The Frontstretch Newsletter SPECIAL EDITION: August 14th, 2011

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
August 14th, 2011
Volume V, Edition CLXI

~~~~~~~~~~

Stories to Watch: Sunday
by Phil Allaway

 

Today is the day for the Sprint Cup teams.  220.5 miles of action await this afternoon, weather permitting.  TV coverage of the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen starts with SPEED's NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot at 10am EDT, then NASCAR Countdown on ESPN at Noon.  Actual race coverage is scheduled to start at 1pm.

However, there is an 80 percent chance of rain during the race tomorrow.  We'll keep you posted as to what will happen if the race is delayed or postponed.  Follow us at @TheFrontstretch for live updates from the track.

~~~~~~~~~~

Nationwide Series Recap:  Busch Brothers Dominate, But Kurt Reigns Supreme in Zippo 200

by Phil Allaway

A few days ago, Brad Keselowski and Penske Racing asked Kurt Busch to fill in behind the wheel of Keselowski's Discount Tire/Ruby Tuesday Dodge in Saturday's Zippo 200 while Keselowski continued to recover from his recent injuries at Road Atlanta.  Busch, who had not started a Nationwide race in four years, was more than willing to return to the series at a venue where he won back in 2006.

Early in the day, everything was going well for Kurt.  He put the No. 22 on the pole by fifteen hundredths of a second over his younger brother, Kyle.

In the race itself, it was the Busch Brothers benefit.  The brothers combined to lead every lap of the race.  When the green flag fell, the Busch brothers, along with Carl Edwards in third, staged a breakaway, not unlike a stage in the Tour de France.  Within a few laps, the trio had pulled away from fourth-place Ron Fellows by more than four seconds.

Kurt pulled out to a lead of almost a second in the first five laps, but Kyle reeled him in.  On Lap 9, Kurt got loose entering the Inner Loop.  This allowed Kyle to pass to Kurt on the left side.  Half a lap later, Kyle didn't get through Turn 1 well.  This allowed Kurt to make a move to the inside on exit and re-take the lead entering the Esses.  Since Kyle had to back off significantly to let Kurt through, he fell into the clutches of Edwards.  Edwards attempted to pass entering the Inner Loop, but Kyle blocked the move.

The margins then stabilized amongst the top-3 drivers until Lap 17, when Kyle went wide in the Inner Loop.  Kyle's No. 18 ended up plowing through the grass, stuffing up his grille.  The grass and soil caused the water temperature to spike on Kyle's car, necessitating an emergency stop to clean it out.  Kyle was not the only driver to fall victim to such an issue, but the highest-profile case.  Paul Menard, Reed Sorenson, Carl Edwards, Kenny Wallace and others all suffered similar fates.  In Kenny Wallace's case, it led to a blown engine.

Kyle's forced pit stop jump-started the first round of green-flag pit stops.  Since Kyle stopped roughly five laps before Kurt and Edwards did, Kyle regained the lead when Kurt finally pitted at the beginning of Lap 25.  The cycle did see a number of drivers get penalized for pit road violations.  For example, Jimmie Johnson's dump can left his stall, drawing a stop-and-go.  Mike Wallace suffered the same fate.

A couple of laps after the round of stops was completed, Eric McClure stalled his Hefty Black Out Chevrolet entering Turn 4 in the Esses.  This brought out the yellow and closed up the pack.

On the restart, Kyle opened up a small advantage over Kurt, while Edwards continued to give chase.  Fellows was able to keep up fairly well while the rest of the field dropped away.

Kyle was never seriously challenged for the entire run for the lead.  Behind Kyle, Kurt was keeping pace, roughly 1.5 seconds behind.  Edwards could keep pace for about 12 laps before dropping back, Fellows slightly less than that.  Going wide entering Turn 1 didn't help Edwards' case any, either.

Towards the end of the run, Kurt began to reel Kyle back in, but could not do anything with him until Kyle pitted on Lap 50.  Kyle's stop kicked off a second round of green-flag stops.  Kurt pitted on Lap 56 for his final stop, and was unable to hold on to the lead.  In fact, he lost a couple of seconds thanks to Kyle running around on fresh tires for five laps.

A combination of fresher tires on Kurt's No. 22 and a steady stream of lapped traffic allowed Kyle to run down Kurt late in the race.  However, Kurt was unable to do anything with Kyle.  However, Kyle's Toyota developed a fuel pickup problem late in the race, causing his fuel pressure to fluctuate.  Kyle was forced to pit with four laps to go, giving the lead back to Kurt.

However, with just two laps to go, the second and final yellow flew when Casey Roderick spun exiting the Inner Loop and hit the tires.  He was joined there by McClure.  With a mere ten cars left on the lead lap, plus free pass recipient Joe Nemechek, only four drivers (the Busch brothers, Johnson and Edwards stayed out) while everyone else pitted prior to the Green-White-Checker restart.

On the restart, Kurt was easily able to hold Johnson and open up an unassailable advantage.  Kurt was able to hold on to take his second career Nationwide Series win at Watkins Glen.

After the race, Kurt Busch was extremely pleased with the overall effort.

"This was a lot of fun to come out here and fill in for [Brad] Keselowski.  To have a championship-caliber car available, and to jump into it, it's a opportunity," Kurt Busch said.  "I'm glad that today turned out the way it did [so that] they could met their full potential."

Behind Kurt Busch and Johnson was Joey Logano in third, best of those who pitted on the last yellow.  He passed Kyle Busch on the final lap to take the position.  Edwards rounded out the top-5.  Menard was sixth, followed by JR Motorsports teammates Fellows and Aric Almirola.  Trevor Bayne was ninth, while Elliott Sadler rounded out the top-10.riday afternoon was nothing but practice for the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series at Watkins Glen.  Sprint Cup teams had just over three hours of practice, split into two sessions while the Nationwide Series had one two hour session.

Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli Win Canadian Tire 200

Saturday evening, the duo of Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli held off Chip Ganassi's No. 01 of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas to claim the Rolex Sports Car Series victory in the Canadian Tire 200.  Even though it was marketed as a 200 mile (82 lap) race, the leading Daytona Prototypes completed 100 laps (245 miles) within the two hour time limit.  The No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Porsche (V6) Riley driven by Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow finished third in class.

In Grand Touring (GT), The Racer's Group Porsche 911 GT3 Cup No. 67 driven by Spencer Pumpelly and Steven Berheau claimed the victory by a couple of seconds over the Autohaus Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro GT.R driven by Bill Lester and Jordan Taylor.  Autohaus' second-place finish allows them to move back into the GT points lead by just seven over Brumos Racing's No. 59, which ran very well, but was forced to pit for fuel late.  The No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of John Potter and Craig Stanton rounded out the top-3.

Busch's Response to Johnson

Early on Saturday morning, Kurt Busch took to the stage for his normal media availability.  It did not take very long for the subject of discussion to change to the comments that Jimmie Johnson made on Friday (and which we reported on here yesterday).  Kurt decided to respond to Johnson's comments.  First, he defended his actions on-track.

"I felt like the way that we raced each other on the track was what champions need to do," Busch said.  "And that is to bring the cars home where they were running on track.  Third and fourth is where we were and that's where we crossed the line.  Where we raced each other with a 'juke-and-jive and rubbin', that's racing.

In regards to Johnson, Busch was fairly direct towards Johnson and his past run-ins.

"He was very excited after the race and came over to my car in my pit area where we were parked and was really excited," Busch said.  "For me, I think the line was when he swerved at us to break the draft, that's not a move of a five-time champion.  That's the move of a guy that has had an issue with a guy like me.  We've raced each other hard and I've been spun out and wrecked a few times.  We both know that we look at each other very sternly.  That's great competition.

Finally, he capped off his comments by relating to a "great teacher" from his past.

"When you have a history with a guy, you just don't forget it," Busch said.  "I learned from one of the greats about how to keep a memory of who does you right or who does you wrong and that was Jimmy Spencer.  He taught me a lot."

Punches to the nose notwithstanding, it's pretty clear that Johnson and Kurt Busch do not take kindly to one another.  It remains to be seen what will happen the next time the two drivers are racing hard for position in a Cup race. 

Ranger Struggles in Friday Practice With Brakes

Andrew Ranger, who is making his Sprint Cup Series debut in the No. 32 Bully Hill Vineyards Ford for FAS Lane Racing this weekend, suffered from serious brake issues during practice on Friday, especially in Happy Hour.  This was why Ranger was only 45th fastest in the session.  According to Ranger, he would have to feverishly pump the brakes in his car every time he was going to use them.  As a result, the team changed out the entire brake package ahead of qualifying.  The new package did help Ranger to post his fastest lap of the weekend, a 72.075 second lap (122.373 mph).  However, that lap was only good enough for 35th quickest.

Have news for Phil and The Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at ashland10@mail.com with a promising lead or tip.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

ADVERTISEMENT
Are you looking to advertise your website, product or brand?  A good way to get your name out there is via direct advertising here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!  Interested parties can contact us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com for details

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming Monday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Coke Zero 400 Race Recap by Phil Allaway

-- Mouthing Off: Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen by Brody Jones

-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, Stat of the Week and more!

~~~~~~~~~~

Monday on the Frontstretch:

Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Watkins Glen Race Recap by Matt McLaughlin
Matt will be here with his overall thoughts about the action from Sunday in Watkins Glen.

 

Bowles-Eye View by Tom Bowles

Tom's back with another interesting commentary about Sunday's action.

Special Commentary by Ron Lemasters
Ron returns for a website look at one of the big stories from Sunday's race in Watkins Glen.

 

Big Six: Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen by Amy Henderson
Amy is back with the who, what, when, where, why and how of Sunday's race at Watkins Glen International.

 
Bubble Breakdown by Bryan Davis Keith
Who's hot and who's not towards the back end of the owner points battle? Bryan brings the stories you didn't hear about into print from Sunday's race at Watkins Glen International.

 

Nationwide Series Breakdown: Zippo 200 by Bryan Davis Keith
Bryan has all the post-race analysis you need after Saturday's Nationwide Series race from Watkins Glen International.

------------------------------

Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2011 Frontstretch.com

--
Feel free to forward this newsletter if you have any friends who loves
NASCAR and great NASCAR commentary. They can subscribe to the Frontstetch by visiting http://www.frontstretch.com/notice/9557/.
 
If you want to stop your Frontstretch Newsletter subscription, we're sorry
to see you go. Just send an email to
TheFrontstretch-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com from the address that you
recieve the Frontstretch Newsletter.