THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
December 12th, 2011
Volume IV, Edition CCLIII
Today's Top News
by Phil Allaway
Mike Ford Out at Joe Gibbs Racing, Darian Grubb In
On Tuesday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that Mike Ford, the crew chief for Denny Hamlin's No. 11 FedEx Toyota, had been released from his position with the team. The move was somewhat expected due to Hamlin's substantial regression during the 2011 season. However, at the time, Joe Gibbs Racing did not announce a replacement.
On Friday, the replacement finally signed on the dotted line. That man will be 2011 Sprint Cup championship-winning Crew Chief Darian Grubb, who reportedly told that he would not be back as Tony Stewart's head wrench in 2012 following the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte in October.
Team owner Joe Gibbs is thrilled with the prospects of having such an accomplished engineer and mechanic on top of Denny Hamlin's pit box.
"Darian is a great addition to our organization and person to lead our No. 11 team," Gibbs said. "Obviously, he has proven the ability to guide a team to a championship and we are excited to have him working with Denny [Hamlin] towards achieving that goal here at Joe Gibbs Racing."
Grubb is also excited to start this new chapter in his life.
"I'm thrilled to join Joe Gibbs Racing," Grubb said. "The chance to work with Denny is something that I'm excited about. When you sit down with Joe and J.D. Gibbs, you can't help but be excited about this opportunity and the team aspects of Joe Gibbs Racing. There is no question about the level of support you get here and I'm looking forward to working with everyone across the organization."
During Grubb's time working as Tony Stewart's crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart amassed 11 wins, 33 top-5 and 59 top-10 finishes. Prior to his time as Stewart's crew chief, he won the 2006 Daytona 500 with Jimmie Johnson in a substitute role after Chad Knaus was booted out of Speedweeks due to an illegal modification to the rear window. He also crew chiefed Casey Mears to his one and only victory in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600.
Red Bull Racing Closes Its Doors
On Thursday, the Red Bull Racing Team closed their doors for good, unable to find an outside investor willing to come in and buy the team for a reported $40 million. 152 full-time employees, including founding driver Brian Vickers, were laid off. All of the former Red Bull Racing Team employees were eligible for severance pay and gifts from a large raffle held Thursday afternoon at the shop. Many of the employees affected have already found replacement work either with other teams or outside of the industry.
Red Bull's teams finished 14th and 25th in owners' points in 2011. If any investor were able to come forward at this point and buy the team's assets, they would still have access to those points. If not, the owners of Red Bull would have the opportunity to sell their points to whoever needs them in order to lock themselves into the Daytona 500.
IndyCar to not return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2012
On Thursday, IndyCar announced that they will not return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the 2012 season. This negates a previous announcement that indicated a commitment to return to Las Vegas in October 2012 to end the season once again. However, the horrific crash that occurred early in the Izod IndyCar World Championships has spurred an ongoing evaluation of the series on ovals. Partly because of the research, IndyCar has still not released their schedule for 2012 as of yet.
IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard was fairly brief in his reasoning for the cancellation.
"We feel we need to give our technical team ample time to conduct thorough testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway once we complete our ongoing investigation into the 15-car accident during the Oct. 16 race at the track," Bernard said.
Meanwhile, testing for the new Dallara DW12 IndyCar is ongoing. Chevrolet and Lotus-powered cars spent much of the last week testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway. However, these cars are simply test mules. The first chassis are scheduled to be delivered to the teams from Dallara on Thursday.
Leavine Family Racing to Attempt 15 Races in 2012; In Search of New Driver
Leavine Family Racing announced on Wednesday that they plan to expand their Sprint Cup schedule in 2012 with at least 15 attempts. The schedule will start at Bristol with the Food City 500 in March, mainly focusing on intermediate tracks. The press release denotes 13 ovals that the team will attempt races at.
Crew chief Wally Rogers and the team's entire staff is set to return for 2012. However, driver David Starr, who competed in the team's No. 95 Ford in 2011 while also racing full-time in the Camping World Truck Series, will not be back behind the wheel. A search for a replacement driver is ongoing.
"We are currently interviewing potential drivers," team owner Bob Leavine said. "We are looking for a driver that will fit into our program."
Leavine claims that the team has "promising leads" on potential drivers for the 2012 season, and a number of loyal sponsors that will be back for the 2012 season (the release doesn't go into detail about which sponsors will be back). However, the team is still searching for additional sponsorship that would allow them to attempt additional races.
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.
Mike Ford Out at Joe Gibbs Racing, Darian Grubb In
On Tuesday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that Mike Ford, the crew chief for Denny Hamlin's No. 11 FedEx Toyota, had been released from his position with the team. The move was somewhat expected due to Hamlin's substantial regression during the 2011 season. However, at the time, Joe Gibbs Racing did not announce a replacement.
On Friday, the replacement finally signed on the dotted line. That man will be 2011 Sprint Cup championship-winning Crew Chief Darian Grubb, who reportedly told that he would not be back as Tony Stewart's head wrench in 2012 following the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte in October.
Team owner Joe Gibbs is thrilled with the prospects of having such an accomplished engineer and mechanic on top of Denny Hamlin's pit box.
"Darian is a great addition to our organization and person to lead our No. 11 team," Gibbs said. "Obviously, he has proven the ability to guide a team to a championship and we are excited to have him working with Denny [Hamlin] towards achieving that goal here at Joe Gibbs Racing."
Grubb is also excited to start this new chapter in his life.
"I'm thrilled to join Joe Gibbs Racing," Grubb said. "The chance to work with Denny is something that I'm excited about. When you sit down with Joe and J.D. Gibbs, you can't help but be excited about this opportunity and the team aspects of Joe Gibbs Racing. There is no question about the level of support you get here and I'm looking forward to working with everyone across the organization."
During Grubb's time working as Tony Stewart's crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart amassed 11 wins, 33 top-5 and 59 top-10 finishes. Prior to his time as Stewart's crew chief, he won the 2006 Daytona 500 with Jimmie Johnson in a substitute role after Chad Knaus was booted out of Speedweeks due to an illegal modification to the rear window. He also crew chiefed Casey Mears to his one and only victory in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600.
Red Bull Racing Closes Its Doors
On Thursday, the Red Bull Racing Team closed their doors for good, unable to find an outside investor willing to come in and buy the team for a reported $40 million. 152 full-time employees, including founding driver Brian Vickers, were laid off. All of the former Red Bull Racing Team employees were eligible for severance pay and gifts from a large raffle held Thursday afternoon at the shop. Many of the employees affected have already found replacement work either with other teams or outside of the industry.
Red Bull's teams finished 14th and 25th in owners' points in 2011. If any investor were able to come forward at this point and buy the team's assets, they would still have access to those points. If not, the owners of Red Bull would have the opportunity to sell their points to whoever needs them in order to lock themselves into the Daytona 500.
IndyCar to not return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2012
On Thursday, IndyCar announced that they will not return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the 2012 season. This negates a previous announcement that indicated a commitment to return to Las Vegas in October 2012 to end the season once again. However, the horrific crash that occurred early in the Izod IndyCar World Championships has spurred an ongoing evaluation of the series on ovals. Partly because of the research, IndyCar has still not released their schedule for 2012 as of yet.
IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard was fairly brief in his reasoning for the cancellation.
"We feel we need to give our technical team ample time to conduct thorough testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway once we complete our ongoing investigation into the 15-car accident during the Oct. 16 race at the track," Bernard said.
Meanwhile, testing for the new Dallara DW12 IndyCar is ongoing. Chevrolet and Lotus-powered cars spent much of the last week testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway. However, these cars are simply test mules. The first chassis are scheduled to be delivered to the teams from Dallara on Thursday.
Leavine Family Racing to Attempt 15 Races in 2012; In Search of New Driver
Leavine Family Racing announced on Wednesday that they plan to expand their Sprint Cup schedule in 2012 with at least 15 attempts. The schedule will start at Bristol with the Food City 500 in March, mainly focusing on intermediate tracks. The press release denotes 13 ovals that the team will attempt races at.
Crew chief Wally Rogers and the team's entire staff is set to return for 2012. However, driver David Starr, who competed in the team's No. 95 Ford in 2011 while also racing full-time in the Camping World Truck Series, will not be back behind the wheel. A search for a replacement driver is ongoing.
"We are currently interviewing potential drivers," team owner Bob Leavine said. "We are looking for a driver that will fit into our program."
Leavine claims that the team has "promising leads" on potential drivers for the 2012 season, and a number of loyal sponsors that will be back for the 2012 season (the release doesn't go into detail about which sponsors will be back). However, the team is still searching for additional sponsorship that would allow them to attempt additional races.
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.
by Beth Lunkenheimer
AND DON'T MISS OUR CHASER DRIVER REVIEWS FROM THE PAST WEEK! JUST HEAD HERE AND YOU'LL FIND THEM ALL LISTED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 1987, Bobby Allison came from a lap down to win the 1987 Pepsi Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway. However, he was not originally considered to be the winner on ABC's Wide World of Sports telecast. Why?
Check back next Monday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Q. For 1985, new rules in touring car racing saw the introduction of new "Group A" rules for the Australian Touring Car Championship (now the V8 Supercar Championship Series) and the Australian Endurance Championship. What was the aim of these new rules?
A. Effectively, the move was undertaken to cut down on the amount of squabbling that had come to embody the previous era, Group C. In Group C, the cars, referred to by locals as "Big Bangers," were heavily modified from the original cars. Mazda, who ran their RX-7 at the time, substituted their 13b engine for the 12b in order to get more power. Problem is that the 13b engine was not available for street cars in Australia at the time.
Also, the rules were designed to make the race cars look more like street cars, which saved money. Group C entries from the manufacturers all had huge fender flares for big tires and only looked slightly like the cars they were based off of. Mazda dropped out at the end of 1984, while Nissan took a year off. Ford didn't homologate a Group A version of the Falcon. As a result, Ford teams either switched to another manufacturer, or imported a car from overseas. Dick Johnson imported a Mustang and raced that for two years. Ford did not have an Australian-built car in the series until the 1993 season. Holden had already built a Group A Commodore, so they raced that.
The result of the move was that an increased number of manufacturer took part in the series during the Group A era (1985-1992). Teams running Volvos entered the series, while BMW entered as well with their 635 first, then the M3. The-then James Hardie 1000 became a real international affair with the world's best touring car racers coming down to challenge the mountain. In 1987, the race was held as part of the short-lived World Touring Car Championship (held only in 1987, and holds no relation to the current WTCC).
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!
Hey, Frontstretch Readers!
We know you love the roar of raw horsepower under the hood that powers 43 of the best drivers in the world every weekend, but did you ever wonder how the sponsor on top of that hood also contributes to keeping the sport moving? What about the contributions of official NASCAR companies? If you think they are simply writing checks, think again. Check out our newest feature - Sunday Money. This weekly Frontstretch exclusive provides you with a behind the scenes look at how NASCAR, its affiliates and team sponsors approach the daunting task of keeping fans interested and excited about the sport for 38 weeks of the year.
Coming Monday, December 5th in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Phil Allaway
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more ... including our 2011 Driver Reviews!
All this week on the Frontstretch:
2011 Driver Reviews by the Frontstretch Staff
Now that we've covered the 12 Chasers, and the champions from the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series, we're going to cover the remaining drivers in alphabetical order, starting with the A's. Note that Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series drivers will be lumped in with the Sprint Cup drivers, instead of separately.
Check out the full Driver Review Schedule here.
Schedule:
Today: Ron Hornaday, Jr.
Today: Ron Hornaday, Jr.
Tuesday: Kasey Kahne and Bobby Labonte
Wednesday: Andy Lally, Jason Leffler and Joey Logano
Thursday: Trevor Bayne, Mark Martin and Jamie McMurray
Friday: Casey Mears, Paul Menard and Juan Pablo Montoya
Floater: Robby Gordon
Floater: Robby Gordon
------------------------------
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©2011 Frontstretch.com
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
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