Frontstretch Newsletter: Sept. 15, 2025
Volume
XIX, Edition CLXI |
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 back at it today, preparing for this weekend's action in New Hampshire. We'll have the entry lists and everything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Christopher Bell Outlasts the Field to Win Bristol Night
Race Christopher Bell took the lead from Carson Hocevar on the final restart and held on to win the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol. Brad Keselowski was second, then Zane Smith, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano. |
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| Alex Bowman Was 12 Laps Away From Defying the Playoff
Odds Alex Bowman effectively needed to win Saturday night in order to advance to the Round of 12. He was in position to potentially do that before his tires went away. |
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| Zane Smith & Carson Hocevar’s Missed
Opportunity Saturday night was a big chance for a non-playoff driver to crash the party in Bristol. Zane Smith finished a season-best third, while Carson Hocevar was seventh. |
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| Here’s What Happened in the 23XI/Front Row vs. NASCAR
Antitrust Lawsuit This Week (Sept. 6-12) Things were relatively light in the ongoing lawsuit between 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR. There were a couple of motions for summary dismissal entered by the plaintiffs. |
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| Aric Almirola Claims Bristol Xfinity
Win Joe Gibbs Racing's Aric Almirola took the lead when Connor Zilisch pitted with 34 laps to go Friday, then held on to win the Food City 300. Sheldon Creed was second, then Sam Mayer, Carson Kvapil and Zilisch. |
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| Connor Zilisch Has to Remind Himself 5th Place Is a Good
Finish JR Motorsports' Connor Zilisch has been on such a great run recently that he's forgotten what it's like to struggle. He finished fifth Friday night and had to stop to realize how good that is. |
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| ‘Cigars Are Cheap, Tires Are Expensive’: Alpha Prime
Lights Up More Top 10 Stogies at Bristol Things continue to look up at Alpha Prime Racing. Brennan Poole scored a ninth-place finish Friday night, resulting in a happy team after the race. |
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| IndyCar Not Racing in Mexico City for
2026 The NTT IndyCar Series announced Saturday that negotiations to host a race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2026 have fallen through and it will not happen next season. |
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| Robbie Kennealy Wins ARCA West Race at All-American
Speedway Robbie Kennealy led 142 of 150 laps Saturday to win the NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame at All American Speedway, his first career ARCA Menards Series West victory. |
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| Kaden Honeycutt, Keelan Harvick Claim CARS Tour Wins at
SoBo NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Kaden Honeycutt won the Late Model Stock feature while Keelan Harvick won the Pro Late Model feature at South Boston Speedway Saturday night. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Mark Thompson of Getty Images and our own Danny Peters. 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: Sept. 12-14 |
- IDEC Sport's Jamie Chadwick, Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella earned their second win of 2025 Sunday in the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Silverstone. The race was stopped with eight minutes to go due to heavy rains. As a result of the early stoppage, the results were taken
from a countback. As a result of that countback, the margin of victory was 5.941 seconds over Inter Europol Competition's Tom Dillmann, Jakub Smiechowski and Nick Yelloly. Vector Sport's Ryan Cullen, Pietro Fittipaldi and Vladislav Lomko were third, then IDEC Sport's Paul-Loup Chatin, Paul Lafargue and Job van Uitert. Algarve Pro Racing's Lorenzo Fluxa, Matthias Kaiser and Theo Pourchaire were fifth. In LMP2 Pro-Am, APR's No. 20 for Olli Caldwell, Kriton Lentoudis and Alex Quinn earned the class victory in seventh overall as a result of the countback. That countback cost AO by TF's Louis Deletraz, Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett the win (they ended up .141 seconds back). AF Corse's Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthias Vaxiviere were third. In LMP3, CLX Motorsports' Adrien Closmenil, Theodor Jensen and Paul Lanchere picked up their fourth victory of the year in five races. That was enough to clinch the LMP3 championship with a race to run. Their margin of victory was 63.810 seconds over M Racing's Quentin Antonel and Stephane Tribaudini. Ultimate's Jean-Baptiste and
Matthieu Lahaye, along with Louis Stern were third, then Team Virage's Julien Gerbi, Rik Koen and Daniel Nogales. Inter Europol Competition's Tim Crestwick, Douwe Dedecker and Reece Gold were fifth.
Finally, the countback swung the LMGT3 class as well. A lap before the red flag, GR Racing's Riccardo Pera took the class lead from Richard Mille AF Corse's Lilou Wadoux. The red flag came one lap too early for
Pera as Wadoux, Riccardo Agostini and Custodio Toledo were declared the class winners.
The official margin of victory was .223 seconds over Pera, Tom Fleming and Michael Wainwright. TF Sport's Corvette for Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Hiroshi Koizumi were third, then Kessel Racing's Ferrari for Takeshi Kimura, Daniel Serra and Ben Tuck. Proton Competition's Porsche for
Matteo Cressoni and the Felbermayr's (Horst Sr. and Horst Jr.) were fifth. - World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams spent the weekend in California. Friday night saw the series make their first visit to Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway. Here, Buddy Kofoid was untouchable. He swept the evening (fastest in hot laps, quick time in time trials, won his heat, won the dash, and the feature). His margin of victory was 1.73 seconds over Sheldon Haudenschild. Carson Macedo was third, then Logan Schuchart and Bill Balog. Saturday night saw the tour drive down to Perris for the
SoCal Showdown. Here, Balog had the car to beat. He started from pole and ran away from the field. However, he picked up a cut in his right rear tire. That allowed David Gravel to run him down in the closing laps. Gravel gave it his all, but he couldn't prevent Balog from taking the win. Gravel ended up second, then Kofoid, Garet Williamson and DJ Netto. Gravel had a terrible Friday night in Kern County, where he cut a tire and finished 17th. As a result, his points lead over Kofoid is down to 144 points. Macedo is third, then Schuchart and Haudenschild. - Kubota High Limit Sprint Car Series teams were at Lernerville
Speedway for the Commonwealth Clash. Friday night saw Brad Sweet lead from the pole in a quick event.
Meanwhile, Tanner Thorson started 12th and swept into the top-five in the first eight laps. He got to second with 10 laps to go, then ran down Sweet in lapped traffic. He was able to get past for the win with three laps to go. Sweet ended up second, then Daison Pursley, Justin Pecik and Sye
Lynch.
Saturday night's main show was a four-way battle between Pursley, Sweet, Ryan Smith and Rico Abreu. Abreu took the lead on lap 2 and led until lap 20, when Sweet took it away. Pursley, who had started on pole and lost the advantage on a complete
restart, stayed in contention through this. With 10 laps to go, he was able to dive to the inside of Sweet and take the lead. From there, Pursley pulled away from the pack to take his first career High Limit victory and earn a check for $30,000. Sweet was 2.036 seconds back in second, then Smith, Abreu and Justin Peck. In the points, Abreu has a 25-point lead over Sweet. Brent Marks is third, then Peck and Thorson. - The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series raced Friday night at Needmore Speedway. Here, Nick Hoffman started from pole, but immediately lost the lead to
Tim McCreadie. McCreadie was able to hold off Hoffman early on. Hoffman ran McCreadie back down and took the lead on lap 17. McCreadie continued to threaten Hoffman until a caution flew on lap 26. From there, Hoffman ran away to take the win. Hoffman
won by 1.354 seconds over Bobby Pierce. Brian Shirley was third, then Tanner English and Cody Overton. McCreadie slid back to 11th. Saturday night saw the series travel to Georgia's Senoia Raceway for the Billy Clanton Classic. Here, Ashton Winger was able to get the lead in the opening laps, then pull out to a three-second lead. A spin for English after contact from Winger
set up a four-lap sprint to the finish. From there, Winger held on for the win. Winger won by .733 seconds over McCreadie. Ethan Dotson was third, followed by Shirley and Shane Clanton. In the points, Pierce continues to lead by 116 points over
Hoffman. Ryan Gustin is third, then McCreadie and Shirley. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Bristol and South Boston last weekend. For more from Bristol, South Boston, 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: Chase Briscoe Wins Round of 16
by Phil Allaway
Chase Briscoe led 127 laps Saturday night despite starting 31st. He finished ninth and that was enough for him to win the Round of 16. Briscoe won the round by six points over Ryan Blaney, who won stage one and
scored the points (52) to move up three places. Denny Hamlin was involved in a late crash and finished 31st, dropping to third. Christopher Bell and William Byron ended the round tied for fourth. Bell wins the tiebreaker by virtue of winning Saturday night. Byron moved up two places with a 12th-place finish. Kyle Larson had a terrible night, including a broken toe link that was repaired in what seemed like record time. Despite that, he finished 32nd and dropped three places to sixth. Bubba Wallace ran well all night until he ended up in the wall late. That dropped him three places to seventh. Tyler Reddick dropped one place to eighth after finishing 15th. Joey Logano started terribly Saturday night, then recovered to finish fifth. That moved up him one spot to ninth. Ross Chastain moved up to 10th despite a 19th-place finish. Chase Elliott crashed out after contact in turn 3. That dropped him two places to 11th. Austin Cindric snagged the last spot in the Round of 12 despite his rocker panel catching fire with
44 laps to go. Cindric ended up 10 points ahead of Alex Bowman, who finished eighth, but couldn't overcome a couple of miserable races at Darlington and Gateway. Austin Dillon dropped one place to 14th, while Shane van Gisbergen had multiple spins and dropped to 15th. Josh Berry's car caught
fire on lap 75 and put him out, ending a terrible round in which he scored a grand total of four points. Outside of the playoffs, Chris Buescher finished 11th to not only hold onto 17th, but expand his lead up to 62 points over teammate Ryan Preece. Ty Gibbs has sole possession of 19th, while Brad
Keselowski is 20th. Round of 16 Point Standings: 1) Chase Briscoe 2143, 2) Ryan Blaney -6, 3) Denny Hamlin
-16, t-4) Christopher Bell -28, t-4) William Byron -28, 6) Kyle Larson -35, 7) Bubba Wallace -37, 8) Tyler Reddick -41, 9) Joey Logano -47, 10) Ross Chastain
-63, 11) Chase Elliott -71, 12) Austin Cindric -77, 13) Alex Bowman -87, 14) Austin Dillon -91, 15) Shane van Gisbergen -93, 16) Josh Berry -133.
Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) Denny Hamlin 3034, t-2) William Byron -2, t-2) Kyle Larson -2, 4) Christopher Bell -6, 5) Ryan Blaney -7, 6) Chase Briscoe -16, 7) Chase Elliott -21, 8) Bubba Wallace -25, 9) Austin Cindric
-26, t-10) Joey Logano -27, t-10) Ross Chastain -27, 12) Tyler Reddick -28. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) William Byron 946, 2) Ryan Blaney
-27, 3) Kyle Larson -69, 4) Denny Hamlin -70, 5) Christopher Bell -72, 6) Chase Elliott -89, 7) Chase Briscoe -94, 8) Tyler Reddick -120, 9) Chris Buescher -201, 10) Alex
Bowman -206, 11) Bubba Wallace -208, 12) Joey Logano -218, 13) Ross Chastain -243, 14) Ryan Preece -263, 15) Ty Gibbs -315, 16) Brad Keselowski -335. Outside of the top-16, but still in playoffs: 18) Austin Cindric -344. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Best of the Rest (17-26): 17) Chris Buescher 745, 18) Ryan Preece -62, 19) Ty Gibbs -114, 20) Brad Keselowski -134, 21) Kyle Busch -139, 22) John Hunter Nemechek -163, 23) Erik Jones
-166, 24) Carson Hocevar -168, 25) AJ Allmendinger -171, 26) Michael McDowell -188. Playoff Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 34, t-2) Kyle Larson -2, t-2) William Byron
-2, 4) Christopher Bell -6, 5) Ryan Blaney -7, 6) Shane van Gisbergen -12, 7) Chase Briscoe -16, 8) Chase Elliott -21, 9) Bubba Wallace -25, 10) Austin Cindric -26, t-11) Ross Chastain
-27, t-11) Joey Logano -27, t-13) Josh Berry -28, t-13) Tyler Reddick -28, 15) Austin Dillon -29, 16) Alex Bowman -32. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 263, 2) Ryan Blaney -8, 3) Kyle Larson -56, t-4) Denny Hamlin -66, t-4) Bubba Wallace
-66, 6) Tyler Reddick -78, 7) Alex Bowman -106, 8) Christopher Bell -116, 9) Chase Elliott -118, 10) Chase Briscoe -124, 11) Austin Cindric -129, 12) Joey Logano
-142, 13) Carson Hocevar -150, 14) Chris Buescher -165, 15) Ross Chastain -169, 16) Brad Keselowski -173. Note: The Stage Points include the Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 853, 2) Chase Briscoe -7, 3) Chase Elliott -18, 4) William Byron -44, 5) Denny Hamlin
-57, 6) Kyle Larson -61, 7) Ryan Blaney -62, 8) Chris Buescher -77, 9) Tyler Reddick -89, 10) Joey Logano -117, 11) Ross Chastain -129, 12) Ryan Preece -136, 13) Alex Bowman
-142, 14) Ty Gibbs -156, 15) Kyle Busch -176, 16) Bubba Wallace -187.
Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 24) Austin Cindric -256. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Briscoe 3862, 2) Christopher Bell
-5, 3) Chase Elliott -86, 4) William Byron -135, 5) Ryan Blaney -167, 6) Kyle Larson -173, 7) Denny Hamlin -199, 8) Tyler Reddick -314, 9) Chris Buescher -316, 10) Joey Logano
-423, 11) Alex Bowman -448, 12) Ross Chastain -467, 13) Ryan Preece -482, 14) Ty Gibbs -540, 15) Bubba Wallace -611, 16) Kyle Busch -630.
Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 25) Austin Cindric -900. Note No. 2: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: William Byron (Daytona-1, Iowa), Christopher Bell (Atlanta-1, COTA, Phoenix, Bristol-2), Josh Berry (Las Vegas), Kyle Larson (Homestead, Bristol-1, Kansas), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville, Darlington-1, Michigan, Dover, Gateway), Austin Cindric (Talladega), Joey Logano (Texas), Ross Chastain (Charlotte), Ryan Blaney (Nashville, Daytona-2), Shane van Gisbergen (Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins
Glen), Chase Briscoe (Pocono, Darlington-2), 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 Championship: Connor Zilisch Slightly Expands His Lead
by Phil Allaway
Connor Zilisch could have won his fifth race in a row Friday night. However, a bad strategy play to pit with 38 laps to go meant that he finished fifth. Despite that, he still tied for the most points earned Friday night (52) and tied an all-time record with 15 straight
top-five finishes. He also increased his lead over Justin Allgaier, who finished sixth, to 32 points. Sam Mayer finished third, but also lost a couple of points to Zilisch. Carson Kvapil is up four spots to fourth after finishing fourth. Harrison Burton finished seventh and moved up six places to fifth. Brandon
Jones dropped from a tie for fourth to sixth after an 11th-place finish. Sheldon Creed's 15th second-place finish moved him up from 10th to seventh. Taylor Gray has sole possession of eighth. He is the last driver in the Round of 8 on points. Gray has a three-point lead over a tie for ninth between Nick Sanchez and Jesse
Love. Sanchez finished 13th and dropped two places while Love had a flat tire and finished 25th, dropping five places. Austin Hill was not particularly competitive Friday night, but a 19th-place finish moved him up one place to 11th. Sammy Smith dropped out early with engine failure and fell from sixth to 12th. Outside of the playoffs, Christian
Eckes took over the best non-playoff driver spot after finishing eighth. He is eight points ahead of Jeb Burton. Ryan Sieg ran very well early, but a loose wheel forced him to put under green, dropping him to a 23rd-place finish and keeping him in 15th. Dean Thompson is 16th. Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) Connor
Zilisch 2116, 2) Justin Allgaier -32, 3) Sam Mayer -50, 4) Carson Kvapil -69, 5) Harrison Burton -76, 6) Brandon Jones -77, 7) Sheldon Creed -78, 8) Taylor Gray -82, t-9) Nick Sanchez -85, t-9) Jesse Love -85, 11) Austin Hill
-98, 12) Sammy Smith -106. Round of 12 Owner Point Standings: 1) JR Motorsports No. 88 2121, 2) JR Motorsports No. 7 -37, 3) Haas Factory Team No. 41 -55, 4) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 -63, 5) JR Motorsports No. 1 -74, 6) Richard Childress Racing No. 21 -76,
7) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 -82, 8) Haas Factory Team No. 00 -84, 9) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 -88, t-10) Big Machine Racing No. 48 -90, t-10) Richard Childress Racing No. 2 -90, 12) JR Motorsports No. 8 -109. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Connor Zilisch
1035, 2) Justin Allgaier -56, 3) Sam Mayer -103, 4) Jesse Love -172, 5) Austin Hill -217, 6) Brandon Jones -263, 7) Carson Kvapil -264, 8) Taylor Gray -327, 9) Sheldon Creed -331, 10) Harrison Burton -354, 11) Sammy
Smith -366, 12) Nick Sanchez -387, 13) Christian Eckes -410, 14) Jeb Burton -418, 15) Ryan Sieg -447, 16) Dean Thompson -448. Best of the Rest: 13) Christian Eckes 625, 14) Jeb Burton -8,
15) Ryan Sieg -37, 16) Dean Thompson -38, 17) William Sawalich -78, 18) Brennan Poole -82, 19) Daniel Dye -94, 20) Jeremy Clements -148, 21) Aric Almirola -172, 22) Josh Williams -223, 23) Matt DiBenedetto -227. Playoff
Points: 1) Connor Zilisch 65, 2) Justin Allgaier -29, 3) Sam Mayer -49, t-4) Brandon Jones -52, t-4) Jesse Love -52, 6) Sammy Smith -56, 7) Nick Sanchez -59, t-8) Carson Kvapil -60, t-8) Taylor Gray -60, 10) Sheldon Creed
-62, 11) Harrison Burton -63, 12) Austin Hill -65. 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. Note
No. 2: Even though Connor Zilisch is credited as the winner of the Wawa 250 at Daytona, he did not earn the five playoff points for winning since he wasn't in the car at the time of the finish. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 310, 2) Connor Zilisch -62, 3) Sam Mayer -105, 4) Austin Hill
-129, 5) Brandon Jones -142, 6) Jesse Love -145, 7) Sheldon Creed -149, 8) Carson Kvapil -166, 9) Aric Almirola -177, t-10) Sammy Smith -180, t-10) Nick Sanchez -180, t-10) Taylor Gray -180, 13) Ryan Sieg
-221, 14) William Sawalich -240, 15) Christian Eckes -242, 16) Jeb Burton -248. Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Harrison Burton -255. Old
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Connor Zilisch 906, 2) Sam Mayer -63, 3) Jesse Love -89, 4) Justin Allgaier -113, 5) Austin Hill -159, 6) Harrison Burton -167, 7) Carson Kvapil -168, 8) Brandon Jones -187, 9) Taylor Gray
-218, 10) Sammy Smith -241, 11) Jeb Burton -242, 12) Christian Eckes -243, 13) Sheldon Creed -250, 14) Dean Thompson -262, 15) Nick Sanchez -279, 16) Brennan Poole -281. WC Points (1-16): 1) Connor Zilisch 3950, 2) Sam Mayer -178, 3) Jesse Love -279, 4) Justin Allgaier -316, 5) Austin Hill -540, 6) Carson Kvapil -567, 7) Harrison Burton -599, 8) Brandon Jones -629, 9) Taylor Gray
-709, 10) Christian Eckes -807, 11) Sheldon Creed -811, 12) Sammy Smith -830, 13) Jeb Burton -845, 14) Dean Thompson -915, 15) Nick Sanchez -923, 16) Brennan Poole -971. Race Winners: Jesse Love (Daytona-1), Austin Hill (Atlanta-1, Martinsville, Talladega), Connor Zilisch (COTA, Pocono, Sonoma, Dover, Indianapolis, Watkins Glen, Daytona-2, Portland, Gateway), Aric Almirola (Phoenix, Bristol-2), Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas, Homestead, Nashville), Brandon Jones (Darlington), Kyle Larson (Bristol-1, Texas), Sammy Smith (Rockingham), William Byron (Charlotte), Nick Sanchez
(Atlanta-2), Shane van Gisbergen (Chicago), Sam Mayer (Iowa) Note: Connor Zilisch still receives credit for winning the Wawa 250 in Daytona even though Parker Kligerman took the checkered flag since Zilisch started the race. 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 Still Reigns Supreme
by Phil Allaway
Corey Heim led the most laps Thursday night and could have won, but got trapped behind a slower truck on a restart and never fully recovered. Despite that, he still finished third. The third-place finish was enough for Heim to expand his lead to 61 points over Thursday night's
winner Layne Riggs. Heim will clinch the Round of 10 by starting the race Saturday in New Hampshire. Daniel Hemric finished fifth and stays in third. Ty Majeski moved up two places to fourth after finishing fourth. Grant Enfinger and Tyler Ankrum are tied for fifth. Enfinger wins the tiebreaker based on his
finish in Darlington. Ankrum was spun out early on and finished 20th while Enfinger was 21st. Kaden Honeycutt is up three places to seventh after finishing 12th. Rajah Caruth finished 15th and slipped down to eighth, the last spot in the Round of 8 on points. Caruth has a 14-point lead over Jake Garcia. Garcia won stage one Friday night, then
had a piece fall off the bottom of his engine that put him in the garage. Chandler Smith dropped to 10th after having ECU issues. Outside of the playoffs, Ben Rhodes finished second and expanded his advantage over Gio Ruggiero to 20 points. Tanner Gray finished sixth and stays in 13th. Connor Mosack is 14th,
followed by Matt Crafton and the idle Stewart Friesen. Round of 10 Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 2177, 2) Layne Riggs -61, 3) Daniel Hemric -82, 4) Ty Majeski -87, t-5) Grant
Enfinger -104, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -104, 7) Kaden Honeycutt -115, 8) Rajah Caruth -119, 9) Jake Garcia -133, 10) Chandler Smith -144. Round of 10 Owner Point Standings: 1) TRICON Garage No. 11 2177, 2) Front Row Motorsports No. 34
-61, 3) McAnally Hilgemann Racing No. 19 -83, 4) ThorSport Racing No. 98 -88, 5) CR7 Motorsports No. 9 -105, 6) McAnally Hilgemann Racing No. 18 -106, 7) Spire Motorsports No. 7 -107, 8) Halmar Friesen Racing No. 52 -113, 9) Spire Motorsports No. 71 -119, 10) Front Row Motorsports No. 38 -143. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 960, 2) Layne Riggs -212, 3) Ty Majeski -283, 4) Daniel Hemric -289, 5) Chandler Smith -302, 6) Grant Enfinger -312, 7) Tyler Ankrum
-333, 8) Kaden Honeycutt -341, 9) Ben Rhodes -402, 10) Jake Garcia -408, 11) Gio Ruggiero -422, 12) Tanner Gray -468, 13) Rajah Caruth -469, 14) Connor Mosack -517, 15) Matt Crafton -553, 16) Stewart Friesen
-563. Best of the Rest: 11) Ben Rhodes 558, 12) Gio Ruggiero -20, 13) Tanner Gray -66, 14) Connor Mosack -115, 15) Matt Crafton -151, 16) Stewart Friesen -161, 17) Andres Perez
-162, 18) Matt Mills -192, 19) Jack Wood -212, 20) Dawson Sutton -217. Playoff Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 72, 2) Layne Riggs -40, 3) Chandler Smith -53, 4) Daniel
Hemric -61, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -62, t-5) Ty Majeski -62, 7) Grant Enfinger -65, 8) Rajah Caruth -67, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -69, 10) Jake Garcia -70. Stage Points: 1) Corey Heim
302, 2) Layne Riggs -116, 3) Kaden Honeycutt -140, 4) Ty Majeski -145, 5) Chandler Smith -155, 6) Grant Enfinger -175, 7) Tyler Ankrum -198, 8) Daniel Hemric -200, 9) Ben Rhodes -213, 10) Jake Garcia
-223, 11) Connor Mosack -231, 12) Tanner Gray -242, 13) Gio Ruggiero -244, 14) Stewart Friesen -245, 15) Rajah Caruth -247, 16) Matt Crafton -274. Note: If he were eligible for
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Carson Hocevar would be 16th in stage points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 595, 2) Daniel Hemric -101, 3) Layne Riggs -106, 4) Grant Enfinger -146, 5) Tyler Ankrum
-147, 6) Ty Majeski -150, 7) Chandler Smith -157, 8) Gio Ruggiero -189, 9) Jake Garcia -197, 10) Ben Rhodes -201, 11) Kaden Honeycutt -210, 12) Rajah Caruth -232, 13) Tanner Gray -242, 14) Andres Perez
-293, 15) Matt Crafton -294, 16) Connor Mosack -301. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 3251, 2) Daniel Hemric -371, 3) Layne Riggs -391, 4) Grant Enfinger -528, 5) Ty
Majeski -540, 6) Tyler Ankrum -541, 7) Chandler Smith -583, 8) Gio Ruggiero -686, 9) Jake Garcia -723, 10) Ben Rhodes -727, 11) Kaden Honeycutt -775, 12) Rajah Caruth -827, 13) Tanner Gray -867, 14) Matt Crafton
-1052, 15) Andres Perez -1056, 16) Connor Mosack -1074. Race Winners: Corey Heim (Daytona, Las Vegas, Texas, Charlotte, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Richmond, Darlington), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Homestead), Daniel Hemric (Martinsville), Chandler Smith (Bristol-1, North
Wilkesboro), Tyler Ankrum (Rockingham), Carson Hocevar (Kansas), Rajah Caruth (Nashville), Stewart Friesen (Michigan), Layne Riggs (Pocono, Lucas Oil IRP, Bristol-2) 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 Bass Pro Shops Night Race was brought to you by the Letter C for Cooler Temperatures. Track temperatures were low enough that the track couldn't take rubber Saturday night. Chaos
ensued. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Bass Pro Shops Night Race compiled by Phil Allaway
"Well, I’ll tell you what, I was nervous on the twos. I didn’t know if I wanted to be on the bottom or the top, and whenever Brad (Keselowski) picked the top, he didn’t really give me an option. I had to pick the bottom. All night long, I don’t know, old tires just really, really pushed up in the middle of the corners, so I was hoping that those guys on old tires would push up, and they
did. They did, and I was able to get by or get underneath them. It wasn’t pretty there at the end, but we got her done." - Christopher Bell, race winner
"Jeremy Bullins, my crew chief, played the strategy really well. We did all the things we needed to do to be in position and was really happy with where we were for the last restart. [Carson Hocevar] didn’t get a good launch and then [Zane Smith]
missed the corner and cleared him up and the bottom lane took off. It was a 50/50 shot and, like everything else, got the wrong one." - Brad Keselowski, finished second
"Hat’s off to this whole group at FRM. It’s kind of a home race for our team owner, Bob Jenkins, and it was really cool to have a couple Fords up there battling for it. I could just taste it, but it was crazy there on old tires and
a few things just didn’t quite play out.
"I felt like I did a pretty good job on that restart, but you’re just so loose. I got so loose. I don’t know. You’re picking up marbles there on the back and pulling it up into [Carson Hocevar] and unfortunately that kind of lost our fighting chance." - Zane Smith, finished third
"Everyone [had to work for it tonight]. It was another one of those things where we thought we knew what the tire was gonna do and it did something completely different. I guess that’s happened multiple times and that makes for an exciting race and trying to figure it out on the fly and what to expect what to do and how to strategize and all that stuff. It was a wild night. I wish we wouldn’t have run so many laps under caution. The middle part of that race, two
thirds of that race was kind of getting pretty boring, but we were really fast all night. It’s nice to win a stage and good to come home fourth. Overall, I’m really, really proud of the night and the effort. We’ll go on to Loudon next week. I’m looking forward to it." - Ryan Blaney, finished fourth "On that long run towards the end we were able to drive up to the lead
and those cars in front of us, they were tanking before me. They were getting to the cords before me and so I felt like we had a good shot because they all pitted as soon as they got the cords, and I felt like that was gonna give me a good chance to maybe win the race if it stayed green there because the 6 was falling off hard. He was seven or eight tenths off the last two laps. [Ryan Blaney] was starting to tank as well, so I was feeling like I was gonna get them back and then the caution came
out and we were out of tires. We had to put old tires back on it, so, overall, a top five and two top fives in a row, which at this point of the season we need to be doing that kind of stuff. I’m proud of the team and proud of the execution. I felt like the win was right there in front of us, but just couldn’t quite grab it." - Joey Logano, finished fifth "Yeah, a
good result there. Once everyone kind of realized the situation with the tires, we adjusted accordingly and did all of the right things and kept ourselves in it all day. It was a claw to get back on the lead lap after we had a right front go down in stage one, but can’t thank these 23XI Racing guys enough – they stuck with it. Thank you to Toyota and Robinhood for all of the support that went into my five Cup races this year. All the ups and downs that we had – to end on a high note is pretty
special. Hopefully we can take that and move forward." - Corey Heim, finished sixth "It sucks, but we had a shot to win. We can only control what we can control. We don’t have a crystal ball up there with the yellows. I am just proud of this No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet team. We got caught out really early, and we were able to execute there with tire saving,
managing and just executing at a top caliber. If things go green there, we would have had a huge tire advantage, but it just didn’t work out. I’m just super proud of this group. There were a lot of times where I felt like we had a shot to win races, and we were 30th. Man, obviously we really wanted that one to work out there or at least see if it would have, especially for a new pit crew. This team really wants to win, and you can only ask for shots." - Carson Hocevar, finished
seventh "When we had some green-flag runs, I thought our No. 48 Ally Chevy was really good. It just cycled really poorly on restarts. I would drive off into turn one and just hope to make the corner. For whatever reason, it just wouldn’t take off, and then after five laps or so, it would go again. I just couldn’t figure it out if it was something I was doing. I felt like
I was cleaning the tires off too much sometimes, so I don’t really know what we lacked there. "Just proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for the fight. We obviously had a shot at it if we would have gone green to the end. We had a good Ally Chevy compared to yesterday. We made some gains on it and still have some gains we need to make." - Alex Bowman, finished
eighth "It was definitely a wild night. We had a really good Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Toyota. Thought starting back there was going to be a huge determent – but honestly, how the race played out it was alright I guess. Crazy race. I didn’t have that one on the bingo card going into tonight. I don’t know if anyone did – truthfully. I don’t know. It was wild. I don’t know –
I’m still processing what we just did. I wish that last caution wouldn’t have come out. It kind of trapped us – we had just came down pit road. That is the hard part on races like that – one untimely caution can change your whole race. Congrats to Christopher [Bell] – obviously pretty cool that Joe Gibbs Racing] swept that first round, and hopefully we can do that in the next round." - Chase Briscoe, finished ninth "We only had one run that I felt like was weird with the scuffs. Other than that, all the tires felt pretty normal. It was just so weird and hard to predict. It was just chaotic. From around 10th on back, there were just people running into each other, and then you had differences in tires. If they were four laps different, you just couldn’t make the corner and wrecks would happen everywhere." - William Byron, finished
12th "[Joey Logano] got position on me. I thought I was doing the smart thing just trying to get back to the bottom. I guess I thought I was clear back down in line. I visually saw the gap, so I just tried to get back in line and I got a huge shot from behind. I’m not sure if [John Hunter Nemechek] got pushed in there or he wasn’t expecting me to come back to the bottom
or what the reasoning was, but nonetheless, it happened and it’s done." - Chase Elliott, finished 38th (Crashed out) "Maybe seven or eight laps before we came down pit road we started getting some smoke in the cockpit, and then the longer I went the darker the smoke got and then, obviously, by the time we got on pit road it was completely black smoke. Something
obviously caught on fire, so probably once again a car burned up for no reason.
"I don’t think the fire made it inside the cockpit. It was just a lot of smoke. It seemed like the fire stayed in the fender well, which is a good thing, but it’s just disappointing again. The car was really good. That was gonna fall right into our wheelhouse, I feel like, to have a really good night. We were able to make it
pretty long on that first set and we were gonna be set up in a really good spot. This one is gonna be hard to watch because that looks like it’s gonna be a lot of fun." - Josh Berry, finished 39th (Fire)
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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