Frontstretch Newsletter: May 3, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition LXVI
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- NASCAR teams will be arriving back at their shops today, preparing for this weekend's action at Darlington. Entry lists should be out either today or tomorrow. We'll have those and anything else that breaks at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: April 30-May 2
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- Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 on Saturday was marred by a huge crash on the second lap. Matt Dalton got loose in the Esses and spun hard into the wall. Dalton's Aston Martin flew up in the air on contact and did one complete roll before coming to rest. The damage to the barrier resulted in a 30-minute red flag.
Once the race resumed, NOLAsport's Matt Travis and Jason Hart claimed the overall and Pro-Am victory by 7.756 seconds over Black Swan Racing's Jeroen Bleekemolen and Tim Pappas. RENNtech Motorsports' Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo were third, then BimmerWorld's James Walker and Bill Auberlen. AutoTechnic Racing's John Capestro-Dubets and Tom Capizzi were fifth.
SprintX Race No. 2 on Sunday saw Hart and Travis hold off a late charge in vain to sweep the weekend. After a five-second penalty was assessed, the margin of victory was 5.476 seconds over Murillo Racing's Kenny Murillo and Christian Szymczak. Stephen Cameron Racing's Sean Quinlan and Greg Liefooghe were third, followed by Classic BMW's Toby Grahovec and Stevan McAleer. Chouest and
Povoledo were fifth.
- In GT America powered by AWS, GMG Racing's James Sofronas claimed victory in the first race of the weekend Saturday in his new Lamborghini Huracan GT3. The margin of victory was 23.175 seconds over Zelus Motorsport's Jason Harward. Jason Daskalos was third in his previous generation Audi, followed by Inception Racing's Brandon Iribe. GMG Racing's Kyle Washington was
fifth.
Flying Lizard Motorsports' Andy Wilzoch won the Masters class, finishing sixth overall in his previous generation Porsche 911 GT3 R. RENNtech Motorsports' Ross Chouest finished eighth to win the GT4 class.
- Sunday's second GT America Powered by AWS race saw Brandon Iribe take the victory in his McLaren for Inception Racing by 1.767 seconds over James Sofronas. Charlie Luck won the Masters class in his Porsche while finishing third overall. DXDT Racing's George Kurtz was fourth, while Andy Wilzoch was fifth. Sean Quinlan finished 11th to win the GT4 class.
- Saturday's TC America race was delayed by roughly 40 minutes due to heavy rains. Once the race got started, the TC class cars were the fastest ones on track. GenRacer's Jeff Ricca ended up claiming the overall victory, the first triumph for his new Hyundai Veloster N TC.
Ricca's margin of victory was 4.96 seconds over Eric Powell. Mike LaMarra was third, while Kevin Boehm was fourth. Classic BMW's Jacob Ruud finished fifth overall, good enough to take the TCX class victory. Forbush Performance's Caleb Bacon finished ninth overall to win the TCA class.
- Sunday's TC America race was held on a still drying track. Despite this, the overall order returned to normal. Jacob Ruud led flag-to-flag to take a dominant victory. ST Racing's Samantha Tan finished second, 31.334 seconds. Steve Streimer finished third, followed by Kevin Boehm, who won the TC class. Eric Powell was fifth. Caleb Bacon finished 17th and earned the TCA
victory.
- Cooper Webb passed Chase Sexton with four minutes remaining Saturday night to not only claim his eighth win of 2021, but also win his second 450cc Monster Energy AMA Supercross championship. Marvin Musquin finished second, then Sexton, Dylan Ferrandis and Malcolm Stewart.
Ken Roczen dominated the early portion of the race before fading to finish 10th. Webb's final points margin is 35 points over Roczen. Eli Tomac finished third, then Justin Barcia and Aaron Plessinger.
- 250cc teams had the East-West Shootout to contend with. 250cc East points leader Colt Nichols got an excellent start and took the lead early on. However, Jett Lawrence ran him down in the closing laps and passed him to score the victory. Nichols ended up second, followed by Hunter Lawrence (Jett's brother), Cameron McAdoo (in a far less painful race) and Seth Hammaker.
As a result of his second-place finish, Colt Nichols won the 250cc East title by 29 points over Jo Shimoda. Jett Lawrence finished third in points, then Christian Craig and Michael Mosiman.
In the 250cc West points, Justin Cooper ended up ninth Saturday night, which was good enough to give him the 250cc West title by 13 points over Hunter Lawrence. Cameron McAdoo finished third, then Seth Hammaker and Jalek Swoll.
- Brad Sweet swept the FVP Platinum Battery Showdown, two nights of racing at the reborn I-70 Speedway Park in Odessa, Mo. for the World of Outlaws NoS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series. Friday night saw Sweet take the lead from David Gravel and hold off a charging Brian Brown to win. Gravel was third, then Carson Macedo and Kyle Larson.
Saturday night saw Sheldon Haudenschild dominate the race until Tim Kaeding spun to bring out the yellow with three laps to go. That put Sweet on Haudenschild's tail. Sweet was able to snatch the lead on the restart and take his third win in a row. Macedo finished second, then Haudenschild, Larson and Schatz.
- The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series was at Boone Speedway for the Hawkeye 100 Weekend. Friday night saw 25-lap features known as the Twin Hawks on the Iowa short track.
Twin Hawk No. 1 saw Cade Hillard execute a slide job on Brandon Sheppard to take the lead with seven laps to go. From there, he opened up a small gap and held on for the win. Sheppard finished second, then Billy Moyer, Chris Madden and Bobby Pierce.
Twin Hawk No. 2 saw the top 12 finishers from Twin Hawk No. 1 inverted. That put Shannon Babb on the pole. From there, Babb led flag-to-flag to take the victory. Frank Heckenast was second, then Tyler Bruening, Spencer Diercks and Logan Martin.
- Saturday night was the main 100-lap show. A special three-wide start was utilized for the first time. Bobby Pierce took the lead on lap 31 and led the final 70 laps to take his second victory of the year and the $30,000 top prize. Shannon Babb was second, then Brandon Sheppard, Billy Moyer and Ricky Weiss.
- The Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn. reported Friday on how Joey Logano has pledged to pay for the re-grading and repaving of Silver City Quarter Midget
Club's track in South Meriden, Conn. This small oval is where Logano, Ryan Preece and David Gravel each got their start in racing.
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| | Kyle Busch Victorious on Birthday, Wins Buschy
McBusch Race 400 to Sweep Kansas
Kyle Busch took the lead with 11 laps to go from Kyle Larson and held off the pack on a late restart to win the Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas Speedway. Kevin Harvick finished second, followed by Brad Keselowski, Matt
DiBenedetto and Chase Elliott.
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| | Eric McClure Passes Away at
42
Former NASCAR driver Eric McClure passed away Sunday morning at the age of 42. No cause was given for death.
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| | Kyle Larson Leads Most Laps, Ends Up 19th at
Kansas
Despite starting 32nd, Kyle Larson had one of the best cars Sunday in Kansas. Larson led a race-high 132 laps and was in the hunt for the win. However, a ill-timed bump draft put him in the wall and dropped him to a
19th-place finish.
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| | Kyle Busch Claims Truck Series Win at Kansas
Speedway
Kyle Busch led 59 laps and swept all three stages en route to victory in Saturday night's Wise Power 200 at Kansas Speedway. Ross Chastain finished second, then Austin Hill, Christian Eckes and John Hunter
Nemechek.
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| | First Pacific Funding Extends Sponsorship With
Jeremy Clements
Jeremy Clements Racing announced Friday that First Pacific Funding has stepped up to serve as the primary sponsor of Jeremy Clements' No. 51 in all events for the rest of 2021 in which other primary sponsors have not been
obtained.
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| | Kyle Sieg to Make Xfinity Debut at
Dover
During Saturday's broadcast of the Dutch Boy 150, FOX Sports 1 reported that Kyle Sieg will make his Xfinity Series debut at Dover International Speedway in a couple of weeks.
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| | Ty Gibbs Leads Every Lap to Win ARCA Race at
Kansas
Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs led flag-to-flag Saturday to win the ARCA Menards Series Dutch Boy 150 at Kansas Speedway. Drew Dollar was second, then Corey Heim, Jack Wood and Derek Griffith.
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| | Scott Dixon Goes Back-to-Back in Texas;
McLaughlin Nabs 2nd
Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon led 206 of 212 laps Saturday to claim his second consecutive victory at Texas Motor Speedway. Scott McLaughlin finished a career-best second, then Patricio O'Ward, Alex Palou and Graham
Rahal.
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| | Pato O’Ward Claims His 1st IndyCar Victory At
The XPEL 375
Arrow McLaren SP's Patricio O'Ward passed Josef Newgarden with 26 laps to go Sunday and held on to win the Xpel 375, a race plagued by a start crash that eliminated one-quarter of the field. Newgarden was second, then
Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon and Colton Herta.
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| | Lewis Hamilton Claims Second Consecutive
Portuguese Grand Prix Win
Mercedes-AMG's Lewis Hamilton took the lead from teammate Valtteri Bottas on lap 20 and only surrendered it from that point on for pit stops en route to his second win of the year. Max Verstappen was second, then Bottas,
Sergio Perez and Lando Norris.
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| | Callum Ilott Relishes First Crack at F1 with
Alfa-Romeo
For Callum Ilott, the Grand Prix of Portugal was a big weekend for him. It marks the first weekend in which he is serving as the third driver for Alfa Romeo. That included driving in place of Antonio Giovinazzi in
Free Practice No. 1.
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| | Toyota GAZOO Racing Dominates 6 Hours of
Spa-Francorchamps
Saturday marked the racing debut of the new Hypercars in in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Toyota GAZOO Racing's Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima claimed victory in the 6 Hours of
Spa-Francorchamps.
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| | K-PAX Racing Earns COTA Weekend Sweep In
Changeable Conditions
K-PAX Racing continued their excellent run to start the Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS season with two more wins in Texas. Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper won Race No. 1, while Corey Lewis and
Giovanni Venturini won Race No. 2.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Getty Images, Jiri Krenek of Mercedes-AMG F1, Antonin Vincent of DPPI, Chris Owens of INDYCAR Media, K-PAX Racing and Gabi Tomescu of Adrenal
Media.
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 Cup Series Playoffs: Denny Hamlin Stands Pat Despite Late Crash
by Phil Allaway
Denny Hamlin was in position to potentially win Sunday in Kansas. He was racing Kyle Larson for the lead when he smacked the wall exiting turn 4 on lap 243. A lap later, he cut his right front tire and hit the wall again. He was able to recover to finished 12th. With Martin Truex Jr. finishing sixth with only four stage points,
Hamlin was able to hold onto all of his 87-point lead. William Byron finished ninth and moved up to third in points. Byron passed Joey Logano, who struggled for much of the day and finished 17th.
Ryan Blaney remains in fifth after fading late to 21st. Brad Keselowski led 72 laps from pole and finished third, good enough to keep sixth. Chase Elliott is up to seventh after finishing fifth. Kevin Harvick dropped to eighth despite finishing second.
Larson led a race-high 132 laps, but finished 19th after contact on the final restart with Blaney. Earning 19 stage points allows him to stay in ninth. Kyle Busch's victory moved him up to 10th, while Austin Dillon's third straight top 10 moved him up to 11th. Christopher Bell crashed late and finished 28th, dropping him to 12th.
Michael McDowell had a mediocre day, but recovered to finish 13th. That allows him to stay in 13th. Alex Bowman finished 18th after hitting the wall and remains in 14th. Chris Buescher finished eighth and now has sole possession of 15th. Matt DiBenedetto's fourth-place finish moved him up to a season-best 16th.
DiBenedetto is now the last driver in the playoffs. He is 12 points ahead of Kurt Busch, who finished 15th Sunday. Tyler Reddick is up four places to 18th after finishing seventh. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped four spots to 19th after crashing out late, while Ryan Newman is 20th a penalty for an illegal body modification dropped him down the
order.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 481, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -87, 3) William Byron -96,
4) Joey Logano -108, 5) Ryan Blaney -111, 6) Brad Keselowski -115, 7) Chase Elliott -132, 8) Kevin Harvick -133, 9) Kyle Larson -144, 10) Kyle Busch -151, 11) Austin Dillon -186, 12) Christopher Bell -189,
13) Michael McDowell -213, 14) Alex Bowman -221, 15) Chris Buescher -223, 16) Matt DiBenedetto -231.
Playoff
Points: 1) Martin Truex Jr. 11, 2) Kyle Larson -2, 3) Ryan Blaney -3, 4) Joey Logano
-4, t-5) William Byron -5, t-5) Brad Keselowski -5, t-5) Kyle Busch -5, t-8) Christopher Bell
-6, t-8) Denny Hamlin -6, t-8) Alex Bowman -6, t-8) Michael McDowell -6, t-12) Chase Elliott -10, t-12) Chris Buescher -10, t-12) Matt DiBenedetto -10, t-12) Bubba Wallace -10.
Stage
Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 156, 2) Ryan Blaney -47, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -59, 4) Joey Logano -66, 5) Kyle Larson -69, t-6) William Byron -70, t-6) Kyle Larson -70, 8) Brad Keselowski -71, 9) Kyle
Busch -93, 10) Alex Bowman -107, 11) Kevin Harvick -110, 12) Christopher Bell -111, 13) Bubba Wallace -117, t-14) Austin Dillon -121, t-14) Kurt Busch -121, 16) Chris Buescher
-124.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Matt DiBenedetto -132, t-20) Michael McDowell -139.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 383, t-2) William Byron -35, t-2) Kevin Harvick -35, 4) Martin Truex
Jr. -37, 5) Joey Logano -50, 6) Brad Keselowski -53, 7) Kyle Busch -71, 8) Chase Elliott -72, 9) Ryan Blaney -74, 10) Austin Dillon -77, 11) Kyle Larson -85, 12) Michael McDowell -87, 13) Christopher Bell
-89, 14) Chris Buescher -111, 15) Matt DiBenedetto -113, 16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -115.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: t-18) Alex Bowman
-137.
Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas), Martin Truex Jr. (Phoenix, Martinsville), Ryan Blaney (Atlanta), Joey Logano (Bristol), Alex Bowman (Richmond), Brad Keselowski
(Talladega), Kyle Busch (Kansas)
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 Xfinity Series Playoffs: Off-Week Edition No. 5
by Phil Allaway
The Xfinity Series was off last weekend. They will be back in action Saturday in the Steakhouse Elite 200 at Darlington Raceway.
When the teams arrive in Darlington, Austin Cindric will have a 59-point lead over Daniel Hemric. Harrison Burton will be third in points, followed by his cousin Jeb Burton, who earned his first career win in Talladega. Justin Haley is fifth.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 367, 2) Daniel Hemric -59, 3) Harrison Burton -92, 4) Jeb Burton -97, 5) Justin Haley -98, 6) AJ Allmendinger -110, 7) Myatt Snider -128, 8) Jeremy Clements -146, t-9)
Justin Allgaier -150, t-9) Noah Gragson -150, 11) Brandon Jones -169, 12) Brandon Brown -176, 13) Riley Herbst -191, 14) Michael Annett -192, 15) Tommy Joe Martins -227, 16) Josh Williams -232.
Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics are ineligible for the playoffs.
Note No. 3: If he were eligible for Xfinity points for the full season, Brett Moffitt would be 13th in points.
Playoff Points: 1) Austin Cindric 14, t-2) AJ Allmendinger -8, t-2) Ty Gibbs -8, t-4) Myatt Snider -9, t-4) Justin Allgaier -9, t-4) Josh Berry -9, t-4) Jeb Burton
-9, 7) Daniel Hemric -11, 8) Noah Gragson -12, t-9) Noah Gragson -13, t-9) Justin Haley -13.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Martin Truex Jr. would be tied for ninth in playoff points. If he had run the full season for Xfinity points, Brett Moffitt would be tied for 11th.
Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 97, 2) Daniel Hemric -21, 3) Justin Haley -22, 4) Justin Allgaier -29, 5) Noah Gragson -30, 6) Harrison Burton -32, 7) Brandon Jones -40, t-8) AJ Allmendinger -59, t-8) Myatt Snider
-59, 10) Jeb Burton -61, 11) Michael Annett -63, 12) Jeremy Clements -64, 13) Riley Herbst -65, t-14) Brandon Brown -73, t-14) Ty Dillon -73, 16) Ty Dillon -77.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Martin Truex Jr. would be tied for 16th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 312, 2) Daniel Hemric -42, 3) Jeb Burton -45, 4) AJ Allmendinger -59, 5) Harrison Burton -68, 6) Myatt Snider -78,
7) Justin Haley -82, 8) Jeremy Clements -91, 9) Brandon Brown -110, t-10) Justin Allgaier -130, t-10)
Noah Gragson -130, 12) Brandon Jones -138, 13) Michael Annett -141, 14) Riley Herbst -142, 15) Tommy Joe
Martins -144, 16) Josh Williams -145.
Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity points for the whole season, Brett Moffitt would be 10th in old points.
Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona-1, Phoenix), Ty Gibbs (Daytona-2), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas), Myatt Snider (Homestead), Justin Allgaier (Atlanta), Josh Berry (Martinsville), Jeb Burton (Talladega)
Note: Wins that are ineligible for playoff ineligibility are in italics.
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 Camping World Truck Series Playoffs: John Hunter Nemechek Expands Advantage With Swell Night
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek had a strong race Saturday night in Kansas, leading 16 laps and finishing fifth. That allowed him to expand his lead over Ben Rhodes to 33 points. Rhodes finished 10th. Austin Hill finished third and moved up to third in points. Sheldon Creed had a miserable night and finished four laps down in 32nd. Scoring 16 stage points minimized the hit, but
he did drop down to fourth in points.
Stewart Friesen is up one spot to fifth despite getting caught up in a late crash with Derek Kraus. Friesen would eventually finish 14th. Matt Crafton dropped to sixth after finishing a lap down in 24th. Zane Smith is up to seventh after finishing seventh. Todd Gilliland's sixth-place finish puts him up to eighth.
Grant Enfinger, who drove for CR7 Motorsports once again Saturday night, finished 17th and dropped to ninth. Johnny Sauter remains in 10th after a ninth-place finish. Chandler Smith finished 11th and moved up to 11th in points, the final spot in the playoffs. Smith is two points ahead of Carson Hocevar, who finished 23rd.
Austin Wayne Self and Raphael Lessard are now tied for 13th. Lessard finished eighth, while Self was 16th. With Brett Moffitt switching his points preference to the Xfinity Series, Tanner Gray automatically moved up to 15th before the race. He stayed there with an 18th-place finish. Hailie Deegan is up to 16th after having her best run of his truck career
to date, finishing 13th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 320, 2) Ben Rhodes -33, 3) Austin Hill -78, 4) Sheldon Creed -83, 5) Stewart Friesen -105, 6) Matt Crafton -111, 7) Zane Smith -119,
8) Todd Gilliland -120, 9) Grant Enfinger -121, 10) Johnny Sauter -151, 11) Chandler Smith -165, 12) Carson Hocevar -167, t-13) Austin Wayne Self -170, t-13) Raphael Lessard -170, 15) Tanner Gray -201, 16) Hailie Deegan
-206.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 10th in
points.
Playoff
Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 16,
2) Ben Rhodes -6, t-3) Raphael Lessard -14, 4) Grant Enfinger -15.
Note: If they were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be second in playoff points while Martin Truex Jr. would be fourth.
Stage
Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 109, 2) Sheldon Creed -41, 3) Ben Rhodes -42, 4) Austin Hill -44, 5) Stewart Friesen -57, t-6) Matt Crafton -69, t-6) Raphael Lessard -69, 8) Grant Enfinger -72, 9) Zane Smith -75, 10) Todd
Gilliland -87, 11) Chandler Smith -89, 12) Derek Kraus -93, 13) Johnny Sauter -94, 14) David Gilliland -99, 15) Austin Wayne Self -100, 16) Christian Eckes -102.
Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be second, while Martin Truex Jr. would be 12th and Ross Chastain 16th.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ben Rhodes 195, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -2, 3) Austin Hill -44,
4) Todd Gilliland -45, 5) Sheldon Creed -48, t-6) Matt Crafton -52, t-6) Zane Smith -52, 8) Grant Enfinger -54, 9) Stewart Friesen -58, 10) Johnny Sauter -72, 11) Carson Hocevar -75, 12) Chandler Smith -80, 13) Austin Wayne Self -82, 14) Tanner Gray -102,
15) Raphael Lessard -107, 16) Tyler Ankrum -112.
Note: If he was eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be ninth in old school
points.
Race Winner: Ben Rhodes (Daytona-1, Daytona-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas, Richmond), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Kansas), Martin Truex Jr.
(Bristol)
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade
Photography. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Buschy McBusch Race 400 was brought to you by the letter S for Stalling. For much of the race, the outside line appeared to be fastest. However, a slower car could
claim the line for themselves and slow the faster car down. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Buschy McBusch Race 400
compiled by Phil Allaway
"You talk about ups and downs of racing – there’s been a lot of downs of life for us. I have a great opportunity and a great job, no doubt. But struggling with the infertility and stuff like that with Samantha (Busch, wife). Hey to Samantha and Brexton (son) back home. Hopefully he won, I don’t know what the results are from Brexton’s race today. Just a great day to
be able to put this M&M’s Mix Camry up front. Want to thank Hy-Vee, our retail partner. They did a huge promotion for us this year with M&M’s and Rowdy Energy. It’s cool to get everybody back to victory lane again this early in the season. To be able to get some of those points going our way now and hopefully – heck, I just remembered, the Buschy McBusch race. The Busch won it, what do you know, right on." - Kyle Busch, race winner
"We had the right pit strategy once the cautions came out there. We had the pit road penalty and came in for tires and Rodney made a great call of coming back in to put tires on and that kind of put us on the offense. We were able to be really aggressive on the two restarts we had at the end and were able to make up some ground. Everybody on our Busch Light Ford
Mustang did a great job today of just hanging in there. We made a few mistakes, but we made our car better throughout the whole day and were more competitive than we had been in the last couple mile-and-a-half races." - Kevin Harvick, finished second
"We weren’t quite as fast as we wanted to be. The Gibbs cars were real fast and Kyle Larson was screaming fast, so a very similar race for us to Vegas, kind of right there on that edge of the top five. We just need a little bit more, but we almost stole one there with pitting and the yellow came out there with 10 to go and it was just kind of the restart chaos and we
all run into each other, whether it’s me running into someone or somebody else running into somebody it’s just part of it, but, all in all, not a bad day for the Verizon 5G Ford Mustang." - Brad Keselowski, finished third
"Holy cow, I’m mentally tired. That was wild. Every restart was insane. That’s how Kansas is because you run from the bottom to the top. I’ve got to give a lot of credit again, I know I do it a lot, but my spotter Doug Campbell does an excellent job. My team did a great job today. We started the race and I was like, ‘Oh, we’re not very good.’ We were just hanging on
and we had to defend all day and then to come home with a fourth is excellent. The car looked fantastic. People love this thing. The Menards and Dickies Mustang looked awesome, bright yellow, it looks good. I’m glad we brought it home. Man, we’re on a roll — another top five." - Matt DiBenedetto, finished fourth
"We were solid. We weren’t anything stellar, but definitely a step in the right direction from where we’ve been over the last three or four weeks. Proud of that. Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] and our UniFirst team made a good call there to come get tires. I felt like that was the right move. I know it didn’t win the race, but I felt like that was the thing to do. Those
restarts just get so wild and it’s really hard to predict what lane is going to do what. You just try to make the best choice that you have available at the time and hope it goes your way. Proud of the effort and hopefully we can just keep this momentum going forward. Hopefully, we’ll be where we need to be soon." - Chase Elliott, finished fifth
"At the end there, I was second through [turns 3 and 4] and came off of [turn 4] and [Brad Keselowski] and [Kevin Harvick] somehow got linked together and went flying past me doing the old bump draft deal. When they got to [turn 1], [Harvick] never lifted and turned [Keselowski] sideways right in front of me and I had to stop so I lost two more spots on the last lap
because I lost all my momentum. Tough deal there, but overall just a tough day for us. We started there mid-pack with our Auto-Owners Camry and it took a while to get any progress. We struggled with the handling, back and forth between tight and loose all day. Just could never get it all tied together. Never could get it to do what we wanted. It was a real handful in traffic. Scratched and clawed for the best we could get and that was sixth, which is not all that terrible." - Martin Truex
Jr., finished sixth
"We had a really strong No. 8 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE today at Kansas Speedway, which we used to grab valuable stage points all throughout the day and top it all off with a seventh-place finish. I was able to run the wall really well during the early stages of the race, which really helped keep our track position and earn those stage points.
Eventually my car started to build tighter and tighter throughout the runs, and that made my entry on both sides of the track into a bit of a challenge. Being looser definitely worked best for our car, and my team did a good job working on the balance of the car to get it to where it needed to be later in the race. We did have a slight miscue on pit road late in Stage 3, but luckily caught a caution quickly and got our lap back, letting us stay in the mix for remainder of the race. It was a good
day for us. We earned the most stage points we have all year today and got out of there with a top 10 finish. The focus will now turn to Darlington Raceway, which is another good track for us." - Tyler Reddick, finished seventh
"That was a good ending for autoTempest Ford Mustang group. It was a fight all day. We worked hard at it and everybody did a great job to get us home with a top 10. It is a respectable finish from where we started. We kept working on it and getting better. It is a fun race track. Kansas is always fun being able to move around and have options. The late race restarts
were pretty wild. We came out in once piece and the car is clean and I am just glad to be able to get autoTempest their first top 10 in NASCAR." - Chris Buescher, finished eighth
"We held in there all day to earn another top-10 finish in the Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet. We started the race sixth, but it took us a while to get the handling of the No. 3 Chevrolet dialed in. We were tight, then we would get better for a while, and then we would end up tight again. At the beginning of Stage 3, we raced from 17th to 10th in one lap.
There was a lot of restart chaos. With about 10 laps to go, we pancaked the outside wall hard. I was doing the best I could, but we were just too tight to make the move stick. We had to pit, and it put us all the way back to 22nd in the lineup, so I’m pretty happy with the top 10. That is exactly what this team does. We make the best of it. We do it every week." - Austin Dillon, finished 10th
"Well, the guys, they never give up. We had a good car, but we never really found the balance on the car. The car had good speed. We have had this package on some other 1.5-miles and we were fast in the top 10. But this time, we were just all over the place. We were just talking about that; like on the splitter, tight, loose, all over the place, and we were never able
to find the right balance. By the time that we were decent, it was late. I felt like we had probably a shot at a good top 10 right at the end, but with [Christopher Bell] blocking and all the mess, it was like starting all over again. I feel like we were lucky a little bit in that last restart with four tires. The car was fast in the beginning and we were able to rescue a decent finish." - Daniel Suarez, finished 11th
"I had [Brad Keselowski] behind me and he didn’t get to my bumper. I think he had to protect from the guy behind him and it just allowed the bottom to get a good jump on us and the bottom lanes cleared me. I fell back to third and I just planned on pushing [Ryan Blaney] as hard as I could. Obviously, I was just pushing too hard, got him loose and chased ourselves both
up into the wall. Just was trying to help him stay side-by-side with [Kyle Busch] down the back to allow myself to have some sort of opportunity and, like I said, I just pushed too hard. That’s really the first time I was behind anybody on a restart. I thought I could push around the corner, but I learned for next time." - Kyle Larson, finished 19th
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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