23-25 |
- SportsCar365.com reported Saturday that Inception Racing will switch from the McLaren 720S
GT3 Evo to a new Ferrari 296 GT3 starting at Indianapolis. While the team has not officially announced this move, driver Brendan Iribe more or less confirmed the news in a comment on IMSA's Instagram post about
the team's engine failure Sunday by stating, "We tried. Hello Ferrari!" - In Belgium Sunday, AO by TF's Louis Deletraz took the lead with 12 laps to go and held on to win the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with teammates Jonny Edgar and Robert Kubica. It is the team's first victory of the year.
AO by TF's margin of victory was 1.1 seconds over Inter Europol Competition's Sebastian Alvarez, Tom Dillmann and Vladislav Lomko. IDEC Sport's Reshad de Gerus, Marcos Siebert and Job van Uitert were third, then the second Inter Europol entry shared by Luca Ghiotto, Oliver Gray and Clement Novalak. COOL Racing's Lorenzo Fluxa, Malthe Jakobsen and Ritomo Miyata were fifth. In LMP2 Pro/Am, AF Corse's Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxiviere took the victory in eighth overall. Their margin of victory was 17.305 seconds over Proton Competition's Rene Binder, Giorgio Roda and Bent Viscaal. Algarve Pro Racing's Richard Bradley, Kriton Lendoudis and Alex Quinn were third, followed by Nielsen Racing's John Falb, Colin Noble and Nick Yelloly. DKR Engineering's Cem Bolukbasi, Laurents Hoerr and
Andres Latorre Canon were fifth. LMP3 was won by Eurointernational's Adam Ali and Matt Bell in their Ligier JS P320-Nissan. They won by 14.917 seconds over Racing Spirit of Leman's Antoine Doquin, Jean-Ludovic Foubert and Jacques Wolff. COOL Racing's Miguel Cristovao, Manuel Espirito Santo and Cedric Oltramare were third, then RLR MSport's Nick Adcock, Michael Jensen and
Gael Julien. Ultimate's Louis Rossi and the Lahayes (Matthieu and Jean-Baptiste) were fifth. Finally, in the LMGT3 class, Kessel Racing's Esteban Masson, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra dominated the second half of the race to win in their Ferrari 296 GT3. They won by a full lap over a similar Ferrari for GR Racing's Riccardo Pera, Davide Rigon and Michael Wainwright. AF
Corse's Emannuel Collard, Charles-Henri Samani and Nico Varrone completed a Ferrari sweep of the podium. Racing Spirit of Leman's McLaren for Derek DeBoer, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Casper Stevenson were fourth, while Grid Motorsport by TF's Jonny Adam, Martin Berry and Lorcan Hanafin were fifth.
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spent last weekend in North Dakota. It was a
very good time for Carson Macedo. Friday night saw the series at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks. Here, Macedo started sixth and slowly made his forward. Buddy Kofoid started second and took the lead on the first lap. Macedo got past Sheldon
Haudenschild for second right before the yellow came out on lap 19. On the restart, Macedo used the cushion to snatch the lead away. From there, he held on to win the Gerdau presents the Second Leg of the Northern Tour. Macedo won by .215 seconds over Kofoid. Haudenschild was third, then Giovanni Scelzi and Donny Schatz.
- Saturday night saw the series move to Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo. Here, things were much easier as Macedo led flag-to-flag from pole to win the Duel in the Dakotas.
Macedo won by .927 seconds over Haudenschild. Kofoid was third, then Bill Balog and Scelzi. In the points, David Gravel continues to lead. His advantage is now 110 points over Schatz. Macedo is four points behind Schatz, then Scelzi and Kofoid. - The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series spent the weekend at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Oh. for the
Fireball 50. Friday night saw Bobby Pierce continue to assert his will on the field by leading flag-to-flag to win the 40-lap preliminary feature. Pierce won by 1.559 seconds over Brian Shirley. Ryan Gustin was third, then Nick Hoffman and Tyler Bruening. Saturday night was somewhat similar, just with a different driver at the front. Gustin led all 50 laps from pole to win the Fireball 50 and a winner's check for $15,000. Gustin won by 1.757 seconds over Pierce. Shirley was third, then Hoffman and Adam Strickler.
Brandon Sheppard's point lead is down to 54 over both Pierce and Hoffman (Pierce has 13 wins to Hoffman's five). Gustin is fourth, while Kyle Bronson is fifth.
|
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Daytona and Milwaukee last weekend. For more from Daytona, Milwaukee, or from other race weekends, be sure to subscribe to our suite of 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: Crash-Filled Daytona Race Sees Tyler Reddick Expand Lead
by Phil Allaway
Saturday night saw most of the top points contenders have trouble. Tyler Reddick crashed out on lap 157 Saturday night. Despite that, his 28th-place finish allowed him to actually extend his lead. Reddick now has an 17-point lead over new second-place man
Kyle Larson. Larson gained one place after finishing 21st. Chase Elliott was eliminated in the first big crash of the evening and dropped to third. Ryan Blaney crashed out with Reddick, but scored 15 stage points to gain ground in fourth. William Byron is still in fifth after crashing out with Reddick and Blaney.
Christopher Bell is up one place to sixth after finishing third. Brad Keselowski finished eighth and moved up two places to seventh. Denny Hamlin was eliminated in the first crash and dropped two places to eighth after finishing 38th. Martin Truex Jr. is down one place to ninth after finishing 24th. Ty
Gibbs finished fourth and stays in 10th. Chris Buescher finished 10th and moved up one place to 11th. He is now the last driver in the playoffs on points. Alex Bowman dropped one place to 12th after finishing 16th. Harrison Burton's victory was literally the worst-case scenario for a number of drivers. Bubba
Wallace finished sixth and moved up to 13th in points. However, Burton's win took him from one point out of the playoffs to 21. Ross Chastain dropped to 14th after finishing 12th. Joey Logano earned the most stage points (19) Saturday night, but crashed late and stays in 15th. Kyle Busch moved up to 16th after finishing second. Daniel Suarez finished 40th after an early fire and dropped to 17th. Chase Briscoe is 18th, then Austin Cindric. Todd Gilliland rounds out the top 20. Despite his victory Saturday night, Burton is actually the lowest driver in points that has started every race this year. The win keeps
him in 34th, 517 points behind Reddick and 352 (nearly six full races) behind Buescher, the last driver in the playoffs on points. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 823, 2) Kyle Larson -17, 3) Chase Elliott
-18, 4) Ryan Blaney -68, 5) William Byron -80, 6) Christopher Bell -86, 7) Brad Keselowski -105, 8) Denny Hamlin -111, 9) Martin Truex Jr. -128, 10) Ty Gibbs -147, 11) Chris
Buescher -165, 12) Alex Bowman -175, 13) Bubba Wallace -186, 14) Ross Chastain -192, 15) Joey Logano -237, 16) Kyle Busch -271.
Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Daniel Suarez -296, 19) Austin Cindric -337, 34) Harrison Burton -517. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 28, 2) Christopher Bell -3, 3) William Byron -12, t-4) Tyler Reddick -15, t-4) Ryan Blaney -15, 6) Denny Hamlin -17, 7) Austin Cindric
-21, t-7) Joey Logano -21, t-9) Chase Elliott -22, t-9) Daniel Suarez -22, t-11) Brad Keselowski -23, t-11) Alex Bowman -23, t-11) Harrison Burton -23, 14) Martin Truex Jr. -25, t-15) Ty Gibbs -26, t-15) Chris Buescher
-26, t-17) Ross Chastain -27, t-17) Bubba Wallace -27, t-17) Michael McDowell -27, t-17) Kyle Busch -27, t-17) Josh Berry -27, t-17) Joey Hand -27.
Note: If he were eligible for playoff points, Shane van Gisbergen
would be tied for 16th. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 235, 2) Denny Hamlin -7, 3) Ryan Blaney -42, 4) Christopher Bell -51, 5) Tyler Reddick
-65, t-6) Chase Elliott -68, t-6) Martin Truex Jr. -68, 8) William Byron -82, 9) Brad Keselowski -93, 10) Joey Logano -109, 11) Ty Gibbs -123, 12) Bubba Wallace -128, 13) Alex Bowman
-136, 14) Austin Cindric -156, t-15) Chris Buescher -157, t-15) Kyle Busch -157. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: t-19) Daniel Suarez -183, t-27) Harrison Burton -214.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 769, 2) Chase Elliott -19, 3) William Byron
-73, 4) Brad Keselowski -81, 5) Chris Buescher -84, 6) Kyle Larson -89, 7) Ty Gibbs -94, 8) Ryan Blaney -97, 9) Christopher Bell -103, 10) Ross Chastain -104, 11) Alex Bowman
-119, 12) Bubba Wallace -129, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -136, 14) Denny Hamlin -151, 15) Kyle Busch -183, t-16) Daniel Suarez -192, t-16) Chase Briscoe -192. Outside of the top
16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Joey Logano -195, 23) Austin Cindric -258, 34) Harrison Burton -385.
Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16):
1) Tyler Reddick 3469, 2) Chase Elliott -119, 3) William Byron -272, 4) Brad Keselowski -285, 5) Chris Buescher -323, t-6) Christopher Bell -340, t-6) Ty Gibbs -340, 8) Kyle Larson -344, 9) Ryan
Blaney -348, 10) Ross Chastain -414, 11) Alex Bowman -440, 12) Bubba Wallace -472, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -486, 14) Denny Hamlin -547, 15) Kyle Busch -636, 16) Joey Logano -672. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Daniel Suarez -702, 24) Austin Cindric -905, 34) Harrison Burton -1304. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: William Byron (Daytona-1, COTA, Martinsville), Daniel Suarez (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Kansas, Sonoma, Indianapolis), Christopher Bell (Phoenix, Charlotte, Loudon), Denny Hamlin (Bristol, Richmond, Dover), Chase Elliott (Texas), Tyler Reddick (Talladega), Brad Keselowski (Darlington), Austin Cindric (Gateway), Ryan Blaney
(Iowa, Pocono), Joey Logano (Nashville), Alex Bowman (Chicago), Harrison Burton (Daytona-2)
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.
|
|
|
Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: Justin Allgaier Takes Over Lead Following Cole Custer's 2nd Straight DNF
by Phil Allaway
Cole Custer had a miserable night in Daytona. He had contact with teammate Riley Herbst on pit road that put him a lap down. After he got it back, he got caught up in a crash. Then, the clock expired on him, ending his night with a 32nd-place finish. That cost him the points lead. Justin Allgaier won the first two stages Friday night and finished seventh. That was enough to give him a 33-point lead over Custer. Chandler Smith finished second and moves up one place to third. Austin Hill got caught up in a crash on the first lap and ended up 23 laps down in 31st. That dropped him to fourth. AJ Allmendinger led the most laps, but got spun on the final lap and ended up 24th. Despite that, he stays in fifth. Herbst overcame his contact to finish fourth and stay in sixth. Sheldon Creed is in seventh, while Jesse Love is still eighth. Parker Kligerman triggered Allmendinger's last-lap spin that
caused the race to end under yellow. A third-place finish gave him much more of a cushion in the points while keeping him in ninth. Ryan Sieg finished fifth and moves back up to 10th. Sieg is again the last driver in the playoffs on points. He has a 15-point lead over Sammy Smith, who crashed late and finished 23rd. Shane van Gisbergen was in a
different wreck and finished 25th, staying in 12th. Sam Mayer is 13th, then Brandon Jones, Anthony Alfredo and Brennan Poole. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 806, 2) Cole Custer -33, 3) Chandler
Smith -75, 4) Austin Hill -102, 5) AJ Allmendinger -132, 6) Riley Herbst -141, 7) Sheldon Creed -152, 8) Jesse Love -186, 9) Parker Kligerman -201, 10) Ryan Sieg -230, 11) Sammy Smith
-245, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -274, 13) Sam Mayer -279, 14) Brandon Jones -338, 15) Anthony Alfredo -361, 16) Brennan Poole -428. Playoff Points: 1) Justin Allgaier
23, 2) Shane van Gisbergen -6, 3) Chandler Smith -8, 4) Austin Hill -10, 5) Sam Mayer -12, 6) Ryan Truex -13, 7) Jesse Love -14, t-8) Cole Custer -15, t-8) Aric Almirola -15, 10) Riley
Herbst -16, 11) Ryan Sieg -21, 12) Parker Kligerman -22. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be fifth in playoff points, while Christopher Bell would be 12th, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott tied for 13th and Ty Gibbs tied for 15th. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 256, 2) Cole Custer -72, 3) Chandler Smith -73, 4) Riley Herbst -80, 5) AJ Allmendinger -86, 6) Austin Hill -91, 7) Sheldon Creed
-134, 8) Jesse Love -145, 9) Sam Mayer -154, 10) Sammy Smith -158, 11) Parker Kligerman -160, 12) Brandon Jones -169, 13) Ryan Sieg -173, 14) Aric Almirola -180, 15) Shane van Gisbergen
-205, 16) Ryan Truex -207. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be 15th and Ty Gibbs 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Cole
Custer 691, 2) Justin Allgaier -38, 3) Austin Hill -47, 4) Chandler Smith -53, 5) Sheldon Creed -63, 6) Jesse Love -82, 7) Parker Kligerman -85, 8) AJ Allmendinger -92, 9) Ryan Sieg
-104, 10) Riley Herbst -111, 11) Shane van Gisbergen -118, 12) Sammy Smith -135, 13) Sam Mayer -167, 14) Anthony Alfredo -177, 15) Brandon Jones -220, 16) Brennan Poole -234. WC Points (1-16): 1) Cole Custer 3086, 2) Justin Allgaier -124, 3) Chandler Smith -174, 4) Austin Hill -175, 5) Sheldon Creed -187, 6) Jesse Love -297, 7) Parker Kligerman
-345, 8) AJ Allmendinger -348, 9) Riley Herbst -384, 10) Ryan Sieg -398, 11) Shane van Gisbergen -428, 12) Sammy Smith -473, 13) Sam Mayer -558, 14) Anthony Alfredo -634, 15) Brandon
Jones -761, 16) Brennan Poole -828. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Atlanta), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas, Nashville), Chandler Smith (Phoenix, Richmond), Kyle Larson (COTA), Aric Almirola (Martinsville), Sam Mayer (Texas, Iowa), Jesse Love (Talladega), Ryan Truex (Dover,
Daytona-2), Justin Allgaier (Darlington), Chase Elliott (Charlotte), Shane van Gisbergen (Portland, Sonoma, Chicago), Christopher Bell (Loudon), Cole Custer (Pocono), Riley Herbst (Indianapolis) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
|
|
|
Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship: Christian Eckes Snatches Lead With Strong Run
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim had a decent day in Milwaukee, but nothing special by his standards. Heim didn't lead a lap or earn a stage point on his way to a seventh-place finish. Meanwhile, Christian Eckes led the most laps and finished third.
As a result, Eckes vaulted over Heim and into the points lead.
His advantage is 16 points over Ty Majeski, who finished second. Heim dropped down to third, while Nick Sanchez stays in fourth after finishing fourth.
Taylor Gray and Tyler Ankrum are tied for fifth. Gray moved up three places after finishing fifth, while Ankrum moved up a place after a sixth-place finish. Gray holds the
tiebreaker. Daniel Dye is up three spots to seventh after finishing eighth. Despite being the race's defending champion, Grant Enfinger struggled to a 13th-place finish Sunday and dropped two spots from a tie for sixth to eighth. He is the last driver in position to advance. Enfinger has a two-point lead over Ben Rhodes, who finished ninth after
not running well early on. Rajah Caruth dropped five places to 10th after having to start in the rear and finishing 18th. Outside of the playoffs, Tanner Gray finished 11th and stays in 11th. He is 31 points ahead of Layne Riggs, who earned his first career victory Sunday. The win moved Riggs up three spots in points. Stewart Friesen and Matt Crafton are tied for 13th. Crafton finished 10th, while Friesen was 20th. Chase Purdy dropped a spot to 15th after a 23rd-place finish, while Jake Garcia is still in 16th. Round of 10 Point Standings: 1) Christian Eckes 2090, 2) Ty Majeski -16, 3) Corey Heim -19, 4) Nick Sanchez -26, t-5) Taylor Gray -47, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -47, 7) Daniel Dye -51, 8) Grant Enfinger -58, 9) Ben Rhodes -60, 10) Rajah Caruth -62. Best
of the Rest: 11) Tanner Gray 436, 12) Layne Riggs -31, t-13) Matt Crafton -41, t-13) Stewart Friesen -41, 15) Chase Purdy -67, 16) Jake Garcia -87, 17) Dean Thompson -102, 18) Ty Dillon -109, 19) Bayley Currey -141, 20) Bret Holmes -151. Non-Playoff Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 779, 2) Corey Heim -96, 3) Ty Majeski -150, 4) Nick Sanchez -187, t-5) Grant Enfinger -249, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -249, 7) Rajah Caruth -268, 8) Taylor Gray -269, 9) Ben Rhodes -310, 10) Daniel Dye
-322, 11) Tanner Gray -343, 12) Layne Riggs -374, t-13) Matt Crafton -384, t-13) Stewart Friesen -384, 15) Chase Purdy -410, 16) Jake Garcia -430.
Playoff Points: 1) Corey
Heim 41, 2) Christian Eckes -2, 3) Ty Majeski -18, 4) Nick Sanchez -23, 5) Rajah Caruth -32, t-6) Grant Enfinger -34, t-6) Tyler Ankrum -34, 8) Taylor Gray -38, 9) Ben Rhodes -39, 10) Daniel Dye -40. Round of 10 Owners Point Standings: 1) McAnally-Hilgemann Racing No. 19 2090, 2) ThorSport Racing No. 98 -16, 3) TRICON Garage No. 11 -19, 4) Rev Racing -26, 5) McAnally-Hilgemann Racing No. 18 -47, 6) TRICON Garage No. 17 -48, 7) CR7 Motorsports No. 9
-58, 8) Niece Motorsports No. 45 -60, 9) Spire Motorsports No. 71 -62, 10) Spire Motorsports No. 7 -67. Stage Points: 1) Christian Eckes 236, 2) Ty Majeski -47, 3) Corey Heim -64, 4) Tyler Ankrum
-110, 5) Nick Sanchez -127, 6) Grant Enfinger -134, 7) Ben Rhodes -149, 8) Layne Riggs -152, 9) Taylor Gray -154, 10) Rajah Caruth -158, 11) Daniel Dye -161, 12) Stewart Friesen -186, 13) Tanner Gray
-189, 14) Kaden Honeycutt -193, 15) Chase Purdy -194, 16) Matt Crafton -197. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 12th and Zane Smith 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 495, 2) Corey Heim -39, 3) Nick Sanchez -73, 4) Ty Majeski -110, 5) Rajah Caruth -128, 6) Grant Enfinger -129, 7) Taylor Gray -130, 8) Tyler Ankrum
-152, 9) Tanner Gray -170, 10) Ben Rhodes -179, 11) Daniel Dye -180, 12) Matt Crafton -207, 13) Stewart Friesen -216, 14) Chase Purdy -230, 15) Layne Riggs -239, 16) Jake Garcia -242. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 2742, 2) Corey Heim -171, 3) Nick Sanchez -288, 4) Ty Majeski -402, 5) Grant Enfinger -478, 6) Taylor Gray -485, 7) Rajah Caruth -507, 8) Tyler Ankrum
-561, 9) Tanner Gray -662, 10) Ben Rhodes -666, 11) Daniel Dye -677, 12) Matt Crafton -768, 13) Stewart Friesen -797, 14) Chase Purdy -826, 15) Layne Riggs -849, 16) Jake Garcia -891. Race Winners: Nick Sanchez (Daytona, Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Texas), Rajah Caruth (Las Vegas), Christian Eckes (Bristol, Martinsville, Nashville), Corey Heim (COTA, Kansas, North Wilkesboro, Gateway, Pocono), Ross Chastain (Kansas), Ty Majeski (Lucas Oil IRP), Layne Riggs (Milwaukee) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
|
|
|
Letter of the Race: Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 was brought to you by the letter B for Back to the Drawing Board. The discussion all week was about blowovers after Corey LaJoie's crash last Monday in
Michigan. What happened Saturday night? Josh Berry blew over on the backstretch and Michael McDowell got t-boned late and nearly ended up in the shadow realm. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Coke Zero Sugar 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"I don’t know. I cried for the whole cool down lap. It’s just been the hardest three years of my life. There’s no denying. It’s just been rough and these guys have rallied behind me when it matters the most. Going to every single race with the same mentality of trying to win because we could get number 100. We kept saying that in our meetings that we had a chance to get No. 100 for the
Wood Brothers and that’s something that you can’t take lightly. We as a group have that place in history now forever for the 100th win for the Wood Brothers and, to me, that just means the world. "I wish it came sooner so I didn’t get fired, but it’s amazing. Like I said, I just felt worried that I would leave the Wood Brothers with a lot of regret that I had three years to
get their 100th win. To get Ford in Victory Lane, to get them in Victory Lane and not have to leave this situation with regret. To me, that means the world and now we have a chance to be in the playoffs, so we’re not gonna roll over and die. We’ve had a rough year, but this is the shot in the arm we’ve needed and we’re gonna go to Darlington set on kill." - Harrison Burton, race winner "It’s just frustrating. We’ve led races here at Daytona going into the last restart and haven’t been able to pull off a victory. Not sure what it is; what I’m doing wrong or what it is that I’m missing. It seems like the energy broke up off of turn 2 and [Christopher Bell] got crooked and wasn’t on my rear bumper the way we needed to be. The outside lane just went by. I wanted to get up in front of [Harrison Burton] because I knew the momentum was coming there. But
I knew [Bell] was a better friend. It just didn’t work out." - Kyle Busch, finished second "I don’t know. I’m bummed about it – you want to push the leader out and have a shot to win it yourself. I just never really felt in control. I was always chasing my Interstate Batteries Camry – so I was never confident behind [Kyle Busch] and pushing him. Disappointed with that
last green-white-checkered, but overall, a great day. It is one of those races where when we look back it, we will be happy – but right now it stings." - Christopher Bell, finished third "It was really important. I’m glad that we got to finish this race. It just got kind of messy there at the end, which is similar to what happens at all of these races. I just was
happy to have a good, clean day – good points day. Thank you to the Ronald Reagan movie. I’m proud to have him on my Camry. What a true American. This is really cool. I’m glad that we could come home with a top-five. Thank you to Monster Energy, Toyota, He Gets Us – everyone who is part of my deal. Congrats to Harrison [Burton] for getting his first win. We will look to have a good day next week." - Ty Gibbs, finished fifth "Not good enough. Simple as that. Easiest way to put it. We had a fast Columbia Toyota Camry – just not good enough. "You have one car fighting for a regular season championship and another car right around the bubble. It is unacceptable. I’ll take all of that weight on my shoulder – should have won multiple times
this year and we haven’t. We don’t deserve to be here, and we are – I’ve got to go win next week. That’s it." - Bubba Wallace, finished sixth
"Speedway racing. It was chaotic. I thought we lined up pretty well there for the green-white-checkered and tried to formulate something going into [turns 3 and 4. I made a move to separate and I got shoved. Luckily, I got a big shot coming to the line to
even get back forward and get spots back into the top 10. All-in-all, it was a decent day for the No. 31 Cirkul Chevy team. Appreciate Cirkul and all they do for us; all the people we have here supporting us. Looking forward to going to one of the coolest race tracks in the country next weekend." - Daniel Hemric, finished ninth
"I was just hoping it would stay running, keep the water in it and be
able to keep up with the pack. Looking at the car, it was amazing it did. The whole splitter is off of it; dragging the ground. Yeah, it’s pretty incredible that we were even able to finish. I thought the radiator was going to be gone. We’re fortunate to finish, but yeah, as I’m riding around – mainly in Stage Two when I dropped back from the pack and was going to be the free pass, I thought through all of it then. And then the whole final stage, it was all about trying to execute and maximize
what we could." - Ross Chastain, finished 12th
"I just looked like [Austin Cindric] got pushed into me and, unfortunately, we’re seeing a lot of these blow overs lately, but I mentioned on the TV broadcast – obviously paving that section helped keep me from really barrel rolling. As bad as it looked, they made a big improvement over what Ryan had last year. I just can’t believe we flipped two of our
Stewart-Haas cars in a row like that, but it was just a great job by Rodney [Childers] and this whole No. 4 team. We were in contention all night and had a hell of a race car and had a shot at it." - Josh Berry, finished 26th (Crashed out)
"I’m fine. I don’t know what it looked like. I closed my eyes. Anytime you get turned in front of the field while leading it, you
know somebody is gonna hit you. There’s no way you’re getting out of it. I’m just bummed. We had a really fast Long John Silvers Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row. We had a ton of speed with both cars this weekend and with a few laps to go we put ourselves in position to win the race and that’s what we wanted to do. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the end and that’s part of this racing. I haven’t watched it in detail to know exactly what happened, so I don’t want to throw
any opinions out there because Lord knows that I’ve made plenty of mistakes at superspeedways and I want to make sure it wasn’t me. But I felt like I got turned getting down into turn 1. The wrong angle at the wrong time, but Austin [Cindric] was doing a great job of pushing me. We had a good run and you’re at the end of these races, so I’m not faulting him. We were trying to do what we could." - Michael McDowell, finished 30th (Crashed out) "I honestly have no idea. I just think that everybody was kind of playing games. Nobody wanted to lead, and it just kind of puts everyone in a tough spot. We were all just kind of stacked up there. Somebody was switching lanes, it looked like, and got out of shape. It’s a bummer. It was so early in the race. I would just like an opportunity to get a little deeper into it and just see where things
shook out. We’ve been pretty lucky these last couple of trips down here to Daytona. It’s just unfortunate, but we’ll try to have a good weekend at Darlington." - Chase Elliott, finished 36th (Crashed out) "Stage one, everyone was kind of going all out – because we are inside the fuel window where were able to run 100 percent to get to the end of the stage, and then
stage two, there was kind of a little bit of fuel saving going on, so there was a little stack up – just seemed like some guys wanted to go, some guys didn’t and it caused a little contact there." - Denny Hamlin, finished 38th (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.
|
|
|
|
