Frontstretch Newsletter: June 14, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition XCVI
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- Cup teams will be arriving back at their shops in North Carolina today. Truck and Xfinity teams are already preparing at their shops for their upcoming races in Nashville. We'll have entry lists later today or tomorrow. We'll also anything else that breaks at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: June 12-13
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- Toyota GAZOO Racing's Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima won Sunday's FIA World Endurance Championship 8 Hours of Portimao thanks to superior fuel mileage over Signatech Alpine. They won by 1.8 seconds over teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. Signatech Alpine ended up 68 seconds back after having to make an extra pit stop.
JOTA Sport's Antonio Felix da Costa passed teammate Tom Blomqvist with five minutes to go to claim victory in the LMP2 class for himself, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez. Inter Europol Competition's Alex Brundle, Louis Deletraz and Jakub Smiechowski were third.
- Ferrari dominated the GTE classes. In GTE-Pro, AF Corse took a one-two with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi beating teammates Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra by 25.066 seconds. GTE-Am saw Cetilar Racing's Antonio Fuoco, Roberto Lacorte and Giorgio Sernagiotto claim their maiden victory by 5.83 seconds over Team Project 1's Egidio Perfetti, Matteo Cairoli and Riccardo
Pera.
- Matt Hirschman claimed victory in Saturday night's Steel Palace 150 at Oswego Speedway for the Whelen Modified Tour. Ryan Preece finished second, followed by Patrick Emerling, Justin Bonsignore and Kyle Ebersole.
Emerling takes the points lead by one over Justin Bonsignore. Doug Coby missed the race Saturday night and dropped to third. Some good came out of that. Eric Goodale and Kyle Bonsignore are tied for fourth.
- Joe Gibbs Racing's Sammy Smith dominated at Southern National Motorsports Park Saturday night to win the ARCA Menards Series East Southern National 200. Smith was 6.773 seconds ahead of Joey Iest. Rajah Caruth was a lap down in third, then Parker Retzlaff and Justin S. Carroll.
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| | Kyle Larson Victorious for Third Straight
Weekend, Wins All-Star Race in Texas
Kyle Larson passed Brad Keselowski with eight laps to go Sunday night and held on to win the All-Star Race and $1,000,000. Keselowski was second, then Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
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| | Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Aric Almirola,
Matt DiBenedetto Advance to All-Star Race
Ross Chastain charged from the rear of the field to win the first segment of the All-Star Open. Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola claimed the final two spots on the track, while Matt DiBenedetto advanced by winning the Fan
Vote.
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| | Kyle Busch Bags Another Texas Xfinity Series
Win
Kyle Busch passed Justin Allgaier Saturday with 29 laps to go and held off the pack on late restarts to claim his 10th Xfinity victory at Texas and 99th overall. Allgaier was second, then Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric and
Brandon Jones.
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| | John Hunter Nemechek Captures 4th Truck Win of
2021 at Texas
John Hunter Nemechek used a combination of superior pace and running long at the beginning of the final stage Saturday to jump Chase Elliott during the final round of stops. From there, he pulled away to win the
SpeedyCash.com 220. Elliott was second, then Grant Enfinger, Austin Hill and Chandler Smith.
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| | Lawless Alan Adds 5 Truck Races With
Reaume
Reaume Brothers Racing announced Friday that Lawless Alan will return to the team for five more races this season, starting this Friday night at Nashville Superspeedway.
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| | Doug Coby Wins First-Ever SRX Race at
Stafford
Whelen Modified Tour regular Doug Coby pitched the upset at Stafford Motor Speedway Saturday, beating the regulars to win the inaugural race for the Camping World SRX Series. Greg Biffle was second, then Tony Stewart,
Bobby Labonte, and Ernie Francis Jr.
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| | Marcus Ericsson Takes First IndyCar Win;
Heartbreak for Will Power in Detroit
Chip Ganassi Racing's Marcus Ericsson inherited the lead in Saturday's first race at Belle Isle Park after Will Power's car failed to refire after a red flag. From there, he was able to hold on to win his first NTT IndyCar
Series race. Rinus VeeKay was second, followed by Patricio O'Ward, Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal.
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| | Felix Rosenqvist has Large Incident at
Detroit
Saturday's first race at Belle Isle Park for INDYCAR was overshadowed by a huge crash on lap 24 for Felix Rosenqvist, caused by an apparent stuck throttle. Rosenqvist was held overnight at a local hospital for
observation.
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| | Will Power Blasts INDYCAR After ECU Failure
Drops Him to 20th
Team Penske's Will Power was in good position to win at Belle Isle Park Saturday. Then, the red flag came out with six laps to go. During the red flag, his ECU failed. This is a failure that Power put squarely
on INDYCAR.
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| | Takuma Sato Falls From Second to Fourth Late
at Detroit
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Takuma Sato was set up for a potential chance to win Saturday. However, on the final run, he was drop-kicked to fourth.
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| | Patricio O’Ward Wins in Detroit, Becoming
2021’s 1st Repeat Winner
Patricio O'Ward swept past Josef Newgarden with three laps to go Sunday to win Race No. 2 at Belle Isle Park and take the NTT IndyCar Series points lead. Newgarden was second, then Alex Palou, Colton Herta and Graham
Rahal.
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| | Strategy Helps Will Power Charge From 20th to
6th at Detroit
Will Power had a terrible qualifying run Sunday morning that put him 20th on the grid. From there, Power used pit strategy and good form to rise all the way up to a sixth-place finish.
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| | Chip Ganassi Racing Dominates At Detroit,
Claims First Prototype Win Since 2015
Chip Ganassi Racing's Kevin Magnussen and Renger van der Zande emerged victorious in Saturday's Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle Park after a race-long duel with Action Express Racing. The Heart of Racing's Roman
DeAngelis and Ross Gunn claimed their first GT Daytona class victories as well.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, Chris Owens, Chris Jones, Matt Fraver and Joe Skibinski of IndyCar Media, IMSA and our own Tom Bowles.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: All-Star Weekend Points Check
by Phil Allaway
While everyone was in action this past weekend in Texas, points were not on the line. They will be back in play when the Cup Series makes their first-ever visit to Nashville Superspeedway next weekend.
When the Cup Series gets there, Denny Hamlin will have a 47-point lead over Kyle Larson, who has won the last three weeks in a row (including the All-Star Race). William Byron is third, then Chase Elliott and Joey Logano.
Chris Buescher in 14th is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He is a full 60 points ahead of Matt DiBenedetto in 17th. Kurt Busch is 18th, then Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ross Chastain.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 664, 2) Kyle Larson -47, 3) Chase Elliott -73,
4) William Byron -100, 5) Joey Logano -116, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -137, 7) Kyle Busch -144, 8) Ryan Blaney -155, 9) Kevin Harvick -181, 10) Brad Keselowski -191, 11) Alex Bowman -217, 12) Austin Dillon
-228, 13) Tyler Reddick -266, 14) Chris Buescher -273, 15) Christopher Bell -300, 16) Michael McDowell -309.
Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 26, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -8, 3) Alex Bowman -16, t-4) Ryan Blaney -18, t-4) Joey Logano -18, t-6) William Byron -20, t-6) Brad Keselowski
-20, t-6) Kyle Busch -20, t-6) Chase Elliott -20, t-10) Christopher Bell -21, t-10)
Denny Hamlin -21, t-10) Michael McDowell -21, t-13) Chris Buescher -25, t-13) Matt DiBenedetto -25, t-13) Bubba Wallace
-25.
Stage Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 195, 2) Kyle Larson -13, 3) Chase Elliott -41, 4) William Byron -57, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -67, 6) Ryan Blaney -72, 7) Joey Logano -73, 8) Kyle Busch -79,
9) Brad Keselowski -103, 10) Alex Bowman -108, 11) Kevin Harvick -119, t-12) Austin Dillon -143, t-12) Tyler Reddick -143, 14) Christopher Bell -144, t-15) Kurt Busch -148, 16) Chris Buescher
-152.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Michael McDowell -169.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 551, 2) Kyle Larson -43, 3) Chase Elliott -44, 4)
Joey Logano -52, 5) William Byron -53, t-6) Kyle Busch -78, t-6) Kevin Harvick -78, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -80, 9) Ryan Blaney -96, 10) Brad Keselowski -99, 11) Austin Dillon -100, 12) Alex Bowman -134, 13) Chris
Buescher -136, 14) Tyler Reddick -142, 15) Michael McDowell -156, 16) Christopher Bell -171.
Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Charlotte, Sonoma, All-Star Race), 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 Continues To Expand Advantage
by Phil Allaway
Austin Cindric had another swell race Saturday, earning 18 stage points and finishing third. That allowed him to expand his points lead to 108 over AJ Allmendinger, who finished sixth. Daniel Hemric has sole possession of third after finishing fourth. Harrison Burton drops back to fourth after crashing out.
Justin Allgaier is up two places to fifth after finishing second. Justin Haley remains in sixth after finishing ninth. Jeb Burton is down two places to seventh after finishing 30th. Brandon Jones is still in eighth after finishing fifth.
Noah Gragson is up two places to ninth after finishing seventh. Michael Annett and Jeremy Clements are tied for 10th. Annett finished 10th in another quiet day, while Clements dropped into the tie after finishing 14th. Clements is now the last driver in the playoffs on points. He is 24 points ahead of Brandon Brown in 12th. Brown finished 13th
on Saturday.
Myatt Snider is down one spot to 13th after crashing out and finishing 33rd. Riley Herbst is 14th after finishing 12th. Josh Berry jumped over the idle Ty Gibbs to move up to 16th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 610, 2) AJ Allmendinger -108, 3) Daniel Hemric -122, 4) Harrison Burton -157, 5) Justin Allgaier -171, 6) Justin Haley -175, 7) Jeb Burton -186, 8) Brandon
Jones -226, 9) Noah Gragson -249, t-10) Michael Annett -253, t-10) Jeremy Clements -253, 12) Brandon Brown -277, 13) Myatt Snider -285, 14) Riley Herbst -304, 15) Josh Berry -333, 16) Ty Gibbs -338.
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 21, 2) AJ Allmendinger -8, t-3) Ty Gibbs -10, t-3) Justin Allgaier -10, 5) Josh Berry -15, t-6) Jeb Burton -16, t-6) Myatt Snider
-16, t-6) Daniel Hemric -16, 9) Justin Haley -18, 10) Noah Gragson -19, t-11) Harrison Burton -20, t-11) Brandon Jones -20.
Note: If they were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be tied for third in playoff points, while Martin Truex Jr. would be tied for 11th. If he had run the full season for Xfinity points, Brett Moffitt would be tied for 13th.
Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 169, 2) Daniel Hemric -48, 3) Justin Allgaier -50, 4) AJ Allmendinger -53, 5) Noah Gragson -55, 6) Harrison Burton -56, 7) Justin Haley -60, 8) Brandon Jones -76, 9) Jeb Burton
-103, 10) Michael Annett -109, t-11) Myatt Snider -123, t-11) Riley Herbst -123, 13) Jeremy Clements -124, 14) Josh Berty -129, 15) Ty Gibbs -130, 16) Brandon Brown -142.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 513, 2) AJ Allmendinger -65, 3) Daniel Hemric -79, 4) Jeb Burton -98, 5) Harrison Burton -115, 6)
Justin Haley -128, 7) Justin Allgaier -132, 8) Jeremy Clements -144, 9) Brandon Brown -148, 10) Michael Annett -162, 11) Brandon Jones -164, 12) Myatt Snider -177, 13) Riley Herbst -202, 14) Ryan Sieg -205, 15) Noah Gragson -212, 16) Landon Cassill -214.
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, Mid-Ohio), Myatt Snider (Homestead), Justin Allgaier (Atlanta, Darlington), Josh Berry (Martinsville), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Kyle Busch (Circuit of the Americas, Texas)
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 Wins Again, Expands Advantage When Rhodes Crashes
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek claimed his second straight victory Saturday afternoon in Texas. That win, combined with Ben Rhodes hitting the wall late and finishing 26th, allowed Nemechek to expand his lead up to 78 points over Rhodes. Austin Hill is still in third after finishing fourth. Todd Gilliland is up to fourth after earning a seventh-place
finish.
Zane Smith is up to fifth after winning a stage and finishing sixth. Sheldon Creed is down two places to sixth after crashing twice and finishing 35th. Grant Enfinger is up two places to seventh after finishing third. Matt Crafton is down to eighth after finishing 20th.
Stewart Friesen is down to ninth after crashing out. Carson Hocevar is still 10th after earning an 11th-place finish. Chandler Smith is up two places to 11th after finishing fifth. He is now the last driver in the playoffs with four races to go. He is seven points ahead of Johnny Sauter, who finished 12th.
Austin Wayne Self is down one place to 13th, but is now only one point behind Sauter. Tyler Ankrum is 14th, while Derek Kraus moved up to 15th after earning 11 stage points. Ryan Truex has sole possession of 16th. Both drivers jumped over Hailie Deegan, who was having her best race of the year until a series of pit issues put her six laps down.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 497, 2) Ben Rhodes -78, 3) Austin Hill -109, 4) Todd Gilliland -137, 5) Zane Smith -155, 6) Sheldon Creed -157,
7) Grant Enfinger -172, 8) Matt Crafton -181, 9) Stewart Friesen -196, 10) Carson Hocevar -208, 11) Chandler Smith -245, 12) Johnny Sauter -252, 13) Austin Wayne Self -253, 14) Tyler Ankrum -265, 15) Derek Kraus -286, 16) Ryan Truex
-268.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 12th in
points.
Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter
Nemechek 28, 2) Ben Rhodes -17, 3) Todd Gilliland -21, 4) Sheldon Creed -22, t-5) Raphael Lessard -26, t-5) Zane Smith -26, 7) Grant Enfinger -27.
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 153, 2) Austin Hill -53, 3) Sheldon Creed -57, 4) Ben Rhodes -60, 5) Stewart Friesen -82, 6) Matt Crafton -84, 7) Zane Smith -85, 8) Todd Gilliland -94, 9) Derek Kraus -107,
10) Grant Enfinger -110, 11) Chandler Smith -111, 12) Raphael Lessard -113, 13) Tyler Ankrum -131, 14) Carson Hocevar -136, 15) Johnny Sauter -138, t-16) Ryan Truex -128, 16) Austin Wayne Self -140.
Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be tied for sixth, while Martin Truex Jr. would be 16th. Had Kaz Grala been eligible for points for the full season, he would be 14th.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 315, 2) Ben Rhodes -26, 3) Todd Gilliland -54,
4) Austin Hill -66, 5) Grant Enfinger -68, 6) Zane Smith -78, 7) Carson Hocevar -84, 8) Sheldon Creed -99, 9) Matt Crafton -108, 10) Stewart Friesen -122, 11) Austin Wayne Self -127, 12) Johnny Sauter -131, 13) Chandler Smith -138, 14) Tyler
Ankrum -139, 15) Ryan Truex -163, 16) Hailie Deegan -173.
Race Winner: Ben Rhodes (Daytona-1, Daytona-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas, Richmond, Charlotte, Texas), 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 All-Star Race was brought to you by the letter D for Difficult. The rules that were in place for the race were rather difficult to understand and FOX Sports 1 wasn't exactly the most helpful in
that regard. In addition, the decreased horsepower made it very difficult to pass, way more than it should have been. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: All-Star Race
compiled by Phil Allaway
"Definitely. Honestly, I can’t believe it. That second run there, we were really bad and I was like, ‘man, we’re in trouble’. I went backwards that round, so I was like we’ve got an uphill battle. I did not imagine seeing myself winning this race today. [Cliff Daniels] and everybody
works so hard on this thing and made some good adjustments throughout the first, second and third rounds and got us in position.”
“That last restart worked out exactly how I needed it to. I wanted [Chase Elliott] to not get a good run down the back. Thankfully, I think [Ryan Blaney] got to his inside. I just shoved him down the back and he probably thought I was going to
just follow him. I thought there had to be enough grip above where we’d been running for one corner. It was a little slick up there, but I was able to get it and hold him off from there. I can’t believe it." - Kyle Larson, race winner
"It feels like running second to the Hendrick cars right now is an accomplishment. They are just stupid fast. I had him off turn 4 but they just have so much speed. He just motored right back by me,
like damn! It feels like a first-in-class day with the Discount Tire Ford. The team did a great job of executing and getting us in position, we just didn’t have enough speed to make the most of it. It was good execution day though and I am proud of that.
"That is the best car I have had here, I just couldn’t get close enough to him (Larson). I could get to like five or six feet and then the draft stopped working. His car is so fast down the straightaway. Even with this package, you can’t draft
those Hendrick cars. They are so fast. We have work to do. I feel like my team really executed the race very well and got us in position, we just didn’t have the raw speed we needed to close it out. I felt like we made some great moves, it just wasn’t enough." - Brad Keselowski, finished second
"Kyle [Larson] got to my outside and that was the end of it, really. Just got beat. Appreciate the effort today by Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] and everybody on our NAPA team. I’m super proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.
We’ll keep it rolling and try to find another spot or two when it counts.
On the $100,000 for his pit crew: "We had a badass stop. I knew when they dropped the jack that it was close. They did a really good job and I’m proud of them for that. Hopefully, we’ll carry some
of that momentum forward and try to get to victory lane." - Chase Elliott, finished third
"It was an eventful night. We started miserable. I said that on the radio, I said the car was miserable. It was out of control and impossible to drive to where we were third from last. We were third from last to start that 30-lapper after all the
15-lap runs. The boys did a good job on pit road and Paul (Wolfe) did a good job getting it closer and then a few good restarts at the end got us into the top-five. Another restart, maybe. Everyone is pushing so hard and you can get a big run like Brad was able to do and almost clear him and take the lead. If we could take the lead it would be tough to pass me. Overall, I don’t know. These 550’s aren’t clicking for me. We got a good finish, yes, but it is a miracle we did it. I don’t know how it
happened." - Joey Logano, finished fourth
"We were pretty decent all night. We had a couple good finishes in the stages which averaged us out to fourth. We were running fourth or fifth there and we had a restart and I took the bottom for
the last stage and got a pretty good restart and took them three-wide into 1 and didn’t clear the top lane and they freight trained through me and I got loose entering turn 1 and gave up a few spots. It was going to be hard to beat the Hendrick guys. They were pretty fast. Brad had a good run at them but I thought that was our only shot, that restart, but I just didn’t quite clear ‘em." - Ryan Blaney, finished fifth
"Tonight, we had a very strong Axalta Chevy. We were able to really get through traffic even though passing was difficult with this package. We put ourselves where we needed to be in basically just about every round. We definitely had a shot at
the million-dollar prize going into the last stint, but it just didn’t go our way. While it’s tough to not get the win, there are still positives we can take away from tonight. We’ll take the momentum and go on to Nashville." - William Byron, finished seventh
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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