Frontstretch Newsletter: April 20, 2026
Volume
XX, Edition LIX |
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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- NASCAR teams will be arriving back at their shops today after hauling halfway across the continent from Kansas. Entry lists for Talladega will be released later today. We will have the entry lists and anything else that breaks for you today at Frontstretch. |
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| Tyler Reddick Wins AdventHealth 400 at
Kansas Tyler Reddick was able to sweep around Kyle Larson on the final lap Sunday to win the AdventHealth 400. Larson was second, followed by Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace. |
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| Overtime Denies Denny Hamlin Once More at
Kansas Denny Hamlin was within 45 seconds of victory Sunday in Kansas. Then, Cody Ware spun to bring out a yellow and threw his race upside down. |
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| Trackhouse Racing’s Rebuilding Period Rages
On Sunday's AdventHealth 400 was a miserable experience for Trackhouse Racing. None of their teams finished better than 26th and the drivers struggled with grip all weekend. |
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| Here’s What Happened in the JGR vs. Chris Gabehart/Spire
Lawsuit This Week (April 11-17) In court last week, Joe Gibbs Racing accused Chris Gabehart of violating his restraining order by traveling to Bristol and working with Spire Motorsports. |
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| Taylor Gray Holds Off Sheldon Creed to Win O’Reilly Kansas
Race Taylor Gray took the lead during the final round of stops Saturday night, then held on to win the Kansas Lottery 300. Sheldon Creed was second, then Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love and Brent Crews. |
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| Carson Kvapil Flips on 2nd Lap of O’Reilly Race at
Kansas Saturday night's Kansas Lottery 300 started off with a bang. Contact on lap 2 saw Carson Kvapil spin exiting turn 2, then get launched into a flip by Parker Retzlaff. |
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| Austin Hill, Jesse Love Tangle Early at
Kansas It's said that one of the worst things you can do in racing is crash with your teammate. That's what happened Saturday night with Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill and Jesse Love. |
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| Sheldon Creed Unable to Catch Taylor Gray But Continues
Stellar Start to 2026 Finishing second not too long ago would have been quite frustrating for Sheldon Creed. Now, it's just another good for him at Kansas. |
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| Alex Palou Pounces To Snag Win at Long
Beach Alex Palou beat Felix Rosenqvist out of the pits during the race's only caution Sunday. He then pulled away to win the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Rosenqvist was second, then Scott Dixon, Kyle Kirkwood and Patricio O'Ward. |
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| Caution Ruins Rinus VeeKay’s Strategic Gamble at Long
Beach Sunday's Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was caution-free until a piece of debris exiting the Fountain brought one out. Rinus VeeKay was convinced that he was on a winning strategy prior to that. |
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| Nolan Siegel Bounces Back as the Biggest Mover at Long
Beach Arrow McLaren's Nolan Siegel charged from the rear of the field Sunday to finish 12th in Long Beach. |
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| Gio Ruggiero Wins ARCA Race at Kansas in
Overtime Gio Ruggiero controversially created a caution, then took the lead on the final restart to win Saturday's Tide 150. Daniel Dye was second, then Jake Bollman, Gavan Boschele and Lanie Buice. |
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| Meyer Shank Racing Scores IMSA Long Beach Victory From
Pole Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly scored a strong victory in Saturday's IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in their Acura ARX-06, their first victory since Detroit last year. |
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| Toyota Racing Wins 6 Hours of
Imola Toyota Racing's Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa won Sunday's FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Imola, the first win for the trio since Bahrain in 2024. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via David Jensen of Getty Images, DPPI, and our own Danny Peters and Stephen Stumpf. Have news for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at [email protected] with a promising
lead or tip. |
Around the World in Motorsports: April 17-19 |
- For World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams, last weekend wasn't all that fun. Friday night's Hy-Vee Perks 40 at Jacksonville Speedway was postponed due to severe weather. For now, officials are trying to find a replacement for it. The Southern Indiana Showdown also got rained out Saturday night. However, they postponed the race and held it Sunday night. Sunday night in Haubstadt, Ind. saw Tyler Courtney
rise up to the lead from fourth. Meanwhile, Buddy Kofoid struggled early on and dropped to 10th. From there, he went on a run to catch Courtney in the closing laps. The two drivers ran side-by-side on the backstretch on what was supposed to be the final lap when contact was made. Kofoid ended up spinning out and breaking pieces that ended his night. That set up a Green-White-Checker restart. From there, Courtney held off Emerson Axsom for the win. Sheldon Haudenschild was third, followed by Brady Bacon and Garet Williamson. David Gravel continues to lead the points by 46 over Carson Macedo. Kofoid is third, then
Haudenschild and Donny Schatz. - The Interstate Batteries High Limit Sprint Car Series had to deal with the same severe weather Friday night that wiped out qualifying for both the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series. As a result, the Hasty Bake Kansas City Clash has been postponed to Oct. 9. Saturday night saw the series move on to Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. for the Diamond Classic. Here, Kerry Madsen
claimed the pole after winning the FK Rod Ends Dash. From there, he led all 30 laps to take the victory. Sye Lynch finished second, followed by Tanner Holmes and Daison Pursley. Hank Davis was fifth. In the points, Tanner Thorson finished 11th and
holds a 27-point lead over Aaron Reutzel. Rico Abreu is third, then Giovanni Scelzi and Tyler Courtney. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Kansas and Long Beach last weekend. For more from Kansas, Long Beach, 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 Chase: Tyler Reddick Expands Advantage With 5th Win
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick made a last-lap pass Sunday on Kyle Larson to win the AdventHealth 400 for his fifth win of the year. With the victory, Reddick's lead is back above a full race. It is now 105 points over his team owner Denny
Hamlin, who moved up a spot after finishing fourth. Ryan Blaney had an incident on pit road with AJ Allmendinger, then dropped back to a 24th-place finish. As a result, he's down to third. Ty Gibbs followed up his win with a ninth-place finish and retains fourth. Larson finished second and moved up a place to fifth. Larson
jumped over his teammate Chase Elliott, who finished eighth. William Byron and Bubba Wallace are tied for seventh. Byron wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his third-place finish at Las Vegas. He finished seventh while Wallace was fifth. Brad Keselowski is up two positions to ninth after a sixth-place finish.
Christopher Bell was right there in contention for the win, but hit the wall on the final restart, then spun. The 20th-place finish dropped him down to 10th. Chris Buescher finished 10th, but dropped one place to 11th. Carson Hocevar is up to 12th. Ryan Preece has sole possession of 13th after an 11th-place finish.
Joey Logano struggled to a 30th-place finish and is now down to 14th. Chase Briscoe enters the top 16 for the first time this season in 15th, while Daniel Suarez is 16th, the last driver in the Chase on points. Suarez has a 13-point lead over Austin Cindric, who gained a spot after finishing 12th. Shane van
Gisbergen had a miserable day Sunday. A 36th-place finish dropped him back to 18th. Michael McDowell is still 19th, while Ross Chastain moved back up to 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 457, 2) Denny Hamlin
-105, 3) Ryan Blaney -120, 4) Ty Gibbs -138, 5) Kyle Larson -143, 6) Chase Elliott -152, t-7) William Byron -182, t-7) Bubba Wallace -182, 9) Brad Keselowski -193, 10) Christopher Bell -196, 11) Chris Buescher
-198, 12) Carson Hocevar -220, 13) Ryan Preece -222, 14) Joey Logano -232, 15) Chase Briscoe -243, 16) Daniel Suarez -247. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for
points. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 91, 2) Denny Hamlin -8, 3) Ryan Blaney -10, 4) Tyler Reddick -17, 5) Bubba Wallace -20, 6) Christopher Bell -27, 7) Ty Gibbs
-32, 8) William Byron -36, 9) Austin Cindric -42, t-10) Joey Logano -45, t-10) Chase Elliott -45, 12) Chris Buescher -48, 13) Carson Hocevar -49, 14) Brad Keselowski -58, 15) Chase Briscoe -59, 16) Daniel Suarez
-65. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 19) Ryan Preece -69. Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at Daytona.
2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 382, 2) Denny Hamlin -45, 3) Ryan Blaney -60, 4) Kyle Larson -68, 5) Ty Gibbs -78, 6) Chase Elliott -92, t-7) William Byron -107, t-7) Bubba Wallace
-107, 9) Brad Keselowski -118, 10) Christopher Bell -121, 11) Chris Buescher -123, 12) Carson Hocevar -145, 13) Ryan Preece -147, 14) Joey Logano -157, 15) Chase Briscoe -168, 16) Daniel Suarez -172. Note: These point standings are from the previous point system used from 2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 346, 2) Denny Hamlin -52, 3) Chase Elliott -62, 4) Ty Gibbs
-63, 5) Ryan Blaney -64, 6) Brad Keselowski -75, 7) Kyle Larson -80, 8) William Byron -86, 9) Chris Buescher -91, 10) Ryan Preece -96, 11) Bubba Wallace -104, 12) Christopher Bell -109, 13) Carson Hocevar -111, 14) Daniel Suarez
-125, 15) Chase Briscoe -127, 16) Joey Logano -128. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points
(1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 1454, 2) Denny Hamlin -153, 3) Ty Gibbs -190, 4) Ryan Blaney -195, 5) Chase Elliott -197, 6) Kyle Larson -236, 7) Brad Keselowski -247, 8) William Byron -277, 9) Chris Buescher -311, 10) Christopher
Bell -336, 11) Ryan Preece -337, 12) Bubba Wallace -344, 13) Carson Hocevar -360, 14) Chase Briscoe -395, 15) Joey Logano -406, 16) Daniel Suarez -418. Note: The WC points are based on the original
points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: Tyler Reddick (Daytona, Atlanta, Austin, Darlington, Kansas), Ryan Blaney (Phoenix), Denny Hamlin (Las Vegas), Chase Elliott (Martinsville), Ty Gibbs (Bristol)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff
eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via
David Jensen of Getty Images.
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Seeking the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase: Justin Allgaier Stands Pat After Strong Kansas Run
by Phil Allaway
Justin Allgaier finished third Saturday night in Kansas. That allowed him to more or less stand pat. His lead increased just slightly to 131 points over Sheldon Creed, who finished second. Jesse Love finished fourth and stays in third. Corey Day lost a little ground with a 12th-place finish, but stays fourth. Brandon Jones is up three places to fifth after winning the first two stages before dropping to eighth. Sammy Smith is up one place to sixth despite a 16th-place finish. Carson Kvapil flipped on lap 2 and dropped two places to seventh. Austin Hill crashed out and dropped two places to eighth. Taylor Gray earned his first win of 2026 and used that to move up three places to ninth. William Sawalich, despite crashing with Hill, stays in 10th. Parker Retzlaff slipped two spots to 11th after launching Kvapil and crashing out. Rajah Caruth dropped one place to 12th, the last driver in the Chase at the moment. Caruth has a 25-point lead over Ryan Sieg, who finished 10th. Sam Mayer is still in 14th, followed by Brennan Poole. Brent Crews finished fifth and moved up two places to 16th. Despite missing three races due to age at the beginning of the year, he is only 64 points behind Caruth. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 520, 2) Sheldon Creed -131, 3) Jesse Love -149, 4) Corey Day -176, 5) Brandon Jones -196, 6) Sammy Smith -210, 7) Carson Kvapil -219, 8) Austin Hill
-224, 9) Taylor Gray -226, 10) William Sawalich -249, 11) Parker Retzlaff -262, 12) Rajah Caruth -266, 13) Ryan Sieg -291, 14) Sam Mayer -295, 15) Brennan Poole -321, 16) Brent Crews -330. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 151, 2) Jesse Love -59, 3) Brandon Jones -64, 4) Carson Kvapil -69, 5) Sheldon Creed -84, 6) Corey Day -86, t-7) Austin Hill -100, t-7) Taylor Gray -100, 9) William Sawalich
-104, 10) Rajah Caruth -105, 11) Sam Mayer -107, 12) Sammy Smith -109, 13) Brent Crews -116, 14) Parker Retzlaff -119, 15) Anthony Alfredo -130, 16) Ryan Sieg -135. Note: If he were
eligible for NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series points, Kyle Larson would be ninth in stage points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 475, 2) Sheldon Creed -101, 3) Jesse Love -104, 4) Corey Day -131, 5) Brandon Jones -151, 6) Sammy Smith
-165, 7) Carson Kvapil -174, 8) Austin Hill -194, 9) Taylor Gray -196, 10) Parker Retzlaff -217, 11) William Sawalich -219, 12) Rajah Caruth -221, 13) Ryan Sieg -246, 14) Sam Mayer -250, 15) Brennan Poole
-276, 16) Brent Crews -285. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 368, 2) Sheldon Creed -19, 3) Jesse Love -43, 4) Corey Day
-44, 5) Sammy Smith -58, 6) Brandon Jones -85, 7) Austin Hill -93, 8) Taylor Gray -97, 9) Parker Retzlaff -102, 10) Carson Kvapil -107, 11) Ryan Sieg
-114, 12) Rajah Caruth -117, 13) William Sawalich -118, 14) Brennan Poole -129, 15) Sam Mayer -144, 16) Jeb Burton -152. WC
Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 1596, 2) Sheldon Creed -79, 3) Jesse Love -162, 4) Corey Day -171, 5) Sammy Smith -219, 6) Brandon Jones -305, 7) Austin Hill -334, 8) Taylor Gray -360, 9) Carson Kvapil -371, 10) Parker Retzlaff
-377, 11) Ryan Sieg -414, 12) Rajah Caruth -419, 13) William Sawalich -422, 14) Brennan Poole -478, 15) Sam Mayer -498, 16) Jeb Burton -542. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Sheldon
Creed (Atlanta), Shane van Gisbergen (Austin), Justin Allgaier (Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas), William Sawalich (Rockingham), Connor Zilisch (Bristol), Taylor Gray (Kansas) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase: Off-Week Update No. 4
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will return to action at Texas Motor Speedway May 1 for the SpeedyCash.com 250. When the series arrives in Texas, Chandler Smith will have a slim one-point lead over Kaden Honeycutt. The part-time
Corey Heim is tied for third with Layne Riggs, while Christian Eckes is fifth. Since Heim is ineligible for the Chase due to missing two races, Stewart Friesen in 11th is the final driver currently in the playoffs. He has a three-point lead over Tyler Ankrum. Tanner Gray is 13th, then Brenden
Queen, Grant Enfinger and Daniel Hemric. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 208, 2) Kaden Honeycutt -1, t-3) Corey Heim -4, t-3) Layne Riggs -4, 5) Christian Eckes
-17, 6) Gio Ruggiero -21, 7) Ty Majeski -26, 8) Ben Rhodes -27, 9) Jake Garcia -62, 10) Justin Haley -64, 11) Stewart Friesen -68, 12) Tyler Ankrum -71, 13) Tanner Gray -85, 14) Brenden Queen -88, 15) Grant
Enfinger -89, 16) Daniel Hemric -92. Stage Points: 1) Layne Riggs 58, t-2) Layne Riggs -2, t-2) Kaden Honeycutt -2, 4) Corey Heim -4, t-5) Christian Eckes -15, t-5) Ben Rhodes
-15, 7) Chandler Smith -25, 8) Gio Ruggiero -35, 9) Tanner Gray -36, t-10) Stewart Friesen -39, t-10) Jake Garcia -39, 12) Landen Lewis -41, 13) Tyler Ankrum -46, t-14) Grant Enfinger -49, t-14) Andres Perez
-49, t-14) Connor Mosack -49. Outside of the top 16, but still in the Chase: 17) Justin Haley -50. Note: If they were eligible, Carson Hocevar would be seventh and Kyle Busch ninth. Ross Chastain would be 15th and
Michael McDowell would be tied for 16th in stage points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kaden Honeycutt 207, 2) Chandler Smith -14, 3) Christian Eckes -16, 4) Layne Riggs -18, 5) Gio Ruggiero
-20, 6) Ty Majeski -25, 7) Ben Rhodes -26, 8) Corey Heim -33, 9) Jake Garcia -61, 10) Justin Haley -63, 11) Stewart Friesen -67, 12) Tyler Ankrum -70, 13) Tanner Gray -84, 14) Brenden Queen
-87, 15) Grant Enfinger -88, 16) Daniel Hemric -91. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 141, 2) Gio Ruggiero -1, 3) Kaden Honeycutt -9, 4) Christian Eckes
-10, 5) Ben Rhodes -19, 6) Justin Haley -27, 7) Layne Riggs -33, 8) Corey Heim -35, t-9) Ty Majeski -37, t-9) Jake Garcia -37, 11) Tyler Ankrum -40, 12) Stewart Friesen -43, 13) Brenden Queen
-47, t-14) Grant Enfinger -54, t-14) Daniel Hemric -54, 16) Andres Perez -59. WC Points (1-16): 1) Gio Ruggiero 842, 2) Chandler Smith -10, 3) Kaden Honeycutt
-20, 4) Christian Eckes -40, 5) Ben Rhodes -76, t-6) Layne Riggs -111, t-6) Justin Haley -111, 8) Ty Majeski -117, 9) Jake Garcia -133, 10) Tyler Ankrum -148, 11) Stewart Friesen -152, 12) Brenden
Queen -171, 13) Grant Enfinger -184, 14) Daniel Hemric -198, 15) Andres Perez -208, 16) Tanner Gray -220. Race Winners: Chandler Smith (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Layne Riggs (St. Petersburg), Corey
Heim (Darlington, Rockingham), Christopher Bell (Bristol) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's AdventHealth 400 was brought to you by the letter C for Clean Racing. Until Cody Ware spun out on lap 266, the only interruptions to the race were the two stage breaks. The vast majority of the field
kept themselves out of trouble and no one went behind the wall all day. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: AdventHealth 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"It was really chaotic. We had a decent launch on [Denny Hamlin]. [Kyle Larson] put him middle of the three, and then [Christopher Bell] got to my outside – yeah, we all ran out of real estate off of turn 2. It’s a bummer I got Christopher there, and pretty much took his shot of winning the race or running top-five like he did, away. "So that one in the moment stings, and you just have to put it behind you really fast and go and win the race for Toyota. I was glad we were able to get back to [Larson]. I was really surprised we had that kind of grip on those right sides, but I took advantage of it and was able to make the move." - Tyler Reddick, race winner
"It was a good execution on the restart there at the end. I got to the lead and I thought I could cruise right there to the checkered flag, but my balance on two tires was just super, super tight. I didn’t get through [turns] 3 and 4 fast enough, and then ][Tyler Reddick] had such a big run on me from behind. I thought I could go to the top to get some load into my front tires, but it still didn’t turn there. That was a bummer, but just overall happy with the day we
had." - Kyle Larson, finished second "Great call by James [Small] there to be on offense. We were not very good. We ran about 10th all day long. We were able to make something out of it in the end on that restart. I would have loved to have another lap. I missed [Denny Hamlin] – I didn’t quite clear him and it messed both of our momentums up, and it made it where I
couldn’t make a move there in the end. I wouldn’t say we are proud of that effort. We kind of got lucky with that caution – we were going to run 12th with two to go, so glad we were able to turn it around and see if we can build on it." - Chase Briscoe, finished third "I mean, obviously it’s not winning. It’s Cody Ware, six laps down wrecking. I don’t know. It just
added up. I feel like it was the same move that [Kyle Larson] got me a couple years ago when I was on the inside. I got to learn from those mistakes that I make, not executing those last few laps." - Denny Hamlin, finished fourth
"I thought once we got past the bubble of eighth or ninth that we would really turn it up. We got to third and [Tyler Reddick] passed me like I was on jackstands and I’m
like never mind (laughter). We are still missing something but hats off to the team. What an incredible year that we are all putting together. It’s an honor to be a part of a good race team with good race cars. It’s a lot of fun. I want it more. I’m pissed that he won; I’m getting tired of it (laughter). No, happy for him. Happy for the team. Pumped for Boys and Girls Club; gave them a good run. Appreciate them coming on board and all of the partners that came on board with then. It was a solid
weekend from start to finish, not much you can hang your hat on." - Bubba Wallace, finished fifth
"Today was a struggle honestly. We made some major changes part way through the race and that helped set us up for that last restart. I just appreciate my guys when they keep digging no matter the situation." - William Byron, finished seventh
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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