Frontstretch Newsletter: Sept. 2, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition CLII |
- NASCAR teams are back at their shops today after last night's race in Darlington. We'll have entry lists for Atlanta and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Chase Briscoe Beats Kyle Busch for Southern 500 Win,
Playoff Berth Chase Briscoe made an aggressive move with 26 laps to go to move from fourth to the lead, then held off Kyle Busch to win the Cook Out Southern 500. Christopher Bell was third, then Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain. |
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| Kyle Larson Comes Up Short in Southern 500, Quest for
Regular Season Title Kyle Larson dominated much of Sunday night's Cook Out Southern 500. However, the varying pit strategies late put him behind and he couldn't quite make up the ground to win the regular season championship. |
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| Kyle Busch 1 Spot Short of Win, Playoff Berth For 2nd
Straight Week Kyle Busch took a hail mary and pitted on the final caution for four fresh tires. He drove up to second from ninth and made a run at Chase Briscoe, but couldn't get past to stamp his own ticket to the playoffs. |
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| Christopher Bell Rallies for Overtime Xfinity Win at
Darlington Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell was able to get past teammate Sheldon Creed on the final restart Saturday and held on to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200. Cole Custer was second, then Creed, Chase Elliott
and Sammy Smith. |
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| Sheldon Creed Watches Another One Get Away Late at
Darlington Sheldon Creed was really close once again Saturday to his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win. Then AJ Allmendinger crashed and Christopher Bell was able to get him on the final restart. |
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| Sam Mayer’s Promising Darlington Race Ends with Flat Tire,
Spin While Leading Sam Mayer led early Saturday and could have been a contender to win. However, he cut a tire while leading and spun out. He ended up 28th. |
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| Christian Eckes Running Full-Time Xfinity for Kaulig
Racing in 2025 In a press conference at Darlington Raceway Saturday, Kaulig Racing announced that Christian Eckes will move up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025 to drive the team's No. 16 Chevrolet. |
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| Brent Crews Leads Flag-to-Flag, Wins ARCA Race at
DuQuoin Venturini Motorsports' Brent Crews took the lead from William Sawalich on the first lap Sunday night and led flag-to-flag to win the ARCA Menards Series Southern Illinois 100 in Du Quoin, Ill. Sawalich was second, then Andres Perez, Kris Wright and Kelly
Kovski. |
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| Scott McLaughlin Wins Milwaukee as Championship Race
Tightens Up Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin held off Scott Dixon late Sunday to win Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile No. 2. Colton Herta was third, then Santino Ferrucci and Marcus Ericsson. |
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| Marcus Ericsson Salvages Milwaukee Doubleheader with Top 5
on Sunday Andretti Global's Marcus Ericsson crashed out in Race No. 1 Saturday in Milwaukee. On Sunday, he came back to finish in fifth. |
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| Will Power Leads, Spins, Still Finishes 10th at
Milwaukee Will Power was in position to leave Milwaukee with the points lead Sunday. However, he spun out on a restart and ended up 10th. |
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| Pato O’Ward Wins Milwaukee, Will Power Stays in Title
Fight Arrow McLaren SP's Patricio O'Ward dominated Saturday to win Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 No. 1 at The Milwaukee Mile. Will Power was second, then Conor Daly, Santino Ferrucci and Alex Palou. |
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| Conor Daly Scores Juncos Hollinger’s 1st IndyCar Podium at
Milwaukee Conor Daly charged from the back Saturday to finish third, scoring the first-ever podium finish in the NTT IndyCar Series for Juncos Hollinger Racing. |
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| Christian Lundgaard Gains 17 Spots for Milwaukee Top
10 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Christian Lundgaard had a terrible qualifying effort Saturday. In the race, he came good, driving up to a ninth-place finish from 26th on the grid. |
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| Charles Leclerc Steals Win From McLaren, Takes Ferrari to
the Top at Monza Ferrari's Charles Leclerc used an alternate pit strategy to get himself in front Sunday. He was able to hold on to win the Grand Prix of Italy in front of the Tifosi. Oscar Piastri was second, then Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lewis
Hamilton. |
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| Andrea Kimi Antonelli To Race for Mercedes In
2025 Mercedes announced Saturday that Andrea Kimi Antonelli will move up to Formula 1 and replace the departing Lewis Hamilton alongside George Russell next year. |
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| Kevin Magnussen Issued 1-Race Ban Ahead of
Baku As a result of contact Sunday with Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen has reached 12 penalty points for the season. As a result, he will have to sit out the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan. |
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| AF Corse Wins Lone Star Le Mans With Privateer
Ferrari AF Corse's Robert Shwartzman took the lead with 41 minutes to go when Kamui Kobayashi was given a penalty. From there, he held on to win the FIA World Endurance Championship Lone Star Le Mans with teammates Robert Kubica and Yifei
Ye. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, James Black, Chris Owens and Joe Skibinski of Penske Entertainment, Ferrari Media, Haas Media, LAT Images, Bonnie Rice of ARCA Racing, Julien Delfosse of DPPI and our own Chase Folsom. 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. 30-Sept. 2 |
- DragonSpeed announced Monday morning that they will be returning to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the final
two races of the year. Instead of their LMP2 car, they will field the No. 56 Ferrari 296 GT3 in the GTD class (their normal No. 81 is reserved for the LMP2 car). The drivers for this effort will be Henrik Hedman, Rasmus Lindh and Toni Vilander. Hedman has raced on and off for the team for many years, most recently in the European Le Mans Series. Vilander has years of
experience in Ferrari GT cars. Lindh's experience in WeatherTech is exclusively in prototypes. He raced in LMP2 for DragonSpeed at Sebring and Watkins Glen earlier this year. The team has some experience with GT equipment, but it's been a number of years since they've raced one. They have exactly one start in IMSA in a GT car. That was in the 2011 Rolex 24 at
Daytona with a Ferrari 430GT. The team has also fielded GT cars in what is now Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, but that was when the series was a single-driver sprint race series. - The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spent the weekend at Huset's Speedway in Brandon, S.D. to make up a whole weekend of racing that was wiped out due to
heavy rains earlier this year.
First up was the Huset's Hustle Friday night. Here, Sheldon Haudenschild dueled Emerson Axsom for the lead for much of the race. A caution came out after 24 laps. Given the choice, Axsom took the inside for the restart.
That ended up being a mistake as Haudenschild rode the cushion to
take the lead. From there, Haudenschild was able to hold on to take the win. Buddy Kofoid was .845 seconds back in second, then Axsom, Garet Williamson and Ryan Timms.
Saturday night was the start of the BillionAuto.com Huset's High Bank Nationals. Here, Carson Macedo started eighth and drove to the front. Chase Randall started on pole and led early. Macedo was able to work
himself up to second, but was quite a ways back. A caution with eight laps to go closed the field up. That allowed Macedo to get to work on Randall.
With two laps to go, Macedo took the lead away from Randall and held on to win. Randall was second, then Donny Schatz, Kofoid and Bill
Balog.
Finally, the main show was Sunday night. Kofoid was able to take the lead away from Macedo with 10 laps to go and held off a slide job attempt on the final lap to win the BillionAuto.com Huset's High Bank Nationals and a check for $100,000. Macedo
was second, then Balog, Giovanni Scelzi and Schatz. Points leader David Gravel finished eighth at team owner Tod Quiring's own track. Gravel continues to lead the points by 110 over Schatz, who despite two top-five finishes, failed to make the A-main Friday night. Macedo is third, then Scelzi and Kofoid. - The Super DIRTcar Series Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A. at Lebanon Valley Speedway was cancelled Saturday
night due to rain. The current plan for those who attended is unclear. The track will announce their plans later this week as to what will happen for those who have tickets and/or wristbands. |
This is just a sampling of the videos from Darlington, Milwaukee and Florence that we uploaded to our YouTube channels last weekend. For more from Darlington, Milwaukee, Florence, 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: Tyler Reddick Eeks Out Regular Season Title, Kyle Larson Starts Playoffs In Lead
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick didn't feel all that well Sunday night. Despite that, he was able to finish 10th. That was just enough to give him the Regular Season championship and 15 playoff points. Reddick ended up just one point ahead of Kyle Larson, who won the first two
stages and led a race-high 263 laps on his way to fourth. Chase Elliott was invisible for much of Sunday night, but ended up 11th to finish the regular season in third. Christopher Bell moved up two places to fourth after finishing third. William Byron ran well, but crashed out late and finished 30th. He remains in fifth. Ryan
Blaney crashed out on lap 3 with Martin Truex Jr. and finished 37th. That dropped him to sixth. Denny Hamlin moved up one place to seventh after finishing seventh. Brad Keselowski is down one place to eighth after finishing 14th. Ty Gibbs was in the same crash with Byron and had to steer a damaged car home in 20th. That
still moved him up one place to ninth. Gibbs jumped over Truex, who was eliminated in the crash with Blaney. Truex is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He ended up six points ahead of Chris Buescher, who finished sixth. Bubba Wallace moved up one place to 12th, but getting in Byron's wreck ended any chance of advancing. Alex Bowman is
down one place to 13th after finishing 19th. Ross Chastain remains in 14th after using an alternate strategy to finish fifth. Buescher, Wallace and Chastain all earned the same amount of points (32). Joey Logano stays in 15th, while Kyle Busch came up just short and stayed in 16th. When the points reset, Larson will have an eight-point lead over
Bell. Reddick is third, then Byron and Blaney. In the owners points, things are similar, but different. There, the No. 5 team won the regular season championship thanks to Justin Allgaier's run in Larson's place at Charlotte. As a result, the team would have 45 playoff points and a 13-point lead over Bell's No. 20. Reddick's No. 45 would still be in third, but they would
be 22 points back instead of 12. Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 860, 2) Kyle Larson -1, 3) Chase Elliott -29, 4) Christopher Bell -77, 5) William
Byron -100, 6) Ryan Blaney -104, 7) Denny Hamlin -105, 8) Brad Keselowski -118, 9) Ty Gibbs -158, 10) Martin Truex Jr. -164, 11) Chris Buescher -170, 12) Bubba Wallace
-191, 13) Alex Bowman -194, 14) Ross Chastain -197, 15) Joey Logano -245, 16) Kyle Busch -273. Outside of the top 16, but still in
the playoffs: 17) Chase Briscoe -289, 18) Daniel Suarez -314, 19) Austin Cindric -350, 34) Harrison Burton -538. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Round of 16 Point Standings: 1) Kyle Larson 2040, 2) Christopher Bell -8, 3) Tyler Reddick -12, 4) William Byron -18, 5) Ryan Blaney -22, 6) Denny Hamlin -25, 7) Chase Elliott -26, 8) Brad Keselowski -32, t-9) Joey Logano -33, t-9) Austin Cindric -33,
11) Daniel Suarez -34, t-12) Alex Bowman -35, t-12) Chase Briscoe -35, t-12) Harrison Burton -35, t-15) Martin Truex Jr. -36, t-15) Ty Gibbs -35. Round of 16 Owners Point Standings: 1) Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 2045, 2) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 -13,
3) 23XI Racing No. 45 -22, 4) Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 -23, 5) Team Penske No. 12 -27, 6) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 -30, 7) Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 -31, 8) RFK Racing No. 6 -37, t-9) Team Penske No. 22 -38, t-9) Team Penske No. 2 -38, 11) Trackhouse Racing No. 99 -39, t-12) Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 -40,
t-12) Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 -40, t-12) Wood Brothers Racing -40, t-15) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 -41, t-15) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 -41. Best of the Rest: 17) Chris Buescher 690, 18) Bubba Wallace -21, 19) Ross Chastain -27, 20) Kyle Busch -103,
21) Todd Gilliland -190, 22) Carson Hocevar -219, 23) Michael McDowell -222, 24) Josh Berry -230, 25) Noah Gragson -259, 26) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -271. Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 40, 2) Christopher Bell
-8, 3) Tyler Reddick -12, 4) William Byron -18, 5) Ryan Blaney -22, 6) Denny Hamlin -25, 7) Chase Elliott -26, 8) Brad Keselowski -32, t-9) Joey Logano -33, t-9) Austin Cindric
-33, 11) Daniel Suarez -34, t-12) Alex Bowman -35, t-12) Chase Briscoe -35, t-12) Harrison Burton -35, t-15) Ty Gibbs -36, t-15) Martin Truex Jr. -36, 17) Chris Buescher -38, t-18) Bubba Wallace -39, t-18) Ross
Chastain -39, t-18) Michael McDowell -39, t-18) Kyle Busch -39, t-18) Josh Berry -39, t-18) Joey Hand -39. 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 801, 2) Chase Elliott -21, 3) Chris Buescher -81, 4) Kyle Larson -82, 5) Brad Keselowski -86, 6) William Byron
-93, 7) Christopher Bell -96, 8) Ross Chastain -99, 9) Ty Gibbs -104, 10) Ryan Blaney -125, 11) Alex Bowman -129, 12) Bubba Wallace -135, 13) Denny Hamlin
-148, 14) Martin Truex Jr. -163, 15) Kyle Busch -176, 16) Chase Briscoe -180.
Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Joey Logano -194, 18) Daniel Suarez -201, 21) Austin Cindric -262, 34) Harrison Burton
-397.
Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 3608, 2) Chase Elliott -128, 3) Brad Keselowski
-303, 4) Christopher Bell -309, 5) Chris Buescher -312, 6) Kyle Larson -313, 7) William Byron -333, 8) Ty Gibbs -371, 9) Ross Chastain -393, 10) Ryan Blaney
-435, 11) Alex Bowman -473, 12) Bubba Wallace -491, 13) Denny Hamlin -535, 14) Martin Truex Jr. -570, 15) Kyle Busch -605, 16) Chase Briscoe -660. Outside
of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Joey Logano -669, 18) Daniel Suarez -732, 21) Austin Cindric -920, 34) Harrison Burton -1343. 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-1, Dover), Chase Elliott (Texas), Tyler Reddick (Talladega, Michigan), Brad Keselowski (Darlington-1), Austin Cindric (Gateway), Ryan Blaney (Iowa,
Pocono), Joey Logano (Nashville), Alex Bowman (Chicago), Austin Dillon (Richmond-2), Harrison Burton (Daytona-2), Chase Briscoe (Darlington-2)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility. 0 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: Justin Allgaier Holds On After Mediocre Darlington
by Phil Allaway
Justin Allgaier had a decent run Saturday in Darlington, finishing 10th. Meanwhile, Cole Custer finished second. That stopped his bleeding from the past couple of weeks and cut Allgaier's lead back down to 28. Chandler Smith finished eighth and stayed in third. Austin Hill finished ninth and made a small gain on Allgaier in
fourth. Sheldon Creed nearly got his first win, but dropped to third on the final restart. The finish moved him up two places to fifth. AJ Allmendinger crashed late and finished 27th, dropping him down to sixth. Riley Herbst smacked the wall early and finished 21 laps down in 35th. That dropped him to seventh. Jesse
Love stays in eighth after finishing sixth. Parker Kligerman finished 13th to hold onto ninth. Sammy Smith finished fifth and moved back up to 10th. He is the last man in the playoffs on points. Sammy has a 10-point lead over Ryan Sieg, who failed to score a stage point to Sammy's 12 and finished 18th. Shane
van Gisbergen remains in 12th after finishing seventh. Sam Mayer finished a disappointing 28th and stays in 13th. Brandon Jones crashed again and finished 32nd to hold onto 14th. He is now 132 points behind Sammy. Anthony Alfredo is 15th, while Brennan Poole is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 843, 2) Cole Custer -28, 3) Chandler Smith -82, 4) Austin Hill -98, 5) Sheldon Creed -139, 6) AJ Allmendinger
-143, 7) Riley Herbst -176, 8) Jesse Love -192, 9) Parker Kligerman -204, 10) Sammy Smith -238, 11) Ryan Sieg -248, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -281, 13) Sam Mayer
-307, 14) Brandon Jones -370, 15) Anthony Alfredo -387, 16) Brennan Poole -448. 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, t-12) Sheldon Creed
-22, t-12) Parker Kligerman -22. Note: If they were eligible for Xfinity Series points, John Hunter Nemechek and Christopher Bell would be tied for fifth in playoff points, while Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott would be tied for 13th and Ty Gibbs tied for 15th. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 266, 2) Cole Custer -75, 3) AJ Allmendinger -80, 4) Chandler Smith -82, 5) Austin Hill -88, 6) Riley Herbst -90, 7) Sheldon Creed
-128, 8) Jesse Love -155, 9) Sammy Smith -156, 10) Parker Kligerman -160, 11) Sam Mayer -164, 12) Brandon Jones -179, 13) Ryan Sieg -183, 14) Aric Almirola -190, 15) Shane van Gisbergen
-215, 16) Ryan Truex -217. 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 730, 2) Justin Allgaier -46, 3) Austin Hill -54, 4) Chandler Smith -59, 5) Sheldon Creed -63, 6) Jesse Love -86, 7) Parker Kligerman -96, 8) AJ Allmendinger -117, 9) Ryan Sieg
-120, 10) Shane van Gisbergen -123, 11) Sammy Smith -138, 12) Riley Herbst -144, 13) Sam Mayer -192, 14) Anthony Alfredo -201, 15) Brandon Jones -250, 16) Brennan Poole -252. WC Points (1-16): 1) Cole Custer 3256, 2) Justin Allgaier -160, 3) Sheldon Creed -187, 4) Chandler Smith -202, 5) Austin Hill -207, 6) Jesse Love -317, 7) Parker Kligerman
-391, 8) AJ Allmendinger -436, 9) Shane van Gisbergen -452, 10) Ryan Sieg -459, 11) Sammy Smith -488, 12) Riley Herbst -496, 13) Sam Mayer -644, 14) Anthony Alfredo -719, 15) Brandon
Jones -864, 16) Brennan Poole -895. 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, Michigan), 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.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship: Off-Week Update No. 12
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will return to action at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 19.
When the playoffs resume, Christian Eckes will have a 16-point lead over Ty Majeski. Corey Heim is third, then Nick Sanchez and a tie for
fifth between Taylor Gray and Tyler Ankrum.
At the cutoff, Grant Enfinger currently has the last spot in the Round of 8 on points. He is two points ahead of Ben Rhodes and four ahead of Rajah Caruth. 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.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday night's Cook Out Southern 500 was brought to you by the letter S for Strategy. Late pit stops for fresh tires were ultimately the difference as Chase Briscoe used fresh tires to get the lead and Kyle
Busch used even fresher tires to get up front as well. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Cook Out Southern 500 compiled by Phil Allaway
"Last week was the most embarrassing week I ever ran in my life and I told Richard, I said, ‘I don’t even want to talk about it. I promise you, I will make it up to you next week.’ Man, everybody knows I’m a diehard Tony Stewart fan and to get this 14 car back in Victory Lane and for all 320-something employees, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, it’s unbelievable.
God is just so good. It’s like deja vu again with Kyle with the Xfinity race here in 2020. Obviously, I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to do it, but I just can’t thank HighPoint.com enough, Mahindra Tractors, Rush Truck Centers, [Rinnai], everybody that makes this deal go around. We’ll go to Atlanta and try to steal another one." - Chase Briscoe, race winner "We needed [Chase Briscoe] to have about three more laps on his tires, maybe. Just be a little bit more used up so I could get there. I got within his wake, and as soon as I got within his wake, I just felt my car come out of the race track and I didn’t have enough to overpower that. "Really hate it for everybody at RCR; the effort, the work and
everything that’s gone into our Chevrolet’s. I’m proud of his Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet today for being what it was. To come out second; we didn’t have much speed there through a majority of the race. We were just mired in traffic and we weren’t able to get up through there. But once we got up there; I felt like those last three or four restarts, we were going to have a shot running in the top-five. But then we had a shot for the win and just couldn’t make it up there." - Kyle Busch,
finished second "I don’t know. It was definitely a lot to digest. It was pretty self-explanatory there. The first two stages it went green and then the third stage we kind of had differing strategies. Some guys selected to pit early, we were on the long pit side. And then the yellow flags came, and people stayed out, people pitted, and we had differing tire strategies,
and it made it really exciting. Chase [Briscoe] was awesome all night long obviously. Through stage one and stage two he was right there in the mix with them. He pounced whenever it mattered the most. I had the best seat in the house for the great shootout between [Briscoe] and [Kyle Busch]. And, yeah, it wasn’t meant to be for us today. Now, the real job starts." - Christopher Bell, finished third "I think where it all kind of got crazy was when Ross [Chastain] stayed out. I had to choose the bottom on the front row. He got a good launch. I just got behind [Chase Briscoe] and kind of lost control of the race from then on. And then I just did a bad job on that last restart. Really, I just had the points on my mind there and really wanted to get the driver’s regular season championship there to get those bonus points. I was being
extra cautious, which I don’t know if the end result was any different. But I was definitely as aggressive as I could have been with just being safe. "Our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy was great. We came here with a little different package than normal, and I felt like our car was much better. Our pit crew did a really, really good job. I would have to look, but it
felt like in the car, it was our best day on pit road by far. I’m proud of them. We were always able to maintain the lead and that’s what you need to do here to have a shot to win. It’s just so tough to pass. "Just proud of my team and looking forward to the next 10 weeks. Hopefully we can make the Championship 4." - Kyle Larson, finished fourth "For the final stage, we shorted the green flag stops the first time; netted some positions and we were fine. And then we did it again and as I was already on pit road, the caution came out. I could have kept rolling and probably stayed on the lead lap, but I wanted to try it just like Phil [Surgen] was calling an aggressive race. I went ahead and stopped in the box knowing there was a chance that we
would go a lap down. It was worth the risk. I had it off by about a quarter-lap in my head of where [Kyle Larson] would be. He was a lot closer than I thought. "It’s one of those things that the staying out was a little scary in the moment, but I just kind of went through what I needed to do; get a good launch. I got clear into turn 1, which I struggle to do that on equal
tires, let alone the old ones. I was clear off of [turn] 2 still, and I was like – OK, this is going pretty good. And then new tires took over into turn 3." - Ross Chastain, finished fifth "I don’t know. We felt like we did, for the most part, what we needed to do today. We got back in contention there at the end and got a decent finish out of it. We just didn’t quite
get it done again and we’re on the outside looking in. It’s just the system we’re all playing in. We had such a great year. Everyone at RFK [Racing] has worked so hard. We’ve been so fast. We’ve outrun so many of these cars that are gonna get to run for a championship, but that’s the system and we didn’t work it right.” - Chris Buescher, finished sixth "I
don’t really know if I did honestly. Just things fell our way there at the end. Yeah, I started the day off feeling really, really good just kind of trying to take my time to get around Bubba [Wallace]. Him and [Kyle Larson] kind of jumped us on the first cycle. I thought we had a long race and plenty of time and just man, by the end of stage one I couldn’t even really focus on what to tell the guys to do on the Upper Deck Toyota Camry. It was frustrating, man. We had that buffer over [Larson]
and just watched it disappear all day long. I tried everything I can to drive this car as fast as I can, it was just a real struggle honestly. I don’t have anything left. "[Winning the regular season championship is] huge for us. It’s a bummer, man. This has been one of my best tracks and we just had an all off night. I hate that. Like I said, I hated to use that buffer up
that we had coming in here, but this is what this team is kind of all about. I feel like this is the worst night we’ve had in months and months speed wise, and I still finished 10th, and it was an all-out struggle for us. Just really proud of everybody on this team standing behind me. I couldn’t give great feedback, and it was just really, really hard to focus and keep it out of the wall there all night. It’s a shame we gave some points up. I felt like this is a race we could win, but it’s
really nice in year two for me here at this team and year four of this team to get the regular season championship like we did." - Tyler Reddick, finished 10th "We just were back and forth on our U.S. Air Force Toyota Camry. We were a little too loose, a little too tight. And the caution a couple laps on tires where we stayed out, I don’t know if that was the deciding
factor or not. I was so tight there and got back there in traffic in a spot we hadn’t been all day and got caught up someone else’s mess. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for our guys. Hats off to [Chase Briscoe]. I thought I did something yesterday, they one-upped us and showed up when it was game time so that’s pretty bad ass so congrats to them. Man, just wasn’t good enough for 16th this year. I hate that. It stinks saying that, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort for all of us on the No. 23 car.
Best of luck to [Tyler Reddick] and hopefully a Toyota wins." - Bubba Wallace, finished 16th "Clearly me. Yeah, it was all my fault, all my doing. I got a run on [William Byron], and went to the inside and thought everything was going fine and the car just took off and I ran into him. Obviously, that was on me. I hate it for my guys, Bass Pro Shops, Toyota, everybody.
We had a phenomenal race car, and I know this is like the longest race of the year – just a dumb mistake on my part." - Martin Truex Jr., finished 36th (Crashed out) "I was hurt for a little bit, but I think I will be okay. I am alright. I saw Martin [Truex Jr.] get loose, and I thought he was going to spin to the bottom, so I kind of gassed up to get around him, but
it was just terrible timing. He overcorrected, and we were just right there. Gosh, I hate wrecking on lap 2. It is one of those things where you think he is going to spin to the bottom, but his rear is hooked up but he just came up. I hate it for everyone at Menards and Ford. Our car was great and I just didn’t get any laps. Hopefully, next week goes a little bit better.” - Ryan Blaney, 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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