THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
June 14th, 2012
Volume VI, Edition CX
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
June 14th, 2012
Volume VI, Edition CX
What to Watch: Thursday
- With another brand new patch of pavement, there will be a one-day open test at Michigan International Speedway for Sprint Cup teams to check out the new asphalt. There will be two sessions, one from 8:00am-11:00am EDT, and one from 1:00pm-4:00pm EDT. SPEED's Matt Clark predicted on Wednesday's edition of NASCAR Race Hub that a 200 mph lap is not out of the question at some point this weekend. Will that happen? We'll have to wait and see.
Top News
by Phil Allaway
Randy Humphrey and Phil Parsons Fined
Many fans are aware of just how much start-and-park teams skimp on things in order to extract the absolute maximum amount of money out of their teams. However, this revelation may be a new one -- and it's putting a former employee in financial trouble.
Randy Humphrey and Phil Parsons, owners of the former HP Racing, LLC (Parsons still operates the team as the reincarnation of Phil Parsons Racing, the name of his team that raced in the Busch Grand National Series in the 1990s), have each been fined an undisclosed amount by the North Carolina Industrial Commission for failing to provide Worker's Compensation insurance as mandated by the State of North Carolina. The ruling comes after a former employee at HP Racing, LLC was injured last year.
The investigation into the mostly start-and-park team found that the team failed to provide the proper Worker's Compensation insurance from February 11, 2011 to October 27, 2011 (effectively all of last season). After the Worker's Compensation claim was made, the team acquired the proper insurance just days before the claim was supposed to heard by the Deputy Commissioner of the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
Failure to provide such compensation insurance to employees (if the company has three or more employees) is illegal under the Workers' Compensation Act in North Carolina. Guilty business owners can be fined or even imprisoned.
As a result of the ruling, the unnamed former HP Racing, LLC employee will have his medical bills paid for and back wages paid. He is under physicians' order not to work for the time being, which disqualifies him from receiving unemployment checks (he would be in violation of the rules requiring an unemployment assistance recipient to attempt to find work in order to continue as a part of the program).
Tony Raines to Drive No. 10 at Michigan
On Wednesday, Tommy Baldwin Racing announced that Tony Raines will be behind the wheel of the team's No. 10 Chevrolet in Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Why make the change? The team honestly believed that Kurt Busch would be sitting this weekend out.
"We had a plan with [David] Reutimann driving the No. 51," said Tommy Baldwin Racing spokesperson Heather Lumpp. "We are sticking with our plan, and Reutimann will be back in the No. 10 at Kentucky."
The move appears to leave Reutimann on the sidelines for this weekend. An article at NASCAR.com throws out the idea of BK Racing fielding their No. 73 for Reutimann. However, if they did that, Reutimann would be considered a "post-entry," and, thus, would be ineligible to earn points. There would also be the option of taking over another ride, but that appears unlikely as well.
Also, Lumpp's statement about Reutimann returning at Kentucky is interesting. She failed to mention the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, scheduled for June 23. It is unclear who will be in the No. 10 for that race. The team has employed road course ringers in the past (most notably, Ron Fellows), but no announcements have been made to that degree.
Entry List Update:
Note: These entries are accurate as of Wednesday night. However, they are still subject to change.
Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400: 45 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 19 - Mike Bliss for Humphrey-Smith Racing
No. 33 - Austin Dillon for LJ Racing/Richard Childress Racing
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports
Driver Changes:
No. 10 - Tony Raines is in the seat, replacing Dave Blaney. See above for Tommy Baldwin Racing's reasoning for this move.
No. 32 - Ken Schrader returns to the seat, replacing Reed Sorenson. Schrader is running a limited schedule for the team.
No. 33 - Austin Dillon is in the seat, replacing Stephen Leicht. Dillon brings sponsorship to the team from American Ethanol.
No. 36 - Dave Blaney returns to the seat, replacing Tony Raines.
No. 51 - Kurt Busch returns to the seat, replacing David Reutimann. The elder Busch returns after his one-race suspension with a vote of confidence from owner James Finch.
Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 19 - Mike Bliss for Humphrey-Smith Racing*
No. 21 - Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing
No. 23 - Scott Riggs for R3 Motorsports*
No. 26 - Josh Wise for Front Row Motorsports*
No. 30 - David Stremme for Inception Motorsports*
No. 33 - Austin Dillon for LJ Racing/Richard Childress Racing
No. 49 - J.J. Yeley for Robinson-Blakeney Racing*
No. 74 - Stacy Compton for Turn One Racing*
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports*
No. 98 - Michael McDowell for Phil Parsons Racing*
Nationwide Series Alliance Truck Parts 250: 43 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 08 - Tony Raines for Randy Hill Racing
No. 18 - Joey Logano for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 20 - Michael McDowell for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 22 - Brad Keselowski for Penske Racing
No. 30 - James Buescher for Turner Motorsports
No. 33 - Paul Menard for Richard Childress Racing
No. 42 - Josh Wise for Key Motorsports
No. 47 - Scott Speed for Team Motorsports Group
No. 54 - Kurt Busch for Kyle Busch Motorsports
No. 75 - Scott Riggs for Rick Ware Racing
Driver Changes:
No. 08 - Tony Raines is in the seat, replacing Tim Andrews. This car will start-and-park without sponsorship.
No. 4 - Danny Efland returns to the seat, replacing Brad Teague.
No. 10 - An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Kevin Lepage. This car remains TriStar's start-and-park entry.
No. 20 - Michael McDowell is in the seat, replacing Ryan Truex.
No. 22 - Brad Keselowski returns to the seat, replacing Parker Kligerman.
No. 24 - Angela Cope is in the seat, replacing Tim Bainey, Jr. Benny Gordon was originally listed as the driver, but Cope was installed to replace him on Wednesday.
No. 33 - Paul Menard returns to the seat, replacing Ty Dillon.
No. 52 - Tim Schendel returns to the seat, replacing Joey Gase.
No. 99 - Kenny Wallace returns to the seat, replacing John Wes Townley.
Since there are only 43 entries, no one will fail to qualify. However, these drivers must still qualify on speed:
No. 08 - Tony Raines for Randy Hill Racing*
No. 10 - Unknown driver for TriStar Motorsports*
No. 15 - Blake Koch for Rick Ware Racing
No. 20 - Michael McDowell for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 39 - Josh Richards for Go Green Racing
No. 42 - Josh Wise for Key Motorsports*
No. 46 - Chase Miller for Team Motorsports Group*
No. 47 - Scott Speed for Team Motorsports Group*
No. 52 - Tim Schendel for Means Motorsports
No. 71 - Matt Carter for Rick Ware Racing*
No. 74 - Mike Harmon for Mike Harmon Racing*
No. 75 - Scott Riggs for Rick Ware Racing*
No. 89 - Morgan Shepherd for Shepherd Motor Ventures
*- Expected to Start-and-Park
Izod IndyCar Series Milwaukee IndyFest: 25 cars entered
Driver Changes: None
Entries:
No. 2 - Ryan Briscoe for Team Penske
No. 3 - Helio Castroneves for Team Penske
No. 4 - J.R. Hildebrand for Panther Racing
No. 5 - E.J. Viso for KV Racing Technologies
No. 6 - Katherine Legge for Dragon Racing
No. 8 - Rubens Barrichello for KV Racing Technologies
No. 9 - Scott Dixon for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 10 - Dario Franchitti for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 11 - Tony Kanaan for KV Racing Technologies with SH Racing
No. 12 - Will Power for Team Penske
No. 14 - Mike Conway for AJ Foyt Enterprises
No. 15 - Takuma Sato for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
No. 18 - Justin Wilson for Dale Coyne Racing
No. 19 - James Jakes for Dale Coyne Racing
No. 20 - Ed Carpenter for Ed Carpenter Racing
No. 22 - Oriol Servia for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
No. 25 - Ana Beatriz for Andretti Autosport
No. 26 - Marco Andretti for Andretti Autosport
No. 27 - James Hinchcliffe for Andretti Autosport
No. 28 - Ryan Hunter-Reay for Andretti Autosport
No. 38 - Graham Rahal for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 67 - Josef Newgarden for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing
No. 77 - Simon Pagenaud for Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports
No. 78 - Simona de Silvestro for Lotus-HVM Racing
No. 83 - Charlie Kimball for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 98 - Alex Tagliani for Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian
ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards Raineater Wiper Blades 200: 37 cars entered
Driver Changes:
No. 0 - Brad Smith is in the seat, replacing Don Thompson.
No. 6 - Kyle Larson is in the seat, replacing Milka Duno. This will mark Larson's ARCA Racing Series debut.
No. 7 - Kent Schenkel returns to the seat, replacing Brent Cross.
No. 10 - Rick Clifton is in the seat, replacing Ed Pompa.
No. 66 - John Blankenship is in the seat, replacing A.J. Henriksen.
No. 09 - An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Charles Evans.
Notable Entries:
No. 5 - Bobby Gerhart for Bobby Gerhart Racing
No. 15 - Ryan Reed for Venturini Motorsports
No. 16 - Matt Lofton for Coulter Racing
No. 17 - Chris Buescher for Roulo Brothers Racing
No. 22 - Alex Bowman for Cunningham Motorsports
No. 25 - Brennan Poole for Venturini Motorsports
No. 44 - Frank Kimmel for ThorSport Racing
No. 45 - Clay Rogers
No. 52 - Tom Hessert III for Ken Schrader Racing
No. 55 - Kevin Swindell for Venturini Motorsports
No. 58 - Chad Hackenbracht for CGH Motorsports
No. 61 - Joey Coulter for Coulter Racing
No. 68 - Will Kimmel for Kimmel Racing
No. 82 - Sean Corr for Empire Racing
No. 92 - Brennan Newberry for NTS Motorsports
Not Entered:
No. 07 - Brian Kaltreider for Kaltreider Motorsports
No. 13 - George Cushman for Cushman Racing
Valvoline to Sponsor Germain Racing
Germain Racing announced on Wednesday that Valvoline has been signed to serve as a primary sponsor of the team's No. 13 Ford in two races. The first of those events will be this weekend's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The team will be promoting Valvoline's NextGen motor oil, which is manufactured with 50 percent recycled motor oil.
24 Hours of Le Mans Qualifying Update
This weekend is the 24 Hours of Le Mans (full race coverage will be aired on SPEED and SPEEDtv.com). However, first round qualifying was held under the shroud of darkness Wednesday night. The results were not all that surprising.
Defending champion Andre Lotterer set the overall fastest time in his No. 1 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro with a time of 3:25.453 (148.396 mph). This lap was almost a tenth of a second quicker than Tom Kristensen in the other Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, who set a 3:25.536. Loic Duval in the No. 3 Audi R18 Ultra was third fastest.
The fastest non-Audi was the No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid driven by Nicolas Lapierre, who turned in a 3:27.191 to qualify fourth. The fastest non-Diesel, non-Hybrid driver was Danny Watts in the No. 21 HPD ARX-03a Honda for Strakka Racing. His lap of 3:32.750 was over seven seconds off the pole, but good enough for seventh quickest.
In LMP2, the No. 46 ORECA 03 Nissan driven by Mathias Beche for Thiriet by TDS Racing was the surprise provisional pole sitter after turning in a lap of 3:39.252 (139.056 mph). This was five-eighths of a second faster than the No. 48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA 03-Nissan. The American-based Starworks Motorsport No. 44 was third-fastest. The Delta Wing turned in a lap of 3:42.612, which is good enough for 26th overall. Speed-wise, the car appears to have LMP2 pace.
In GTE-Pro, it was the No. 74 factory Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 driven by Oliver Gavin with the provisional pole. Gavin turned in a lap of 3:55.910 (129.237 mph), about one-sixth of a second faster than the No. 59 Ferrari 458 Italia for Luxury Racing. The second factory Corvette (No. 73) was third in class.
Flying Lizard Motorsports' No. 79 driven by Patrick Pilet took provisional pole in the GTE-Am class with a lap of 3:57.594 (128.321 mph). Despite the Lizards racing a year old chassis, Pilet's time was sixth fastest overall of the GT cars entered. The No. 75 Prospeed Competition Porsche GT3 RSR was second quickest, while the No. 99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage was third quickest.
Thursday will see two more qualifying sessions that will definitively set the starting order. The first will run from 7:00-9:00pm Continental time (1:00-3:00pm EDT), while the final session will be from 10:00pm-12:00am (4:00-6:00pm EDT).
Have news for Phil and the Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.
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Got NASCAR-related questions or comments?
Send them John Potts' 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 that keep Frontstretch afloat. Potts' Shots will run on Thursday with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
Today's Featured Commentary
Quick Shots for June 14, 2012
What's Vexing Vito
by Vito Pugliese
- Might Kurt Busch's slight towards The Sporting News' Bob Pockrass end up landing the No. 51 Phoenix Racing team a sponsor after all?
The Jerry Springer Show has expressed an interest in backing the team and driver who's turbulent tenure in James Finch's machine nearly saw him committing career suicide for the second time in six months at Dover two weeks ago. Hmmm, let's see, a show famous for perpetuating the "Trailer Park Trash" stereotype, looking to come into a sport that has tried desperately to shake its own incorrect and similarly negative connotation, essentially celebrating the outbursts and Springer-esque behavior of a driver who is supposed to be learning from his past mistakes. What could go wrong?
- Ford announced that this weekend they would be unveiling some new tweaks to its 2013 Ford Fusion – essentially the third iteration of the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow. Perhaps one of the more encouraging bits to be added to the car is an actual grille – and not a sticker of what looks like a grille.
"We had an opportunity to add more personality and detail to the race car," said Garen Nicoghosian, Ford's Design Manager in charge of the NASCAR project as we reported earlier this week. "We took advantage of this opportunity and sculpted a more aggressive front end and we added grille bars that are identical in design to the production car. We also added more detail to the fog light housings, and created a more detailed headlight area as well. In addition, we also sculpted a more aggressive hood, and were able to achieve a closer look to the production car."
Now I realize that we're way past the point of these being stock cars – anybody who waxes poetic about "the good ole days" of stock cars needs to go back to about the mid-1960s if they wish to find an actual stock car with a stock engine – but at least we're getting back to where the cars actually do bear a resemblance or even use a few stock pieces at speed in competition. The last time I can remember anything being somewhat close to a stock car were the 1986-87 Monte Carlo SS Aero Coupe and Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 with their fastback rear window caps, and hastily cobbled together packaging to make them into production units.
- With Joey Logano's win at Pocono last weekend, I was reminded how things have changed over the last decade or so in NASCAR. It used to be that hitting a guy from behind in the middle of a corner was frowned upon and considered dirty pool; not necessarily "good hard racin'."
Had DW done that to The King at Darlington in 1979, how do you think that would have ultimately turned out? Right, Dale Inman would probably just be getting out of jail right about now or we would be talking about the 201-win milestone that would never be beaten -- and how Cale and Darrell are arguing over who has more wins, not Bobby Allison.
If the plan was to get somebody loose to execute a pass, you did it coming off the corner – after all, what skill does it take and how fair is it really to plow into the back of somebody in the middle of a turn when a car is at its most unstable to pass them?
In the old days that would usually end up with a guy coming up to your car with an axle or a tire iron to discuss the incident. Jeff Gordon did the deed to Rusty Wallace a couple of times; once at Bristol in 1997 and again in 2002. Kurt Busch did it to Jimmy Spencer at Bristol in 2002 and to Sterling Marlin in 2003 – the later instance resulted in Marlin backing it into the wall. Rusty ended up retaliating at Richmond in 1997, admitted he was trying to get back to him to turn Gordon in '02, while Spencer and Kurt Busch's fallout is now the thing of legend.
In short, it wasn't always accepted, and often escalated hostilities.
In 1999, a driver all of 19 years of age was the talk of the garage named Casey Atwood. This was during the unfortunately phrased "Young Gun" era, when every team and sponsor decided they needed somebody under 30 to pilot their racecar. Atwood passed Jeff Green in a similar fashion for his first Busch Series (i.e., Nationwide) victory at the Milwaukee Mile. Atwood had led 143 of 250 laps that day, while Green took over from lap 173 to 249. Coming through the third and fourth turns on the final lap, Atwood popped Green from behind, shoved him out of the groove, and went on to claim the victory.
At the time, Green was none too pleased with the maneuver, and it raised more than a few eyebrows in the process. The win was not as roundly celebrated as it would have been had he made the move cleanly and not ran into the back of a defenseless driver on a flat track. Atwood ended up just winning one more race that season, which would end up being the only wins of a career that never seemed to gain traction.
Does this mean I'm bad mouthing Logano and predicting some sort of karmatic justice upon him for winning Sunday? Not at all. Joey Logano is a true rare talent that comes along once every 25 years, and will probably end up winning 100 races between Nationwide and Cup before he's 30 years old. He did have the fastest car all day Sunday, and he is in effect driving to keep his ride at Joe Gibbs Racing, one that he nearly lost a year ago in the bidding war for Carl Edwards. However, it just goes to show how times have changed, how desperate moves and how "the ends justify the means" mentality of racing today has changed etiquette on the track.
As Mark Martin said in his post-race interview in the media center, "that's not how I'd have done it." Martin is one of our last links to the way things used to be to where we are today in NASCAR, and remains the litmus test to what is truly "old school" and what is simply "accepted" in our sport today.
Vito Pugliese is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at vito.pugliese@frontstretch.com.
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COME JOIN THE FRONTSTRETCH FAMILY!
- With another brand new patch of pavement, there will be a one-day open test at Michigan International Speedway for Sprint Cup teams to check out the new asphalt. There will be two sessions, one from 8:00am-11:00am EDT, and one from 1:00pm-4:00pm EDT. SPEED's Matt Clark predicted on Wednesday's edition of NASCAR Race Hub that a 200 mph lap is not out of the question at some point this weekend. Will that happen? We'll have to wait and see.
Top News
by Phil Allaway
Randy Humphrey and Phil Parsons Fined
Many fans are aware of just how much start-and-park teams skimp on things in order to extract the absolute maximum amount of money out of their teams. However, this revelation may be a new one -- and it's putting a former employee in financial trouble.
Randy Humphrey and Phil Parsons, owners of the former HP Racing, LLC (Parsons still operates the team as the reincarnation of Phil Parsons Racing, the name of his team that raced in the Busch Grand National Series in the 1990s), have each been fined an undisclosed amount by the North Carolina Industrial Commission for failing to provide Worker's Compensation insurance as mandated by the State of North Carolina. The ruling comes after a former employee at HP Racing, LLC was injured last year.
The investigation into the mostly start-and-park team found that the team failed to provide the proper Worker's Compensation insurance from February 11, 2011 to October 27, 2011 (effectively all of last season). After the Worker's Compensation claim was made, the team acquired the proper insurance just days before the claim was supposed to heard by the Deputy Commissioner of the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
Failure to provide such compensation insurance to employees (if the company has three or more employees) is illegal under the Workers' Compensation Act in North Carolina. Guilty business owners can be fined or even imprisoned.
As a result of the ruling, the unnamed former HP Racing, LLC employee will have his medical bills paid for and back wages paid. He is under physicians' order not to work for the time being, which disqualifies him from receiving unemployment checks (he would be in violation of the rules requiring an unemployment assistance recipient to attempt to find work in order to continue as a part of the program).
Tony Raines to Drive No. 10 at Michigan
On Wednesday, Tommy Baldwin Racing announced that Tony Raines will be behind the wheel of the team's No. 10 Chevrolet in Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Why make the change? The team honestly believed that Kurt Busch would be sitting this weekend out.
"We had a plan with [David] Reutimann driving the No. 51," said Tommy Baldwin Racing spokesperson Heather Lumpp. "We are sticking with our plan, and Reutimann will be back in the No. 10 at Kentucky."
The move appears to leave Reutimann on the sidelines for this weekend. An article at NASCAR.com throws out the idea of BK Racing fielding their No. 73 for Reutimann. However, if they did that, Reutimann would be considered a "post-entry," and, thus, would be ineligible to earn points. There would also be the option of taking over another ride, but that appears unlikely as well.
Also, Lumpp's statement about Reutimann returning at Kentucky is interesting. She failed to mention the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, scheduled for June 23. It is unclear who will be in the No. 10 for that race. The team has employed road course ringers in the past (most notably, Ron Fellows), but no announcements have been made to that degree.
Entry List Update:
Note: These entries are accurate as of Wednesday night. However, they are still subject to change.
Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400: 45 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 19 - Mike Bliss for Humphrey-Smith Racing
No. 33 - Austin Dillon for LJ Racing/Richard Childress Racing
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports
Driver Changes:
No. 10 - Tony Raines is in the seat, replacing Dave Blaney. See above for Tommy Baldwin Racing's reasoning for this move.
No. 32 - Ken Schrader returns to the seat, replacing Reed Sorenson. Schrader is running a limited schedule for the team.
No. 33 - Austin Dillon is in the seat, replacing Stephen Leicht. Dillon brings sponsorship to the team from American Ethanol.
No. 36 - Dave Blaney returns to the seat, replacing Tony Raines.
No. 51 - Kurt Busch returns to the seat, replacing David Reutimann. The elder Busch returns after his one-race suspension with a vote of confidence from owner James Finch.
Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 19 - Mike Bliss for Humphrey-Smith Racing*
No. 21 - Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing
No. 23 - Scott Riggs for R3 Motorsports*
No. 26 - Josh Wise for Front Row Motorsports*
No. 30 - David Stremme for Inception Motorsports*
No. 33 - Austin Dillon for LJ Racing/Richard Childress Racing
No. 49 - J.J. Yeley for Robinson-Blakeney Racing*
No. 74 - Stacy Compton for Turn One Racing*
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports*
No. 98 - Michael McDowell for Phil Parsons Racing*
Nationwide Series Alliance Truck Parts 250: 43 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 08 - Tony Raines for Randy Hill Racing
No. 18 - Joey Logano for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 20 - Michael McDowell for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 22 - Brad Keselowski for Penske Racing
No. 30 - James Buescher for Turner Motorsports
No. 33 - Paul Menard for Richard Childress Racing
No. 42 - Josh Wise for Key Motorsports
No. 47 - Scott Speed for Team Motorsports Group
No. 54 - Kurt Busch for Kyle Busch Motorsports
No. 75 - Scott Riggs for Rick Ware Racing
Driver Changes:
No. 08 - Tony Raines is in the seat, replacing Tim Andrews. This car will start-and-park without sponsorship.
No. 4 - Danny Efland returns to the seat, replacing Brad Teague.
No. 10 - An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Kevin Lepage. This car remains TriStar's start-and-park entry.
No. 20 - Michael McDowell is in the seat, replacing Ryan Truex.
No. 22 - Brad Keselowski returns to the seat, replacing Parker Kligerman.
No. 24 - Angela Cope is in the seat, replacing Tim Bainey, Jr. Benny Gordon was originally listed as the driver, but Cope was installed to replace him on Wednesday.
No. 33 - Paul Menard returns to the seat, replacing Ty Dillon.
No. 52 - Tim Schendel returns to the seat, replacing Joey Gase.
No. 99 - Kenny Wallace returns to the seat, replacing John Wes Townley.
Since there are only 43 entries, no one will fail to qualify. However, these drivers must still qualify on speed:
No. 08 - Tony Raines for Randy Hill Racing*
No. 10 - Unknown driver for TriStar Motorsports*
No. 15 - Blake Koch for Rick Ware Racing
No. 20 - Michael McDowell for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 39 - Josh Richards for Go Green Racing
No. 42 - Josh Wise for Key Motorsports*
No. 46 - Chase Miller for Team Motorsports Group*
No. 47 - Scott Speed for Team Motorsports Group*
No. 52 - Tim Schendel for Means Motorsports
No. 71 - Matt Carter for Rick Ware Racing*
No. 74 - Mike Harmon for Mike Harmon Racing*
No. 75 - Scott Riggs for Rick Ware Racing*
No. 89 - Morgan Shepherd for Shepherd Motor Ventures
*- Expected to Start-and-Park
Izod IndyCar Series Milwaukee IndyFest: 25 cars entered
Driver Changes: None
Entries:
No. 2 - Ryan Briscoe for Team Penske
No. 3 - Helio Castroneves for Team Penske
No. 4 - J.R. Hildebrand for Panther Racing
No. 5 - E.J. Viso for KV Racing Technologies
No. 6 - Katherine Legge for Dragon Racing
No. 8 - Rubens Barrichello for KV Racing Technologies
No. 9 - Scott Dixon for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 10 - Dario Franchitti for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 11 - Tony Kanaan for KV Racing Technologies with SH Racing
No. 12 - Will Power for Team Penske
No. 14 - Mike Conway for AJ Foyt Enterprises
No. 15 - Takuma Sato for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
No. 18 - Justin Wilson for Dale Coyne Racing
No. 19 - James Jakes for Dale Coyne Racing
No. 20 - Ed Carpenter for Ed Carpenter Racing
No. 22 - Oriol Servia for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
No. 25 - Ana Beatriz for Andretti Autosport
No. 26 - Marco Andretti for Andretti Autosport
No. 27 - James Hinchcliffe for Andretti Autosport
No. 28 - Ryan Hunter-Reay for Andretti Autosport
No. 38 - Graham Rahal for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 67 - Josef Newgarden for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing
No. 77 - Simon Pagenaud for Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports
No. 78 - Simona de Silvestro for Lotus-HVM Racing
No. 83 - Charlie Kimball for Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 98 - Alex Tagliani for Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian
ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards Raineater Wiper Blades 200: 37 cars entered
Driver Changes:
No. 0 - Brad Smith is in the seat, replacing Don Thompson.
No. 6 - Kyle Larson is in the seat, replacing Milka Duno. This will mark Larson's ARCA Racing Series debut.
No. 7 - Kent Schenkel returns to the seat, replacing Brent Cross.
No. 10 - Rick Clifton is in the seat, replacing Ed Pompa.
No. 66 - John Blankenship is in the seat, replacing A.J. Henriksen.
No. 09 - An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Charles Evans.
Notable Entries:
No. 5 - Bobby Gerhart for Bobby Gerhart Racing
No. 15 - Ryan Reed for Venturini Motorsports
No. 16 - Matt Lofton for Coulter Racing
No. 17 - Chris Buescher for Roulo Brothers Racing
No. 22 - Alex Bowman for Cunningham Motorsports
No. 25 - Brennan Poole for Venturini Motorsports
No. 44 - Frank Kimmel for ThorSport Racing
No. 45 - Clay Rogers
No. 52 - Tom Hessert III for Ken Schrader Racing
No. 55 - Kevin Swindell for Venturini Motorsports
No. 58 - Chad Hackenbracht for CGH Motorsports
No. 61 - Joey Coulter for Coulter Racing
No. 68 - Will Kimmel for Kimmel Racing
No. 82 - Sean Corr for Empire Racing
No. 92 - Brennan Newberry for NTS Motorsports
Not Entered:
No. 07 - Brian Kaltreider for Kaltreider Motorsports
No. 13 - George Cushman for Cushman Racing
Valvoline to Sponsor Germain Racing
Germain Racing announced on Wednesday that Valvoline has been signed to serve as a primary sponsor of the team's No. 13 Ford in two races. The first of those events will be this weekend's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The team will be promoting Valvoline's NextGen motor oil, which is manufactured with 50 percent recycled motor oil.
24 Hours of Le Mans Qualifying Update
This weekend is the 24 Hours of Le Mans (full race coverage will be aired on SPEED and SPEEDtv.com). However, first round qualifying was held under the shroud of darkness Wednesday night. The results were not all that surprising.
Defending champion Andre Lotterer set the overall fastest time in his No. 1 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro with a time of 3:25.453 (148.396 mph). This lap was almost a tenth of a second quicker than Tom Kristensen in the other Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, who set a 3:25.536. Loic Duval in the No. 3 Audi R18 Ultra was third fastest.
The fastest non-Audi was the No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid driven by Nicolas Lapierre, who turned in a 3:27.191 to qualify fourth. The fastest non-Diesel, non-Hybrid driver was Danny Watts in the No. 21 HPD ARX-03a Honda for Strakka Racing. His lap of 3:32.750 was over seven seconds off the pole, but good enough for seventh quickest.
In LMP2, the No. 46 ORECA 03 Nissan driven by Mathias Beche for Thiriet by TDS Racing was the surprise provisional pole sitter after turning in a lap of 3:39.252 (139.056 mph). This was five-eighths of a second faster than the No. 48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA 03-Nissan. The American-based Starworks Motorsport No. 44 was third-fastest. The Delta Wing turned in a lap of 3:42.612, which is good enough for 26th overall. Speed-wise, the car appears to have LMP2 pace.
In GTE-Pro, it was the No. 74 factory Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 driven by Oliver Gavin with the provisional pole. Gavin turned in a lap of 3:55.910 (129.237 mph), about one-sixth of a second faster than the No. 59 Ferrari 458 Italia for Luxury Racing. The second factory Corvette (No. 73) was third in class.
Flying Lizard Motorsports' No. 79 driven by Patrick Pilet took provisional pole in the GTE-Am class with a lap of 3:57.594 (128.321 mph). Despite the Lizards racing a year old chassis, Pilet's time was sixth fastest overall of the GT cars entered. The No. 75 Prospeed Competition Porsche GT3 RSR was second quickest, while the No. 99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage was third quickest.
Thursday will see two more qualifying sessions that will definitively set the starting order. The first will run from 7:00-9:00pm Continental time (1:00-3:00pm EDT), while the final session will be from 10:00pm-12:00am (4:00-6:00pm EDT).
Have news for Phil and the Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.
~~~~~~~~~~
Got NASCAR-related questions or comments?
Send them John Potts' 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 that keep Frontstretch afloat. Potts' Shots will run on Thursday with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
Today's Featured Commentary
Quick Shots for June 14, 2012
What's Vexing Vito
by Vito Pugliese
- Might Kurt Busch's slight towards The Sporting News' Bob Pockrass end up landing the No. 51 Phoenix Racing team a sponsor after all?
The Jerry Springer Show has expressed an interest in backing the team and driver who's turbulent tenure in James Finch's machine nearly saw him committing career suicide for the second time in six months at Dover two weeks ago. Hmmm, let's see, a show famous for perpetuating the "Trailer Park Trash" stereotype, looking to come into a sport that has tried desperately to shake its own incorrect and similarly negative connotation, essentially celebrating the outbursts and Springer-esque behavior of a driver who is supposed to be learning from his past mistakes. What could go wrong?
- Ford announced that this weekend they would be unveiling some new tweaks to its 2013 Ford Fusion – essentially the third iteration of the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow. Perhaps one of the more encouraging bits to be added to the car is an actual grille – and not a sticker of what looks like a grille.
"We had an opportunity to add more personality and detail to the race car," said Garen Nicoghosian, Ford's Design Manager in charge of the NASCAR project as we reported earlier this week. "We took advantage of this opportunity and sculpted a more aggressive front end and we added grille bars that are identical in design to the production car. We also added more detail to the fog light housings, and created a more detailed headlight area as well. In addition, we also sculpted a more aggressive hood, and were able to achieve a closer look to the production car."
Now I realize that we're way past the point of these being stock cars – anybody who waxes poetic about "the good ole days" of stock cars needs to go back to about the mid-1960s if they wish to find an actual stock car with a stock engine – but at least we're getting back to where the cars actually do bear a resemblance or even use a few stock pieces at speed in competition. The last time I can remember anything being somewhat close to a stock car were the 1986-87 Monte Carlo SS Aero Coupe and Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 with their fastback rear window caps, and hastily cobbled together packaging to make them into production units.
- With Joey Logano's win at Pocono last weekend, I was reminded how things have changed over the last decade or so in NASCAR. It used to be that hitting a guy from behind in the middle of a corner was frowned upon and considered dirty pool; not necessarily "good hard racin'."
Had DW done that to The King at Darlington in 1979, how do you think that would have ultimately turned out? Right, Dale Inman would probably just be getting out of jail right about now or we would be talking about the 201-win milestone that would never be beaten -- and how Cale and Darrell are arguing over who has more wins, not Bobby Allison.
If the plan was to get somebody loose to execute a pass, you did it coming off the corner – after all, what skill does it take and how fair is it really to plow into the back of somebody in the middle of a turn when a car is at its most unstable to pass them?
In the old days that would usually end up with a guy coming up to your car with an axle or a tire iron to discuss the incident. Jeff Gordon did the deed to Rusty Wallace a couple of times; once at Bristol in 1997 and again in 2002. Kurt Busch did it to Jimmy Spencer at Bristol in 2002 and to Sterling Marlin in 2003 – the later instance resulted in Marlin backing it into the wall. Rusty ended up retaliating at Richmond in 1997, admitted he was trying to get back to him to turn Gordon in '02, while Spencer and Kurt Busch's fallout is now the thing of legend.
In short, it wasn't always accepted, and often escalated hostilities.
In 1999, a driver all of 19 years of age was the talk of the garage named Casey Atwood. This was during the unfortunately phrased "Young Gun" era, when every team and sponsor decided they needed somebody under 30 to pilot their racecar. Atwood passed Jeff Green in a similar fashion for his first Busch Series (i.e., Nationwide) victory at the Milwaukee Mile. Atwood had led 143 of 250 laps that day, while Green took over from lap 173 to 249. Coming through the third and fourth turns on the final lap, Atwood popped Green from behind, shoved him out of the groove, and went on to claim the victory.
At the time, Green was none too pleased with the maneuver, and it raised more than a few eyebrows in the process. The win was not as roundly celebrated as it would have been had he made the move cleanly and not ran into the back of a defenseless driver on a flat track. Atwood ended up just winning one more race that season, which would end up being the only wins of a career that never seemed to gain traction.
Does this mean I'm bad mouthing Logano and predicting some sort of karmatic justice upon him for winning Sunday? Not at all. Joey Logano is a true rare talent that comes along once every 25 years, and will probably end up winning 100 races between Nationwide and Cup before he's 30 years old. He did have the fastest car all day Sunday, and he is in effect driving to keep his ride at Joe Gibbs Racing, one that he nearly lost a year ago in the bidding war for Carl Edwards. However, it just goes to show how times have changed, how desperate moves and how "the ends justify the means" mentality of racing today has changed etiquette on the track.
As Mark Martin said in his post-race interview in the media center, "that's not how I'd have done it." Martin is one of our last links to the way things used to be to where we are today in NASCAR, and remains the litmus test to what is truly "old school" and what is simply "accepted" in our sport today.
Vito Pugliese is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at vito.pugliese@frontstretch.com.
~~~~~~~~~~
COME JOIN THE FRONTSTRETCH FAMILY!
Hey Frontstretch Readers,
We are looking for someone who shares our enthusiasm for NASCAR and has an experienced background in web design. Specifically, we are looking for someone who can help maintain and enhance our website, increase our SEO, and upgrade our publishing platform while producing a limited amount of content throughout the season. This job presents a perfect opportunity for someone with a technical background, a person who wants their work to gain national exposure.
If you are interested, contact frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com. Please include references to your past work in your e-mail.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Critic's Annex: Pocono ARCA 200
by Phil Allaway
Hello, race fans. Welcome back to the Critic's Annex, where additional motorsport television critique is the name of the game. Last weekend brought us a relatively varied schedule with superspeedway racing and road racing. Supporting Sprint Cup at the newly-repaved Pocono Raceway was the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.
The main talk at the beginning of the telecast was not only on the new pavement, but on the move by ARCA to mandate tapered spacers in order to slow the cars, a first for the series. Ultimately, this led to a rather unusual style of racing on Saturday. Brakes were nowhere near as important in the event as they were in the Cup race on Sunday.
This race will probably be best known for the really quirky crash that Aleks Gregory suffered before the start of the race. It's unclear what happened to cause the incident. Rick Allen and Phil Parsons theorized that the crash was caused by Gregory losing control while shifting up from second to third gear (the crash occurred after the second pace car had pulled off and the rest of the field was catching up to the front bunch). We'll never know for sure, especially since SPEED failed to procure an interview with Gregory. There was also no indication that they sought out Gregory for comment.
The race telecast itself was not that bad. Anyone who saw this race on Saturday (or a repeat of it) would agree that Brennan Poole stunk up the show. When I watched the race live, I was convinced that Poole had led flag-to-flag. That wasn't quite the case, but it might as well had been.
Aside from the can that Poole was administering to the field, one of the biggest stories were the highly localized tire problems that plagued Kevin Swindell in particular. Swindell had at least two failures during the race that dropped him completely out of contention. All of them were left-front tires and all three went down after a relatively short amount of time.
SPEED didn't really publicize the fact that they actually put the race on a one-hour tape delay, but they did. Most people watching the race probably did not even notice, but there were two times in which SPEED just hit the pause button so that they could take a break. One of those was during the pace laps after Gregory wrecked. The other one was with 11 laps to go. Typically, you would only do that if you knew something really sweet was coming up. That wasn't really the case on Saturday,
Post-race coverage was decent by ARCA standards. There were interviews with the top-3 finishers (Poole, Chad Hackenbracht and Alex Bowman), and the winning crew chief (Billy Venturini). There were also checks of the unofficial results and point standings before SPEED left the air.
All in all, SPEED's telecast wasn't all that bad. I still feel that they should have tracked down Gregory for comment following his unusual wreck. However, given the circumstances, there is the possibility that Gregory might have been unwilling to talk to the media afterwards because of sheer embarrassment. Of course, if they did track Gregory down and he refused to talk on-camera, they should have notified viewers of that fact.
Outside of that, SPEED did show us some battles for position. However, these were few and far between due to the fact that the field spread out substantially. Allen and Parsons did make a relatively boring race interesting, and I thank them for that, though.
That's all for this week. I know, it's a short critique, but there sadly wasn't much to tell about this race. Next week, I'll be back with more criticism. Until then, enjoy this weekend's racing in Michigan, Milwaukee and Le Mans.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Beyond the Cockpit: The McReynolds Family's Newest NASCAR Success Story
"No, the main group, long story short, was me, Joey Logano, Coleman Pressley, Corey LaJoie and Kyle Grissom. We entered a 12 hour go-kart race down at Victory Lane Karting in North Charlotte. We had to come up with a name. We asked what the names were and the guy that worked there told us we were the last group to enter so we had some names to choose from or we could come up with our own. Coleman Pressley had the great idea, 'since we were the last ones I guess we're the Field Fillers.' We were like, 'Why don't we use that for our name?'" - Brandon McReynolds, explaining to our Mike Neff how the nickname "Field Fillers" came about.
~~~~~~~~~~
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 tony.lumbis@frontstretch.com for details.
~~~~~~~~~~
TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
MPM2Nite: The 1973 Daytona 500 -- A Father's Day Tribute
by Matt McLaughlin
Dollars And Sense: Jerry Springer's Corporate Exception To The Kurt Rule~~~~~~~~~~
The Critic's Annex: Pocono ARCA 200
by Phil Allaway
Hello, race fans. Welcome back to the Critic's Annex, where additional motorsport television critique is the name of the game. Last weekend brought us a relatively varied schedule with superspeedway racing and road racing. Supporting Sprint Cup at the newly-repaved Pocono Raceway was the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.
The main talk at the beginning of the telecast was not only on the new pavement, but on the move by ARCA to mandate tapered spacers in order to slow the cars, a first for the series. Ultimately, this led to a rather unusual style of racing on Saturday. Brakes were nowhere near as important in the event as they were in the Cup race on Sunday.
This race will probably be best known for the really quirky crash that Aleks Gregory suffered before the start of the race. It's unclear what happened to cause the incident. Rick Allen and Phil Parsons theorized that the crash was caused by Gregory losing control while shifting up from second to third gear (the crash occurred after the second pace car had pulled off and the rest of the field was catching up to the front bunch). We'll never know for sure, especially since SPEED failed to procure an interview with Gregory. There was also no indication that they sought out Gregory for comment.
The race telecast itself was not that bad. Anyone who saw this race on Saturday (or a repeat of it) would agree that Brennan Poole stunk up the show. When I watched the race live, I was convinced that Poole had led flag-to-flag. That wasn't quite the case, but it might as well had been.
Aside from the can that Poole was administering to the field, one of the biggest stories were the highly localized tire problems that plagued Kevin Swindell in particular. Swindell had at least two failures during the race that dropped him completely out of contention. All of them were left-front tires and all three went down after a relatively short amount of time.
SPEED didn't really publicize the fact that they actually put the race on a one-hour tape delay, but they did. Most people watching the race probably did not even notice, but there were two times in which SPEED just hit the pause button so that they could take a break. One of those was during the pace laps after Gregory wrecked. The other one was with 11 laps to go. Typically, you would only do that if you knew something really sweet was coming up. That wasn't really the case on Saturday,
Post-race coverage was decent by ARCA standards. There were interviews with the top-3 finishers (Poole, Chad Hackenbracht and Alex Bowman), and the winning crew chief (Billy Venturini). There were also checks of the unofficial results and point standings before SPEED left the air.
All in all, SPEED's telecast wasn't all that bad. I still feel that they should have tracked down Gregory for comment following his unusual wreck. However, given the circumstances, there is the possibility that Gregory might have been unwilling to talk to the media afterwards because of sheer embarrassment. Of course, if they did track Gregory down and he refused to talk on-camera, they should have notified viewers of that fact.
Outside of that, SPEED did show us some battles for position. However, these were few and far between due to the fact that the field spread out substantially. Allen and Parsons did make a relatively boring race interesting, and I thank them for that, though.
That's all for this week. I know, it's a short critique, but there sadly wasn't much to tell about this race. Next week, I'll be back with more criticism. Until then, enjoy this weekend's racing in Michigan, Milwaukee and Le Mans.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Beyond the Cockpit: The McReynolds Family's Newest NASCAR Success Story
"No, the main group, long story short, was me, Joey Logano, Coleman Pressley, Corey LaJoie and Kyle Grissom. We entered a 12 hour go-kart race down at Victory Lane Karting in North Charlotte. We had to come up with a name. We asked what the names were and the guy that worked there told us we were the last group to enter so we had some names to choose from or we could come up with our own. Coleman Pressley had the great idea, 'since we were the last ones I guess we're the Field Fillers.' We were like, 'Why don't we use that for our name?'" - Brandon McReynolds, explaining to our Mike Neff how the nickname "Field Fillers" came about.
~~~~~~~~~~
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 tony.lumbis@frontstretch.com for details.
~~~~~~~~~~
TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
MPM2Nite: The 1973 Daytona 500 -- A Father's Day Tribute
by Matt McLaughlin
by Jesse Medford
Potts' Shots: Track Dying, Hardly Trying And Repave Crying
by John Potts
Professor Of Speed: A Kurt Response
by Mark Howell
Truckin' Thursdays: Three Drivers Vying For First Series Win
by Beth Lunkenheimer
~~~~~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: The 1993 Detroit Gasket 200 for the then-Busch Grand National Series saw Mark Martin hold off Dale Earnhardt to take his third win of the season in his eighth start (Interesting Note: Martin either won, or DNF'd in every Busch race he competed in that season). However, Earnhardt was DQ'd after the race. Why?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: The 1982 Gabriel 400 at Michigan was supposed to be televised live on CBS. However, they bailed early on due to rain and didn't return. NASCAR did get the race in and Cale Yarborough made it to Victory Lane in his Valvoline Buick. However, how late was it when he got there?
A: It was approximately 9:30 PM EDT when the 400-mile event was completed. The storm that put the race under the red flag kept it there for over five hours. Only the combination of the mid-June race date (one of the longest days of the year), combined with Michigan being in the western part of the Eastern time zone allowed for the race to be run to completion at all. Of course, having said that, it was basically dark by the time the checkered flag fell.
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 tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Jeff Wolfe
-- In Case You Missed It by Nick Schwartz
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, trivia, and more!
~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Four Burning Questions: Michigan Edition by Summer Bedgood
Summer is back with a four-part look at some interesting stories as we look forward to Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
Amy returns with another interesting commentary.
Friday Fast Forward Into NASCAR's Future by Bryan Davis Keith
Bryan returns with another interesting commentary piece on the Nationwide Series to prepare you for Saturday's Alliance Truck Parts 250.
Voices From the Heartland by Jeff Meyer
Our Tennessee transplant returns with another interesting take on recent events.
IndyCar Series Preview: Milwaukee IndyFest by Matt Stallknecht
Matt takes a look at what to expect in Saturday afternoon's Milwaukee IndyFest at The Milwaukee Mile.
Driver Diary: Regan Smith as told to Tony Lumbis
Regan returns to discuss the past month on and off the track.
-----------------------------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 tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Jeff Wolfe
-- In Case You Missed It by Nick Schwartz
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, trivia, and more!
~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Four Burning Questions: Michigan Edition by Summer Bedgood
Summer is back with a four-part look at some interesting stories as we look forward to Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
Amy returns with another interesting commentary.
Friday Fast Forward Into NASCAR's Future by Bryan Davis Keith
Bryan returns with another interesting commentary piece on the Nationwide Series to prepare you for Saturday's Alliance Truck Parts 250.
Voices From the Heartland by Jeff Meyer
Our Tennessee transplant returns with another interesting take on recent events.
IndyCar Series Preview: Milwaukee IndyFest by Matt Stallknecht
Matt takes a look at what to expect in Saturday afternoon's Milwaukee IndyFest at The Milwaukee Mile.
Driver Diary: Regan Smith as told to Tony Lumbis
Regan returns to discuss the past month on and off the track.
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