Frontstretch Newsletter: June 9, 2025
Volume XIX,
Edition XCI |
- Given the schedule for this week and the border crossing, all of the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR Xfinity Series are already en route to the Mexico border in Laredo, Tex. right now. Once they get across, they will convoy for the 765-mile drive to Mexico City. Entry lists for this weekend's action at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez should be released today. We'll have the entry lists
and everything else breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Denny Hamlin Wins FireKeepers Casino 400 at
Michigan Denny Hamlin took the lead from William Byron with four laps to go Sunday and held on to win the FireKeepers Casino 400 for his third win of the year. Chris Buescher was second, then Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson. |
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| Denny Hamlin: 23XI Would Compete As Open Team If Court
Ruling Stands During Saturday's bullpen session at Michigan International Speedway, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin indicated that his teams would continue to compete as open teams if they cannot keep their charters. |
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| Here’s What Happened in the 23XI/FRM vs. NASCAR Lawsuit
This Week (May 24-June 6) In the 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports lawsuit against NASCAR, the injunction requiring NASCAR to let the teams race as chartered teams was vacated. |
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| Flat Tire Foils Carson Hocevar’s Chance at Home State Cup
Win Carson Hocevar nearly had a career day Sunday in Michigan. After leading 32 laps, Hocevar cut a tire with 20 laps to go and was relegated to 29th. |
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| Ram Returning to NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in
2026 Stellantis announced Sunday prior to the FireKeepers Casino 400 that they will return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2026 with an unknown number of trucks on the grid. |
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| Did FOX Spoil Cleetus McFarland’s Truck
Announcement? During FOX's broadcast of the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250, Michael Waltrip effectively spoiled RAM's announcement of their series return. He also indicated that Garrett Mitchell (aka Cleetus McFarland) would get one of the
seats. |
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| Stewart Friesen Claims Michigan Truck Win in
Overtime Stewart Friesen was able to snatch the lead away from Grant Enfinger on the final restart, then hold on to win the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 for his first win since 2022. Enfinger was second, then Luke Fenhaus, Ben Rhodes and Corey
LaJoie. |
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| Truck Restart Wreck at Michigan Sets Stage for Triple
Overtime Showdown Saturday's DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 will be best remembered for a huge restart crash that completely upended the race. |
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| Brenden Queen Holds Off Corey Heim, Wins ARCA Race at
Michigan Brenden Queen was dominant all afternoon Friday, but he just barely held off Corey Heim to win the ARCA Menards Series Henry Ford Health 200. Lawless Alan was third, then Gio Ruggiero and Lavar Scott. |
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| Dillon Machavern, Francis Selldorff Win 4 Hours of
Mid-Ohio Turner Motorsport's Dillon Machavern and Francis Selldorff won Sunday's IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O'Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio. Bryan Herta Autosport's Mason Filippi and Harry Gottsacker won in TCR. |
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| Corey Lewis Wins Mid-Ohio VP Challenge Race No.
1 RAFA Racing Team's Corey Lewis was declared the winner of Saturday's VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 1 at Mid-Ohio after Oscar Tunjo was given a 10-second post-race penalty for getting out of line on the start. |
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| Oscar Tunjo Wins 1st VP Racing SportsCar Challenge
Race GEBHARDT Intralogstics Motorsports' Oscar Tunjo took the lead on the outside in moderate rain Sunday morning and held on to win his first IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race at Mid-Ohio. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Ram, Zack Silver of ARCA Racing and our own Phil Allaway and Tanner Marlar. 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: June 6-8 |
- Sunday saw the FIA World Endurance Championship teams at the Circuit de la Sarthe for the official Test Day ahead of this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The sessions seemed to be an extension of the rest of the WEC season to this point. In Session No. 1, AF Corse's Robert Kubica was fastest
overall in his Ferrari 499P with a lap at 147.245 mph. His lap was .990 seconds faster than Toyota Gazoo Racing's Brendon Hartley. Hertz Team JOTA's Earl Bamber was third in his Cadillac, then Antonio Giovinazzi in the factory Ferrari. Action Express Racing's Jack Aitken was fifth in his Cadillac. In LMP2, RLR MSport's Patrick Pilet was fastest off all LMP2 drivers and
quickest in Pro-Am with a lap at 140.730 mph. Pilet's lap was .260 seconds faster than CLX - Pure Racing's Tom Blomqvist. Inter Europol Competition's Tom Dillmann was third, then Job van Uitert and Clement Novalak. In Pro-Am, Pilet's lap was .650 seconds faster than Novalak. United Autosports' Ben Hanley was third, then Proton Compeition's Rene Binder. AF Corse's Antonio
Felix da Costa was fifth.
In LMGT3, Akkodis ASP Team's Jose Maria Lopez was fastest in his Lexus with a lap at 128.554 mph. The lap was .269 seconds faster than the Ferrari of Vista AF Corse's Alessio Rovera. Jack Hawksworth was third in the second Lexus, then Casper Stevenson in the Kessel Racing Ferrari. Riccardo Agostini was fifth in the Richard Mille AF Corse No. 150.
The session was interrupted for 50 minutes due to a big crash for Inter Europol Competition's Luca Ghiotto in the Porsche Curves. The team was able to make repairs and return for the afternoon session.
Session No. 2 saw Hartley go fastest overall with a lap at 147.791 mph in his Toyota. That lap was .531 seconds
faster than Ferrari AF Corse's James Calado. Kubica was third, then Signatech Alpine's Mick Schumacher. Porsche Penske Motorsport's Kevin Estre was fifth. United Autosports' Pietro Fittipaldi was fastest in LMP2 with a lap at 141.267 mph. The lap was .455 seconds faster than TDS Racing's Mathias Beche. AO by TF's Louis Deletraz in "Spike" was third, followed by Dillmann and Felix
de Costa. LMP2 Pro-Am was topped by Beche with his lap at 140.970 mph. The lap was .315 seconds faster than Deletraz. Felix da Costa was third, then United Autosports' Oliver Jarvis. AF Corse's Matthieu Vaxiviere was fifth. Lopez was once again fastest in LMGT3 with a lap at
129.555 mph. The lap was a full 1.559 seconds faster than Rovera. Stevenson was third, then Finn Gehrsitz in the No. 78 Lexus. Vista AF Corse's Davide Rigon was fifth. There were three red flags during the second session. The biggest incident involved Proton Competition's Giorgio Roda, who crashed his ORECA 07-Gibson near Indianapolis. - World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams had a busy weekend in Wisconsin as they competed in the Badger State Triple, three different races at three different tracks. The schedules allowed for a number of Kubota High Limit Sprint Car Series regulars to race this past week. They made their presence known. Friday night at Plymouth Dirt Track saw Rico Abreu take the lead on the first lap from Kyle Larson and pull away. While Larson was strong, a crash ended his night early. Abreu had to battle hard with Buddy Kofoid through much of the race, but held on to take the victory. Kofoid was .751 seconds back in second, then Tyler Courtney,
Carson Macedo and Brad Sweet. Saturday night saw the series move on to Beaver Dam Raceway for the Jim "JB" Boyd Memorial. Macedo started from pole and led the first 25 laps without issue. However, he had to do battle with Sweet. Sweet is a five-time series champion for a reason.
He was able to use the cushion to sweep around Macedo's outside in lapped traffic to take the lead on lap 32. From there, Sweet pulled away to take the win. Sweet won by 1.789 seconds over Anthony Macri. Sheldon Haudenschild was third, followed by David Gravel and Kofoid. Sunday night's Badger State Triple finale at Firemen's Angell Park Speedway was postponed due to standing water after morning thunderstorms. The race will run on
Oct. 19. A rare DNF Friday night for Gravel means that his points lead is 152 points over Kofoid. Macedo is third, then Logan Schuchart and Haudenschild. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Michigan and Mid-Ohio last weekend. For more from Michigan, Mid-Ohio00 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's Fuel Issues Insulated By Excellent Stages
by Phil Allaway
William Byron had a great race, leading a race-high 98 laps. However, he didn't have the fuel to get to the finish. Pitting with two laps to go for a splash dropped him from second to 28th at the finish. It
didn't cost Byron that much. He still has a 41-point lead over Kyle Larson, who finished fifth, but scored only four stage points to Byron's 19. Denny Hamlin's victory moved him up one place to third, jumping over teammate Christopher Bell in the process. Bell had an ordinary run to 16th. Chase
Elliott remains in fifth after a 15th-place finish. Tyler Reddick is still in sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney. Blaney spun entering pit road and finished 32nd, losing a bunch of ground. Ross Chastain is up one place to eighth after finishing sixth. Joey Logano finished 22nd and dropped
down to ninth. Bubba Wallace finished fourth and stays in 10th. Chase Briscoe is still in 11th, while Chris Buescher moved up two places to 12th after winning stage one and finishing second. Alex Bowman crashed out and finished last, dropping one place to 13th. Ryan Preece and
Kyle Busch are tied for 14th. Preece wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his third-place finish at Las Vegas, giving him the last spot in the playoffs on points at the moment. Austin Cindric is down three places to 16th after a 31st-place finish. Josh Berry is up three places to 17th after a 12th-place finish.
Preece and Busch currently have a 18-point lead over a tie for 18th between Carson Hocevar and AJ Allmendinger. Hocevar led 32 laps and could have won. However, fuel and a cut tie relegated him to 29th. Allmendinger finished 17th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 20th. Point Standings
(1-16): 1) William Byron 576, 2) Kyle Larson -41, 3) Denny Hamlin -82, 4) Christopher Bell -96, 5) Chase Elliott -112, 6) Tyler Reddick -116, 7) Ryan Blaney -149, 8) Ross Chastain
-162, 9) Joey Logano -181, 10) Bubba Wallace -193, 11) Chase Briscoe -213, 12) Chris Buescher -234, 13) Alex Bowman -241, t-14) Ryan Preece -254, t-14) Kyle Busch -254, 16) Austin Cindric -258. Outside of the top-16, but still in playoffs: 17) Josh Berry -267. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for
points. Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 23, 2) Denny Hamlin -5, 3) Christopher Bell -7, 4) William Byron -11, 5) Ryan Blaney
-15, t-6) Austin Cindric -16, t-6) Joey Logano -16, 8) Josh Berry -17, 9) Ross Chastain -18, 10) Bubba Wallace -21, t-11) Chris Buescher -22, t-11) Ryan Preece -22. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 172, 2) Kyle Larson -40, 3) Ryan Blaney -43, 4) Denny Hamlin
-48, 5) Tyler Reddick -56, 6) Bubba Wallace -65, 7) Austin Cindric -86, 8) Chase Elliott -87, t-9) Joey Logano -89, t-9) Alex Bowman -89, 11) Christopher Bell -91, 12) Carson Hocevar
-94, 13) Josh Berry -115, 14) AJ Allmendinger -121, 15) Ryan Preece -124, 16) Chris Buescher -131. Note: The Stage Points include the Duels at Daytona.
Outside of the top 16, but Still in the Playoffs: 17) Ross Chastain -136, 18) Chase Briscoe -139. Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at
Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 476, 2) Kyle Larson -8, 3) Christopher Bell -12, 4) Chase Elliott -31, 5) Ross Chastain
-39, 6) Denny Hamlin -42, 7) Tyler Reddick -67, 8) Chase Briscoe -80, 9) Joey Logano -98, 10) Chris Buescher -106, 11) Kyle Busch -107, 12) Ryan Blaney -112, 13) Bubba Wallace
-136, 14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -139, 15) Ryan Preece -142, t-16) Michael McDowell -143, t-16) Zane Smith -143. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: t-19) Alex Bowman
-157, 21) Josh Berry -160, 26) Austin Cindric -173. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) William Byron 2140, 2) Kyle Larson -31, 3) Christopher Bell -68, 4) Denny Hamlin -147, 5) Chase Elliott -158, 6) Ross Chastain -174, 7) Tyler Reddick
-263, 8) Chase Briscoe -291, 9) Joey Logano -371, 10) Ryan Blaney -373, 11) Kyle Busch -403, 12) Chris Buescher -412, 13) Bubba Wallace -469, 14) Ryan Preece -504, 15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
-517, 16) Michael McDowell -527. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Alex Bowman -528, 20) Josh Berry -560, 28) Austin Cindric -642. 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, Kansas), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville, Darlington, Michigan), Austin Cindric (Talladega), Joey Logano (Texas), Ross Chastain (Charlotte), Ryan Blaney (Nashville)
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 in The Chilango 150 Saturday afternoon at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. When the teams get to Mexico City, Justin Allgaier will have a 92-point lead over Austin Hill. Sam Mayer is
third, then Jesse Love and Connor Zilisch. At present, Harrison Burton in 11th is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He has a five-point advantage over Nick Sanchez. Taylor Gray, Daniel Dye and Dean Thompson are further back. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 583, 2) Austin Hill -92, 3) Sam Mayer -110, 4) Jesse Love -151, 5) Connor Zilisch -188, 6) Sheldon Creed
-202, 7) Carson Kvapil -203, 8) Brandon Jones -204, t-9) Jeb Burton -218, t-9) Ryan Sieg -218, 11) Harrison Burton -235, 12) Nick Sanchez -240, 13) Sammy Smith -243, 14) Taylor Gray -267, 15) Daniel
Dye -283, 16) Dean Thompson -298. Playoff Points: t-1) Austin Hill 21, t-1) Justin Allgaier 21, 3) Connor Zilisch -14, t-4) Sammy Smith -15, t-4) Aric Almirola
-15, t-4) Jesse Love -15, 7) Brandon Jones -16, 8) Harrison Burton -19, t-9) Sam Mayer -20, t-9) Dean Thompson -20, t-9) Nick Sanchez -20. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson would be third, William Byron fourth
and Alex Bowman tied for 11th in playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 178, 2) Austin Hill -70, 3) Sam Mayer -79, 4) Connor Zilisch -80, 5) Sheldon Creed -93, t-6) Sammy
Smith -104, t-6) Jesse Love -104, 8) Aric Almirola -108, 9) Carson Kvapil -109, 10) Nick Sanchez -112, t-11) Brandon Jones -117, t-11) Ryan Sieg -117, 13) Jeb Burton -129, 14) Taylor Gray
-131, 15) Harrison Burton -145, 16) Christian Eckes -146. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson would be 15th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16):
1) Justin Allgaier 470, 2) Austin Hill -26, 3) Sam Mayer -36, 4) Jesse Love -49, 5) Brandon Jones -92, 6) Harrison Burton -95, 7) Jeb Burton -96, 8) Carson Kvapil
-100, 9) Ryan Sieg -107, 10) Connor Zilisch -112, 11) Sheldon Creed -115, 12) Sammy Smith -132, 13) Daniel Dye -133, 14) Nick Sanchez -134, 15) Taylor Gray -143, 16) Dean Thompson -150. WC Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 2093, 2) Austin Hill -114, 3) Sam Mayer -150, 4) Jesse Love -206, 5) Brandon Jones -352, 6) Harrison Burton -372, 7) Carson Kvapil
-383, 8) Jeb Burton -385, 9) Ryan Sieg -413, 10) Sheldon Creed -415, 11) Connor Zilisch -438, 12) Nick Sanchez -494, 13) Taylor Gray -506, 14) Daniel Dye -507, 15) Sammy Smith -520, 16) Dean
Thompson -555. Race Winners: Jesse Love (Daytona), Austin Hill (Atlanta, Martinsville, Talladega), Connor Zilisch (COTA), Aric Almirola (Phoenix), Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas, Homestead, Nashville), Brandon Jones (Darlington), Kyle Larson (Bristol, Texas), Sammy Smith (Rockingham), William Byron (Charlotte) 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 Extends Lead Once Again
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim won the first two stages Saturday and was in position for a good finish until he was caught up in the restart. He still finished 18th and since so many others were eliminated, he still expanded his lead. The margin is 133 points over Chandler
Smith, who moved up one position after an eighth-place finish. Daniel Hemric was eliminated in the big crash and dropped to third. Grant Enfinger has sole possession of fourth after finishing second. Tyler Ankrum and Layne Riggs are tied for fifth. Ankrum finished 24th and fell from a tie for fourth. Meanwhile, Riggs
moved up from sixth. Kaden Honeycutt stays in seventh, while Ty Majeski is up one place to eighth after a 15th-place finish. He is still the last driver in the playoffs on points. Majeski has a four-point lead over Jake Garcia, who finished seventh, but scored no stage points to Majeski's 15. Stewart Friesen's victory
moved him up two places to 10th. Ben Rhodes' fourth-place finish moved him up two places to 11th. Gio Ruggiero is down one place to 12th. Rajah Caruth had a flat tire early, lost a lap, got it back, then crashed out. A 31st-place finish dropped him three places to 13th. Tanner Gray is 14th, then Matt Crafton and
Jack Wood. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 605, 2) Chandler Smith -133, 3) Daniel Hemric -151, 4) Grant Enfinger -164, t-5) Tyler Ankrum
-181, t-5) Layne Riggs -181, 7) Kaden Honeycutt -197, 8) Ty Majeski -212, 9) Jake Garcia -216, 10) Stewart Friesen -258, 11) Ben Rhodes -267, 12) Gio Ruggiero -268, 13) Rajah Caruth
-269, 14) Tanner Gray -308, 15) Matt Crafton -324, 16) Jack Wood -356. Playoff Points: 1) Corey Heim 31, 2) Chandler Smith -20, 3) Tyler Ankrum
-25, t-4) Daniel Hemric -26, t-4) Rajah Caruth -26, t-4) Stewart Friesen -26, 7) Layne Riggs -28, 8) Grant Enfinger -29, t-9) Ty Majeski -30, t-9) Ben Rhodes -30, t-9) Gio Ruggiero -29, t-9) Jack Wood -30, t-9) Matt Crafton -30,
t-9) Bayley Currey -30. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar would be tied for third and Kyle Larson tied for sixth in Playoff points. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim
191, 2) Chandler Smith -81, 3) Kaden Honeycutt -84, t-4) Ty Majeski -92, 5) Layne Riggs -103, 6) Grant Enfinger -105, 7) Daniel Hemric -109, 8) Tyler Ankrum -118, 9) Stewart Friesen
-139, 10) Ben Rhodes -143, 11) Jake Garcia -147, t-12) Tanner Gray -150, t-13) Connor Mosack -150, 14) Rajah Caruth -151, 15) Gio Ruggiero -158, 16) Matt Crafton -164. 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 374, 2) Daniel Hemric
-50, 3) Chandler Smith -57, 4) Grant Enfinger -64, 5) Tyler Ankrum -70, 6) Jake Garcia -78, 7) Layne Riggs -86, 8) Gio Ruggiero -117, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -119, 10) Rajah Caruth
-124, 11) Stewart Friesen -128, 12) Ty Majeski -129, 13) Ben Rhodes -132, 14) Tanner Gray -169, 15) Matt Crafton -170, 16) Andres Perez -182. WC Points (1-16):
1) Corey Heim 1958, 2) Daniel Hemric -163, 3) Tyler Ankrum -234, 4) Chandler Smith -261, 5) Grant Enfinger -297, 6) Layne Riggs -327, 7) Jake Garcia -336, 8) Rajah Caruth -395, 9) Kaden
Honeycutt -431, 10) Gio Ruggiero -449, 11) Ty Majeski -474, 12) Ben Rhodes -525, 13) Stewart Friesen -527, 14) Tanner Gray -606, 15) Matt Crafton -649, 16) Matt Mills -662. Race Winners: Corey Heim (Daytona, Las Vegas, Texas, Charlotte), 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)
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 FireKeepers Casino 400 was brought to you by the letter F for Fuel Mileage. Longtime fans will remember that fuel was always an issue at Michigan International Speedway. Sunday was simply a
return to the norm. |
Quotes to Remember: FireKeepers Casino 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"Yeah, it was tight! They (the team) said I was right on the number and to go all out. I went all out and was able to battle for the lead, and when I got the lead, I was able to back it down a little bit. I ran out of fuel (pause), I have some friends in [turns 3 and 4] that I promised I’d do a burnout in front of their bus once this was over, so I ran out of fuel over there. Thanks to
this whole No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team. They gave me a great race car. To restart 12th or so on that last restart and get to the front feels awesome." - Denny Hamlin, race winner "That was such a fast Kroger/Heinz Ford Mustang. I really appreciate everybody on this team working so hard to put us in this situation and to have a chance to win. I’m disappointed I
didn’t get it done. It’s on me. I had a couple different decisions I would love to go back and make and ultimately should have had us ahead of [Denny Hamlin]. We were faster on the day and I didn’t do a good enough job. We’ll certainly take the good with it. We certainly need a little bit of good luck or fortune on our side. This is a day where we kind of made our own. We were really fast and worked hard to be there and just didn’t have any bad luck, so that
put us with a shot to win. After the last handful of weeks with having speed in the first stage and qualifying and not being able to get the race finish that was certainly big, but it’s frustrating to be that close and to know that we had a car that was capable of winning. I just needed to do a better job." - Chris Buescher, finished second "When Charles [Denike]
comes over the radio and says be on it the whole time, that’s all you want to hear. I was doing a little bit of technique stuff on that run to pick up some fuel. When it was time to go, it was time to go. When you weren’t really gaining anything, you have to be smart on what the situation is, and I feel like we’re getting there. All-in-all, a good day." - Bubba Wallace, finished fourth "Early in the run, I was actually surprised with how easy it was to save fuel and kind of stay attached to [Carson Hocevar] and [William Byron]. I thought I was in good shape there and I was hopeful that I had a big enough gap from the group behind us that maybe we could maintain that gap; those guys would run out of fuel in front of me and we could win. But they were charging hard and my balance wasn’t very good. I really faded there with 12 laps or so to go, so
because of the balance being bad, I could save more fuel naturally. I just kind of had to nurse it home from there. "We didn’t have a good No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet today, but we still got a top-five finish out of it. I’m happy about the effort and hopefully we can have some more speed these next coming weeks and just run in
the top-five more often. Days like today aren’t the most fun, but they feel really good, too. Proud of the whole team. Wish we could have gotten a win for Chevrolet today, but we’ll have to try again next year." - Kyle Larson, finished fifth
"We saved fuel the whole second-half of the run, so we were fine there at the end and I was able to start pushing hard again. I couldn’t really make much more
lap time. You’re off the gas for 20 laps and you think – oh, I’m giving up all this lap time, and you go and get a tenth back on a big track like this. I think we finished about where we should have. When [Denny Hamlin] passed me on that last run, I was like, I don’t have that, so hats off to those guys. They’ve been impressive. We just haven’t been quite that good to drive up and pass those guys, but it was a solid sixth-place finish for the No. 1 Busch Light Apple Chevrolet team." - Ross
Chastain, finished sixth
"There’s a lot of positive from the speed and how my car drove today, especially when we made it better. We had positive restarts and just a lot of positives. I’m on two tires there trying to hold off guys that are on four. If I’m on four against four in the Cup Series that’s already hard enough, so I was trying my best at defending but ultimately we got
beat there some. All in all, I’m proud to end up in the top 10 there with Long John Silver’s on board and everyone at FRM. I wish we could have gotten Ford a W here in their home state, but we’ll try again next year." - Zane Smith, finished seventh "It just looked like [Austin Cindric] got into [Cole Custer] or he was in a bad aero spot, something like that.
[Custer] got loose and at that point, being on the outside, when they get into you, you’re just along for the ride. Really quickly turned the car into the outside wall and it was a massive crash. Hate it for our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. We just have to keep digging. It’s been a really bad two months for us, but we just have to keep working hard." - Alex Bowman, finished 36th (Crashed out)
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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![Carson Hocevar Happy Despite Late Flat Tire: "We Were Outrunning 2 of [Rick Hendrick's] Cars]"](https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/MTUwNjA2Nw==/original/ed3e35abb5934ba6ae6cecfbf9834e27.png)
