Frontstretch Newsletter: Oct. 13, 2025
Volume
XIX, Edition CLXXXI |
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
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- The NTT IndyCar Series is holding a test session today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mick Schumacher will be there, driving a Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan No. 75 to get his first taste of 230 mph speeds. - Teams are en route back to their shops today and are preparing for this
weekend's action in Talladega. We'll have the entry lists for this weekend's events and everything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Denny Hamlin Scores 60th Career Win at Las
Vegas Denny Hamlin took the lead from Chase Briscoe with four laps to go Sunday, then pulled away to win the South Point 400. Kyle Larson was second, then Christopher Bell, Briscoe and Tyler Reddick. |
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| Ty Dillon, William Byron Disagree on What Happened in Las
Vegas Crash The scariest moment in Sunday's South Point 400 occurred when William Byron ran unabated into the back of Ty Dillon, who was coming to pit road. There is a discrepancy in the communication that did or did not happen before the
wreck. |
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| Chase Briscoe Falls 4 Laps Short of Vegas Win,
Championship 4 Berth With 2-Tire Call When the leaders came down pit road for their final stops Sunday, Chase Briscoe got the lead by taking only two tires. He held onto the lead until lap 264 before dropping back to fourth. |
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| Here’s What Happened in the 23XI/FRM vs NASCAR Anti-Trust
Case This Week (Oct. 4-10) The lawsuit between 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR could be coming to a close. NASCAR has requested and has been granted a settlement conference. |
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| Aric Almirola Bests Connor Zilisch in Xfinity at Las
Vegas Joe Gibbs Racing's Aric Almirola led 107 laps and swept the stages en route to victory in the Focused Health 302 in Las Vegas Saturday. Connor Zilisch was second, then Justin Allgaier, Corey Day and Nick Sanchez. |
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| Aric Almirola to Replace Justin Bonsignore in No. 19 at
Phoenix After winning Saturday's Focused Health 302, Aric Almirola announced during his post-race press conference that he will drive the No. 19 in Phoenix to try to win the owners championship. |
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| Jesse Love Confronts Nick Sanchez on Pit Road After Las
Vegas Run-In Jesse Love and Nick Sanchez had significant contact on the final restart Saturday afternoon while fighting for third. Afterwards, Love was upset with Sanchez and confronted him on pit road. |
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| Connor Mosack Replacing Matt DiBenedetto at
Viking Viking Motorsports announced Monday morning that Matt DiBenedetto has been released. Connor Mosack will drive the No. 99 Chevrolet for the remainder of the season. |
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| Action Express Racing Wins Motul Petit Le
Mans The Action Express Racing trio of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti won the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta Saturday night for their second straight win. |
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| Ibiza Farm Sweeps Weekend, Wins FOX Factory
120 Ibiza Farm Motorsports' Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky topped every IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge session at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta en route to victory in Friday's FOX Factory 120. |
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| Trevor Huddleston Wins ARCA West Race in Las
Vegas Trevor Huddleston led 105 laps Saturday night and held off Connor Hall on a late restart to win the rain-delayed ARCA Menards Series West Star Nursery 150. Robbie Kennealy was third, followed by Thomas Annunziata and Tanner Reif. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Lachlan Cunningham of ARCA Racing and our own Phil Allaway. 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: Oct. 10-12 |
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series spent last weekend in the northeast for their final visits for the season. First up was New Egypt Speedway in New Jersey. Here, Carson Macedo was able to sweep around Logan Schuchart on the opening lap Friday night and managed
to hold on to lead all 30 laps to win. He won by .996 seconds over Schuchart. David Gravel was third, then Buddy Kofoid and Sheldon Haudenschild. Saturday night saw the series move to Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Penn. for the final battle of the year against the Pennsylvania Posse. The Posse brought their A-game. Gravel started on the pole and held off an early charge from Anthony Macri. However, a caution just a lap into the race gave Macri a second chance. He took to the cushion and swept around the tight turns to snatch the lead. From there, he was able to pull away from the World of Outlaws regulars and held off
Chase Dietz to win the Keystone Showdown. He was .829 seconds ahead of Dietz at the finish. Kofoid was third, then Haudenschild and Troy Wagaman Jr. In the points, Gravel continues to lead, but a DNF Saturday night cut his lead down to 106 points over Kofoid. Macedo is third, then Schuchart and Haudenschild. - World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series teams were at Boothill Speedway over the weekend for the Bayou Classic. Friday night saw Bobby Pierce take the lead from pole sitter Cody Overton and drive away from the field. However, the whole complexion of the race changed when a debris caution flew on lap 13. That allowed Tim McCreadie to enter the mix. McCreadie passed Overton for second on the restart, then ran down Pierce for the lead. Another caution bunched the field up and allowed Cade Dillard to briefly take the lead. McCreadie was able to dispatch of both Pierce and Dillard to take the advantage. From there, McCreadie held on for his second straight win. McCreadie won by 2.067 seconds over Pierce. Overton was third, then Nick Hoffman and Dennis Erb Jr. Saturday night saw Ryan Gustin win the pole for the 70-lap feature, then lead flag-to-flag while fighting a number of rivals to take the victory and a check for $50,000. Gustin ended up .409 seconds ahead of Pierce at the finish. Erb was third, then Overton and Brian Shirley. In the points, Pierce continues to lead by 124 points over Hoffman. Gustin is third, then McCreadie and Erb. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Las Vegas and Winchester last weekend. For more from Las Vegas, Winchester, 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: Denny Hamlin Locks Into Championship 4
by Phil Allaway
Denny Hamlin took the lead Sunday with four laps to go and held on to win the South Point 400. With that, he locked himself into the Championship 4. Hamlin expanded his lead in the Round of 8 to four
points over Kyle Larson, who led the most laps and finished second. Christopher Bell is up two places to third after a third-place finish. Chase Briscoe finished fourth and moved up two places to fourth, the final spot in the Championship 4 on points. Briscoe has a 15-point lead over William
Byron, who was eliminated in a rather bizarre crash while running second. Chase Elliott is still in sixth after an uncontrolled tire led to a drive-through penalty and a 18th-place finish. Joey Logano struggled for much of the race, but finished sixth and moved up one place to seventh. Ryan Blaney cut his left front tire and crashed out early, dropping him to eighth. Of those already eliminated from the playoffs, Tyler Reddick finished fifth and expanded his lead to 34 over teammate Bubba Wallace, who struggled to recover from a pit road speeding penalty. Ross Chastain is 111, then Shane van Gisbergen. Alex Bowman finished seventh and stays in seventh, followed by Austin Cindric and Austin Dillon. Josh Berry is 16th. Outside of the playoffs, Chris Buescher has a 71-point lead over teammate Ryan Preece. Ty Gibbs is
19th and Brad Keselowski 20th.
Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Denny Hamlin 4090, 2) Kyle Larson -4, 3) Christopher Bell -19, 4) Chase Briscoe -24, 5) William Byron -39, 6) Chase Elliott -47, 7) Joey Logano
-48, 8) Ryan Blaney -55.
Eliminated Driver Point Standings: 9) Tyler Reddick 2231, 10) Bubba Wallace -34, 11) Ross Chastain -45, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -85, 13) Alex Bowman -88, 14) Austin Cindric -111, 15) Austin Dillon -127,
16) Josh Berry -142.
Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 1072, 2) William Byron -1, 3) Christopher Bell -24, 4) Denny Hamlin -44, 5) Ryan Blaney
-46, 6) Chase Elliott -59, 7) Chase Briscoe -72, 8) Tyler Reddick -117, 9) Joey Logano -214, 10) Chris Buescher -225, 11) Bubba Wallace -244, 12) Alex Bowman -245, 13) Ross Chastain -263, 14) Ryan
Preece -296, 15) Ty Gibbs -385, 16) Brad Keselowski -389. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points. Best of the Rest (17-26): 17) Chris Buescher 847, 18) Ryan Preece -71, 19) Ty Gibbs -160, 20) Brad Keselowski -164, 21) Michael McDowell -179, 22) Kyle Busch -184, 23) Carson Hocevar -208, t-24) AJ Allmendinger
-209, t-24) Erik Jones -209, 26) John Hunter Nemechek -238. Playoff Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 41, 2) Ryan Blaney -7, t-3) Kyle Larson -8, t-3) William Byron
-8, 5) Christopher Bell -13, t-6) Chase Elliott -23, t-6) Chase Briscoe -23, 8) Joey Logano -33. Stage Points: 1) William Byron 299, 2) Ryan Blaney -15, 3) Kyle Larson -28, 4) Denny Hamlin -65, 5) Tyler Reddick -91, 6) Bubba Wallace -92, 7) Christopher Bell -111, 8) Chase Elliott -118, 9) Chase
Briscoe -129, 10) Alex Bowman -135, 11) Joey Logano -145, 12) Austin Cindric -165, 13) Carson Hocevar -172, 14) Ross Chastain -183, 15) Chris Buescher -198, 16) Brad Keselowski -209.
Note: The Stage Points include the Duels at Daytona. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 1003, 2) Chase Briscoe -22, 3) Chase Elliott -31, 4) Kyle
Larson -59, 5) Denny Hamlin -75, 6) William Byron -88, 7) Chris Buescher -111, 8) Tyler Reddick -116, 9) Ryan Blaney -118, 10) Joey Logano -151, 11) Ryan Preece -177, 12) Ross Chastain -179, 13) Alex Bowman
-196, 14) Bubba Wallace -239, 15) Michael McDowell -245, 16) Ty GIbbs -248. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Christopher Bell 4507, 2) Chase Briscoe -55, 3) Chase Elliott -140, 4) Kyle Larson -157, 5) Denny Hamlin -263, 6) William Byron
-287, 7) Ryan Blaney -358, 8) Tyler Reddick -414, 9) Chris Buescher -442, 10) Joey Logano -540, 11) Ryan Preece -633, 12) Alex Bowman -641, 13) Ross Chastain -650, 14) Bubba Wallace -791, 15) Ty Gibbs
-851, 16) Michael McDowell -861. Note: 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-1), Kyle Larson (Homestead, Bristol-1, Kansas-1), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville, Darlington-1, Michigan, Dover, Gateway, Las Vegas-2), Austin Cindric (Talladega), Joey Logano (Texas), Ross Chastain (Charlotte-1), Ryan Blaney (Nashville, Daytona-2, Loudon), Shane van Gisbergen (Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen,
Charlotte-2), Chase Briscoe (Pocono, Darlington-2), Chase Elliott (Atlanta-2, Kansas-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 Continues To Lead
by Phil Allaway
Connor Zilisch had a strong car Saturday, leading 34 laps and finishing second to Aric Almirola. No one locked into the driver's Championship 4 Saturday, but Almirola's win locked the No. 19 into the owners' Championship 4. The second-place finish allowed
Zilisch to expand his advantage to 38 points over Justin Allgaier, who finished third. Jesse Love is up two places to third after finishing sixth. Sam Mayer is still in fourth after a ninth-place finish. He is the last driver in the Championship 4 on points. Mayer has an eight-point lead over Brandon Jones, who dropped two spots
after a 13th-place finish. Sheldon Creed is up two positions to sixth after finishing 11th. Carson Kvapil is seventh, followed by Sammy Smith. Of those eliminated, Taylor Gray remains in ninth after an eighth-place finish. He has a six-point lead over Nick Sanchez. Austin Hill is 11th, then
Harrison Burton. Outside of the playoffs, Christian Eckes expanded his advantage up to 36 points over Jeb Burton despite an 18th-place finish. Ryan Sieg is one point behind Jeb, while Dean Thompson is 16th. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Connor Zilisch 3124, 2) Justin Allgaier -38, 3) Jesse Love -62, 4) Sam Mayer -74, 5) Brandon Jones -82, 6) Sheldon Creed -95, 7) Carson Kvapil -96, 8) Sammy Smith -98. Round of 8 Owner Point
Standings: 1) JR Motorsports No. 88 3129, 2) JR Motorsports No. 7 -43, 3) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 -58, 4) Richard Childress Racing No. 21 -65, 5) Richard Childress Racing No. 2 -67, 6) Richard Childress Racing No. 2 -62, 7) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 -87, 8) Haas Factory Team No. 00 -101. Eliminated Driver Point Standings: 9) Taylor Gray 2131, 10) Nick Sanchez -6, 11) Austin HIll -14, 12) Harrison Burton -48. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Connor Zilisch 1189, 2) Justin Allgaier
-81, 3) Sam Mayer -163, 4) Jesse Love -200, 5) Austin Hill -272, 6) Brandon Jones -315, 7) Carson Kvapil -339, 8) Taylor Gray -384, 9) Sheldon Creed -390, 10) Sammy Smith -412, 11) Nick Sanchez
-447, 12) Harrison Burton -465, 13) Christian Eckes -487, 14) Jeb Burton -523, 15) Ryan Sieg -524, 16) Dean Thompson -559. Best of the Rest: 13) Christian Eckes 702, 14) Jeb Burton -36,
15) Ryan Sieg -37, 16) Dean Thompson -72, 17) William Sawalich -74, 18) Daniel Dye -125, 19) Brennan Poole -132, 20) Aric Almirola -163, 21) Jeremy Clements -209, 22) Matt DiBenedetto -267, t-23) Anthony Alfredo -271, t-23) Parker Retzlaff -271. Playoff Points: 1) Connor Zilisch 71, 2) Justin Allgaier -33, 3) Brandon Jones -53, 4) Sam Mayer -55, 5) Jesse Love -57, 6) Sammy Smith -62, 7) Carson Kvapil -66, 8) Sheldon Creed -68. Note: 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 352, 2) Connor Zilisch -62, 3) Sam Mayer
-120, 4) Austin Hill -142, 5) Jesse Love -147, 6) Brandon Jones -166, 7) Sheldon Creed -180, 8) Carson Kvapil -195, 9) Aric Almirola -196, 10) Sammy Smith -198, 11) Taylor Gray -209, 12) Nick Sanchez
-217, 13) Ryan Sieg -251, 14) Christian Eckes -276, 15) William Sawalich -282, 16) Jeb Burton -290. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Connor Zilisch 1031, 2) Sam Mayer
-109, 3) Jesse Love -114, 4) Justin Allgaier -136, 5) Austin Hill -201, 6) Carson Kvapil -215, 7) Brandon Jones -216, 8) Harrison Burton -237, 9) Taylor Gray -246, 10) Sammy Smith -270, 11) Sheldon Creed
-279, 12) Christian Eckes -286, 13) Nick Sanchez -300, 14) Jeb Burton -306, 15) Dean Thompson -337, 16) Ryan Sieg -345. WC Points (1-16): 1) Connor Zilisch
4485, 2) Sam Mayer -354, 3) Jesse Love -381, 4) Justin Allgaier -405, 5) Austin Hill -692, 6) Brandon Jones -746, 7) Carson Kvapil -748, 8) Taylor Gray -823, 9) Harrison Burton -849, 10) Sheldon Creed
-931, 11) Sammy Smith -937, 12) Christian Eckes -973, 13) Nick Sanchez -1008, 14) Jeb Burton -1072, 15) Ryan Sieg -1166, 16) Dean Thompson -1179. 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, Charlotte-2), Aric Almirola (Phoenix, Bristol-2, Las Vegas-2), Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas-1, Homestead, Nashville), Brandon Jones (Darlington, Kansas), Kyle Larson (Bristol-1, Texas), Sammy Smith (Rockingham), William Byron (Charlotte), Daniel Suarez (Mexico City), 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: Off-Week Update No. 13
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will return to action Friday afternoon in Talladega. When the series returns to action, Corey Heim will have a 71-point lead over Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Hemric. He's already locked into
the Championship 4, but a decent run Friday will clinch the Round of 8 a race early. Rajah Caruth is fourth, the last driver in the Championship 4 on points. He has a one-point lead over Layne Riggs, followed by Ty Majeski and a tie for seventh between Grant Enfinger and Kaden Honeycutt. Round of 8 Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim 3122, t-2) Tyler Ankrum -71, t-2) Daniel Hemric -71, 4) Rajah Caruth -72, 5) Layne Riggs -73, 6) Ty Majeski -74, t-7) Grant Enfinger -76, t-7) Kaden Honeycutt -76. Eliminated Driver Point Standings: 9) Chandler Smith 2104, 10) Jake Garcia -19. Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 1064, 2) Layne Riggs -258, 3) Ty Majeski -309, 4) Daniel
Hemric -325, 5) Chandler Smith -336, 6) Grant Enfinger -345, 7) Kaden Honeycutt -365, 8) Tyler Ankrum -369, 9) Gio Ruggiero -450, 10) Jake Garcia -471, 11) Rajah Caruth -490, 12) Ben Rhodes -492, 13) Tanner Gray
-558, 14) Connor Mosack -593, 15) Andres Perez -628, 16) Matt Crafton -633. Best of the Rest: 11) Gio Ruggiero 614, 12) Ben Rhodes -42, 13) Tanner Gray -108, 14) Connor Mosack
-143, 15) Andres Perez -178, 16) Matt Crafton -183, 17) Matt Mills -212, 18) Stewart Friesen -217, 19) Dawson Sutton -224, 20) Jack Wood -238.
Playoff Point Standings: 1) Corey Heim
84, 2) Layne Riggs -52, 3) Daniel Hemric -73, t-4) Tyler Ankrum -74, t-4) Ty Majeski -74, 6) Grant Enfinger -77, 8) Rajah Caruth -79, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -79. Stage Points:
1) Corey Heim 325, 2) Layne Riggs -131, 3) Kaden Honeycutt -136, 4) Ty Majeski -151, 5) Chandler Smith -161, 6) Grant Enfinger -188, 7) Daniel Hemric -206, 8) Tyler Ankrum -207, 9) Ben Rhodes -236, 10) Jake
Garcia -240, 11) Rajah Caruth -247, 12) Connor Mosack -254, 13) Gio Ruggiero -258, 14) Tanner Gray -265, 15) Stewart Friesen -268, 16) Matt Crafton -297. 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 668, 2) Daniel Hemric -131, 3) Layne Riggs -137, 4) Grant Enfinger -165, 5) Ty Majeski
-170, 6) Tyler Ankrum -174, 7) Chandler Smith -185, 8) Gio Ruggiero -203, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -237, 10) Jake Garcia -243, 11) Rajah Caruth -252, 12) Ben Rhodes -264, 13) Tanner Gray -309, 14) Andres Perez
-346, 15) Connor Mosack -350, 16) Matt Crafton -351. WC Points (1-16): 1) Corey Heim 3616, 2) Daniel Hemric -479, 3) Layne Riggs -491, 4) Grant Enfinger -597, 5) Ty Majeski
-603, 6) Tyler Ankrum -638, 7) Chandler Smith -672, 8) Gio Ruggiero -726, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -868, 10) Jake Garcia -879, 11) Rajah Caruth -893, 12) Ben Rhodes -946, 13) Tanner Gray -1086, 14) Andres Perez
-1231, 15) Matt Crafton -1241, 16) Connor Mosack -1250. Race Winners: Corey Heim (Daytona, Las Vegas, Texas, Charlotte-1, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Richmond, Darlington, Loudon, Charlotte-2), 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: Sunday's South Point 400 was brought to you by the letter L for Lack of Movement. The majority of the playoff drivers qualified up front and stayed there all day. If you had issues, like Bubba
Wallace and Chase Elliott did, you couldn't really make up for it. Only a couple of drivers (Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch) were truly able to move up the order. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Bank of America ROVAL 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"In every off-season I try to put focus on getting better in one or two areas. Whatever the glaring thing is that is holding me back from winning more races, I try to focus on that, improving that, whatever that is. "So I don't know. I think this is as strong as JGR's cars have been in some time. I think that's a factor. I think Toyota is doing a fantastic job with everything they bring to the table. The cars are as good and as fast as they've ever been. I feel as good and as fast as I've ever been. "I never would have imagined winning a
pole at Vegas. This is just not in my wheelhouse of trying to go out there and get fast for one lap. I've never been a driver that's been fast for one lap. I noticed that it was something that could improve my chances of winning week in, week out, was focus on getting better in that part of the racing." - Denny Hamlin, race winner "I thought we did everything
that we could do. The Toyota’s were really fast for the short-run there. I saw [Denny Hamlin] line up behind me and I knew he’d be difficult to hold off. If any one of the Toyota’s got clear and could get rolling, I knew it would be tough. He did a great job, though. He still had to make the right moves, which he did. I felt like I was doing all I could to stay in front of him, while also trying to track down [Chase Briscoe]. We just came up a little bit short, but overall, it was a great day
for the No. 5 Chevrolet team." - Kyle Larson, finished second "I don’t know. Kind of déjà vu as last year. Just we were all a little bit at the beginning of the race, obviously got going pretty good there the second half of the race. I felt like at the second half, I had what I needed to go out there and win. I just didn’t do a good job on the restarts,
didn’t get through there. I don’t know. Feels a lot like last year. Hopefully we can execute the next two a little bit better than last year." - Christopher Bell, finished third "I was hanging on. Yeah, I thought I was in a really good spot there, the first three or four laps after the restart, my car drove really good. As I ran, I was just absolutely
sideways in our Bass Pro Shops Toyota. I thought there for a while when they were racing hard enough, maybe I was going to sneak one off on them. Just really loose at the end. Glad at least a [Joe Gibbs Racing] car won. That’s going to sting for a while." - Chase Briscoe, finished fourth "Really solid day for us and our Jordan Brand Camry. It was really,
really fast. Just not ultimately able to get the job done fortunately but it was nice to have the speed that we did and be at the front the majority of the day." - Tyler Reddick, finished fifth
"We had nothing to lose. We were kind of at the spot where we scored only a couple stage points, I think we were eighth and ninth in both stages and that’s not enough points to
points race I didn’t think, so Paul made a good call and put us on the front row. That’s all you can hope for and you hope the two tires are decent. You hope that you can get clean air and maybe block your butt off to where you can do something. I didn’t get the push down the backstretch. The 48 had the option of who to push and he went with the 19, unfortunately, and that was enough to shove him ahead into three and be able to clear me. At that point, it was just kind
of trying not to bleed very many spots there at the end. I was just trying to hang on to what I had there to get as many points as possible, so, overall, there were points in the race where I thought we were good enough to go up there and run with those guys on the long haul, and then the third stage we just got really loose and lost a ton of track position and it took us a minute to get the balance back." - Joey Logano, finished sixth
"Yeah, I never saw [Ty Dillon] wave. I didn’t see any indication that he was pitting. It was probably 12 to 15 laps after we had pitted, so I thought the cycle was fully over. Nobody said anything to my spotter, from what I know. I had zero idea. Everyone has been wrapping the paint really far around the corner and that’s what I was doing to have a good lap. I was watching him thinking – okay, he missed the bottom a little
bit here. He just started slowing and I had no idea what was going on. I’m just devastated. I had no indication. Obviously, I wouldn’t have just driven full-speed into the back of him like that." - William Byron, finished 36th (Crashed out) "No, I didn’t have any thoughts that it was gonna blow. As soon as I lifted into three it blew
out.
"I’m not overjoyed, I [can] tell you that. We’ll have to come from behind like we did last year. Hopefully, we can win one of the next two weeks. We just can’t have a smooth day it seems like." - Ryan Blaney, finished 38th (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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