Frontstretch Newsletter: Aug. 18, 2025
Volume
XIX, Edition CXLI |
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! |
- SummerFAST continues tonight for the Super DIRTcar Series at Brewerton Speedway with the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series on the undercard. Action from Brewerton Speedway will begin at 6:15 p.m. ET tonight on DirtVision. - Preparations for Daytona 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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| Austin Dillon Wins Richmond Cup Race, Earns Playoff
Spot Richard Childress Racing's Austin Dillon came to the front late Saturday, leading 107 laps to win the Cook Out 400 without shenanigans to earn his spot in the playoffs. Alex Bowman was second, then Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin
Cindric. |
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| 23XI Finishes With ‘Worst Case Scenario’ After Dominating
Richmond Between Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing led 164 laps Saturday night. They ended up with absolutely nothing to show for it. |
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| Ryan Blaney Leads Team Penske’s Top 5 Trifecta at
Richmond On the other hand, Team Penske was able to get all three of their cars in the top-five Saturday night with Ryan Blaney leading the charge in third. |
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| Here’s What Happened in the 23XI/Front Row vs. NASCAR
Antitrust Case This Week (Aug. 9-Aug. 15) News in the 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports lawsuit was relatively scant in the past week, but there were a couple of developments in the case. |
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| Modo Sponsoring Carson Hocevar for 4 Cup
Races Spire Motorsports announced Friday that Modo Casino will serve as the primary sponsor of Carson Hocevar's No. 77 in four races starting at Daytona. |
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| Corey Heim Wins 7th Truck Race of 2025 in
Richmond TRICON Garage's Corey Heim took the lead with 20 laps to go and held on to win the eero 250 Friday for his second straight win and seventh of the year. Ty Majeski was second, then Layne Riggs, Sammy Smith and Corey LaJoie. |
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| Jake Garcia Beats Out Ben Rhodes, Gio Ruggiero for Last
Truck Playoff Spot A seventh-place finish with 11 stage points Friday night in Richmond was ultimately enough for Jake Garcia to claim the final spot in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs. |
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| Ty Majeski Nearly Goes From Spin to Win After Dominating
at Richmond Ty Majeski was the dominant driver Friday night, leading 143 laps and winning the first two stages. However, a crash with Matt Crafton damaged the No. 98 enough that he couldn't quite bring home the victory. |
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| Josh Williams Back in Xfinity With Optum
Sponsorship Josh Williams will be moving to Alpha Prime Racing in a part-time deal. He'll drive the No. 45 Chevrolet with sponsorship from Optum. |
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| Brent Crews Collects 3rd Career ARCA Dirt Track
Win Brent Crews, in a one-off appearance for Nitro Motorsports, led 83 of 100 laps Sunday to win the Springfield ARCA 100. Lavar Scott was second, then Kelly Kovski, Brenden Queen and Sean Corr. |
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| Underdogs Reign Supreme in ARCA Race at
Springfield A fair amount of contact among the frontrunners and some attrition Sunday allowed some smaller teams to get good finishes. Kelly Kovski was third, Sean Corr was fifth, while Brayton Laster was on the lead lap in seventh. |
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| Regulator Racing Wins Shortened Road America Race No.
1 Regulator Racing's Jeff Burton and Philip Ellis won GT World Challenge America Race No. 1 at Road America Saturday. The race was red-flagged due to lightning after 42 minutes and was not restarted. |
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| JMF Motorsports Wins Road America GT World Challenge
America Race No. 2 JMF Motorsports' Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens dominated the second half of the race Sunday to win GT World Challenge America Race No .2 at Road America. |
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| Mike David Ortmann Wins Pirelli GT4 America at Road
America Mike David Ortmann was able to avoid an incident in turn 6 involving Alex Ellis, Max Hewitt and Jesse Webb with seven minutes to go Sunday to take the lead and win the sole Pirelli GT4 America SprintX race of the weekend at Road
America. |
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| Memo Gidley, Ross Chouest Split GT America at Road America
Victories Memo Gidley and Ross Chouest split victories in GT America powered by AWS competition at Road America last weekend. |
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| Landen Lewis, Luke Baldwin Claim Anderson CARS Tour
Wins Landen Lewis won Saturday night's zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock race at Anderson Motor Speedway. Luke Baldwin won the Pro Late Model feature. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Brian Cleary, Fred Hardy and Fabian Lagunas of SRO Motorsports Group, and our own Josh Calloni 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. 15-17 |
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams spent last weekend in Minnesota. Friday night, the series was at Ogilvie Raceway for the Big O Showdown. Here, Bill Balog started from pole and led early. However, he was caught by Carson Macedo, who pulled a slide job to take the lead on lap 15. Macedo ended up having to do battle in the latter stages of the race with Buddy Kofoid. After a couple of laps of battling, Macedo broke free and held on to win. The margin of victory was .975 seconds over Kofoid. David Gravel was third, then Balog and Sheldon Haudenschild. Saturday night saw the series move to Jackson Motorplex.
Here, Macedo rocketed into the lead at the start and never looked back en route to the weekend sweep. Macedo won by 1.006 seconds over Logan Schuchart. Balog was third, then Kofoid and Gravel. In the points, Gravel continues to lead by 168 points over
Kofoid. Macedo is third, then Schuchart and Haudenschild. - World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series teams were at Maquoketa Speedway for the Hawkeye 100. It was supposed to be two nights of racing, but thunderstorms wiped out Friday night's card. On Saturday, Ethan
Dotson was able to get the lead early, but had Bobby Pierce right on his tail. Pierce continued to pressure Dotson until he executed a slide job to take the lead. From there, Pierce pulled away from the pack, but Nick Hoffman was able to reel him back in before a caution with seven laps to go restacked the pack. In the closing laps, Brian Shirley drove up to Pierce and
battled the points leader hard for the win. Ultimately, Pierce was able to hold off Shirley by a mere. 056 seconds to take his ninth win of the year. Hoffman was third, then Cody Overton and Dotson. In the points, Pierce has a 96-point lead over
Hoffman. Ryan Gustin is third, then Tim McCredie and Dennis Erb Jr. - The Super DIRTcar Series started their annual SummerFAST series of races Sunday night at Weedsport Speedway. Here, Peter Britten was able to drive around pole sitter Matt Sheppard for the lead on lap 41. Sheppard kept Britten in his tracks and looked like he was going to make on him until a suspension
failure put him out. From there, Britten held on for the victory. He won by .724 seconds over Mat Williamson. Alex Yankowski was third, then Alex Payne and Mike Mahaney. Williamson's points lead is now 81 over Yankowski. Sheppard is third, then Payne
and Erick Rudolph. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Richmond, Springfield and Anderson last weekend. For more from Richmond, Springfield, Anderson, 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 Clinches Regular Season Championship
by Phil Allaway
William Byron had a fairly unspectacular night at Richmond to finish in 12th. However, when Chase Elliott was turned into the wall exiting turn 4, that was all Byron needed to lock up the Regular Season Championship. Byron exits Richmond with a 68-point lead over Elliott. Denny Hamlin remains in third after a 10th-place finish. Kyle Larson has sole possession of fourth in points after a sixth-place finish. Ryan Blaney is up one place to fifth after finishing third. Christopher
Bell is down from a tie for fourth to sixth after finishing 21st. Tyler Reddick remains in seventh after winning stage one, but getting in a wreck and finishing 34th. Chase Briscoe is still in eighth after a 13th-place finish. Alex Bowman finished second and remains in ninth. He is the last driver in
the playoffs on points. Bubba Wallace is up one place to 10th after winning stage two and leading the most laps before fading to 28th. Chris Buescher is the first driver out of the playoffs, 60 points behind Bowman. He'll have to win to get into the playoffs in Daytona. Joey Logano is up one spot to 12th after a fourth-place finish. Ryan Preece ran well early from the pole, but ended up 35th and fell to 13th. Ross Chastain is 14th, while Austin Cindric is up one place to 15th. Kyle Busch is 16th. Ty Gibbs stays in 17th, while AJ Allmendinger is 18th. Brad Keselowski and
Carson Hocevar round out the top 20. Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 839, 2) Chase Elliott -68, 3) Denny Hamlin -73, 4) Kyle
Larson -80, 5) Ryan Blaney -83, 6) Christopher Bell -91, 7) Tyler Reddick -125, 8) Chase Briscoe -141, 9) Alex Bowman -154, 10) Bubba Wallace -200, 11) Chris Buescher -214, 12) Joey
Logano -223, 13) Ryan Preece -248, 14) Ross Chastain -250, 15) Austin Cindric -296, 16) Kyle Busch -302. Outside of the top-16, but still in playoffs: 22) Josh Berry
-363, 24) Shane van Gisbergen -375, 25) Austin Dillon -379. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Playoff Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 24, 2) Kyle Larson -1, 3) Shane van Gisbergen -2, t-4) Christopher Bell -7, t-4) William Byron -7, 6) Ryan Blaney -13, t-7) Bubba Wallace -16, t-7) Austin Cindric
-16, t-9) Joey Logano -17, t-9) Chase Briscoe -17, t-11) Ross Chastain -18, t-11) Josh Berry -18, t-11) Chase Elliott -18, 14) Austin Dillon -19, t-15) Ryan Preece -22, t-15) Brad Keselowski -22, t-15) Chris Buescher
-22, t-15) Tyler Reddick -22, 19) Michael McDowell -23. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 241, 2) Ryan
Blaney -24, 3) Denny Hamlin -65, 4) Kyle Larson -73, 5) Tyler Reddick -74, 6) Bubba Wallace -79, 7) Alex Bowman -92, 8) Chase Elliott -100, 9) Austin Cindric -115, 10) Christopher
Bell -118, 11) Carson Hocevar -134, 12) Chase Briscoe -139, 13) Joey Logano -141, 14) Chris Buescher -152, 15) Ryan Preece -161, 16) Josh Berry -164. Note: The Stage Points include the Duels at Daytona. Outside of the top 16, but Still in the Playoffs: 19) Ross Chastain -182, 20) Shane van Gisbergen -188, 29) Austin Dillon -215. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott
737, 2) Christopher Bell -4, 3) Chase Briscoe -28, 4) William Byron -30, 5) Kyle Larson -43, 5) Denny Hamlin -48, 7) Tyler Reddick -84, 8) Chris Buescher -88, t-9) Ryan Blaney
-90, t-9) Alex Bowman -90, 11) Ross Chastain -110, 12) Joey Logano -112, 13) Ryan Preece -121, 14) Kyle Busch -145, 15) Bubba Wallace -154, 16) Ty Gibbs -157. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 19) Austin Dillon -204, 20) Austin Cindric -205, 25) Shane van Gisbergen -223, 27) Josh Berry -234. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 3321, 2) Chase Elliott
-15, 3) Chase Briscoe -61, 4) William Byron -62, 5) Kyle Larson -97, 6) Denny Hamlin -157, 7) Ryan Blaney -250, 8) Alex Bowman -264, 9) Tyler Reddick -281, 10) Chris Buescher
-323, 11) Ross Chastain -381, 12) Joey Logano -397, 13) Ryan Preece -406, 14) Bubba Wallace -495, 15) Kyle Busch -507, 16) Ty Gibbs -521. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 20) Austin Dillon -705, 21) Austin Cindric -716, t-23) Shane van Gisbergen -732, 27) Josh Berry -777. 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), Austin Dillon (Richmond)
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: Off-Week Update No. 3
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Xfinity Series was off last weekend. They will return to action Friday night at Daytona International Speedway. When they return to the track, Connor Zilisch will have a seven-point lead over teammate Justin Allgaier. Sam
Mayer is third, then Jesse Love and Austin Hill. Harrison Burton is still the last driver in the playoffs on points in 11th. He has a 30-point lead over his cousin Jeb. Ryan Sieg is next, then Christian Eckes and Dean Thompson. 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 Championship: Corey Heim Starts The Playoffs With A Huge Advantage
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim didn't have the best truck Friday night, but Ty Majeski getting taken out put him in position to take the lead and take his seventh win of the year. That allowed him to increase his margin in the point standings to 190 points, more than three full races. That margin is over Layne Riggs, who finished third. Chandler Smith is still in third after a ninth-place finish. Majeski dominated the race, but damage to the rear of his truck took away his advantage. Regardless, a second-place finish moved him up two places to fourth. Daniel Hemric had
mechanical issues early and spent time behind the wall. A 33rd-place finish dropped him to fifth. Grant Enfinger ended the regular season in sixth after a 13th-place finish. Tyler Ankrum stays in seventh after an 11th-place finish. Kaden Honeycutt, in his first start for Halmar Friesen Racing, stays in eighth after a 10th-place finish. Jake Garcia had an excellent run to finish seventh with 11 stage points to take the final spot in the playoffs on points in ninth. He ended up 19 points ahead of Ben Rhodes. Gio Ruggiero is 11th, then Rajah Caruth. Tanner Gray is still in 13th, ahead of the
idle Stewart Friesen. Connor Mosack is 15th, while Matt Crafton is 16th. When the playoffs start at Darlington, Heim will have a 39-point lead over Riggs. Smith is third, then Hemric and a tie for fifth between Majeski and Ankrum. Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 848, 2) Layne Riggs -190, 3) Chandler Smith -205, 4) Ty Majeski -251, 5) Daniel Hemric -261, 6) Grant Enfinger -266, 7) Tyler
Ankrum -284, 8) Kaden Honeycutt -288, 9) Jake Garcia -338, 10) Ben Rhodes -357, 11) Gio Ruggiero -369, 12) Rajah Caruth -410, 13) Tanner Gray -425, 14) Stewart Friesen -451, 15) Connor Mosack
-463, 16) Matt Crafton -484.
Round of 10 Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 2065, 2) Layne Riggs -39, 3) Chandler Smith -46, 4) Daniel Hemric -54, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -55, t-5) Ty Majeski -55, 7) Grant Enfinger -58, 8) Rajah Caruth -60,
9) Kaden Honeycutt -62, 10) Jake Garcia -63.
Best of the Rest: 11) Ben Rhodes 491, 12) Gio Ruggiero -12, 13) Tanner Gray -68, 14) Stewart Friesen -94, 15) Connor Mosack -106, 16) Matt Crafton -127, 17) Andres Perez -146,
18) Matt Mills -154, 19) Jack Wood -183, 20) Dawson Sutton -188.
Playoff Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 65, 2) Layne Riggs -39, 3) Chandler Smith -46, 4) Daniel
Hemric -54, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -55, t-5) Ty Majeski -55, 7) Grant Enfinger -58, t-8) Rajah Caruth -60, t-8) Stewart Friesen -60, 10) Kaden Honeycutt -62, t-11) Jake Garcia
-63, t-11) Ben Rhodes -63, t-13) Matt Crafton -64, t-13) Bayley Currey -64, t-13) Gio Ruggiero -64, t-13) Jack Wood -64. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar would
be tied for eighth and Kyle Larson tied for 10th in Playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim 264, 2) Layne Riggs -108, t-3) Chandler Smith -117, t-3) Kaden Honeycutt -117, 5) Ty
Majeski -121, 6) Grant Enfinger -153, 7) Tyler Ankrum -176, 8) Daniel Hemric -179, 9) Ben Rhodes -181, 10) Jake Garcia -195, 11) Connor Mosack -197, 12) Stewart Friesen -207, 13) Tanner Gray
-211, 14) Rajah Caruth -215, 15) Gio Ruggiero -226, 16) Matt Crafton -236. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Carson Hocevar would be 15th and Ross Chastain 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 527, t-2) Daniel Hemric -92, t-2) Layne Riggs -92, 4) Chandler Smith -96, 5) Tyler Ankrum -118, 6) Grant Enfinger
-121, 7) Ty Majeski -140, 8) Gio Ruggiero -152, 9) Jake Garcia -154, 10) Kaden Honeycutt -178, 11) Ben Rhodes -186, 12) Rajah Caruth -203, 13) Tanner Gray -228, 14) Stewart Friesen
-244, 15) Matt Crafton -261, 16) Andres Perez -267. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 2896, 2) Layne Riggs -338, 3) Daniel Hemric -341, 4) Chandler Smith
-379, 5) Tyler Ankrum -435, 6) Grant Enfinger -443, 7) Ty Majeski -505, 8) Gio Ruggiero -552, 9) Jake Garcia -571, 10) Kaden Honeycutt -656, 11) Ben Rhodes
-672, 12) Rajah Caruth -717, 13) Tanner Gray -812, 14) Matt Crafton -931, 15) Andres Perez -958, 16) Matt Mills -968. Race Winners: Corey Heim (Daytona, Las
Vegas, Texas, Charlotte, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Richmond), 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: Saturday night's Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway was brought to you by the letter I for Increased Action. The race saw a significant increase in racing for position over last year, something that has
been an issue at RIchmond in recent years. It's one of the major reasons why the track lost a date for this season. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Cook Out 400 (Richmond) compiled by Phil Allaway
"Man, that feels good. Got to thank the good Lord above. I really wanted that one. Last year hurt really bad, just going through the whole process of it. But this one feels so sweet. Man, I love Richmond. "Our No. 3
Winchester/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was really good. I didn’t feel great this week. I've actually been racing with a broken rib right now for the last two weeks. But man, that was awesome.
"Tire management [makes me come alive]. I'm probably the slowest to get going on some of these tracks when it really comes to high grip. But when it comes to these places and taking care of your stuff, I'll go against the
best of them." - Austin Dillon, race winner "We had a really good No. 48 Ally Chevrolet in the last run, just broke the tires off too much in lap traffic. We didn't get any breaks and that made me kind of work the rears harder than I needed to. We just needed to be a little better through there to get to [Austin Dillon]0. I certainly think we had the better car ,but
unfortunately, we didn't get there. Blake [Harris] and all the guys did a great job. Just came up a little bit short." - Alex Bowman, finished second "Overall, honestly, it was a really good night and a really good weekend. We got better all night and led some laps. I thought we were in a great position to try to contend for it. I thought running long was the play
there because [Austin Dillon] came up there and passed me. So we were like, let’s try and have a handful of fresher tires. I was trying to be really disciplined when I got back on the racetrack of like, ‘let the tires do their thing and maybe I’ll get to him at the end of this run.’ I don’t know. They just fell off a cliff really hard. It kind of surprised me a little bit, but, overall, a good night. I wish we could have been closer. It’s unfortunate that our worst run of the race was our last
run, but I don’t really know what we could have done differently. It was just one of those odd things, but, overall, a really good finish and a good showing. We work really hard at this place, so hopefully we learned some stuff going forward." - Ryan Blaney, finished third
"We had a really fast Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang. The car had a lot of speed in it, but we just had to overcome too much. We
got up into contention and then we had a flat right-rear and lost all of it again, and then steadily grind your way back into the top-five. Apparently, I needed maybe 500 or 600 laps. It’s just not our weekend. We had a flat tire in practice and then another flat tire in the race and both of them were punctures. It’s not like we were being too aggressive or anything like that, it’s just running over stuff on the racetrack. Not our weekend." - Joey Logano, finished
fourth
"I’m happy with the effort. It’s a shame the restart in stage three went the way it did because we had a really great long run car and I just had to drive the snot out of it to move through the field. I thought we were maybe good enough to contend for a top three finish if not a win if we didn’t get so far back, but it takes all the pieces. My team ran a playoff capable race tonight and the
boys are ramping up." - Austin Cindric, finished fifth "On equal tires, it was really difficult to pass. I felt like my team did an amazing job with our strategy today in every stage of the race. Without the great calls, we definitely wouldn’t have finished up here, so huge kudos to Cliff [Daniels] and everyone on the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. They worked
really hard all night and grinded it out." - Kyle Larson, finished sixth "I was kind of losing my mind there for a minute. Just felt like there was so much going on and just such a balance of trying to manage tires all night. It just got crazy on those couple restarts. That one restart was kind of the tipping point. "We had some really good runs tonight. I was happy with the end of stage one and the beginning of stage two. Throughout stage two, we were pretty good. Beginning of stage three, we climbed up; had that one set of tires that we put on and we fell way back. "It just feels great. It's really the best 12th-place finish I've ever had. The No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet team came in here and really just did a solid job. We qualified solid. We always want more, but this is definitely our toughest racetrack. We just kind of came in here, had a solid plan and executed it. All the guys have worked hard through the summer months. I feel like this has been the best summer we've ever had,
speed-wise. We had a lot of tough things happen throughout early July. We had a lot of speed, but some crashes in practice and qualifying. Just some car issues and things that happened. But yeah, it’s just really, really cool. We’re looking forward to the Playoffs." - William Byron, finished 12th "I think Kyle [Busch] just didn’t know that we were trying to squeeze by
the wreck on the bottom. He was kind of angled back towards the bottom of the racetrack, and I was just coming through. It’s just unfortunate. We had a good start to the race. We kind of got on the wrong end there in the beginning and lost some track position. We got behind [Chase Briscoe] and got a penalty. I thought we were in a pretty good spot right there. We finally got on some better tires and we were making our way through there well, so I was excited to see where that was going to go,
but unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance." - Chase Elliott, finished 38th (Crashed out) y 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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![Chase Elliott DNFs After Richmond Big One: "I'm Sure [Kyle Busch] Just Didn't Know I Was Coming By"](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/20d5ec29e0c4465f97cf103dea6130c7.png)
