Frontstretch Newsletter: March 31, 2025
Volume
XIX, Edition XLI |
- Teams are back at their shops today to prepare for this weekend's action at Darlington. Entry lists should be released today. We'll have the entry lists and everything else breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Denny Hamlin Turns Back (Grandfather) Clock to Win at
Martinsville Denny Hamlin led all but one of the final 275 laps Sunday to win the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Christopher Bell was second, then Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson. |
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| ‘It Had That Look to It’: Chris Gabehart Praises Denny
Hamlin’s, No. 11 Team’s Martinsville Dominance For crew chief Chris Gabehart, he had a feeling that Denny Hamlin would have an excellent run Sunday in Martinsville. It just looked good to him. |
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| Here’s What Happened This Week with the 23XI/FRM Lawsuit
(March 21 – 28) Last week, the lawsuit between 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR continued with procedural happenings. In addition, a motion was filed to dismiss NASCAR's countersuit. |
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| Jesse Love Attempting Cup Debut at
Bristol Richard Childress Racing announced Friday that Jesse Love will attempt to make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the Food City 500 at Bristol in the team's part-time No. 33 Chevrolet. |
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| Austin Hill Steals Martinsville Win Amidst Last-Lap
Mayhem Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill was able to avoid the last-lap shenanigans Saturday to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series Marine Corps 250 at Martinsville. Sheldon Creed was second, then Justin Allgaier, Brennan Poole and Sam
Mayer. |
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| Bump and Dumb: Xfinity Martinsville Etiquette Hits Bottom
of Barrel Saturday's Marine Corps 250 will be best remembered for Sammy Smith running through Taylor Gray on the final lap, thus triggering a melee that resulted in Austin Hill winning despite restarting seventh with two laps to go. |
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| Daniel Hemric Wins 1st Career Truck Race in
Martinsville Daniel Hemric took the lead away from teammate Tyler Ankrum with four laps to go Friday night, then held on to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Boys & Girls Clubs of the Blue Ridge 200 Friday night. Ankrum was second, then Jake Garcia, Chandler
Smith and Ben Rhodes. |
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| Corey Heim, Kaden Honeycutt Spin Out of Contention in
Dominant Martinsville Showings While Daniel Hemric walked out of Martinsville Speedway with a grandfather clock Friday night, Corey Heim and Kaden Honeycutt were the dominant drivers. Both ended up wrecking. |
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| ‘I Was Jacked Up All Night’: Friends, Peers Celebrate
Daniel Hemric’s Truck Win For Daniel Hemric, Friday night's win was his first-ever victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, a series that he had competed in as far back as 2013. |
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| JMF Motorsport Claims Sonoma Win in 1st GT3
Race JMF Motorsport's Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens won Saturday's season opener for GT World Challenge America powered by AWS at Sonoma in the team's first-ever race with a GT3 car. |
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| Kenton Koch, Connor de Phillippi Win 1st GTWCA Race for
Random Vandals Random Vandals Racing's Kenton Koch passed Alex Sedgwick with two laps to go and held on from there to win GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at Sonoma Raceway with teammate Connor de Phillippi. |
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| AutoTechnic Racing Wins Rough Sonoma GT4 Race No.
1 AutoTechnic Racing's Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett won the first Pirelli GT4 America SprintX race of the weekend at Sonoma Raceway Saturday, an event marred by crashes. |
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| Random Vandals Win Sonoma GT4 America Race No.
2 Kevin Boehm passed Gresham Wagner with five minutes to go Sunday to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 2 at Sonoma Raceway with teammate Kenton Koch. |
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| George Kurtz Dominates Sonoma GT America
Opener CrowdStrike Racing by Riley Motorsports' George Kurtz led flag-to-flag to take a dominant win in the GT America powered by AWS season opener Saturday afternoon. |
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| Kyle Washington Wins Sketchy Sonoma GT America Race No.
2 GMG Racing's Kyle Washington won a very wet GT America powered by AWS Race No. 2 Sunday morning in Sonoma. Max Hewitt won the GT4 class. |
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| Mini Tyrrell Dominates zMAX CARS Tour Race At Wake
County Mini Tyrrell led flag-to-flag Saturday night to win the Accent Imaging 125 for the CARS Tour at Wake County Speedway. Connor Hall was second, then Doug Barnes Jr., Kade Brown and Landen Lewis. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Brian Cleary, Fred Hardy and Fabian Lagunas of SRO Motorsports Group, 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: March 28-30 |
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series was at Lawton Speedway Friday night for the Sooner State Showdown. Here, Buddy Kofoid started from the pole and spent the entire 35-lap feature fighting with Carson Macedo for the lead. Macedo did everything in his
power to get past, but could not get around the young racer. Eventually, Kofoid was able to open a small gap up and held onto that to take the win. Kofoid won by .840 seconds over Macedo. Emerson Axsom was third, then David Gravel and Sheldon Haudenschild. Through 13 races, Gravel continues to lead the points by 78 over Macedo. Logan Schuchart is third, then Kofoid and Haudenschild. The series was supposed to race Saturday night at 81 Speedway near Wichita, Kan. However, high winds saw the program get postponed after the completion of heat races due to high winds. The sanctioning body is trying to get the remainder of the card rescheduled, but they do not have a date at the
moment. - The Kubota High Limit Sprint Car Series spent the weekend at Central Arizona Raceway for two nights of racing. Here, Tyler Courtney started on the pole and led early. However, Aaron Reutzel, who won recently at Perris Auto Speedway, hounded Courtney after starting third. The two drivers were using separate grooves with Courtney on the inside and Reutzel using the cushion. On lap 20, Courtney missed his groove by just a little bit. That was all Reutzel needed to take the lead. From there, he held on to take his second straight win. Courtney ended up second, followed by Justin Peck and Brad Sweet. Tanner
Holmes was fifth. Saturday night saw Kasey Kahne start from the pole and lead the first 10 laps. However, once Kahne got into lapped traffic, Sweet was able to capitalize to take the lead. From there, Sweet drove off to a decent advantage. Lapped
traffic allowed Kahne to pull back in late, but Sweet was able to hold on for the win. Kahne was .384 seconds back at the finish, while Courtney was third. Reutzel finished fourth, while Rico Abreu was fifth. Through six races, Sweet has a 47-point
lead over Courtney. Reutzel is third, then Brent Marks and Abreu. - Saturday night saw the Super DIRTcar Series officially start their 2025 season with the Power in the Pines at New Egypt Speedway in New Egypt, N.J. (Note that the Super DIRTcar Series races held as part of the DIRTcar Nationals do not count toward the season-long championship). The action in New Egypt was
quite competitive, but a non-regular ended up taking the spoils. Mat Williamson won the pole and lead early. Tanner Van Doren was on his tail early, but Stewart Friesen was able to dispatch him for second on an early restart. Friesen ran down
Williamson 20 laps into the race and battled him hard for the lead. On lap 24, he was able to make the pass stick to take the lead. From there, Friesen was able to hold off the pack on a series of restarts to take the win. Friesen won by .717 seconds over Alex Yankowski. Logan Watt was third, then Williamson and Louden Reimert. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Martinsville and Wake County last weekend. For more from Martinsville, Wake County, or from other race weekends, be sure to subscribe to our suite of YouTube channels
(Frontstretch, Frontstretch Grassroots, Frontstretch Plus and FS Open Wheel) and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship: William Byron Keeps Lead Amid Martinsville Struggles
by Phil Allaway
William Byron had what is likely his worst race of the year Sunday in Martinsville. He struggled for much of the race, especially towards the finish and ended up 22nd without leading a lap or scoring any stage points. Byron keeps the points lead, but his advantage over teammate Kyle Larson was trimmed from 36 points to 16 after Larson finished fifth. Chase Elliott is up three positions to third after finishing fourth. Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman are tied for fourth. Bell moved up a spot after finishing second, while Bowman had a good car, but an extra stop trapped him in the pack, resulting in a 27th-place
finish. Denny Hamlin's first win of the season Sunday moved him up two places to sixth. Tyler Reddick is down three places to seventh after a very quiet run to 14th. Bubba Wallace, despite finishing third, dropped a place to eighth. Joey Logano earned his first top 10 finish of the season Sunday, which moved him up two spots to ninth. Ryan Blaney charged from 32nd on the grid to finish 11th and hold onto 10th. Chris Buescher was caught up in a couple of incidents and dropped three spots to 11th after finishing 24th. Chase Briscoe and Ross Chastain are tied for 12th. Chastain finished
sixth, while Briscoe was ninth. Ryan Preece moved up one place to 14th after finishing seventh, his third straight top 10. Michael McDowell dropped down to 15th after a 12th-place finish. He is now the last driver in the playoffs on points. He has a nine-point advantage over Kyle Busch, who finished
17th. John Hunter Nemechek and AJ Allmendinger are currently tied for 17th, while Josh Berry had battery issues in his car Sunday. A 32nd-place finish dropped him seven spots to 19th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 259, 2) Kyle Larson -16, 3) Chase Elliott -32, t-4) Christopher Bell -35, t-4) Alex Bowman -35, 6) Denny Hamlin
-41, 7) Tyler Reddick -46, 8) Bubba Wallace -51, 9) Joey Logano -60, 10) Ryan Blaney -66, 11) Chris Buescher -82, t-12) Chase Briscoe -90, t-12) Ross Chastain -90, 14) Ryan Preece -94, 15) Michael
McDowell -100, 16) Kyle Busch -109. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 19) Josh Berry -112. Note: Drivers
in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) Christopher Bell 16, t-2) Kyle Larson -9, t-2) Denny Hamlin -9, t-4) William Byron
-10, t-4) Josh Berry -10, t-6) Joey Logano -14, t-6) Ryan Blaney -14, t-8) Bubba Wallace -15, t-8) Ryan Preece -15, t-8) Austin Cindric -15. Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 74, 2) William Byron -4, 3) Bubba Wallace -5, 4) Joey Logano -13, 5) Austin Cindric -20, 6) Kyle Larson -22, t-7) Chase Elliott -25, t-7) Alex Bowman
-25, 9) Tyler Reddick -31, 10) Denny Hamlin -36, 11) Christopher Bell -44, 12) AJ Allmendinger -46, 13) Josh Berry -49, 14) Ryan Preece -51, 15) Carson Hocevar -54, 16) Ross Chastain -55. Note: The Stage Points include the Duels at Daytona. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: t-17) Kyle Busch -58, t-21) Chase Briscoe
-60, 14) Chris Buescher -61. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona. Old Point
Standings (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 224, 2) William Byron -2, 3) Kyle Larson -3, 4) Denny Hamlin -13, t-5) Chase Elliott -16, t-5) Alex Bowman -16, 7) Tyler Reddick -25, 8) Chris Buescher
-32, 9) Chase Briscoe -39, 10) Michael McDowell -44, 11) Ross Chastain -48, 12) Ryan Preece -51, 13) Joey Logano -52, 14) Bubba Wallace -54, 15) John Hunter Nemechek -56, 16) Kyle Busch -58. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 19) Josh Berry -72, 20) Ryan Blaney -73. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were
created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 993, 2) William Byron -2, 3) Kyle Larson -5, 4) Denny Hamlin -39, 5) Alex Bowman -51, 6) Chase
Elliott -65, 7) Tyler Reddick -85, 8) Chris Buescher -120, 9) Chase Briscoe -134, 10) Ross Chastain -166, 11) Michael McDowell -167, t-12) Bubba Wallace -171, t-12) Ryan Preece -171, 14) Joey Logano -182, 15) Kyle Busch
-193, 16) John Hunter Nemechek -201.
Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Josh Berry -234, 18) Ryan Blaney -239. Note No. 2: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: William Byron (Daytona), Christopher Bell (Atlanta, COTA, Phoenix), Josh Berry (Las Vegas), Kyle Larson (Homestead), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs: Justin Allgaier Lengthens Lead Despite Martinsville Chaos
by Phil Allaway
Justin Allgaier was right there in the hunt to win when the chaos broke out on the final lap. He ultimately ended up third, which allowed him to expand his advantage once again. His points lead is now 41 points over Sam Mayer, who finished fifth. Austin Hill's victory allowed
him to move up one place to third, but he scored the same amount of points as Allgaier (44). Sheldon Creed is up one spot to fourth after finishing second for the 14th time. Jesse Love was eliminated in a late crash with Carson Kvapil. His 37th-place finish dropped him down to fifth. Sammy Smith was credited with a 10th-place
finish after his move on Taylor Gray on the final lap. He remains in sixth, but we'll see if NASCAR chooses to dock him points later this week. Connor Zilisch won the first two stages, then wrecked multiple times. He remains in seventh, while Aric Almirola moved up to eighth. Ryan Sieg drops down to ninth despite an eighth-place
finish with a massive tire rub. Kvapil is up three places to 10th after crawling home in 20th. Jeb Burton came from the rear to finish 11th and move up one place to 11th. Daniel Dye finished seventh and moved up four places to 12th. Gray was punted into the wall from the lead on the final lap by Smith. That dropped him to a 29th-place finish and moved him down
from ninth to 13th in points, the last driver in the playoffs on points. Gray has a two-point lead over teammate Brandon Jones, who was also swept up in the final lap mess. Harrison Burton had a miserable day where he got involved in at least three wrecks and finished 24th. That dropped him four places to 15th. Nick Sanchez is
16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 293, 2) Sam Mayer -41, 3) Austin Hill -47, 4) Sheldon Creed -71, 5) Jesse Love -74, 6) Sammy Smith
-78, 7) Connor Zilisch -100, 8) Aric Almirola -107, 9) Ryan Sieg -108, 10) Carson Kvapil -117, 11) Jeb Burton -124, 12) Daniel Dye -125, 13) Taylor Gray -127, 14) Brandon Jones
-129, 15) Harrison Burton -135, 16) Nick Sanchez -145. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 14, 2) Justin Allgaier -2, 3) Connor Zilisch -7, 4) Aric Almirola -8, 5) Jesse Love
-9, t-6) Sammy Smith -11, t-6) Harrison Burton -11. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman would be tied for sixth in playoff points. Stage Points:
1) Justin Allgaier 83, 2) Austin Hill -22, 3) Connor Zilisch -27, t-4) Sammy Smith -30, t-4) Sam Mayer -30, t-4) Aric Almirola -30, 7) Sheldon Creed -38, 8) Carson Kvapil -44, 9) Jesse Love
-50, 10) Taylor Gray -51, 11) Ryan Sieg -58, 12) Nick Sanchez -60, 13) Brandon Jones -61, 14) Jeb Burton -62, 15) Daniel Dye -67, 16) Harrison Burton -70. Note: If they
were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, Alex Bowman would be 15th and Kyle Larson 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 241, 2) Sam Mayer -12, 3) Austin
Hill -24, 4) Jesse Love -25, 5) Sheldon Creed -34, 6) Sammy Smith -48, 7) Ryan Sieg -52, 8) Daniel Dye -63, 9) Jeb Burton
-64, 10) Harrison Burton -65, 11) Connor Zilisch -70, 12) Brandon Jones -71, 13) Carson Kvapil -74, 14) Taylor Gray -77, 15) Brennan Poole
-78, 16) Josh Williams -81. WC Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 1060, 2) Sam Mayer -34, 3) Austin Hill -74, 4) Jesse Love -95, 5) Sheldon Creed
-123, 6) Sammy Smith -183, 7) Ryan Sieg -195, 8) Daniel Dye -236, 9) Harrison Burton -237, 10) Jeb Burton -242, 11) Connor Zilisch -243, 12) Brandon Jones -248, 13) Carson Kvapil -263, 14) Taylor Gray
-264, 15) Brennan Poole -282, 16) Josh Williams -300. Race Winners: Jesse Love (Daytona), Austin Hill (Atlanta, Martinsville), Connor Zilisch (COTA), Aric Almirola (Phoenix), Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas, 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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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs: Corey Heim Expands Lead Despite Late Crash
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim was dominant Friday night in Martinsville. However, contact cut his left rear tire and put him in the wall. Despite that, he recovered to finish sixth. Even with the tire issue, he scored the most points Friday night after winning the
first two stages. As a result, he expanded his advantage over Ty Majeski to 20 points. Majeski was racing for the lead late when he wheel hopped and took himself and Kaden Honeycutt out. He would recover to finish 13th. Chandler Smith finished fourth and maintains third in points. Daniel Hemric's first career
Truck win moved him up three places to fourth. Stewart Friesen stays in fifth after a ninth-place finish. Tyler Ankrum finished second, but stays in sixth. Grant Enfinger had a miserable night with handling issues, then a suspension issue that put him out. He ended up 29th and dropped down to seventh. Layne Riggs
is still in eighth. Jake Garcia finished third and stays in ninth. Ben Rhodes finished fifth and moved up four places to 10th. He is the last driver in the playoffs on points right now. Rhodes is one point ahead of Honeycutt, who
could have won the race had Majeski not hopped into put, putting the No. 45 in the wall. Tanner Gray is 12th, then Gio Ruggiero and Matt Mills. Rajah Caruth, Andres Perez and Matt Crafton are all tied for 15th. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Corey Heim 229, 2) Ty Majeski -20, 3) Chandler Smith -36, 4) Daniel Hemric -54, 5) Stewart Friesen -62, 6) Tyler Ankrum -65, 7) Grant Enfinger -72, 8) Layne Riggs -81, 9) Jake Garcia
-92, 10) Ben Rhodes -98, 11) Kaden Honeycutt -99, 12) Tanner Gray -106, 13) Gio Ruggiero -110, 14) Matt Mills -131, t-15) Rajah Caruth -132, t-15) Andres Perez -132, t-15) Matt Crafton -132. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 14, 2) Daniel Hemric -9, t-3) Ty Majeski -13, t-3) Ben Rhodes -13, t-3) Tyler Ankrum -13, t-3) Jack Wood -11, t-3) Matt Crafton
-11. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be second and Kyle Larson third in Playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim 69, 2) Ty
Majeski -7, 3) Chandler Smith -30, 4) Stewart Friesen -31, 5) Kaden Honeycutt -35, 6) Tyler Ankrum -37, 7) Daniel Hemric -41, t-8) Grant Enfinger -43, t-8) Connor Mosack -43, 10) Ben Rhodes
-44, 11) Jack Wood -48, 12) Tanner Gray -54, 13) Layne Riggs -56, 14) Matt Crafton -59, t-15) Jake Garcia -60, t-15) Johnny Sauter -60. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series points, Kyle Larson would be 12th and Kyle Busch 13th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 145, 2) Chandler Smith -7, 3) Daniel Hemric -16, 4) Ty Majeski -17, t-5) Layne Riggs
-29, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -29, 7) Grant Enfinger -32, 8) Stewart Friesen -34, 9) Jake Garcia -36, 10) Gio Ruggiero -48, 11) Ben Rhodes -56, 12) Tanner Gray -57, 13) Kaden Honeycutt -65, 14) Matt Mills
-67, 15) Andres Perez -70, 16) Rajah Caruth -74. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 799, 2) Chandler Smith -30, 3) Ty Majeski -68, 4) Daniel Hemric
-69, 5) Tyler Ankrum -99, 6) Layne Riggs -107, 7) Grant Enfinger -111, 8) Stewart Friesen -122, 9) Jake Garcia -133, 10) Gio Ruggiero -173, 11) Ben Rhodes -200, 12) Tanner Gray -202, 13) Kaden Honeycutt
-240, 14) Matt Mills -245, 15) Andres Perez -250, 16) Rajah Caruth -236. Race Winners: Corey Heim (Daytona, Las Vegas), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Homestead), Daniel Hemric (Martinsville) 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 Cook Out 400 was brought to you by the letter W for Work in Progress. Unfortunately, NASCAR still hasn't quite figured out how to make the Next Gen car work at Martinsville. While
yes, some drivers were able to move forward, others were hopelessly stuck where they were. There wasn't much movement in the top 10 over the final 75 laps of the race. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Cook Out 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"It is great. It is a historic race track – I’ve been so frustrated not getting a win here, but being the next best in line, but man, we have really turned the corner. Whatever setup we’ve got here, whenever we come back in the fall, we will be contenders, but this whole Progressive Toyota team did a phenomenal job all week
preparing and all practice to give me this race winning car." - Denny Hamlin, race winner "I don’t know what [Denny Hamlin] was doing early in the run – if he was struggling with something or if he was just taking care of the tires. I could keep pace with him, and I could pressure him for a little bit, and then I just died about 20 to 30 to go, maybe longer than that. I was
then in hang on mode, but it was a great weekend for our team. This DEWALT Camry was really good on Saturday, and that helped a lot of our success today. Pit crew did a great job when it mattered – showed up and gained some spots on pit road. We have some really good notes and scored some really good points. I remember coming here in the fall last year talking about how many points we needed, and we just haven’t scored points at Martinsville, so it was nice to do that today." - Christopher
Bell, finished second "I feel like we were definitely better than [Christopher Bell], but just everybody [gets] so stuck. When you feel like you have an advantage, you can’t really do anything with it. We need to continue to work on this package, but all-in-all – back-to-back top-fives is a good day. It’s usually around those summer months when we do that. It is nice to
have a really good points day. I’m sure that’s what the text from [Michael Jordan] will say, but all-in-all, really proud of my McDonald’s Toyota team. We’ve showed up since the beginning of the season with our heads in the game. Charles [Denike] jumping into this – I’m super proud of him to basically pick up where we left off. Bootie [Barker] left him in good hands. It was definitely a team effort all day. Good to come out of here with a good result in one of my favorite places." - Bubba
Wallace, finished third
"We got a little behind there. I wish I could have gotten Denny [Hamlin] in the second stage. We really, really needed control there. When you get into the second-half of these races, it just gets so hard to make ground up. You saw that with Christopher [Bell] pressuring [Hamlin]. It just means a lot to have control, and unfortunately I couldn’t get that back for us. But
overall, it was a really good effort by this No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet team. We had a really good Chevy today, but we just need a little bit more." - Chase Elliott, finished fourth
"I think [we] just [needed] track position. We maybe could have called the second stage a little bit different.. maybe potentially the first stage, too. But yeah, I don’t know. I think maybe if I could have gotten
to the lead, I would have stayed in the top two or three. I feel like everyone’s cars are really equal. [Denny Hamlin], I’m sure his car is equal, as well, but he’s just a really good short-track racer. He can keep the tires on it and get through track position really well." - Kyle Larson, finished fifth
"I didn’t expect that one. Honestly, it all started with me messing up in
qualifying and putting us back there. Ultimately, we got some great stage points and some great calls and great adjustments on the box and we got this Fastenal Ford Mustang where it needed to be. We’ve got some work to do to be able to drive through like some other cars do, but I think we’ve got some good ideas and obviously a little luck went our way today. I’m proud of everybody on this Fastenal Ford Mustang and everybody at RFK. We’ve just got to keep working and keep
grinding." - Ryan Preece, finished seventh 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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!["[Ross Chastain] Just Races Like a Jackass Every Week" - Joey Logano After Eventful Martinsville](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/163fcde3b84642f280e8dedb3486c9b7.png)
