Frontstretch Newsletter: Oct. 5, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition CLXXX
|
- NASCAR Cup Series teams are back at their shops today to prepare for this weekend's action at Charlotte Motor Speedway. We'll have everything that breaks today, including the entry lists, at Frontstretch.
|
| | Bubba Wallace Scores 1st Win in Rain-Shortened Talladega Playoff Race
23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace snatched the lead on lap 113 Monday at Talladega. Shortly afterwards, a crash brought out the caution. During that yellow, rains and lightning descended upon the track, forcing NASCAR to call
the race. That gave Wallace his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. Brad Keselowski was second, then Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and Christopher Bell.
|
| | History Is Made With Bubba Wallace’s Triumph
Monday will be a historic day in NASCAR history. Bubba Wallace's victory is only the second win for an African-American driver in NASCAR Cup Series history and the first since 1963. He has a lot of stress off of his
shoulders.
|
| | Hendrick Teammates Alex Bowman, William Byron In Must-Win Situation After Talladega Crashes
While Monday was a historic day for Bubba Wallace, it was a pretty terrible day for Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle Larson lost the points lead, while both Alex Bowman and William Byron crashed out and put themselves way behind
the cutoff line entering Charlotte.
|
| | Joey Hand Making NASCAR Debut at Charlotte ROVAL
Ford Performance announced Tuesday morning that Joey Hand will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in an entry for Rick Ware Racing.
|
Photos are courtesy of NASCAR Media via Chris Graythen of Getty Images and our own Phil Allaway.
|
Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Denny Hamlin Retakes Points Lead After Hendrick Motorsports' Terrible Day
by Phil Allaway
Denny Hamlin managed to avoid the incidents Monday at Talladega Superspeedway and finished seventh. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson got caught up in one of the crashes and finished four laps down in 37th. That allowed Hamlin to retake the points lead. His advantage is 19 points over Larson. Joey
Logano finished third and jumped six spots up to third. Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. are tied for fourth. Keselowski wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his second-place finish Monday.
Ryan Blaney is down from a tie for third to sixth after finishing 15th. Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch are tied for seventh. Kyle Busch was caught up in a crash and finished 27th, while Elliott was 18th. Elliott is considered to be seventh due to
the best finish in the round.
Elliott and Kyle Busch are the last two drivers in the Round of 8 at the moment. They have a nine-point advantage over Kevin Harvick, who led the most laps and finished eighth Sunday. Christopher Bell finished fifth and moved up to 10th. William Byron was eliminated just before the rains came and dropped down to 11th. Alex
Bowman crashed on lap 98 and put himself out. That dropped him from seventh to 12th, 52 points out of eighth.
Of those already eliminated from the playoffs, Kurt Busch moved up to 13th after finishing fourth. Tyler Reddick was eliminated in the crash with Bowman and finished 39th. That dropped him to 14th. Aric Almirola remains in 15th, while Michael
McDowell is 16th.
Completely outside of the playoffs, Austin Dillon finished 11th while Matt DiBenedetto was eliminated in the Byron crash. His advantage over DiBenedetto is now 155 points. Chris Buescher won stage one and finished sixth. That moved him back up to 19th,
while Ross Chastain is 20th. Bubba Wallace's victory moved him up to 21st.
Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) Denny Hamlin
3117, 2) Kyle Larson -19, 3) Joey Logano -20, t-4) Brad Keselowski -21, t-4) Martin Truex Jr. -21, 6) Ryan Blaney -26, t-7) Chase Elliott -32, t-7) Kyle Busch -32, 9) Kevin Harvick -41, 10) Christopher Bell
-60, 11) William Byron -76, 12) Alex Bowman -84.
Note : Drivers in Bold have advanced to the Round of
12.
Eliminated Playoff Contender Points: 13) Kurt Busch
2146, 14) Tyler Reddick -21, 15) Aric Almirola -42, 16) Michael McDowell -82.
Full Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 1260, 2) Kyle Larson -37, 3) Chase Elliott -251, 4) Ryan Blaney -262, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -270, 6) Joey Logano -272, 7) Kyle Busch
-286, 8) Kevin Harvick -288, 9) William Byron -329, 10) Brad Keselowski -336, 11) Tyler Reddick -422, 12) Austin Dillon -447, 13) Kurt Busch -454, 14) Alex Bowman -469, 15) Christopher Bell -518, 16) Matt
DiBenedetto -602.
Best of the Rest: 17) Austin Dillon
813, 18) Matt DiBenedetto -155, 19) Chris Buescher -157, 20) Ross Chastain -168, 21) Bubba Wallace -180, 22) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -198, 23) Chase Briscoe -238, 24) Erik Jones -269, 25) Daniel Suarez -277, 26) Ryan Newman
-299.
Playoff
Points: 1) Kyle Larson 60, 2) Denny Hamlin -30, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -31, 4) Ryan Blaney -36, t-5) Kyle Busch -39, t-5) Chase Elliott -39, 7) Alex Bowman -45, 8) William Byron
-46, 9) Joey Logano -47, 10) Brad Keselowski -52, 11) Christopher Bell -55, 12) Kevin Harvick -58.
Stage
Points: 1) Kyle Larson 346, 2) Denny Hamlin -3, 3) Chase Elliott -110, 4) William Byron -123, 5) Joey Logano -130, 6) Kyle Busch -138, 7) Ryan Blaney -153, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -162, 9) Brad Keselowski
-165, 10) Kevin Harvick -198, 11) Tyler Reddick -204, 12) Kurt Busch -221, 13) Austin Dillon -229, 14) Christopher Bell -233, 15) Alex Bowman -237, 16) Bubba Wallace
-284.
Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 1054, 2) Kyle Larson -43, 3) Kevin Harvick
-103, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -115, 5) Ryan Blaney -124, 6) Chase Elliott -135, 7) Joey Logano -150, 8) Kyle Busch -167, 9) Brad Keselowski -176, 10) William Byron -214, 11) Austin Dillon -229, 12) Alex Bowman
-236, 13) Tyler Reddick -246, 14) Kurt Busch -257, 15) Christopher Bell -292, 16) Matt DiBenedetto -314.
Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas-1, Charlotte, Sonoma, All-Star Race, Nashville, Watkins Glen, Bristol-2), Martin Truex Jr. (Phoenix,
Martinsville, Darlington-1, Richmond-2), Ryan Blaney (Atlanta-1, Michigan, Daytona-3), Joey Logano (Bristol-1), Alex Bowman (Richmond-1, Dover), Brad Keselowski (Talladega-1), Kyle Busch (Kansas), Chase Elliott (Circuit of the Americas, Road America), Kurt Busch (Atlanta-2), Aric Almirola (Loudon), AJ Allmendinger (Indianapolis), Denny Hamlin (Darlington-2, Las Vegas-2), Bubba Wallace
(Talladega-2)
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 our own Phil Allaway.
|
|
|
Letter of the Race: Monday's YellaWood 500 was brought to you by the letter H for History. Bubba Wallace's victory is not just his first win and the first for an African-American driver since 1963, but it is also the first for 23XI
Racing. Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan are now Cup winning car owners. It is also the first Cup victory for crew chief Robert "Bootie" Barker in his 484th start as a crew chief. - Phil Allaway
|
Quotes to Remember: YellaWood 500
compiled by Phil Allaway
"Part of me is just sitting there waiting – it’s not over with. Just sit there and bide our time and if we go back racing, let’s put ourselves in position. So many cool fans behind us at the pit box just cheering for it to rain so that kind of amped up the
intensity a little bit. Just so proud of everyone at 23XI Racing. New team and coming in here getting a win late in the season reminds me of 2013. Waited so long to get that first truck win. I know a lot of history was made today, which is really cool, but it’s about my guys and it’s about our team and about what we’ve done. Appreciate Michael Jordan, appreciate Denny [Hamlin] for giving me an opportunity and believing in me. Like we talked, it’s pretty fitting that it comes here at
Talladega.
"This is for all those kids out there that want to have an opportunity at whatever they want to achieve and be the best at what they want to do. You’re going to go through a lot of <expletive>, but you always have to stay true to your path and not let the nonsense get to you. Stay strong, stay humble, stay hungry. There
have been plenty of times that I wanted to give up, but you surround yourselves with the right people and it’s moments like this that you appreciate." - Bubba Wallace, race winner
"It was a good day for us, not the win. Gosh, if I would have known it was gonna rain right then I had a move I could have made and I was like, “No, we’ve got five laps in the stage left, I don’t want to burn that move yet,’ and then it rains, so I feel like I
kind of let one slip away here. All in all, it’s still a great day. We scored a lot of stage points, which is really positive and put ourselves in a good position next week to go to the ROVAL." - Brad Keselowski, finished second
"There was a lot of good racing there, very intense racing. You add weather to a superspeedway, you might as well just call it the end of the race earlier. Everyone is pushing and shoving. You feel it coming, you feel the wreck coming. It’s not comfortable, I can tell you that much. Unless you’re up front it’s not comfortable and
for the majority of that run we were towards the back. I was able to find a good drafting partner in Brad. Brad and I work so well together at these superspeedways, so once I found his back bumper I was like, ‘Here we go,’ and we freight trained it towards the front. He had a run into one. He could have taken it. He didn’t take it and that might have been the difference in winning or not, but, I think we’re second so if it rains out, considering our situation in points, I will be very happy and
walk out of here." - Joey Logano, finished third
"Yeah, I raced as smart as I could and raced on the unselfish side. The teamwork has to be there and has to be there at the right moment. For us, with the rain and the end of the Stage, we wanted to get everything we could and I am really proud of the way our car
drove. This Monster Energy Chevy was fast and did everything we needed it to do. I stayed committed to the low lane and it was just a matter of when the low lane versus the high lane had the momentum and whenever the yellow was going to come out. So, we just didn’t quite have all the luck on our side today." - Kurt Busch, finished fourth
"Just disappointing not to get stage points in stage one, that was a big turning point, but the guys that we’re racing all had good days. We’ve got a long way to go and we’ll head to the ROVAL, which is a good track for us, but it’s going to take a little bit of luck." - Christopher Bell, finished
fifth
"It means so much. It’s a learning process and we knew it was going to be a learning process. I’m so happy for the team and I’m so happy for his sponsor, McDonalds as it’s been decades since they’ve been in victory lane. Just great that we’re able to show off our partners here at 23XI and this is just a building step. We’re still
in just the beginning stages of our team and we’re still growing. We have some great things on the horizon, but this is just a great moral booster for everyone." - Denny Hamlin, finished seventh, on Bubba Wallace's victory
"We got a little bit behind. I got shuffled out there too late for the rain storm, but our Ford Mustang was fast and we were able to make up some ground and get back up closer to where we needed to be. I hate that it started raining. Our car was fast." - Kevin Harvick, finished eighth
"Just superspeedway racing. This is just a common cause in this kind of racing. There is strategy and it’s a game of chess; but when the rain is coming like it was, everybody starts pushing harder and harder. Unfortunately, I was on the bad end of it. Like Chris [Buescher] and I work really good together and it was just a bad
situation I guess." - Ryan Preece, finished 32nd (Crashed out)
"We went up there early and led some and were feeling our car out. We had good speed and was as good as always. The Quick Lane Mustang and Wood Brothers always bring really fast race cars here and really wanted to feel it out. We got shuffled a little and was just riding. We were committed to that before the day started. Leverage
the situation to our advantage that we don’t need stage points, so we were gonna cruise and let the wrecks happen and then in stage three go and try to run up front and go for the win, but Mother Nature threw a little kink in our plans here and obviously we see what happened." - Matt DiBenedetto, finished 35th (Crashed out)
"Yeah, I don’t know. He was just coming down the track and I was kind of trying to run a third lane. Just part of Talladega. We’ll go to the ROVAL, try to win that one and advance that way." - William Byron, finished 36th (Crashed out)
"Yeah, I didn’t even see what happened and had no time to react or anything like that. It’s just part of this racing when you are not situated in good track position and just got collected there. So, yeah, a bit of a bummer, but could have been worse today." - Kyle Larson, finished 37th
"Yeah, just dumped over on the left rear and turned us around really bad. Bummer for the Ally 48 team. We had a fast car; we were leading there. That’s just superspeedway racing and the box that we’re put in by these racetracks. You’ll have that. Bummed to have [a] torn up race car, but we’ll move on and try to go win the ROVAL."
- Alex Bowman, finished 38th (Crashed out)
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of our own Phil Allaway.
|
|
|
|
