Frontstretch Newsletter: Aug. 11, 2025
Volume
XIX, Edition CXXXVI |
And Now A Word From Our Title Partner, My Place Hotels! |
My Place Hotels is a proud to be the official hotel sponsor of Frontstretch. With plush beds, in room kitchens and Pet Friendly Hotels My Place makes for the perfect pit stop when traveling. Racing fans can use Promo Code: Frontstretch to save 10% on your stay at any of our nationwide properties. That’s 10% off nationwide with code FRONTSTRETCH. This racing season, be sure to
Make My Place Your Place! |
- Teams are getting back to their shops today. Preparations for Richmond this weekend are well underway. Entry lists for this weekend's races are out today. We'll have the entry lists and everything else breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Shane van Gisbergen Snags 4th Win of 2025 at Watkins
Glen Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen came to life in the second half of the race Sunday, scoring the lead and pulling away to win the Go Bowling at the Glen. Christopher Bell was second, then Chris Buescher, William Byron and Chase
Briscoe. |
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| Connor Zilisch Transported to Infield Care Center After
Fall in Victory Lane After winning Saturday's Mission 200 at the Glen, Connor Zilisch suffered a broken collar bone after falling off of his car in victory lane. |
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| Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Withdrawing From Watkins Glen
Cup Race After Victory Lane Fall Trackhouse Racing announced Sunday morning that they would withdraw the No. 87 Chevrolet for Connor ZIlisch from Sunday's Go Bowling at the Glen as a result of Zilisch's injury. |
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| Shane van Gisbergen Makes More History at Watkins
Glen With his fourth win of the season Sunday, Shane van Gisbergen continues to make history. He's the first rookie driver to win four Cup races in a season. |
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| RFK Drivers Have Good Day at Watkins Glen That Could’ve
Been Great Chris Buescher finished third Sunday for RFK Racing after losing second on the last lap. That could have been two or even all three cars in the top 10 at the finish. |
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| Shane van Gisbergen Signs Multiyear Extension With
Trackhouse Trackhouse Racing announced Friday that Shane van Gisbergen has signed a multi-year contract extension that will keep him in the No. 88 Chevrolet. |
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| Connor Zilisch Snags 6th Win of 2025 at Watkins
Glen Connor Zilisch won his sixth Xfinity Series race of the season Saturday in Watkins Glen before injuring himself. Sam Mayer was second, then Sammy Smith, Austin Hill and Carson Kvapil. |
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| Austin Hill Returns from Suspension to More Controversy at
Watkins Glen Austin Hill just can't stay away from controversy. Late in Saturday's Mission 200 at the Glen, he collided with Michael McDowell, triggering a huge crash. |
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| Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch Collide in Watkins
Glen Xfinity Race Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen were the class of the field Saturday in Watkins Glen. However, the two drivers collided, resulting in van Gisbergen crashing out late. |
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| Sam Mayer Continues Strong Form at Watkins
Glen Haas Factory Team's Sam Mayer was able to avoid the aforementioned big crash and bring his Audibel Ford home in second, keeping himself within striking distance of the points lead. |
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| Corey Heim Wins Chaotic Watkins Glen Truck
Race Despite all the chaos around him Friday, TRICON Garage's Corey Heim was able to dominate to win the Mission 176 at the Glen for his sixth win of the year. Daniel Hemric was second, then Gio Ruggiero, Christopher Bell and Tyler
Ankrum. |
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| Watkins Glen Ground Zero For Mechanical Issues and
Wrecks Friday's Mission 176 at the Glen for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be remembered for a series of mechanical issues and a bunch of wrecks that caused the race to nearly get cut short by darkness. |
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| Christopher Bell, Wesley Slimp Nab Great Results for
Resilient HFR Team Friday was the first race back for Halmar Friesen Racing after Stewart Friesen's injury at Autodrome Drummond. Amid a tough atmosphere, Christopher Bell finished fourth and Wesley Slimp 12th. |
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| Cole Butcher Attempting Truck Debut at
Bristol Halmar Friesen Racing announced Sunday that Cole Butcher will attempt to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Bristol in September. |
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| Will Power Hangs On To Win at Portland, Alex Palou
Clinches Title Team Penske's Will Power was able to make his tires last to win the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland Sunay, his first win of the year. Christian Lundgaard was second, then Alex Palou, Graham Rahala and Alexander Rossi. |
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| Alex Palou Secures 4th IndyCar Title in
Portland With his third-place finish Sunday in Portland, Alex Palou clinched his fourth NTT IndyCar Series championship. |
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| Conor Daly & Christian Rasmussen Tangle at Portland,
Choice Words Follow In Portland Sunday, Conor Daly and Christian Rasumssen had contact early on, resulting in Daly spinning off and hitting the tires. |
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| Graham Rahal Finishes a Strong 4th at
Portland For Graham Rahal, IndyCar in general has been a struggle in the past couple of years. Sunday saw him finish fourth, his first top-five finish in two years. |
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| Will Power Is Hungry for More Despite Contract
Uncertainty The future is unclear beyond this season for Will Power in IndyCar. Despite that, he's far from done as a driver. |
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| Tristan McKee Wins in ARCA Debut at Watkins
Glen Spire Motorsports' Tristan McKee inherited the lead when Brent Crews' battery died, then held on to win the ARCA General Tire 100 at the Glen in his series debut. Tyler Reif was second, then Kris Wright, Glen Reen and Dale
Quarterley. |
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| Clubb Racing Earns Double Top-20 Result in 1st ARCA Race
After Hauler Crash After a transporter crash, Clubb Racing even racing at all in Watkins Glen was an accomplishment. Casey Carden and Alex Clubb were able to bring their cars home under power thanks to donations. |
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| Kyle Keller Wins ARCA West at Tri-City
Raceway Kyle Keller took the lead Saturday from a stricken Jake Bollman in the final laps and held on to win the ARCA Menards Series West NAPA Auto Care 150. Bollman was second, then Greg Biffle, Robbie Kennealy and Trevor Huddleston. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Chris Graythen of Getty Images, Lachlan Cunningham of ARCA Racing and our own Phil Allaway, Anthony Damcott, Danny Peters and Reid Scott. 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. 8-10 |
- Ryan Timms led flag-to-flag Saturday night to win the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's. It is by far the biggest win of the 18-year-old racer's career as he took home a check for $195,000. Timms won by
2.828 seconds over Rico Abreu. David Gravel was third, then Carson Macedo and Logan Schuchart. Other notables included Corey Day in sixth, Donny Schatz in 11th, Kyle Larson 19th and Brad Sweet 20th. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Watkins Glen and Portland last weekend. For more from Watkins Glena, Portland, 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 Playoffs: William Byron Expands Lead As Chase Elliott Falters
by Phil Allaway
William Byron ran well for most of Sunday and brought his Chevrolet home in fourth. That allowed him to expand his lead to 42 points over Chase Elliott, who had a miserable day en route to 28th. Denny Hamlin is up to third, but ended up stuck down the order after colliding with Kyle Busch. Kyle Larson and
Christopher Bell are tied for fourth. Bell finished second while Larson was 39th due to brake issues that put him behind the wall early. Ryan Blaney is up one place to sixth after winning stage two and finishing sixth. Tyler Reddick is down to seventh, while Chase Briscoe is still in eighth. Alex Bowman is still in ninth, followed by Chris Buescher, who moved up one place to 10th after finishing third. He is the last driver in the playoffs on points. Bubba Wallace, despite finishing eighth, is down one place to 11th. Buescher has a 32-point lead over teammate Ryan Preece for the final spot in the playoffs. Preece gained a spot to 12th, but finished 13th after a pit miscue. Joey Logano is down to 13th, then Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch. Austin Cindric is back up to 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 812, 2) Chase Elliott -42, 3) Denny Hamlin -81, t-4) Christopher Bell -85, t-4) Kyle Larson -85, 6) Ryan Blaney
-102, 7) Tyler Reddick -111, 8) Chase Briscoe -138, 9) Alex Bowman -168, 10) Chris Buescher -194, 11) Bubba Wallace -202, 12) Ryan Preece -228, 13) Joey Logano -229, 14) Ross
Chastain -241, 15) Kyle Busch -296, 16) Austin Cindric -310. Outside of the top-16, but still in playoffs: 24) Josh Berry -367, 25) Shane van Gisbergen -371. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 24, 2) Kyle Larson -1, t-3)
Shane van Gisbergen -2, t-3) Christopher Bell -7, t-3) William Byron -7, 6) Ryan Blaney -13, 7) Austin Cindric -16, t-8) Joey Logano -17, t-8) Chase Briscoe -17, t-8) Bubba Wallace -17, t-11) Ross Chastain
-18, t-11) Josh Berry -18, t-11) Chase Elliott -18, t-14) Ryan Preece -22, t-14) Brad Keselowski -22, t-14) Chris Buescher -22, t-17) Tyler Reddick -23, t-17) Michael McDowell -23. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 239, 2) Ryan Blaney -34, 3) Denny Hamlin -71, 4) Kyle Larson -72, 5) Tyler Reddick
-82, t-6) Bubba Wallace -96, t-6) Alex Bowman -96, 8) Chase Elliott -98, 9) Christopher Bell -121, 10) Austin Cindric -122, 11) Chase Briscoe -137, 12) Joey Logano
-139, 13) Carson Hocevar -140, 14) Chris Buescher -150, t-15) Josh Berry -164, t-15) Ryan Preece -164.
Note: The Stage Points include the Duels at Daytona. Outside of the top 16, but Still in the Playoffs: 19) Ross Chastain -180, 20) Shane van Gisbergen -186. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at
Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 734, 2) Christopher Bell -21, 3) Chase Briscoe -54, 4) William Byron
-56, t-5) Denny Hamlin -76, t-5) Kyle Larson -76, 7) Tyler Reddick -89, 8) Chris Buescher -96, 9) Ryan Preece -125, t-10) Ryan Blaney -126, t-10) Alex Bowman -126, 12) Ross Chastain
-129, 13) Joey Logano -146, 14) Bubba Wallace -166, 15) Kyle Busch -167, 16) Ty Gibbs -177. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 21) Austin Cindric
-239, 25) Shane van Gisbergen -247, 27) Josh Berry -264. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 3257, 2) Christopher Bell -36, 3) Chase Briscoe -121, 4) William Byron -125, 5) Kyle Larson -188, 6) Denny Hamlin -227, 7) Tyler Reddick
-283, 8) Chris Buescher -323, 9) Ryan Blaney -347, 10) Alex Bowman -361, 11) Ryan Preece -396, 12) Ross Chastain -414, 13) Joey Logano -484, 14) Bubba Wallace -511, 15) Kyle Busch
-549, 16) Ty Gibbs -557. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 22) Shane van Gisbergen -789, t-23) Austin Cindric -812, 27) Josh Berry -878. Note No. 2: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: William Byron (Daytona, Iowa), Christopher Bell (Atlanta-1, COTA, Phoenix),
Josh Berry (Las Vegas), Kyle Larson (Homestead, Bristol, Kansas), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville, Darlington, Michigan, Dover), Austin Cindric (Talladega), Joey Logano (Texas), Ross Chastain (Charlotte), Ryan Blaney (Nashville), Shane van Gisbergen (Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen), Chase Briscoe (Pocono), Chase Elliott (Atlanta-2), Bubba Wallace (Indianapolis)
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: Connor Zilisch Takes The Lead, But At What Cost?
by Phil Allaway
Connor Zilisch scored his sixth win of the year Saturday in Watkins Glen. Unfortunately, as you saw over the weekend, it came at a cost. Zilisch has a seven-point lead over teammate Justin Allgaier, who finished sixth. Sam Mayer stays in
third after his second-place finish, while Jesse Love is fourth. Austin Hill stays in fifth after his controversial fourth-place finish, followed by Carson Kvapil. Brandon Jones is still in seventh, while Sheldon Creed is eighth despite crashing out. Taylor Gray
is in ninth, followed by Sammy Smith. Harrison Burton is still the last driver in the playoffs in 11th after a 10th-place finish. Nick Sanchez is still in 12th despite crashing multiple times. Harrison's lead over his cousin Jeb is up to 30 points now after Jeb finished 16th. Ryan Sieg crashed out and dropped
one place to 14th. Christian Eckes stays in 15th after a charge from the rear to finish in the top 10 while Dean Thompson is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Connor ZIlisch 823, 2) Justin Allgaier -7, 3) Sam Mayer
-24, 4) Jesse Love -92, 5) Austin Hill -133, 6) Carson Kvapil -163, 7) Brandon Jones -177, 8) Sheldon Creed -198, 9) Taylor Gray -199, 10) Sammy Smith -220, 11)
Harrison Burton -245, 12) Nick Sanchez -268, 13) Jeb Burton -275, 14) Ryan Sieg -283, 15) Christian Eckes -317, 16) Dean Thompson -327. Playoff Points: 1) Connor Zilisch
36, 2) Justin Allgaier -13, t-3) Sam Mayer -28, t-3) Brandon Jones -28, 5) Sammy Smith -29, t-6) Jesse Love -30, t-6) Nick Sanchez -30, t-6) Aric Almirola -30, t-9) Harrison Burton -34, t-9) Taylor Gray
-34, t-11) Carson Kvapil -35, t-11) Sheldon Creed -35, t-11) Dean Thompson -35. Note No. 1: Austin Hill earned 21 playoff points previous to Iowa. However, since he was suspended for intentionally wrecking Aric Almirola at Indianapolis, he lost all of his playoff points and cannot earn any until the playoffs
start. Note No. 2: If they were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson would be third, William Byron tied for fourth, Shane van Gisbergen tied for eighth, Daniel Suarez 12th and Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain tied for 15th in playoff points. Stage Points:
1) Justin Allgaier 243, 2) Connor Zilisch -52, 3) Sam Mayer -82, 4) Sheldon Creed -89, 5) Brandon Jones -92, 6) Austin Hill -103, 7) Jesse Love -106, 8) Carson Kvapil -118,
9) Nick Sanchez -122, t-10) Sammy Smith -124, t-10) Taylor Gray -124, 12) Aric Almirola -140, 13) Ryan Sieg -159, 14) Jeb Burton -183, 15) Christian Eckes -193, 16) Harrison Burton -200. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson would be 15th and Ross Chastain 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Sam Mayer 736, 2) Connor Zilisch
-2, 3) Jesse Love -41, 4) Justin Allgaier -58, 5) Austin Hill -94, t-6) Harrison Burton -105, t-6) Carson Kvapil -105, 8) Taylor Gray -137, t-9) Brandon Jones -142, t-9) Sammy Smith
-142, 11) Jeb Burton -155, 12) Sheldon Creed -169, 13) Ryan Sieg -188, 14) Dean Thompson -189, 15) Christian Eckes -190, 16) Nick Sanchez -209. WC Points (1-16): 1) Sam Mayer 3269, 2) Connor Zilisch -34, 3) Jesse Love -145, 4) Justin Allgaier -162, 5) Austin Hill -345, 6) Carson Kvapil -382, 7) Harrison Burton -408, 8) Taylor Gray
-455, 9) Brandon Jones -497, 10) Sammy Smith -537, 11) Sheldon Creed -572, 12) Jeb Burton -577, 13) Ryan Sieg -652, 14) Christian Eckes -660, 15) Dean Thompson -689, 16) Nick Sanchez
-713. Race Winners: Jesse Love (Daytona), Austin Hill (Atlanta-1, Martinsville, Talladega), Connor Zilisch (COTA, Pocono, Sonoma, Dover, Indianapolis, Watkins Glen), Aric Almirola (Phoenix), Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas, Homestead, Nashville), Brandon Jones (Darlington), Kyle Larson (Bristol, Texas), Sammy Smith (Rockingham), William
Byron (Charlotte), Nick Sanchez (Atlanta-2), Shane van Gisbergen (Chicago), Sam Mayer (Iowa) 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 Destroy The Field
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim's decimation of the field continued Friday in Watkins Glen. A sixth win of the season expanded Heim's lead to nearly three full races, 178 points over Layne Riggs, who jumped over his teammate with a 10th-place finish. Chandler Smith had a variety of issues Friday night and ended up 23rd. Daniel Hemric
finished second and stays in fourth. Grant Enfinger was eliminated in a late crash exiting the Inner Loop. Despite that, he stays in fifth. Ty Majeski is up one place to sixth after a seventh-place finish from the rear. Tyler Ankrum is up one place to seventh after a fifth-place finish. Kaden Honeycutt is down two
places to eighth after a one-off appearance with Young's Motorsports ended early with drivetrain failure. As Halmar Friesen Racing has not officially withdrawn Stewart Friesen from the playoffs yet, Honeycutt is the last driver in the playoffs on points at the moment. He is 54 points ahead of Jake Garcia. If Friesen relinquishes his playoff spot,
then Garcia would have an 11-point lead over teammate Ben Rhodes for the final spot on points. Gio Ruggiero is up one place to 11th after finishing third, while Rajah Caruth dropped to 12th after braking problems killed his race. Tanner Gray is up to 13th despite crashing out on the backstretch following contact
with Majeski. The idle Friesen drops to 14th, while Connor Mosack is 15th. Matt Crafton is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 792, 2) Layne Riggs -178, 3) Chandler Smith
-186, 4) Daniel Hemric -210, 5) Grant Enfinger -243, 6) Ty Majeski -250, 7) Tyler Ankrum -256, 8) Kaden Honeycutt -269, 9) Jake Garcia -323, 10) Ben Rhodes -334, 11) Gio Ruggiero -344, 12) Rajah Caruth
-372, 13) Tanner Gray -392, 14) Stewart Friesen -396, 15) Connor Mosack -426, 16) Matt Crafton -440.
Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 45, 2) Layne Riggs
-29, 2) Chandler Smith -34, 4) Tyler Ankrum -39, t-5) Daniel Hemric -40, t-5) Rajah Caruth -40, t-5) Stewart Friesen -40, t-8) Grant Enfinger -43, t-8) Ben Rhodes -43, t-10) Ty Majeski -44, t-10) Gio Ruggiero -44, t-10) Jack Wood
-44, t-10) Matt Crafton -44, t-10) Bayley Currey -44. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar would be tied for fourth and Kyle Larson tied for seventh in Playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim 248, 2) Layne Riggs -102, 3) Chandler Smith -110, 4) Kaden Honeycutt -111, 5) Ty Majeski -125, 6) Grant Enfinger -146, 7) Tyler Ankrum
-162, 8) Daniel Hemric -163, 9) Ben Rhodes -169, 10) Connor Mosack -181, 11) Jake Garcia -190, 12) Stewart Friesen -191, 13) Tanner Gray -195, 14) Rajah Caruth -199, 15) Gio Ruggiero -210, 16) Matt
Crafton -221. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Carson Hocevar would be 15th and Kyle Busch 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim
491, 2) Daniel Hemric -57, 3) Chandler Smith -84, 4) Layne Riggs -86, 5) Tyler Ankrum -104, 6) Grant Enfinger -105, 7) Ty Majeski -137, 8) Gio Ruggiero -143, 9) Jake Garcia
-145, 10) Kaden Honeycutt -165, 11) Ben Rhodes -175, 12) Rajah Caruth -181, 13) Stewart Friesen -208, 14) Tanner Gray -211, 15) Matt Crafton -232, 16) Andres Perez -243. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 2716, 2) Daniel Hemric -225, 3) Layne Riggs -323, 4) Chandler Smith -337, 5) Tyler Ankrum -385, 6) Grant Enfinger -387, 7) Ty
Majeski -505, 8) Gio Ruggiero -522, 9) Jake Garcia -542, 10) Kaden Honeycutt -610, 11) Ben Rhodes -634, 12) Rajah Caruth -643, 13) Tanner Gray -753, 14) Stewart Friesen -806, 15) Matt Crafton
-836, 16) Andres Perez -878. Race Winners: Corey Heim (Daytona, Las Vegas, Texas, Charlotte, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Homestead), Daniel Hemric (Martinsville), Chandler Smith (Bristol, North Wilkesboro), Tyler Ankrum (Rockingham), Carson Hocevar (Kansas),
Rajah Caruth (Nashville), Stewart Friesen (Michigan), Layne Riggs (Pocono, Lucas Oil IRP)
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 Go Bowling at the Glen was brought to you by the letter C for Calm. Compared to the Xfinity and Truck races, the 90-lap Cup race was very calm. Almost no shenanigans, while the other two races
had enough for a month each. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Go Bowling at the Glen compiled by Phil Allaway
"The first stint, Ryan was driving really well and his car looked really good, a little bit better than ours at that stage, and then at the end of stage two when all the pitting was happening and all the strategies went their separate ways, I really didn't know how it was going to be. I just had an amazing restart to [the final stage], managed to pass people before the tires got hot and
got a gap on all the people that were on the same strategy as me. "Definitely not easy. The last stint was okay, but that stint, that's where I was pushing flat out, and pretty cool to do that, and then you get that tire delta as well, and I could sort of cruise and know that I had decent tires if the late yellow came." - Shane van Gisbergen, race
winner
"Happy, yeah. I’m thrilled. We’ve been struggling a little bit to find a rhythm. I feel like the car has been good, but executing the races has been tough for us. Really awesome to have a good day. Frustrated to get our butts kicked by [Shane van Gisbergen]. He’s doing a really good job. That team has it going on. We need to find a little bit more, but certainly happy. It was a good day for DEWALT
Camry." - Christopher Bell, finished second "The speed we had in this BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang was good out here at Watkins Glen. I am really proud of everybody. It was great execution all day. We were able to get a stage win there and still in the hunt [for the win] really. I had a couple more laps on my tires and I used the rears up really hard trying to get by a
few cars there. At the end of the day it is a really solid run. We are greedy. We want more." - Chris Buescher, finished third
"Yeah, it was really tough there at the end. To have to run 18 laps on those tires in practice was difficult, and then to put 36 laps on them, I was just hanging on there at the end. I learned a lot there at the end, just with how to conserve for the next time. The last 10 laps
were really difficult, but glad we could get a top-five finish." - William Byron, finished fourth "I guess it would have been that final stage, just strategy kind of got flipped. [Shane van Gisbergen] and [Ross Chastain] and myself kind of started right there in the mid pack. The restart didn’t go me or [Chastain]’s way, [van Gisbergen] was able to get five spots
ahead of us before of us on the first lap and kept pulling further and further away. I thought our car was – I don’t know what0 [van Gisbergen] had – but I thought we were probably the second-best race car. That restart just didn’t go our way and we lost a lot of track position and obviously was able to play the long game there in the end and come home top-five. Overall, a good solid finish in a fast Bass Pro Shops Camry. We will go onto Richmond and see what we can do." - Chase Briscoe,
finished fifth "Decent day for our Ford Mustang. We led early and settled into second. We had a little different strategy than [Shane Van Gisbergen] and it was kind of a split deal. We lost a little bit of pace at the end of the day. The last run, the track changed a little bit and I got too tight and faded to sixth. Overall, a really good weekend. A great showing
for our group and hopefully we learned something for the ROVAL." - Ryan Blaney, finished sixth "It feels nice to get a good finish for this No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet team. For the last couple of months, I feel like we’ve had decent, top 10 speed. We just haven’t been able to execute. Today, we were able to execute a decent race. This team did a good job all day. Our
Chevrolet was pretty good – I don’t know if it was good enough to win, but it was good enough to be fighting in the top 10 and that’s where we ended up." - Daniel Suarez, finished seventh "Indy was life changing, right? It allowed me to come here and not harp on all of the mistakes that I usually make at a road course and figure out how to make less. I think we did
that. I don’t think our car was capable of winning at all, but 10th to 12th place is where we determined our team is a couple months ago, and we exceeded that, so that’s a win. I appreciate everyone on this McDonaldland Toyota Camry. It looked good. My suit was the best one in the game. All around fun weekend. The big boss was here. MJ was here, so good to get him a couple of top 10s." - Bubba Wallace, finished eighth
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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![Michael McDowell OK After Terrifying Crash at Watkins Glen: "If You're Gonna [Hit], Do it Big"](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/52f7c0efc5e94831906a2773de0d86ac.png)
