Frontstretch Newsletter: Oct. 28, 2024 Volume
XVIII, Edition CXCVII |
- NASCAR teams are arriving back to their shops today after yesterday's race in Homestead. We'll have entry lists for Homestead and anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch.
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| Tyler Reddick Makes Last-Lap Pass to Win Homestead,
Advance to Championship 4
Despite being on slightly older tires, Tyler Reddick was able to sweep around the outside of Ryan Blaney in turn 3 on the final lap Sunday to win the Straight Talk Wireless 400. Blaney was second, then Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase
Elliott.
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| Austin Hill Locks into Xfinity Championship 4 With
Homestead Win
Austin Hill took the lead away from Cole Custer with 12 laps to go Saturday, then pulled away to win the Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Custer was second, followed by Aric Almirola, Jesse Love and Sheldon
Creed.
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| Chandler Smith Below Cut Line After Homestead: ‘All Craps
Will Not Be Given at Martinsville’
After finishing 13th from the pole Saturday, Chandler Smith is now 28 points out of the Championship 4. With his career potentially on the line, he's desperate.
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| Justin Allgaier, Brandt Re-Up With
JRM
JR Motorsports announced Friday that Brandt has signed a multi-year extension to continue to sponsor Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
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| Grant Enfinger Plays Strategy Right, Wins Homestead for
2nd Straight Victory
CR7 Motorsports' Grant Enfinger pressed his luck on fuel strategy and came up golden to win the Baptist Health 200 for his second straight win. Ty Majeski was second, then Connor Mosack, Corey Heim and Tyler Ankrum.
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| Matt Mills Under Hospital Observation After Homestead
Run-In with Conner Jones
Niece Motorsports' Matt Mills is still in the hospital due to smoke inhalation after he was put in the wall during the Truck race by ThorSport Racing's Conner Jones in a move that got Jones parked for two laps.
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| Bret Holmes Racing Shutting
Down
Bret Holmes announced Friday that his race team, Bret Holmes Racing, is shutting down, effective immediately.
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| Ferrari Go Back-to-Back as Carlos Sainz Dominates in
Mexico City
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. controlled the festivities from pole Sunday to win the Grand Prix of Mexico City. McLaren's Lando Norris was second, then Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
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| Sean Hingorani Dominates Kern County ARCA West
Race
Sean Hingorani led flag-to-flag Saturday night to win the ARCA Menards Series West NAPA Auto Parts West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame 150 at Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway. Brent Crews was second, then Trevor Huddleston, Tyler Reif and Jack
Wood.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Ferrari Media and David Berding of ARCA Racing. Have news for Frontstretch?
Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising lead or tip.
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Around the World in Motorsports: Oct. 25-27 |
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were at Riverside International Speedway, a quarter-mile oval just across the Mississippi River from Memphis. Here, Carson Macedo started from the pole and led flag-to-flag to win Night No. 1 of the Bull Ring Blitz. Macedo won by .964 seconds over David Gravel. Sheldon Haudenschild was third, then Logan Schuchart and Bill Balog. The second night of the Bull Ring Blitz ended up being cancelled due to rain on Saturday afternoon that made it impossible to race. The event will not be made up. With only the World Finals remaining on the schedule, Gravel has a 74-point lead over Macedo. Donny Schatz is third, then Buddy Kofoid and Giovanni Scelzi.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: Christopher Bell Expands Lead While Tyler Reddick Locks In by Phil Allaway
Christopher Bell had an excellent day in Homestead, scoring 13 stage points and finishing fourth. That allowed him to expand his lead up to 22 points over William Byron, who finished sixth. Byron is currently the last driver in the Championship 4 on points. Byron has a seven-point lead over Kyle Larson, who dropped to third. Larson was going for the lead with 14 laps to go when he rubbed Ryan Blaney and spun. He ultimately finished 13th. Tyler Reddick's last-lap pass to take the win Sunday locked him into the Championship 4 and moved him up two
places to fourth. Denny Hamlin made some gains Sunday. He went from 27 points out to 18 while staying in fifth. Blaney lost out on the final lap from victory, but moved up one place to sixth. Joey Logano finished 28th in a pretty miserable day and dropped to seventh. Chase Elliott led 81 laps and finished fifth, but couldn't get up from eighth. Of those eliminated from the playoffs, Alex Bowman continues to lead that group. His seventh-place finish Sunday expanded that advantage up to 51 points over Martin Truex Jr., who faded late to 23rd. Austin Cindric remains in 11th, while Daniel Suarez is 12th. Ty
Gibbs had a miserable day, losing fourth gear, then colliding with Corey LaJoie and hitting the wall. A 36th-place finish keeps him in 13th, but he lost a bunch of ground. Brad Keselowski is 14th, then Chase Briscoe and Harrison Burton. Of those who didn't make the playoffs, Chris Buescher continues to lead that group by
11 points over Bubba Wallace. Ross Chastain is 19th after a miserable day where he finished 33rd, while Kyle Busch is 20th. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Christopher Bell 4132, 2) William Byron -22, 3) Kyle Larson -29, 4) Tyler Reddick -34,
5) Denny Hamlin -40, 6) Ryan Blaney -60, 7) Joey Logano -62, 8) Chase Elliott -65. Eliminated Driver Standings: 9) Alex Bowman 2264, 10) Martin Truex Jr. -51, 11) Austin Cindric -75, 12) Daniel Suarez -79,
13) Ty Gibbs -101, 14) Brad Keselowski -117, 15) Chase Briscoe -118, 16) Harrison Burton -164. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 1100, 2) Christopher Bell -6, 3) Chase Elliott
-24, 4) Tyler Reddick -32, 5) William Byron -47, 6) Denny Hamlin -107, 7) Ryan Blaney -110, 8) Alex Bowman -175, 9) Martin Truex Jr. -195, 10) Chris Buescher -210, 11) Brad
Keselowski -219, 12) Bubba Wallace -221, 13) Ty Gibbs -239, 14) Ross Chastain -245, 15) Joey Logano -258, 16) Kyle Busch -359. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Best of the Rest: 17) Chris Buescher 890, 18) Bubba Wallace -11, 19) Ross Chastain
-35, 20) Kyle Busch -149, 21) Carson Hocevar -235, 22) Michael McDowell -276, 23) Todd Gilliland -288, 24) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -321, 25) Noah Gragson -331, 26) Ryan Preece -338. Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 52, 2) Tyler Reddick -16, 3) Christopher Bell -19, 4) William Byron -29, 5) Ryan Blaney -33, 6) Joey Logano -35, 7) Denny Hamlin -36, 8) Chase Elliott -38. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 296, 2) Denny Hamlin -19, 3) Ryan Blaney -36, 4) Christopher Bell -41, 5) William Byron -58, 6) Tyler Reddick
-63, 7) Chase Elliott -70, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -73, 9) Joey Logano -119, 10) Alex Bowman -132, t-11) Ty Gibbs -139, t-11) Brad Keselowski -139, 13) Bubba Wallace -150, 14) Austin Cindric
-168, t-15) Ross Chastain -196, t-15) Chris Buescher -196. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 1000, 2) Christopher Bell -5, 3) Tyler Reddick -6, 4) William Byron -38, 5) Kyle Larson -45, 6) Chris Buescher -68, 7) Ross Chastain -98, 8) Alex Bowman
-99, 9) Denny Hamlin -110, 10) Bubba Wallace -116, t-11) Ryan Blaney -125, t-11) Brad Keselowski -125, 13) Ty Gibbs -145, 14) Martin Truex Jr. -174, 15) Joey Logano -182, 16) Kyle Busch -200. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 4561, 2) Tyler Reddick
-29, 3) Chase Elliott -65, 4) William Byron -145, 5) Kyle Larson -203, 6) Chris Buescher -298, 7) Alex Bowman -384, 8) Ross Chastain -396, 9) Ryan Blaney -422, 10) Denny Hamlin -424, 11) Brad Keselowski
-437, 12) Bubba Wallace -447, 13) Ty Gibbs -517, 14) Martin Truex Jr. -617, 15) Joey Logano -644, 16) Kyle Busch -701. 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-1), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas-1, Kansas-1, Sonoma, Indianapolis, Bristol-2, Charlotte-2), Christopher Bell (Phoenix, Charlotte-1, Loudon), Denny Hamlin
(Bristol-1, Richmond-1, Dover), Chase Elliott (Texas), Tyler Reddick (Talladega-1, Michigan, Homestead), Brad Keselowski (Darlington-1), Austin Cindric (Gateway), Ryan Blaney (Iowa, Pocono), Joey Logano (Nashville, Atlanta-2, Las Vegas-2), Alex Bowman (Chicago), Austin Dillon (Richmond-2), Harrison Burton (Daytona-2), Chase Briscoe (Darlington-2), Chris Buescher (Watkins Glen), Ross Chastain (Kansas-2), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Talladega-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.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship: Justin Allgaier Holds On by Phil Allaway
Justin Allgaier entered Homestead just wanting to keep out of trouble and get out of there with a decent finish. He more or less did that, finishing eighth. Cole Custer ended up second and cut into Allgaier's lead. The advantage is seven points entering Martinsville. Custer is the last driver currently in the Championship 4 on
points. Austin Hill led the most laps and swept the stages to win Saturday. That moved him up two places to third. AJ Allmendinger finished 10th and scored the same number of points as Allgaier to stay in fourth. Custer has a 28-point
advantage over Chandler Smith, who led the first 29 laps from the pole Saturday before dropping back to a 13th-place finish. Jesse Love is still in sixth after finishing fourth. Sam Mayer struggled at times, but eventually finished ninth to stay in seventh. Sammy Smith had tire issues Saturday and ended up 22nd, dropping more than 100 points behind Allgaier. Of those eliminated from the playoffs, Sheldon Creed finished fifth Saturday and is ninth in points. He is 16 points ahead of Riley Herbst, who drove up to sixth late. Parker Kligerman is 11th, while Shane van Gisbergen managed to stretch his fuel from the final caution all the way to finish, but it didn't really help his positioning all that much as he stays in
12th. Outside of the playoffs, Ryan Sieg locked himself into finishing 13th in points by finishing seventh on Saturday. He is 142 points ahead of Brandon Jones, who finished 19th. Anthony Alfredo is 15th, then Brennan Poole. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Justin Allgaier 3128, 2) Cole Custer -7, 3) Austin Hill -12, 4) AJ Allmendinger -25, 5) Chandler Smith -35, 6) Jesse Love -42, 7) Sam Mayer -54, 8) Sammy Smith -102. Owners Points Round of 8 Standings: 1) JR Motorsports No. 7 3126, t-2) Stewart-Haas Racing No. 00 -10, t-2) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 -10, 4) Richard Childress Racing No. 21 -11, 5) Kaulig Racing No. 16 - 24, 6) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 81 -34, 7) Richard Childress Racing No. 2 -41, 8) JR
Motorsports No. 1 -52. Eliminated Driver Standings: 9) Sheldon Creed 2176, 10) Riley Herbst -16, 11) Parker Kligerman -38, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -53. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16):
1) Cole Custer 1095, 2) Chandler Smith -4, 3) Justin Allgaier -22, 4) Austin Hill -70, 5) AJ Allmendinger -78, 6) Sheldon Creed -112, 7) Jesse Love -158, 8) Riley Herbst -193, 9) Parker Kligerman
-229, 10) Ryan Sieg -284, 11) Sammy Smith -299, 12) Sam Mayer -352, 13) Shane van Gisbergen -364, 14) Brandon Jones -426, 15) Anthony Alfredo -485, 16) Brennan Poole -561. Playoff Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 36, 2) Austin Hill -3, 3) Cole Custer -7, 4) Chandler Smith -11, 5) Sam Mayer -19, 6) Jesse Love -23, 7) AJ Allmendinger -24, 8) Sammy Smith -30. Best of the Rest: 13) Ryan Sieg 811, 14) Brandon Jones -142, 15) Anthony Alfredo -201, 16) Brennan Poole -277, 17) Josh Williams -324, 18) Parker Retzlaff -347, 19) Jeb Burton -349, 20) Aric Almirola -355, 21) Jeremy Clements -361, 22) Leland Honeyman -362. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 356, 2) Cole Custer -81, 3) AJ Allmendinger -96, 4) Chandler Smith -97, 5) Austin Hill -109, 6) Riley Herbst -131, 7) Sheldon
Creed -148, 8) Jesse Love -193, 9) Sam Mayer -209, t-10) Sammy Smith -227, t-10) Aric Almirola -227, 12) Brandon Jones -245, 13) Ryan Sieg -247, 14) Parker Kligerman -248, 15) Shane van Gisbergen -283, 16) Ryan
Truex -297. 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 965, 2) Cole Custer
-1, 3) Austin Hill -44, 4) Jesse Love -50, 5) Sheldon Creed -54, 6) AJ Allmendinger -69, 7) Parker Kligerman -72, 8) Justin Allgaier -104, 9) Ryan Sieg -130, 10) Riley Herbst -159, 11) Sammy Smith -168, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -179, 13) Sam Mayer
-232, 14) Anthony Alfredo -261, 15) Brandon Jones -279, 16) Brennan Poole -318. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 4333, 2) Cole Custer -6, 3) Sheldon Creed -155, 4) Austin Hill
-195, 5) Jesse Love -213, 6) AJ Allmendinger -283, 7) Parker Kligerman -338, 8) Justin Allgaier -358, 9) Ryan Sieg -502, 10) Riley Herbst -568, 11) Sammy Smith -615, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -647, 13) Sam
Mayer -798, 14) Anthony Alfredo -951, 15) Brandon Jones -987, 16) Brennan Poole -1143. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Atlanta-1, Atlanta-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas-1, Nashville), Chandler Smith (Phoenix,
Richmond), Kyle Larson (COTA), Aric Almirola (Martinsville, Kansas), Sam Mayer (Texas, Iowa, Charlotte-2), Jesse Love (Talladega-1), Ryan Truex (Dover, Daytona-2), Justin Allgaier (Darlington-1, Michigan), Chase Elliott (Charlotte-1), Shane van Gisbergen (Portland, Sonoma, Chicago), Christopher Bell (Loudon, Darlington-2), Cole Custer (Pocono, Bristol), Riley Herbst (Indianapolis), Connor Zilisch (Watkins Glen), Sammy Smith
(Talladega-2), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas-2) 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: Corey Heim Expands Advantage, Prevented From Winning Due to Strategy by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim likely had the best truck on Saturday in Homestead. However, pit strategy prevented him from winning. Despite that, a fourth-place finish allowed him to expand his advantage. His lead is now nine points over Grant Enfinger. Enfinger's pit gamble not only got him his second straight victory, but moved him up a spot in the
standings. Enfinger jumped over Christian Eckes, who finished ninth and dropped back to third. Ty Majeski finished second and maintains fourth, the last spot in the Championship 4 on points. Majeski has a 22-point lead over Rajah Caruth. Caruth
finished eighth, but scored only four stage points to Majeski's 15, which puts him in a tough spot for Martinsville. Taylor Gray is still in sixth, but right behind Caruth. Tyler Ankrum moved up one place to seventh after finishing fifth. Nick Sanchez ran out of fuel with two laps to go and dropped back to 14th, putting him down to eighth in points.
Daniel Dye finished seventh Saturday. With that, he increased his lead to 41 points over Ben Rhodes. Outside of the playoffs, Layne Riggs was in position for a great finish, but he ran out of fuel late Saturday. A 22nd-place finish didn't cost him 11th in points, but it made it closer. He has a
14-point lead over Tanner Gray. Stewart Friesen is still 13th, but made gains after finishing sixth. Matt Crafton is 14th, then Chase Purdy. Dean Thompson jumped over Jake Garcia for 16th. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 3130, 2)
Grant Enfinger -9, 3) Christian Eckes -11, 4) Ty Majeski -27, 5) Rajah Caruth -49, 6) Taylor Gray -51, 7) Tyler Ankrum -68, 8) Nick Sanchez -70. Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 9) Daniel Dye 2123,
10) Ben Rhodes -41. Best of the Rest: 11) Layne Riggs 530, 12) Tanner Gray -14, 13) Stewart Friesen -27, 14) Matt Crafton -48, 15) Chase Purdy -79, 16) Dean Thompson
-108, 17) Jake Garcia -111, 18) Bret Holmes -170, 19) Bayley Currey -175, 20) Kaden Honeycutt -187. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 960, 2) Corey Heim
-83, 3) Ty Majeski -184, 4) Nick Sanchez -247, 5) Grant Enfinger -268, 6) Rajah Caruth -295, 7) Taylor Gray -320, 8) Tyler Ankrum -325, 9) Daniel Dye -419, 10) Layne Riggs -430, 11) Ben Rhodes
-439, 12) Tanner Gray -444, 13) Stewart Friesen -457, 14) Matt Crafton -478, 15) Chase Purdy -509, 16) Dean Thompson -538. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim
49, 2) Christian Eckes -10, 3) Ty Majeski -25, 4) Grant Enfinger -30, 5) Nick Sanchez -31, 6) Rajah Caruth -39, 7) Tyler Ankrum -42, 8) Taylor Gray -46. Stage Points:
1) Christian Eckes 291, 2) Corey Heim -59, 3) Ty Majeski -66, 4) Grant Enfinger -155, 5) Nick Sanchez -157, 6) Tyler Ankrum -165, 7) Layne Riggs -181, t-8) Rajah Caruth -185, t-8) Taylor Gray -185, 10) Ben Rhodes
-204, 11) Daniel Dye -211, 12) Kaden Honeycutt -223, 13) Stewart Friesen -229, 14) Tanner Gray -233, 15) Jake Garcia -242, 16) Dean Thompson -243. Note: If
he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be 13th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 608, 2) Corey Heim -30, 3) Nick Sanchez -105, 4) Ty Majeski -127, t-5) Grant
Enfinger -129, t-5) Rajah Caruth -129, 7) Taylor Gray -152, 8) Tyler Ankrum -176, 9) Daniel Dye -229, 10) Tanner Gray -230, 11) Stewart Friesen -248, 12) Matt Crafton -252, 13) Ben Rhodes -253, 14) Layne Riggs
-267, 15) Chase Purdy -279, 16) Dean Thompson -316. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christian Eckes 3370, 2) Corey Heim -139, 3) Nick Sanchez -408, 4) Ty Majeski
-468, 5) Grant Enfinger -491, 6) Rajah Caruth -512, 7) Taylor Gray -568, 8) Tyler Ankrum -658, 9) Daniel Dye -840, 10) Tanner Gray -870, 11) Stewart Friesen -917, 12) Matt Crafton -929, 13) Ben Rhodes
-930, 14) Layne Riggs -941, 15) Chase Purdy -1000, 16) Dean Thompson -1139. Race Winners: Nick Sanchez (Daytona, Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Texas), Rajah Caruth (Las Vegas), Christian Eckes (Bristol-1, Martinsville,
Nashville), Corey Heim (COTA, Kansas-1, North Wilkesboro, Gateway, Pocono, Kansas-2), Ross Chastain (Darlington), Ty Majeski (Lucas Oil IRP, Richmond), Layne Riggs (Milwaukee, Richmond-2), Grant Enfinger (Talladega, Homestead) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 was brought to you by the letter B for Brisk Action. Homestead races in recent years have been marked by everyone riding against the wall and a lack of passing.
That is not what we saw Sunday as there was a lot more passing than previously. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: South Point 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"I can’t walk you through the last few laps. But my emotions were all over the place. Yeah, when we went long, I didn’t know how that was going to play out. I was worried that caution wasn’t going to come. We pit, lose a lap. Oh, damn. We get back on the lead lap. I was not expecting it, right? Nick [Payne] says caution. Great, we’re at the back, whatever else. It was like, ‘Yeah, we’re
going to stay out.’ I was like, ‘Oh, snap, we’re going to stay out?’ We’re going to figure this out. Yeah, turn one went about as good as I thought it could have went. I saw Denny [Hamlin] get to my outside. That wasn’t great. We settled in there. I didn’t know how bad we were going to bleed. I drove into turn three kind of, I don’t know, out of desperation, something, I kind of held serve. I was very shocked by that. Then as laps just kept winding down, it didn’t truly feel like we were at a
big tire deficit. You come to this place, you know tires are a premium. Early in the race we saw [Kyle Busch], a number of other cars, on three [or] four-lap tires stay out and get their doors blown off. I was completely shocked we were able to stay in the mix like we were. Yeah, going into one, I made the right guess. I got the bottom. I got clean air. I got up in front of the 11 (Hamlin). I had a good run on [Ryan Blaney]. I was just blown away that I had that kind of momentum going into turn
3. I thought there was no way [Blaney] was going to leave...me the outside. He must have thought that I was just going to absolutely dive bomb it off in there to try to get around him. Once I saw him kind of shade down, I hit the gas and forgot about everything else. Came out on the other side in the lead. It was just crazy." - Tyler Reddick, race winner "Disappointment. I had a good shot to win
it and I didn’t have a very good last lap. I thought I got into three hard and the 45 just went in there and it stuck for him, which is really impressive. I hate to give one away there like that. I don’t know if we gave it away. We got the lead back after losing it on the restart and just that last lap didn’t play out for us. I appreciate everybody on the No. 12 team for bringing a really fast race car. I had a really great shot to go to Phoenix and I still have one more chance, so we still have
to look forward to that. I appreciate Menards and Ford and Ford Performance, Richmond, Advance Auto Parts, Body Armor, DEX Imaging and everybody. It is a shame. I will be thinking through it all night of what I should have done different, probably. That is just the way it goes but I am really proud of the effort and hopefully we can bring it to them next week." - Ryan Blaney, finished second "I’m not really sure. Tried to cover all lanes, but just couldn’t quite get off the corner as good as I needed to there on that short run. Short run wasn’t my specialty all day, obviously. Either way, controlling the race with two to go, you got to try to find a way to finish it. Just didn’t." - Denny Hamlin, finished third "I don’t know.
A little bit. A couple cars just could get away. There were runs in race today where I felt really good, but just after restarts, I couldn’t keep up with them. This is so, so intense and we knew coming into the Round of 8 with these drivers, we were going to have winners, winners and winners. Coming to Homestead, you look at the guys who run well here and you’re expecting a winner from the bottom-half of the grid, and I think the same thing will happen in Martinsville. So, yeah, I’m glad we’ve
been able to maximize our points and in order for us to transfer [to the Championship 4], we’re still going to have to be running for the win in Martinsville." - Christopher Bell, finished fourth "I just got tighter and tighter as the day went on. I was just trying to manage that on the front side of a run, and ultimately I just didn’t do a great job of managing it.
When the pace got quicker and everyone started pushing, I didn’t really have anything left to push." - Chase Elliott, finished fifth "I don’t think it really mattered. We kind of had what we had today. We weren’t good enough, and we were just trying to get all we could. I feel like a sixth-place finish is good. If it had gone green there, we were going to end up
top-five. I don’t know how that changes the points, but we just have to go to Martinsville Speedway and compete for a win." - William Byron, finished sixth "I mean you’re making split-second decisions. Austin [Dillon] did nothing wrong. I was just hoping that he would see me coming as [Ryan Blaney] got to his inside, and maybe he’d run a lane off the wall just to give
me some clean air. He continued to run his line. I had a little bit of a hole and I was trying to shoot the gap to get in front of [Dillon] and get to the wall quickly to either hopefully stay on the outside of [Blaney] or build a run to have a shot at him in turns 1 and 2. But yeah, it just didn’t work out. I was going as hard as I could. The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team did a great job rebounding after the flat tire." - Kyle Larson, finished 13th 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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