Frontstretch Newsletter: May 17, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition LXXI
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- NASCAR teams are back at their shops today, preparing for this weekend's action in Austin. 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: May 13-16
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- Friday afternoon saw Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs lead flag-to-flag at Dover International Speedway to win the General Tire 125. The race was marred by multiple right front tire failures. Josh Berry was second, then David Gilliland, Sammy Smith and Max Gutierrez.
- Doug Coby snatched the lead Saturday night from Justin Bonsignore with 25 laps to go and held on to win the Whelen Modified Tour Miller Lite 200 at Riverhead Raceway. Patrick Emerling finished second, followed by Justin Bonsignore, Kyle Bonsignore and Woody Pitkat.
- In Indy Lights competition, Linus Lundqvist led flag-to-flag to win Race No. 1 Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. David Malukas was second, then Toby Sowery, Kyle Kirkwood and Alex Peroni.
Race No. 2 early Saturday afternoon saw Malukas lead flag-to-flag to take the win over Sowery and Peroni. Kirkwood was fourth, while Lundqvist was fifth.
Through six races, Malukas has an 11-point lead over Lundqvist. Kirkwood is third, followed by Sowery and Peroni.
- Indy Pro 2000 presented by Cooper Tires teams had three races in Indianapolis this past weekend. Race No. 1 on Thursday saw Christian Rasmussen take the lead away from Braden Eves with four laps to go and hold on to take the win by seven-hundredths of a second. Reece Gold was third, then Artem Petrov and Jacob Abel.
Teams had two races on Saturday. Race No. 2 was bright and early at 7:50 a.m. In this event, Petrov was able to take the lead from Kyffin Simpson on lap 4 right before Colin Kaminsky crashed to bring out a caution. Once the race restarted, Petrov was able to hold off the pack to take the win over Eves, Simpson, Gold and Enaam Ahmed.
Race No. 3 in warmer conditions saw Rasmussen lead flag-to-flag to take the victory. Gold was second, then Eves, Ahmed and Petrov. Through seven rounds, Eves has a three-point lead over Rasmussen. Petrov is third, then Gold and Hunter McElrea.
- Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship teams had three races of their own in Indianapolis last weekend. Race No. 1 saw Yuven Sundaramoorthy take the lead from Christian Brooks with five laps to go and hold for the win. Michael d'Orlando was second, then Brooks, Josh Pierson and Josh Green.
Race No. 2 later Thursday afternoon saw Sundaramoorthy lead flag-to-flag to take his third win of the year. Pierson was second, then Kiko Porto, d'Orlando and Brooks.
Race No. 3 on Saturday morning saw Porto snatch the lead from Sundaramoorthy on lap 8 and pull away to take the victory. Pierson was second, then Sundaramoorthy, d'Orlando and Thomas Nepveu. Through seven races, Sundaramoorthy has a 13-point lead over Pierson, with Brooks and Porto tied for third.
- Ducati's Jack Miller took the lead Sunday after Marc Marquez crashed his Repsol-sponsored No. 93 Honda. From there, Miller held on to take his second win of the year. Johann Zarco was second, then Fabio Quartararo, who retook the points lead. Francesco Bagnaia was fourth, while Danilo Petrucci was fifth.
- Team WRT's Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye earned their second consecutive European Le Mans Series race Sunday afternoon at the Red Bull Ring in changeable conditions. The margin of victory was 21.511 seconds over G-Drive Racing's Franco Colapinto, Nyck de Vries and Roman Rusinov. The No. 25 G-Drive entry of Rui Andrade, John Falb and Roberto Merhi was third, then
Racing Team Turkey's Charlie Eastwood, Logan Sargeant and Salih Yoluc were a lap down in fourth. Ultimate's Francois Heriau and the Lahaye brothers (Jean-Baptiste and Matthieu) were fifth.
In LMP3, COOL Racing's Matt Bell, Niklas Kruetten and Nicolas Maulini just barely held off Eurointernational's Joey Alders, Cem Bolukbasi and Andrea Dromedari for the class victory after the Graff Racing No. 8 was given a 101-second stop-and-hold penalty in the final couple of laps of the race due to a pit infraction. The Graff No. 8 of David Droux, Sebastien Page and Eric Trouillet ended up third
after their penalty. The Inter Europol Competition Ligiers were fourth and fifth.
AF Corse's Emmanuel Collard, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera won the GTE class from the pole. They finished the race a full lap ahead of Spirit of Race's Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and David Perel. Iron Lynx's Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastronardi and Miguel Molina were third, followed by Proton Competition's Porsche for Michael Fassbender, Felipe Laser and Richard Lietz. JMW Motorsport's
Ferrari for Jody Fannin, Andrea Fontana and Rodrigo Sales was fifth.
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| | Alex Bowman Wins, Hendrick Motorsports
Overwhelms at Dover
Alex Bowman won the race off of pit road with 97 laps to go Sunday. From there, he managed to hold off the pack to win the Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway for his second win of the year. Kyle Larson was
second, then Chase Elliott, William Byron and Joey Logano.
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| | Hendrick Motorsports Dominates Dover, Sweeps
Top 4 Positions
Hendrick Motorsports administered a stomping on the field Sunday in Dover. The team combined to lead all but 18 laps as they scored only the second 1-2-3-4 team finish of NASCAR's Modern Era.
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| | Coca-Cola 600 to Be Run at Full Fan
Capacity
Charlotte Motor Speedway announced Friday that all events at the complex's facilities will now be run with 100% fan capacity available. This past weekend's NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series event at ZMax Dragway
was the first such event.
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| | Austin Cindric Gets Xfinity Win at Dover; Josh
Berry Earns Final Dash4Cash Bonus
Team Penske's Austin Cindric got past Justin Allgaier with 51 laps to go to take the lead. From there, Cindric pulled away to take his third win of the season. Josh Berry finished second, then Allgaier. AJ
Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs.
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| | Josh Berry Finishes 2nd, Wins $100,000 Dash 4
Cash Prize at Dover
Saturday's Drydene 200 was Josh Berry's final scheduled race of the season in the No. 8 Chevrolet. He had to make the best of it. Leading laps, finishing second and claiming the final Xfinity Dash 4 Cash $100,000
check of the year is the next best thing to winning.
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| | Justin Allgaier Falls Short at Dover After
Early Domination
For much of Saturday's Drydene 200, Justin Allgaier was the man to beat, leading 94 laps. Unfortunately for Allgaier, the handle went away and he ended up dropping back to finish third.
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| | Paul Menard Returning to NASCAR With ThorSport
at COTA
ThorSport Racing announced Monday morning that Paul Menard will drive the No. 66 Toyota in Saturday's Toyota Tundra 225 at Circuit of the Americas. It will be his first race since 2019.
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| | Romain Grosjean Dominates, But Rinus VeeKay
Triumphs at Indianapolis
Romain Grosjean dominated Saturday's GMR Grand Prix from the pole, but pit strategy allowed Rinus VeeKay to jump Grosjean on his final pit stop. VeeKay then held on to take his first career NTT IndyCar Series
victory. Grosjean was second, then Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden and Graham Rahal.
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| | Graham Rahal’s Strategy Pays Off for Fifth at
GMR Grand Prix
Graham Rahal's original plan for Saturday was to try to stick with the leaders and try to make hay. However, damage on the first lap forced him into multiple stops under caution and an alternate pit strategy based on
fuel. He was able to make that work so that he could charge from the rear of the field to finish fifth.
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| | Wayne Taylor Racing Wins 1st WeatherTech
Sprint Race of 2021
Wayne Taylor Racing's Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque claimed victory in Sunday's Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Presented by the Acura TLX Type S. Riley Motorsports' Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga won in
LMP3, while Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley won in GT Daytona.
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| | AWA Claims 2nd Victory of 2021 in Mid-Ohio
120
Andrew Wojteczko Autosport's Kuno Wittmer and Chris Green took the lead with 15 minutes to go from Matt Plumb and held off a late charge from Wright Motorsports' Jan Heylen to win the Mid-Ohio 120. Bryan Herta
Autosport's Parker Chase and Ryan Norman took the maiden victory in TCR for the Hyundai Elantra N TCR.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, James Gilbert of Getty Images, Matt Fraver and Chris Jones of INDYCAR Media and IMSA.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Denny Hamlin's Consistent Day Results In Triple-Digit Lead
by Phil Allaway
Denny Hamlin only led two laps on Sunday, but kept himself in the top 10 all day long. Finishing seventh allowed him to expand his lead up to 101 points. That is over the new second-place man William Byron, who finished fourth. Martin Truex Jr. is down one place to third after having handling issues and
finishing 19th. Joey Logano remains in fourth after recovering from a pit stop to finish fifth.
Kyle Larson is up one place to fifth after dominating the proceedings Sunday before eventually finishing second. Ryan Blaney is down one place to sixth after finishing 12th. Chase Elliott is up one place to seventh after finishing third. Kevin Harvick is down from a tie for sixth to eighth despite finishing
sixth.
Brad Keselowski remains in ninth after finishing 16th. Kyle Busch had issues under the hood early that cost him seven laps. Once they were fixed, Kyle was able to run competitively, but never made up any of the laps en route to a 27th-place finish. That was enough to keep him in 10th. Austin Dillon is up one place to 11th after finishing
14th. Christopher Bell struggled all day and finished four laps down in 21st, dropping to 12th as a result.
Alex Bowman's victory moved him up to 13th in points at the expense of Chris Buescher. Tyler Reddick is up one place to 15th after finishing eighth, while Michael McDowell is 16th.
Since McDowell is locked into the playoffs as a result of winning the Daytona 500, Reddick is the last driver in the playoffs on points. Reddick has a 17-point advantage over Matt DiBenedetto, who finished five laps down in 24th Sunday. Kurt Busch moved up two places to 18th after finishing 13th and earning four stage points. Ricky Stenhouse
Jr. is down to 19th, while Ryan Newman is 20th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 574, 2) William Byron -101, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -102,
4) Joey Logano -132, 5) Kyle Larson -134, 6) Ryan Blaney -136, 7) Chase Elliott -142, 8) Kevin Harvick -147, 9) Brad Keselowski -170, 10) Kyle Busch -191, 11) Austin Dillon -233, 12) Christopher Bell -238,
13) Alex Bowman -242, 14) Chris Buescher -265, 15) Tyler Reddick -276, 16) Michael McDowell -284.
Playoff Points: 1) Martin Truex Jr. 18, 2) Kyle Larson -7, 3) Alex Bowman -8, 4) Ryan Blaney -10, 5) Joey Logano -11, t-6) William Byron -12, t-6) Brad Keselowski -12, t-6) Kyle
Busch -12, t-9) Christopher Bell -13, t-9) Denny Hamlin -13, t-9) Michael McDowell -13, t-12) Chase Elliott -17, t-12) Chris Buescher -17, t-12) Matt DiBenedetto -17, t-12) Bubba Wallace
-17.
Stage
Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 187, 2) Ryan Blaney -64, 3) Kyle Larson -67, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -70, 5) William Byron -79, 6) Chase Elliott -82, 7) Joey Logano -84, 8) Brad Keselowski -98, 9) Kyle Busch
-115, 10) Kevin Harvick -124, 11) Alex Bowman -126, 12) Christopher Bell -137, t-13) Bubba Wallace -148, t-13) Kurt Busch -148, 15) Austin Dillon -150, 16) Chris Buescher -152.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Tyler Reddick -161, t-21) Michael McDowell -170.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 455, 2) William Byron -32, 3) Kevin Harvick -36, 4) Martin Truex Jr.
-41, 5) Joey Logano -58, 6) Chase Elliott -72, 7) Kyle Larson -77, 8) Brad Keselowski -82, 9) Ryan Blaney -84, 10) Kyle Busch -90, 11) Austin Dillon -97, 12) Christopher Bell -113, 13) Chris Buescher -126,
14) Michael McDowell -129, 15) Tyler Reddick -133, 16) Alex Bowman -141.
Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas), Martin Truex Jr. (Phoenix, Martinsville, Darlington), Ryan Blaney (Atlanta), Joey Logano (Bristol), Alex Bowman (Richmond, Dover),
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: Austin Cindric's 3rd Win of 2021 Expands Lead
by Phil Allaway
Austin Cindric snatched the lead away from Justin Allgaier with 51 laps to go Saturday, then ran off and hid on his way to victory. The win allowed him to expand his lead over Daniel Hemric to 62 points. Harrison Burton finished sixth, which allows him to stay third in points. AJ Allmendinger is still in fourth after finishing fourth.
Jeb Burton finished 11th and stays in fifth spot. Allgaier's third-place finish moves him up to sixth. Noah Gragson remains in seventh despite a disappointing 15th-place finish. Justin Haley had to miss Saturday's race due to COVID-19 protocols. Since this counts as an excused absence, he is still eligible for the playoffs. However, not racing Saturday dropped
him to eighth in points.
Myatt Snider is still in ninth despite a 16th-place finish. Jeremy Clements is down to 10th after finishing 12th. Michael Annett is up to 11th after finishing seventh. Brandon Jones crashed out with Zane Smith (driving in place of Haley) and finished 35th. That dropped him to 12th in points.
Jones is the last driver currently in the playoffs. He is nine points ahead of Brandon Brown, who finished 10th on Saturday. Josh Berry's second-place finish moved him up to 14th, but his time in the No. 8 Chevrolet is all but over for the season. Riley Herbst is down one place to 15th after finishing in 17th. Ryan Sieg is up to 16th after finishing in eighth.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 437, 2) Daniel Hemric -62, 3) Harrison Burton -74, 4) AJ Allmendinger -95, 5) Jeb Burton -119, 6) Justin Allgaier -121, 7) Noah Gragson -137, 8) Justin Haley -145,
9) Myatt Snider -155, 10) Jeremy Clements -160, 11) Michael Annett -193, 12) Brandon Jones -197, 13) Brandon Brown -206, 14) Josh Berry -215, 15) RIley Herbst -231, 16) Ryan Sieg -241.
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 11th in points.
Playoff Points: 1) Austin Cindric 20, 2) Justin Allgaier -9, t-3) AJ Allmendinger -14, t-3) Ty Gibbs -14, t-3) Josh Berry -14, t-6) Jeb Burton -15, t-6)
Myatt Snider -15, 8) Daniel Hemric -17, 9) Noah Gragson -18, t-10) Harrison Burton -19, t-10) Justin Haley -19, t-10) Brandon Jones -19.
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 120, 2) Harrison Burton -24,3) Noah Gragson -25, 4) Justin Allgaier -27, 5) Daniel Hemric -37, 6) Justin Haley -45, 7) AJ Allmendinger -54, 8) Brandon Jones -57, 9) Michael
Annett -77, 10) Myatt Snider -78, 11) Jeb Burton -79, 12) Josh Berry -83, t-13) Riley Herbst -87, t-13) Jeremy Clements -87, 15) Ty Gibbs -92, t-16) Brandon Brown -96, t-16) Ty Dillon -96.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 368, 2) Daniel Hemric -28, 3) AJ Allmendinger -49, 4) Jeb Burton -50, 5) Harrison Burton -58, 6) Jeremy
Clements -83, 7) Myatt Snider -87, 8) Justin Allgaier -102, 9) Justin Haley -111, 10) Brandon Brown -118, 11) Noah Gragson -121, 12) Michael Annett -129, 13) Josh Berry -146, t-14) Brandon Jones -150, t-14) Ryan Sieg -150, 16) Tommy Joe Martins -152.
Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity points for the whole season, Brett Moffitt would be ninth in old points.
Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona-1, Phoenix, Dover), Ty Gibbs (Daytona-2), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas), Myatt Snider (Homestead), Justin Allgaier (Atlanta, Darlington), 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: Off-Week Update No. 6
by Phil Allaway
The Camping World Truck Series was off last weekend. They will be back in action Saturday afternoon at Circuit of the Americas in Texas.
When the season resumes, John Hunter Nemechek will have a 46-point lead over Ben Rhodes. Sheldon Creed is third, then Austin Hill and Matt Crafton.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 368, 2) Ben Rhodes -46, 3) Sheldon Creed -82, 4) Austin Hill -93, 5) Matt Crafton -121, 6) Todd Gilliland -132,
t-7) Stewart Friesen -135, t-7) Grant Enfinger -135, 9) Zane Smith -138, 10) Johnny Sauter -168, 11) Carson Hocevar -173, 12) Austin Wayne Self -190, 13) Chandler Smith -192, 14) Raphael Lessard -218, 15) Hailie Deegan -237, 16) Tyler Ankrum
-238.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 10th in
points.
Playoff
Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 17,
2) Ben Rhodes -7, 3) Sheldon Creed -12, 4) Raphael Lessard -15, 5) Todd Gilliland -16, t-5) Grant Enfinger -16.
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 128, 2) Sheldon Creed -51, 3) Austin Hill -54, 4) Ben Rhodes -61, 5) Stewart Friesen -70, 6) Matt Crafton -83, 7) Zane Smith -86, 8) Raphael Lessard -88, 9) Grant Enfinger -89, 10) Todd Gilliland -92,
11) Chandler Smith -97, 12) Derek Kraus -112, 13) Johnny Sauter -113, 14) Carson Hocevar -115, 15) Corey Heim -116, 16) David Gilliland -118.
Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be fourth, while Martin Truex Jr. would be 13th and Ross Chastain 16th.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ben Rhodes 227, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -7, 3) Sheldon Creed -44, t-4) Austin
Hill -55, t-4) Matt Crafton -55, t-6) Todd Gilliland -58, t-6) Grant Enfinger -58, 8) Zane Smith -67, 9) Carson Hocevar -76, 10) Johnny Sauter -77, 11) Stewart Friesen -81, 12) Austin Wayne Self -90, 13) Chandler Smith -106, 14) Tyler Ankrum -125, 15) Ryan Truex
-127, t-16) Tanner Gray -134, t-16) Hailie Deegan -134.
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), Sheldon Creed
(Darlington)
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 Drydene 400 was brought to you by the letter S for Stomping. It is very rare for one team to execute a comprehensive butt-kicking on the field in a race, but Hendrick
Motorsports did it Sunday. In addition to locking out the top four at the finish, they also led all but 18 laps Sunday. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Drydene 400
compiled by Phil Allaway
"Yeah, for sure. I mean, if we don't beat [Kyle Larson] off pit road, we probably don't beat him in the race. I give them all the credit for the win there. I think without them we wouldn't have gotten it done. So appreciate Greg and all those guys working so hard throughout the week to continue to get better. They've been super
fast all year.
"It's cool to win a race that you can really point back to them and say they're who got it done. It was cool to be able to do that. I feel like other guys do that all the time. Their pit crews come to the wall. I go to do burnouts, I can't even see any of my guys.
"I yelled at them, You guys got to come to the wall. It was really cool to get to do that." - Alex Bowman, race winner
"I can guarantee you this has been the most nervous I’ve been in a race. It was a great day for the organization. Alex (Bowman), congratulations to him. This is a sign of the guys working together and bringing good stuff to the track. I don’t think it’ll hit me maybe until tomorrow that we were able to finish 1-2-3-4. That’s pretty hard to do. Things can happen; pit
stops, tires, anything. But that’s a first and we’ll take it. It was a great day for us." - Rick Hendrick, winning car owner
"Yeah, I just felt like all of us HMS guys were pretty equal, so I felt like whoever got out to the lead was going to be hard to beat. [The No. 48 Chevy] just did a really good job on that pit stop and gained control of the race. I never really had a shot after that. That one restart, I got to his bumper and got him loose, but [Kevin Harvick] was coming so we just had
to let each other go. Hard to be disappointed with a second, because like I said, I felt like I did everything I could. We led a lot of laps and won both stages there, so it was good points, but we would have liked to be one spot better." - Kyle Larson, finished second
"I really felt like we were pretty close, balance-wise. It was just kind of a matter of how your restart went and where you fell in line, unfortunately for us. But I’m happy for Hendrick Motorsports. I don’t know when the last time that finish has happened. It’s probably been a while for any team." - Chase Elliott, finished third
"Yeah, that was awesome. For us to finish 1-2-3-4 is just a credit to a lot of great people at the shop, Chevrolet, Axalta, and all the people that support us to get us the resources; and then our teams, the crew chiefs, drivers and pit crews executing really good races. For us, it’s been going for a while. We’ve just got to get a little bit. It sucks to be fourth,
but I think we’re close. We just have to work on some things on our car, get the right feels, but we’re getting really close. So, we keep chipping away. We’ve had two fourth-place finishes in a row. We’ll take it and move on." - William Byron, finished fourth
"We’ll take a top five after everything that happened there. They did a good job fixing it. I don’t know, I hit something at some point that went through the grille and just lost a ton of downforce trying to fix that, and then we got it fixed there the last run and the Shell/Pennzoil Mustang was a rocketship and started rolling up through the field pretty nice and
just ran out of time. I had [William Byron] in front of me and thought I could maybe get him. I’d like to have another restart and see what can happen. The boys on pit road are so good, maybe grab a couple there and a good restart and maybe the day looks a little bit different, but all things considered Jonathan Hassler did a great job up on the box recovering from a hard day. Think about the days you don’t have your crew chief and then there’s adversity. It just makes it even harder, but
everyone did a great job sticking together. It shows that we have a really strong team here." - Joey Logano, finished fifth
"We probably had a fifth to sixth place FedEx Camry. [Kevin] Harvick and I kind of battled to see who was going to be next behind the Hendrick cars. We just thought we would try to get a tire advantage there and we came out ninth and we were really slow on the short run. Our car wasn’t very fast for 20-30 laps. We kind of just held in ninth and another caution came. I
thought maybe we should pit to double our tire advantage, but then we would have restarted 15th and again, we weren’t fast on new tires. I just don’t know how it would have turned out any better or worse than seventh, where we ended up." - Denny Hamlin, finished seventh
"I’m very proud of my No. 8 Cat Linkage Pins Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team today. We really had to fight hard today for our eighth-place finish at Dover, especially after the speeding penalty on pit road after our first stop of the day. Entry seemed to be the biggest issue for us during the first half of the race. I just needed better rotation to get through that
portion of both ends of the track quicker. My crew chief, Randall Burnett, and the team did a good job of keeping after the track with our adjustments today and giving me feedback based on our SMT data. We really hit on something towards the end of stage two, which allowed me to get up in the top 10 for the start of [the final stage]. Track position was key today, even more so than fresh tires for us, so once we got up in the top 10, we did everything we could to say there, even though that
meant staying out and making it a much longer final run for us on tires when those mid-stage cautions came out in Stage 3. It was a battle to hang on during that last run, but it paid off for us today with our fifth top 10 finish in the last seven races." - Tyler Reddick, finished eighth
"We have to work hard. The No. 99 CommScope Chevy Camaro was strong. Most of the race, I felt like the entire race, we were probably a top-15 car. But, with good adjustments, we gained some track position and that gave us the opportunity to finish in the top-10. There is still a lot of work to do, definitely. Right there at the end, I was tight. I was [racing] against
[Denny Hamlin], [Cole Custer] and all these guys, but we were able to hold them off and get a decent finish. But we have to keep working and win a trophy." - Daniel Suarez, finished ninth
"I thought our balance was good enough to keep us right there at the edge of the lead lap. Cautions definitely felt our way to keep us in the game. That gave us a mental reset, but as the runs went on, we noticed that our speed was top-10 lap times. It’s just so hard to pass and make ground when everybody’s fighting for half-a-tenth to a tenth. It was a good call by
Wheels (Mike Wheeler, crew chief) and the team to keep us out late, and I was able to hang on. I had to fight some guys off to salvage that finish but that is what it takes. You have to stay mentally tough all day long. Everybody’s going to test you. It was a good day for our McDonald’s Toyota team." - Bubba Wallace, finished 11th
"I’m OK. That was another hard hit. My body is hurting. It doesn’t want to take any more hard hits like that. It’s just such a trying year. I don’t know what exactly happened. I think something in the suspension broke. It wasn’t like a right-front went down. It wasn’t like all of a sudden. A couple laps before that I felt like I was laying on the splitter pretty hard,
which is unusual that far into a run, and I kind of mentioned it on the radio and then went down into turn three, the worst possible place — well, there’s no good place at Dover to have a suspension failure or a tire go down — but our guys deserve so much better. Our partners, Smithfield, Ford, everybody, Go Bowling, Pit Boss Grills, everybody that helps us deserves so much better. We’re so much more capable, but God is really testing us this year." - Aric Almirola, finished 39th (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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