Frontstretch Newsletter: April 21, 2025
Volume
XIX, Edition LVI |
- Teams are back at their shops today with preparations underway for this weekend's action in Talladega. Entry lists should be released today. We'll have the entry lists and everything else breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Sammy Smith Wins In Xfinity Series’ Return to The
Rock JR Motorsports' Sammy Smith inherited the victory in Saturday's North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham after Jesse Love was disqualified. Parker Retzlaff was second, then Harrison Burton, Brennan Poole and Taylor
Gray. |
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| Kasey Kahne Rebounds from Crash for Top 15 in NASCAR,
Rockingham Return Saturday marked Kasey Kahne's first NASCAR race since 2018. He qualified well, but got caught up in multiple incidents on his way to a 15th-place finish. |
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| Ryan Sieg Posts Career-High 77 Laps Led at
Rockingham Ryan Sieg's quest to win his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race still continues, but they'll know that he was there after leading 77 laps Saturday and holding off Jesse Love. |
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| Tyler Ankrum Collects 2nd Career Truck Series Win at
Rockingham McAnally-Hilgemann Racing's Tyler Ankrum was able to make his fuel hold out Friday evening to win the Black's Tire 200 at Rockingham, his first win since 2019. Jake Garcia was second, then Daniel Hemric, Rajah Caruth and Grant
Enfinger. |
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| Layne Riggs, Chandler Smith Run Dry Versus Tyler Ankrum at
Rockingham Front Row Motorsports teammates Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith were Tyler Ankrum's primary competition Friday in Rockingham, but both drivers ran out of fuel late. |
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| Carson Hocevar Making 4 Truck Starts With
Spire Spire Motorsports announced Friday that Carson Hocevar, one of the team's drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, will drive the No. 7 Truck in four races starting at Texas. |
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| Venturini Selling Team to Nitro at End of
2025 In a press conference at Rockingham Speedway Friday, Venturini Motorsports announced that they will sell their team to Nitro Motorsports, effective at the end of 2025. |
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| Justin Carroll Adds Multiple Races to 2025 Truck Series
Schedule Prior to Friday's Black's Tire 200, Justin Carroll indicated to Frontstretch that his schedule for 2025 will expand to a minimum of 12 and as many as 15 races. |
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| Derek White to Pilot for Reaume Brothers Racing in 2
Races Derek White indicated to Frontstretch Friday that he will make his return to NASCAR for the first time since 2016 at North Wilkesboro in May. |
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| Oscar Piastri Wins in Saudi Arabia, Takes F1 Points
Lead McLaren's Oscar Piastri benefitted from a penalty to Max Verstappen to win the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia Sunday. Verstappen was second, then Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and George Russell. |
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| Ferrari Wins 6 Hours of Imola For 2nd Straight
Win Ferrari AF Corse's James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi led 174 of 212 laps Sunday to win the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Imola. |
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| Brent Crews Cruises to ARCA East Victory at
Rockingham Joe Gibbs Racing's Brent Crews led 124 of 125 laps Saturday to win the ARCA Menards Series East Rockingham ARCA 125 at Rockingham Speedway. William Sawalich was second, then Eloy Falcon, Patrick Staropoli and Andy Jankowiak. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, McLaren, Ted Malinowski and Zac BonDurant of ARCA Racing, and DPPI. Have news
for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising lead or tip. |
Around the World in Motorsports: April 18-20 |
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spent the weekend in Knoxville, Ia. for the Premier Chevy Dealers Clash, the first major weekend of the year at the capital of winged sprint car racing. A number of ringers came in to supplement the field, meaning that more than 60 cars were there. Saturday night saw 65 cars try to get into the A-Main. Once the A-Main came around, Aaron Reutzel had the lead early on, but Rico Abreu ran him down and took the lead on lap 9. From there, Abreu opened up a decent gap on the field. In the closing laps, Kyle Larson was able to
run down the High Limit regular in lapped traffic. On the final lap, Larson made a final lunge, but Abreu was able to hold on for the win. Abreu's margin of victory was .214 seconds over Larson. Logan Schuchart was third, then Tyler Courtney and Reutzel. Through 16 races, David Gravel, who finished sixth, continues to lead the points by 68 over Schuchart. Carson Macedo is third, then Buddy Kofoid and Sheldon Haudenschild. - The Super DIRTcar Series opened up Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y. Friday night for the 2025 season with a race in commemoration of the track's 60th Anniversary.
Here, LJ Lombardo started from the pole, but quickly lost the advantage to Alex Yankowski. Yankowski opened up a decent advantage while Lombardo battled with Tim Sears Jr. and Mike Mahaney. Eventually, Yankowski caught the rear of the field. That allowed Lombardo to run the leader back down. Contact between Lombardo and Neil Stratton resulted in Stratton spinning out to bring out the race's sole caution. On the restart, Lombardo dropped back briefly, then caught back up and swept around Yankowski for the lead on lap 32. From there, Lombardo opened up a gap and held on to take the victory. He won by 1.029
seconds over Yankowski with Sears in third. Mahaney was fourth, while Erick Rudolph was fifth. Through four races, Yankowski has a three-point lead in the standings over Mat Williamson. Alex Payne is third, then Rudolph and Justin Haers. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Rockingham last weekend. For more from Rockingham, 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: Off-Week Update
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Cup Series was off last week, their only in-season off-weekend of the year. They'll be back in action this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. When the teams get to Talladega, William Byron will have a
30-point lead over Denny Hamlin. Christopher Bell is third, then Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. At the points cutoff, Kyle Busch in 15th is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He is two points ahead of AJ Allmendinger. Josh Berry, the
only winner outside of the top 16 in points, is 17th, then Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, and a tie for 20th between Ty Gibbs, Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) William Byron 346, 2) Denny Hamlin -30, 3) Christopher Bell -41, 4) Kyle Larson -42, 5) Chase Elliott -68, 6) Ryan Blaney -71, 7) Tyler Reddick -72, 8) Bubba Wallace
-95, 9) Joey Logano -101, 10) Alex Bowman -102, 11) Ross Chastain -117, 12) Chris Buescher -119, 13) Chase Briscoe -133, 14) Ryan Preece -145, 15) Kyle Busch -146, 16) AJ Allmendinger -148. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Josh Berry -167. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) Christopher Bell 16, 2) Kyle Larson -2, 3) Denny Hamlin -4, 4) William Byron -8, 5) 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 92, 2) William Byron -2, 3) Bubba Wallace -14, 4) Kyle Larson -20, 5) Joey Logano -22, 6) Alex Bowman -26, 7) Denny Hamlin -31, 8) Austin Cindric
-35, 9) Tyler Reddick -40, 10) Chase Elliott -43, 11) Christopher Bell -44, 12) Carson Hocevar -59, t-13) Josh Berry -61, t-13) Ryan Preece -61, 15) AJ Allmendinger -62, t-16) Brad
Keselowski -71.
Note: The Stage Points include the Duels at Daytona. Outside of the top 16, but Still in the Playoffs: 17) Chris Buescher -72, 18) Ross
Chastain -73, t-20) Kyle Busch -76, t-20) Chase Briscoe -76. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 298, 2) Christopher Bell -3, 3) Denny Hamlin
-4, 4) Kyle Larson -28, 5) Chase Elliott -31, 6) Tyler Reddick -38, 7) Ross Chastain -54, 8) Chris Buescher -55, 9) Chase Briscoe -63, 10) Ryan Blaney -73, 11) Kyle Busch -74, 12) Alex Bowman
-79, 13) Joey Logano -81, 14) Bubba Wallace -86, 15) Ryan Preece -89, 16) Michael McDowell -95. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 24) Josh Berry -112. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) William Byron
1321, 2) Denny Hamlin -17, 3) Christopher Bell -21, 4) Kyle Larson -96, 5) Chase Elliott -133, 6) Tyler Reddick -139, 7) Ross Chastain -202, 8) Chris Buescher -210, 9) Chase Briscoe -223, 10) Ryan
Blaney -247, 11) Kyle Larson -264, 12) Kyle Busch -266, 13) Bubba Wallace -293, 14) Joey Logano -295, 15) Ryan Preece -311, 16) Michael McDowell -346. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 22) Josh Berry -380. 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, Bristol), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville, Darlington)
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 Continues To Run Away From The Field
by Phil Allaway
Saturday's return to Rockingham Speedway was kind of rough. Lots of wrecking, especially late in the going. Points leader Justin Allgaier got caught up in one of the wrecks, yet still gained in the standings. That wouldn't have been the case had Jesse Love not been disqualified. With all the late chaos, Allgaier's 21st-place finish was enough to increase his lead to 87 points over Sam Mayer. Mayer was running out of gas late Saturday and crashed on the backstretch, finishing 26th. Austin Hill finished a quiet sixth and moved up to third. Love's disqualification dropped him down to fourth. Had the DQ not happened, he would have moved up to second. Carson Kvapil finished 16th and moved up one place to fifth. Kvapil's teammate Connor Zilisch is tied for sixth with Brandon Jones. Zilisch recovered from a cut tire in qualifying that forced him to start in the back to finish 13th while Jones was 12th. Sammy Smith inherited the win after Love's DQ and moved up two places to eighth. Ryan Sieg led the most laps Saturday, but got caught up in a restart crash. His 18th-place finish keeps him in ninth. Sheldon Creed was eliminated in a crash for the second week in a row. That dropped him two places to 10th. Jeb Burton finished eighth and tied for the most points scored (44), which moved him up to 11th. Harrison Burton stays
in 12th after finishing third. He is still the last driver in the playoffs on points. Harrison has a three-point advantage over Daniel Dye, who dropped two places to 13th despite finishing ninth. Taylor Gray is up two spots to 14th, while Dean Thompson gained three spots to 15th after winning stage two and finishing 11th. Nick
Sanchez and Christian Eckes are tied for 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 411, 2) Sam Mayer -87, 3) Austin Hill -100, 4) Jesse Love -123, 5) Carson Kvapil
-125, t-6) Connor Zilisch -127, t-6) Brandon Jones -127, 8) Sammy Smith -130, 9) Ryan Sieg -135, 10) Sheldon Creed -157, 11) Jeb Burton -160, 12) Harrison Burton -168, 13) Daniel Dye
-171, 14) Taylor Gray -188, 15) Dean Thompson -191, t-16) Christian Eckes -193, t-16) Nick Sanchez -193. Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 14, 2) Justin Allgaier
-1, 3) Connor Zilisch -7, t-4) Sammy Smith -8, t-4) Aric Almirola -8, t-6) Jesse Love -9, t-6) Brandon Jones -9, 8) Harrison Burton -12, t-9) Sam Mayer -13, t-9) Dean Thompson -13, t-9) Nick Sanchez -13. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson would be tied for third, while William Byron and Alex Bowman would be tied for 10th in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 117, 2) Sammy Smith
-49, 3) Connor Zilisch -50, 4) Sam Mayer -52, t-5) Austin Hill -56, t-5) Carson Kvapil -56, 7) Aric Almirola -64, t-8) Sheldon Creed -70, t-8) Jesse Love -70, 10) Brandon Jones
-72, 11) Ryan Sieg -75, 12) Nick Sanchez -80, 13) Jeb Burton -81, 14) Taylor Gray -83, t-15) Harrison Burton -88, t-15) Anthony Alfredo -88. Old Point Standings (1-16):
1) Justin Allgaier 340, 2) Sam Mayer -38, 3) Austin Hill -46, 4) Jesse Love -55, 5) Brandon Jones -60, 6) Ryan Sieg -62, 7) Sammy Smith -70, 8) Carson Kvapil
-72, 9) Connor Zilisch -77, 10) Daniel Dye -78, 11) Harrison Burton -82, 12) Jeb Burton -84, 13) Sheldon Creed -92, 14) Dean Thompson -101, 15) Christian Eckes -105, 16) Taylor Gray -110. WC Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 1505, 2) Sam Mayer -138, 3) Austin Hill -163, 4) Jesse Love -208, 5) Brandon Jones -226, 6) Ryan Sieg -243, 7) Carson Kvapil
-263, 8) Connor Zilisch -287, 9) Sammy Smith -299, 10) Harrison Burton -303, 11) Daniel Dye -307, 12) Sheldon Creed -324, 13) Jeb Burton -327, 14) Dean Thompson -377, 15) Christian Eckes
-378, 16) Taylor Gray -384. Race Winners: Jesse Love (Daytona), Austin Hill (Atlanta, Martinsville), Connor Zilisch (COTA), Aric Almirola (Phoenix), Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas, Homestead), Brandon Jones (Darlington), Kyle Larson (Bristol), Sammy Smith (Rockingham) 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 Continues to Lead
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim was forced to make a green-flag pit stop in the closing laps Friday. He was able to recover to an eighth-place finish, just enough to gain ground on his adversaries. Heim's lead is up to 22 points over Chandler Smith, who finished 13th.
Tyler Ankrum's first win in more than five years moved him up to third. He jumped over teammate Daniel Hemric, who finished third. Layne Riggs is up one spot to fifth after winning the first two stages Friday and finishing 11th. Ty Majeski was eliminated in a crash just after halfway and finished 31st, dropping him three spots to sixth.
Jake Garcia finished a career-best second and moved up three positions to seventh. Grant Enfinger fell one place to eighth after finishing fifth. Kaden Honeycutt led early and finished sixth, moving up two places to ninth. Stewart Friesen was eliminated in a crash and dropped down to 10th, the last driver in the playoffs on
points. Friesen has a four-point lead over Gio Ruggiero, who finished 10th. Ben Rhodes had power steering issues that put him out, dropping the No. 99 to 12th. Tanner Gray was eliminated with Friesen and drops to 13th. Rajah Caruth finished fourth and has sole possession of 14th. Jack Wood and Andres
Perez round out the top 16. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 312, 2) Chandler Smith -22, 3) Tyler Ankrum -62, 4) Daniel Hemric -73, 5) Layne Riggs
-80, 6) Ty Majeski -84, 7) Jake Garcia -88, 8) Grant Enfinger -94, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -97, 10) Stewart Friesen -127, 11) Gio Ruggiero -131, 12) Ben Rhodes -133, 13) Tanner Gray -151, 14) Rajah Caruth
-153, 15) Jack Wood -165, 16) Andres Perez -172. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 14, t-2) Chandler Smith -8, t-2) Tyler Ankrum -8, 4) Daniel Hemric -9, 5)
Layne Riggs -12, t-6) Ty Majeski -13, t-6) Ben Rhodes -13, t-6) Jack Wood -13, t-6) Matt Crafton -13, t-6) Bayley Currey -13. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch would be tied for second and Kyle
Larson tied for fifth in Playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim 88, 2) Chandler Smith -16, 3) Ty Majeski -17, 4) Kaden Honeycutt -29, 5) Tyler Ankrum -43, 6) Layne Riggs
-48, 7) Stewart Friesen -50, 8) Ben Rhodes -52, 9) Daniel Hemric -54, 10) Jake Garcia -57, 11) Grant Enfinger -58, 12) Connor Mosack -62, 13) Tanner Gray -63, 14) Jack Wood -67, 15) Matt Crafton
-70, 16) Gio Ruggiero -77. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Larson would be 14th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim
203, 2) Chandler Smith -7, t-3) Daniel Hemric -22, t-3) Tyler Ankrum -22, 5) Jake Garcia -36, 6) Layne Riggs -37, 7) Grant Enfinger -40, 8) Gio Ruggiero -59, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -70, 10) Ty
Majeski -72, 11) Rajah Caruth -78, 12) Stewart Friesen -82, 13) Ben Rhodes -85, 14) Andres Perez -93, 15) Tanner Gray -95, 16) Jack Wood -104. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim
1121, 2) Chandler Smith -38, 3) Tyler Ankrum -81, 4) Daniel Hemric -92, 5) Jake Garcia -134, 6) Layne Riggs -144, 7) Grant Enfinger -146, 8) Gio Ruggiero -222, 9) Ty
Majeski -256, 10) Kaden Honeycutt -265, 11) Rajah Caruth -274, 12) Stewart Friesen -286, 13) Ben Rhodes -300, 14) Tanner Gray -336, 15) Andres Perez -339, 16) Jack Wood -365. Race Winners: Corey Heim (Daytona, Las Vegas), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Homestead), Daniel Hemric (Martinsville), Chandler Smith (Bristol), Tyler Ankrum (Rockingham)
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: This past weekend's races at Rockingham Speedway were brought to you by the letter W for Wider. We knew going in that Rockingham Speedway had been repaved. However, the track had already had a decent
amount of seasoning before the races. As a result, the groove was quite a bit wider than expected, allowing for side-by-side racing. - Phil Allaway |
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![Katherine Legge Out Early After Hard Crash at Rockingham: "I Got Taken Out By [William] Sawalich"](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/83aae288a02849c7a319509f14655bec.png)
![Sammy Smith Wins at Rockingham After Jesse Love Disqualified: "[Gotta] Take 'Em How You Can Get 'Em"](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/abcfb44216254baeb9cea6c149dd3956.png)
