Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
April 22nd, 2012
Volume VI, Edition LXVIII
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FRONTSTRETCH AT THE TRACK: Summer Dreyer is live at Kansas Speedway for the STP 400 this afternoon. Follow along on Facebook and Twitter (@TheFrontstretch and @SummerDreyer) for everything you need to know from pre-race all the way up to the checkered flag.
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James Buescher Wins First Career NCWTS Race at Kansas Speedway
by Summer Dreyer
James Buescher cruised to Victory Lane for the first time in his career Saturday at Kansas Speedway, leading 103 of 167 laps to give Turner Motorsports back-to-back victories in the Camping World Truck Series. Buescher continues a long streak of top 3 finishes after coming home third at Martinsville, second at Rockingham, and now first at Kansas Speedway. Points leader Timothy Peters finished second, over five seconds behind Buescher, and maintained the points lead post-race with the finish. Right behind Peters was Sprint Cup Series regular Brad Keselowski, who managed to bring his charity-sponsored truck home third after leading 19 laps. Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Todd Bodine rounded out the top 5.
Tim George, Jr. started on the pole, but was unable to lead any laps as Jason Leffler stole the lead and was able to hold it for the first five laps. He held it for the first three laps before the first caution flag flew when Jeb Burton spun in turn one.
As the race went back green, Leffler lost the lead to Jason White. White managed to hold the top spot for the next 27 laps, but was unable to hold off the charging Buescher who was the class of the field all day. Buescher, who started in the sixth position, passed White on lap 34 and held the top spot until the caution flew for debris in turn four on lap 37. At this time, it looked like White might be in trouble as water was spewing from his radiator. While White was able to continue on in the race, he was unable to recover from the incident and finished a disappointing 19th.
While the leaders pitted under the lap 37 caution, Chad McCumbee was able to stay out and lead a lap before pitting. As the leaders made their stops, it looked like Buescher was going to win the race off of pit road, but Todd Bodine was able to slightly nose out ahead of him. Bodine wouldn't hold onto it very long, though, as Buescher took the lead as soon as the green flag flew again.
Buescher wasn't able to enjoy the view for very long, however, as a major accident occurred behind him in turn four. While Paulie Harraka was battling Ron Hornaday, Jr. for position, Harraka slid up into the No. 9 truck of Hornaday and the two spun in front of the pack. Innocent victims of the accident were Brennan Newberry, Russ Dugger, and David Starr. While Harraka and Hornaday were both able to continue racing, Dugger, Newberry, and Starr were all done for the day and were evaluated and released from the infield care center. Hornaday was able to recover and finish sixth while Harraka was scored 27th, nine laps down.
When the race resumed green on lap 49, Buescher was able to hold off a hard charging Bodine for the next eight laps before yet another yellow flag flew. While racing with Cale Gale, the No. 24 truck of Max Gresham started wiggling in turn one while trying to make a pass underneath Gale. Gresham was unable to hold onto the truck and spun up into turn 2 wall. He would eventually finish 22nd.
Again racing resumed and Buescher held the lead until a round of green flag pit stops began around lap 95 as Leffler coasted around the backstretch and onto the apron of turns 3 and 4 after running out of fuel. He was able to make it to pit road and avoid causing a caution, and Buescher pitted shortly after. In doing so, he handed the lead to Hornaday who stayed out until a caution flew for the final time for debris in turn 2 on lap 99.
Any remaining trucks that hadn't yet made a stop did so under the caution, giving Buescher back the lead under yellow. The restart was waved off several times to fix some scoring errors, including when Joey Coulter tried to jump in front of the leaders as a wave around. He eventually had to stop in turns 3 and 4 to get back in line after NASCAR made him aware of the situation.
When the race finally resumed on lap 104, Buescher had the lead but quickly lost it to Brad Keselowski. Keselowski was able to pull away from Buescher for several laps before Buescher tried a higher lane and was able to catch him. It took Buescher several laps to get around the No. 19, but eventually Keselowski got loose heading onto the backstretch, and Buescher was able to take advantage and grab the lead back.
As the teams got closer and closer to their next and final stop, and it looked obvious they were likely going to have to make a green flag stop, Buescher's team began debating how many tires to take. As several drivers began making their green flag stops, a variety of strategies were seen and the No. 31 team opted to take four tires. Buescher relinquished the lead on lap 149 to pit, handing the lead once again to Hornaday. Bodine and Dakoda Armstrong were able to lead laps during the green flag stops, until it cycled back around to Keselowski.
Keselowski was no match for Buescher, who obviously had the strongest truck of the day, as Buescher took the lead for the final time on lap 157. Buescher cruised to his first career Camping World Truck Series victory.
"These guys did a heck of a job building this Progenex Chevy," said Buescher in Victory Lane. "Hats off to these guys. It's a brand new truck. … These Turner Motorsports trucks are pretty awesome. Two in a row is saying something!"
"James did an excellent job," said third-place Keselowski after the race. "His truck was hauling and he hit everything right and did everything right and he deserved to win today."
The Camping World Truck Series is off for the next three weeks, and returns at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 18th. Coverage begins at 7:30 PM ET on SPEED.
Editor's Note: For a more in-depth look at the SFP 250, be sure to check out Tracking the Trucks.
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Allmendinger Takes Pole for STP 400
by Amy Henderson
AJ Allmendinger took the pole for the STP 400 by just 0.043 seconds on Saturday at Kansas Speedway. It was Allmendinger's first pole position of the season and his first for Penske Racing, which will have three cars starting in the top 11 on Sunday when the green flag flies. Teammates Sam Hornish, Jr. and Brad Keselowski qualified in the tenth and 11th spots, respectively. The driver of the No. 22 AAA Dodge set a fast lap of 30.683 seconds (175.993 MPH)
Kevin Harvick took the outside spot on the front row with a lap time of 30.726 seconds. Row two is all Joe Gibbs Racing, all the time, as Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin took third and fourth. Mark Martin rounded out the top 5, beating his Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex, Jr. by just 0.007 seconds.
Truex, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, and Hornish sealed the top 10 for Sunday's race. Coverage begins at 12:30 EDT on FOX.
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FRONTSTRETCH IS EXPANDING... INTO OPEN-WHEEL!
Have an itch for the IndyCars? Looking for a part-time writing gig? Well, then Frontstretch may be the place for you. We're looking for one fill-in IndyCar writer to handle about ten preview and recap columns over the course of the 2012 season. Deadlines will be on Thursday and Sunday nights; if interested, going through the Frontstretch audition process (with an emphasis on open-wheel instead of NASCAR) is required. Questions? Concerns? Or simply ready to send your pieces in? Contact us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com.
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No Nationwide? 5-Hour Energy Has Little Interest in Lower Series
by Summer Dreyer
"He was a lot more nervous when he made the announcement in October about what was going to happen than he was today."
Those were the words of Ty Norris, Michael Waltrip Racing's General Manager, as he led the press conference at Kansas Speedway announcing 5-hour Energy's extended partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing. Rather than the 25 races the energy drink originally announced at this very track last fall, 5-hour Energy will be on Clint Bowyer's No. 15 Toyota for all but one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race this year.
"I just have to say, I can't believe how well everything's gone so far," said Scott Henderson, president of 5-hour Energy. "We expected to have great TV and consumer exposure and on-track exposure … and everything that's happened so far has really blown us out of the water and how great the sport has been in return for us."
Sounds great, doesn't it? In a time where even some of the most competitive and long-running teams are struggling to find, keep, and maintain a full season's worth of funding, it's encouraging to hear from a multi-million dollar sponsor that they are seeing a return on investment.
However, as encouraging as that is, there was another interesting point that Henderson made that was more telling. At one point during the announcement, he re-visited the initial decision to move from the Nationwide Series to the Sprint Cup Series.
"We were curious what would happen with the retailers, if they'd like to have a say in the bigger spend, and the retailers are just so much more into Sprint Cup racing than they are Nationwide."
Henderson went on to talk about how Nationwide Series tended to be more of a regional gain while the Sprint Cup Series has opened up national opportunities, as well as the TV audience and weekly exposure.
While not all that surprising, it is incredibly disconcerting. Here at the Frontstretch, we weekly—almost daily—make a point of discussing how the Nationwide Series is fighting to gain its own identity and how lack of funding is hurting driver development and the quality of the series. The last thing anyone wants to hear is that a mega-company like 5 Hour Energy no longer sees a need for that series.
To be fair, their driver in the Nationwide Series was Steve Wallace and he certainly wasn't known for his driving skills. There was practically a betting pool made of when—not if—Wallace would cause a caution in the race either by wrecking himself or someone else. Still, the fact that this company sees very little return on investment in the Nationwide Series—even though they are spending almost 50% more to race in the Sprint Cup Series—is alarming. I can't help but wonder what other potential sponsors think when they hear things like that.
I hope those comments were just due to a bad experience rather than reality, but it definitely is cause for concern for Nationwide Series-only teams and drivers who are working day and night to try and find some funding.
Summer Dreyer is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com. She can be reached via email at summer.dreyer@frontstretch.com
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Tracking the Trucks: SFP 250
by Beth Lunkenheimer
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have basically been the "Enlightened Monarchs" of the Chase ever since it was created for 2004. However, Johnson's chances to win the inaugural Chase took a nasty hit at Kansas. What happened?
Check back Monday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: Take 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!
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Coming Monday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- STP 400 Race Recap by Jeff Wolfe
-- Secret Star and Stat of the Race by Tom Bowles
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Monday on the Frontstretch:
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: STP 400 by Matt McLaughlin
Matt will be here with his overall thoughts about the action from Sunday afternoon's action from Kansas.
Monday Morning Teardown by Ron Lemasters
Ron returns for a website look at one of the big stories from Sunday's race from Kansas.
Bowles-Eye View by Tom Bowles
Tom brings back his weekly post-race commentary with all of the insight you need from a weekend of racing at Kansas.
Big Six: STP 400 by Amy Henderson
Looking for all you need to know leaving Sunday's event at Kansas? Amy has your who, what, when, where, why and how from a weekend of racing.
Pace Laps: Kansas Weekend by the Frontstretch Staff
In our newest column this season, we'll take a look at the biggest stories to keep an eye on in each series after a weekend at Kansas.
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