THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
February 7th, 2012
Volume V, Edition X
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
February 7th, 2012
Volume V, Edition X
ATTENTION NEWSLETTER READERS! This edition serves as the last "weekly" installment of your favorite Newsletter. Look for a switch back to daily content beginning on Monday, February 13th!
Top News From The Past Week
by Phil Allaway
NASCAR Releases Official Race Start Times
On Sunday, NASCAR augmented the official 2012 schedules for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series with official race start times. On the surface, most of the start times in Sprint Cup are the same as last year. However, there are a couple of changes.
Most notably, Darlington Raceway's Showtime Southern 500 will start at 7:00 PM instead of 7:30 PM. This adjustment was granted due to the fact that Darlington's race is the second longest event on the schedule, taking nearly four hours to run in recent years.
In the Nationwide Series, the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge in November at Texas Motor Speedway will be a night race this year. Previously, the race started at 1 PM EST (Noon CST). Also, the Bucyrus 200 at Road America will have a 3:30 PM EDT (2:30 PM CDT) start, roughly 90 minutes earlier than last year.
In the Camping World Truck Series, the Lucas Oil 200 at Dover will once again be aired via tape delay at 8:00 PM EDT on June 1. The race will actually roll off at 4:30 that afternoon. The inaugural Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 at Rockingham Speedway will have a 1 PM EDT start time on April 15. Also, the Smith's 350k at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is once again a night race and will go off at 8:30 PM EDT (5:30 PM PDT). Last year, the race was the main support event to the Izod IndyCar World Championships and ran two weeks later on a Saturday afternoon.
JTG-Daugherty Racing to Expand?
NASCAR.com's Joe Menzer is reporting that JTG-Daugherty Racing is looking towards potential expansion for the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season. Step 1 of the expansion was to cut their ties to Michael Waltrip Racing. That started last year when the team announced that they were moving their No. 47 team out of Michael Waltrip Racing's shop and into the shop that the Geschickters already owned for their former Nationwide team. As the organization is currently considered to be a satellite of Michael Waltrip Racing, they cannot expand due to the fact that MWR has three full-time teams already (and their No. 47 is considered to be No. 4).
For 2012, the team will run Bobby Labonte full-time in their No. 47 Toyotas. The cars that the team will use have been purchased from MWR, while the team will use TRD engines. Todd Berrier, formerly of Richard Childress Racing, is now the Crew Chief of the No. 47, replacing Frankie Kerr. Eventually, though, the team will build their own cars out of the old ST Motorsports shop.
For the 2013 season, the team is already planning to add a second car on a full-time basis. According to team co-owner Brad Daugherty, there is the possibility that the team could put a second car on the track on a part-time basis later in the year.
"We're already working on it," Daugherty said. "That's something that's going to happen sooner rather than later, because we need that. That's as big as we want to be, though. The cost comes down and the information goes way up. So we're really working on that."
Last year, Labonte finished a disappointing 29th in points with only one top-5 finish all season, that being a fourth in the Daytona 500. Berrier believes that with the current resources available to the single-car team, the team can finish 17th in points. That is where the team finished in 2009 with Marcos Ambrose driving.
Inception Motorsports To Toyota
On Thursday, Inception Motorsports announced that they are changing manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota for the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season. The team also has reached a deal to run engines from Triad Racing Technologies.
For driver David Stremme, the change to Toyota is a move that could possibly result in additional support for the small organization and new sponsorship.
"It is a great boost for our team to have the support of Toyota and Triad engines heading into Daytona and this season," Stremme said. "Our team is excited to have their support especially with their success in the sport. Our team has grown over the offseason. We have a great group of talented people in our race family who have been working hard to get us to where we need to be for this season. We are looking for the final pieces to the puzzle and hopefully our track presence will help find that sponsorship piece."
Inception Motorsports was formed a little less than a year ago and made their debut in May at Richmond with Stremme driving. The team ran complete races at Richmond (April) and Bristol (August), but start-and-parked in the other 16 races that they qualified for.
Go Canada Racing Changes Name, Announces Driver for Daytona
On Friday, Go Canada Racing announced that they are changing the name of their organization. Effective February 15th, the team will now be known as GC Motorsports International, or GCMI.
The reason for this move appears to be financial and business motivated.
"The name change is a result of numerous developments in the offseason and more clearly represents our company, our partners, drivers and sponsors going forward," said GCMI owner Steve Meehan.
To this end, the team announced that 2011 Coke Zero 400 winner David Ragan will drive the team's No. 67 Ford in the Drive4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 25. Meehan is very pleased to have a driver with a winning pedigree at Daytona with the team to help them qualify and race on the high banks.
"We feel incredibly fortunate to have David's knowledge and experience to help launch our 2012 program and hopefully guide the team into the future," Meehan said.
Ragan, who also has a Nationwide Series victory at Talladega on his resume, is also quite pleased to drive for GCMI at Daytona.
"I am really excited to be kicking off the 2012 Nationwide season for GCMI," Ragan said. "I have known many of the team members for quite some time; it will be great to work with them again. This group has put together many winning efforts in the past and I plan on being part of their winning efforts in the future, hopefully starting with Daytona."
In addition to Ragan, GCMI plans on fielding entries for Quebec racer Andrew Ranger later this year. The team's press release doesn't mention which races that Ranger will be driving in other than the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in August. However, it does state that Ranger will "compete in a number of Nationwide events." Ranger will also drive for the newly rechristened GC Motorsports Canada (formed via a partnership with Dave Jacombs Racing) in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.
The long-term plan for GCMI is to cultivate a multi-tier approach to driver development. Eventually, the plan is to gain a foothold in the Sprint Cup Series, but first, the team wants to have two entries in the Nationwide Series
NASCAR Releases Official Race Start Times
On Sunday, NASCAR augmented the official 2012 schedules for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series with official race start times. On the surface, most of the start times in Sprint Cup are the same as last year. However, there are a couple of changes.
Most notably, Darlington Raceway's Showtime Southern 500 will start at 7:00 PM instead of 7:30 PM. This adjustment was granted due to the fact that Darlington's race is the second longest event on the schedule, taking nearly four hours to run in recent years.
In the Nationwide Series, the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge in November at Texas Motor Speedway will be a night race this year. Previously, the race started at 1 PM EST (Noon CST). Also, the Bucyrus 200 at Road America will have a 3:30 PM EDT (2:30 PM CDT) start, roughly 90 minutes earlier than last year.
In the Camping World Truck Series, the Lucas Oil 200 at Dover will once again be aired via tape delay at 8:00 PM EDT on June 1. The race will actually roll off at 4:30 that afternoon. The inaugural Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 at Rockingham Speedway will have a 1 PM EDT start time on April 15. Also, the Smith's 350k at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is once again a night race and will go off at 8:30 PM EDT (5:30 PM PDT). Last year, the race was the main support event to the Izod IndyCar World Championships and ran two weeks later on a Saturday afternoon.
JTG-Daugherty Racing to Expand?
NASCAR.com's Joe Menzer is reporting that JTG-Daugherty Racing is looking towards potential expansion for the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season. Step 1 of the expansion was to cut their ties to Michael Waltrip Racing. That started last year when the team announced that they were moving their No. 47 team out of Michael Waltrip Racing's shop and into the shop that the Geschickters already owned for their former Nationwide team. As the organization is currently considered to be a satellite of Michael Waltrip Racing, they cannot expand due to the fact that MWR has three full-time teams already (and their No. 47 is considered to be No. 4).
For 2012, the team will run Bobby Labonte full-time in their No. 47 Toyotas. The cars that the team will use have been purchased from MWR, while the team will use TRD engines. Todd Berrier, formerly of Richard Childress Racing, is now the Crew Chief of the No. 47, replacing Frankie Kerr. Eventually, though, the team will build their own cars out of the old ST Motorsports shop.
For the 2013 season, the team is already planning to add a second car on a full-time basis. According to team co-owner Brad Daugherty, there is the possibility that the team could put a second car on the track on a part-time basis later in the year.
"We're already working on it," Daugherty said. "That's something that's going to happen sooner rather than later, because we need that. That's as big as we want to be, though. The cost comes down and the information goes way up. So we're really working on that."
Last year, Labonte finished a disappointing 29th in points with only one top-5 finish all season, that being a fourth in the Daytona 500. Berrier believes that with the current resources available to the single-car team, the team can finish 17th in points. That is where the team finished in 2009 with Marcos Ambrose driving.
Inception Motorsports To Toyota
On Thursday, Inception Motorsports announced that they are changing manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota for the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season. The team also has reached a deal to run engines from Triad Racing Technologies.
For driver David Stremme, the change to Toyota is a move that could possibly result in additional support for the small organization and new sponsorship.
"It is a great boost for our team to have the support of Toyota and Triad engines heading into Daytona and this season," Stremme said. "Our team is excited to have their support especially with their success in the sport. Our team has grown over the offseason. We have a great group of talented people in our race family who have been working hard to get us to where we need to be for this season. We are looking for the final pieces to the puzzle and hopefully our track presence will help find that sponsorship piece."
Inception Motorsports was formed a little less than a year ago and made their debut in May at Richmond with Stremme driving. The team ran complete races at Richmond (April) and Bristol (August), but start-and-parked in the other 16 races that they qualified for.
Go Canada Racing Changes Name, Announces Driver for Daytona
On Friday, Go Canada Racing announced that they are changing the name of their organization. Effective February 15th, the team will now be known as GC Motorsports International, or GCMI.
The reason for this move appears to be financial and business motivated.
"The name change is a result of numerous developments in the offseason and more clearly represents our company, our partners, drivers and sponsors going forward," said GCMI owner Steve Meehan.
To this end, the team announced that 2011 Coke Zero 400 winner David Ragan will drive the team's No. 67 Ford in the Drive4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 25. Meehan is very pleased to have a driver with a winning pedigree at Daytona with the team to help them qualify and race on the high banks.
"We feel incredibly fortunate to have David's knowledge and experience to help launch our 2012 program and hopefully guide the team into the future," Meehan said.
Ragan, who also has a Nationwide Series victory at Talladega on his resume, is also quite pleased to drive for GCMI at Daytona.
"I am really excited to be kicking off the 2012 Nationwide season for GCMI," Ragan said. "I have known many of the team members for quite some time; it will be great to work with them again. This group has put together many winning efforts in the past and I plan on being part of their winning efforts in the future, hopefully starting with Daytona."
In addition to Ragan, GCMI plans on fielding entries for Quebec racer Andrew Ranger later this year. The team's press release doesn't mention which races that Ranger will be driving in other than the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in August. However, it does state that Ranger will "compete in a number of Nationwide events." Ranger will also drive for the newly rechristened GC Motorsports Canada (formed via a partnership with Dave Jacombs Racing) in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.
The long-term plan for GCMI is to cultivate a multi-tier approach to driver development. Eventually, the plan is to gain a foothold in the Sprint Cup Series, but first, the team wants to have two entries in the Nationwide Series
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.
Just in case you missed them, we have completed our annual Driver Reviews. If you'd like to review them, JUST HEAD HERE AND YOU'LL FIND THEM ALL LISTED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.
Just in case you missed them, we have completed our annual Driver Reviews. If you'd like to review them, JUST HEAD HERE AND YOU'LL FIND THEM ALL LISTED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: The recent Rolex 24 at Daytona featured some close racing for position, some bumping and banging and well over 40 lead changes. However, Michael Shank Racing's 5.1-second margin-of-victory is not the closest ever in the event. Who had the narrowest margin of victory in the Rolex 24, and when did it occur?
Q: The recent Rolex 24 at Daytona featured some close racing for position, some bumping and banging and well over 40 lead changes. However, Michael Shank Racing's 5.1-second margin-of-victory is not the closest ever in the event. Who had the narrowest margin of victory in the Rolex 24, and when did it occur?
Check back next Monday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Last Monday's Answer:
Q: In 2002, Doran Racing won the last Rolex 24 at Daytona before the introduction of the Daytona Prototype formula. What car did the team field, and what engine were they using?
A: Doran Racing fielded a Dallara LMP chassis with a V10 Judd engine to win the race. The Dallara was originally designed around a factory program at Le Mans in 2001 for DaimlerChrysler, but after a year, the cars were sold off to privateers to run whatever engines they wanted to with the car. At the time, this package was roughly midpack in the American Le Mans Series and not really competitive with the all-conquering Audi R8 prototypes, but out of the various teams that contested the Rolex Sports Car Series at the time, it was a very nice car to have.
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, February 13th in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Phil Allaway
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Coming This Week at The Frontstretch:
Beyond the Cockpit: Boris Said as told to Phil Allaway
The curly-haired road racing veteran sat down with our own Phil Allaway for a brief conversation about the Rolex Series and his time in NASCAR's top-three series.
------------------------------
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!
©2012 Frontstretch.com
-- 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, February 13th in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Phil Allaway
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Coming This Week at The Frontstretch:
Beyond the Cockpit: Boris Said as told to Phil Allaway
The curly-haired road racing veteran sat down with our own Phil Allaway for a brief conversation about the Rolex Series and his time in NASCAR's top-three series.
------------------------------
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!
©2012 Frontstretch.com
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