Frontstretch Newsletter: Aug. 23, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition CXLIX
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- Cup teams are back at their shops after Sunday's action in MIchigan. Preparations are underway for this weekend's action in Daytona. Entry lists should be out later today. We'll have the entry lists
and/or anything else that breaks for you at Frontstretch.
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Around the World in Motorsports: Aug. 20-22
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- Toyota GAZOO Racing's Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend, leading 348 of 371 laps to win by two laps over the No. 8 Toyota. Team WRT's Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi and Robin Frijns won in LMP2 after their teammates broke on the final lap.
GTE-Pro was won by AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari for James Calado, Come Ledogar and Alessandro Pier Guidi. The GTE-Am class went to AF Corse's No. 83 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera. We'll have a more detailed look at Le Mans in Tuesday's Newsletter.
- Jesse Love passed Trevor Huddleston on lap 88 Saturday night and held on from there to win the ARCA Menards Series West NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by Sunrise Ford at Irwindale Speedway. It is Love's second win of the year. Jake Drew was second, then Paul Pedroncelli Jr., Joey Iest and Ryan Partridge.
Love has an 11-point lead over Cole Moore in the points. Drew is third, then Todd Souza and Pedroncelli.
- Ron Silk passed Matt Hirschman with eight laps to go Saturday night at Maine's Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and held on to win the Whelen Modified Tour Rumble at the Ridge 200. Hirschman was second, then Patrick Emerling, Matt Swanson and Doug Coby.
Justin Bonsignore finished eighth and has an eight-point lead over Emerling. Silk is third in points, then Jon McKennedy and Coby.
- Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires teams had serious problems with tires at World Wide Technology Raceway. Both races were originally scheduled for 75 laps, but they were shortened due to tire issues.
In Race No. 1 Friday prior to the Toyota 200 presented by CK Power, no less than four drivers suffered tire failures. As a result, INDYCAR made the decision to throw the checkers early after 66 of the scheduled lap. David Malukas led flag-to-flag to claim the victory under yellow over Kyle Kirkwood, Benjamin Pedersen, Devlin DeFrancesco and Alex
Peroni.
Race No. 2 on Saturday saw Malukas take the lead from Kirkwood on lap 39. From there, he held on to sweep the weekend. Kirkwood was second, then Pedersen, Linus Lundqvist and DeFrancesco. The race, which was shortened from 75 to 70 laps by series officials and ran with a mid-race break for tire changes, was still shortened again to 62
laps.
Malukas' weekend sweep boosted him into the points lead with six races to go. His advantage is a mere three points over Kirkwood. Lundqvist is third, then Pedersen and DeFrancesco.
- Braden Eves led flag-to-flag Saturday to win the Indy Pro 2000 presented by Cooper Tires Oval Challenge of St. Louis. He won by three-quarters of a second over Christian Rasmussen. Hunter McAlrea was third, then James Roe and Nolan Siegel.
With four races remaining, Rasmussen has a 32-point lead over Eves. Reece Gold is third, then McElrea and Artem Petrov.
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams were supposed to have a doubleheader in North Dakota before traveling to South Dakota. However, Friday night's race in Grand Forks has been postponed due to rain. It has been rescheduled for Wednesday night.
Saturday night saw the sprinters race at Red River Valley Speedway near Fargo. The hometown fans went home happy as Donny Schatz took the lead from Logan Schuchart with eight laps to go and held on through a late restart to win. David Gravel was second, then James McFadden, Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild.
- Sunday night saw the series travel to Huset's Speedway in Brandon, S.D., a track owned by Big Game Motorsports owner Tod Quiring. Quiring's driver, David Gravel, did him proud. Gravel took the lead with 11 laps to go and held on to take his eighth win of the year. Austin McCarl was second, then Jacob Allen, Schatz and Kraig
Kinser.
Through 58 of 81 races, Brad Sweet continues to lead the points by 120 over Gravel. In the points system used in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, this is less than one race. Carson Macedo is third, then Schatz and Haudenschild.
- The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series had three races last weekend. Friday night saw the late model racers take on Pennsylvania's Williams Grove Speedway, where Gregg Satterlee led flag-to-flag to take the victory. Chris Madden was second, then Kyle Hardy, Rick Eckert and Matt Cosner.
Saturday night saw the series move to Ohio's Sharon Speedway. Prior to leading the most laps in Michigan Sunday, Kyle Larson stepped into the series and led flag-to-flag to win the Battle at the Border for his second win of the year. Ryan Gustin was second, then Brandon Sheppard, Tyler Bruening and Colton Flinner.
Finally, Sunday saw the series at Eriez Speedway in Northwest Pennsylvania. Here, Sheppard took the lead from Dennis Erb Jr. on a lap 2 restart and held on for his sixth win of the season. Dave Hess was second, then Chub Frank, Erb and Boom Briggs.
Points-wise, Sheppard currently has a 158-point lead over Madden. Bruening is third, then Erb and Ricky Weiss.
- Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship competitors were in Budds Creek, Md. Saturday for two motos' worth of action. It ended up being a very competitive day.
450cc Moto No. 1 saw Cooper Webb win the holeshot, but Ken Roczen blasted past and quickly opened up a decent advantage. Dylan Ferrandis moved up to second and ran down Roczen late, but Roczen held on for the win over Ferrandis, Chase Sexton, Eli Tomac and Webb.
450cc Moto No. 2 saw Roczen grab the holeshot and pull out a five-second second. Ferrandis was able to run him down and take the lead with seven minutes to go. From there, Ferrandis pulled away to win by 4.8 seconds over Roczen, Tomac, Sexton and Marvin Musquin.
By virtue of finishing better in the second Moto, Ferrandis took his fifth round victory of the season over Roczen, Tomac, Sexton and Webb.
- In the 250cc class, Justin Cooper won the holeshot in Moto No. 1 and led flag-to-flag to take the victory. Jett Lawrence was second, followed by Jeremy Martin, Austin Forkner and Jalek Swoll.
Moto No. 2 saw Martin dominate from the holeshot, pulling away to win by 8.8 seconds over Jett Lawrence. Hunter Lawrence was third, then Cooper and Forkner. Martin claimed the round victory with a finish total of four. Jett Lawrence was second, then Cooper, Hunter Lawrence and Forkner.
Points-wise, despite Ferrandis winning the round on a tiebreaker with Roczen, both riders earned first-place points. As a result, Ferrandis still leads Roczen by 39 points with three race weekends to go. Tomac is third, then Sexton and Musquin.
Cooper has a three-point lead over Jett Lawrence. Martin is third, then Hunter Lawrence and RJ Hampshire.
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| | Ryan Blaney Scores 1st Multi-Win Cup Season With Michigan Win
Team Penske's Ryan Blaney took the lead on the final restart from William Byron and held off a series of charges to claim his second win of the year. Byron was second, then Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch and Denny
Hamlin.
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| | Erik Jones Re-Signs With Richard Petty Motorsports for 2022
Prior to Sunday's FireKeepers Casino 400, Richard Petty Motorsports announced that Erik Jones will return to the No. 43 Chevrolet full-time in 2022.
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| | AJ Allmendinger Wins Xfinity Race at Michigan
AJ Allmendinger snatched the lead late from Josh Berry and held on through three Green-White-Checker restarts to win Saturday's New Holland 250 at Michigan International Speedway. Brandon Jones was second, then Noah
Gragson, Berry and Harrison Burton.
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| | Josh Berry Finishes 4th at Michigan After JRM 2022 Announcement
With the announcement last week that he would have a full-time ride with JR Motorsports in 2022, Josh Berry was already on a high entering Michigan. Driving in place of the injured Michael Annett, Berry had a legitimate
chance to win before finishing fourth.
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| | Jesse Iwuji, NFL Legend Emmitt Smith Starting Xfinity Team
Jesse Iwuji and Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith announced Saturday that they are teaming up to form a new Xfinity Series team that will compete full-time in 2022.
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| | Sheldon Creed Dominates Truck Field at Gateway
GMS Racing's Sheldon Creed led 142 of 160 laps Friday night to win the Toyota 200 presented by CK Power at World Wide Technology Raceway. Matt Crafton finished second, Ben Rhodes, Stewart Friesen and Johnny
Sauter.
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| | Power Goes Out in Gateway Truck Race
World Wide Technology Raceway has had some electricity issues in the past. In 2010, an outage resulted in the race being pushed back a day. Friday night saw a power outage on lap 62 knock out many of the lights and
timing and scoring, resulting in a 48-minute red flag.
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| | Hailie Deegan Scores Historic Top 10 at Gateway
Friday night's Camping World Truck Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway was a bit of a wreckfest. Hailie Deegan was able to keep her truck clean (for the most part) and bring it home in a career-best
seventh.
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| | Josef Newgarden Wins, Attrition Reigns at Gateway
Team Penske's Josef Newgarden avoided the incidents and held off Patricio O'Ward to win Saturday night's Bommarito Automotive Group 500k at World Wide Technology Raceway. O'Ward was second, then Will Power, Scott
McLaughlin and Sebastien Bourdais.
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| | Patricio O’Ward Tightens IndyCar Championship Battle at Gateway
Saturday night's 500-kilometer race in suburban St. Louis saw a number of drivers caught up in incidents. One of those drivers was points leader Alex Palou. That allowed Patricio O'Ward to take the points lead with a
second-place finish.
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| | Sebastien Bourdais Charges to 5th at Gateway
The 2021 season for Sebastien Bourdais has been tricky, marred by on-track incidents. Saturday night saw Bourdais charge up from 18th on the grid to finish fifth.
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| | Corey Heim Rebounds From Crash, Wins ARCA Race at Springfield
Despite getting involved in a mid-race crash, Venturini Motorsports' Corey Heim dominated to win the Allen Crowe 100 Sunday afternoon at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Ty Gibbs was second, followed by Taylor Gray, Justin
Allgaier and Jesse Love.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, NASCAR Media via Sean Gardner of Getty Images, Joe Skibinski of INDYCAR Media and our own Zach Sturniolo.
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Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Kyle Larson Expands Advantage With Top 5 Finish
by Phil Allaway
Kyle Larson led a race-high 70 laps Sunday and finished third. That was enough to expand his points lead to 28 points with one race remaining in the regular season over Denny Hamlin. Hamlin was strong Sunday, finishing fifth. Kyle Busch is still third after finishing seventh. William
Byron is only five points behind Kyle Busch after finishing second.
Chase Elliott dominated early, but dropped out of the top 10 after halfway and recovered back to eighth. He's still fifth in points. Martin Truex Jr. recovered from contact with Kyle Busch in the first couple of laps of the race to finish 10th. That moved him up to sixth. Ryan Blaney's victory moved him up to seventh in points, best of
the Team Penske drivers. Joey Logano is down two places to eighth after getting wrecked on a late restart and finishing 33rd.
Kevin Harvick was a very quiet 14th Sunday. That keeps him ninth in points and locks him into the playoffs. Brad Keselowski remains in 10th after finishing ninth. Tyler Reddick had a strong run for much of Sunday, but he had contact in the closing laps that cost him a couple of laps. The 29th-place finish prevented him from putting his
teammate in a dormie situation, but he still gained a couple of points. Alex Bowman stays in 12th.
Austin Dillon was very fast on Sunday, but his day ended at the end of stage two when he was turned head-on into the outside wall after contact with Keselowski. The 36th-place finish leaves Dillon 25 points behind Reddick. Kurt Busch is still 14th after finishing fourth. Christopher Bell is 15th, while Matt DiBenedetto is
16th.
Outside of the top 16, Chris Buescher is still in 17th after finishing 15th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is up two places to 18th after finishing 12th. Michael McDowell remains in 19th, while Ross Chastain burned up a hub and finished 35th. That dropped Chastain to 20th.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 1004, 2) Denny Hamlin
-28, 3) Kyle Busch -166, 4) William Byron -171, 5) Chase Elliott -184, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -215, 7) Ryan Blaney -217, 8) Joey Logano -232, 9) Kevin Harvick
-248, 10) Brad Keselowski -275, 11) Tyler Reddick -327, 12) Alex Bowman -330, 13) Austin Dillon -352, 14) Kurt Busch -361, 15) Christopher Bell -409, 16) Matt DiBenedetto
-447.
Outside the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 19) Michael McDowell
-507, 23) Aric Almirola -568.
Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 37, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -17, 3) Alex Bowman -22, t-4) Kyle Busch -23, t-4) Ryan Blaney -23, 6) Chase Elliott -25, 7) Joey Logano -28, t-8) William Byron -29, t-8) Kurt Busch -29, 10) Brad Keselowski -30, t-11) Christopher Bell -32, t-11) Denny Hamlin -32, t-11) Michael McDowell -32, t-11) Aric Almirola -32, 15) Tyler Reddick -34, t-16) Chris Buescher -36, t-16) Matt DiBenedetto
-36, t-16) Bubba Wallace -36.
Stage Points: 1) Kyle Larson 288, 2) Denny Hamlin -14, 3) William Byron -81, 4) Chase Elliott -92, 5) Kyle Busch -105, 6) Joey Logano -121, 7) Martin Truex Jr.
-128, 8) Ryan Blaney -130, 9) Brad Keselowski -143, 10) Tyler Reddick -165, 11) Kevin Harvick -175, 12) Alex Bowman -180, t-13) Austin Dillon -185, t-13) Kurt Busch
-185, 15) Christopher Bell -203, 16) Bubba Wallace -238.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 19) Michael McDowell -248, 22) Aric Almirola
-254.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 831, 2) Denny Hamlin -4, 3) Kyle Busch
-65, 4) Chase Elliott -74, 5) Kevin Harvick -84, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -90, 7) William Byron -92, 8) Ryan Blaney -97, 9) Joey Logano -115, 10) Brad Keselowski
-134, 11) Alex Bowman -150, 12) Tyler Reddick -176, 13) Austin Dillon -177, 14) Kurt Busch -197, 15) Christopher Bell -206, 16) Matt DiBenedetto -215.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs:
20) Michael McDowell -269, 24) Aric Almirola -329.
Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Charlotte, Sonoma, All-Star Race, Nashville, Watkins Glen), Martin Truex Jr. (Phoenix, Martinsville, Darlington),
Ryan Blaney (Atlanta-1, Michigan), 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), AJ Allmendinger (Indianapolis)
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 Loses Chunk Of Lead Following Crash, AJ Allmendinger's Victory
by Phil Allaway
Austin Cindric was eliminated Saturday in a crash on the backstretch. As a result, he only earned 11 points. Meanwhile, AJ Allmendinger won the New Holland 250 and scored 58. As a result, Cindric's lead has been cut significantly. His advantage is down to only 35 points. Justin Allgaier is up to third after finishing
sixth. Daniel Hemric crashed out in the big wreck on the backstretch with Cindric and dropped to fourth.
Harrison Burton is still in fifth after finishing fifth Saturday. Justin Haley is still in sixth, while Noah Gragson moves up to seventh after finishing third. Jeb Burton is down to eighth after stalling late in the race and finishing 29th.
Brandon Jones finished second and remains in ninth. He is still 99 points behind Jeb Burton. Jeremy Clements is still 10th after finishing 11th. Riley Herbst earned a seventh-place finish and further consolidated the final spot in the playoffs on points. Myatt Snider, despite being eliminated due to the crash clock
expiring, moved up to 12th in points.
Michael Annett sat out Saturday due to injury and dropped to 13th as a result. He is now 41 points behind Herbst. Ty Gibbs is up to 14th after finishing 13th. He would have finished better had he not crashed late. Brandon Brown was eliminated in the lap 36 crash and finished 40th. That dropped him back to 15th. Josh
Berry is back up to 16th after finishing fourth.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 896, 2) AJ Allmendinger -35, 3) Justin Allgaier -150, 4) Daniel Hemric -164, 5) Harrison Burton -181, 6) Justin Haley -223, 7) Noah
Gragson -233, 8) Jeb Burton -242, 9) Brandon Jones -341, 10) Jeremy Clements -362, 11) Riley Herbst -387, 12) Myatt Snider -421, 13) Michael Annett -428, 14) Ty Gibbs -460, 15) Brandon Brown
-469, 16) Josh Berry -472.
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 34, 2) AJ Allmendinger -11, 3) Ty Gibbs -18, 4) Justin Allgaier -23, 5) Josh Berry -28, t-6) Jeb Burton
-29, t-6) Myatt Snider -29, t-6) Daniel Hemric -29, 9) Justin Haley -30, t-10) Noah Gragson -32, t-10) Harrison Burton -32, t-11) Brandon Jones -33.
Note: If they were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be second in playoff points, while Christopher Bell would be 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 257, 2) AJ Allmendinger -27, 3) Daniel Hemric -53, 4) Justin Allgaier -69, 5) Noah Gragson -73, 6) Harrison Burton -75, 7) Justin Haley
-96, 8) Brandon Jones -130, 9) Jeb Burton -144, 10) Ty Gibbs -164, 11) Riley Herbst -184, 12) Michael Annett -185, t-13) Myatt Snider -196, t-13) Josh Berry -196, 15) Jeremy Clements
-204, t-16) Brandon Brown -230, t-16) Ty Dillon -230.
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 759, 2) AJ Allmendinger -16, 3) Justin Allgaier -92, 4) Jeb Burton -115, 5) Daniel Hemric -119, 6) Harrison Burton -123, 7) Justin Haley -151, 8) Jeremy Clements -177, 9) Noah Gragson -179, 10) Riley Herbst -228, 11) Brandon Jones -233, 12) Myatt Snider -245, 13) Brandon Brown -260, 14) Ryan Sieg -265, 15) Michael Annett -282, 16) Josh Berry -315.
Note: If he were eligible for Xfinity points for the whole season, Brett Moffitt would be 11th in old points.
Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona-1, Phoenix, Dover, Pocono, Indianapolis), Ty Gibbs (Daytona-2, Charlotte, Watkins Glen), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas, Mid-Ohio, Michigan), 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: John Hunter Nemechek's Playoff Points Lead Is Gone
by Phil Allaway
John Hunter Nemechek entered Friday night's race with a 28-point lead. Nemechek actually struggled for a good chunk of the night. His truck stuttered at one point, creating a huge crash. Later on, he broke a brake rotor, forcing him to go behind the
wall. Nemechek ultimately finished 22nd. He still has the points lead, but his advantage is down to a mere two points. Sheldon Creed dominated Friday night, leading all but 18 laps to win. That moved him up from fifth to second. Ben Rhodes is still third after finishing third. Matt Crafton finished second and moved up three places to
fourth.
Stewart Friesen finished fourth and moved up four places to fifth. Austin Hill was caught up in the big crash and ended up 23rd. That dropped him from second to sixth. Carson Hocevar struggled all night, but brought home an
eighth-place finish. That moved him up to seventh. Todd Gilliland was eliminated in the big crash and finished 29th. That dropped him from fourth to eighth, the last driver in position to advance.
Gilliland has a 10-point lead on Zane Smith, who had braking issues all night. Later on, he was forced to retire due to a rear end failure. Chandler Smith is still 10th after going
behind the wall early due to mechanical issues. He would finish 28th. Outside of the playoffs, Grant Enfinger still leads in 11th, but he finished 25th Friday night. Enfinger is 69 points ahead of Derek Kraus, who gained a spot despite a 20th-place finish.
Tyler Ankrum dropped back to 13th after crashing out. Johnny Sauter is still in 14th after a strong fifth-place finish. Austin Wayne Self is 15th after finishing ninth. Ryan
Truex is 16th.
Round of 10 Point Standings: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 2073, 2) Sheldon Creed -2, 3) Ben Rhodes -3, 4) Matt Crafton -22, 5) Stewart Friesen -24, 6) Austin Hill -34, 7) Carson Hocevar -42, 8) Todd Gilliland -45, 9) Zane Smith -55, 10) Chandler Smith -63.
Full Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 673, 2) Ben Rhodes -76, 3) Austin Hill -94, 4) Todd Gilliland -131, 5) Sheldon Creed -151, 6) Zane Smith
-171, 7) Matt Crafton -181, t-8) Carson Hocevar -241, t-8) Stewart Friesen -241, 10) Grant Enfinger -250, 11) Chandler Smith -312, 12) Derek Kraus -316, 13) Johnny Sauter
-327, 14) Tyler Ankrum -330, 15) Austin Wayne Self -338, 16) Ryan Truex -376.
Best of the Rest: 11) Grant Enfinger 426, 12) Derek Kraus -69, 13) Tyler Ankrum -76, 14) Johnny Sauter
-80, 15) Austin Wayne Self -91, 16) Ryan Truex -129, 17) Hailie Deegan -143, 18) Tanner Gray -180, 19) Chase Purdy -218, 20) Tate Fogelman -230.
Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 49, 2) Austin Hill -28, 3) Ben Rhodes -30, 4) Sheldon Creed -31, 5) Todd Gilliland
-35, 6) Zane Smith -40, 7) Matt Crafton -45, 8) Carson Hocevar -47, t-9) Chandler Smith -33, t-9) Stewart Friesen -48,
Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 185, 2) Sheldon Creed -41, t-3) Austin Hill
-51, t-3) Ben Rhodes -51, t-5) Zane Smith -80, t-5) Stewart Friesen -80, t-7) Matt Crafton -84, t-7) Todd Gilliland -84, 9) Derek Kraus -88, 10) Chandler Smith -117, 11) Grant Enfinger -125, 12) Raphael Lessard
-145, t-13) Carson Hocevar -148, t-13) Tyler Ankrum -148, 15) Johnny Sauter -160, 16) Ty Majeski -162.
Note: If they were eligible for stage points,
Kyle Busch would be 10th and Josh Berry 16th.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 439, 2) Ben Rhodes -33, 3) Austin Hill -53, 4) Todd Gilliland -56, 5) Zane Smith -98, 6) Carson Hocevar
-104, 7) Sheldon Creed -105, 8) Matt Crafton -108, 9) Grant Enfinger -121, 10) Stewart Friesen -168, t-11) Tyler Ankrum -181, t-11) Johnny Sauter -181, 13) Austin Wayne Self -187, 14) Chandler Smith
-193, 15) Ryan Truex -209, 16) Hailie Deegan -226.
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, Gateway), Todd Gilliland (Circuit of the Americas), Ryan Preece (Nashville), Austin Hill (Knoxville, Watkins
Glen)
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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Quotes to Remember: FireKeepers Casino 400
compiled by Phil Allaway
"Yeah, we were going to be fourth and the front row was open. You have to take the front row. It gave us a shot to win the race and Kyle [Busch] gave us a really good push to get us clear into turn one and then I was playing defense. We were wide open. Especially with [Kyle] Larson and William [Byron] laying
back and tryin gto get runs. That made it tough. It was cool to persevere all day. We didn’t start off very good but we worked on it all day and found ourselves in a spot to capitalize on it at the end and did that. A very cool day and nice to be in victory lane here in Michigan. This is huge for Ford and Mr. Penske and a lot of fun.
"The first run wasn’t very pretty. We slid backwards pretty good and we put packer in the right front and did a lot of stuff to try to free it up. There were a lot of changes but hopefully it paid off in the end and the last restart went our way too and we were able to hold those guys off the last 10 laps or so. That was stressful. That is not the ideal way to race,
just blocking everybody, but it is what you have to do nowadays and Josh did a really good job up top. It is nice to be in victory lane." - Ryan Blaney, race winner
"[I just needed Denny Hamlin to stay with us. He tried to shuck us into one. I had to stay with him to not sacrifice my right rear. Once you get put three-wide middle, it’s game over. I gave up the lead trying to protect the top. Just didn’t have the loyalty there to kind of push me to the
lead.”
"Overall, really good car. The No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet was extremely fast. Definitely know we can bring that to the Playoffs. Stinks to finish second, but feel like we had a really good car to go to battle with." - William Byron, finished second
"Just made a couple wrong moves, allowed William [Byron] to get by me. Once I was in third, I hoped they would get racing, get side drafted. I was never close enough to [Byron] to help him generate a run on [Ryan Blaney]. Ended up third. A good points day. Wish we could have had more, but all in all a good day for the
Cincinnati Chevy." - Kyle Larson, finished third
"I had an excellent No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE thanks to Matt McCall (Crew Chief) and all my Chip Ganassi Racing guys. They’re digging hard. The first little sequence, I knew we had a good car today. I just made a couple of mistakes in the aero-situational events. It’s like a mini-superspeedway race out there. And then you have handling mixed in because it’s
a 2-mile track.
"We did really good today. We were right in the mix. Fourth-place is bittersweet. I wanted to win so bad. I had three different plans in my head and I cannot believe a Chevy didn’t win today." - Kurt Busch, finished fourth
"I’m not really sure. We were really fast there right before that last green flag stop. We had run down the leaders from way back, I guess we restarted 18th. It was fast. We just didn’t need that caution – the second-to-last one. We got a good restart on the second-to-last one and then I tried to make a move on
[William Byron] and he was so concerned with me that he lost the lead as well. Just crazy racing. Everyone is just sliding on each other, but it was a decent amount of fun." - Denny Hamlin, finished fifth
"We had a rocket for a while. Then, something went sideways. We didn’t change anything but we lost the handle on it. I am not sure what exactly happened. Either way, we made good calls and the team did a good job. We got the day going really good and were really fast and then had some things go wrong. We had trouble on a pit stop and had the car go a little off and
then had to rebound at the end and fight. My spotter Doug does an excellent job and we work together well. We were super aggressive and made it back up. It was a proud team effort." - Matt DiBenedetto, finished sixth
"We had an eventful day with our Interstate Batteries Camry. We had a good car and for some reason the set of tires we put on it were not good. Ben [Beshore, crew chief] decided to put four tires on the next stop and then I also slid through the stall. We battled hard and got back up there, but we needed the track position to have a shot to win." - Kyle Busch,
finished seventh
"We were really good in the sun. Those scattered clouds at the end took away a little too much handling I think. We had a pretty good Discount Tire Ford. I am bummed. I wanted of course to get a win and I hate that I had that contact with the 3. That really sucks for everybody. It really hurt our day and obviously ruined his. That was crappy. So it goes." - Brad
Keselowski, finished ninth
"I was just trying to get as many Stage points as I could get right there and did a good job of side-drafting and came down to the apron and I’ve seen just one quick replay, but it was after the Start/Finish Line. I was starting to come up off the apron because it’s so rough down there. But I figured by that point, he would have given me a little room. I hate it. I’m
thankful that the good Lord kept me safe today. That was a heck of a wreck, but I feel fine. I hate it for BREZTRI and my guys, most of all. The built a rocket ship. They really wanted this one, and I did too. Just working our tails off right there. I think we would have had a shot to do something there at the end with our race car. It’s the best race car we’ve brought to the track at RCR this year, I feel like. It’s just a bummer but we’ve got Daytona left and I just hate it. I don’t know why
it happened, really. I thought I had a little room to come up and he just held me down there a little bit too long, I guess." - Austin Dillon, finished 36th (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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