Frontstretch Newsletter: May 4, 2026
Volume XX,
Edition LXIX |
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! |
- NASCAR teams are en route back to their shops today and preparations are in full swing for this weekend's action in Watkins Glen. Entry lists for Watkins Glen will be released later today. We will have the entry lists and anything else that breaks for you today at Frontstretch. |
|
| Chase Elliott Wins 2nd Race of the Season at
Texas Chase Elliott led a race-high 87 laps Sunday to win the Wurth 400, his second Texas win in three years. Denny Hamlin was second, then Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher. |
|
| Two-Time CART Series Champion Alex Zanardi Dies at
59 Alex Zanardi, two-time CART champion and multi-time Paralympics gold medalist, died Saturday morning at the age of 59. |
|
| Chris Buescher Prospers in Texas, Gets Long-Awaited Maiden
Top 5 at Home Chris Buescher has struggled at his home track in the past. That was not the case Sunday as he brought his Fifth Third Bank Ford home in fifth. |
|
| John Hunter Nemechek Calls Kyle Busch ‘an Ass’ After Texas
Wreck Kyle Busch's day started off excellent Sunday, and ended with contact that put John Hunter Nemechek in the wall on the final lap. Nemechek was not pleased. |
|
| Michael Jordan Congratulates Riley Herbst on Career Day in
Texas Riley Herbst has struggled since moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series. Sunday was likely his best race to date. He ran in the top 10 on merit before dropping to 11th. |
|
| Katherine Legge Back at Watkins Glen With Live
Fast Katherine Legge will return to Live Fast Motorsports this weekend at Watkins Glen in a one-off appearance prior to her Indianapolis 500 commitments. |
|
| Kyle Larson Wins O’Reilly Texas Race After Late Battle
With Justin Allgaier Kyle Larson was able to hold off Justin Allgaier to win the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Andy's Frozen Custard 340 for the second straight year. Sam Mayer was third, then Brent Crews and Parker Retzlaff. |
|
| Justin Allgaier One Spot Short After Battle With Kyle
Larson Justin Allgaier has had an excellent season to date. Saturday was another strong day for the Brandt-sponsored driver, but he couldn't beat his teammate. |
|
| Connor Zilisch Contends for Win Before Tire Goes Flat in
First Ever Texas RaceConnor Zilisch was very strong Saturday in Texas, leading 48 laps until a flat tire dropped him back to 21st. |
|
| Carson Hocevar Wins Texas Truck Race for Spire
Motorsports Carson Hocevar kept up his momentum from Talladega Friday night, leading 76 laps and winning the SpeedyCash.com 250. Kyle Busch was second, then Kaden Honeycutt, Brandon Jones and Ben Rhodes. |
|
| AJ Allmendinger to Race For RAM and Kaulig Racing at
Watkins Glen Kaulig Racing announced Friday that AJ Allmendinger will drive the No. 25 RAM All-Star truck this Friday at Watkins Glen International. |
|
| Kyle Busch Best Among Texas Truck Comeback
Stories Kyle Busch cut a tire early Friday night and had to make an unscheduled stop. From there, he charged from the rear of the field to finish second. |
|
| ‘It’s Business, Man’ – Tyler Ankrum & Ben Rhodes Look
Ahead After Another Truck Tangle Friday night saw the latest episode of Ben Rhodes and Tyler Ankrum colliding as Ankrum spun out late off of Rhodes' nose. |
|
| Toni Breidinger, Mason Massey Join MHR Truck
Team McAnally-Hilgemann Racing announced Monday that they will field a part-time fifth truck, the No. 20, on a part-time basis. Toni Breidinger and Mason Massey will drive. |
|
| Cleetus McFarland Plans to Make CARS Tour Debut in Pro
Late Model Division At Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park Saturday, Garrett Mitchell announced his intention to begin racing on the zMAX CARS Tour in the Pro Late Model division later this year. |
|
| Kimi Antonelli Holds Off Lando Norris for F1 Win in
Miami Mercedes-AMG's Kimi Antonelli was able to get back to the lead after dropping back early to win the Grand Prix of Miami. Lando Norris was second, then Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Max Verstappen. |
|
| Lando Norris Beats Oscar Piastri For Miami Sprint
Win McLaren's Lando Norris led flag-to-flag to win the Sprint Race Saturday afternoon in Miami Gardens. Oscar Piastri was second, then Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Max Verstappen. |
|
| JDC-Miller MotorSports Wins Laguna Seca With Last-Lap
Pass JDC-Miller MotorSports' Laurin Heinrich took the lead on the final lap Sunday and held on to win the StubHub Monterey Sportscar Championship with Tijmen van der Helm, the first win for a customer Porsche 963. |
|
| Turner Motorsport Wins Flip-Filled Laguna Seca
120 Turner Motorsport's Luca Mars won the race off pit road halfway through the race and held on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Saturday with Dillon Machavern. |
|
| Max Reaves Goes Wire-To-Wire in ARCA East Nashville
Fairgrounds Win Joe Gibbs Racing's Max Reaves led all 150 laps from pole Saturday night to win the ARCA Menards Series East Cook Out Music City 150. Landon S. Huffman was second, then Tristan McKee, Hunter Wright and Isaac Kitzmiller. |
|
| Trevor Huddleston Dominates in ARCA West Race at
Shasta Trevor Huddleston led all 173 laps late Saturday night from pole to win the ARCA Menards Series West Bill Schmitt Memorial 173 presented by the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame. Cole Denton was second, then Mason Massey,
Andrew Chapman and Robbie Kennealy. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Patrick McDermott of Getty Images, Michael Bush of Dreamtime, Steven Tee of LAT Images, Sam Bagnall of Sutton Images and our own Josh Calloni and Dalton Hopkins. 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 30-May 3 |
- In France Sunday, United Autosports' Ben Hanley, Griffin Peebles and Gregoire Saucy led all but one lap Sunday en route to victory in the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Paul Ricard. The margin of victory was 8.569 seconds over Inter Europol Competition's Reshad de Gerus and Bijoy Garg. IDEC Sport's Paul-Loup Chatin, Paul Lafargue and Job van Uitert were third, followed by teammates Jamie Chadwick, Laurents
Hoerr and Valerio Rinicella. Vector Sport's Ryan Cullen, Pietro Fittipaldi and Vladislav Lomko were fifth. The victory gives Hanley, Peebles and Saucy the points lead by three points over de Gerus and Garg. Forestier Racing by Panis' Oliver Gray, Louis Rousset and Esteban Masson are down to third after failing to finish. LMP2 Pro-Am was won by Nielsen Racing's James Allen, Kriton Lentoudis and Alex Quinn in eighth overall. They won their subclass by 5.751 seconds over AO by TF's Dane Cameron, Jonny Edgar and PJ Hyett. Duqueine Team's Doriane Pin, Giorgio Roda and Richard Verschoor were third. A pair of third-place finishes and a pole at Barcelona
mean that Pin, Roda and Verschoor lead the LMP2 Pro-Am points by five markers over AF Corse's Antonio Fuoco, Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Algarve Pro Racing's Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Jensen and Enzo Trulli are third. In LMP3, Inter Europol Competition's Chun Ting Chou, Henry Cubides and Alexander Bukhantsov claimed the class victory in their Ligier JS P325-Toyota. The
margin of victory was 15.440 seconds over M Racing's Nick Adcock, Quentin Antonel and Thomas Imbourg. DKR Engineering's Wyatt Brichacek, Romain Favre and Antti Rammo were third, followed by Ultimate's Lucas Fecury, Sebastian Gravlund and Terrence Woodward. CLX Motorsport's Alexander Jacoby, Paul Lanchere and Bruno Ribeiro were fifth. Points-wise, Bukhantsov, Chou and Cubides have a
nine-point lead over Rinaldi Racing's Jose Fernandes, Mikkel Pedersen and Alvise Rodella. R-ace GP's Fabien Michael, Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Hugo Schwarze are third. In LMGT3, the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Mathys Jaubert, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra claimed the class victory by 17.616 seconds over TF Sport's Charlie Eastwood, Blake McDonald and Alec Udell in their Corvette. GR Racing's
Ferrari for Lorcan Hanafin, Mex Jansen and Michael Wainwright were third, then Spirit of Race's Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and David Perel. Proton Competition's "Bankcy," Joel Sturm and Huub van Eijndhoven were fifth in their Porsche. AF Corse's Conrad Laursen, Davide Rigon and Charles-Henri Samani finished fourth on the road Sunday. However, they were disqualified after their Ferrari stalled on the cool down lap and had to be towed back, which violates parc ferme
regulations. In points, Jaubert, Kimura and Serra have the points lead by nine points over Proton Competition's Matt Kurzjewski, Richard Lietz and Tom Sargent. Cameron, Griffin and Perel are third. - World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were scheduled to race
at Attica Raceway Park and Sharon Speedway last weekend. However, both races were cancelled due to rain and cool temperatures. Neither race will be made up. - Interstate Batteries High Limit Sprint Car Series teams spent the weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, serving as tertiary support to the NASCAR Cup Series. Thursday night saw Kyle Larson nearly sweep the night en route to victory in Night No. 1 of the Drydene Stockyard Stampede. Rico Abreu was second, then Aaron Reutzel, Giovanni Scelzi and Kerry Madsen. Saturday night saw Corey Day attempt to make up for crashing on the first lap of the Andy's Frozen Custard 340 by sweeping into the lead from fourth on the grid. That initial charge was neutralized by a caution, but it sparked a race-long duel with Reutzel.
Reutzel and Day battled for much of the feature. With four laps to go, Day
was briefly able to get in front in lapped traffic, but Reutzel was able to get back past. From there, he held on for his third win of the year.
Day ended up second, followed by Madsen and Tyler Courtney. Hank Davis was fifth.
In the points, Tanner Thorson has a 21-point lead over Reutzel. Abreu is third, then
Scelzi and Madsen. - World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTvision teams were at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Wisconsin last weekend for the three-night Dairyland Showdown. Thursday night saw Drake Troutman lead from the pole, but Bobby Pierce was able to get the lead on lap 19. From there, he held on to win by 1.34 seconds over Troutman. Ryan Gustin was third, then Nick
Hoffman and Tim McCreadie. Night No. 2 on Friday saw Hoffman start up front and assume the advantage when Ethan Dotson jumped the cushion and hit the wall on lap 15. From then on, Hoffman held on for the win. He ended up .586 seconds ahead of Ryan Gustin. Tyler Erb was third,
then Dotson and Brent Larson. Saturday night's main feature saw Gustin lead all 50 laps to take home the victory and a check for $40,000. He was .571 seconds ahead of Pierce at the finish. Jonathan Davenport was third, then Hoffman and Daulton Wilson. In the points, Hoffman has a
three-point lead over Pierce. McCredie and Erb are tied for third (McCreadie wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his one victory earlier this year), while Gustin is fifth. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Texas and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park last weekend. For more from Texas, Lucas Oil IRP, 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 Stands Pat in Texas
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick was strong on Sunday, finishing in fourth. However, Denny Hamlin was second. Effectively, Reddick stood pat. Reddick lost exactly one point to Hamlin Sunday. That means that he still has a 109-point lead. Chase
Elliott moved up one place to third after scoring his second win of the year. Ryan Blaney dropped to fourth after struggling in qualifying, then driving to a 10th-place finish. Chris Buescher is up two places to fifth after a fourth-place finish. Carson Hocevar moved up two places to sixth after finishing seventh.
Ty Gibbs is down two places after crashing out of the race late. Kyle Larson is down two spots to eighth after crashing in turn 2 and finishing 87 laps down. Brad Keselowski is up one place to ninth after a 13th-place finish. William Byron moved up one place to 10th, stemming some of his recent bleeding despite
an early spin. Bubba Wallace is up one place to 11th after finishing ninth. Ryan Preece is now 12th. Christopher Bell crashed while leading the race Sunday after getting tagged by Todd Gilliland. The crash dropped him four spots to 13th. Daniel Suarez's sixth-place finish keeps him in 14th.
Austin Cindric is up to 15th, while Chase Briscoe is back up to 16th, last driver in the Chase. Briscoe has a seven-point lead over Joey Logano, who hit Cole Custer on pit road Sunday and was forced to retire. Ross Chastain is still 18th, then Shane van Gisbergen and AJ
Allmendinger. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 526, 2) Denny Hamlin -109, 3) Chase Elliott -117, 4) Ryan Blaney -155, 5) Chris Buescher -181, 6) Carson Hocevar
-193, 7) Ty Gibbs -196, 8) Kyle Larson -208, 9) Brad Keselowski -215, 10) William Byron -218, 11) Bubba Wallace -222, 12) Ryan Preece -228, 13) Christopher Bell -235, 14) Daniel Suarez -255, 15) Austin
Cindric -278, 16) Chase Briscoe -284. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for points. Stage Points: t-1) Kyle
Larson 91, t-1) Denny Hamlin 91, t-3) Tyler Reddick -4, t-3) Ryan Blaney -4, 5) Christopher Bell -18, 6) Bubba Wallace -20, 7) Ty Gibbs -25, 8) Chris Buescher -29, 9) Chase Elliott -30, 10) William Byron -34, 11) Joey
Logano -37, 12) Carson Hocevar -38, 13) Brad Keselowski -41, 14) Austin Cindric -42, 15) Ryan Preece -48, 16) Chase Briscoe -53. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 17) Daniel Suarez
-60. Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at Daytona.
2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 451, 2) Denny Hamlin -49, 3) Chase
Elliott -72, 4) Ryan Blaney -95, 5) Chris Buescher -106, t-6) Carson Hocevar -133, t-6) Kyle Larson -133, 8) Ty Gibbs -136, 9) Brad Keselowski -140, 10) William Byron -143, 11) Bubba Wallace -147, 12) Ryan Preece
-153, 13) Christopher Bell -160, 14) Daniel Suarez -180, 15) Austin Cindric -203, 16) Chase Briscoe -209. Note: These point standings are from the previous point system used from 2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 411, 2) Chase Elliott -45, 3) Denny Hamlin -50, 4) Chris Buescher -80, 5) Ryan Blaney -93, 6) Carson Hocevar -97, 7) Brad Keselowski
-101, 8) Ryan Preece -110, 9) William Byron -112, 10) Ty Gibbs -114, 11) Daniel Suarez -126, 12) Bubba Wallace -131, 13) Kyle Larson -137, 14) Christopher Bell -144, 15) Chase Briscoe -160, 16) Austin Cindric -167. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 1740, 2) Chase Elliott -138, 3) Denny Hamlin
-141, 4) Chris Buescher -267, 5) Ryan Blaney -290, 6) Carson Hocevar -315, 7) Brad Keselowski -334, 8) Ty Gibbs -350, 9) William Byron -363, 10) Ryan Preece -388, 11) Kyle Larson -418, 12) Daniel Suarez -427, 13) Bubba
Wallace -432, 14) Christopher Bell -446, 15) Chase Briscoe -501, 16) Austin Cindric -551. 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, Texas), Ty Gibbs (Bristol), Carson Hocevar (Talladega)
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 Nigel Kinrade Photography.
|
|
|
Seeking the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase: Justin Allgaier Continues To Pour It On
by Phil Allaway
Justin Allgaier won stage one and finished a strong second Saturday. That allowed him to extend his advantage. The lead is now 121 points over Sheldon Creed, who finished sixth. Jesse Love finished ninth and stays in third, while Corey Day crashed on the first
lap and lost a bunch of ground despite remaining in fourth. Brandon Jones finished eighth and moved within sixth points of Day. Sammy Smith finished 13th and remains sixth. Austin Hill and Carson Kvapil are tied for seventh. Hill finished seventh, while Kvapil was 11th. Hill wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his victory in
Daytona. Parker Retzlaff finished a strong fifth and moved up one place to ninth. He jumped over Taylor Gray, who spun on the first lap and finished 12 laps down in 33rd. William Sawalich is still in 11th, while Sam Mayer finished third and jumped two places to 12th, the final spot in the Chase. Mayer has a seven-point lead over Ryan Sieg, who finished 14th. Brent Crews is up one spot to 14th, just 12 points out of the Chase despite missing four races. Rajah Caruth crashed out late and dropped to 15th. Brennan Poole is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 598, 2) Sheldon Creed -121, 3) Jesse Love -167, 4) Corey Day -198, 5) Brandon Jones -204, 6) Sammy Smith -222, t-7) Austin Hill -241, t-7) Carson Kvapil
-241, 9) Parker Retzlaff -269, 10) Taylor Gray -292, 11) William Sawalich -295, 12) Sam Mayer -313, 13) Ryan Sieg -320, 14) Brent Crews -324, 15) Rajah Caruth -326, 16) Brennan Poole -359. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 179, 2) Brandon Jones -80, 3) Carson Kvapil -82, 4) Jesse Love -85, 5) Sheldon Creed -89, 6) Corey Day -114, t-7) Austin Hill -121, t-7) Sam Mayer -121, 9) Rajah Caruth
-126, t-10) Sammy Smith -128, t-10) Taylor Gray -128, 12) Brent Crews -129, 13) William Sawalich -131, 14) Parker Retzlaff -136, 15) Ryan Sieg -154, 16) Anthony Alfredo -158. Note: If
he were eligible for NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series points, Kyle Larson would be tied for sixth and Connor Zilisch 16th in stage points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 553, 2) Sheldon Creed -91, 3) Jesse Love -122, 4) Brandon Jones
-159, 5) Corey Day -168, 6) Sammy Smith -177, 7) Carson Kvapil -196, 8) Austin Hill -211, 9) Parker Retzlaff -224, 10) Taylor Gray -262, 11) William Sawalich -265, 12) Sam Mayer -268, 13) Ryan Sieg
-276, 14) Brent Crews -280, 15) Rajah Caruth -282, 16) Brennan Poole -315. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 427, 2) Sheldon Creed
-4, 3) Jesse Love -34, 4) Sammy Smith -51, 5) Corey Day -55, 6) Brandon Jones -78, 7) Austin Hill -89, 8) Parker Retzlaff
-93, 9) Carson Kvapil -116, 10) Ryan Sieg -125, 11) Taylor Gray -135, 12) William Sawalich -138, 13) Brennan Poole -140, 14) Sam Mayer -148, 15) Rajah
Caruth -156, 16) Brent Crews -169. WC Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 1870, 2) Sheldon Creed -33, 3) Jesse Love -142, 4) Sammy Smith -204, 5) Corey Day -213, 6) Brandon Jones
-295, 7) Austin Hill -333, 8) Parker Retzlaff -358, 9) Carson Kvapil -413, 10) Ryan Sieg -462, 11) Taylor Gray -489, 12) William Sawalich -499, 13) Sam Mayer -514, 14) Brennan Poole -526, 15) Rajah Caruth
-549, 16) Dean Thompson -628. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Sheldon Creed (Atlanta), Shane van Gisbergen (Austin), Justin Allgaier (Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Texas), William Sawalich (Rockingham), Connor Zilisch (Bristol), Taylor Gray (Kansas), Corey Day
(Talladega) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade
Photography.
|
|
|
Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase: Kaden Honeycutt Retakes The Lead
by Phil Allaway
Chandler Smith made a late pit stop for tires, then only got back to 10th Friday night. Meanwhile, Kaden Honeycutt was right in the hunt for the win and finished third. The third-place finish was enough for Honeycutt to retake the points lead. Honeycutt's lead is
14 points over Smith. Layne Riggs has sole possession of third in points after finishing sixth. Gio Ruggiero was in line to potentially win before dropping back on the final restart. Despite that, he still moved up two places to fourth. Ben Rhodes is up three places to fifth after winning stage one and finishing fifth. Christian
Eckes dropped one place to sixth after recovering from a lap down to finish eighth. Ty Majeski is in seventh, while Corey Heim dropped five places to eighth after not racing Friday night. Tyler Ankrum is up three places to ninth after finishing 15th. Stewart Friesen crashed late, but still managed to finish 19th. That
moved him up one place to 10th. Jake Garcia was strong early, but also crashed late. The 29th-place finish dropped Garcia two places to 11th, the last driver in the Chase. Garcia is one point ahead of Justin Haley, who was eliminated in the same crash with Garcia. Daniel Hemric is up three places to 13th after a seventh-place finish.
Brenden Queen is 14th, then Tanner Gray and Grant Enfinger. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kaden Honeycutt 257, 2) Chandler Smith -14, 3) Layne Riggs -19, 4) Gio Ruggiero -31, 5) Ben
Rhodes -34, 6) Christian Eckes -37, 7) Ty Majeski -45, 8) Corey Heim -53, 9) Tyler Ankrum -92, 10) Stewart Friesen -94, 11) Jake Garcia -102, 12) Justin Haley -103, 13) Daniel Hemric -111, 14) Brenden Queen
-113, 15) Tanner Gray -122, 16) Grant Enfinger -125. Stage Points: 1) Kaden Honeycutt 72, 2) Layne Riggs -11, 3) Ty Majeski -14, 4) Corey Heim -18, 5) Ben Rhodes
-19, 6) Christian Eckes -29, 7) Chandler Smith -31, 8) Gio Ruggiero -33, 9) Tanner Gray -47, 10) Stewart Friesen -48, 11) Jake Garcia -53, 12) Tyler Ankrum -54, t-13) Grant Enfinger -55, t-13) Landen Lewis
-55, 15) Andres Perez -62, 16) Connor Mosack -63. Note: If they were eligible, Carson Hocevar would be fourth and Kyle Busch tied for 11th in stage points. 2014 Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Kaden Honeycutt 257, 2) Chandler Smith -29, 3) Gio Ruggiero -31, t-4) Layne Riggs -34, t-4) Ben Rhodes -34, 6) Christian Eckes -37, 7) Ty Majeski -45, 8) Corey Heim -83, 9) Tyler Ankrum -92, 10) Stewart
Friesen -94, 11) Jake Garcia -102, 12) Justin Haley -103, 13) Daniel Hemric -111, 14) Brenden Queen -113, 15) Tanner Gray -122, 16) Grant Enfinger -125. Old School Point
Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 164, 2) Kaden Honeycutt -1, 3) Gio Ruggiero -4, 4) Christian Eckes -8, 5) Ben Rhodes -13, 6) Layne Riggs -28, 7) Ty Majeski -36, 8) Justin Haley -44, 9) Tyler Ankrum -45, 10) Brenden Queen
-50, 11) Daniel Hemric -51, 12) Stewart Friesen -52, 13) Jake Garcia -56, 14) Corey Heim -58, 15) Grant Enfinger -76, 16) Andres Perez -79. WC Points (1-16):
1) Kaden Honeycutt 992, 2) Gio Ruggiero -24, 3) Chandler Smith -26, 4) Christian Eckes -48, 5) Ben Rhodes -66, 6) Layne Riggs -106, 7) Ty Majeski -129, 8) Justin Haley -179, 9) Tyler Ankrum -180, 10) Stewart Friesen
-196, 11) Brenden Queen -197, 12) Daniel Hemric -202, 13) Jake Garcia -207, 14) Grant Enfinger -267, 15) Andres Perez -285, 16) Tanner Gray -286. Race Winners: Chandler
Smith (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Layne Riggs (St. Petersburg), Corey Heim (Darlington, Rockingham), Christopher Bell (Bristol), Carson Hocevar (Texas) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
|
|
|
Letter of the Race: Sunday's Wurth 400 was brought to you by the letter W for Widening. After years of PJ1 TrackBite use at Texas Motor Speedway, the groove at TMS is finally starting to expand in the 10th year for the current
surface. Better late than never. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Wurth 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"Alan came on the radio and said two-time Texas winner. I thought, I'll be damned. I'd have never thought. "I've trashed this place for years, and I didn't like what they did to the racetrack in reconfiguring turns one and two. And it was so fun for me, and obviously there's some selfish
opinion in that too because I thought it was a really strong track, and then it turned into not a strong track at all. Those things combined I think just put a bad taste in my mouth. "But when you run better, it grows on you little by little. And I think the fan reception over the last couple of years has been strong. I think the energy has been really good out here having one race and whatnot."
- Chase Elliott, race winner "I could’ve risked it off of [turn] 2 and crashed both of us. I thought had I hung onto his quarter panel anymore, I just thought that I was going to end up hitting the fence. Just not quite what I needed. I got the first part of the restart really well just he got that push from [Alex Bowman] right there right entering turn 1 and it was just enough to
slow my momentum and pick his momentum up. Really close – just not quite enough." - Denny Hamlin, finished second "I think we made some big gains on our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet from where we unloaded. We struggled in practice, but we qualified well. This team chipped away at it all day. There are some things we can definitely clean up. We still need to be better, for
sure, we had a really good Chevy today. Proud of the pit crew. They did an awesome job. It’s nice to get this team some good finishes. It’s been tough on them this year and glad to bring home back-to-back third-place finishes." - Alex Bowman, finished third "I was just giving him feedback on what I’m feeling. We were hoping that as it played out there on the restart
behind [Chase Elliott] that we’d have a little something left to be able to close the gap and maybe be close enough to pass for the cycle or after and unfortunately for us and our Rockstar Energy Camry, it didn’t play out that way. We were all very close with [Elliott] and [Denny Hamlin]. Just kind of spread out a little bit there. I was hoping I was going to have a little bit of speed late in the run to close and it didn’t really happen for us. All in all, it was a solid day. It was nice to go
for it there with two tires. Just had a couple passes that took a little longer than they needed to and that was the difference. I don’t know if we would’ve got back to the lead, but I think if we played it perfectly, we could’ve got second. All in all, it was a good day." - Tyler Reddick, finished fourth
"That was another really strong day. Another great mile and a half. We were just outside of
being able to compete for the win. We were in a good spot just before the last caution, that caution did give us an outside chance at it. Had a good start and pushed the 11 (Denny Hamlin) out but with old tires and dirty air we washed up in turn one. But it was a good fight. Everybody on this Fifth Third Ford Mustang Dark Horse to come out here and put in that work. Man, it’s killing me to get a win here in Texas but that’s the result of the days that we’ve had here quite a bit over the years so
I’m proud of everybody for that." - Chris Buescher, finished fifth
"Very proud of the No. 7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet team. We had another fast Chevy this weekend. This weekend was a perfect example of having a fast racecar and we just had a lot of things go against us, like the tire yesterday in practice. Today, the first run of the race, we just really struggled. The car had potential, we
just struggled quite a bit. I’m just very proud of this team for never giving up." - Daniel Suarez, finished sixth "Disappointing end to the day for the No. 8 zone Watermelon Chevrolet team, but we are making steps in the right direction. We ran in the top-10 for most of the race today at Texas Motor Speedway, and started the weekend with a solid sixth-place
qualifying effort. Unfortunately, we ended up with right-front damage after contact battling for position on the final lap. It turned our top-10 day into a 20th-place result." - Kyle Busch, finished 20th "Everyone was trying to take two tires and they were just checked up and stopped ahead of me. You’re trying to look and get up out of the way and I just couldn’t stop
in time. Proud of the speed we had today. The Discount Tire Mustang had good speed and was capable of getting up there which makes it hurt even more." - Joey Logano, finished 37th (Crashed out) "It was another one of those 50-50 calls. Me and Denny [Hamlin] were side-by-side and I saw [Todd Gilliland] spinning and Denny lifted and I thought that I could shoot the gap
on the bottom. And I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom, but I got clipped." - Christopher Bell, finished 38th (Crashed out)
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
|
|
|
|
