Frontstretch Newsletter: June 8, 2026
Volume XX,
Edition XCIV |
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 back at their shops to prepare for Pocono. Entry lists should be released later today. We'll have those and more at Frontstretch. |
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| Denny Hamlin wins Cup Series Race at
Michigan Denny Hamlin took the lead late Sunday, then ran away and hid en route to his second straight victory. Erik Jones was second, then Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and Carson Hocevar. |
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| Christopher Bell Injures Wrist, Ankle in Michigan
Crash The scariest crash in Sunday's FireKeepers Casino 400 was when Chase Elliott got loose and overcorrected into Christopher Bell, who went hard into the wall. He suffered some injuries in the crash. |
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| Spire Motorsports Shows Out at
Michigan Spire Motorsports once again showed their might at Michigan as Carson Hocevar finished fifth and Daniel Suarez sixth. |
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| Erik Jones Earns Runner-Up Finish in
Homecoming Michigan International Speedway is a big deal for Erik Jones as it is the only venue in his home state. Sunday saw Jones charge up to a second-place finish. |
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| Austin Hill to Drive the No. 33 for the Rest of
2026 In a press conference Saturday morning, Richard Childress announced that Austin Hill will drive the No. 33 Chevrolet for the remainder of the 2026 season. |
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| Corey Heim Wins Truck Race at Michigan After Late Duel
with Kaden Honeycutt Corey Heim, in only his fifth of the year, won Saturday's DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 at Michigan after a duel with Kaden Honeycutt. Honeycutt was second, then Carson Hocevar, Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith. |
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| Layne Riggs Rallies to Top-5 Finish, Retains Points
Lead Layne Riggs had issues early on Saturday that dropped him a lap down. He was able to charge back up to a fourth-place finish. |
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| Cleetus McFarland Completes a Full Day of Learning at
Michigan For Cleetus, the learning continues. Saturday saw him finish on the lead lap for the first time in a NASCAR race, finishing 25th. |
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| Graham Doyle Running Lime Rock for
TRICON TRICON Garage announced Monday morning that Wayne Taylor Racing's Graham Doyle will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Lime Rock. |
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| Josef Newgarden Inevitable in 6th Win at
Gateway Team Penske's Josef Newgarden took the lead with 40 laps to go Sunday night and held on to win the Bommarito Automotive Group 500k. Marcus Ericsson was second, then Christian Rasmussen, Rinus VeeKay and Scott McLaughlin. |
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| Winner Kimi Antonelli Only Constant in Bizarre Monaco
Grand Prix Kimi Antonelli claimed his fifth win of 2026 in Monaco Sunday. Lewis Hamilton finished second, followed by Isack Hadjar, Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson. |
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| History Made in Myles Rowe’s Last-to-1st Drive at
Gateway Force Indy's Myles Rowe charged from 24th Sunday to win the Firestone Indy NXT Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, setting a series record in the process. |
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| Gio Ruggiero Wins Rain-Shortened ARCA Race at
Michigan Joe Gibbs Racing's Gio Ruggiero won Friday's ARCA Henry Ford Health 200, which was shortened to 57 laps due to rain. Jake Bollman was second, then Gavan Boschele, Connor Mosack and Lanie Buice. |
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| Squirrel McNutt Sneaks by Cleetus McFarland Late for 1st
ARCA Top 10 While Cleetus McFarland takes the headlines, his buddy Squirrel McNutt has been steadily improving in his shadow. Friday saw McNutt earn his first top 10 ARCA finish. |
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| Cole Denton Wins ARCA West at Tri-City from the
Pole Cole Denton took the lead on a late restart Saturday night from Trevor Huddleston, then held on to win the NAPA Auto Care Greg Biffle Memorial 150. Mia Lovell was a career-best third, then Robbie Kennealy and Mason Massey. |
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| Ibiza Farm Motorsports Wins 4 Hours of
Mid-Ohio Ibiza Farm Motorsports' Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky claimed overall victory in Sunday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio. |
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| Oscar Tunjo Wins Mid-Ohio VP Racing Race No.
1 GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports' Oscar Tunjo led flag-to-flag in a race that started in full wet conditions to take his third VP Racing SportsCar Challenge win of 2026. |
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| Oscar Tunjo Completes Mid-Ohio Weekend
Sweep Oscar Tunjo took the lead from Gian Buffomante with 30 minutes to go, then held on to take the LMP3 weekend sweep in Mid-Ohio. Westin Workman took his sixth straight GSX win. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Brett Farmer of Getty Images, NASCAR Media via Rebecca Noble and Andrew Stein of ARCA Racing, James Black of Penske Entertainment, Rudy Carezeevoli of Getty Images our own Phil Allaway
and 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: June 5-7 |
- Sunday was the annual Le Mans Test Day ahead of this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is a critical day to learn the 8.467-mile road course that is mostly run on public roads. In Session No. 1, Wayne Taylor Racing's Filipe Albuquerque was fastest overall with a lap at 147.244 mph in his Cadillac
VSeries.R. The lap was .328 seconds faster than Signatech Alpine's Charles Milesi. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA's Will Stevens was third, then the Aston Martin of Roman De Angelis. Ferrari AF Corse's Nicklas Nielsen was fifth. In LMP2, AF Corse's Matthieu Vaxiviere was fastest in class and the Pro-Am subclass with a lap at 141.427 mph. The lap was .466 seconds faster than Inter
Europol Competition's Tom Dillmann, who was fastest in the regular LMP2 class. CrowdStrike Racing by APR's Laurin Heinrich was third, then TDS Racing's Kevin Estre. Forestier Racing by Panis' Esteban Masson was fifth. In LMGT3, the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Vista AF Corse's Alessio Rovera was fastest with a lap at 128.414 mph. The lap was .046 seconds faster than the Aston Martin of
Racing Spirit of Leman's Valentin Hasse-Clot. Akkodis ASP Team's Jose Maria Lopez was third in his Lexus, then Manthey Racing's Timur Boguslavskiy. Garage 59's Marvin Kirchhoefer was fifth.
There was one red flag with 27 minutes to go in the session. Toyota Racing's Ryo Hirakawa collided with Algarve Pro Racing's Jake Hughes, resulting in damage to the Toyota.
The afternoon session saw The Heart of Racing's Tom Gamble set the fastest lap of the test with a lap at 147.757 mph in his Aston Martin Valkyrie. The lap was .108 seconds faster than Toyota's Brendon Hartley. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA's Norman Nato was third fastest, then Signatech Alpine's Ferdinand Habsburg and Victor Martins. In LMP2, IDEC Sport's Job van Uitert was fastest with a lap at 141.547 mph. The lap was .175 seconds faster than TDS Racing's Mathias Beche, who was in the fastest LMP2 Pro-Am entry. Vaxiviere was third, then Masson and Duqueine Team's Julien Andlauer. LMGT3 was topped by Vista AF Corse's Francesco Castellacci with a lap at 128.805 mph. The lap was just .009
seconds faster than Boguslavskiy's Porsche. The Corvette of TF Corse's Jonny Edgar was third, then Matt Bell in the 13 Autosport Corvette. Team WRT's Parker Thompson was fifth.
There were no red flags in the second session, although Ferrari AF Corse's Alessandro Pier Guidi did spin the No. 51 Ferrari at Indianapolis and bumped the wall at one point. The Ferrari 499P was not significantly damaged in the
incident.
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were supposed to race all three nights. However, Friday night's Pure Michigan Showdown at Hartford Speedway was postponed due to severe weather. No make-up date has been announced as of yet. Saturday night saw the tour travel around Lake Michigan to Wisconsin's Plymouth Dirt Track for the Cheese Town Showdown. Here, David Gravel and Buddy Kofoid were the class of the field early, then Gravel hit a rut
and crashed out. That put Sheldon Haudenschild on Kofoid's tail. With five laps to go, Haudenschild was able to get past, then held on to take the win. Haudenschild won by .526 seconds over Kofoid. Garet Williamson was third, then Cole Macedo and Carson Macedo. Sunday night saw the tour move on to Angell Park Speedway for the Ted Johnson Memorial. Here, Williamson led early and was quite dominant. However, a caution on lap 29 changed everything.
That yellow put Carson Macedo on Williamson's tail. The older of the Macedo brothers executed a slide job on the restart to take the lead. From
there, he was gone en route to his third victory in the last six races.
Carson Macedo won by 1.632 seconds over Haudenschild. Bill Balog was third, then Logan Schuchart and Kofoid. In the points, Gravel's points lead is down to 70 over Carson Macedo. Kofoid is third, then
Haudenschild and Donny Schatz. - Interstate Batteries High Limit Sprint Car Series were supposed to race at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn. Friday night. However, that race was cancelled due to severe weather and will not be made up. Saturday night, the series moved on to Dacotah Speedway just outside of Bismarck, N.D. Here, Aaron Reutzel and Brent Marks staged a race-long duel at the front. Reutzel was able to make the pass for the lead stick on lap 25. He then held on for the victory. Marks was second, then Tanner Thorson, Rico Abreu and Tyler Courtney. The victory allowed Reutzel to take the points lead back by 13 over Abreu. Giovanni Scelzi was third, then Thorson and Courtney. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Michigan and Gateway last weekend. For more from Michigan, Gateway, 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: Denny Hamlin Is Back Within A Race of Tyler Reddick
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick won stage one Sunday and was a threat to win. Then, he was eliminated in a big wreck on lap 83. Denny Hamlin took the lead late and ran away from everyone to win. The result was a big swing in the standings. Reddick's point lead
fell from 97 points to 51. Ryan Blaney finished eighth and stays in third. Chase Elliott stays in fourth despite a huge crash late in the race. Ty Gibbs is still in fifth despite getting caught up in the lap 83. Kyle Larson finished fourth and stays in sixth. Carson Hocevar is up two places to
seventh after a fifth-place finish. Chris Buescher is still in eighth. Daniel Suarez finished sixth and moved up one place to ninth. Christopher Bell crashed out with Elliott big time and dropped three places to 10th. Bubba Wallace is up four places to 11th after a third-place finish. William Byron
gambled on two tires late and dropped back to an 18th-place finish, moving him down to 12th in points. Chase Briscoe is up one place to 13th after finishing 10th. Shane van Gisbergen had a miserable run to 30th and dropped two spots to 14th. Brad Keselowski crashed out and dropped to 15th. Austin Cindric remains in
16th after an 11th-place finish. He is the last driver in the Chase at the moment. Cindric has a three-point lead over teammate Joey Logano, who finished seventh and moved up one place in the standings. Erik Jones' second-place finish moved him up three places to 18th, 16 points out of 16th. Ryan Preece struggled Sunday and dropped
two spots to 19th. AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell are tied for 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 669, 2) Denny Hamlin -51, 3) Ryan Blaney -157, 4) Chase
Elliott -187, 5) Ty Gibbs -199, 6) Kyle Larson -216, 7) Carson Hocevar -241, 8) Chris Buescher -245, 9) Daniel Suarez -251, 10) Christopher Bell -259, 11) Bubba Wallace -291, 12) William Byron -292, 13) Chase
Briscoe -299, 14) Shane van Gisbergen -314, 15) Brad Keselowski -319, 16) Austin Cindric -337. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for points. Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 133, 2) Tyler Reddick -1, 3) Denny Hamlin -7, 4) Ryan Blaney -19, 5) Ty Gibbs -29, 6) Christopher Bell -33, 7) Chase Elliott -48, 8) Bubba Wallace -50, 9) Chris
Buescher -60, 10) William Byron -62, 11) Chase Briscoe -64, 12) Austin Cindric -66, t-13) Carson Hocevar -68, t-13) Joey Logano -68, 15) Brad Keselowski -79, 16) Daniel Suarez -83. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 18) Shane van Gisbergen -89. Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at Daytona.
2014 Point Standings
(1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 594, 2) Denny Hamlin -21, 3) Ryan Blaney -97, 4) Ty Gibbs -139, 5) Kyle Larson -141, 6) Chase Elliott -142, 7) Chris Buescher -170, 8) Carson Hocevar -181, 9) Christopher Bell
-184, 10) Daniel Suarez -191, 11) Bubba Wallace -216, 12) William Byron -217, 13) Chase Briscoe -224, 14) Brad Keselowski -244, 15) Shane van Gisbergen -254, 16) Austin Cindric -262.
Note: These point
standings are from the previous point system used from 2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 529, 2) Denny Hamlin -15, 3) Ryan Blaney -80, 4) Chase Elliott -96, 5) Ty Gibbs
-111, 6) Daniel Suarez -113, 7) Chris Buescher -114, 8) Carson Hocevar -115, 9) Kyle Larson -143, 10) Christopher Bell -152, 11) William Byron -158, 12) Chase Briscoe -163, 13) Brad Keselowski -168, 14) Shane van Gisbergen
-169, 15) Bubba Wallace -170, 16) Erik Jones -178. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 20) Austin Cindric -205. Note: These standings are based on
the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 2283, 2) Denny Hamlin -34, 3) Ryan Blaney -268, 4) Chase Elliott -310, 5) Ty Gibbs -346, 6) Carson Hocevar
-386, 7) Chris Buescher -396, 8) Daniel Suarez -400, 9) Kyle Larson -443, 10) Christopher Bell -469, 11) Chase Briscoe -514, 12) William Byron -526, 13) Shane van Gisbergen -555, 14) Brad Keselowski -564, 15) Bubba Wallace
-565, 16) Erik Jones -611.
Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 21) Austin Cindric -692. 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, Michigan), 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 Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase: Off-Week Update No. 1
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series was off last weekend. They will return to action Saturday at Pocono Raceway. When the series gets to Pennsylvania, Justin Allgaier will have a season-high advantage of 179 points over Jesse Love. Corey
Day is third, then Sheldon Creed and Brandon Jones. Taylor Gray is 12th, the final spot in the Chase at the moment. He has a 12-point lead over Rajah Caruth. Ryan Sieg and Brent Crews are tied for 14th, while Brennan Poole is 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), 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 Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase: Kaden Honeycutt Cuts Into Layne Riggs' Lead
by Phil Allaway
Layne Riggs had a decent run Saturday, finishing in fourth. However, Kaden Honeycutt finished second and scored 15 stage points to Riggs' six. That allowed him to cut into the lead. Riggs' points lead is now 26 over Honeycutt. Chandler Smith is up
one place to third after a fifth-place finish. Gio Ruggiero is up to fourth after a 12th-place finish. Christian Eckes is down two places to fifth after running into mechanical issues late and finishing 32nd. Ben Rhodes is up one place to sixth. Ty Majeski crashed out late and dropped down to seventh. Tyler
Ankrum remains in eighth.
Daniel Hemric and Jake Garcia are tied for ninth, the final two spots in the Chase. Hemric stayed in a tie for ninth by finishing 13th, while Garcia moved up by finishing ninth.
Hemric and Garcia have a four-point lead over Corey Heim, who
gained five places by winning Saturday. Remember that he has missed seven races. Stewart Friesen had a late spin and dropped down to 12th. Grant Enfinger is down one place to 13th after an unscheduled pit stop due to a tire issue. Brenden Queen is still 14th, while Justin Haley dropped down to 15th. Andres
Perez is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Layne Riggs 497, 2) Kaden Honeycutt -26, 3) Chandler Smith -90, 4) Gio Ruggiero -114, 5) Christian Eckes -118, 6) Ben Rhodes
-181, 7) Ty Majeski -185, 8) Tyler Ankrum -214, t-9) Daniel Hemric -219, t-9) Jake Garcia -219, 11) Corey Heim -223, 12) Stewart Friesen -228, 13) Grant Enfinger -241, 14) Brenden Queen -255, 15) Justin Haley
-267, 16) Andres Perez -272. Stage Points: 1) Layne Riggs 126, 2) Kaden Honeycutt -8, 3) Christian Eckes -41, 4) Ty Majeski -50, 5) Chandler Smith -51, 6) Gio Ruggiero
-54, 7) Corey Heim -58, 8) Ben Rhodes -61, t-9) Tanner Gray -95, t-9) Jake Garcia -95, t-9) Grant Enfinger -95, t-12) Tyler Ankrum -98, t-12) Stewart Friesen -98, 14) Daniel Hemric -100, 15) Andres Perez
-106, 16) Landen Lewis -109. 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) Kaden
Honeycutt 456, 2) Layne Riggs -4, 3) Chandler Smith -64, 4) Gio Ruggiero -73, 5) Christian Eckes -77, 6) Ben Rhodes -140, 7) Ty Majeski -144, 8) Tyler Ankrum -173, t-9) Daniel Hemric -178, t-9) Jake Garcia -178, 11) Stewart
Friesen -187, 12) Grant Enfinger -200, 13) Brenden Queen -214, 14) Justin Haley -226, 15) Corey Heim -227, 16) Andres Perez -231. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kaden Honeycutt
298, 2) Layne Riggs -17, 3) Chandler Smith -24, 4) Gio Ruggiero -32, 5) Christian Eckes -45, 6) Ben Rhodes -86, 7) Tyler Ankrum -90, 8) Daniel Hemric -92, 9) Jake Garcia -99, 10) Stewart Friesen -104, t-11) Ty Majeski
-106, t-11) Brenden Queen -106, 13) Justin Haley -121, 14) Grant Enfinger -125, 15) Andres Perez -141, 16) Tanner Gray -153.
Note: If he were eligible for Craftsman Truck Series points, Ross Chastain would be 16th in Old School
points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Kaden Honeycutt 1764, 2) Layne Riggs -83, 3) Chandler Smith -123, 4) Gio Ruggiero -145, 5) Christian Eckes -195, 6) Ben Rhodes -326, 7) Tyler Ankrum
-355, 8) Daniel Hemric -364, 9) Jake Garcia -382, 10) Ty Majeski -386, 11) Stewart Friesen -397, 12) Brenden Queen -413, 13) Justin Haley -457, 14) Grant Enfinger -461, 15) Andres Perez -521, 16) Tanner Gray
-555. Race Winners: Chandler Smith (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Dover), Layne Riggs (St. Petersburg, Charlotte, Nashville), Corey Heim (Darlington, Rockingham, Michigan), Christopher Bell (Bristol), Carson Hocevar (Texas), Kaden Honeycutt (Watkins Glen) 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 FireKeepers Casino 400 was brought to you by the Letter W for Wide. Ever since Michigan International Speedway was repaved in 2012, the groove has been fairly narrow there, partially due
to the high speeds. Sunday's race saw a much wider groove, which made for a very competitive race...until Denny Hamlin spanked everyone. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: FireKeepers Casino 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"This is a really momentum based race track. I didn’t think I was going to clear those guys on the frontstretch. It just happened when they were side drafting, it allowed me to clear. That was it for us.
"We were legit 30th. We were a 30th-place car at the beginning. We couldn’t do anything with
it, but the moment the track came to us, and we got some track position and had some great restarts and this thing woke up right where it was yesterday." - Denny Hamlin, race winner "It is good [to be on the podium]. It is a nice day. It is disappointing in some ways. To have the car we had; it’s not we fluked into second, we were running up here all day. We had a
fast Dollar Tree Camry. It just didn’t work perfectly. You need everything to go well. Restarts got chaotic at the end, and the last one didn’t work out for us, and I had to pick through traffic. By [the] time I got up there, the race was over and Denny [Hamlin] was gone. A lot of positives to take away. The car was really fast. I couldn’t ask much more out of it for balance. We will work on it, and if we keep bringing cars like this, we will win races soon." - Erik Jones, finished
second "I don’t know if we just finally got the adjustments right or the track conditions came to me a little bit. I just had a really poor restart there and got ate up, stuck in the middle and fell back somewhere between 13th-15th. Thankfully, my No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy was good that last run to be able to drive back to fourth. I just wish I would have executed it
better and we probably would have had a better shot at finishing second or maybe even be able to race Denny [Hamlin]. It looked like he was really fast and drove away from the field, which is tough to do with this package. "But overall, just happy with the result. It was a clean day, for the most part. It was a good points day. There were guys around us in points that had a
bad day, so we’ll take it." - Kyle Larson, finished fourth "We definitely had a Chevrolet that could contend all day long. This No. 7 NationGuard Chevrolet team did a great job and I’m just super proud of this group. I felt like we had a top-five car on the short run and a top 10 car on the long run. Our strength was definitely the short-middle part of the run. After
three laps, I would fire off really quickly. I feel like on the short run, I was a little bit better than [Denny Hamlin]. Once we lost control of the race, I knew it was going to be a little tough. Overall, just really proud of this team and everyone at Spire Motorsports." - Daniel Suarez, finished sixth "It was a scrappy day and honestly not very good, but we kept working
on it and got it a little bit better all day. We stayed out of some of the messes and we were able to salvage an eighth out of it. So, not a bad day overall. We’re still looking for the speed that we need to contend, but hopefully we can learn a lot and move on." - Ryan Blaney, finished eighth "It was totally my fault. I feel really bad for [Christopher] Bell,
just taking him out. I was trying to run the bottom, make use of our fresh tires and at least get to second, I was hoping, and stay side-by-side with him. I just got in there and got free. I thought I was going to spin and was kind of committing to spinning out. As soon as I was committed to spinning, it just hooked up and, unfortunately, sent Christopher into the wall really hard and me shortly thereafter. We were just racing really hard. I thought it was a turning point in the race to make
something happen, but just stepped over the line and paid for it. "I just blew a left-rear tire from what I could feel, but certainly not a good place to do that, getting into turn one here. That was unfortunate, but really all day again we had another really fast Aaron’s Ford Mustang. I’m proud of that, I just wish we had a result." - Zane Smith,
finished 33rd (Crashed out) "It was an eventful day. We fought really hard to claw our way up to 12th and then blew a left-rear tire and worked on fixing it. We started to get it back right and had a restart there and [JJ Yeley], for whatever reason, restarted way further in front than his car had the capability to run and then parked it in front of all of us and we had to
check up and got ran into from behind. I shouldn’t have lifted. I should have just buried JJ Yeley ass deep in the wall and that’s on me for not doing that. I will next time." - Brad Keselowski, finished 34th (Crashed out) "It was a bit smoky in there, just caught quite a bit of stuff there on the left side, and it got knocked around, so just a lot of exhaust,
brings some smoke in. I’m alright, just a bummer for our Rockstar Energy Drink Toyota Camry. I felt like we had really good speed. We were set up with a good restart to get second there, and maybe race for the lead there, and just an all-around bummer. I wanted to come in here and have a good points day. We had really, really good speed yesterday and it showed again today. All-in-all, it’s a bummer. It’s a race I felt like we could have won, got away from us. All year long, we’ve done a really
good job at staying out of messes like this, so it’s unfortunate to have it happen. At least we got a couple of stage points, we will see if we get back out there. I haven’t heard if we can fix it yet. We will just have to grind it out. It’s not going to be great, and going out early next week in qualifying, we will have our work cut out for us starting early in Pocono, but we will see if we can get our Camry fixed and move up a couple of more spots, if possible." - Tyler Reddick, finished
35th (Crashed out)
"It’s just unfortunate. Another short race for this No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team. I was very loose and I just couldn’t save it. Just very frustrated. It’s been a tough few weeks, but we’ll keep our heads down and try to go get them at Pocono (Raceway) next weekend." - Connor Zilisch, finished 37th (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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