Frontstretch Newsletter: Aug. 2, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition CXXXIV
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- NASCAR teams are at their shops, getting ready for this weekend's action in Watkins Glen. Entry lists should be out either today or tomorrow. We'll have those and anything else that breaks for
you at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: July 31-Aug. 1
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- An unidentified volunteer marshal was killed Saturday afternoon at Brands Hatch during a touring car race. Contact between a couple of cars on the pit straight sent one of the cars into the Armco barrier. The car was tipped into
a barrel roll that sent it over the wall and directly over a marshal's post. A second marshal was also on the scene, but they were able to get away relatively unscathed.
- Joey Iest took the lead with 18 laps to go Saturday night from Jesse Love and held on to win the ARCA Menards Series West NAPA Auto Parts Colorado 150 at Colorado National Speedway. Love was second, then Jake Drew, Cole Moore and Eric Nascimento.
- Patrick Emerling snatched the lead from Justin Bonsigore with four laps to go and held on to win the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 at New York International Raceway Park in Lancaster, N.Y. Saturday night. Bonsignore was seocnd, then Max McLaughlin, Jon McKennedy and Eric Goodale.
- The Pinty's Series held a doubleheader Sunday night at Sunset Speedway to start their 2021 season. Rain delayed the races by nearly four hours.
In Race No. 1 (Frontline Workers 125), Raphael Lessard made an excellent restart to take the lead from Pete Shepphard late and held on to take the victory over Andrew Ranger, Alex Tagliani, Kevin Lacroix and Shae Gemmell.
Race No. 2 (General Tire 125) saw Lessard lead from the pole, but Sheppard was right there the whole time. At halfway, he took the lead from Lessard. Lessard then ran in the back of him and spun him out in turn 1.
In the closing laps, Treyten Lapcevich made a run on Lessard for the lead, but spun out entering turn 3 after a squeeze was put on him. This incident and the aforementioned run-in with Sheppard infuriated the crowd.
Lessard held on for the Sunday night sweep over DJ Kennington, Louis-Phillippe Dumoulin, Lapcevich and Brett Taylor. Afterwards, a couple of fans threw full beer cans at Lessard while he made his victory lap, inflamed over the lap 122 incident with Lapcevich.
- Iron Lynx's Alessandro Pier Guidi passed Team WRT's Dries Vanthoor on the outside in the treacherous Blanchimont corner with under 10 minutes to go. From there, Pier Guidi was able to pull away to give himself, Come Ledogar and Nicklas Nielsen the overall victory in the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, the flagship event for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe
Powered by AWS Endurance Cup.
The event had an incredibly scary moment in the first 30 minutes when Emil Frey Racing's Jack Aitken spun and hit the tires in Radillion before spinning into traffic. He was then hit by teammate Franck Perera in a massive wreck that also involved Iron Lynx's Davide Rigon and Rutronik Racing's Kevin Estre. Aitken suffered a broken collarbone and fractured a vertebra in the crash.
- In FIA Formula 3 Championship competition, Lorenzo Colombo passed pole-sitter Jonny Edgar and held on to take the victory on track in Race No. 1. However, he was found to have dropped more than 10 car lengths behind the safety car before the lights were turned off. This is an infraction punishable by a five-second penalty. That was enough to strip
Colombo of the victory. Ayumu Iwasa was promoted to victory. Olli Caldwell was second, then Logan Sargeant, Clement Novalak and Dennis Haugher. Colombo ended up seventh.
Race No. 2 on Saturday saw HWA RACELAB's Matteo Nannini pass Enzo Fittipaldi on lap 4 and hold on to take his first career F3 victory. Fittipaldi was second, then Roman Stanek, Alexander Smolyar and Hauger.
Finally, Hauger maintained his points lead by running down teammate Arthur Leclerc and taking the lead. Leclerc tried to get him back, but a late safety car meant that the race ended under yellow, giving Hauger his third win of the year. Leclerc was second, then Jack Doohan, David Schumacher and Novalak.
Hauger has a 63-point lead over Doohan after 12 of 21 races. Caldwell is third, followed by Frederik Vesti and Smolyar.
- In W Series action, Jamie Chadwick stomped the field in Hungary. The British racer scored a Grand Slam Saturday, winning from pole, leading every lap and turning in the fastest lap of the race. Chadwick finished 10.237 seconds ahead of Alice Powell. Nerea Marti was third, then Irina Sidorkova and Beitske Visser.
- In World of Outlaws NoS Energy Sprint Car Series action, Aaron Reutzel led flag-to-flag Friday night to win The Big "R" Outlaw Shootout at Ransomville Speedway. He was haunted for the whole race by Paulie Colagiovanni, a regular in the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints from Cicero, N.Y. Kraig Kinser was third, then Brad Sweet and David
Gravel.
- Saturday night saw the 410 sprints move to Weedsport Speedway for the Empire State Challenge. Here, Sheldon Haudenschild dominated the A-main, but spun after colliding with James McFadden with two laps to go. That gave the lead to Gravel, who held on for the win. Sweet was second, then Donny Schatz, Carson Macedo and Logan
Schuchart.
Through 51 of 81 scheduled races, Sweet has a 120-point lead over Macedo. Gravel is third, then Schatz and Haudenschild.
- The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series spent last weekend at Fairbury Speedway in Illinois for the Prairie Dirt Classic. Friday night saw a series of showdown races to lock drivers into Saturday night's 100-lap mains. Showdown No. 1 transferred Ryan Gustin, Shannon Babb, Chris Madden and Chris Simpson.
Showdown No. 2 saw Bobby Pierce claim the win over Jonathan Davenport, Brian Shirley and Tyler Bruening. No. 3 saw Stormy Scott, Kyle Larson, Brandon Sheppard and Rick Eckert. Finally, Showdown No. 4 saw Hudson O'Neal, Jimmy Owens, Chase Junghans and Mckay Wenger advance.
Saturday night's 100-lap main saw Larson take the lead from Pierce on lap 30. From there, he was able to hold off the "Smooth Operator" to take his first career World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series victory and the $50,000 grand prize. Pierce was second, then Babb, Madden and Sheppard.
Through 32 races, Sheppard has an 86-point lead over Madden. Bruening is third, then Ricky Weiss and Dennis Erb Jr.
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| | Esteban Ocon Claims Maiden Victory in Dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix
Alpine's Esteban Ocon avoided a first-lap crash in turn 1 and had the right pit strategy to earn his first Grand Prix victory in Sunday's Grand Prix of Hungary. Lewis Hamilton was
second, then Carlos Sainz Jr., Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly.
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| | Sebastian Vettel Disqualified After Hungarian Grand Prix
Fuel was an issue Sunday in Hungary. In FIA-sanctioned races, there is mandatory fuel testing after every race. Teams must provide a one-liter fuel sample for inspectors. Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel, who
finished second on the road Sunday, could not do it and was disqualified.
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| | Ty Gibbs Has Last Laugh, Scores Winchester Victory
Ty Gibbs had contact with Corey Heim in turn 2 with four laps to go, spinning Heim out and taking the lead. From there, Gibbs held on to win the ARCA Menards Series Calypso Lemonade 200 at Winchester Speedway. Greg Van Alst was second, then
Heim, Thad Moffitt and Taylor Gray.
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Photos are courtesy of Bryn Lennon of Getty Images, FIA Images and Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Off-Week Update No. 4
by Phil Allaway
The NASCAR Cup Series was off last weekend as part of the Olympic break. The series will resume with the Go Bowling at the Glen at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 8
Denny Hamlin will enter Watkins Glen with a 13-point advantage over Kyle Larson. William Byron is still third despite a poor showing in Loudon, followed by Kyle Busch.
There is one shift in the standings despite the downtime. Last week's engine allocation penalties given to Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman have resulted in a change. Joey Logano moved back up to fifth due to Elliott's 25-point penalty. Elliott is down to sixth. Bowman didn't lose the 11th spot due to his
penalty, but he's now more than a full race behind Kevin Harvick in 10th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 874, 2) Kyle Larson -13, 3) William Byron
-125, 4) Kyle Busch -134, 5) Joey Logano -141, 6) Chase Elliott -163, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -178, 8) Ryan Blaney -185, 9) Brad Keselowski -198, 10) Kevin Harvick
-201, 11) Alex Bowman -262, 12) Tyler Reddick -278, 13) Austin Dillon -283, 14) Kurt Busch -322, 15) Christopher Bell -342, 16) Chris Buescher -399.
Outside the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 19) Michael McDowell
-426, t-23) Aric Almriola -497.
Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 32, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -13, 3) Alex Bowman -17, 4) Kyle Busch -19, 5) Chase Elliott -21, 6) Ryan Blaney -23, t-7) Joey Logano -24, t-7) William Byron -24, t-7) Kurt Busch -24, 10) Brad Keselowski
-26, t-11) Christopher Bell -27, t-11) Denny Hamlin -27, t-11) Michael McDowell -27, t-11) Aric Almirola -27, t-15) Tyler Reddick -31, t-15) Chris Buescher
-31, t-15) Matt DiBenedetto -25, t-15) Bubba Wallace -31, .
Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 253, 2) Denny Hamlin -3, 3) William Byron -60, 4) Chase Elliott -79, 5) Kyle Busch -88, 6) Ryan Blaney -95, t-7) Joey
Logano -103, t-7) Martin Truex Jr. -103, 9) Brad Keselowski -118, 10) Alex Bowman -145, 11) Kevin Harvick -148, 12) Kurt Busch -153, 13) Tyler Reddick -160, 14) Austin Dillon
-182, 15) Christopher Bell -186, 16) Bubba Wallace -203.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Aric Almirola -219, 20) Michael McDowell
-222.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 734, 2) Kyle Larson -27, 3) Joey Logano
-53, 4) Kyle Busch -61, 5) Kevin Harvick -74, 6) Chase Elliott -78, 7) William Byron -79, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -90, 9) Brad Keselowski -95, 10) Ryan Blaney
-110, t-11) Alex Bowman -123, t-11) Austin Dillon -123, 13) Tyler Reddick -143, 14) Christopher Bell -177, 15) Kurt Busch -202, 16) Chris Buescher -210.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs:
19) Michael McDowell -225, 25) Aric Almirola -303.
Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Charlotte, Sonoma, All-Star Race, Nashville), Martin Truex Jr. (Phoenix, Martinsville, Darlington), Ryan Blaney (Atlanta-1), Joey Logano (Bristol),
Alex Bowman (Richmond, Dover), Brad Keselowski (Talladega), Kyle Busch (Kansas), Chase Elliott (Circuit of the Americas, Road America), Kurt Busch (Atlanta-2), Aric Almirola (Loudon)
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 Update No. 6
by Phil Allaway
The Xfinity Series was off last weekend. They are scheduled to return to action in the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 7.
When the teams return to the track, Austin Cindric will have an 82-point lead over AJ Allmendinger. Daniel Hemric is third, then Justin Allgaier and Harrison
Burton. Michael Annett, who has missed the last two races after suffering a stress fracture during the Knoxville truck weekend, is the last man in the playoffs right now with a 32-point advantage over Riley Herbst.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 797, 2) AJ Allmendinger -82, 3) Daniel Hemric -113, 4) Justin Allgaier
-144, 5) Harrison Burton -182, 6) Jeb Burton -208, 7) Justin Haley -220, 8) Noah Gragson -253, 9) Brandon Jones -308, 10) Jeremy Clements -329, 11) Michael Annett -347, 12) Myatt Snider -371, 13) Riley Herbst
-379, 14) Brandon Brown -388, 15) Josh Berry -400, 16) Ryan Sieg -422.
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 15th in points.
Playoff Points: 1) Austin Cindric 27, 2) AJ Allmendinger -12, t-3) Ty Gibbs -16, t-3) Justin Allgaier
-16, 5) Josh Berry -21, t-6) Jeb Burton -22, t-6) Myatt Snider -22, t-6) Daniel Hemric -22, 9) Justin Haley -24, t-10) Noah Gragson -25, t-10) Harrison Burton -25, t-11) Brandon Jones
-26.
Note: If they were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would have the most with 29, while Christopher Bell's season debut would put him in sixth. Martin Truex Jr. would be tied for 12th. If he had run the full season for Xfinity points, Brett Moffitt would be tied
for 15th.
Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 222, 2) Daniel Hemric -36, 3) AJ Allmendinger -39, 4) Justin Allgaier
-48, 5) Harrison Burton -59, 6) Noah Gragson -72, 7) Justin Haley -81, 8) Brandon Jones -105, 9) Jeb Burton -134, 10) Michael Annett -153, 11) Ty Gibbs -164, 12) Josh Berry -166, t-13) Myatt Snider
-168, t-13) Riley Herbst -168, 15) Jeremy Clements -176, t-16) Brandon Brown -195, t-16) Ty Dillon -195.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be tied for 10th in stage points.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 670, 2) AJ Allmendinger -52, 3) Daniel Hemric -81, 4) Jeb Burton
-90, 5) Justin Allgaier -106, 6) Harrison Burton -139, 7) Justin Haley -157, 8) Jeremy Clements -170, 9) Noah Gragson -198, 10) Brandon Brown -208, 11) Myatt Snider -221, 12) Michael Annett -223, 13) Brandon Jones -224, 14) Riley Herbst -235, 15) Ryan Sieg -237, 16) Josh Berry -264.
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, Pocono), Ty Gibbs (Daytona-2, Charlotte), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas, Mid-Ohio), Myatt Snider (Homestead), Justin Allgaier (Atlanta-1, Darlington), Josh Berry
(Martinsville), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Kyle Busch (Circuit of the Americas, Texas, Nashville, Road America, Atlanta-2), Christopher Bell (Loudon)
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. 11
by Phil Allaway
The Camping World Truck Series was off last weekend. They will not be in action again until the United Rentals 176 at Watkins Glen on Aug. 7. That race will be the final race of the regular
season.
When the teams get to Watkins Glen, John Hunter Nemechek will have an 85-point lead over Ben Rhodes, having already clinched the regular season championship. Austin Hill, who won in Knoxville, is third, followed
by Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith. Only two spots are up for grabs in the playoffs and the chances of Derek Kraus or Tyler Ankrum getting in are not great.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 605, 2) Ben Rhodes -85, 3) Austin Hill -95, 4) Todd Gilliland -147, 5) Zane Smith -154, 6) Matt Crafton
-175, t-7) Sheldon Creed -192, t-7) Grant Enfinger -192, 9) Carson Hocevar -233, 10) Stewart Friesen -241, 11) Chandler Smith -254, 12) Derek Kraus -294, 13) Tyler Ankrum -298, 14) Johnny Sauter
-305, 15) Austin Wayne Self -334, 16) Ryan Truex -353.
Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 16th in points.
Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 34, 2) Ben Rhodes -23, 3) Todd Gilliland -27, 4) Sheldon Creed
-28, 5) Austin Hill -29, t-6) Zane Smith -31, t-6) Derek Kraus -31, 8) Raphael Lessard -32, t-9) Chandler Smith -33, t-9) Grant Enfinger -33,
Note: If they were
eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be second in playoff points while Martin Truex Jr. would be fourth and Ryan Preece seventh.
Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 167, 2) Austin Hill
-47, 3) Ben Rhodes -54, 4) Sheldon Creed -58, 5) Zane Smith -76, 6) Matt Crafton -78, 7) Stewart Friesen -80, 8) Derek Kraus -83, 9) Todd Gilliland -84, 10) Chandler Smith -99, 11) Grant Enfinger
-107, 12) Raphael Lessard -127, 13) Carson Hocevar -134, 14) Tyler Ankrum -138, 15) Johnny Sauter -142, 16) Kaz Grala -153.
Note: If they were eligible for stage points,
Kyle Busch would be 10th.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 396, 2) Ben Rhodes -38, 3) Todd Gilliland -47, 4) Austin Hill -58, 5) Zane Smith
-85, 6) Grant Enfinger -87, 7) Matt Crafton -107, 8) Carson Hocevar -110, 9) Sheldon Creed -129, 10) Chandler Smith -156, 11) Tyler Ankrum -165, 12) Stewart Friesen -167, 13) Johnny Sauter -176, 14) Austin
Wayne Self -185, 15) Ryan Truex -202, 16) Derek Kraus -211.
Race Winners: Ben Rhodes (Daytona-1, Daytona-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas, Richmond, Charlotte, Pocono), Kyle Busch (Atlanta, Kansas), Martin Truex Jr. (Bristol), Sheldon Creed (Darlington), Todd Gilliland (Circuit of the Americas), Ryan Preece (Nashville), Austin Hill
(Knoxville)
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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