Frontstretch Newsletter: June 1, 2026
Volume XX,
Edition LXXXIX |
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! |
- Interstate Batteries High Limit Sprint Car Series teams are at Davenport Speedway tonight for the Iowa Lottery Duel at Davenport. Coverage from Iowa will stream live on FLORacing starting at 7 p.m. ET.
- NASCAR teams are back at their shops to prepare for Michigan. Entry lists should be released later today. We'll
have those and more at Frontstretch. |
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| Denny Hamlin Earns 2nd Win of 2026 in Thrilling Finish at
Nashville Denny Hamlin emerged from a JGR three-wide move on the final lap with the lead and held on to win the rain-delayed Cracker Barrel 400 Sunday night. Christopher Bell was second, then Chase Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Shane van
Gisbergen. |
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| Bridesmaid Once Again: Christopher Bell Scores 3rd 2026
Runner-Up Christopher Bell was leading Sunday night night at the white flag. Then, he made a tactical error that allowed Denny Hamlin to sweep past. He was upset with himself afterwards. |
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| Shane van Gisbergen Shines for Trackhouse Racing at
Nashville Superspeedway Shane van Gisbergen's oval improvement is really showing this year. Sunday night saw him lead laps and finish fifth while his teammates both had brake rotors explode. |
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| Corey Heim to Drive For 23XI Racing Full-Time in 2027
Cup Series Season 23XI Racing announced Saturday that Corey Heim will drive for the team full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027. |
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| Austin Dillon Reflects on Emotional Week for Richard
Childress Racing On Saturday, Austin Dillon met with the media at Nashville Superspeedway and described the previous nine days and how they had affected Richard Childress Racing. |
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| Justin Allgaier Wins O’Reilly Race at
Nashville Justin Allgaier passed Brent Crews late Saturday night and held on to win the Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 at Nashville Superspeedway. Crews was second, then William Sawalich, Sam Mayer and Brandon Jones. |
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| Justin Allgaier’s Old Dog Foils Brent Crews’ New Tricks in
Nashville While Justin Allgaier was able to usurp the young Brent Crews to win Saturday, he still gave Crews a lot of credit for his run. |
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| Lots of Good Learnings for an Upbeat Cleetus
McFarland Saturday night was another tough evening for Cleetus McFarland as he finished six laps down in 35th. |
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| Layne Riggs Dominates Early, Recovers Late to Win
Nashville Truck Race Layne Riggs recovered from being stuck in traffic to pass Rajah Caruth on the final lap to win the Allegiance 200 for his second straight win. Caruth was second, then Chandler Smith, Ross Chastain and Tyler Ankrum. |
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| Rajah Caruth Settles for Second in the Early Morning Hours
in Music City An alternate pit strategy had Rajah Caruth looking good to repeat his triumph at Nashville from last year. He ultimately had to settle for second. |
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| Conor Daly to Drive Kaulig Ram Truck at
IRP Kaulig Racing announced Friday that Conor Daly, a native of Noblesville, Ind., will drive the RAM All-Star truck at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in July. |
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| Spencer Davis Returns to Trucks at
Michigan TRICON Garage announced Monday morning that Spencer Davis will drive the No. 5 Toyota Saturday at Michigan. |
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| Alex Palou Overcomes Late Cautions & Kyle Kirkwood To
Win in Detroit Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou took the lead with 32 laps to go Sunday and held on to win the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. Kyle Kirkwood was second, then Graham Rahal, Patricio O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard. |
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| Scott McLaughlin, Will Power Collide in
Detroit Sunday's Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix was the best race of the year for Will Power. That is, until he got squeezed into the wall by Scott McLaughlin, which led to his retirement. |
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| Graham Rahal Finishes 3rd After Early Contact at
Detroit Graham Rahal has shown a lot of improvement so far in 2026. Detroit saw him finish third for his third podium finish of the year. |
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| Felix Rosenqvist Defies Post-Indy 500 Hangover to Finish
6th at Detroit The week between the Indianapolis 500 and Detroit for the race winner is a tough one. Felix Rosenqvist overcame the general fatigue that comes with it to finish sixth Sunday. |
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| David Malukas Finishes 18th in Frustrating Detroit Grand
Prix Despite starting dead last, David Malukas was having a decent day Sunday in Detroit until contact with Mick Schumacher dropped him to 18th. |
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| Action Express Dominates in Detroit Street
Fight Action Express Racing's Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber wrapped up a dominant weekend by winning Saturday's Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Logan Riely of Getty Images, James Black, Paul Hurley, Chris Owens and Joe Skibinski of Penske Entertainment, Cadillac Racing and our own Danny Peters. 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: May 29-31 |
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were in Grand Forks, N.D. Friday for the First Leg of the Northern Tour. Here, Kasey Jedrzejek started from pole and led the first 14 laps before points leader David Gravel took over. Meanwhile, Carson Macedo started ninth and moved up the order
quickly. With four laps to go, Macedo caught Gravel and dove to the inside for the lead. Gravel countered with a slide job. Macedo then crossed Gravel over to take the lead and the victory. Macedo won by .423 seconds over Gravel. Jedrzejek was third, then Chris Windom and
Sheldon Haudenschild. Through 25 races, Gravel leads Macedo by 114 points. Buddy Kofoid is third, then Haudenschild and Donny Schatz. The series was supposed to race Sunday night at Nodak Speedway near Minot, but that race was postponed due to rain. It has been rescheduled for Aug. 30. - Interstate Batteries High Limit Sprint Car Series teams had a
busy weekend. Friday night saw the tour visit Lawrenceburg Speedway for the Driven2SaveLives Battle at the 'Burg. Here, Rico Abreu led flag-to-flag to take a dominant victory. Kyle Larson finished second despite starting 20th and going to the rear twice in the feature. Parker Prime-Miller was third, then Giovanni Scelzi and Tyler Courtney. Saturday night saw the series move to Michigan's Butler Motor Speedway. Tanner Thorson led the first 17 laps before breaking. That allowed Aaron Reutzel to take the lead and cruise to victory. Brent Marks was second, followed by Courtney and Sye Lynch. Zane DeVault was fifth.
Reutzel actually lost the points lead Friday night after a crash at Lawrenceburg, then got it back by winning in Butler. He leads Abreu by 11 points. Scelzi is third, then Thorson and Courtney.
- World of Outlaws Late Model Series teams were at the Matt Tifft-owned Mansfield Speedway for the Blaster 57 Special. Oodles of money was
on the line. Friday night saw what was originally going to be a $12,000 to win feature (nothing to sneeze at) jacked up to $100,000 to win by the Niss family, a philanthropic family native to Mansfield. Needless to say, big bucks were on the line. Tyler Erb was able to sweep
around Ricky Thornton Jr. on the first lap to take the lead. From there, he fought off a number of challengers to take the win and a six-figure payday. Erb won by .551 seconds over Brandon Overton. Bobby Pierce was third, then Josh Rice and Hudson O'Neal. Saturday night was
originally going to be for $57,000 to win. That ended up being increased to $100,057. Garrett Alberson started from pole and led early. However, a caution on lap 46 brought everyone back together. Shortly after the restart, Alberson hit a bump and lost pace. That allowed Nick
Hoffman to drive past. From there, he held on to take the win. Hoffman won by 1.464 seconds over Alberson. O'Neal was third, then Erb and Brandon Sheppard. In the points, Pierce has a nine-point lead over Hoffman. Erb is third, then Drake Troutman and Tim
McCreadie. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Nashville and Detroit last weekend. For more from Nashville, Detroit, 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 Crashes, Loses Part Of Advantage
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick's race may have ended painfully Sunday night, but he still finished sixth. Denny Hamlin, despite jumping the initial start, still led the most laps and won the race. As a result, Reddick's point lead has decreased to 97 points. Ryan Blaney scored
the same amount of points as Reddick (37) and stays in third. Chase Elliott also scored 37 points, but moved up one place to fourth after finishing seventh. Ty Gibbs dropped one place to fifth after a quiet run to 13th. Kyle Larson ran very well for most of the night, but ran into problems at the finish and dropped to 23rd. He stays
in sixth. Christopher Bell's second straight second-place finish moved him up to seventh, jumping over Chris Buescher, who dropped out due to an exploded brake rotor late in the race. Carson Hocevar finished 10th and stays in ninth. Teammate Daniel Suarez remains in 10th. William Byron moved up one
place to 11th despite being eliminated in a crash early in the final stage. Shane van Gisbergen finished fifth, his best oval finish on a non-superspeedway. That moved him up two places to 12th. Brad Keselowski crashed out early and dropped two places to 13th. Chase Briscoe finished third and moved up one place to 14th.
Bubba Wallace was eliminated in the same crash with Byron and dropped down to 15th. Despite crashing with Keselowski and finishing 26th, Austin Cindric moved up to 16th, the final driver in the Chase. Cindric has a two-point lead over Ryan Preece, who dropped out early Sunday with radiator issues. Joey Logano is
still in 18th, while Michael McDowell moved up to 19th. Zane Smith is now 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 657, 2) Denny Hamlin -97, 3) Ryan Blaney -174, 4) Chase
Elliott -197, 5) Ty Gibbs -208, 6) Kyle Larson -248, 7) Christopher Bell -258, 8) Chris Buescher -264, 9) Carson Hocevar -274, 10) Daniel Suarez -279, 11) William Byron -305, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -309, 13) Brad
Keselowski -310, 14) Chase Briscoe -314, 15) Bubba Wallace -319, 16) Austin Cindric -351. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for points. Stage Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 123, t-2) Tyler Reddick -1, t-2) Kyle Larson -1, 4) Ryan Blaney -9, t-5) Ty Gibbs -28, t-5) Christopher Bell -28, 7) Bubba Wallace -46, 8) Chris Buescher
-53, 9) Chase Briscoe -54, 10) Chase Elliott -55, 11) Austin Cindric -56, 12) William Byron -58, 13) Joey Logano -60, 14) Brad Keselowski -69, 15) Carson Hocevar -70, 16) Ryan Preece -77. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 17) Shane van Gisbergen -79, 18) Daniel Suarez -82. Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at Daytona.
2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 582, 2) Denny Hamlin -52, 3) Ryan Blaney -114, 4) Ty Gibbs -148, 5) Chase Elliott -152, 6) Kyle Larson -173, 7) Christopher Bell -183, 8) Chris Buescher
-189, 9) Carson Hocevar -214, 10) Daniel Suarez -219, 11) William Byron -230, 12) Brad Keselowski -235, 13) Chase Briscoe -239, 14) Bubba Wallace -244, 15) Shane van Gisbergen -249, 16) Austin Cindric -276. Note: These point standings are from the previous point system used from 2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 522, 2) Denny Hamlin -52, 3) Chase Elliott -100, 4) Ryan Blaney
-106, 5) Ty Gibbs -121, 6) Chris Buescher -139, 7) Daniel Suarez -142, 8) Carson Hocevar -145, 9) Christopher Bell -155, 10) Brad Keselowski -168, 11) Shane van Gisbergen -173, 12) Kyle Larson -174, 13) William Byron
-175, 14) Chase Briscoe -187, 15) Ryan Preece -199, t-16) Bubba Wallace -202, t-16) Zane Smith -202. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 20) Austin Cindric -228. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 2220, 2) Denny Hamlin -151, 3) Chase Elliott -324, 4) Ryan Blaney
-347, 5) Ty Gibbs -376, 6) Chris Buescher -471, 7) Christopher Bell -476, 8) Carson Hocevar -483, 9) Daniel Suarez -492, 10) Kyle Larson -545, 11) Brad Keselowski -562, 12) Shane van Gisbergen -565, 13) William
Byron -577, 14) Chase Briscoe -585, 15) Bubba Wallace -672, 16) Zane Smith -673. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: t-21) Austin Cindric -759 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, Nashville), Chase Elliott (Martinsville, Texas), Ty Gibbs (Bristol), Carson Hocevar (Talladega), Shane van
Gisbergen (Watkins Glen), Daniel Suarez (Charlotte)
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 our own Danny Peters.
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Seeking the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase: Justin Allgaier Has 2 Races Over 2nd
by Phil Allaway
Justin Allgaier came back with a vengeance in Nashville. Taking his fourth win of the year and scoring 74 points allowed him to open up the biggest points lead of the year. His advantage is now 179 points, more than two full races, over Jesse Love. Love led the most laps Saturday night,
but a loose wheel dropped him to 16th. Corey Day stays in third after a sixth-place finish. Sheldon Creed is still in fourth. Brandon Jones is still in fifth after a fifth-place finish. Austin Hill remains in sixth, while Carson Kvapil moves up one place to seventh after a seventh-place finish. Kvapil jumped
over Sammy Smith, who finished 10th. William Sawalich is up one place to ninth after a third-place finish. Parker Retzlaff dropped to 10th after a 12th-place finish. Sam Mayer is still in 11th, while Taylor Gray is 12th after a ninth-place finish. He is the final driver in the Chase right now. Gray has a 12-point lead over Rajah Caruth, who finished 19th after almost defending his Truck victory from last year Friday night. Ryan Sieg and Brent Crews are tied for 14th. Crews finished second, while Sieg was 13th. Brennan Poole is still 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 770, 2) Jesse Love -179, 3) Corey Day -196, 4) Sheldon Creed -238, 5) Brandon Jones -258, 6) Austin Hill -271, 7) Carson Kvapil -277, 8) Sammy Smith
-288, 9) William Sawalich -341, 10) Parker Retzlaff -354, 11) Sam Mayer -357, 12) Taylor Gray -371, 13) Rajah Caruth -383, t-14) Brent Crews -386, t-14) Ryan Sieg -386, 16) Brennan Poole -461. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 225, 2) Jesse Love -76, 3) Carson Kvapil -103, 4) Brandon Jones -105, 5) Corey Day -126, 6) Sam Mayer -131, 7) Sheldon Creed -134, 8) Austin Hill -143, 9) Brent Crews
-147, 10) Rajah Caruth -149, 11) William Sawalich -153, 12) Taylor Gray -154, 13) Sammy Smith -170, 14) Parker Retzlaff -176, 15) Ryan Sieg -190, 16) Anthony Alfredo -204. Note: If he were
eligible for NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series points, Kyle Larson would be 11th and Connor Zilisch 14th in stage points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 710, 2) Jesse Love -119, 3) Corey Day -166, 4) Sheldon Creed
-193, 5) Brandon Jones -198, 6) Carson Kvapil -217, 7) Austin Hill -226, 8) Sammy Smith -228, 9) Parker Retzlaff -294, 10) William Sawalich -296, 11) Sam Mayer -297, 12) Rajah Caruth -323, t-13) Taylor Gray
-326, t-13) Ryan Sieg -326, t-13) Brent Crews -326, 16) Brennan Poole -401. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 557, 2) Jesse Love -38, 3) Corey
Day -44, 4) Sammy Smith -63, 5) Sheldon Creed -64, 6) Austin Hill -83, 7) Brandon Jones -93, 8) Carson Kvapil -119, 9) Parker Retzlaff
-128, 10) Ryan Sieg -141, 11) William Sawalich -150, 12) Sam Mayer -167, t-13) Taylor Gray -175, t-13) Rajah Caruth -175, 15) Brennan
Poole -183, 16) Brent Crews -199. WC Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 2450, 2) Jesse Love -148, 3) Corey Day -190, 4) Sheldon Creed -243, 5) Sammy Smith
-267, 6) Austin Hill -323, 7) Brandon Jones -347, 8) Carson Kvapil -442, 9) Parker Retzlaff -489, 10) Ryan Sieg -531, 11) William Sawalich -534, 12) Sam Mayer -575, 13) Taylor Gray -624, 14) Rajah Caruth
-631, 15) Brennan Poole -685, 16) Dean Thompson -805. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Sheldon Creed (Atlanta), Shane van Gisbergen (Austin), Justin Allgaier (Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville, Nashville), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Texas), William Sawalich
(Rockingham), Connor Zilisch (Bristol, Watkins Glen), Taylor Gray (Kansas), Corey Day (Talladega, Dover), Ross Chastain (Charlotte) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of our own Danny Peters.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase: Perfect Night Gives Layne Riggs The Lead
by Phil Allaway
Kaden Honeycutt had the second-best truck all night until it just quit late in the race. A 27th-place finish was costly. Layne Riggs swept the stages and passed Rajah Caruth on the final lap to win his second straight race. That allowed him to take over the
points lead. Riggs has a 37-point lead over Honeycutt after scoring a perfect 76 points. Christian Eckes finished eighth and stays in third. Chandler Smith moved up one place to fourth after finishing third. Smith jumped over Gio Ruggiero, who
finished ninth. Ty Majeski is up one place to sixth after finishing 12th. Ben Rhodes finished 28th and dropped to seventh. Tyler Ankrum is up two places to eighth after finishing fifth. Daniel Hemric and Stewart Friesen are tied for ninth. As both drivers' best finish this year is fourth, Friesen's sixth-place
finish Friday night wins the tiebreaker. These are the final two drivers in the Chase right now. Friesen and Hemric are six points ahead of Jake Garcia, who crashed just before halfway and ended up 32nd. Grant Enfinger is up four places to 12th after a seventh-place finish. Justin Haley is down to 13th after suspension issues. Brenden
Queen, Andres Perez and the idle Corey Heim round out the top 16. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Layne Riggs 457, 2) Kaden Honeycutt -37, 3) Christian Eckes -93, 4) Chandler Smith
-96, 5) Gio Ruggiero -106, 6) Ty Majeski -149, 7) Ben Rhodes -158, 8) Tyler Ankrum -202, t-9) Daniel Hemric -204, t-9) Stewart Friesen -204, 11) Jake Garcia -210, 12) Grant Enfinger -230, 13) Justin Haley
-237, 14) Brenden Queen -239, 15) Andres Perez -251, 16) Corey Heim -254. Stage Points: 1) Layne Riggs 120, 2) Kaden Honeycutt -17, 3) Christian Eckes -44, 4) Ty Majeski
-45, 5) Gio Ruggiero -54, 6) Ben Rhodes -55, 7) Chandler Smith -58, 8) Corey Heim -66, 9) Tanner Gray -89, t-10) Jake Garcia -91, t-10) Grant Enfinger -91, t-12) Tyler Ankrum -92, t-12) Stewart Friesen
-92, 14) Daniel Hemric -94, 15) Andres Perez -100, 16) Landen Lewis -103. Note: If they were eligible, Carson Hocevar would be third, Ross Chastain 10th and Kyle Busch 11th in stage points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Layne Riggs 413, 2) Kaden Honeycutt -7, 3) Christian Eckes -48, 4) Gio Ruggiero -61, 5) Chandler Smith -66, 6) Ty Majeski -104, 7) Ben Rhodes -113, 8) Tyler Ankrum -157, t-9) Daniel
Hemric -159, t-9) Stewart Friesen -159, 11) Jake Garcia -165, 12) Grant Enfinger -185, 13) Justin Haley -192, 14) Brenden Queen -194, 15) Andres Perez -206, 16) Tanner Gray -211. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kaden Honeycutt 266, t-2) Christian Eckes -14, t-2) Layne Riggs -14, 4) Chandler Smith -20, 5) Gio Ruggiero -21, 6) Ben Rhodes -66, 7) Ty Majeski -76, 8) Daniel Hemric -80, 9) Tyler Ankrum
-81, 10) Stewart Friesen -83, 11) Jake Garcia -91, 12) Brenden Queen -93, 13) Justin Haley -94, 14) Grant Enfinger -115, 15) Andres Perez -123, 16) Dawson Sutton -131. WC Points (1-16): 1) Kaden Honeycutt 1589, 2) Layne Riggs -68, 3) Christian Eckes -87, 4) Gio Ruggiero -97, 5) Chandler Smith -103, 6) Ben Rhodes -251, 7) Ty Majeski -274, 8) Daniel Hemric -313, 9) Tyler
Ankrum -314, 10) Stewart Friesen -319, 11) Jake Garcia -345, 12) Brenden Queen -359, 13) Justin Haley -361, 14) Grant Enfinger -416, 15) Andres Perez -452, 16) Dawson Sutton -477. Race Winners: Chandler Smith (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Dover), Layne Riggs (St. Petersburg, Charlotte, Nashville), Corey Heim (Darlington, Rockingham), Christopher Bell (Bristol), Carson Hocevar (Texas), Kaden Honeycutt (Watkins Glen)
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Letter of the Race: Sunday night's Cracker Barrel 400 was brought to you by the letter B for Brake Rotors. The new rules for 2026 concerning lower downforce and higher horsepower led to at least four brake
rotor explosions. That's going to make a lot of people really nervous for the Chase. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Cracker Barrel 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"Well, I think [Christopher Bell] and [Chase Briscoe] were battling so hard on the first corner, just let me get to the inside of the 20 on the first corner there on the restart. From there, side by side with [Bell]. He drove in so deep on that last lap into [turn] 1, but it allowed me to barely clear off of [turn] 2. Man, what an unbelievable day – starting first, going to last, and back
to first." - Denny Hamlin, race winner
"It was great racing. I hope the fans enjoyed that, it was a great show. I’m just disappointed in myself and disappointed in my team. They brought a great racecar and I didn’t get the job done." - Christopher Bell, finished second "I kept trying to — we were running side by side. I kept trying to back up my entries to get a big run and take it three wide. They kept running each other up the racetrack, so I kept trying to hit the bottom. Denny went to the apron. I was going to go three wide to the bottom because I knew, if I hit the bottom, they were all going to run up. He covered it, so then I went to the top and was able to get to Christopher’s right rear. We were all driving so deep that
we slide up the racetrack. I was in no man’s land after that. Hate that we weren’t on the better end of it. We had a really, really good Bass Pro Shops Tracker Toyota, just felt like it was certainly capable of winning, ended up third. Great day for JGR, went one, two, three. Wish we were the ones in first." - Chase Briscoe, finished third "It was an up-and-down day.
I felt like our No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet started off really tight and we kind of fell back there. We made some adjustments and stayed out in the second stage to get good stage points. We kind of found our way back into the top-15. This team gave me a great car and we made it better throughout the race. Our brakes were good. I could hustle it really all the way through a whole stage and a whole run, and I felt like that was a benefit for us. Our pit crew did a good job there. We decided
to take four tires so we could be on the offense. The lanes just opened up. I was hoping they were going to fight a little bit harder up there so we could back into a win. "It’s just really cool to get this NOS Energy Drink Kyle Busch tribute Chevrolet in the top-five at a place where we struggle at with the Next Gen car. We ran here good with the previous car and we’ve been
struggling here as of late, so it’s really cool to come home with a top-five finish." - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished fourth
"It was a pretty awesome day for this No. 97 Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge Chevrolet team. Starting up front obviously helps, but it was cool to lead some laps and battle at the front. Our Chevy was running really well all night. I really enjoyed myself tonight. I learned a lot. I
learned to be comfortable moving around in (turns) one and two, which I’ve never been able to do before. We just got the balance better on the two-tire strategy. When we were on a four-tire strategy, we were lacking that. The two-tire stop at the end, we were able to get the balance back again. It was a lot of fun. It definitely feels like we’re making headway." - Shane van Gisbergen, finished fifth "It was just green-white-checkered craziness, as always. I was glad to see Tyler [Reddick]) get out there at the end. I know that had to have been a big hit. I had my hands full. Ryan [Blaney] tried to give me a shove to the line and I was just out of shape, so it was certainly nothing intentional at all. It was nice to get our No. 9 NAPA Chevy back on the tracks. It’s been a rough month or so, I would say, since Texas [Motor Speedway],
so it was nice to get a top-five finish. Hopefully we can build on this from here." - Chase Elliott, finished seventh. Note that at the time of the interview, Elliott did think that he had finished fifth, but the results were updated later. "Just weird. A weird race there at the end. Another really good Ford Mustang Dark Horse all weekend and that's what's most
exciting really. It's so much fun when it's like that. But, I thought I was racing the 12 for the win there and was just playing cat and mouse with him and, obviously, he has way more experience than me. So it was just judging off of him and I was just trying to keep him lined up and make sure that I was gonna stay in control to the best of my ability. And then I saw him peel off, so I just went into save mode and the 20 was just making too much lap time, really. I mean, I probably had, I don't
know, three to four more tenths and saving fuel, but still, that wasn't enough for the laps he was putting down, and I think he had like 40 lap fresher tires than me. So, it was just a knife to a gunfight there once he caught me. But with that said, I mean, man, we gave everything we could tonight, and we're here to try to win a Cup race for Front Row Motorsports and all the men and women back at the shop. And Speedy Cash and Ford Racing, of course, and all of our partners. But, just didn't
quite play out. And that's okay. Just need to get better on restarts. The past couple weeks there's been ridiculously tight on restarts and that's, uh, it's just been brutal. I know everyone is, but I'm slow on them. And so I need to be better. And yeah, working towards that. But, hopefully ours is coming soon. My mindset is high after the past couple weeks, you know? We're leading laps. We’re hopefully being talked about because our speed is there and performance is there. You just have to have
everything go right to win these, and that's why it's so special too. We need to do the little things a little bit better… and one time it will go our way." - Zane Smith, finished ninth "We had a right-front brake rotor failure. It came apart and I just put it against the fence. You can’t slow down once the rotor is out of it. The car was okay, but it’s a rule that
you can’t replace the rotors. It’s a bummer for Trackhouse Racing and our No. 1 Busch Light Country Chevrolet team. We had a really good car and that’s something to hang our hats on. We had speed and grip, and we were able to pass cars after starting deep in the field. There’s a lot to take away on the good side." - Ross Chastain, finished 37th (Crashed out)
"There was no warning at all. No pedal
fade. The team was telling me that we had a little bit more glow than we would like and that went away as the run went on. It just kind of came as a surprise. It’s unfortunate for our No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet team. I felt like we were moving in the right direction. We made up around 15 spots in the first few laps of the race. Just hate to cut another night short."- Connor Zilisch, 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.
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