THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
July 2nd, 2012
Volume V, Edition CXXII
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Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
July 2nd, 2012
Volume V, Edition CXXII
~~~~~~~~~~~
Sprint Cup Race Recap: Keselowski Overcomes Multiple Issues to Win Quaker State 400
by Jeff Wolfe
Brad Keselowski had plenty of issues to deal with over the weekend.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup driver had only one lap of practice Friday in his primary car before crashing and moving to his backup. Keselowski also wasn't happy with fellow driver Juan Pablo Montoya's aggressive driving that contributed to the practice crash. Then, just before the start of Saturday night's race at Kentucky Speedway, Keselowski checked his steering wheel only to find it was broken. Luckily, that was a quick and easy fix.
And like all the drivers, crew and the estimated 105,000 fans in attendance at the second Sprint Cup race at the track, he had to deal with the 100-degree heat.
But, none of those were enough to keep Keselowski from becoming the first three-time winner in the Sprint Cup series this season. It was his seventh career victory as he led the final 56 laps after running in the top five for most of the race.
"Well, it was probably the toughest weekend as a team that we've ever had up to this point," said Keselowski's crew chief, Paul Wolfe. "Not only did we have obviously really high temperatures. But having trouble on the first lap of the racetrack always sets you back. One thing about all the guys on the Miller Lite team is it seems like we're able to find another level to work when it comes to adversity."
Keselowski, sometimes known as "Bad Brad" seems to raise his intensity too under difficult circumstances or maybe when he has reason to be upset with another driver
.
"Certainly there's always that little bit extra you get when you're fired up," said Keselowski, who said he did not speak with Montoya after the practice incident. "A lot of people would say that's a bad thing in a race car. The adrenaline is the worst thing that can happen to you, because you don't focus as well. Well, maybe it's not. I don't know. I ain't the one to answer that.
"But I do like the result, and whatever way, whatever I've got to do to get them, I'll get them. But I'm not going to be pushed around, and that's one code that I'm going to continue to live by. That's how it shaped out in the beginning, and for whatever reason it worked out the way it did in the end, and I'm not sure why. But it did, and I'm thankful for that."
It's not the first time Keselowski has thrived under difficult circumstances. He won the August race at Pocono last season, when it was 500 miles, after suffering a broken foot in a testing crash the Wednesday before the race.
"I think you see that with the driver as well as you look back to last summer when Bad Brad had a broken foot," Wolfe said. "And we were able to take that and I don't know if he thrives off of that or what, but it seems like when some people might think we're down and out, we're able to find a whole other level to compete and find ourselves in Victory Lane."
Just getting those victories is what Keselowski is focusing on. While the No. 2 team has had its share of inconsistencies this season to keep it at tenth in the points standings, the three wins virtually guarantee it a place in NASCAR's playoffs, the last ten races called the Chase for the Championship.
"I think looking ahead means trying to make sure we just stay in the top-10," said Keselowski, who led 68 laps. "I think you all got the points backwards. You look at who is leading with most points earned. That don't mean anything. The only thing that means anything is what's going to restart when the Chase is going, when it starts. That's going to be based off of who is in the top-10 and who has the most wins. That is the only thing that matters."
None of what Keselowski and his team did Saturday night would have mattered had he not realized his steering wheel was broken before the race.
"I put it on before the race started, gave it a tug, and it broke in my hands," Keselowski said of the steering wheel. "If that would happen on the racetrack today we'd have been obviously not winning the race and potentially worse. So I'm glad I back checked it before the race started and glad we were able to get a new one on the car."
The only possible issue, and chance for his pursuers, was if Keselowski ran out of fuel. He took his last pit stop on lap 208 of the 267 lap race and appeared to be saving some fuel on the final laps. But that wasn't a factor as he had more than a five-second lead on Denny Hamlin and eventual second-place finisher Kasey Kahne, who appeared to have the fastest car late in the race after rebounding from being a lap down due to a loose tire earlier in the race.
"I just hoped he'd run out of gas," Kahne said. "There was no way I was catching him. We had enough gas to run as hard as I could all the way to the finish, and I was hoping his would shut off, off of two or something."
There were plenty of other contenders throughout Saturday's event on the 1.5-mile oval, but they each had issues that were too much to overcome.
Hamlin, who finished third, would have liked to have challenged Keselowski, but had to conserve fuel throughout the final green-flag run of 47 laps in a race that saw four cautions for 24 laps.
"We knew we had to save fuel the entire last run," said Hamlin, who led 58 laps and announced before the race he had reached a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing. "There was nothing I could do. As much as I wanted to keep the (No.) 2 honest and run him hard, I had to run a certain pace, and that's all I was allowed to do if we were going to make it to the end."
The rest of the top-10 following Hamlin was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in fourth, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex, Jr., A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Busch. Busch led a race-high 118 laps, but suffered a broken shock mount on his car after contact with the wall exiting Turn 2. Busch needed to pit four times during the final yellow to get the shock mount replaced and rallied to finish where he did.
Johnson, who started on the pole and led 21 laps in a race that had 17 lead changes among six drivers, dropped back on the final restart when his car was extremely loose and he thought a tire might be going down. However, the No. 48 regained its handling and he picked up several spots in the final 20 laps to give Hendrick Racing four of the top six finishers in the race with Kahne, Earnhardt Jr., Gordon and Johnson.
"To see how well the Hendrick cars are right now, I mean, it's great to see," Kahne said. "It's great to be part of that. All of the guys should be really happy because they've prepared us some pretty nice cars and our engines run great. It is nice to be part of that organization."
The Sprint Cup Series returns to action Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. Coverage starts with Countdown to Green at 6:30pm. TNT's special "Wide Open Coverage" of the Coke Zero 400 (with limited commercial interruptions) will start at 7:30pm.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via e-mail at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
Tracking The Chase: Wild Card Race Starting to Get Wild
by Jeff Wolfe
One of the ways NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers can qualify for the sport's playoff system, the Chase for the Sprint Cup, is through a wild-card berth. While the top-10 in points are guaranteed a place in the Chase, the final two, or wild card, spots go to the drivers with the most wins inside the top-20 points.
After Saturday night's race at Kentucky Speedway, and with nine races remaining in NASCAR's 26-race regular season, the wild-card picture became anything but clearer, especially for the final wild-card spot.
Kyle Busch, who is 12th in points, currently holds the first wild card with his one victory this season. He has a 32-point lead over the next wild card qualifier, which is now Kasey Kahne.
And this is where it all gets interesting. Kahne used a furious rally in the final laps Saturday night to finish second. The result is it left him in a three-way tie for the final wild-card spot with Ryan Newman and Joey Logano as they each have one win and each have 463 points on the season. At the moment though, Kahne is considered the leader because after victories, the next tiebreaker is most second-place finishes, then most third-place finishes and so on. So, Kahne is 14th in the standings, Newman 15th and Logano 16th. Kahne has four top-five finishes this season, Newman two and Logano one. Newman, who started fifth, finished 34th due to an accident. Logano finished one lap down in 22nd Saturday.
Some other big names were also losers in the points standings Saturday. Defending champion Tony Stewart, who was fifth in the standings to start the night, finished 32nd as his team dealt with fuel injection issues early in the race. That dropped him to ninth in the standings, eight points ahead of tenth-place Brad Keselowski. Stewart does have two wins this season, so his Chase chances seem to be on solid ground. The same is true with Keselowski, who won Saturday and now has three victories on the season.
Another significant name to walk away frustrated was Carl Edwards. He is 11th in points, but does not have a victory and is now 34 points behind Keselowski. Edwards was running third late in the race, but knew he would have to pit for fuel if there were no cautions. And since there were none in the final 47 laps, the gas-and-go stop cost him several spots as he finished 20th.
One big gainer on the night inside the top-10 was Denny Hamlin. He finished third and jumped three spots to fifth. There is however, just 28 points between the fifth and tenth spots.
Drivers inside the top-20 without a win who could make the wild card chase even more interesting if they did win include Edwards, Paul Menard in 13th, Marcos Ambrose in 17th and Jeff Gordon in 18th. Menard has a 14-point lead on the Kahne, Newman and Logano trio and is 18 points behind Busch. Ambrose is just seven points behind the Kahne, Newman and Logano trio and Gordon is just 10 points behind the trio. A victory by any of those drivers would certainly put them in position to make the Chase. The final regular season race is at Richmond Sept. 8.
.
Standings: 1) Matt Kenseth 633, 2) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -11, 3) Jimmie Johnson -23, 4) Greg Biffle -25, t-5) Denny Hamlin -68), t-5) Kevin Harvick -68, 7) Clint Bowyer -76, 8) Martin Truex, Jr. -77, 9) Tony Stewart -88, 10) Brad Keselowski -96.
Wild Cards: Kyle Busch 12th in points, 1 win; Kasey Kahne 14th in points, 1 win (Kahne gets the spot via a tiebraker over both Ryan Newman and Joey Logano).
Race Winners: Matt Kenseth (Daytona), Denny Hamlin (Phoenix, Kansas), Tony Stewart (Las Vegas, Fontana), Brad Keselowski (Bristol, Talladega, Kentucky), Ryan Newman (Martinsville), Greg Biffle (Texas); Kyle Busch (Richmond), Jimmie Johnson (Darlington, Dover), Kasey Kahne (Charlotte), Joey Logano (Pocono), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Michigan), Clint Bowyer (Sonoma).
Tracking the Top 35: The Margin is Now a Race and a Half between 35th and 36th
While NASCAR guarantees a starting spot for the top-35 in the owners points standings each week, those close, or the one on, the 35th-place bubble still have plenty of cushion as there is a 65-point gap between the 35th-place car and the 36th-place car. The No. 36 car driven by Dave Blaney Saturday sits in the 35th spot, but with the lead over the No. 33 car driven by Stephen Leicht at 65 points, it is an increase of six points from last week. Blaney finished 35th Saturday and Leicht was 41st.
Here's your owners point standings around the all-important cutoff.
29) Front Row Motorsports (No. 34 - David Ragan), 137 points ahead of 36th.
30) BK Racing (No. 93 – Travis Kvapil), 126 points ahead of 36th.
31) Front Row Motorsports (No. 38 - David Gilliland), 124 points ahead of 36th.
32) BK Racing (No. 83 - Landon Cassill), 90 points ahead of 36th.
33) Tommy Baldwin Racing/Stewart-Haas Racing (No. 10 – David Reutimann), 80 points ahead of 36th.
34) FAS Lane Racing (No. 32 – Ken Schrader), 74 points ahead of 36th.
35) Tommy Baldwin Racing (No. 36 – Dave Blaney), 65 points ahead of 36th.
36) Richard Childress Racing/ LJ Racing (No. 33 – Stephen Leicht), 65 points behind 35th.
t-37) Wood Brothers Racing (No. 21 - Trevor Bayne), 104 points behind 35th.
t-37) Robinson-Blakeney Racing (No. 49 - J.J. Yeley), 104 points behind 35th.
39) Inception Motorsports (No. 30 – Dave Stremme), 110 points behind 35th.
40) Phil Parsons Racing (No. 98 – Michael McDowell), 128 points behind 35th
41) Front Row Motorsports (No. 26 - Josh Wise), 130 points behind 35th.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
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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 Thursdays with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
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Secret Star of the Week: The Race You Never Saw
For BK Racing, 2012 started out as a real struggle. Both Landon Cassill and Travis Kvapil were having trouble outqualifying start-and-park teams. Worse yet, once they got to the race, they would get caught up in incidents, or like at Las Vegas, blow engines. However, of late, both drivers are showing improved form. Most of Cassill's best performances have come in qualifying, even though he does have a couple of 18th-place finishes, most recently at Michigan a couple of weeks ago.
However, on Saturday night, Kvapil put together one of his best runs of the season, keeping himself on the lead lap all night and eventually finishing 17th. This is not Kvapil's best finish of the season (he finished 16th at Talladega in May). However, earning a top-20 finish at an intermediate track is quite a bit different than getting one in a restrictor plate race. It is much harder to accomplish, especially in a race that had as few cautions as Saturday night's race.
STAT OF THE WEEK: 17. For Carl Edwards, this represents the number of points that Carl Edwards lost on Saturday night pressing his luck on fuel mileage (he dropped from third to 20th). Yes, Edwards is still 11th in points, but he is now 34 points behind tenth-place Brad Keselowski, who just won his third race of the year. With nine races to go before the Chase begins, and no victories so far (making him ineligible for the Wild Card), it will be an uphill battle for Edwards, last year's runner-up in the points, to even qualify for the Chase.
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by Jeff Wolfe
Brad Keselowski had plenty of issues to deal with over the weekend.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup driver had only one lap of practice Friday in his primary car before crashing and moving to his backup. Keselowski also wasn't happy with fellow driver Juan Pablo Montoya's aggressive driving that contributed to the practice crash. Then, just before the start of Saturday night's race at Kentucky Speedway, Keselowski checked his steering wheel only to find it was broken. Luckily, that was a quick and easy fix.
And like all the drivers, crew and the estimated 105,000 fans in attendance at the second Sprint Cup race at the track, he had to deal with the 100-degree heat.
But, none of those were enough to keep Keselowski from becoming the first three-time winner in the Sprint Cup series this season. It was his seventh career victory as he led the final 56 laps after running in the top five for most of the race.
"Well, it was probably the toughest weekend as a team that we've ever had up to this point," said Keselowski's crew chief, Paul Wolfe. "Not only did we have obviously really high temperatures. But having trouble on the first lap of the racetrack always sets you back. One thing about all the guys on the Miller Lite team is it seems like we're able to find another level to work when it comes to adversity."
Keselowski, sometimes known as "Bad Brad" seems to raise his intensity too under difficult circumstances or maybe when he has reason to be upset with another driver
.
"Certainly there's always that little bit extra you get when you're fired up," said Keselowski, who said he did not speak with Montoya after the practice incident. "A lot of people would say that's a bad thing in a race car. The adrenaline is the worst thing that can happen to you, because you don't focus as well. Well, maybe it's not. I don't know. I ain't the one to answer that.
"But I do like the result, and whatever way, whatever I've got to do to get them, I'll get them. But I'm not going to be pushed around, and that's one code that I'm going to continue to live by. That's how it shaped out in the beginning, and for whatever reason it worked out the way it did in the end, and I'm not sure why. But it did, and I'm thankful for that."
It's not the first time Keselowski has thrived under difficult circumstances. He won the August race at Pocono last season, when it was 500 miles, after suffering a broken foot in a testing crash the Wednesday before the race.
"I think you see that with the driver as well as you look back to last summer when Bad Brad had a broken foot," Wolfe said. "And we were able to take that and I don't know if he thrives off of that or what, but it seems like when some people might think we're down and out, we're able to find a whole other level to compete and find ourselves in Victory Lane."
Just getting those victories is what Keselowski is focusing on. While the No. 2 team has had its share of inconsistencies this season to keep it at tenth in the points standings, the three wins virtually guarantee it a place in NASCAR's playoffs, the last ten races called the Chase for the Championship.
"I think looking ahead means trying to make sure we just stay in the top-10," said Keselowski, who led 68 laps. "I think you all got the points backwards. You look at who is leading with most points earned. That don't mean anything. The only thing that means anything is what's going to restart when the Chase is going, when it starts. That's going to be based off of who is in the top-10 and who has the most wins. That is the only thing that matters."
None of what Keselowski and his team did Saturday night would have mattered had he not realized his steering wheel was broken before the race.
"I put it on before the race started, gave it a tug, and it broke in my hands," Keselowski said of the steering wheel. "If that would happen on the racetrack today we'd have been obviously not winning the race and potentially worse. So I'm glad I back checked it before the race started and glad we were able to get a new one on the car."
The only possible issue, and chance for his pursuers, was if Keselowski ran out of fuel. He took his last pit stop on lap 208 of the 267 lap race and appeared to be saving some fuel on the final laps. But that wasn't a factor as he had more than a five-second lead on Denny Hamlin and eventual second-place finisher Kasey Kahne, who appeared to have the fastest car late in the race after rebounding from being a lap down due to a loose tire earlier in the race.
"I just hoped he'd run out of gas," Kahne said. "There was no way I was catching him. We had enough gas to run as hard as I could all the way to the finish, and I was hoping his would shut off, off of two or something."
There were plenty of other contenders throughout Saturday's event on the 1.5-mile oval, but they each had issues that were too much to overcome.
Hamlin, who finished third, would have liked to have challenged Keselowski, but had to conserve fuel throughout the final green-flag run of 47 laps in a race that saw four cautions for 24 laps.
"We knew we had to save fuel the entire last run," said Hamlin, who led 58 laps and announced before the race he had reached a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing. "There was nothing I could do. As much as I wanted to keep the (No.) 2 honest and run him hard, I had to run a certain pace, and that's all I was allowed to do if we were going to make it to the end."
The rest of the top-10 following Hamlin was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in fourth, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex, Jr., A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Busch. Busch led a race-high 118 laps, but suffered a broken shock mount on his car after contact with the wall exiting Turn 2. Busch needed to pit four times during the final yellow to get the shock mount replaced and rallied to finish where he did.
Johnson, who started on the pole and led 21 laps in a race that had 17 lead changes among six drivers, dropped back on the final restart when his car was extremely loose and he thought a tire might be going down. However, the No. 48 regained its handling and he picked up several spots in the final 20 laps to give Hendrick Racing four of the top six finishers in the race with Kahne, Earnhardt Jr., Gordon and Johnson.
"To see how well the Hendrick cars are right now, I mean, it's great to see," Kahne said. "It's great to be part of that. All of the guys should be really happy because they've prepared us some pretty nice cars and our engines run great. It is nice to be part of that organization."
The Sprint Cup Series returns to action Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. Coverage starts with Countdown to Green at 6:30pm. TNT's special "Wide Open Coverage" of the Coke Zero 400 (with limited commercial interruptions) will start at 7:30pm.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via e-mail at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
Tracking The Chase: Wild Card Race Starting to Get Wild
by Jeff Wolfe
One of the ways NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers can qualify for the sport's playoff system, the Chase for the Sprint Cup, is through a wild-card berth. While the top-10 in points are guaranteed a place in the Chase, the final two, or wild card, spots go to the drivers with the most wins inside the top-20 points.
After Saturday night's race at Kentucky Speedway, and with nine races remaining in NASCAR's 26-race regular season, the wild-card picture became anything but clearer, especially for the final wild-card spot.
Kyle Busch, who is 12th in points, currently holds the first wild card with his one victory this season. He has a 32-point lead over the next wild card qualifier, which is now Kasey Kahne.
And this is where it all gets interesting. Kahne used a furious rally in the final laps Saturday night to finish second. The result is it left him in a three-way tie for the final wild-card spot with Ryan Newman and Joey Logano as they each have one win and each have 463 points on the season. At the moment though, Kahne is considered the leader because after victories, the next tiebreaker is most second-place finishes, then most third-place finishes and so on. So, Kahne is 14th in the standings, Newman 15th and Logano 16th. Kahne has four top-five finishes this season, Newman two and Logano one. Newman, who started fifth, finished 34th due to an accident. Logano finished one lap down in 22nd Saturday.
Some other big names were also losers in the points standings Saturday. Defending champion Tony Stewart, who was fifth in the standings to start the night, finished 32nd as his team dealt with fuel injection issues early in the race. That dropped him to ninth in the standings, eight points ahead of tenth-place Brad Keselowski. Stewart does have two wins this season, so his Chase chances seem to be on solid ground. The same is true with Keselowski, who won Saturday and now has three victories on the season.
Another significant name to walk away frustrated was Carl Edwards. He is 11th in points, but does not have a victory and is now 34 points behind Keselowski. Edwards was running third late in the race, but knew he would have to pit for fuel if there were no cautions. And since there were none in the final 47 laps, the gas-and-go stop cost him several spots as he finished 20th.
One big gainer on the night inside the top-10 was Denny Hamlin. He finished third and jumped three spots to fifth. There is however, just 28 points between the fifth and tenth spots.
Drivers inside the top-20 without a win who could make the wild card chase even more interesting if they did win include Edwards, Paul Menard in 13th, Marcos Ambrose in 17th and Jeff Gordon in 18th. Menard has a 14-point lead on the Kahne, Newman and Logano trio and is 18 points behind Busch. Ambrose is just seven points behind the Kahne, Newman and Logano trio and Gordon is just 10 points behind the trio. A victory by any of those drivers would certainly put them in position to make the Chase. The final regular season race is at Richmond Sept. 8.
.
Standings: 1) Matt Kenseth 633, 2) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -11, 3) Jimmie Johnson -23, 4) Greg Biffle -25, t-5) Denny Hamlin -68), t-5) Kevin Harvick -68, 7) Clint Bowyer -76, 8) Martin Truex, Jr. -77, 9) Tony Stewart -88, 10) Brad Keselowski -96.
Wild Cards: Kyle Busch 12th in points, 1 win; Kasey Kahne 14th in points, 1 win (Kahne gets the spot via a tiebraker over both Ryan Newman and Joey Logano).
Race Winners: Matt Kenseth (Daytona), Denny Hamlin (Phoenix, Kansas), Tony Stewart (Las Vegas, Fontana), Brad Keselowski (Bristol, Talladega, Kentucky), Ryan Newman (Martinsville), Greg Biffle (Texas); Kyle Busch (Richmond), Jimmie Johnson (Darlington, Dover), Kasey Kahne (Charlotte), Joey Logano (Pocono), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Michigan), Clint Bowyer (Sonoma).
Tracking the Top 35: The Margin is Now a Race and a Half between 35th and 36th
While NASCAR guarantees a starting spot for the top-35 in the owners points standings each week, those close, or the one on, the 35th-place bubble still have plenty of cushion as there is a 65-point gap between the 35th-place car and the 36th-place car. The No. 36 car driven by Dave Blaney Saturday sits in the 35th spot, but with the lead over the No. 33 car driven by Stephen Leicht at 65 points, it is an increase of six points from last week. Blaney finished 35th Saturday and Leicht was 41st.
Here's your owners point standings around the all-important cutoff.
29) Front Row Motorsports (No. 34 - David Ragan), 137 points ahead of 36th.
30) BK Racing (No. 93 – Travis Kvapil), 126 points ahead of 36th.
31) Front Row Motorsports (No. 38 - David Gilliland), 124 points ahead of 36th.
32) BK Racing (No. 83 - Landon Cassill), 90 points ahead of 36th.
33) Tommy Baldwin Racing/Stewart-Haas Racing (No. 10 – David Reutimann), 80 points ahead of 36th.
34) FAS Lane Racing (No. 32 – Ken Schrader), 74 points ahead of 36th.
35) Tommy Baldwin Racing (No. 36 – Dave Blaney), 65 points ahead of 36th.
36) Richard Childress Racing/ LJ Racing (No. 33 – Stephen Leicht), 65 points behind 35th.
t-37) Wood Brothers Racing (No. 21 - Trevor Bayne), 104 points behind 35th.
t-37) Robinson-Blakeney Racing (No. 49 - J.J. Yeley), 104 points behind 35th.
39) Inception Motorsports (No. 30 – Dave Stremme), 110 points behind 35th.
40) Phil Parsons Racing (No. 98 – Michael McDowell), 128 points behind 35th
41) Front Row Motorsports (No. 26 - Josh Wise), 130 points behind 35th.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
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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 Thursdays with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
~~~~~~~~~~
Secret Star of the Week: The Race You Never Saw
For BK Racing, 2012 started out as a real struggle. Both Landon Cassill and Travis Kvapil were having trouble outqualifying start-and-park teams. Worse yet, once they got to the race, they would get caught up in incidents, or like at Las Vegas, blow engines. However, of late, both drivers are showing improved form. Most of Cassill's best performances have come in qualifying, even though he does have a couple of 18th-place finishes, most recently at Michigan a couple of weeks ago.
However, on Saturday night, Kvapil put together one of his best runs of the season, keeping himself on the lead lap all night and eventually finishing 17th. This is not Kvapil's best finish of the season (he finished 16th at Talladega in May). However, earning a top-20 finish at an intermediate track is quite a bit different than getting one in a restrictor plate race. It is much harder to accomplish, especially in a race that had as few cautions as Saturday night's race.
STAT OF THE WEEK: 17. For Carl Edwards, this represents the number of points that Carl Edwards lost on Saturday night pressing his luck on fuel mileage (he dropped from third to 20th). Yes, Edwards is still 11th in points, but he is now 34 points behind tenth-place Brad Keselowski, who just won his third race of the year. With nine races to go before the Chase begins, and no victories so far (making him ineligible for the Wild Card), it will be an uphill battle for Edwards, last year's runner-up in the points, to even qualify for the Chase.
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Kentucky Race Recap
by Matt McLaughlin
The Big Six: Questions Answered After The Quaker State 400
by Amy Henderson
Pace Laps: Andretti's Leap, Austin's Legitimacy, and Lucrative Legends
by the Frontstretch Staff
by Bryan Davis Keith
Intermediate Intervention: How to Fix NASCAR's 1.5-Mile Tracks
by Matt Stallknecht
Intermediate Intervention: How to Fix NASCAR's 1.5-Mile Tracks
by Matt Stallknecht
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: The 400 mile race at Daytona was one of the last races on the Cup calendar to get a flag-to-flag telecast, the first of those being in 1989 (granted, it was still tape delayed). Why was this so?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: In the 2002 Kroger 300 at Kentucky Speedway, Larry Foyt equaled his best career starting position in the Busch Series with a fifth-place qualifying effort in his Harrah's Chevrolet. However, he couldn't convert that position into a good finish. What happened?
A: On Lap 82, Jack Sprague and Bobby Hamilton, Jr. collided in Turn 4 while battling for fifth. Hamilton pancaked the right side of his U.S. Marines Ford on the wall, while Sprague spun and hit Hamilton. Foyt was running 14th at the time and went low to avoid the wreck. Unfortunately, wet grass proved to be his undoing. Foyt lost control of his Chevrolet and spun into the wall. Ashton Lewis, Jr. was also involved. Sprague and Lewis continued after making a pit stop. Hamilton finished the race, but he was 90 laps down after spending a substantial amount of time behind the wall. Foyt was out on the spot. The crash can be seen at the 11:50 mark of this clip. It should be noted that during this yellow, it began to rain and NASCAR ended up red flagging the event and finishing it on Sunday afternoon.
Q: The 400 mile race at Daytona was one of the last races on the Cup calendar to get a flag-to-flag telecast, the first of those being in 1989 (granted, it was still tape delayed). Why was this so?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: In the 2002 Kroger 300 at Kentucky Speedway, Larry Foyt equaled his best career starting position in the Busch Series with a fifth-place qualifying effort in his Harrah's Chevrolet. However, he couldn't convert that position into a good finish. What happened?
A: On Lap 82, Jack Sprague and Bobby Hamilton, Jr. collided in Turn 4 while battling for fifth. Hamilton pancaked the right side of his U.S. Marines Ford on the wall, while Sprague spun and hit Hamilton. Foyt was running 14th at the time and went low to avoid the wreck. Unfortunately, wet grass proved to be his undoing. Foyt lost control of his Chevrolet and spun into the wall. Ashton Lewis, Jr. was also involved. Sprague and Lewis continued after making a pit stop. Hamilton finished the race, but he was 90 laps down after spending a substantial amount of time behind the wall. Foyt was out on the spot. The crash can be seen at the 11:50 mark of this clip. It should be noted that during this yellow, it began to rain and NASCAR ended up red flagging the event and finishing it on Sunday afternoon.
Coming Tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Kevin Rutherford
-- Sitting In the Stands: A Fan's View by S.D. Grady
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Coming Tomorrow On The Frontstretch:
The Yellow Stripe by Danny Peters
After Saturday night's Coke Zero 400, we will be at the halfway point of the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season. To that end, Danny will bring us a midseason report tomorrow.
5 Points To Ponder by Bryan Davis Keith
Bryan brings you a series of storylines setting you up for Daytona.
Who's Hot / Who's Not in NASCAR Presented by StarCoach Race Tours: Sparta-Daytona Edition by Brett Poirier
We're coming to the halfway point of the season. While here, Brett looks at what positive trends are developing in NASCAR's two top series and which drivers need a breather heading into Saturday night's third restrictor plate race of the season.
Couch Potato Tuesday by Phil Allaway
This past weekend, the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series were each racing at Kentucky Speedway. Did TNT improve from their travesty of a telecast in Sonoma? Find out on Tuesday.
We'll have a special Cup Series guest stop by to discuss the technical aspects of our sport.
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