Frontstretch Newsletter: Feb. 23, 2026
Volume XX,
Edition XXIII |
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! |
- Teams are back at their shops in North Carolina and preparations are underway for this weekend's races in Austin and St. Petersburg. Entry lists should be released today. We'll have the entry lists and everything else breaks for you at Frontstretch. |
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| Daytona 500 Champ Tyler Reddick Goes Back-to-Back With
Atlanta Win Tyler Reddick was able to sweep past teammate Bubba Wallace with two laps to go Sunday night and held on to win the AutoTrader 400 for his second straight victory. Chase Briscoe was second, then Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Daniel
Suarez. |
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| Christopher Bell Denied Spring Atlanta Repeat by Carson
Hocevar Christopher Bell was in good position to potentially snag a victory Sunday. Then came the first overtime restart. Contact from Carson Hocevar resulted in Bell crashing and dropping back to 21st. |
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| Jesse Love Adds COTA to Cup
Schedule Richard Childress Racing announced Friday that they will enter their part-time third car for Jesse Love at Circuit of the Americas with sponsorship from C4 Energy Drink. |
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| Sheldon Creed Gets First Career O’Reilly Win After
Thrilling Finish Sheldon Creed swept into the lead on the final lap Saturday and held on to win the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 after 15 second-place finishes. Parker Retzlaff was second, then Nick Sanchez, Corey Day and Jesse
Love. |
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| Corey Day Has a Long List of Apologies After
Atlanta Corey Day finished a career-best fourth on Saturday, but there were a lot of drivers unhappy with him afterwards as he was responsible for multiple wrecks. |
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| Kyle Busch Wins 3rd Straight Truck Race at Atlanta for
Spire Kyle Busch won his record-breaking ninth Truck race at EchoPark Speedway Saturday in an event shortened due to a time limit. Carson Hocevar was second, then Gio Ruggiero, Ben Rhodes and John Hunter Nemechek. |
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| Herculean Rally Comes Up Short for Ben Rhodes at
Atlanta Ben Rhodes led 70 laps Saturday, but had to come back from a lap down after running out of fuel at the end of stage two to finish fourth. |
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| Colin Braun To Drive Kaulig No. 25 at St.
Petersburg Kaulig Racing announced Saturday that IMSA veteran (and former series regular) Colin Braun will drive the No. 25 RAM next weekend at St. Petersburg. |
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| Ben Maier Driving St. Petersburg for
Niece Niece Motorsports announced Friday that CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series racer Ben Maier will drive the No. 4 Chevrolet in next weekend's Truck race in St. Petersburg. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography and NASCAR Media via Jonathan Bachman of Getty Images. 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. 20-22 |
- The World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DirtVision spent last weekend at Hendry County Motorsports Park for the Swamp Cabbage 100. Friday saw Drake Troutman start from the pole and hold off Nick Hoffman. Further back, Bobby Pierce was moving up the order.
Pierce took the lead and expanded his lead up
to five seconds before a spin for Tyler Erb brought the pack back together with five laps to go. From there, Pierce held on to take his first win of the year.
Pierce won by 1.381 seconds over Ethan Dotson. Daulton Wilson was third, then Troutman and Hoffman. Saturday night saw Pierce take the lead from Sam Seawright early on. Hoffman was able to run down Pierce down and took the lead on lap 14. A mistake shortly afterwards was erased by a caution. As the race continued, Pierce was the only driver working the outside line. He used it to try to get past Hoffman, but he ended up being blocked
by a lapped car. That was all Hoffman needed to take the win. Hoffman won by .369 seconds over Pierce. Ryan Gustin was third, then Troutman and Dotson. Through eight races, Hoffman has a 10-point lead over Pierce. Tim McCreadie is third, then Erb and
Troutman. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Atlanta last weekend. For more from Atlanta, 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: It's a 23XI Racing 1-2
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick recovered from a crash Sunday to score his second straight victory to start the season. That allowed him to boost his lead up to 40 points over teammate Bubba Wallace. Wallace had the lead on the final restart, but made a bad move that caused him to slip to eighth. Despite that, he still gained six spots in the points.
Chase Elliott remains in third after an 11th-place finish, while Carson Hocevar moved up five places to fourth after finishing fourth. Zane Smith is up one place to fifth after finishing seventh in an evil Ford. Joey Logano is down four places to sixth after crashing late and finishing 18th. Daniel
Suarez and Ryan Blaney are tied for seventh. Despite Blaney leading the series in stage points, Suarez wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his fifth-place finish Sunday. RFK Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher are tied for ninth. Keselowski wins that tiebreaker by virtue of his fifth-place finish in Daytona.
Ross Chastain finished third and moved up 12 places to 11th. Noah Gragson and William Byron are tied for 12th. Gragson wins that tiebreaker by virtue of his 11th-place finish in the Daytona 500. Ryan Preece is up 10 spots to 14th after a ninth-place finish Sunday. Chase Briscoe and Shane
van Gisbergen are tied for 15th. Briscoe finished second Sunday, while van Gisbergen recovered from two spins to finish sixth. They are the final two drivers in the playoffs on points at the moment. Briscoe and van Gisbergen have a one-point advantage over Ty Dillon, who has been very quiet so far this year. Michael McDowell, AJ
Allmendinger and John Hunter Nemechek are all tied for 18th, one more point back. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 125, 2) Bubba Wallace -40, 3) Chase Elliott -44, 4) Carson
Hocevar -51, 5) Zane Smith -54, 6) Joey Logano -57, t-7) Daniel Suarez -58, t-7) Ryan Blaney -58, t-9) Brad Keselowski -64, t-9) Chris Buescher -64, 11) Ross Chastain -74, t-12) Noah Gragson -75, t-12) William
Byron -75, 14) Ryan Preece -76, t-15) Chase Briscoe -80, t-15) Shane van Gisbergen -80. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for points. Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 30, 2) Bubba Wallace -1, 3) Chase Elliott -8, 4) Carson Hocevar -9, 5) Austin Cindric -11, t-6) William Byron -14, t-6) Kyle Larson -14, t-8) Tyler Reddick
-15, t-8) Joey Logano -15, 10) John Hunter Nemechek -16, t-11) Daniel Suarez -19, t-11) Michael McDowell -19, t-11) Kyle Busch -19, 14) Zane Smith -20, t-15) Brad Keselowski -21, t-15) Chris Buescher -21, t-15) Ryan Preece
-21.
Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: t-18) Chase Briscoe -22, t-20) Shane van Gisbergen -24, t-30) Noah Gragson -29.
Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at
Daytona.
2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 95, 2) Bubba Wallace -10, 3) Chase Elliott -14, 4) Carson Hocevar -21, 5) Zane Smith -24, 6) Joey Logano
-27, t-7) Ryan Blaney -28, t-7) Daniel Suarez -28, t-9) Brad Keselowski -34, t-9) Chris Buescher -34, 11) Ross Chastain -44, t-12) Noah Gragson -45, t-12) William Byron -45, 14) Ryan Preece -46, t-15) Chase
Briscoe -50, t-15) Shane van Gisbergen -50. Note: These point standings are from the previous point system used from 2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16):
1) Tyler Reddick 89, 2) Zane Smith -18, 3) Chase Elliott -20, 4) Bubba Wallace -22, 5) Daniel Suarez -25, 6) Joey Logano -26, 7) Carson Hocevar -27, t-8) Brad Keselowski -28, t-8) Chris Buescher -28, 10) Ross Chastain
-29, 11) Noah Gragson -32, 12) Ty Dillon -36, 13) AJ Allmendinger -37, 14) Ryan Preece -41, t-15) Shane van Gisbergen -42, t-15) Ryan Blaney -42. Outside of the top-16, but still in the
Chase: 17) Chase Briscoe -43, 19) William Byron -49. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16):
1) Tyler Reddick 365, 2) Zane Smith -59, 3) Chase Elliott -65, 4) Bubba Wallace -74, 5) Joey Logano -81, t-6) Carson Hocevar -86, t-6) Daniel Suarez -86, 8) Ross Chastain -92, 9) Brad Keselowski -93, 10) Chris
Buescher -96, 11) Noah Gragson -114, 12) Ty Dillon -124, 13) AJ Allmendinger -127, 14) Chase Briscoe -130, 15) Shane van Gisbergen -132, 16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -135. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: t-17) Ryan Preece -139, t-17) Ryan Blaney -139, t-19) William Byron -159. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: Tyler Reddick (Daytona, Atlanta)
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 Nigel
Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase: Austin Hill Maintains Despite Last-Lap Slide
by Phil Allaway
Austin Hill was really close to taking yet another Atlanta victory Saturday. Then, he swept across Ross Chastain's nose and all but wrecked himself on the final lap. Despite that, he still finished 12th and held onto the lead. Hill's lead is down to 22 points over
Rajah Caruth, who won stage two and finished eighth with a race-high 19 stage points. Sheldon Creed's victory moved him up 17 places to a tie for third with Jesse Love, who finished fifth. Parker Retzlaff's career-best second-place finish moved him up six spots to fifth. Justin Allgaier dropped four
positions to sixth after crashing out while racing in the top-five. Carson Kvapil crashed out with Allgaier and dropped from third to seventh. Corey Day's cut tire caused the wreck with Kvapil and Allgaier. Despite that, he recovered to finish fourth and move up 16 spots to eighth. Sammy Smith is down to ninth after cutting a tire and crashing
late. Ryan Ellis remains in 10th, followed by Taylor Gray. Brennan Poole and Patrick Staropoli are tied for 12th, but Poole has the last spot in the Chase for now due to having the best finish (12th at Daytona). Poole and Staropoli are one point ahead of Josh Bilicki. Nick Sanchez is tied for
15th with Brandon Jones after finishing third. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 104, 2) Rajah Caruth -22, t-3) Sheldon Creed -24, t-3) Jesse Love -24, 5) Parker Retzlaff -30, 6) Justin Allgaier
-35, 7) Carson Kvapil -40, 8) Corey Day -54, 9) Sammy Smith -56, 10) Ryan Ellis -58, 11) Taylor Gray -60, t-12) Brennan Poole -61, t-12) Patrick Staropoli -61, 14) Josh Bilicki -62, t-15) Nick Sanchez
-63, t-15) Brandon Jones -63. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 30, 2) Carson Kvapil -1, 3) Rajah Caruth -5, 4) Austin Hill -6, 5) Jesse Love -10, 6) Parker Retzlaff
-14, 7) Sheldon Creed -18, 8) William Sawalich -19, 9) Sammy Smith -21, t-10) Corey Day -23, t-10) Taylor Gray -23, t-10) Nick Sanchez -23, t-10) Jeremy Clements -23, t-10) Brandon Jones -23, 15) Nick Sanchez -24, 16) Jeb
Burton -28. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 89, 2) Rajah Caruth -7, 3) Jesse Love -9, 4) Parker Retzlaff -15, 5) Justin Allgaier -20, 6) Sheldon Creed -24, 7) Carson
Kvapil -25, 8) Corey Day -39, 9) Sammy Smith -41, 10) Ryan Ellis -43, 11) Taylor Gray -45, t-12) Brennan Poole -46, t-12) Patrick Staropoli -46, 14) Josh Bilicki -47, t-15) Nick Sanchez -48, t-15) Brandon Jones
-48. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 76, 2) Jesse Love -6, t-3) Parker Retzlaff -10, t-3) Rajah Caruth -10, 5) Sheldon
Creed -15, 6) Ryan Ellis -21, t-7) Corey Day -25, t-7) Brennan Poole -25, t-7) Patrick Staropoli -25, 10) Josh Bilicki -26, t-11) Justin Allgaier
-28, t-11) Sammy Smith -28, t-13) Taylor Gray -30, t-13) Anthony Alfredo -30, t-13) Sam Mayer -30, 16) Carson Kvapil -32. WC
Points (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 322, 2) Jesse Love -19, 3) Parker Retzlaff -31, 4) Rajah Caruth -36, 5) Sheldon Creed -51, 6) Ryan Ellis -70, 7) Corey Day -80, 8) Justin Allgaier -83, t-9) Sammy Smith -89, t-9) Brennan Poole
-89, t-9) Patrick Staropoli -89, 12) Josh Bilicki -92, 13) Sam Mayer -96, 14) Taylor Gray -100, 15) Nick Sanchez -102, t-16) Carson Kvapil -104, t-16) Anthony Alfredo -104. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Sheldon Creed (Atlanta) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of our own Phil Allaway.
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Seeking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase: Chandler Smith Extends Advantage
by Phil Allaway
Chandler Smith had a quiet day Saturday, but kept himself out of trouble and finished sixth. That allowed him to expand his lead up to 28 points over new second-place man Gio Ruggiero. Ruggiero finished third and moved up two places. Ben Rhodes led the most laps, then recovered from a lap down to finish fourth. That moved him up seven positions to
third, while Ty Majeski dropped to fourth. Stewart Friesen had issues in the closing laps and dropped back to 20th. Despite that, he moved up four places to fifth. Kaden Honeycutt, Brenden Queen and Andres Perez are all tied for sixth. Queen wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his seventh-place finish in
Daytona. Tyler Ankrum dropped one place to eighth after a quiet run to 14th. Christian Eckes broke his driveshaft in the opening laps Saturday and finished 36th. That dropped him from second to 10th, the last driver in the Chase on points at the moment. Eckes
has a three-point advantage over Corey Heim and Daniel Dye. Heim finished fifth Saturday after not running Daytona, while Dye is up from 16th after finishing 13th. Justin Haley is up to 13th, followed by Jake Garcia and Mini Tyrrell. Frankie Muniz is 16th. Point
Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 103, 2) Gio Ruggiero -28, 3) Ben Rhodes -35, 4) Ty Majeski -43, 5) Stewart Friesen -44, t-6) Kaden Honeycutt -50, t-6) Brenden Queen -50, t-6) Andres Perez -50, 9) Tyler Ankrum
-52, 10) Christian Eckes -56, t-11) Corey Heim -59, t-11) Daniel Dye -59, 13) Justin Haley -61, 14) Jake Garcia -64, 15) Mini Tyrrell -67, 16) Frankie Muniz -70. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be third, Kyle Busch fourth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tied for fifth and Carson Hocevar tied for ninth in the standings. Stage Points: 1) Ty Majeski 18, 2) Chandler Smith -1, 3) Stewart Friesen
-3, t-4) Christian Eckes -6, t-4) Corey Heim -6, t-6) Ben Rhodes -8, t-6) Layne Riggs -8, 8) Tanner Gray -9, 9) Kaden Honeycutt -10, 10) Andres Perez -11, 11) Gio Ruggiero -12, 12) Nick Leitz -13, 13) Jake Garcia -14,
t-14) Brenden Queen -16, t-14) Daniel Hemric -16, 16) Grant Enfinger -17. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, Carson Hocevar would have the most stage points with 25. Kyle Busch would be fifth, while Michael McDowell would be tied for sixth, Taylor Gray and John Hunter Nemechek would
be tied for ninth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would be tied for 13th. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 63, 2) Gio Ruggiero -2, 3) Ben Rhodes -11, t-4) Brenden Queen -20, t-4) Tyler Ankrum -20, t-6) Kaden Honeycutt
-25, t-6) Andres Perez -25, 8) Stewart Friesen -26, t-9) Justin Haley -27, t-9) Daniel Dye -27, 11) Ty Majeski -28, 12) Christian Eckes -31, 13) Corey Heim -34, t-14) Jake Garcia -35, t-14) Mini Tyrrell
-35, 16) Frankie Muniz -38.
Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be third, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fifth, Kyle Busch tied for 11th and Carson Hocevar 15th in Old School points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 88, 2) Gio Ruggiero -13, 3) Ben Rhodes -20, 4) Ty Majeski -28, 5) Stewart Friesen -29, t-6) Kaden Honeycutt -35, t-6) Brenden Queen -35, t-6) Andres Perez -35, 9) Tyler
Ankrum -37, 10) Christian Eckes -41, t-11) Corey Heim -44, t-11) Daniel Dye -44, 13) Justin Haley -46, 14) Jake Garcia -49, 15) Mini Tyrrell -52, 16) Frankie Muniz -55. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be third, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tied for fourth, Kyle Busch eighth and Carson Hocevar tied for ninth in 2014 points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Gio Ruggiero 335, 2) Chandler Smith -5, 3) Ben
Rhodes -38, 4) Brenden Queen -74, 5) Tyler Ankrum -76, 6) Kaden Honeycutt -88, 7) Ty Majeski -91, t-8) Stewart Friesen -93, t-8) Andres Perez -93, 10) Justin Haley -94, 11) Daniel Dye -99, 12) Christian Eckes
-110, 13) Jake Garcia -117, 14) Mini Tyrrell -123, 15) Frankie Muniz -132, 16) Kris Wright -138. Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, John Hunter Nemechek would be third, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fifth and Carson Hocevar 13th
in WC points. Race Winners: Chandler Smith (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta)
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 AutoTrader 400 was brought to you by the Letter A for Aggressive Moves. You couldn't really go anywhere without making a strong move. You didn't necessarily need help to make the
initial move, but you likely needed it to make it stick. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: AutoTrader 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"I really didn’t know [if I could get back up front with the damage]. We were back there in 30th when we got collected with [Denny Hamlin]. The Pinnacle Camry was definitely really loose. We were able to make an adjustment on it with air, and I don’t know. They just kept stacking up in the middle and top lanes, and I just found a way to get into the top-five. I tried to stay committed to
somebody, and I didn’t have a choice. I had to find out if it would go in the front like that.
"For the second straight week, we had a great Toyota teammate pushing. We got that damage there, and it is so easy to settle for 20th or 15th – and we got a little air pressure adjustment, fixed the damage a little bit more, and it was like the car was completely back. It was a little bit draggier in a straight
line, but was able to make the moves when it mattered. Just superspeedway racing, what can you say." - Tyler Reddick, race winner "I don’t know. Honestly, I felt like I was doing everything that I could. Even all of the situations that happened – everything kind of worked out in my favor. I could never get a big enough run down the straightaway to really do anything
with our Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Toyota. I was obviously able to push [Tyler Reddick] to the win. I wish I would have been able to have a bigger run to go three-wide and try to take the lead, but I just couldn’t do it for whatever reason. I would say the one thing our car kind of lacked all day was the straightaway speed. It drove really good, and I could make moves. It just kind of felt slow down the straightaways, so not sure what else I really could have done, but still a great result. We
will go on to COTA next week and see if we can be one spot better." - Chase Briscoe, finished second
"I needed [Chase Briscoe] to not push [Tyler Reddick] into turn 1 there, but he followed him because that was his best bet. And then [Reddick] pulled us down the backstretch like supersonic. That was insane how fast that car with the damage pulled the lane down the backstretch. We were all
wide-open and we couldn’t gain anything.
"We needed to be turning better with our No. 1 Wendy’s Chevy today. We were just a little too tight in traffic, and then even in clean air, we were scrubbing the fronts too much. We were never quite good enough to get control of the race. We’re always trying to cycle forward. Brandon McSwain made some great calls from the pit box." - Ross Chastain, finished
third "I was really happy with this No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet. Our car was really fast to go from two laps down to getting stage points and finishing fourth. Overall, it was a good points day for us. I was taking every run I could. I’m sure I owe people apologies, but I think we’re all battling for spaces and runs. At the end, all four tires were straight. My toe was
knocked out, but it was still pretty fast. Pretty excited about a strong start to the season." - Carson Hocevar, finished fourth
"Honestly, I thought we were in an amazing spot for that last restart. [Carson Hocevar] was leading the top lane and [Ross Chastain] was in front of me. I thought we were in a beautiful spot to make it work. [Shane van Gisbergen] was on my left side and pushed me wide. I
felt like that broke down the top lane a little bit. I’m not sure, but I feel like we could have done a little bit better. I feel like we gave that one away because we were in the perfect spot.
"But overall, I’m very, very proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. I couldn’t be prouder, honestly. This team just continues to fight; continues to show up and continues to get better. They never doubt that we
can make the car better. I can’t thank everyone at Chevrolet and the Hendrick Engine Shop for the power under the hood. We just need to keep cleaning a few things up to keep getting better, but very excited for the start of the season." - Daniel Suarez, finished fifth "My Aaron's Rent To Own Ford Mustang didn’t start out great. It had speed, but it was a
lot to manage, and then as we got through the race we just kept working on it and I felt like we made big gains at one point in time, and then we got to the front row and I had a loose left-rear tire after we took right side tires, so I have no idea how that happened. I’m just glad we didn’t wreck because it was a handful, and then after that I had a little right-front damage, but was able to charge back up through the field and have a shot at it somewhat. My gut told me to take the
bottom there and it was looking really good for a second, but I just needed a little bit more help. I’m proud of everyone." - Zane Smith, finished seventh "Yeah, I’m just pumped that Toyota got to victory lane. I need to go back see. I didn’t think I moved up that much to allow – to put myself in the top of three. Unfortunate, but what a race car we had today. I learned
a lot from Rajah [Caruth] yesterday. He had a bad fast car, and he finished second the first stage and won the second stage, just like me, and I was like this car is so fast. Don’t do anything to jeopardize a good finish. I hate that we didn’t get the win, but all-in-all, I appreciate Xfinity – man what could have been. We will go on to COTA – pray for me there (laughter). We will go have some fun." - Bubba Wallace, finished eighth
"I just messed up. I knew [Tyler Reddick] was inside of me at one point of the corner, but I got clear of him. I didn’t quite realize that [Shane van Gisbergen] had gotten inside of him. So once I was clear, I just wanted to cut distance and short-cut my way to the stage finish. [Van Gisbergen] was out of my mirror. I just hung a quick left and ran right into him. There was nothing anyone else did wrong, it was all on
me.
"I hate it for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. We had a great Chevy. I felt like up until that point, I was doing a pretty good job. As always, we’re just trying to build our notebook up on these places. I know we crashed, but I feel like we are still getting better and better when we come to drafting tracks, especially here at Atlanta." - Kyle Larson, finished 32nd (Crashed
out) "I just didn’t have the best of exits off of turn 2 and I was a little crooked getting to the wall. I just got rammed by [Noah Gragson]; no check-up or anything. He didn’t give me an opportunity to make sure I was straight before hitting me or get into me gently to just try and get the momentum back going again. He just drove right through me. It sucks for this No.
8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet team and everyone at Richard Childress Racing. I thought we had a really good Chevy. We definitely would have finished better than where we were." - Kyle Busch, finished 34th (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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