Frontstretch Newsletter: March 9, 2026
Volume XX,
Edition XXXIII |
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 currently swapping out their equipment for this weekend's action in Las Vegas. We will have entry lists and anything else that breaks for you today at Frontstretch. |
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| Ryan Blaney Scores 1st Win of 2026 at
Phoenix Ryan Blaney took the lead from Ty Gibbs with 10 laps to go Sunday and held on to win the Straight Talk Wireless 500k. Christopher Bell was second, then Kyle Larson, Gibbs and Denny Hamlin. |
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| Close but No Cigar for Christopher Bell at
Phoenix Christopher Bell led a race-high 176 laps Sunday and had the better tires at the end, but simply ran out of time and had to settle for second. |
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| Justin Allgaier Rallies To Win O’Reilly Race at
Phoenix Justin Allgaier took the lead from Jesse Love with 11 laps to go and held on to win the GOVX 200 Saturday night. Love was second, then Carson Kvapil, Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer. |
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| Jordan Anderson Racing Doubles Up Again in the Top 10: ‘I
Had Tears in My Eyes’ So far, 2026 has been an excellent season for Jordan Anderson Racing and Saturday brought more good news. Jeb Burton and Rajah Caruth finished seventh and eighth, respectively. |
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| Josef Newgarden Takes Fresh Tires for the IndyCar Win at
Phoenix Team Penske's Josef Newgarden took the lead with seven laps to go Saturday to win the IndyCar Good Ranchers 250 in Phoenix. Kyle Kirkwood was second, then David Malukas, Patricio O'Ward and Marcus Armstrong. |
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| A Cruel Day in Phoenix for Will Power & Christian
Rasmussen Christian Rasmussen was within 20 laps of scoring his second career IndyCar win when wall contact hurt his car and dropped him to 14th. Will Power could have been up there too, but contact derailed his day. |
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| Will Power Apologizes to Ed Carpenter After Wreck With
Christian Rasmussen Christian Rasmussen was the class of the field Saturday, but his day nearly ended when Will Power squeezed him into the wall exiting turn 2. Power later apologized for the move. |
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| George Russell Wins An Interesting & Entertaining
Australian Grand Prix Mercedes' George Russell was able to take advantage of a virtual safety car to stop for tires and eventually took the lead at halfway. From there, he held on to win the Grand Prix of Australia. Kimi Antonelli was second, followed by Charles Leclerc,
Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris. |
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| Valentino Catalano, Oscar Tunjo Win Airbnb Challenge at
Sebring GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports' Valentino Catalano took the lead with four minutes remaining Sunday and held on to win the first-ever IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge race at Sebring with Oscar Tunjo. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Steve Etherington of Mercedes, and our own Phil Allaway, Bryan Nolen and Danny Peters. 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: March 6-8 |
- Last weekend, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series was scheduled to have two races. Friday night, the tour was at Talladega Short Track for the Dega Duel. Here, Donny Schatz proved that he hasn't lost anything. Winning his heat race and the Toyota Dash put him on
pole for the feature. From there, Schatz led flag-to-flag and held off charges from Bryce Lucius and Sheldon Haudenschild to claim his first victory since 2024. It is Schatz's 317th career feature victory, third all-time behind Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell. Schatz won by 1.973 seconds over Haudenschild. Buddy Kofoid was third, then Lucius and Garet
Williamson. The tour was supposed to move on to Magnolia Motor Speedway for the Black Ice Brawl Saturday night. However, a forecast of chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain saw that event get cancelled. It will not be made up. Through six races, David Gravel and Carson Macedo
are tied for the points lead with 800 points. They are 30 points ahead of Kofoid. Haudenschild is fourth, then Logan Schuchart. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Phoenix last weekend. For more from Phoenix, 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's Streak Snapped, Maintains Lead
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick ran well all day Sunday in Phoenix, but he didn't have a winning car. An eighth-place finish allowed him to maintain the vast majority of his lead. He currently has a 60-point lead over Ryan Blaney. Blaney's victory moved him up two spots.
Bubba Wallace finished sixth, but still dropped a place to third. Chase Elliott got caught up in a couple of incidents and finished 23rd, dropping down to fourth. Shane van Gisbergen spun twice Sunday (once due to a flat tire), but recovered to finish 11th and have sole possession of fifth. Christopher Bell's second-place finish
moved him up 18 positions to a tie for sixth with Joey Logano. Logano was Bell's closest match Sunday until he was eliminated in a crash. Michael McDowell and Chris Buescher are tied for eighth. McDowell finished ninth, while Buescher was 14th. Kyle Larson is up five places to 10th after a third-place finish. Teammate
William Byron is up two positions to 11th after a seventh-place finish. Denny Hamlin gained 11 spots to get to 12th after a fifth-place finish. AJ Allmendinger dropped five places to 13th after finishing 19th. Carson Hocevar managed to get as high as the top-five during the race, but dropped down to 20th by the finish, which
cost him four places in the standings. Ty Gibbs is up to 15th after a fourth-place finish, while Brad Keselowski dropped down to 16th despite coming from the rear to finish 15th. He is the last driver in the Chase on points at the moment. Keselowski has a two-point lead over Daniel Suarez, who crashed twice Sunday and lost 10 places in the
standings. Ryan Preece is down two places to 18th, while Zane Smith crashed out late and dropped to 19th. Kyle Busch, despite multiple tire failures Sunday, managed to finish 17th and move up two spots to 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick
225, 2) Ryan Blaney -60, 3) Bubba Wallace -72, 4) Chase Elliott -97, 5) Shane van Gisbergen -109, t-6) Christopher Bell -112, t-6) Joey Logano -112, t-8) Michael McDowell -114, t-8) Chris Buescher -114, 10) Kyle Larson
-116, 11) William Byron -117, 12) Denny Hamlin -118, 13) AJ Allmendinger -121, 14) Carson Hocevar -122, 15) Ty Gibbs -124, 16) Brad Keselowski -125. Note: Drivers in italics are either
outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for points. Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 44, 2) Bubba Wallace -4, t-3) Tyler Reddick -13, t-3) Joey Logano -13, 5) Austin Cindric -15, 6) Carson Hocevar
-17, t-7) Chase Elliott -19, t-7) Christopher Bell -19, t-9) Chris Buescher -21, t-9) Daniel Suarez -21, t-11) William Byron -24, t-11) Ty Gibbs -24, 13) Michael McDowell -25, 14) Kyle Larson -26, 15) Danny Hamlin
-27, 16) Shane van Gisbergen -28.
Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 17) AJ Allmendinger -29, t-23) Brad Keselowski -35.
Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at
Daytona.
2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 180, 2) Bubba Wallace -27, 3) Ryan Blaney -30, 4) Chase Elliott -52, 5) Shane van Gisbergen -64, t-6) Christopher Bell
-67, t-6) Joey Logano -67, t-8) Michael McDowell -69, t-8) Chris Buescher -69, 10) Kyle Larson -71, 11) William Byron -72, 12) Denny Hamlin -73, 13) AJ Allmendinger -76, 14) Carson Hocevar -77, 15) Ty Gibbs -79, 16) Brad
Keselowski -80. Note: These point standings are from the previous point system used from 2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 167, 2) Bubba Wallace
-35, 3) Ryan Blaney -42, 4) Chase Elliott -46, 5) Shane van Gisbergen -50, 6) Michael McDowell -57, 7) Kyle Larson -58, 8) Brad Keselowski -59, t-9) Christopher Bell -60, t-9) Denny Hamlin -60, t-9) AJ Allmendinger
-60, 12) William Byron -61, 13) Chris Buescher -62, t-14) Joey Logano -67, t-14) Ryan Preece -67, 16) Ty Gibbs -69. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: t-17) Carson Hocevar -74. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 692, 2) Bubba Wallace -121, 3) Ryan Blaney
-139, 4) Chase Elliott -152, 5) Shane van Gisbergen -154, 6) Christopher Bell -179, 7) Kyle Larson -185, 8) Michael McDowell -189, 9) Denny Hamlin -194, 10) Brad Keselowski -199, 11) AJ Allmendinger -205, 12) William Byron
-206, 13) Chris Buescher -211, 14) Joey Logano -215, 15) Ty Gibbs -216, 16) Ryan Preece -228. Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: t-17) Carson Hocevar -240. Note: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975. Race Winners: Tyler Reddick (Daytona, Atlanta, Austin), Ryan Blaney (Phoenix)
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 our own Danny Peters.
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Seeking the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase: Justin Allgaier Takes Points Lead With Phoenix Victory
by Phil Allaway
Austin Hill had a very quiet evening in Phoenix, failing to score any stage points and finishing 12th. That cost him his points lead. Justin Allgaier was able to drive up to the front and snatch the lead in the final 10 laps en route to victory. Thanks to his
series-high number of stage points, that was enough to give him the points lead by two over Jesse Love. Love led the most laps and finished second. Hill is down to third, while Carson Kvapil moved up one place to fourth after a third-place finish. Sheldon Creed was right up there late, but fell to fourth by the finish and slipped down to fifth
in points. Sammy Smith is up one position to sixth after winning stage one and finishing sixth. Rajah Caruth finished eighth in his first race with Jordan Anderson Racing and dropped one position to seventh. Corey Day is down to eighth after a ninth-place finish. Sam Mayer is up to ninth after a late charge to fifth.
Parker Retzlaff is down to 10th after a 14th-place finish. Brandon Jones remains in 11th, while Jeb Burton and Taylor Gray are tied for 12th. Burton wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his seventh-place finish Saturday. Burton and Gray are 14 points ahead of Brennan Poole, who finished back in 27th. Anthony
Alfredo is up five positions to 15th after a 10th-place finish. Ryan Sieg has sole possession of 16th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 184, 2) Jesse Love -3, 3) Austin Hill -5, 4) Carson Kvapil -38, 5) Sheldon
Creed -41, 6) Sammy Smith -52, 7) Rajah Caruth -65, 8) Corey Day -66, 9) Sam Mayer -74, 10) Parker Retzlaff -80, 11) Brandon Jones -89, t-12) Jeb Burton -90, t-12) Taylor Gray -90, 14) Brennan Poole
-104, 15) Anthony Alfredo -105, 16) Ryan Sieg -107. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 61, 2) Carson Kvapil -2, 3) Jesse Love -9, 4) Austin Hill -22, 5) Sammy Smith
-33, 6) Rajah Caruth -34, 7) Sam Mayer -42, 8) Brandon Jones -43, t-9) Parker Retzlaff -45, t-9) Sheldon Creed -45, 11) Corey Day -46, t-12) Jeb Burton -50, t-12) William Sawalich -50, 14) Taylor Gray -51, 15) Brent Crews -52,
16) Jeremy Clements -53. Note: If he were eligible, William Byron would be 12th in stage points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Jesse Love 181, 2) Justin
Allgaier -12, 3) Austin Hill -17, 4) Carson Kvapil -35, 5) Sammy Smith -49, 6) Sheldon Creed -53, 7) Rajah Caruth -62, 8) Corey Day -63, 9) Sam Mayer -71, 10) Parker Retzlaff -77, 11) Brandon Jones
-86, t-12) Jeb Burton -87, t-12) Taylor Gray -87, 14) Brennan Poole -101, 15) Anthony Alfredo -102, 16) Ryan Sieg -104. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Jesse Love
148, 2) Austin Hill -3, 3) Sheldon Creed -19, 4) Justin Allgaier -22, 5) Sammy Smith -26, 6) Corey Day -29, 7) Sam Mayer
-37, 8) Rajah Caruth -38, 9) Carson Kvapil -42, 10) Parker Retzlaff -44, 11) Taylor Gray -46, 12) Jeb Burton -49, 13) Brennan Poole -52, 14) Anthony Alfredo
-53, 15) Brandon Jones -55, 16) Ryan Sieg -57. WC Points (1-16): 1) Jesse Love 643, 2) Austin Hill -19, t-3) Sheldon Creed -77, t-3) Justin Allgaier
-77, 5) Sammy Smith -90, 6) Corey Day -108, 7) Sam Mayer -131, 8) Rajah Caruth -140, 9) Carson Kvapil -144, 10) Parker Retzlaff -158, 11) Taylor Gray -171, 12) Jeb Burton -180, 13) Brennan Poole -194, 14) Anthony
Alfredo -197, 15) Ryan Sieg -199, 16) Brandon Jones -203. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Sheldon Creed (Atlanta), Shane van Gisbergen (Austin), Justin Allgaier (Phoenix) 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 Craftsman Truck Series Chase: Off-Week Update No. 1
by Phil Allaway
Chandler Smith had one of the best trucks Saturday, but he faded to fourth late. That was more than enough for him to expand his lead though. The points lead through three races is now 34 points over Ben Rhodes. Rhodes won stage one and finished third to move him
up one place. Ty Majeski is up one spot to third after finishing second. Gio Ruggiero struggled and dropped two places to fourth after finishing 25th. Layne Riggs' victory from 28th on the grid moved him up all the way up to fifth from 23rd. Kaden Honeycutt has sole possession of sixth after finishing fifth. Andres
Perez is now seventh after a seventh-place finish. Stewart Friesen dropped three places to eighth after finishing a lap down in 26th. Christian Eckes moved up one place to ninth after getting in a crash and recovering to finish 15th. Justin Haley finished 12th and moved up three places to 10th, the last driver in the playoffs on
points. Haley has a one-point advantage over teammate Brenden Queen, who finished 24th. Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Dye are tied for 12th (Ankrum wins the tiebreaker thanks to his Daytona finish), while Jake Garcia stays in 14th. Cole Butcher and Kris Wright are 15th and 16th,
respectively. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 152, 2) Ben Rhodes -34, 3) Ty Majeski -50, 4) Gio Ruggiero -54, 5) Layne Riggs -56, 6) Kaden Honeycutt -65, 7) Andres
Perez -67, 8) Stewart Friesen -82, 9) Christian Eckes -83, 10) Justin Haley -85, 11) Brenden Queen -86, t-12) Tyler Ankrum -88, t-12) Daniel Dye -88, 14) Jake Garcia -94, 15) Cole Butcher -100, 16) Kris Wright
-103. Note: If they were eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be eighth, Kyle Busch tied for 10th and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 12th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points. Stage Points: 1) Chandler Smith 33, 2) Ben Rhodes
-7, 3) Ty Majeski -8, 4) Layne Riggs -9, 5) Gio Ruggiero -16, 6) Landen Lewis -17, 7) Stewart Friesen -18, t-8) Christian Eckes -21, t-8) Corey Heim -21, 10) Kaden Honeycutt -23, t-11) Andres Perez -24, t-11) Tanner Gray -24,
t-11) Connor Mosack -24, 14) Dario Franchitti -25, 15) Tyler Ankrum -26, 16) Nick Leitz -28. Note: If they were eligible, Carson Hocevar would be tied for third, Kyle Busch ninth and Michael McDowell tied for 10th. Taylor Gray and John Hunter Nemechek would be tied for 13th in stage
points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 137, 2) Ben Rhodes -19, 3) Ty Majeski -35, 4) Gio Ruggiero -39, 5) Kaden Honeycutt -50, 6) Andres Perez
-52, 7) Layne Riggs -56, 8) Stewart Friesen -67, 9) Christian Eckes -68, 10) Justin Haley -70, 11) Brenden Queen -71, t-12) Tyler Ankrum -73, t-12) Daniel Dye -73, 14) Jake Garcia -79, 15) Cole Butcher
-85, 16) Kris Wright -88. Note: If they were eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be eighth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 11th in 2014 points. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith
93, 2) Ben Rhodes -10, 3) Gio Ruggiero -24, 4) Ty Majeski -26, 5) Kaden Honeycutt -27, 6) Andres Perez -29, 7) Justin Haley -36, t-8) Brenden Queen -41, t-8) Daniel Dye -41, 10) Christian Eckes -43, 11) Layne Riggs
-47, 12) Tyler Ankrum -48, 13) Stewart Friesen -49, 14) Jake Garcia -50, 15) Cole Butcher -53, 16) Kris Wright -56.
Note: If they were eligible for points, John Hunter Nemechek would be eighth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 11th in Old School
points. WC Points (1-16): 1) Chandler Smith 495, 2) Ben Rhodes -28, 3) Gio Ruggiero -72, 4) Ty Majeski -76, 5) Kaden Honeycutt -93, 6) Andres Perez -107, 7) Justin Haley
-127, 8) Brenden Queen -143, 9) Daniel Dye -147, 10) Christian Eckes -152, 11) Layne Riggs -153, 12) Tyler Ankrum -166, t-13) Stewart Friesen -168, t-13) Jake Garcia -168, 15) Cole Butcher -183, 16) Kris Wright
-192. Race Winners: Chandler Smith (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta), Layne Riggs (St. Petersburg) 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 Straight Talk Wireless 500k was brought to you by the letter B for Blowouts. Once again, tires were extremely important in Phoenix. Drivers started having issues during practice on Saturday. The race saw a
number of drivers experience tire failures, but unlike November, they didn't completely swing the race. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: Straight Talk Wireless 500k compiled by Phil Allaway
"Perseverance. That’s a great word to kind of describe our day. I had a couple mistakes on pit road and learned from them and moved forward, and I didn’t have a mistake the rest of the day. It was unfortunate that they happened back-to-back, but these guys learned from it and rectified it and we were able to stay in the game. Our car was fast enough to be in the
game. I thought the 20 was the best car on the day for sure, but we stayed in the game enough and Jonathan made a great call for two on the last caution and we were able to get the lead there and then hold the 20 off. I don’t know how many more laps I could have held him off, but it was enough laps to do it. I’m proud of the whole group for sticking with it all day and cool to win here again, just a handful of months later." - Ryan Blaney, race
winner "Yeah, I mean, ultimately. If we had more green flag laps, I think we could have made a run at [Ryan Blaney].
"I don’t know. You win some, you lose some. This one stings, but on the positive side I’m really proud of our entire team. The pit crew did amazing. Adam brought
an amazing car. Our mechanics, engineers did really good. It’s something to build on. I don’t know. It was a day that we needed. We got a lot of stage points, finished second. Yeah, just bummed whenever they get away like that." - Christopher Bell, finished second "It was an awesome finish for how much we struggled today. All day, I felt like we might not even be a
top 15 car. This No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team just kept fighting. We gained some track position and made our Chevy better throughout the race. We had some good restarts. It just worked out for us there in the final stage. Just proud of this No. 5 team. We just need to be a lot better. Aside from strategy and pit road, we never really have a shot here at Phoenix [Raceway]. We’ll just keep working hard on hitting the set-up to feel like we can be a contender here from start to finish." -
Kyle Larson, finished third "We were really good today. I don’t know. That’s unfortunate [that we couldn't finish it off]. But we’ll keep rolling. I think I could have done some things better there. Yeah, unfortunate there. But very happy with my team. All the guys, I’m with the right guys. That makes a difference. So we’re running good because of that. It shows.
Really happy with my team, everybody has done a great job, everybody believes in me, we all believe in each other. Happy with that." - Ty Gibbs, finished fourth "We just kind of fought handling a little bit. Seemed like our Jordan Brand Toyota Camry had good speed. Kind of back and forth on which direction we needed to go with our Camry. We kind of just hovered around
fifth all day. We took those two tires there. I got a little tight on us at the end. All in all, it would have been nice to make it four. Looking at the board over here, scored the fourth most amount of points on the day. That’s kind of what we need to keep doing all year to keep the lead that we have and try and hang on to it. Solid day. If we’re not going to win, these are the kind of days we need to have. Glad to get out of here with some points." - Tyler Reddick, finished
sixth "It was a good rally for this No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet team. We had that right-front tire go down when we were running eighth or ninth just before the end of stage two. That just put us in the back, and once we were in the back, we just really struggled. But Travis Peterson and everyone on this No. 71 team made some big adjustments, which helped us get
through traffic. That last restart didn’t go great. [Kyle Larson] kind of got loose and slid up into my lane, and unfortunately, we lost a few spots there. But overall, we rallied back to a top 10. It was a solid day. We’ll keep building momentum. I thought we were going to have a shot at the top-five there for a few laps, but it just kind of slipped away there at the end." - Michael McDowell, finished ninth "It just seemed like everyone ran out of space. There were two cars on the outside of me. I thought I had one on the inside and you’re trying to just merge all back together and everyone ran out of space. I got the wrong end of it. It is what it is. It stinks. We had a pretty good car. I hate that I got into Ross. I had a good run there to try to slip him and he kind of anticipated and went
down to the bottom and we got into each other. I just ended up spinning him, which I didn’t mean to, so it’s just not the greatest of days." - Joey Logano, finished 31st (Crashed out) "A whole lot of cars going right when the cars need to be going left. It’s just a real shame. We had a really fast Quaker State/Menards Ford Mustang. We got points in
both stages and were in desperate need of a race finish without a crash and we did not get that today. It’s a shame because I felt like we did all the right things throughout the afternoon, so that’s racing. I’m not discouraged by any means. It’s a long season. My team has brought me four fast race cars to start the year." - Austin Cindric, finished 34th (Crashed out) "I don’t know. I’ve only seen the replay one time, it almost looked like something in my left front. When I had my vibration, I told them that I thought it was in the front end. Just par for the course for how this year started. It was another car that was extremely fast, felt like we were certainly going to be in contention for the win and just another failure for us. Definitely frustrating, we’ll go on to next week and see if we can turn it around with our Bass
Pro Shops Toyota team." - Chase Briscoe, finished 37th (Crashed out) Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of our own Danny Peters.
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