Monday, July 11, 2011

The Frontstretch Newsletter: July 11th, 2011 Traffic Statements Edition

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!

July 11th, 2011
Volume V, Edition CXXXIV

Breaking: LatestTraffic Statements On Kentucky
by the Staff

Late Sunday night, in the wake of a multitude of traffic problems that caused fans to miss the event Kentucky Speedway released the following statement, made by General Manager Mark Simendinger:

"Kentucky Speedway regrets the traffic conditions surrounding the 'Quaker State 400.' We're committed to working with NASCAR, state and local officials and traffic experts to assure that this never happens again. The details of these improvements will be announced over time as they are formulated.

"We also recognize the traffic problems resulted in some fans not being able to attend the 'Quaker State 400.' We are gathering information on this and will announce a policy for these affected fans within seven days.

"Our 'Quaker State 400' ticket holders are invited to share their experiences with us through fans@kentuckyspeedway.com. We thank all our fans for giving the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series such a great welcome to our venue."

At around 9:30 PM EST, NASCAR CEO Brian France chimed in with the following statement:

"While NASCAR was thrilled by the incredible response to our inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in Kentucky, we also are extremely disappointed by the traffic problems and inconveniences endured by fans who wanted to be part of our races at Kentucky Speedway. NASCAR will be in close communications with Kentucky Speedway and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. to see that they work to resolve the issues. This situation cannot happen again."

Are you a fan that attended Saturday night's race at Kentucky? What would make you come back? Were you happy, frustrated, or didn't even make it in for the race? Share your experiences by emailing frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com for a future story on the speedway.

Sprint Cup Race Recap:  Kyle Busch Claims First-Ever Sprint Cup Race At Kentucky
by Phil Allaway

Kyle Busch came into the inaugural Sprint Cup weekend at Kentucky Speedway attempting to win races in all three of NASCAR's "National" Touring Series.  A "substandard" third-place finish in Friday night's Feed The Children 300 ended that chase.  However, when Saturday night came around, Kyle Busch was more than prepared to pick up the slack.

Kyle Busch started from the pole by virtue of qualifying on Friday being cancelled due to rain (Kyle had the fastest time in the first practice session, thus giving him the pole).  From there, he was the most dominant driver on the track, leading six times for a race-high 125 laps en route to the inaugural Quaker State 400 victory.  It is the third victory of the season for the younger of the Busch brothers (and fourth overall).

Following the race, Kyle was very pleased with his night.

"This is cool man. This is right up there with the best of them," Busch said in Victory Lane.  "I haven't won the big ones, so this is as good as it gets right now.  Dave and all the guys, all the engineers back in the shop did a phenomenal job with our racecar and be fast right out of the gates.  Didn't have many adjustments to make, just fine-tuned on it through the weekend."

Kyle Busch led the field to the green, but older brother Kurt was able to wrestle away the lead before the end of the first lap.  He was just about the only driver able to pass the No. 18 all night.

The race had a green-flag feel almost from the start.  Kurt Busch fielded no real challenges until a Competition Caution flew on Lap 31 due to the rains that plagued the track on Friday.  Kyle Busch regained the lead after everyone pitted and simply pulled away from the field once the green came back out for over 100 consecutive laps.

The 106 lap green-flag stretch included two rounds of green-flag pit stops.  During that time, Kyle Busch expanded his lead to nearly seven seconds.  Meanwhile, many notable drivers like Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Mark Martin were lapped on track.  Finally, the yellow came out on Lap 141 for debris.  Since it was not that long since the last round of green-flag stops, a few drivers stayed out while Kyle Busch and the rest of the leaders pitted again.

The stops put Brad Keselowski in the lead with Tony Stewart in second.  After the restart, Keselowski pulled out to a comfortable advantage, but oil on the track (and a lurid slide by David Ragan in Turn 3) brought out another caution.  The best racing up front all night occurred in the first few laps after that restart as Keselowski, Stewart and Kyle Busch fought for the lead, going three-wide at one point.  Keselowski ended up with the advantage, but was still off-sequence on his stops. 

Keselowski was forced to pit on Lap 186, up to 15 laps before some of his adversaries.  A caution flew right towards the end of the round of stops when Jamie McMurray blew his engine, allowing Keselowski to regain the lead when the remaining lead lap cars on track were forced to pit.  Once the green came back out, Keselowski resumed control of the race with the Busch brothers not too far behind.

Keselowski (still off-sequence on his stops) kicked off another round of green-flag pit stops on Lap 240, handing the lead off to Kurt Busch.  Kurt then yielded to David Reutimann, who was still leading when Earnhardt, Jr. blew a left front tire while getting back up to speed after pitting for fuel-only.  That brought out the fifth yellow of the race and forced Reutimann to pit.  However, since only six drivers were left on the lead lap at the time, it did not hurt him that much.  A series of wave-arounds allowed for more than 20 cars to be on the lead lap on the restart.

When Reutimann pitted, the lead went back to Kyle Busch.  On the restart, Kyle got a great start and was set to pull off into the distance until Clint Bowyer blew a left rear tire and backed into the wall in Turn 1, bringing out the final yellow.

On the Green-White-Checker restart that followed, Jimmie Johnson made a move to the inside of Kyle Busch in Turn 1, but simply could not hold his line.  Kyle Busch then pulled away to take the win.

Second-place went to Reutimann, who took the spot away from the momentum-less Jimmie Johnson on the final lap.  Reutimann was happy after the race, but disappointed with his car's performance on fresh tires.

"It was hit or miss the first part of the race.  We would make it better, then make it worse," Reutimann said.  "Every time we put four tires on, we couldn't go anywhere, too tight. My guys did a good job. Kept adjusting on it. Either the track was changing or tightening up more or we weren't changing enough, taking big enough swings on it.  We unfortunately have a bit of a history of being fast when it doesn't really matter. Tonight worked out where we were fast at the end of the race, which is evidently what you got to do."

Behind Kyle Busch and Reutimann was Johnson in third.  Ryan Newman came back from a lap down to finish in fourth, while Carl Edwards rounded out the top-5.  Matt Kenseth was sixth, followed by Brad Keselowski seventh.  Daytona winner David Ragan was eighth, while Kurt Busch faded on the final restart to ninth.  Jeff Gordon rounded out the top-10.

By virtue of his victory and Kevin Harvick's 16th-place finish, Kyle Busch takes over the points lead for the first time in 2011.  His advantage is four points over Edwards and ten over Harvick

Next weekend, the Sprint Cup Series travels up to Loudon, New Hampshire for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  The race is due to start at approximately 1:20pm EDT.

Phil Allaway is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
 
Tracking The Chasers: Edwards' Misfortune Gives The Point Lead Back To Harvick
by Garrett Horton

Kyle Busch's historic night at Kentucky Motor Speedway was enough to jump to the top of the point standings.  After starting on the pole, Busch lost the lead on the first lap to his older brother Kurt, but established himself as the man to beat after the first caution on lap 30.  The younger Busch would go on to lead 125 laps and was only contested by Brad Keselowski for the rest of the evening.  With his 22nd career victory, Busch is your new points leader, four points over second place Carl Edwards.

For Edwards, he was able to get by Kevin Harvick in the points, but because of Busch's victory, he remains second in points.  Edwards looked strong early, running as high as second, but was a victim of a late race caution during green flag pit stops that put him a lap down.  He was able to use the wave around, and went from 12th to fifth on the final dash to the finish.  His series-high 13th top-10 has him within striking distance for the point lead.

Kevin Harvick's reign atop the points was short lived.  The driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevy was a top-10 car at best, but like Edwards, got caught a lap down during the final green flag pit stops.  He used the wave around, but being so far back in traffic, Harvick never was able to make a charge, and ended the day in 16th-place.  The result dropped him two spots, and now sits ten points behind Busch in third place.

Kurt Busch looked to be the car to beat in the early stages; he led the first 31 laps after starting the evening in third.  He remained a top-3 car for the rest of the event, but got shuffled out of the top-5 on the green-white-checkered finish.  He fell all the way back to ninth, but his tenth top-10 of the year keeps him fourth in points, 18 behind his younger brother.

Jimmie Johnson was the only Hendrick car that didn't struggle throughout the night.  In fact, he looked to have a shot to win on the final restart, lining up on the inside of Busch.  Johnson was able to get a good restart, but was able to maintain his momentum.  He was ultimately passed by David Reutimann off of Turn 4 on the last lap and settled for third.  As a result, he moved up to fifth in the points, taking the spot away from Matt Kenseth.

While Kenseth lost his fifth-place hold in the points, he is just 22 points out of the lead.  Kenseth was a top-10 car all night, and was sitting in a good position on the final restart.  However, he almost lost control of his car being underneath Brad Keselowski, and the loss in momentum cost him several positions.  He would go on to finsh the night in sixth-place.

Jeff Gordon's hot streak continues, though he certainly was junk most of the night.  After going a lap down midway through the race, Gordon capitalized off the wave around.  In the midst of all the green-white-checkered madness, Gordon rallied to finish tenth, his fifth top-5 in the past six races.  He also moved up one spot to seventh in the standings.

While Gordon continues to get better, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to slump.  Earnhardt was not competive the entire night, and after making his final pitstop in which he did not change tires, he blew a left front half a lap later.  He finsihed the night two laps down in 30th-place, and is now eighth in the standings.  In the last four races, Earnhardt hasn't had a single top-10, and has fallen from third to eighth in points.

Ryan Newman's night was similar to that of Gordon's.  He was a lap down early, took the wave around, and rallied for a good finish.  In Newman's case, he got a really good jump on the final restart to finish a season best fourth-place.  It helped him move up to ninth in the standings, and give him a little breathing room over 11th.

Much to the delight of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin moved back into the top-10 this week with a 11th place finish.  This is more impressive considering he had to start in the rear of the field after an engine change.  There were not many cautions in the early going, and Hamlin was able to work his way up to the top-15 early in the going.  Unfortunately for him, he never got much higher than that, and settled for 11th.  He now has three points over 11th-place Stewart, but has his Michigan victory to fall back on should he fall outside the top-10 once more.

Standings:  1) Kyle Busch 624; 2) Carl Edwards -4; 3) Kevin Harvick -10; 4) Kurt Busch -18; 5) Jimmie Johnson -19; 6) Matt Kenseth -22 7) Jeff Gordon -72; 8) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -76; 9) Ryan Newman -86; 10) Denny Hamlin -94.

Wildcard Drivers: Tony Stewart (11th in points, zero wins), David Ragan (15th in points, one win)

Note:  While Brad Keselowski and Regan Smith both have victories this year, neither would make the Chase because they are not in the top-20 in points.  In order to qualify as a wildcard driver, you must be 20th or higher in the standings.  Keselowski is currently 21st, while Smith is 27th.  Also, Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne is not eligible for the Chase because he is not running for Sprint Cup points.

Tracking The Top 35:  Return To Daytona Doesn't Help The Wood Brothers
 

With another start-and-park effort by Robby Gordon Motorsports, TRG Motorsports is slowy creeping their way back towards the top-35.  After their driver Andy Lally went most of the distance - he was three laps down - the team came home in 32nd, which was five spots, and points better than RGM, who had Scott Wimmer drive for them Saturday night (team owner Gordon failed to qualify the team's second car).  TRG is now 36th in the owner standings, just seven markers behind 35th.
 
The Wood Brothers didn't show up for Kentucky, and they continue to fall as a result.  They now sit 38th in owner points, 17 behind the coveted 35th spot.  Sitting between them is Lally and TRG, and now Travis Kvapil and the Front Row Motorsports organization after they had a decent run in 29th-place.

Top 35 Summary:

31) Phoenix Racing (No. 51 - Landon Cassill), +98 ahead of 36th place.
32)
FAS Lane Racing (No. 32 – Mike Bliss), +47 ahead of 36th place.
33)
Germain Racing (No. 13 – Casey Mears), +47 ahead of 36th place.
34)
Tommy Baldwin Racing (No. 36 – Dave Blaney), +46 ahead of 36th place.
35)
Robby Gordon Motorsports (No. 7 - Robby Gordon/Scott Wimmer), +7 ahead of 36th place.
36)
TRG Motorsports (No. 71 – Andy Lally), -7 behind 35th place.
37)
Front Row Motorsports (No. 38 – Travis Kvapil), -16 behind 35th place.
38)
Wood Brothers Racing (No. 21 – Trevor Bayne), -17 behind 35th place.
39)
Front Row/MaxQ Hybrid Team (No. 37 – Tony Raines), -75 behind 35th place.

Garrett Horton is a Contributor to Frontstretch.com.  He can be reached via e-mail at garrett.horton@frontstretch.com.
 
Got NASCAR-related questions or comments about 2011? John's got answers!
A new year means a new columnist to answer all your pressing questions about the sport! Our legendary flagman John Potts is taking over our Fan Q & A, so be sure to stack his inbox with plenty of queries and comments for the New Year! Send them his way at john.potts@frontstretch.com; and if you're lucky, you'll get your name in print when he does his weekly column answering back to you – the fans!
 
Secret Star of the Race:  The Race You Never Saw

OK, so David Ragan has spent seven days in the news after a dramatic Daytona breakthrough into Sprint Cup's Victory Lane. But typically this year, the weeks after victories are what's turned into an ugly hangover: drivers have posted an average finish of 19.3 in those events heading into Saturday night's showdown in the Bluegrass State. So for Ragan to maintain his consistency, somewhere between a seventh-to-14th place Ford Fusion virtually the entire night kept momentum, not mistakes rolling his way; by the checkered, he was a solid eighth while bringing the car home without a scratch. That run marks the first back-to-back top-10 finishes for him since Martinsville and Texas in early Spring, moving the driver up to 15th in points while helping further legitimize a claim for a Chase spot that's looking more realistic every race. – Tom Bowles

STAT OF THE WEEK: 43. That's the number of laps led by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. through 18 races this season, putting him on track for just 86 total… by far the lowest of his full-time Cup career (12 seasons). It's surprising considering the comeback season the No. 88 team has had, especially considering Earnhardt has already equaled the number of top-10 finishes (eight) he scored throughout all of 2010. – Tom Bowles

Running Their Mouth:  2011 Quaker State 400

by Summer Dreyer

Best Quote

"This is cool man. This is right up there with the best of them. I haven't won the big ones, so this is as good as it gets right now. I can't put it into words. I'm tired. I've been screaming the whole time. This is cool. The way we ran tonight was awesome. I can't say enough about everybody at M&M's, Snickers, Pedigree, Combos — Toyota Camry, a car built right here in Kentucky, so home of the Camry. It was a fun night. It was a tough night. You know, I thought pit strategy was going to kind of go either way sometimes, but there at the end Dave (Rogers, crew chief) made the right call and got us the tires we wanted and the fuel that we needed and that's what won us the race."- Kyle Busch, race winner

Love him or hate him, one of the most refreshing things about Busch is his passion. Even if a win at Kentucky Speedway's inaugural event was significant, it's not as though Busch isn't familiar with winning. Yet on Saturday Busch sounded as if he'd just won his first career race. In fact, every time Busch gives a post-race interview from Victory Lane, which is quite often, he seems just as excited as the last time.

Can he be a punk when he's not in Victory Lane? Sure! But in a time when drivers are accused of having (or showing) no personality, it's fun to watch someone who literally cherishes every moment of victory that comes his way. After all, you never know when it will be the last.

Worst Quote

"Initially I didn't know if I was on fire. I knew that there was a lot of oil and I was scared that when it got on the tailpipes is would ignite and catch on fire. But I didn't know I was stopped. To be honest with you, I was still pushing on the brake trying to get the car stopped and I realized I was sitting still. And then I was just trying to get out and I didn't really know if I wanted to undo my seatbelts just yet because cars were still going by me. It was like what if somebody is not paying attention or what if I've laid a bunch of oil down and they can't get stopped and they run into me. So, I was having a lot of thought going through my head in that short amount of time because I was trying to get out but I didn't want to get out too quick and get run over." - Jamie McMurray, finished 36th

It's never good to hear someone say "I didn't know if I was on fire." Though I'm pretty sure the excruciating heat would give it away, the fact that McMurray's visibility in the car was virtually zero, it's understandable that McMurray worried whether or not his No. 1 Chevrolet had caught fire.

In all seriousness, though, it's a shame to see McMurray struggling so much this season. This is McMurray's second engine failure and third DNF of the season, a season in which McMurray has only twice finished in the top 10. What a difference a year makes from 2010, where McMurray enjoyed a breakout season where he won the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, and Bank of America 500. Now the only time anyone notices him anymore is when he's hidden behind a thick, white cloud of smoke.

Funniest Quote

"I thought we had one more. The No. 00 was coming and got by me so i was hoping I had a shot just to fight for second. I felt like the win was kind of gone at that point. But I didn't see the white and I came around and everybody let off and I was still on the gas and going and I was like wow I guess its over." - Jimmie Johnson, finished third

Note to the No. 48 spotter: Let Jimmie know when the white flag is out. Because that's kind of part of your job.

This will be one of those moments Johnson will reflect on and laugh when accepting the trophy for winning his sixth consecutive championship.

Most Controversial Quote

"I think the only thing that made this a great race today was the green-white-checkered and the excitement and energy of the fans. I think when Bruton (Smith) is looking at how to get the traffic in here he's going to have to look at the race track as well. It's rough. It's really hard to pass. The layout needs a little help; but the surface most importantly, to give these fans what they really deserve. You never know how it's going to go. It was certainly exciting there at the finish, so that's cool." - Jeff Gordon, finished 10th

For those that missed it, traffic was absolute hell for Saturday night's event. Miles-long lines of traffic were waiting to get into the track long after the halfway point in the race, and 20,000+ fans were turned away because of a lack of parking. For some reason, during Kentucky Speedway's board meetings, the track thought it was a good idea to add around 40,000 seats but never considered that adding some extra parking lots might be helpful as well.

Kentucky Speedway hasn't yet issued a formal apology, but have said they will announce how they will compensate fans unable to get into the race within the next week or so. Gordon wasn't the only driver calling for action after the race. Drivers like Brian Vickers and Denny Hamlin even issued apologies to fans on their Twitter accounts for the cluster-"freak", which can't be said for the actual track that caused it. It didn't give fans their money back, but it was nice enough to know they cared.

Crew Chief Quote of the Week

"Like Kyle (Busch) said, the engineers did a great job. We came off the truck really close to setup. Sometimes that's bad. We came off the truck really close. Actually sat out a little bit, wanted to give Kyle a breather. We let Denny (Hamlin) get in the car and drive it, see how he liked it. Then Kyle went and drove the No. 20 (Joey Logano's) car for a while. We started playing driver swap, so the crew chiefs could compare notes down the road. Then when we got back in the car, got Kyle back in the car, some teams had made some progress and started going faster than us and we started playing catch-up. But, Kyle did a good job during test day of talking about what he was going to need to race. We didn't focus on our lap times practicing, we focused on what we needed to race — gave me some good feedback after the truck race, made adjustments to our primary car yesterday morning. We were off in speed a little bit, but the car was doing one thing only, which is a good thing. Made some adjustments this morning. During the race, we didn't do much to it. Took a little wedge out nearly every stop, but that's about it. I think Kyle did a great job of dialing this team in while we were here Thursday and Friday." - Dave Rogers, crew chief for Kyle Busch

It's a good thing this show of teamwork worked out so well for Busch and his team, because his teammates Hamlin and Logano had their own slew of problems to deal with on Saturday night. Hamlin had a fast racecar, but struggled with track position all night and wound up 11th, while Logano, considered a threat for the victory all weekend never once showed any signs of contending for the win and finished 14th.

But, hey, good for Rogers and Busch. Maybe one day they'll return the favor.

Owner Quote of the Week

"I think Kyle and Dave will both tell you it's at total team sport. When I watch these guys going over the wall, that group is awesome, I got to tell you. Dave made great calls. Certainly the whole team performed extremely well.  I talked to Kyle before the race. He said, Hey, there's about seven, eight cars that are right there together. He says, I don't know who's gonna win this. That's really the way it panned out. There were a number of good cars, very close racing." - Joe Gibbs, team owner for Joe Gibbs Racing

Sometimes I wonder if the difference between watching a race at the track and watching it on TV is really that significant. Most of the people I talked to after the race said it was boring. At best it was "ok", which is about how I'd describe it. The green-white-checkered finish at the end was interesting to watch but other than that I didn't think the race was all that competitive. Busch and Keselowski put enough of a spanking on the field to make it clear no one else would have a real shot without a fuel mileage race.

Maybe there was "very close racing" towards the back of the field, but most of it felt like a glorified parade to me.

Best of the Rest

"It was a great race man. It was a phenomenal race. The track's got character. You can't drive it on the bottom. You got to run to search around and it's a little bit rough on places, but in the end it's a great race track and I think it was a good finish." - David Reutimann, race runner-up

"It was a good restart. We struggled today with the Tornados Chevrolet. Got a lap down and finally got it back. Just made the best of a good situation. We got lucky when the caution came out there and gained a lot of positions due to that. We proved that we had a decent race car, just took forever for us to get there."- Ryan Newman, finished fourth

"We came from way back. We were following the old black tornado there. He went three wide on that restart and I think it was him anyway. There were cars everywhere. That was a pretty wild last couple of laps there. I am really proud of my guys and our Aflac Ford Fusion. Obviously we would want to be over there in victory lane. We picked up one point on the points lead and are four points out of the lead now, so that is a good thing. It was a really good time, especially there at the end. That was some really, really hard driving out there." - Carl Edwards, finished fifth

"I guess it was about what I expected. You could pass better than I thought. In practice it was pretty rough and I thought if you were quicker than somebody it was really hard but you could pass a little bit at least. You could still get it done tonight if you were faster."- Matt Kenseth, finished sixth

 "It was a fight. We just would not get any practice, so it was just tough to overcome that. It was just all traffic — just really nobody could make a lot of moves and pass. We were a victim of one of those cars. We couldn't make any moves, especially when it came night time it seemed like our car went away from us." - Denny Hamlin, finished 11th

"We should have finished better than where we did. At the beginning of the race we were way, way, way too tight — couldn't get it better. We were struggling there to get it better. Got it good at one point at the middle part of the race. We worked our way back up there and it felt like we we're a top-10 car. Then for some reason as the speed started picking up, the sun went down and it got tighter again. Trying to free it back up. Then we caught every caution exactly the wrong way every time there was cycling through we were the ones who got caught — got caught under the green and then the caution come out, so had the wave around twice, which didn't give us the time to adjust on my car and make it better. I'm proud of what we did today. We definitely fought hard. All of us worked real good together. I'm proud of that, for sure. Probably we just screwed out of a couple of spots by those things and really do much about that — about cautions falling out that way. Feel like we should have finished in the top 10, but we fought back strong. I think we finished 14th — not where we wanted, but overall our performance was there today."- Joey Logano, finished 14th

Summer Dreyer is a Contributor to Frontstretch.com.  She can be reached via e-mail at summer.dreyer@frontstretch.com.
 
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
  
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud:  Kentucky Cup Race Debacle Recap
by Matt McLaughlin

Oh No, You Didn't: Marred Kentucky Debut Leaves Unanswered Questions

by Tom Bowles

Monday Morning Teardown:  Kentucky Speedway Opens With A Jam

by Ron Lemasters
 
Bubble Breakdown: Hendrick Equipment, Former Proteges Best In Bluegrass State
by Bryan Davis Keith
 
The Big Six:  Quaker State 400
by Amy Henderson
 
Nationwide Series Breakdown:  Feed The Children 300
by Bryan Davis Keith

Tracking The Trucks:  UNOH 225
by Beth Lunkenheimer
 
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
 
Q:
   The Izod IndyCar Series inherited the then-New Hampshire International Speedway venue from CART, holding three points races on the 1.058-mile oval before leaving after 1998.  In the first of these events (August, 1996 as the opening race for the 1996-1997 season), Tony Stewart dropped out after 182 laps due to electrical issues.  What very unusual thing happened when Stewart retired from the event?

Friday's Answer:

Q:  In 2004, Kentucky Speedway hosted the first superspeedway race for the ASA National Tour in a decade.  Who won this race?
 
A:  With a few laps to go, it appeared that the race was going to come down to a duel between rookie Wade Day and Glenn Allen, Jr., a former regular in the now-Nationwide Series.  However, lapped traffic allowed Scott Lagasse, Jr. to come back into the mix.  Lagasse passed Allen for second at the beginning of the final lap and quickly ran down Day, passing him for the win at the line.  The final nine laps of the race can be seen in this clip
 
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: If we mess up, you get the shirt off our backs!  If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to trivia@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
 
Coming Tuesday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from TBA
-- Sitting In The Stands: A Fans' View by S.D. Grady
This Week's Topic:  "Massive Traffic Jams"
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
 
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
 
The Yellow Stripe by Danny Peters
Danny is back with another captivating commentary. This week, Danny gives out some midseason awards as the Cup Series rounds the halfway point of 2011.
 
What's Hot / What's Not in Sprint Cup: Kentucky-Loudon Edition by Summer Dreyer
Summer takes a look at post-Kentucky numbers to see who's got the most momentum heading into Loudon... and beyond.

Five Points To Ponder by Bryan Davis Keith
Bryan's back with his weekly edition of talking points to get you set for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
 
Fact or Fiction by Tom Bowles
Tom looks at some conclusions that could be made after Kentucky and determines whether they're true or not.

Talking NASCAR TV by Phil Allaway
After a one-week break, Phil is back with the TV Critique.  This past weekend, the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series were each racing at Kentucky Speedway.  Were the race telecasts up to snuff, or where they missing something?  Find out on this week's edition of the TV Critique.

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