NASCAR officials did not penalize the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota team for a lost wheel on pit road during Sunday’s Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The left-rear wheel on Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Camry became dislodged shortly after he left his pit stall with 22 laps remaining in the Quaker State 400. The force of the car’s launch pulled the tire changer along, and the No. 20 entry soon skidded to a halt on three wheels.
The loss of a wheel during competition has frequently resulted in four-race suspensions for the team’s crew chief, tire changer and jack operator under the NASCAR Rule Book Section 10.5.2.6 (Loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle). But Scott Miller, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition, said during an appearance Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that each case of a lost wheel would be considered before ruling it a safety violation.
“That’s always a hard call for us, right?” Miller told SiriusXM. “We’re still we’re continuing to look at that incident, and really the potential consequence for the wheel rolling down pit road. Now if that thing would have been going twice as fast as it was, we would have had a whole field on pit road, we may view that different than we did with hardly any cars on pit road, no speed to the tire, and it not getting away very far. So we always have a very difficult job sorting through what crosses the line and what doesn’t, and we’re still working through that on that particular case.”
Joe Gibbs Racing and its 23XI Racing affiliate had just swapped members of the pit crew for both teams ahead of the Atlanta event, all in an effort to shake up the team chemistry for both over-the-wall groups.
No other infractions were listed on the penalty report, which included the reinstatement of one crew member in the Xfinity Series. The NASCAR membership of Kase Kallenbach was restored, with officials stating that “Kallenbach has successfully completed the terms and conditions mandated for reinstatement.” Kallenbach was listed as the crew chief for the No. 6 JD Motorsports Chevrolet for the first 12 Xfinity Series races of the year.
Tyler Reddick has entered the chat. Quite literally.
Moments after unexpectedly joining a Toyota Racing Development media teleconference, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin announced Reddick as the newest addition to 23XI, where Reddick will compete in 2024.
Reddick currently drives the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, which has reportedly picked up its 2023 option on the two-time Xfinity Series champion who just won his first Cup race on July 3 at Road America.
“Surprised?” asked Hamlin.
Very.
The deal links Reddick to a multiyear contract starting in 2024, 23XI Racing President Steve Lauletta confirmed on the conference. Reddick remains with RCR through 2023.
Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, was blunt in describing his pursuit of Reddick, who has already notched a career-high five top fives in 2022.
“I watched him, I raced against him. I wanted him and I got him,” Hamlin said. “And I didn’t know anything else that goes along with that. And honestly, there’s no hidden secrets here. We do not know who the sponsor will be. We do not know what car it is. All we know is we wanted him. And we made sure we planted our feet deep in the ground to make sure that Tyler had an opportunity with this race team and we made it happen.”
Reddick’s 2023 return to RCR was important from his perspective, closing out what he started after joining the team’s Xfinity program in 2018, winning a title and advancing to the Cup Series full-time starting in 2020.
But the 26-year-old is focusing on his future and knew where he wanted to go.
“I feel like it’s just the way my mind works. I’m always thinking about what lies ahead,” Reddick said. “I just think it’s important to always be thinking about everything, short-term and long-term. So for me, just those gears never really stopped turning, you know, I’m always thinking about what, what is the smartest move with the lies ahead in the years to come.”
Hamlin, a 48-time Cup Series winner, noted Reddick’s interest in 23XI Racing ahead of its maiden season in 2021, praising the team’s outlook as the No. 23 Toyota hit the track starting last year with driver Bubba Wallace.
“(He said), ‘I love what you’re doing. It looks like you guys are really pushing the limits and doing things a little differently. And it’s good to see,’” Hamlin recalled. “And from that point, you just start some conversations. And obviously, I’ve looked at his talents for a very long time. And after a while, I realized that I started asking those kind of important questions about his future. And then I asked obviously, permission from (Toyota) that can I pursue this individual, and they wholeheartedly agreed that this is a good direction for us.”
The signing comes a full 19 months ahead of the anticipated start of the 2024 season. Hamlin saw no reason to wait to sign someone of Reddick’s caliber.
“Franchise drivers don’t come around that often,” Hamlin said. “And so if there’s ever one that you feel like you can grab, you go after it. And you do whatever it takes to make that happen. And then you work on the details later.”
Reddick admitted he “definitely” believed other programs were interested in hiring him whenever he became available. But the opportunity ahead at 23XI Racing – a team which has placed both cars in Victory Lane within the company’s inaugural 18 months – was too appealing to pass up.
“Just seeing where 23XI has started and where they’re going, it’s been very obvious to me that the ramp that they’re on and how they’re improving, it was very exciting for me. And I wanted to be a part of that,” Reddick said. “Also … just talking to Denny and getting to watch and see the direction the team was going, where Toyota is and their commitment to the sport, to NASCAR, to this team, they’re all very exciting things, and I really wanted to be a part of it. And that heavily influenced my decision.”
Currently at 23XI are Wallace and 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch, who won at Kansas Speedway in May. Busch is in the midst of his 23rd year as a Cup competitor and turns 44 years old in August. Hamlin noted no plans to expand to three teams at this time, but also backs Busch’s future – as a driver or otherwise.
“As long as Kurt wants to be a race car driver, we want to have him. So that’s pretty much the end of that,” Hamlin said. “And then once he’s done driving, he’s going to have a nice cushy office job at 23XI. So he’s going to be part of our future well beyond his driving days.
“We constantly are in dialogue with him on what his plans are. But ultimately, you never know. Things could change, and Kurt could want to race until he’s 48 years old. If he does, then we’re going to build a car for him.”
In the meantime, one aspect of 23XI Racing’s future is certain: Tyler Reddick will drive for the team in 2024.
Parker Kligerman admitted he hadn’t heard the MRN Radio call of his victory in last weekend’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race until Tuesday morning. Upon listening to it during his introduction for an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, he said it gave him chills.
The NBC Sports reporter and part-time Truck Series competitor was still savoring the spoils of his victory in Saturday’s race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where he held off series points leader Zane Smith in a spirited contest during the final laps. Kligerman won by a scant 0.119 seconds, notching his third Truck Series win and his first in nearly five years.
Kligerman estimated he had 650 text messages of congratulations that took him approximately five hours to sort through, but he also said the victory had special meaning for the small Henderson Motorsports team that fields his No. 75 Chevrolet. The organization is based in Abington, Virginia — a small mountain town in the southwestern part of the state — and Kligerman said the community had rallied around the group’s Mid-Ohio triumph.
“Whenever I’m there at the shop in Abington, it’s like we’re the high school football team,” Kligerman told SiriusXM, adding the team noticed storefronts and businesses had made signs heralding the victory. “We get people coming from all over Virginia, they come by the shop, they’re so supportive. We’ll do a signing at (local sponsor) Food Country USA, and so many people will come out there from the local area and just be like, we love that this local team is out there racing at the national level and having the success that we do, they’re so supportive of it.”
Kligerman has started in just eight of the 15 races so far on the Camping World Trucks schedule but performed admirably with top-five results in five of those eight appearances. The 31-year-old driver’s return to Victory Lane prompted questions about how many races remain for the rest of this year (Kansas Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway are current targets), but also the team’s hopes for a full-time campaign in 2023.
“We’ve been trying,” Kligerman said with a laugh. “There hasn’t been a year over the last eight years, I haven’t felt like that I was in a conversation for something full-time. And whether that’s here in the 75 and trying to find ways that we could go full-time, which we’ve tried every year I’d say for at least the last three or four years, and in terms of other opportunities that have come along that have been so close. I’ve told people I’ve had to go and have conversations with my family and my TV duties and say, like, ‘Hey, this is really real, this is happening,’ so on and so forth. Of course, it’s all true, but it’s been very close. I’ve been trying. I would love the opportunity to be full-time. I’d love to be full-time with the Hendersons in the 75 group and go race for a championship. I absolutely think that would be an awesome time, I think something that we could really go and surprise a lot of people in doing. But you know, most of all, I also just I’d love the shot to be full-time right now and race more often.”
One of the most popular venues on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour takes center stage this Saturday, July 16. For the 74th time in Tour history, New Hampshire Motor Speedway will welcome the series for the running of the Whelen Manufactured in America 100.
Saturday’s race is the ninth event of the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season as the series officially surpasses the halfway point of the schedule.
In the previous 73 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at New Hampshire, 23 drivers have earned trips to Victory Lane. Mike Stefanik leads all drivers with eight victories at the 1.058-mile, while Bobby Santos III leads the active win list with six triumphs.
Among the other winners at New Hampshire are Tony Hirschman, Reggie Ruggiero, Ted Christopher, John Blewett III, Steve Park, Jeff Fuller, Donny Lia, Ryan Newman and the most recent winner, Ryan Preece.
Below is everything you need to know about Saturday’s Whelen Manufactured in America 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Whelen Manufactured in America 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
What to watch for:
Bobby Santos III doesn’t make many NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starts these days, but when the Tour travels to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, you can bet he’ll be on the entry list.
Santos is a six-time Tour winner at New Hampshire, and he’ll attempt to become a seven-time winner during Saturday’s Whelen Manufactured in America 100 aboard the No. 44 fielded by the Tinio family.
The native of Franklin, Massachusetts, is one of six drivers entered in Saturday’s event who have visited Victory Lane at The Magic Mile since the Tour made its debut at the track in 1990.
Doug Coby, a four-time New Hampshire victor, is back in Tommy Baldwin Racing’s No. 7NY in search of his third victory of the season. Team owner Tommy Baldwin Jr. earned his fourth victory of the year in the Tour’s last event at New Jersey’s Wall Stadium Speedway, where Jimmy Blewett piloted the No. 7NY to victory.
Ron Silk enters the Whelen Manufactured in America 100 at the top of the Tour standings despite remaining winless this season. He’s a three-time Tour winner at the Loudon, New Hampshire, oval, and is the only competitor this season to earn top-10 finishes in every race thus far.
Another notable entry comes from Ryan Preece, who happens to be the defending Tour winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He’ll be aboard his own No. 40 Modified after last competing with the Tour during the season opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway in the Boehler Racing Enterprises Ole Blue No. 3.
Action during the Whelen 100 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 17, 2021. (Paul Rutherford/NASCAR)
NASCAR Cup Series competitor Corey LaJoie, who got within a lap of earning his first Cup Series victory last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, returns to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour this weekend for the first time since 2015. LaJoie will pilot the No. 17 for car owner Michele Davini.
Donny Lia returns to the seat of the Ole Blue No. 3 for his first start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway since 2017. He is a two-time Tour winner at the track, with his last victory coming in 2009.
Justin Bonsignore, who has one victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 23 attempts, is the only driver in the top 10 in Tour standings to have a victory this season. He’ll look for his third triumph of the year Saturday afternoon.
Other notable entries for Saturday’s race include Andy Seuss, Kyle Ebersole, Tommy Catalano, Eric Goodale, Anthony Nocella and Tyler Rypkema.
The complete entry list for the Whelen Manufactured in America 100 is available here.
Schedule: Friday, July 15: Garage opens at 11:45 a.m. ET … Final practice from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. … Single-car qualifying (two laps) at 6:45 p.m. ET; Saturday, July 16: Race at 6 p.m. ET
Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Fastest lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Whelen Manufactured in America 100 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.
Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is twelve (12) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is four (4) tires, any position.
NEW YORK and DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 12th, 2022) – NASCAR and SeatGeek, the high-growth technology platform that is transforming the live event experience for fans, teams, and venues, Tuesday announced a multiyear partnership. After entering into a relationship that allowed fans to buy and sell tickets to the sold-out Daytona 500 earlier this year, NASCAR and its owned and operated tracks have expanded SeatGeek’s role within the sport as its Official Ticket Marketplace Partner.
“Fans from all 50 states and 41 different countries across five continents descended upon Daytona to experience the 64th running of the Great American race this past February,” said Daryl Wolfe, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer, NASCAR. “Our new partners at SeatGeek did a tremendous job integrating into our ticket sales ecosystem and providing fans with a frictionless process to buy tickets best-suited for their race day needs. Expanding our partnership across all NASCAR owned and operated tracks was an easy decision.”
Whether fans like to sit close to the track, take in the view from the top of the stands, or camp in the infield, SeatGeek’s easy-to-navigate app and website help find the perfect ticket to help customize their race-day experience at the track. SeatGeek’s client-first approach will help NASCAR target and convert new customers through customized messaging across SeatGeek’s deep database of event-goers.
“Our partnership with NASCAR helps us engage with one of the most passionate fan bases in sports. To us, this isn’t just a ticketing deal, it’s a true partnership,” said Jeff Ianello, EVP of Client Partnerships at SeatGeek. “After a hugely successful Daytona 500, it was apparent to us that we are two like-minded brands that prioritize putting the fan experience at the forefront of everything we do. Together, we will create only the best experiences for the NASCAR fans of today and tomorrow.”
As an Official Partner of NASCAR, SeatGeek will have a presence across all NASCAR-owned tracks and Digital Properties, linking fans directly to SeatGeek’s NASCAR Racing HQ to buy tickets for an upcoming race. SeatGeek will also become a member of the NASCAR Fuel For Business Council, allowing them to connect with NASCAR’s broad base of Official Partners on business-to-business opportunities and co-promotions.
Like new tires after a pit stop, SeatGeek continues to roll, adding new partners across all sports. In the first half of 2022 alone, the company announced new partnerships with the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Citi Open Tennis Tournament, Fiesta Bowl, Kansas City Current of the NWSL, and Leeds United of the English Premier League.
Jimmy Blewett took all the attention away from the battle for the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship Saturday evening as the local driver piloted Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s No. 7NY to victory at Wall Stadium Speedway in the Jersey Shore 150.
It was the fourth victory of the year for Baldwin’s team; he continues to hold a 29-point lead in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour owner standings.
Meanwhile, Ron Silk continues to lead the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings while Eric Goodale, Jon McKennedy and Tommy Catalano give chase.
Silk started from the pole and led a majority of the race before finishing fifth. He entered with an 18-point advantage on Goodale, but that expanded to 26 points over new second-place driver McKennedy at the conclusion of the Jersey Shore 150.
An eighth-place finish allowed McKennedy to move past Goodale for second in the Tour standings. Goodale is now 29 points behind Silk, with Catalano one point further back in fourth.
Below is a breakdown of how the top 10 drivers in the standings fared in the Jersey Shore 150, plus a complete look at the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings.
Ron Silk, driver of the No. 16 Blue Mountain Machine and Future Homes Modified, pictured during the Jersey Shore 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Wall Stadium Speedway on July 9, 2022 in Wall Township, New Jersey. (Photo: Kostas Lymperopoulos/NASCAR)
1. Ron Silk: 312 points
Silk entered the Jersey Shore 150 looking for his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory of the season, and he appeared to be headed in that direction for much of the race. Silk led 67 laps, but a late-race restart led to Silk falling to fifth by the time the checkered flag waved. He still expanded his championship lead by eight points following his fifth top five and series-best eighth top 10 of the year.
2. Jon McKennedy: 286 points
McKennedy ran a quiet and uneventful race Saturday night. He started 15th and was able to cross the finish line eighth, which helped him move from third to second in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings. It was his sixth top-10 finish of the season.
3. Eric Goodale: 283 points
Goodale struggled for speed during the Jersey Shore 150. He qualified 18th but was unable to advance much beyond there; he ultimately finished 15th after spinning late in the race. He was the first competitor one lap down. As a result, he dropped from second to third in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings.
4. Tommy Catalano: 282 points
Another driver who ran a quiet, uneventful race, Catalano started 17th and finished 12th in the Jersey Shore 150. The New York native finds himself 30 points behind championship leader Silk at the halfway point of the season.
5. Justin Bonsignore: 277 points
The comeback trail continues for three-time and defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Bonsignore, who scored a sixth-place finish Saturday night. After starting fourth, Bonsignore was able to race within the top five for much of the evening. He ran as high as second but was unable to mount a major challenge for the lead and finished sixth. He is 35 points behind Silk as he chases his fourth Tour title.
6. Austin Beers: 274 points
Saturday was a good day for leading NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rookie Austin Beers. The driver from Northampton, Pennsylvania, qualified sixth and raced in the top 10 all night. His seventh-place finish equaled his season-best result and allowed him to remain sixth in the Tour standings after eight races. It was his fourth top-10 finish of the year.
7. Kyle Bonsignore: 256 points
Starting 11th, Kyle Bonsignore advanced one position by the time the checkered flag waved to finish 10th despite being one of 10 competitors involved in a crash on the 70th lap. His fourth top-10 finish this year keeps him seventh in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings.
8. Craig Lutz: 240 points
After starting 16th, Lutz fell one position short of a top-10 finish. The 11th-place result is his third-best finish of the season behind a sixth-place run at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway in February and a 10th-place finish at Pennsylvania’s Jennerstown Speedway.
9. Dave Sapienza: 221 points
Things started off well for Sapienza at Wall Stadium, as the driver from Riverhead, New York, qualified ninth. However, things went downhill from there. He was one of 10 competitors involved in an accident in Turns 1-2 on the 70th circuit, and he was unable to recover. He finished 18th, three laps down. He is still in search of his first top-10 finish this season.
10. J.B. Fortin: 208 points
Saturday was not a good day for J.B. Fortin. He was another driver who was involved in the 10-car melee on Lap 70, with his car suffering significant nose damage. He was eventually able to continue, but he finished more than 50 laps off the pace in the 22nd position.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 5, 2022) – NASCAR announced today Michael Verlatti, who has led the creation, production and execution of elite event experiences at major venues across the country for more than two decades, has been hired as Managing Director of Event Experience.
Verlatti, a San Francisco native, has worked with some of the most recognizable sports and entertainment organizations, as well as several Fortune 500 companies throughout his career, including extensive involvement in enhancing elements of the event experience at NASCAR races in his previous role of Chief Operating Officer at ISM Connect. Prior to his time at ISM Connect, Verlatti played an integral role in the acquisition and development of Sprint’s multi-million dollar experiential activation programs in 2007 and 2013 before starting his own company, Traction Event Labs, in 2014. After two years of rapid growth, his company was acquired by ISM Connect where he was named COO.
“There is nothing like the thrill and excitement of attending a race in person, and NASCAR continues to reinvest in our event weekends to ensure the fan experience is immersive, dynamic and best-in-class at every race track we visit,” said NASCAR Chief Properties Officer Chip Wile. “Michael’s pedigree and experience in this space will bolster even further our ability to deliver on that promise and ensure every fan has the best experience possible from the moment they arrive to the moment they get in their car after the checkered flag flies.”
In this new role, Verlatti will set the strategic direction for all event experience activities and implement an innovative, best-in-class event experience across all NASCAR series events. He will also lead the execution for all year-round sports and entertainment events at NASCAR-owned properties beyond motorsports activities.
Verlatti and his wife, Kelly, reside in Daytona Beach, FL.
Erik Jones had another brush with a season-changing victory Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a potential triumph that would have thrown a further jolt into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs picture. Instead, the consolation was a fortifying finish and a modest gain in the hunt for a postseason berth.
Jones spurred the Petty GMS Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Quaker State 400, notching his second top-five result of the season. The 26-year-old driver helped steady his course after an uneven batch of recent finishes, nearly cashing in again on a track using the series’ superspeedway rules package.
“We needed a tick more speed,” said Jones, who led 10 laps in the race’s final stage. “I think we had to do some things for handling that slowed us down a little bit. We were up there, but I couldn’t really break out and do much. When I got in the lead there, I wasn’t really quick enough to hold it myself. We were close. It feels good to just have a good race. We’ve had a rough month, so it’s nice to get a top five and get some points.”
Jones actually jumped up one spot to 17th in the Cup Series standings, but with the influx of 13 winners thus far onto the provisional 16-driver postseason grid, he remained 19th in the playoff standings. Jones stayed behind Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola in that category, but was able to whittle nine points off his deficit to the cutline, which is now 76.
Jones’ recent runs have lacked a measure of consistency. A seventh-place outcome at Gateway plus an 11th-place pop at Nashville were offset by finishes outside the top 20 on the road courses at Sonoma and Road America. His day at Atlanta, which packs superspeedway-style racing into an intermediate track size, represented a return to a sweet spot.
Jones finished sixth at Talladega Superspeedway in April, allowing the lead to slip away in the last bit of the final lap. His next shot at the same track type comes in the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, where he notched his first Cup Series win in the track’s annual 400-miler in 2018.
“It’s motivating,” Jones said. “I think our superspeedway and 1.5-mile stuff has been so good all year. We were close here in the spring in the end and we were close again today. We were close at Talladega and close in Daytona. So, all the superspeedway races, we’ve been really fast. We’re there, we just need to have one play out for us.”
It nearly did Sunday, where Jones had a prime viewing point for Chase Elliott’s run to the checkers, under intense pressure from eventual runner-up Ross Chastain, underdog Corey LaJoie, and Jones himself.
“I would have loved to have run that last lap out,” Jones said of the final caution flag, which froze the running order with half a lap remaining. “I think Ross and Chase were going to run each other pretty hard in (turns) three and four, and I would have loved to have a chance to make something happen. I feel like we’ve been close at a lot of superspeedways, just haven’t closed one out. I would love to get the No. 43 in Victory Lane and I hope we can do it before the playoffs.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — The on-track incidents continued for Ross Chastain in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and one of them involved a familiar face: Denny Hamlin.
Both the No. 1 Chevrolet of Chastain and the No. 11 Toyota of Hamlin were racing toward the front in the closing laps when Chastain clipped Hamlin’s left-rear and sent the No. 11 spinning from fourth place.
At first glance, it was a loose replay of their incident at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway earlier this year, one that sparked a feud between the two racers.
But when asked about the routine run-ins with Hamlin and others, Chastain pumped the brakes.
“This one’s so different because I had so much damage,” Chastain said in a post-race interview. “Y’all know that I would take full responsibility if I just ran into him. I had so much damage, I was so much tighter, we had done a lot to free the car up and it was just way too tight. And I just couldn’t carry the throttle I could earlier and I still lifted some but it wasn’t enough.
“But I don’t put this one anywhere near the other incidents.”
The No. 1 Chevrolet saw its front end damaged after a Stage 2 tangle with Martin Truex Jr. According to Chastain, that made the car increasingly tougher to handle down the stretch.
“We had a lot of damage to repair and get it turning again,” said Chastain. “And we had to completely shift the balance of the car. … I should have lifted more and just slid up and was tight. I knew I was gonna be tight, it was just down to the end and I just overestimated the grip level and was sliding. And his left-rear is what caught me.”
After expressing his thoughts after the last incident, Denny Hamlin took a more cryptic approach in his post-race interview with NBC Sports: “It all works out in the end.”
Hamlin had been hanging around the top five nearly all afternoon. The late spin and a subsequent crash seven laps later relegated the No. 11 team to a 25th-place finish.
“I truly hate it for those guys and him,” Chastain said. “I’ve gotten to know him a lot better the last few weeks. … We’ve got a relationship now where I can talk to him, I’ve got his phone number now. I definitely will [reach out to him] and keep working towards a better relationship there.”
Bobby Santos III doesn’t make many NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starts these days, but when the Tour travels to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, you can bet he’ll be on the entry list.
