Frontstretch Newsletter: June 15, 2026
Volume XX,
Edition XCIX |
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 arriving back to their shops today. They won't have much time to complete preparations for the long haul to the Pacific Coast as everyone is planning on leaving Tuesday morning for the trip. Entry lists should be released later today for this weekend's tripleheader. We'll have those and more at Frontstretch. |
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| Denny Hamlin Scores 4th Win of 2026 at
Pocono Denny Hamlin took the lead with four laps to go Sunday and held on to win The Great American Getaway 400. Tyler Reddick was second, then William Byron, John Hunter Nemechek and Kyle Larson. |
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| Legacy Motor Club Continues To Impress With Solid Day at
Pocono Legacy Motor Club had an excellent day Sunday in Pocono with John Hunter Nemechek leading the most laps and finishing fourth while Erik Jones was sixth. |
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| Fuel Gamble Comes Up Short For Christopher Bell In 1st
Race After Injury Christopher Bell didn't have a great car Sunday in Pocono, but he tried to stretch his fuel for a great finish. A stop for a splash in the final laps resulted in a 26th-place finish. |
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| Christopher Bell Says Michigan Wreck Was 63G Impact,
Brandon Jones on Standby Christopher Bell spoke to the media Saturday in Pocono for the first time since his big wreck at Michigan. He noted that the crash was a 63G impact, the largest in the Next Gen car. |
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| Here’s What Happened in the JGR vs Chris Gabehart/Spire
Lawsuit This Week (June 6-12) Last week, Joe Gibbs Racing was granted permission by the court to amend their complaint against Spire Motorsports and Chris Gabehart to include tortious interference. |
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| Justin Allgaier Claims 5th Victory of Season at
Pocono Justin Allgaier continued his strong form Saturday, winning the MillerTech Battery 250 presented by KOA for his second straight win. Brent Crews was second, then William Byron, Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed. |
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| Haas Comes Up Empty-Handed at Pocono After Sheldon Creed
Takes Sam Mayer 3-Wide Sam Mayer was looking strong at the end of Saturday's MillerTech Battery 250, but teammate Sheldon Creed got a little greedy. The result was that neither of them won the race. |
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| Anthony Alfredo Shines at Pocono With Season-Best
6th Viking Motorsports' Anthony Alfredo has struggled at times in 2026, but he managed to avoid the chaos and finish a strong sixth Saturday at Pocono. |
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| Gio Ruggiero Dominates ARCA Race at
Pocono Joe Gibbs Racing's Gio Ruggiero led 51 of 60 laps Friday afternoon to win the ARCA Menards Series Sunset Hill Shooting Range 150. Gavan Boschele was second, then Carson Brown, Jake Bollman and Lanie Buice. |
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| Dreyer & Reinbold Team Owner Dennis Reinbold Dies at
65 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing co-owner Dennis Reinbold died Sunday after a brief illness. He was 65. |
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| Lewis Hamilton Is Back on Top; Wins at
Barcelona Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton won Sunday's Grand Prix of Barcelona-Catalunya for his first victory in nearly two years. George Russell was second, then Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. |
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| Toyota Racing Wins 24 Hours of Le
Mans Toyota Racing's Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi claimed overall victory in this past weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans, the sixth Le Mans victory for Toyota. |
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| Philip Ellis, Jason Daskalos Win GT World Challenge at
Road Atlanta JMF Motorsports' Philip Ellis passed teammate Mikael Grenier with 15 minutes to go Sunday to win the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. |
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| Blackdog Speed Shop Wins GT4 America Road Atlanta Race No.
1 Blackdog Speed Shop's Michael Cooper charged from seventh in the final 10 minutes Friday to win Pirelli GT4 America Race No. 1 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with Tony Gaples. |
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| Rennsport One Wins Road Atlanta GT4 America Race No.
2 Rennsport One's Luca Mars and Spencer Pumpelly earned their third Pirelli GT4 America overall victory Saturday afternoon at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. |
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| Memo Gidley Scores 3rd GT America Weekend Sweep of
2026 SKI Autosports' Memo Gidley scored his sixth and seventh GT America powered by AWS victories of the season this past weekend in Georgia. |
Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Ferrari Media and Fred Hardy, Fabian Lagunas and Andrew Miterko of SRO Motorsports Group. 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 12-14 |
- On Friday, the Automobile Club d'Ouest announced plans for the next generation of Hypercars in Le Mans. In practice, the general idea of Hypercars and LMDh will continue, but there will be changes. Cars will be hybrid-only, the result of the pairing of an internal combustion engine with a hybrid system. As of
now, the Aston Martin Valkyrie is the only Hypercar without a Hybrid system, as it is currently not required. All of the LMDh cars are hybrids. Hybrid systems will be manufactured either by the chassis manufacturer, or a single-source Hybrid powertrain can be used. Either option must conform to the same regulations. Manufacturers will be allowed to either develop their own chassis in-house, like the current Hypercars, or select a constructor to build a chassis like the current LMDh cars are built. Regardless of the choice, the new cars would be homologated for a minimum of five years. Existing LMDh prototypes at the end of 2029 will not be obsoleted by the new regulations.
We'll
have a little bit more on the new regulations in an article at Frontstretch later this week.
- Ford Racing
announced the final three drivers for their new Hypercar effort in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2027 Friday in Le Mans. Those drivers will be Tom Blomqvist, Matt Campbell and Nick Yelloly. Blomqvist and Yelloly both currently drive Acura ARX-06s for Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Acura is leaving IMSA at the end of the year.
Campbell is currently a Porsche factory driver. He is racing a part-time schedule in Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 6 Porsche 963 in the Michelin Endurance Cup races.
The new LMDh prototype will be powered by a 5.4-liter Coyote V8 engine and is currently being
developed. Ford currently has no plans to race their new prototype in IMSA. - The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series was at Knoxville Raceway last weekend for the Premier Chevy Dealers Clash. Friday night's 25-lap feature saw Logan Schuchart start on pole, but lose his advantage early on to Rico Abreu.
Further back, Brent Marks was able to charge up from eighth on the grid to take second from Schuchart with a few laps to go. Then, Abreu suffered an engine failure, which gave the lead to Marks. From there, he held on to take the win.
Sheldon Haudenschild finished second, followed by Schuchart and David Gravel. Aaron Reutzel was fifth. Through 28 races, Gravel continues to lead the points by 82 over Carson Macedo. Buddy Kofoid is third, then Haudenschild and Schatz. - World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTvision teams were at West Virginia Motor Speedway for the RACEFEST
Summer Championship, the first major race weekend at WVMS since the track was reconfigured. Friday night's opener saw Hudson O'Neal lead the first half of the race from pole, but Bobby Pierce was able to get past with a slide job. O'Neal was able to fight back and retake the lead, but Pierce pulled another slide job to take the lead back. From there, he held on to take the win. Dennis
Erb Jr. was second, then Tyler Erb, Brandon Sheppard and Ethan Dotson. Saturday night's 60-lap A-main saw Tyler Erb lead all but one lap en route to the victory and a check for $30,000. Drake Troutman was second, followed by O'Neal, Pierce and Dotson. In the points, Pierce
continues to lead by 44 points over Nick Hoffman. Tyler Erb is third, then Troutman and Tim McCreadie. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from Pocono last weekend. For more from Pocono, 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 Right There
by Phil Allaway
Tyler Reddick had a great run Sunday, leading laps and finishing second. However, Denny Hamlin won his third race in a row and scored over 70 points while Reddick didn't score any stage points. As a result, Reddick's lead is down to only 19
points over Hamlin. Ryan Blaney finished 10th and stays in third. Chase Elliott finished 11th and keeps pace with Blaney. Ty Gibbs more or less stood pat with a ninth-place finish keeping him in fifth. Kyle Larson is still in sixth, while Chris Buescher moved up one place to seventh. Daniel
Suarez is up one place to eighth. Carson Hocevar dropped two places to ninth after a 20th-place finish that really should have been more than that. Christopher Bell ran out of fuel in the closing laps and finished 26th, staying in 10th. William Byron is up one place to 11th after finishing third. Chase
Briscoe is up to 12th after scoring a race-high 16 stage points and finishing 12th. Bubba Wallace was caught up in the big crash early on and dropped to 13th after finishing 21st. Shane van Gisbergen stays in 14th, but had a terrible day. Erik Jones and Austin Cindric are tied for 15th. Jones finished a
strong sixth to move up three places, while Cindric moved up to the tie after finishing 14th. Jones and Cindric are the last two drivers in the Chase at the moment. They have a four-point advantage over Brad Keselowski, who finished 38th after getting eliminated in the big crash. Joey Logano was also in the big crash and slipped back down to 18th.
Ryan Preece is 19th, while Michael McDowell is 20th. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 704, 2) Denny Hamlin -19, 3) Ryan Blaney -165, 4) Chase Elliott -195, 5) Ty Gibbs
-198, 6) Kyle Larson -210, 7) Chris Buescher -243, 8) Daniel Suarez -254, 9) Carson Hocevar -255, 10) Christopher Bell -283, 11) William Byron -289, 12) Chase Briscoe -293, 13) Bubba Wallace -310, 14) Shane van Gisbergen
-343, t-15) Erik Jones -349, t-15) Austin Cindric -49. Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the Chase as they run, or ineligible for points. Stage
Points: 1) Kyle Larson 142, 2) Denny Hamlin -4, 3) Tyler Reddick -10, 4) Ryan Blaney -28, 5) Ty Gibbs -30, 6) Christopher Bell -42, 7) Chase Elliott -56, 8) Chase Briscoe -57, 9) Bubba Wallace -59, 10) Chris Buescher
-63, 11) William Byron -67, 12) Carson Hocevar -73, t-13) Austin Cindric -75, t-13) Joey Logano -75, 15) Daniel Suarez -84, 16) Brad Keselowski -88. Outside of the top 16, but Still in the
Chase: 18) Shane van Gisbergen -98, t-21) Erik Jones -107.
Note: The Stage Points also include the America 250 Florida Duels at Daytona.
2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick
629, 2) Denny Hamlin -4, 3) Ryan Blaney -105, 4) Kyle Larson -135, 5) Ty Gibbs -138, 6) Chase Elliott -150, 7) Chris Buescher -168, 8) Daniel Suarez -194, 9) Carson Hocevar -195, 10) Christopher Bell -208, 11) William Byron
-214, 12) Chase Briscoe -218, 13) Bubba Wallace -235, t-14) Erik Jones -274, t-15) Austin Cindric -274, 16) Brad Keselowski -278. Outside of the top 16, but Still in the Chase: 17) Shane van Gisbergen
-283. Note: These point standings are from the previous point system used from 2014-2025. Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 569, 2) Denny Hamlin
-11, 3) Ryan Blaney -88, 4) Chase Elliott -105, 5) Ty Gibbs -119, 6) Chris Buescher -120, 7) Daniel Suarez -125, 8) Carson Hocevar -134, 9) Kyle Larson -146, 10) William Byron -160, 11) Chase Briscoe -173, 12) Christopher Bell
-176, 13) Erik Jones -182, 14) Bubba Wallace -190, 15) Shane van Gisbergen -199, 16) Brad Keselowski -205.
Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 17) Austin Cindric -217. Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created. WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 2458, 2) Denny Hamlin -29, 3) Ryan Blaney -304, 4) Chase Elliott
-350, 5) Ty Gibbs -383, 6) Chris Buescher -425, 7) Daniel Suarez -451, t-8) Carson Hocevar -458, t-8) Kyle Larson -458, 10) William Byron -536, 11) Christopher Bell -554, 12) Chase Briscoe -557, 13) Erik
Jones -631, 14) Bubba Wallace -640, 15) Shane van Gisbergen -660, 16) Brad Keselowski -690. Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Chase: 18) Austin Cindric -741. 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, Pocono), 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: Justin Allgaier Is Already Locked Into The Chase?
by Phil Allaway
Justin Allgaier scored his fifth win of the year Saturday at Pocono Raceway. We were all set to link to a video of a cartoon character saying "200 Big Ones!" since his lead was likely to expand to that point. However, Allgaier's two closest competitors in the standings,
Jesse Love and Corey Day, managed to crash into each other on the first lap and dropped out. Therefore, random Nicktoons clips no longer apply. We're going with The Jerk today. That's right, Allgaier's point lead has now ballooned to 250 points over Love. That is more than three full races. Even more incredibly, he has effectively locked himself into The
Chase with seven races still to run in the regular season. Day is still in third despite finishing last Saturday, but Sheldon Creed is only six points behind him in fourth. Brandon Jones finished eighth and stays in fifth. Austin Hill and Carson Kvapil are tied for sixth in points. Hill
finished 14th Saturday, while Kvapil was 10th. Sammy Smith remains in eighth. Sam Mayer is up two places to ninth after a fourth-place finish. Parker Retzlaff is down one place to 10th after a 15th-place finish. William Sawalich is down two places to 11th after an early crash. Brent Crews is back up to 12th
after a second-place finish. He is the last driver in the Chase at the moment. Crews has a three-point lead over teammate Taylor Gray, who won a stage, but crashed late and finished 17th. Rajah Caruth is 14th, then Ryan Sieg and Brennan Poole. Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 842, 2) Jesse Love -250, 3) Corey Day -267, 4) Sheldon Creed -273, 5) Brandon Jones -295, t-6) Austin Hill -319, t-6) Carson Kvapil -319, 8) Sammy Smith
-338, 9) Sam Mayer -383, 10) Parker Retzlaff -396, 11) William Sawalich -397, 12) Brent Crews -410, 13) Taylor Gray -413, 14) Rajah Caruth -418, 15) Ryan Sieg -447, 16) Brennan Poole -514. Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 241, 2) Jesse Love -92, 3) Brandon Jones -115, 4) Carson Kvapil -116, 5) Sam Mayer -134, 6) Corey Day -142, 7) Sheldon Creed -145, 8) Brent Crews
-150, t-9) Austin Hill -158, t-9) Rajah Caruth -158, 11) Taylor Gray -160, 12) William Sawalich -169, 13) Sammy Smith -182, 14) Parker Retzlaff -184, 15) Ryan Sieg -206, 16) Anthony Alfredo -218. Note: If he were eligible for NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series points, Kyle Larson would be 12th and Connor Zilisch 14th in stage points. 2014 Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 767, 2) Jesse Love -175, 3) Sheldon Creed
-213, 4) Brandon Jones -220, 5) Corey Day -222, 6) Carson Kvapil -244, 7) Austin Hill -259, 8) Sammy Smith -263, 9) Sam Mayer -308, 10) Parker Retzlaff -321, 11) Brent Crews -335, 12) William Sawalich
-337, 13) Rajah Caruth -343, 14) Taylor Gray -353, 15) Ryan Sieg -372, 16) Brennan Poole -439. Old School Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier
602, 2) Sheldon Creed -73, 3) Jesse Love -79, t-4) Corey Day -86, t-4) Sammy Smith -86, 6) Austin Hill -101, 7) Brandon Jones
-105, 8) Carson Kvapil -132, 9) Parker Retzlaff -146, 10) Ryan Sieg -170, 11) Sam Mayer -174, 12) William Sawalich -175, 13) Rajah Caruth -186, 14) Taylor
Gray -195, 15) Brent Crews -204, 16) Brennan Poole -205. WC Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 2635, 2) Sheldon Creed -273, 3) Jesse Love -281, 4) Corey Day
-326, 5) Sammy Smith -346, 6) Austin Hill -387, 7) Brandon Jones -390, 8) Carson Kvapil -488, 9) Parker Retzlaff -551, 10) Sam Mayer -595, 11) William Sawalich -619, 12) Ryan Sieg -626, 13) Rajah Caruth
-670, 14) Taylor Gray -692, 15) Brennan Poole -761, 16) Brent Crews -828. Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona), Sheldon Creed (Atlanta), Shane van Gisbergen (Austin), Justin Allgaier (Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville, Nashville, Pocono), 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: Off-Week Update No. 6
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will be back in action Friday at Naval Base Coronado. When the series gets to Southern California, Layne Riggs will have a 26-point lead over Kaden Honeycutt in the points. Chandler Smith is third, then
Gio Ruggiero and Christian Eckes. Daniel Hemric and Jake Garcia are tied for ninth in points, the last two drivers in the Chase right now. They have a four-point lead over Corey Heim, who is ineligible due to missing seven races. The next eligible driver is Stewart Friesen in 12th, nine points
back. Grant Enfinger is 13th, then Brenden Queen, Justin Haley and Andres Perez. 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 The Great American Getaway 400 was brought to you by the letter O for On a Roll. Denny Hamlin winning three straight races has effectively made the championship battle into a two-man duel
between himself and another driver that he employs. - Phil Allaway |
Quotes to Remember: The Great American Getaway 400 compiled by Phil Allaway
"I wasn’t really stressed about it, but I certainly didn’t know if [Christopher Bell] was going to be able to push the pace enough to hold us off. I knew [William Bryon] was closing, but I was kind of managing that gap a little bit, trying to save the front tire on my car, but this whole King’s Hawaiian team did amazing. I have to thank Toyota, National Debt Relief, Progressive, Bob’s
Discount Furniture, Sport Clips, Coca-Cola, Jordan Brand, Yahoo, Shady Rays and Logitech G. It’s just been an amazing run. I’ve never been through anything like this.
"[Pocono Raceway] is amazing. I just love coming here. When I came here yesterday morning, the infield was already packed. They just do such a great job at this race track of giving the fans such a great experience, and that is why it sells
out. That’s why I love this race track. Not only because of the wins, because of the fans and how passionate they are." - Denny Hamlin, race winner
"[Pitting long] almost worked. When you go that long, it all kind of falls to how you catch cars. I think we definitely lost a second and a half there when we just took the tires and caught [Chase Elliott] and [Chris Buescher]. We definitely lost time;
a couple spots there. Everyone is racing hard for track position. Some of it’s just bad luck, I guess, where you catch cars. It’s a bummer. I mean, if [Denny Hamlin] wasn’t the winner, you could consider this a good day for our SupplyHouse Toyota team. 35 points just aren’t enough right now. We knew qualifying was going to be tricky coming into this. We weren’t able to get stage points. I know we finished second, but scoring the points we did just didn’t get the job done." - Tyler Reddick,
finished second "I think this is probably the first time in four months that I’ve been able to drive the car this way, just be able to make moves and have the balance stay with me. Just appreciate everyone on this No. 24 Raptor Chevy team and back at Hendrick Motorsports for working really hard, trusting in our tools and the things we can use to prepare. I felt confident
throughout the weekend, and I just felt like from lap 1 on-track, I could push pretty hard. The strategy makes it tough where you have to restart towards the back, but I felt like with our Raptor Chevy, we could manipulate and work through traffic, so that was awesome." - William Byron, finished third "Yeah, really solid day. Thankful for Pye-Barker, Toyota, Legacy
Motor Club – everyone is working really, really hard right now. It gives us the solidification that we are working in the right direction; we are working in the right areas. The last few weeks, both the Nos. 42 and 43 have had good speed. It is nice to finally put a decent result on paper, but overall, it was nice to lead laps today and be able to run up front all day. I don’t know if we necessarily have had that type of day at Legacy Motor Club yet and just hats off to all of the men and women
at Legacy Motor Club. Thankful for them, and just grateful to be here." - John Hunter Nemechek, finished fourth "It was a solid day for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. I didn’t have the greatest restarts early in the race, so we kind of paid for that the rest of the race with track position. I feel like I made up for it a little bit on the last two restarts to
gain some track position and have a good cycle there. We came home with a top-five finish and a pretty solid race car." - Kyle Larson, finished fifth "Yeah, it is nice for [John Hunter Nemechek] to finally get the result. They’ve been fast and haven’t been able to put the race together, so happy for them to get some momentum rolling. For our Dollar Tree Camry team, it
was just a good day. It was clean, nothing great, nothing really bad. Just a good day. Everybody executed well. I thought we finished the best that we could. I thought we were a little bit better than [Kyle Larson] at the end, but it was just really hard to pass. Good to keep the momentum rolling. We’ve got two challenging weeks ahead in San Diego and Sonoma that we really have to hammer through and get a result out of both of them. Proud of the effort and hopefully we can keep it rolling." -
Erik Jones, finished sixth "Strategy goes into this race and everybody did a good job. The BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang was strong and we had some really fast laps in clean air. I know it’s everyone’s least favorite term but it matters so much here. I was a little surprised that the track didn’t widen out as much as it did last year, which gave us a much better
opportunity to move forward. Good work. Proud of everybody and another step in the right direction." - Chris Buescher, finished seventh "We passed some cars today, so it feels really good to be able to do that. On top of that, we had the speed in our No. 1 Busch Light Lime Chevy and the strategy worked out to run Stage Two out and get the points. And then, we were
able to run long into the final stage and have a tire advantage there at the end, with the clean air to go with that. It was nice that it ran green. That was our strategy and that worked to drive up into eighth. To start 24th at Pocono [Raceway] and drive forward, that felt really good." - Ross Chastain, finished eighth "I thought we were a seventh to 12th-place car
all day and we kind of ended up right in the middle of that. We had a good strategy from [crew chief] Jonathan [Hassler] to keep us in the game. We just continue to work at places like this and find some decent speed to contend. Appreciate Wabash, Ford Racing, and Menards for everything that they do. We’ll keep rolling and going out west to see what we can do." - Ryan Blaney, finished 10th "So, whenever the field got strung out, I felt fine. Running by myself, I felt like it was normal. Certainly, adverse conditions, when people were making quick moves on restarts or you get put three-wide, the car gets loose – those are very difficult. Under normal circumstances, I think I'm fine, but restarts were very difficult." - Christopher Bell, finished 26th 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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