Frontstretch Newsletter: May 31, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition LXXXVI
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- Today is Memorial Day, but NASCAR teams are likely back at their shops today, preparing for this weekend's action at Sonoma Raceway and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Entry lists could be released today, but more likely Tuesday.
- In dirt racing, tonight is a busy night. The World of Outlaws NoS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will be at Lawrenceburg Speedway for the Memorial Day Spectacular. The FLORacing All Star Circuit of Champions will race at Port Royal Speedway in Pennsylvania tonight, where $29,000 will go to the winner. Finally, the Super DIRTcar Series makes
the first of two visits to Lebanon Valley Speedway for Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A.
If the entry lists are released today, we'll have those for you. If not, we'll have anything else that breaks at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: May 28-30
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- Tragedy struck Saturday at the Mugello Circuit as a multi-rider crash broke out in Moto3 qualifying. CarXpert Pruestel GP's Jason Dupasquier was critically injured in the crash. He was sent to Careggi Hospital in Florence, Italy via helicopter, but died as a result of his injuries. Dupasquier was only 19 years old. At the time of the crash, Dupasquier was 10th in Moto3 points
with a best finish of seventh at Jerez. We at Frontstretch send our condolences to Dupasquier's family.
- Despite Saturday's tragedy, racing went on at Mugello Circuit. Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo passed Johann Zarco on lap 3 and held on to win the Grand Prix of Italy. Miguel Oliveira was second, then Joan Mir, Zarco and Brad Binder.
- The Indy Pro 2000 Cooper Tires Freedom 90 was postponed to Saturday morning after only five laps Friday night due to rain. When the race restarted, pole sitter Reece Gold dominated much of the race. However, Christian Rasmussen ran him down and took the lead with 13 laps to go. Rasmussen held to take the win by two-thirds of a second over Gold. Manuel Sulaiman was third, then Braden
Eves and Hunter McAlrea.
The victory gives Rasmussen the points lead by 13 over Eves. Gold is third, then Artem Petrov and McElrea.
- Michael d'Orlando led flag-to-flag Saturday morning from the pole to win the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Cooper Tires Freedom 75 at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. Prescott Campbell was second, then Jace Denmark, Kiko Porto and Christian Brooks.
Yuven Sundaramoorthy, who finished sixth Saturday, has a seven-point lead through eight races over Porto. Brooks is third, then d'Orlando and Josh Pierson.
- Saturday saw the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship open up their 2021 season at Fox Raceway in Pala, Calif. 450cc Moto No. 1 saw KTM's Cooper Webb grab the holeshot at the start, but Kawasaki's Adam Cianciarulo, back after getting injured during the Supercross season, snatched the lead away on the first lap.
Cianciarulo pulled away to an eight-second in the first 10 minutes, then crashed by himself. That gave the lead back to Webb, but Dylan Ferrandis took the advantage away shortly afterwards. From there, Ferrandis held on to win in his first 450cc outdoor start by just a tenth of a second over Chase Sexton. Justin Barcia was third, then Aaron Plessinger and Webb.
450cc Moto No. 2 saw Plessinger take the holeshot, but Honda's Ken Roczen snatched the lead away halfway through the first lap. Plessinger was able to keep pace with Roczen for a good chunk of the race, but mistakes resulted in him losing touch with the lead.
Roczen was able to hold on to take the victory by over nine seconds over Plessinger. Ferrandis was third, then the Husqvarnas of Jason Anderson and defending champion Zach Osborne. Ferrandis' third-place finish gave him the overall victory for the day, followed by Roczen via a tiebreaker over Plessinger, Barcia and Sexton
- 250cc Moto No. 1 saw KTM's Max Vohland win the holeshot at the initial start of the race and pull out to a two-second lead over Stilez Robertson. He was able to hold onto this advantage for more than half of the race.
Yamaha's Jeremy Martin was able to move up to second, then snagged the lead from Vohland's bike with nine minutes to go. Unfortunately, Vohland was forced to pull off with four minutes remaining due to mechanical issues. From there, Martin pulled away to take the first win of the year. Jett Lawrence was second, then RJ Hampshire, Michael Mosiman and Justin Cooper.
250cc Moto No. 2 saw Martin claim the holeshot, but Cooper ultimately ended up with the lead. Martin and Cooper battled each other for the entire first half of the race before Honda's Jett Lawrence dispatched both of them. From there, Jett was able to pull away and take the win. Martin was second, then Cooper, Mosiman and Hunter Lawrence.
The race saw yet another big crash for Cameron McAdoo. Unlike the multiple crashes that he suffered at Atlanta during the Supercross week there, he was unable to walk away on his own here.
Jett Lawrence's first and second-place finishes gave him the overall victory on the day via a tiebreaker over Martin. Cooper is third, then Mosiman and Hampshire.
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| | Helio Castroneves Wins Historic 4th
Indianapolis 500
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian's Helio Castroneves swept past Alex Palou with two laps to go Sunday and held on to win the Indianapolis 500, his record-tying fourth victory in the great race. Palou was second,
then Simon Pagenaud, Patricio O'Ward and Ed Carpenter.
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| | Kyle Larson Dominates at Charlotte, Wins
Coca-Cola 600
Kyle Larson dominated Sunday night, leading 327 of 400 to win the Coca-Cola 600 for his second win of the year and the record-breaking 269th Cup win for Hendrick Motorsports. Chase Elliott was second, then Kyle Busch,
William Byron and Alex Bowman.
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| | Did Ryan Blaney Confirm Brad Keselowski to
Become Car Owner?
On Friday, Ryan Blaney was asked about recent rumors that have Brad Keselowski leaving Team Penske at the end of the year. He had not previously heard the rumor, but responded in a way that could lead some to believe that
it is a go.
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| | Ryan Newman Wants to Keep Racing Amid Brad
Keselowski Ownership Rumors
In Charlotte, rumors of Brad Keselowski leaving Team Penske at the end of the season for Roush Fenway Racing continued to spread. Ryan Newman, who could be out of a ride if this were to come to pass, talked about the
situation and how he has no desire to step away from racing.
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| | Graham Rahal Crashes Out of 2021 Indianapolis
500
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal appeared to have the best fuel mileage Sunday in Indianapolis. However, his crew failed to properly affix the left rear tire on a lap 119 pit stop. The wheel came
off, resulting in a big crash.
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| | Conor Daly Luck Strikes Again at Indianapolis,
Finishes 13th
Ed Carpenter Racing's Conor Daly led a race-high 40 laps Sunday at Indianapolis, but any chances at victory ended after a loose wheel from Graham Rahal's car hit Daly's car, damaging the nose.
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| | Sage Karam Climbs From 31st to 7th at
Indianapolis 500
After having to sweat out Last Row Qualifying last weekend, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's Sage Karam charged from 31st on the grid to finish Sunday's Indianapolis 500 in seventh.
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| | Takuma Sato & Felix Rosenqvist’s
Indianapolis 500 Gamble Falls Short
In a race with only two cautions over 500 miles, teams that weren't at the very front of the pack needed to use strategy to get themselves in position for good finishes. Unfortunately for Felix Rosenqvist and Takuma Sato,
their strategies didn't work out.
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| | Pietro Fittipaldi, Ed Jones Adamant About
Liking IndyCar Oval Racing
Dale Coyne Racing teammates Pietro Fittipaldi and Ed Jones come from substantially different backgrounds. They do have one thing in common, though. A love of oval racing in INDYCAR.
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| | Ty Gibbs Takes Home Alsco Uniforms 300 For 2nd
Career Win
Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs took the air off of Chase Briscoe, spinning out the BJ McLeod Motorsports Ford with 19 laps to go. From there, Gibbs held on to win the ALSCO Uniforms 300 for his second win of the
year. Austin Cindric was second, then Harrison Burton, Brandon Brown and Tyler Reddick.
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| | Grant Enfinger Replacing Brandon Gdovic in
Xfinity Charlotte Race
Prior to the ALSCO Uniforms 300, Sam Hunt Racing announced that Brandon Gdovic voluntarily chose to remove himself from the No. 26 Toyota. Grant Enfinger was tapped to replace him.
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| | John Hunter Nemechek Wins at Charlotte; Johnny
Sauter Walks Away From Massive Crash
Kyle Busch Motorsports' John Hunter Nemechek led 71 of 134 laps to win Friday night's North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race was overshadowed by a frightening crash with 19 laps to go
when Johnny Sauter slammed into the back of a near stationary Trey Hutchens III.
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| | Ty Gibbs Wins ARCA Race To Cap Perfect
Saturday at Charlotte
Ty Gibbs led flag-to-flag for the second time in three races to win Saturday night's ARCA Menards Series General Tire 150 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Corey Heim was second, then Drew Dollar, Parker Chase and Nick
Sanchez.
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| | Corey Heim Rallies to Strong 2nd-Place Finish
at Charlotte
Venturini Motorsports' Corey Heim struggled for much of Saturday's General Tire 150 with handling issues. He was able to recover in the final laps to bring home a second-place finish.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Harold Hinson Photography, James Black, Chris Jones, Chris Owens and Karl Zemlin of INDYCAR Media, Michael Guariglia of The Podium Finish and our own Christopher
DeHarde.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Hendrick Motorsports Domination Cuts Into Denny Hamlin's Lead
by Phil Allaway
Denny Hamlin struggled with some handling issues Sunday night in Charlotte. Despite that, he still brought his FedEx Toyota home in seventh. Since he only scored six stage points, the Hendrick Motorsports brigade was able to cut significantly into his lead. Teammates Kyle Larson and William
Byron are now tied for second in points. Larson's perfect haul of 70 points in his second win of the year gives him the tiebreaker over Byron, who finished fourth. Chase Elliott is up to fourth after finishing second.
Joey Logano was decent Sunday, but had a flat tire on lap 320 that put him on an alternate strategy. His 17th-place finish dropped him one place to fifth. Martin Truex Jr. had a flat tire with 60 laps to go while running 12th. The stop turned into a complete nightmare that cost him nine laps. Truex's
29th-place finish didn't cost him a place in the standings, but it did cost him a bunch of points. Ryan Blaney is still in seventh after finishing 13th, while Kyle Busch is up to eighth after finishing third.
Kevin Harvick drops to ninth after having to make an unscheduled stop early on. He would eventually finish 10th. Brad Keselowski is down to 10th after a quiet run to 11th. Austin Dillon remains in 11th after running in the top 10 all race long. Alex Bowman is two points
behind Dillon after finishing fifth.
Tyler Reddick is up two places to 13th after scoring points in the first three stages and finishing ninth. Chris Buescher is down one place to 14th despite finishing eighth. Christopher Bell dropped to 15th after hitting the wall early and cutting a tire. The lack of yellows meant that he never
recovered from him and finished 24th. Michael McDowell remains in 16th after finishing 20th.
Bell is now the last driver in the playoffs on points. He has a 35-point advantage over Matt DiBenedetto, who finished two laps down in 18th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is up one place to 18th after finishing 12th, while Kurt Busch dropped a spot after blowing his engine due to a broken belt. Despite cutting a right front
tire and hitting the wall a couple of laps before the end of stage three, Ryan Newman moved up to 20th in points after Ross Chastain suffered a similar belt issue to Kurt Busch.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 633, t-2) Kyle Larson -76, t-2) William Byron -76,
4) Chase Elliott -92, 5) Joey Logano -127, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -147, 7) Ryan Blaney -151, 8) Kyle Busch -157, 9) Kevin Harvick -165, 10) Brad Keselowski -185, 11) Austin Dillon -226, 12) Alex Bowman
-228, 13) Tyler Reddick -257, 14) Chris Buescher -263, 15) Christopher Bell -283, 16) Michael McDowell -287.
Playoff
Points: 1) Kyle Larson 19, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -1, 3) Alex Bowman -9, t-4) Ryan
Blaney -11, t-4) Joey Logano -11, t-6) William Byron -13, t-6) Brad Keselowski -13, t-6) Kyle Busch -13, t-6) Chase Elliott -13, t-10) Christopher Bell -14, t-10) Denny Hamlin -14, t-10) Michael McDowell -14, t-13) Chris Buescher -18, t-13) Matt DiBenedetto -18, t-13) Bubba Wallace -18.
Stage
Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 193, 2) Kyle Larson -31, 3) Chase Elliott -54, 4) William Byron -60, 5) Ryan Blaney -70, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -72, 7) Joey Logano -80, 8) Kyle Busch -89, 9) Brad
Keselowski -104, 10) Kevin Harvick -117, 11) Alex Bowman -120, 12) Christopher Bell -143, 13) Tyler Reddick -145, t-14) Austin Dillon -146, t-14) Kurt Busch -146, 16) Chris Buescher
-150.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Michael McDowell -167.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 482, 2) William Byron -29, 3) Joey Logano -45, 4)
Chase Elliott -55, 5) Kevin Harvick -59, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -61, 7) Kyle Larson -64, 8) Kyle Busch -85, t-9) Ryan Blaney -87, t-9) Brad Keselowski -87, 11) Austin Dillon -95, 12) Michael McDowell -121, 13) Chris
Buescher -125, 14) Tyler Reddick -128, 15) Alex Bowman -134, 16) Christopher Bell -137.
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), Chase Elliott (Circuit of the Americas)
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 Expands Advantage With Strong Run In Charlotte
by Phil Allaway
Austin Cindric was consistently good Saturday afternoon in Charlotte. He scored 14 stage points and finished second. That allowed him to expand his lead up to 84 points over Harrison Burton, who finished third. AJ Allmendinger and Daniel Hemric are now tied for third. Allmendinger was running second when he suffered a complete brake failure that ended his day.
Hemric led 105 laps and won the first two stages, but was eliminated in a crash.
Justin Allgaier remains in fifth after finishing 11th. Jeb Burton recovered from a spin to finish ninth and stay in sixth. Justin Haley struggled to finish 19th, but holds onto seventh. Jeremy Clements finished 10th and keeps eighth.
Clements is six points ahead of Noah Gragson, who finished 27th after getting eliminated in the same wreck that took out Hemric. Myatt Snider had engine issues early on, but continued to finish 26th and stay 10th in points. Brandon Jones is up one place to 11th after finishing eighth. Michael Annett finished 24th after getting involved in the same crash as Hemric and
Gragson. That dropped him back to 12th.
Annett is the last driver in the playoffs. His advantage over 13th-place Brandon Brown is 17 points. Brown, thanks to his team saving a set of fresh tires, finished a career-best fourth. Riley Herbst started on pole, but finished 12th without earning a stage point. That keeps him in 14th and dropped him further behind Brown. Ty Gibbs' victory moved him up to 15th, while Josh
Berry dropped to 16th after crashing out.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 520, 2) Harrison Burton -84, t-3) AJ Allmendinger -108, t-3) Daniel Hemric -108, 5) Justin Allgaier -133, 6) Jeb Burton -137, 7) Justin Haley -172, 8) Jeremy Clements -191,
9) Noah Gragson -197, 10) Myatt Snider -211, 11) Brandon Jones -222, 12) Michael Annett -228, 13) Brandon Brown -245, 14) Riley Herbst -268, 15) Ty Gibbs -282, 16) Josh Berry -293.
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, t-2) Justin Allgaier -9, t-2) Ty Gibbs -9, 4) AJ Allmendinger -13, 5) Josh Berry -14, t-6) Jeb Burton -15, t-6) Myatt Snider
-15, t-6) Daniel Hemric -15, t-9) Noah Gragson -18, t-9) Justin Haley -18, t-10) Harrison Burton -19, t-10) Brandon Jones -19.
Note: If they were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be tied for sixth in playoff points, while Martin Truex Jr. would be tied for 10th. If he had run the full season for Xfinity points, Brett Moffitt would be tied for 13th.
Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 136, 2) Noah Gragson -29, t-3) Justin Allgaier -32, t-3) Harrison Burton -32, 5) Daniel Hemric -33, 6) AJ Allmendinger -39, 7) Justin Haley -51, 8) Brandon Jones -64, 9) Michael Annett -84,
10) Jeb Burton -85, 11) Jeremy Clements -92, 12) Myatt Snider -94, 13) Ty Gibbs -97, 14) Josh Berry -99, 15) Riley Herbst -103, t-16) Brandon Brown -112, t-16) Ty Dillon -112.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 445, 2) Harrison Burton -62, 3) Jeb Burton -64, 4) AJ Allmendinger -77, 5) Daniel Hemric -78, 6) Justin Allgaier -110, 7) Jeremy Clements -111, 8) Myatt Snider -129, 9) Justin Haley -133, 10) Brandon Brown -143, 11) Michael
Annett -159, 12) Brandon Jones -170, 13) Noah Gragson -179, 14) Riley Herbst -183, 15) Landon
Cassill -193, 16) Ryan Sieg -200.
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, Charlotte), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas), Myatt Snider (Homestead), Justin Allgaier (Atlanta, Darlington), Josh Berry (Martinsville), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Kyle Busch (Circuit of the Americas)
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 Lead After 3rd Win of 2021
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek led 71 laps Friday night and took his third win of the year despite having his roof dented by debris late in the race. That allowed him to expand his lead from 31 to 44 points over Ben Rhodes, who finished third. Austin Hill is up to third after finishing ninth and earning 16 stage points. Sheldon Creed dropped one place to
fourth after crashing out towards the end of stage two.
Todd Gilliland remains in fifth after finishing in fifth. Zane Smith is up two places to sixth after winning stage two and finishing 10th. Matt Crafton blew his engine with 20 laps to go immediately prior to the big crash, but earning eight stage points allowed him to minimize his losses. He's still seventh in points. Stewart Friesen is up to eighth
after finishing fourth.
Grant Enfinger is down two places to ninth after finishing in 14th. Carson Hocevar is still in 10th after finishing second Friday night. He now has a 43-point advantage over Johnny Sauter, who spectacularly crashed out of the race. Sauter is the final driver in the playoffs at the moment. Sauter's advantage over Austin Wayne Self is down to just two
points after his big crash and Self finishing 17th.
Chandler Smith recovered from wall contact to finish sixth and maintain 13th. He's 10 points behind Sauter. Tyler Ankrum is still 14th, while Hailie Deegan is 15th after equaling her season-best finish in 13th. Ryan Truex and Derek Kraus are tied for 16th. Truex finished 12th while Kraus was eighth after earning 11 stage
points.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 445, 2) Ben Rhodes -44, 3) Austin Hill -98, 4) Sheldon Creed -106, 5) Todd Gilliland -116, 6) Zane Smith -143,
7) Matt Crafton -145, 8) Stewart Friesen -152, 9) Grant Enfinger -154, 10) Carson Hocevar -181, 11) Johnny Sauter -224, 12) Austin Wayne Self -226, 13) Chandler Smith -234, 14) Tyler Ankrum -241, 15) Hailie Deegan -266, t-16) Ryan Truex -268,
t-16) Derek Kraus -268.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 12th in
points.
Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter
Nemechek 22, 2) Ben Rhodes -11, 3) Todd Gilliland -15, 4) Sheldon Creed -16, 5) Raphael Lessard -20, t-6) Zane Smith -16, t-6) 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 140, 2) Sheldon Creed -44, 3) Austin Hill -50, 4) Ben Rhodes -55, 5) Matt Crafton -71, 6) Stewart Friesen -75, 7) Zane Smith -82, 8) Todd Gilliland -83, 9) Grant Enfinger -99,
10) Raphael Lessard -100, 11) Derek Kraus -105, 12) Chandler Smith -109, 13) Tyler Ankrum -118, 14) Carson Hocevar -123, 15) Johnny Sauter -125, t-16) Ryan Truex -128, t-16) Corey Heim
-128.
Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be fifth, while Martin Truex Jr. would be 15th. Had Kaz Grala been eligible for points for the full season, he would be 14th.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ben Rhodes 281, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -3, 3) Todd Gilliland -47,
4) Austin Hill -61, 5) Grant Enfinger -64, 6) Sheldon Creed -66, t-7) Zane Smith -72, t-7) Carson Hocevar -72, 9) Matt Crafton -87, 10) Stewart Friesen -89, 11) Austin Wayne Self -111, 12) Johnny Sauter -118, 13) Tyler Ankrum -130, 14) Chandler Smith
-132, 15) Ryan Truex -146, 16) Hailie Deegan -148.
Note: If he was eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 13th in old school
points.
Race Winner: Ben Rhodes (Daytona-1, Daytona-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas, Richmond, Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Kansas), Martin Truex Jr. (Bristol), Sheldon Creed
(Darlington), Todd Gilliland (Circuit of the Americas)
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 Coca-Cola 600 was brought to you by the letter D for Dominant. Pretty much no one could touch Hendrick Motorsports for the second time in three weeks. The organization combined to lead 373
of 400 laps and only Kyle Busch prevented another Hendrick 1-2-3-4. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Coca-Cola 600
compiled by Phil Allaway
"It feels good. It was not easy. I felt like I had to fight off William [Byron] and Chase [Elliott] a lot. It kind of worked out there in that last run. The No. 43 (Erik Jones) had to pit and pulled out in front of me, and I just towed with him for a while and stretched my lead out. We had a good car there in that last run. Awesome! It feels great to be the guy to
help Mr. Hendrick break that record, finally. This is awesome. We haven’t seen this many fans in forever. Thanks to all you guys for coming out. I hope we put on a good show. Thanks to MetroTech, Chevrolet, HendrickCars.com, and everybody who allows me to drive this No. 5 car. And thanks to my No. 5 team tonight, too. They were great tonight. My pit crew did awesome. We had awesome pit stops, especially on the green flag stops, too. That really allowed us to get the win tonight." - Kyle
Larson, race winner
"It really is. Number one, Richard Petty is the king of NASCAR. He’s done so much for this sport. Man, this is so awesome. All I can think about was the first win and all the drivers. I want to thank every driver that’s ever driven, that won a race; and the ones that didn’t win. But it’s unbelievable. I can’t really get it in my brain right now, because I just thought
– something’s going to happen, something’s going to happen. But man, what a good job they did tonight. I’m just looking forward to the rest of the year. I’m glad 269 is over. I’m glad it’s over." - Rick Hendrick, winningest car owner in NASCAR Cup Series history
"I’m just happy for the boss; happy for Kyle [Larson], [crew chief Cliff Daniels], and everybody on the No. 5 team. They’ve been kicking ass since February and they deserve to win. Rightfully so. They did a great job tonight; ran a great race and made no mistakes and the best car won. I’m proud of Hendrick Motorsports. I feel like everybody, like I’ve been saying, is
just pulling in the same direction and it’s really showing. I’m just proud of our company and excited as the No. 9 team, specifically, for more opportunities ahead, and to try and get a little better and see if we can’t get it dialed in." - Chase Elliott, finished second
"We would certainly like to think so. We’ve had some strong runs and we’ve had some runs that were better than the finishes that we got out of them as well. Overall, we had a really good piece – strong from start to finish there. We just kept trying to make some little tweaks to it, and make it a little bit better. I don’t know what happened on that final pit stop. We
got out in front of those guys, but they had the momentum to get by me I guess and I was just too loose and too sloppy on the front side with some speed, but once we got rolling there, we got a lot better and we able to run them back down, but we just couldn’t get back by them. Great night." - Kyle Busch, finished third
"It’s awesome. We are bringing really fast cars right now and I feel like it’s really fun to be at Hendrick Motorsports right now. We’ve just got to work, on the No. 24 team, just a little harder to get the little bit more than we need. But we’re really close. We can do it at times during the race. We just can’t put it all together. I feel like we probably should have
finished third tonight. We finished fourth, but we’ll take that.
"I thought we were really good. It’s just hard to get the lead and I feel like if we could have kept the lead, we could have maybe won. We just never did. We were good enough to win but it just didn’t quite happen." - William Byron, finished fourth
"I am so proud of everyone on the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road team. We had some adversity today, but this RCR team rallied to get over everything and put together something at the end to be proud of. The Coca-Cola 600 is a long, grueling night and a lot of it is just about who can have a clean race. We didn’t have the cleanest of races, but we rebounded
well. We earned stage points in every stage tonight, and did a great job of keeping up with adjustments as the track changed. Even when we fell back in the running order we kept our cool, didn’t give up, and were able to drive back into the top-10. Everyone did a great job. If we keep bringing cars like this to the track, we will win races. The most important part of the night was riding with Chief Special Warfare Operator David A. Fegyo on the windshield header and honoring our military with a
patriotic Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet." - Austin Dillon, finished sixth
"The No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was stout tonight and had a lot of speed all race long. I fired off the night a little tight but with an air pressure adjustment on our first stop, it loosened right up and stayed loose for most of the day. Our car transitioned really well from night to day, and a large part of that was thanks to my team making the
correct adjustments to keep up with the changing track conditions. I started to get a little too free during the last half of Stage 3, but the team was able to walk back our adjustments enough to get me in a good spot balance-wise for the remainder of the night. We had a really good points night and earned valuable Stage points in every Stage tonight, which will be a huge help to keeping us moving up in the standings. We ran in the top-10 almost the entire night, which is a big feat during the
Coca-Cola 600. I’m really proud of my team and hope we made Army Staff Sergeant Brian Piercy’s family and friends proud tonight as well." - Tyler Reddick, finished ninth
"Not much more to say other than we are just on an extremely tough streak of bad luck. The car lost power steering and I saw the oil pressure drop, not much warning of any issues. We thought we made repairs to carry on, but apparently the damage was done and forced us out of the race early." - Kurt Busch, finished 38th (Blown
engine)
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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