Frontstretch Newsletter: Feb. 16, 2026
Volume XX,
Edition XIX |
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! |
- The Daytona 500 winner's tour begins today for Tyler Reddick. Earlier today, his winning car was put on display in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America outside of Daytona International Speedway. It will remain there for the next year. His handprints were also cast in cement.
Entry lists for
Atlanta should be released today. We'll have the entry lists and everything else breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Tyler Reddick Escapes Last-Lap Carnage to Win Daytona
500 Tyler Reddick was able to sweep around Chase Elliott coming to the finish, avoided the wreck and won the Daytona 500 Sunday. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was second, then Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski. |
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| How Tyler Reddick Navigated The Final Lap To Win The 2026
Daytona 500 To get in position to win Sunday, Tyler Reddick had to navigate around a big wreck at the beginning of the final lap, then got a big run to get around Chase Elliott. |
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| Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott Watch Another Daytona 500
Slip Away Amidst Last-Lap Chaos The final lap Sunday saw two substantial crashes. Brad Keselowski had a run late, but Riley Herbst cut him off at the pass and caused a big wreck coming to the line. |
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| 17 Cars Involved in 1st ‘Big One’ of Daytona
500 Justin Allgaier got himself into the lead on lap 123 Sunday, but tried to clear himself in front of the field. Contact was made with Denny Hamlin and the wreck was on. |
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| Jimmie Johnson Announces Final Cup Race As 2027 Daytona
500 Jimmie Johnson announced Saturday in Daytona that the 69th annual Daytona 500 will be his final start in the NASCAR Cup Series as a driver. |
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| Austin Hill Dominates Crash-Filled O’Reilly Series Opener
At Daytona Austin Hill led 78 of 120 laps Saturday to win the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series United Rentals 300, his fourth win at Daytona. Justin Allgaier was second, then Ryan Sieg, Jordan Anderson and Sammy Smith. |
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| Daytona Marks a Career Night for Multiple O’Reilly
Drivers: Ryan Ellis, Rajah Caruth & More Superspeedway races are often opportunities for drivers to score career-best finishes. For Ryan Ellis, his debut with Young's Motorsports resulted in a sixth-place finish, while Rajah Caruth scored his first career top 10. |
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| Anthony Alfredo Ends Speedweeks From Hell With 11th-Place
Finish After failing to qualify for Saturday's United Rentals 300, Anthony Alfredo was able to acquire Caesar Bacarella's No. 4 Chevrolet, then drove the unfamiliar car to an 11th-place finish. |
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| Chandler Smith Wins Daytona Truck Race With 4-Wide
Pass Chandler Smith took advantage of the leaders being wrapped up with each other to sneak past and win the Fresh from Florida 250. Gio Ruggiero was second, followed by Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski and John Hunter Nemechek. |
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| Cleetus McFarland’s Truck Series Debut Ends with Lap 6
Crash Garrett Mitchell was cleared by NASCAR last week to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Daytona. That debut lasted only a few laps before he crashed exiting turn 4. |
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| RAM’s Rookies Pivotal in Truck Series Return, Tony Stewart
Crashes For Kaulig Racing's inaugural effort in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, it was the younger lot that brought home the bacon. Brenden Queen in seventh had the best finish for RAM. |
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| Stewart Friesen Earns Top 10 in 1st Truck Race 6 Months
After Scary Crash Friday night marked Stewart Friesen's return to the trucks after his huge crash at Autodrome Drummond last year. He was able to keep himself out of trouble and finished 10th. |
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| Gio Ruggiero Wins ARCA Season Opener at
Daytona Joe Gibbs Racing's Gio Ruggiero took the lead Saturday after Jake Finch and Gus Dean crashed. He then held on to win the ARCA General Tire 200. Jake Bollman was second, then Kole Raz, Daniel Dye and Glen Reen. |
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| Nitro Nightmare: Potential 1-2 Finish Ruined by ARCA
Wreck, Gio Ruggiero Contact Nitro Motorsports was the class of the field for much of Saturday's ARCA race. However, contact from Gio Ruggiero late wiped out both Gus Dean and Jake Finch when they were first and second. |
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| Different Paths, Same Disappointments for ARCA’s Women at
Daytona Three women (Alli Owens, Taylor Reimer and Isabella Robusto) were on the grid in Saturday's General Tire 200. All three of them ran well before separate issues ended their days early. |
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| Tim Richmond Running Up to 4 ARCA
Races Tim Richmond confirmed to Frontstretch Friday that he will run a limited schedule of up to four races in the ARCA Menards Series in 2026. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via James Gilbert and Adam Glanzman of ARCA Racing, and our own Tanner Marlar. Have news for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising
lead or tip. |
Around the World in Motorsports: Feb. 13-15 |
- Team GMR's Maxime Martin took the lead on a restart with 39 minutes to go Sunday as a result of a defensive maneuver gone
bad. Team WRT's Kelvin van der Linde moved in response to a dive for the lead from 75 Express' Jules Gounon. Contact was made that pushed both cars wide, allowing Martin through. From there, Martin held on to win the Intercontinental GT Challenge Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour with Maro Engel and Mikael Grenier. The margin
of victory was High Class Racing's Dorian Boccolacci, Anders Fjordbach and Kerong Li, winners of the Bronze Cup. Team WRT's Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Valentino Rossi were third, then the Audi of Jamec Racing/Team Melbourne Performance Centre's Will Brown, Christopher Haase and Brad Schumacher. Team KRC's Max Hesse, Maxime Oosten and Cunfan Ruan were fifth. Gounon ended up with front-end damage from his contact with van der Linde. As a result, his Mercedes that he shared with Kenny Habul and Luca Stolz faded to seventh. The contact resulted in left rear damage to van der Linde's BMW that forced him to pit for repairs. As a result, van der Linde, Jordan Pepper and Charles Weerts finished
12th. The race contained two frightening incidents. 20 minutes into the race, Haupt Racing Team's Christopher Mies hit a kangaroo on the Conrad Straight. Not only did it thrash his Ford Mustang GT3 and put him out on the spot, but he was left bloodied from the contact. He was otherwise ok. There is footage of the kangaroo being hit, but we will not post that
here. Later on, a massive accident on the run down to Forrest's Elbow put the race under the red flag. Tsunami RT's Johannes Zelger had taken a wavearound and was trying to catch up to the back of the pack when he spun and effectively blocked the track. The local yellow was displayed at the corner, but not the one before it. As a result, the overall leaders blasted into the scene at full speed. Craft-Bamboo Racing's Ralf Aron was leading the race when he crashed hard into the unsighted Zelger's Porsche. Zelger was unhurt and walked away. Aron got out of the car on his own, but was in significant pain. He literally crawled away from his Mercedes. In an Instagram post, Aron noted that he suffered back fractures in the crash, but he is stable and has sensation in all of
his extremities. He is also very unhappy with what led to the crash and wants to discuss the situation with race control once he gets out of the hospital. - World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DirtVision teams were at Volusia Speedway Park to wrap up their weekend of racing. Friday night saw Nick Hoffman start fourth and slowly make his way forward. He was able
to get around Ricky Thornton Jr. on lap 13 to take the advantage. From there, Hoffman had to deal with a number of restarts, but he was able to hold off the pack for his second straight victory. The margin of victory was 3.523 seconds over Brandon Overton. Bobby Pierce was third, then Tyler Erb and Drake Troutman. Saturday night saw Hoffman attempt to make it three series races and fourth consecutive nights in a row overall. Hoffman led the first 32 laps, then came under pressure from Brandon Sheppard.
Sheppard was able to dive to the inside on lap 33 in turn 3 and took the lead away. From there, Sheppard held on to win the 50-lap feature and
$20,000.
Sheppard won by .543 seconds over Pierce. Hudson O'Neal was third, then Hoffman and Thornton. Through six races, Hoffman has a 14-point lead over Sheppard. Pierce is third, then Tim McCreadie and Thornton. - The Super DIRTcar Series ran on the undercard of the Late Models both nights. Friday night saw Mat Williamson pass Matt Sheppard on lap 13 on a restart to take the lead. From there, he pulled away to take his second straight win. Williamson won by 3.781 seconds over
Alex Payne. Jack Lehner was third, then Alex Yankowski and Justin Haers. Saturday night saw Stewart Friesen, fresh off his top 10 in Friday night's Fresh from Florida 250, battle at the front of the field along with Justin Stone. However, Larry Wight entered the picture late in the going. A caution for Matt Caprara brought the field back together on lap 26. On the restart, Wight was able to pull a slide job to take the lead away from Friesen. From there, Wight held on for the win and $7,500. Wight won by 1.465 seconds over Friesen. Williamson was third, then Sheppard and Felix Roy.
The Super DIRTcar Series season doesn't officially start until the end of March at Georgetown Speedway. However, Williamson's third-place finish won him the Big Gator trophy for the best Super DIRTcar Series racer at the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.
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This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Daytona last weekend. For more from Daytona, 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 Scores The Big Win
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick was able to swoop around Chase Elliott on the final lap Sunday and held on to win the Daytona 500. That victory also gives him the points lead. His advantage is 12 points over Joey Logano, who crashed across the line in third. Elliott was credited with fourth and leaves Daytona in third, while Zane Smith won
stage one and leaves Daytona in fourth after finishing sixth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher are all tied for fifth. Stenhouse wins the tiebreaker by virtue of finishing second. Keselowski was fifth, while Buescher came from the rear to finish seventh. Bubba Wallace led the most laps and won stage two en
route to a 10th-place finish. He is currently eighth in points. Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney are tied for ninth in points. Hocevar was leading at the white flag before getting turned and finishing 18th. Blaney scored the most stage points in Daytona, but crashed late. Riley Herbst and Daniel Suarez are tied for 11th. Herbst
wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his eighth-place finish to Suarez's 13th. Josh Berry managed not to damage his car all week, reportedly the only driver to do so. He finished ninth and is 13th in points. Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson are tied for 14th in points, while Noah Gragson is 16th after an 11th-place finish. He is the last
driver in the Chase at this point. Gragson has a one-point advantage over Michael McDowell, who was in good position for an excellent finish before crashing on the last lap. William Byron and John Hunter Nemechek are tied for 18th, while Ty Dillon is 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 58, 2) Joey Logano -12, 3) Chase Elliott -15, 4) Zane Smith -17, t-5) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -19, t-5) Brad Keselowski -19, t-5) Chris Buescher -19, 8) Bubba Wallace
-21, t-9) Carson Hocevar -22, t-9) Ryan Blaney -22, t-11) Riley Herbst -23, t-11) Daniel Suarez -23, 13) Josh Berry -25, t-14) Kyle Busch -29, t-14) Kyle Larson -29, 16) Noah Gragson -31. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for points. Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 26, 2) Carson Hocevar -10, 3) John Hunter Nemechek
-12, 4) Joey Logano -14, t-5) Daniel Suarez -15, t-5) Michael McDowell -15, t-7) Chase Elliott -16, t-7) Zane Smith -16, t-7) Bubba Wallace -16, t-10) Chris Buescher -17, t-10) Austin Cindric -17, t-12) Kyle Larson
-18, t-12) Austin Dillon -18, t-14) Brad Keselowski -19, t-14) Kyle Busch -19, t-16) Riley Herbst -20, t-16) Christopher Bell -20. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: t-18) Josh Berry -21,
21) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -22, t-22) Tyler Reddick -23, t-27) Noah Gragson -25.
Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at Daytona.
2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Joey Logano
46, t-2) Tyler Reddick -3, t-2) Chase Elliott -3, 4) Zane Smith -5, t-5) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -7, t-5) Brad Keselowski -7, t-5) Chris Buescher -7, 8) Bubba Wallace -9, t-9) Carson Hocevar -10, t-9) Ryan Blaney -10, t-11) Riley
Herbst -11, t-11) Daniel Suarez -11, 13) Josh Berry -13, t-14) Kyle Busch -17, t-14) Kyle Larson -17, 16) Noah Gragson -19. Note: These point standings are from the previous point system used from
2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 44, 2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -4, 3) Joey Logano -5, 4) Chase Elliott -6, t-5) Brad Keselowski -8, t-5) Zane Smith
-8, 7) Chris Buescher -9, t-8) Riley Herbst -11, t-8) Josh Berry -11, t-8) Bubba Wallace -11, 11) Noah Gragson -14, 12) William Byron -15, t-13) Daniel Suarez -16, t-13) Ty Dillon -16, 15) Kyle Busch -17, 16) Kyle Larson
-18. Outside of the top-16, but still in the Chase: 18) Carson Hocevar -20, 27) Ryan Blaney -29. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were
created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 180, 2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -5, 3) Joey Logano -10, 4) Chase Elliott -15, t-5) Brad Keselowski -25, t-5) Zane Smith -25, 7) Chris Buescher
-29, 8) Bubba Wallace -36, 9) Josh Berry -37, 10) Riley Herbst -38, 11) Noah Gragson -50, 12) William Byron -53, 13) Ty Dillon -54, 14) Daniel Suarez -56, 15) Kyle Busch -57, 16) Kyle Larson -60. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Carson Hocevar -66, 27) Ryan Blaney -93. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: Tyler Reddick (Daytona)
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via Sean Gardner of Getty Images.
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Seeking the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase: Austin Hill's Superspeedway Dominance Continues
by Phil Allaway
Austin Hill has been a tough out at superspeedways for years and Saturday was no different. Hill led 78 of 120 laps to take the win, sweeping the stages in the process. That performance is now worth 75 points instead of 60. He will go to Atlanta with a 25-point lead over
Justin Allgaier, who finished second. Carson Kvapil finished seventh, but used 17 stage points to get himself into third, while Jesse Love is fourth. Sammy Smith and Blaine Perkins are tied for fifth (Smith wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his fifth-place finish to Perkins' eighth). Ryan Sieg
and Rajah Caruth are tied for seventh. Ryan Sieg wins that tiebreaker by virtue of finishing third to Caruth's 10th. Jordan Anderson finished fourth and leaves Daytona in ninth, which is the same place he left Daytona last year. Ryan Ellis' career-best sixth-place finish puts him in 10th. Viking Motorsports teammates Parker
Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo are 11th and 12th. Alfredo's position came despite him failing to qualify his No. 96 for the race, then taking over the Alpha Prime Racing No. 4 from Caesar Bacarella after qualifying. Alfredo is the final driver in the Chase at the moment. He has a one-point advantage over Brennan Poole, who got shuffled back to 12th on the
final lap from second. Kyle Sieg and William Sawalich are tied for 14th, while Lavar Scott is 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 75, 2) Justin Allgaier -25, 3) Carson Kvapil -28, 4) Jesse Love
-38, t-5) Sammy Smith -39, t-5) Blaine Perkins -39, t-7) Ryan Sieg -41, t-7) Rajah Caruth -41, 9) Jordan Anderson -42, 10) Ryan Ellis -44, 11) Parker Retzlaff -47, 12) Anthony Alfredo -49, 13) Brennan Poole
-50, t-14) Kyle Sieg -53, t-14) William Sawalich -53, 16) Lavar Scott -54. Stage Points: 1) Austin Hill 20, 2) Carson Kvapil -3, 3) Justin Allgaier -5, 4) William Sawalich
-9, 5) Jesse Love -11, 6) Blaine Perkins -13, 7) Rajah Caruth -14, t-8) Parker Retzlaff -15, t-8) Sheldon Creed -15, t-8) Jeremy Clements -15, 11) Sammy Smith -16, 12) Nick Sanchez -17, 13) Jeb Burton -18,
14) Brandon Jones -19. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 60, 2) Justin Allgaier -10, 3) Carson Kvapil -13, 4) Jesse Love -23, t-5) Sammy Smith -24, t-5) Blaine Perkins
-24, t-7) Ryan Sieg -26, t-7) Rajah Caruth -26, 9) Jordan Anderson -27, 10) Ryan Ellis -29, 11) Parker Retzlaff -32, 12) Anthony Alfredo -34, 13) Brennan Poole -35, t-14) Kyle Sieg -38, t-14) William Sawalich
-38, 16) Lavar Scott -39. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts points, Patrick Emerling would be 14th in 2014 Points. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill
45, 2) Justin Allgaier -6, t-3) Ryan Sieg -7, t-3) Jordan Anderson -7, 5) Sammy Smith -8, 6) Ryan Ellis -9, 7) Carson Kvapil
-11, t-8) Blaine Perkins -12, t-8) Jesse Love -12, 10) Rajah Caruth -13, 11) Anthony Alfredo -15, 12) Brennan Poole -16, 13) Parker Retzlaff -18, 14) Kyle Busch
-19, 15) Lavar Scott -20, 16) Josh Bilicki -21. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts points, Patrick Emerling would be 13th in Old School Points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 185, 2) Justin Allgaier -15, t-3) Ryan Sieg -20, t-3) Jordan Anderson -20, 5) Sammy Smith -25, 6) Ryan Ellis -30, 7) Carson Kvapil -39, 8) Jesse Love -42, 9) Blaine Perkins
-43, 10) Rajah Caruth -46, 11) Anthony Alfredo -55, 12) Brennan Poole -58, 13) Parker Retzlaff -64, 14) Kyle Sieg -67, 15) Lavar Scott -70, 16) Josh Bilicki -73. Note: If he
were eligible for NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts points, Patrick Emerling would be 13th in WC Points. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of our own Tanner Marlar.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase: Chandler Smith Claims the Early Lead
by Phil Allaway
The gap opened up on the final lap Friday night and allowed Chandler Smith to slip through to for the win. With the triumph, Smith walks out of Daytona with the points lead. The new enhanced points for race winners means that he has a 19-point lead over Christian
Eckes, who finished third. Ty Majeski is third after a strong run to fourth. Gio Ruggiero finished second and is fourth in points. Kaden Honeycutt finished eighth in his first race for TRICON Garage and is currently in fifth. Brenden Queen finished the best of the RAMs Friday night in seventh and is currently sixth in
points. Nick Leitz finished a career-best 11th in his one-off appearance with TRICON Garage and is currently seventh, while Tyler Ankrum is eighth. Stewart Friesen, in his first NASCAR race since his terrible injuries in Quebec, finished 10th and is currently ninth in points. Ben Rhodes finished 12th and is currently the final
driver in the Chase in 10th. He has a two-point advantage over Andres Perez. Cole Butcher and Tanner Gray are tied for 12th in points. Despite Gray running better all night, Butcher wins the tiebreaker due to a better finish (14th to Gray's 23rd). Travis Pastrana is 14th, then Frankie Muniz and
Daniel Dye. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 65, 2) Christian Eckes -19, 3) Ty Majeski -20, 4) Gio Ruggiero -30, 5) Kaden Honeycutt -31, 6) Brenden Queen
-33, 7) Nick Leitz -34, 8) Tyler Ankrum -37, 9) Stewart Friesen -38, 10) Ben Rhodes -39, 11) Andres Perez -41, t-12) Cole Butcher -42, t-12) Tanner Gray -42, 14) Travis Pastrana -43, 15) Frankie Muniz
-44, 16) Daniel Dye -45. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be fourth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ninth and Michael McDowell 13th in the standings. Stage Points:
t-1) Christian Eckes 12, t-1) Ty Majeski 12, 3) Chandler Smith -2, t-4) Tanner Gray -3, t-4) Layne Riggs -3, t-6) Kaden Honeycutt -7, t-6) Nick Leitz -7, 8) Brenden Queen -10, t-9) Ben Rhodes -11, t-9) Grant Enfinger
-11. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Michael McDowell would be tied for the lead, Taylor Gray, John Hunter Nemechek and Carson Hocevar would tied for fourth, and Corey LaJoie tied for ninth in stage points. Old Point
Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 36, t-2) Gio Ruggiero -5, t-2) Christian Eckes -5, 4) Ty Majeski -6, t-5) Kaden Honeycutt -10, t-5) Brenden Queen -10, 7) Tyler Ankrum -12, t-8) Stewart Friesen -13, t-8) Nick Leitz -13, 10) Ben Rhodes
-15, 11) Andres Perez -16, t-12) Cole Butcher -17, t-12) Travis Pastrana -17, 14) Frankie Muniz -19, 15) Daniel Dye -20, 16) Clay Greenfield -21.
Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points,
John Hunter Nemechek would be fifth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sixth in Old School points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 50, 2) Christian Eckes -4, 3) Ty Majeski -5, 4) Gio Ruggiero -15, 5) Kaden Honeycutt
-16, 6) Brenden Queen -18, 7) Nick Leitz -19, 8) Tyler Ankrum -22, 9) Stewart Friesen -23, 10) Ben Rhodes -24, 11) Andres Perez -26, t-12) Cole Butcher -27, t-12) Tanner Gray -27, 14) Travis Pastrana
-28, 15) Frankie Muniz -29, 16) Daniel Dye -30. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be fourth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ninth and Michael McDowell 13th in 2014 points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 180, t-2) Gio Ruggiero -10, t-2) Christian Eckes -10, 4) Ty Majeski -15, 5) Kaden Honeycutt -33, 6) Brenden Queen -34, 7) Tyler Ankrum -42, 8) Nick Leitz -45, 9) Stewart Friesen
-46, 10) Ben Rhodes -53, 11) Andres Perez -56, 12) Travis Pastrana -57, 13) Cole Butcher -59, 14) Frankie Muniz -65, 15) Daniel Dye -68, 16) Clay Greenfield -71. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be fifth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sixth in WC points. Race Winners: Chandler Smith (Daytona)
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch
newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Daytona 500 was brought to you by the Letter C for Chaos. Two wrecks on the final lap ultimately involved nearly half of the remaining cars on the track. It's the kind of display that can
actually hurt the sport as a whole. The elimination of the "win and you're in" provision was supposed to curb some of these antics, but apparently not. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Daytona 500 compiled by Phil Allaway
"I had that weird moment where I think everyone was too busy screaming and I was like, ‘did we win?’ Man, it’s something — as a kid, I grew up watching the Daytona 500 with my family and just dreamed of being a NASCAR Cup Series driver one day. And, then obviously really wanted to win the 500 so I just – it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of things to go the right way. We
did it today. "I think we had that crash and got really split up there. I was three-wide and wasn’t where I wanted to be and just everyone is kind of going for themselves out there and Riley Herbst, my teammate, picked me up and pushed me, got me back to those first two cars. From there, man, just tried to keep the momentum going in my favor. I wasn’t going to
push anybody and just got really fortunate. Riley went to the top of Chase [Elliott] that I was able to get by them before they got to the end." - Tyler Reddick, race winner "It’s never bad to finish in the top-five in the Daytona 500. It’s a big race and we have left here finishing in the 30s and have been pretty down about that. So, on one
hand, it’s good because our strategy worked out perfectly today. We stuck to it. It was brutal riding around there for a while. Not sure what the Toyota’s were doing, but I think that made the race pretty boring there for a while for the fans. It was chaos after they pitted, so yeah, our No. 47 Chef Boyardee Chevrolet was as strong as I needed it to be. It did the things I wanted, but we just came up one spot short." - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished
second
"I don't know. The whole race just didn't really go as well as I would have hoped. In the first stage, when everyone stayed out and made it, we didn't go for that. So, we lost points there. And it kind of still set us back. You know, we had a hard time just getting back up there. We had a great pit cycle, but no one was great with us. So, we lost all the position we gained
on pit road when I got swallowed up by the field. And then made a great move at the end, got three wide on top, got to the front. I had an opportunity to get underneath the Spire cars. It felt like it was the right move, I made it, and the car was just slow at the end. I think the damage I got from the wreck earlier hurt it more than I expected when I put it back out in the wind which made me go back a little bit." - Joey Logano, finished third "It seemed really fortunate to get through the first crash, and that opened the door to somehow get to the lead. But then I got pushed clear and I think [Zane Smith] was behind me and pushed me clear by everybody down the back, and then it was just he and I. We got a good ways out there and we were just in a lot of trouble because momentum had shifted. At that point, I was just
on extreme defense, and then from there, I was just trying to defend as best I could without crashing myself, but everybody else ended up crashing anyway. Maybe I should have just wrecked myself trying to block. But, yeah, I hate that. Obviously very close but close doesn’t cut it." - Chase Elliott, finished fourth "Good and bad. You
know? I'm happy that we were so competitive today, and where I was a few weeks ago, to just be able to run the race, feels pretty good. But then super disappointed. I had a big run off of turn four and I felt like I could have made a three wide pass for the lead at the line, and [Riley Herbst] just dumped me in the wall. But he got his part of it. All in all, we made something of it with a top five day." - Brad Keselowski, finished fifth "It’s painful that [Tyler Reddick] was, I guess, in my position, but I know I didn’t have the run on [Chase Elliott] that I needed to win and so I tried backing up to any help I could get, and then obviously it fell apart there at the end. All in all, it’s a great growing day for us and some great points scored, but frustrating to be that close and just miss out." - Zane Smith,
finished sixth
"Unfortunately, I’m going to have to take 100 percent of the responsibility for that one. I hate it for everyone that got caught up in it. I felt like our No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet was incredible all day. Greg Ives and this whole team have done a phenomenal job building a race car that we felt like we could come here and not only run up front, but be able to lead
laps.
"I got to the top lane there and I watched the run coming on the top with Denny Hamlin. I thought he was going to push. I thought the lane was closed up just enough that he wouldn’t try to go up there, but when I realized he was going up there, it was just too late. Once the air kind of got on the spoiler, it just turned me to the right. I hate it for
everyone that got caught up in it because it wasn’t what we wanted." - Justin Allgaier, finished 38th (Crashed out) "It’s just unfortunate - wrong place, wrong time. We made some good moves to gain some positions back that we lost when we got stuck on pit road. I had a little thought to bail earlier, but right as I thought, I gained a lot of track
position through the middle, and I was going to stick with it and see if we could get some stage points. Just wrong decision on that one. It is what it is. We will keep digging; go to Atlanta next week and try to win." - Alex Bowman, finished 40th (Crashed out) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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