THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
March 11th, 2013
Volume VII, Edition XXXII
~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sprint Cup Race Recap: Kenseth Claims First JGR Victory In Third Start
by Justin Tucker
2013 has been a year of transition for Matt Kenseth.
It took only three races to make it complete.
After 15 years at Roush Fenway Racing, Kenseth took his first checkered flag for a different team, capturing the Kobalt Tools 400 for his 25th career NSCS win. Pit strategy would prove to be the winning move for Kenseth and the No. 20 team after a late-race caution with 44 laps to go. Jason Ratcliff made a gutsy fuel only call on the final pit stop, putting him out front while Kasey Kahne, who led a race-high 116 laps got shuffled back to sixth. Kahne made a valiant comeback effort, getting back to Kenseth's bumper over the final ten laps of the race but could never get the right run to execute a pass.
"It feels pretty awesome to have this win here," said Kenseth, whose 128 laps led tops the Cup Series three races in. "We're only three weeks in, but man, all three races we had a car, if everything would have went right, we could have won."
Kenseth was clearly emotional after the checkered flag, a rarity for one of the most even-keeled drivers on the circuit. It was clear how much it meant to win for a new team, a move never fully explained by the driver when announced in the middle of 2012.
Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-5 finishers. Jimmie Johnson was sixth, after leading 66 laps and remains comfortably out front in the Cup Series standings. In general, the first race for the Gen-6 was semi-competitive, with 22 lead changes amongst eight drivers and 2,342 green-flag passes, a number NASCAR claimed was the most at Vegas since 2007.
"My car drove good," said runner-up Kahne. "I felt like I could pass, I could race underneath the car, do things that maybe I wouldn't have been able to do in the past."
It was a clean event, with only five caution flags for 25 laps and just one real spin (Bobby Labonte). The series now will head east, to Thunder Valley for the fourth event at the Cup Series schedule at Bristol.
Notes:
Brad Keselowski posted his third straight top-4 finish. Kes now has 20 top 10s in his last 23 races.
Ryan Newman continues to have some early-season struggles. After tire troubles at Phoenix prematurely ended his day last week, Newman would lose an engine with 32 laps to go, leaving him with a 38th-place finish. That's his second straight result outside the top 35.
16 of Jeff Gordon's 87 career wins have come on 1.5 mile race tracks, which makes Gordon's 25th place finish on Sunday all the more mind boggling. From the start Gordon fought a loose race car and was a lap down for a significant portion of the race. What's even more surprising is that all other HMS cars finished inside the top 10; in addition, shopmate Kasey Kahne was the dominant car for much of the race.
Justin Tucker is a Newsletter Contributor at Frontstretch. To reach Justin, please contact Newsletter Manager Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
Chasing the Chase: Point Standings after Las Vegas
by Phil Allaway
Jimmie Johnson's excellent start to the season continued on Sunday. Despite failing to finish in the top 5, Johnson's sixth-place finish was good enough to allow him to keep his lead. His advantage is just five points over Brad Keselowski, whose third top 5 in a row allowed him to keep Johnson in his sights. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., despite finishing in seventh, drops a spot to third.
Denny Hamlin remains in fourth after an unusual pit strategy that would have seemed more at home on a road course put him down a lap. Only the wavearound allowed him to finish on the lead lap. Carl Edwards is up to fifth after another great run, while the part-time Mark Martin is sixth. Matt Kenseth made the largest gain of the week, moving up 11 places into a tie for seventh with former teammate Greg Biffle
After a disastrous day, Clint Bowyer is down four positions to ninth, while Aric Almirola rounds out the top 10. Rookie Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. is 11th, while Paul Menard is now 12th after earning his first top 10 finish of the season.
Standings: 1) Jimmie Johnson 129, 2) Brad Keselowski 124, 3) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -10, 4) Denny Hamlin -27, 5) Carl Edwards -31, 6) Mark Martin -34, t-7) Matt Kenseth -36, t-7) Greg Biffle -36, 9) Clint Bowyer -40, 10) Aric Almirola -41, 11) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. -42, 12) Paul Menard -47.
Best of the Rest: 13) Jeff Gordon -50, 14) Kasey Kahne -52, 15) Joey Logano -53, 16) Marcos Ambrose -55, t-17) Kyle Busch -57, t-17) Tony Stewart -57.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Critic84.
Underdog Central At Daytona: Three Time's The Charm
by Amy Henderson
Editor's Note: This year, we're going to switch things up a little bit. Instead of just focusing upon one underdog (or underreported) car in the Secret Star section, we will point out three smaller teams that put up good finishes each week.
Underdog Selection No. 1: Kurt Busch for Furniture Row Racing; started 24th, finished 20th
Busch may be driving for the biggest of the small teams, but he still has to prove himself on track every week. Yes, FRR is a Richard Childress Racing satellite team, which gives them a leg up on equipment, but they're also based 2000 miles away from RCR in Denver, Colorado, so they can't work as closely as, say, Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing, which are located a few miles up the road from each other.
Busch is the team's fourth full-time driver, replacing Regan Smith this year. He's a proven commodity, and former champion, and probably this team's best chance to win races and improve their overall points finishes. He's also branded as a difficult driver, but so far hasn't shown that tendency.
This week, the RCR/Earnhardt-Childress Engines camp was split in the field. Two RCR teams, the Nos. 29 and 27, finished in the top 10, while Busch and Jeff Burton finished 20th and 26th, respectively.
"We just never got up to speed," said Busch after the race on Sunday. "The Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet was loose, then it was snug and no matter what adjustments were made we never could find the right balance for this track. We needed one more caution at the end to get back on the lead lap, which would have given us a good opportunity to pick up additional positions. It wasn't our day."
Busch has to be happy that the Cup Series is headed to Bristol this week; the Gen-6 cars have so far shown to be more equal away from the intermediate tracks, and Busch has five wins at Bristol, so it's a great chance for this team to show some muscle. While it's unlikely that this is a Chase-caliber team, they are easily the best among the small teams, and they could win a race or two this year.
Underdog Selection No. 2: Austin Dillon for Phoenix Racing; started 27th, finished 21st
Phoenix Racing has shown some strength early this year. Kurt Busch averaged a 25th-place finish in 29 races with the No. 51 last year; in 2013, their worst finish in three races, despite having three different drivers in the car, is the 21st they took home from Las Vegas. Regan Smith piloted the car to a top 10 at Daytona and AJ Allmendinger finished 11th in Phoenix last week.
This week, we learned that the small teams are still at a disadvantage on the intermediate ovals of 1.5-2 miles, but rookie Austin Dillon still made the most of the day for this team, finishing 21st, his best result in four Cup races so far for the youngster. Dillon is still learning, so running a few races in mediocre equipment isn't necessarily a hindrance to him as he looks to log laps and learn lines and setups. He also brought much needed sponsor dollars from Tag Heuer. If the team can't find sponsorship on their own, having drivers bring money to run a race or two here and there might be what keeps this team on track.
Phoenix racing does run Hendrick engines and chassis, but they're not a satellite team the way Furniture Row is to RCR. They have, in the past, resorted to running experimental packages for Hendrick in exchange for a reduced price on their power plants, and that's probably going to continue unless a major backer is found. That's a double edged sword-if they get an R&D package that's strong, they could pull off a few surprises, but if there are power or durability issues…well, ouch.
Underdog Selection No. 3: Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing; started 36th, finished 23rd
For a part-time team running a driver who's not eligible for series points, the No. 21 looked fairly stout on Sunday, gaining 13 spots during the race en route to their 23rd-place finish.
To get a clearer picture of Bayne's ability on the 1.5-mile tracks, perhaps we need to look at his Nationwide Series numbers. He has a win at Texas in 2011, and he ran fourth this Saturday. His best numbers are at the short tracks and road courses, but he's not bad on these ovals. But, like the other underdog drivers, his team is weakest at these tracks, where horsepower and cutting-edge chassis rule the day. With Penske Racing changing to Ford and Roush Yates power this year, the Wood Brothers sit about eighth in the engine line, behind three Roush Fenway Racing teams, the Penske duo, and the two teams at closer RFR satellite Richard Petty Motorsports.
The No. 21 team is one of the most iconic in NASCAR, with founders Glen and Leonard Wood in the Hall of Fame for their feats as owners and mechanics, and it's a shame that they lack the funding needed to compete on a full-time basis, because teams not on track each week get caught in a vicious cycle of falling behind when they're not on the track.
Is your favorite driver among NASCAR's underdogs? Are you frustrated with the lack of coverage they receive during the race broadcasts? Amy has all the small teams covered each and every week in The Big Six. Be sure to check it out to see how your favorites fared!
Amy Henderson is a Co-Managing Editor and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. She can be reached via e-mail at amy.henderson@frontstretch.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Writer_Amy.
~~~~~~~~~~
Letter of the Race: Sunday's Daytona 500 was brought to you by the Letter L, for Loose. Or, if you were Clint Bowyer, the word may have followed any number of expletives. A number of drivers struggled during Sunday's Kobalt Tools 400 with nearly uncontrollable race cars. In Bowyer's case, he started second thanks to his points from 2012, but was a complete non-factor. A unscheduled stop before Lap 20 put him two laps down, where he spent almost the entire remaining - Phil Allaway
~~~~~~~~~~
Sidebar Phoenix Stories
by Phil Allaway
Bowyer Completely Out to Lunch
The loss of all of Friday's on-track activities severely hurt a number of teams on Sunday in Las Vegas. However, no driver was more conspicuous with his issues early on in the race than Clint Bowyer. Due to all of Friday's action being rained out, Bowyer was placed second on the grid as a result of his second-place finish in the points last year. Saturday's practice sessions were encouraging, as Bowyer showed decent speed, including turning in the sixth fastest time in Happy Hour.
However, the slightly warmer conditions on Sunday afternoon completely threw the No. 15 team for a loop. When the green flag fell, Bowyer dropped like a stone. By Lap 12, he was out of the top 25. Back when he was at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, he described the diesel-power Mazda6 GX's as "chicanes." Here, Bowyer was the chicane. On Lap 14, Bowyer pitted, thinking that he was so loose that a tire had to be down. All four tires were inflated and were not cut. The stop put Bowyer at the rear of the field, two laps off the pace. Outside of green-flag pit stop sequences, Bowyer was never able to get either of his laps back and eventually finished 27th.
Newman's Bad Luck Continues
In Daytona, Ryan Newman quietly recorded a fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500. Since then, his 2013 has been all downhill. Last week in Phoenix, Stewart-Haas Racing had some setup issues. Newman blew one right-front tire and plowed into the wall exiting Turn 4 on Lap 98. The team made repairs to the Quicken Loans Chevrolet, but those repairs didn't quite hold. 43 laps after the first failure, a second blown right-front tire put Newman into the Turn 1 wall. After that crash, Newman simply made like Dr. Zoidberg on Futurama and went for a scuttle.
Newman was hoping for a much better race at Las Vegas. Unfortunately, that didn't come to pass. Early in the race, Newman had some handling issues that caused him to drop back from 14th at the start back into the 20's. Regardless, Newman's loose condition and the long green-flag runs resulted in the No. 39 falling off the lead lap fairly early in the race.
Despite being a lap down, Newman was able to keep himself in the top 20 until the final pit stop of the race. After the final planned pit stop of the race, disaster struck on a restart after a stack-up.
"I missed a shift," Newman said after the race. "I missed the shift because of the restart, but that's my responsibility, not those guys in front of me. It was a disappointing day for the Quicken Loans team. It's entirely on me. I could point fingers at the final restart, but it was still my fault."
Newman's engine failure relegated him to a 38th-place finish. Furthermore, with the Sprint Cup Series using 2013 points for provisionals starting this weekend at Bristol, Newman is in a substantial jam. He is now 31st in points and the better part of a full race out of 12th in the standings. If Newman plans on getting back into the Chase, he must reverse the slide and quick.
Patrick Struggles with Loose Car, Never Enters Top 30
For Danica Patrick, her first 400 mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was all but a complete failure. Yes, she finished the race (six laps off the pace), but she was never really competitive all day on her way to a 33rd-place finish. The reasoning for her lack of competitiveness? An extremely loose race car that was fairly unresponsive to all of the adjustments that the Tony Gibson-led crew made all day, despite being decent in practice on Saturday
"It was a real tough day, no doubt," Patrick said after the race. "We knew we were going to have tough days, but this is not the kind of tough day we thought about. We need to figure out how and why it (the car) changes so much from practice to the race and really learn this new car. I was extremely loose the whole time. We made it a little bit better in the middle of the race, to the point where it would go for half the run, but by the end of every run I would find myself very, very loose again. Being behind traffic, the aerodynamics change a lot, and it's a handful. I felt like I was about to spin on the [frontstretch]. We just have to figure out how to make it better and work our butts off to make sure that we never have this day again."
Patrick's 33rd-place finish dropped her back to 30th in points with Bristol next on the schedule. She does need to qualify better (her 37th-place starting spot in Las Vegas was forced by the cancellation of on-track activities on Friday). At Bristol, a bad qualifying effort could result in her being a lap down by Lap 15. However, Patrick did run well at Bristol last August, staying on the lead lap for most of the race before crashing late in the going.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Critic84.
Quotes to Remember: Kobalt Tools 400
"I had an unbelievable Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. Throughout the whole race the pit stops were great. We just came out sixth there which I think Matt (Kenseth) would have beat us out anyways because he didn't take tires. Tough to say if we would have gotten by him, but I think just two cycles on left sides I wasn't quite as good. I couldn't turn down the track quite as well as I could the runs before. It just got greasy out there and that was it. He beat us, but I had a great day. I drove so hard every single lap today and I think that is just the new Gen-6 car and the Chevy SS. It was a lot of fun. I love it. I had the car to beat today, we lost, but it was still a great run for all of our guys." Kasey Kahne, finished second
"Never ever give up. Never give up. This team doesn't and we didn't today. You get a good run like we did and that is a product of that effort. I thought we had some really good speed there at the end. I almost want another yellow to race the 5 and the 20. Matt (Kenseth) did a great job executing the restarts really well. We were so close." - Brad Keselowski, finished third
"We wanted better but I think if I would have done a better job on my restarts then we would have been better. We were sliding all over the place out there. I am sure we wore out some steering boxes and that was a good race. That was as hard as we could drive. Congrats to Matt (Kenseth) and those guys. He drives his heart out. That one restart he got sideways and I hit him just hard enough that I thought maybe I could straighten him up and go. It worked good for him and terrible for me. That was a wild race and some hard driving right there." - Carl Edwards, finished fifth
"We were racing really hard. It's fun to race that fast. We were flying (laughs). But at the end, I just wish we had a little bit more to go up there and race with those guys. But it was a solid performance, all in all." - Jimmie Johnson, finished sixth
"I loved it. It was so much fun. We were moving all over the race track. Just aside from the bumps, I'm not a big fan of all them bumps down in turn one. The surface and race ability here is just what all tracks ought to strive for. There are a few just like it on the circuit like Atlanta, but all the tracks ought to shoot for something like this." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished seventh
"I missed a shift. And I missed a shift because of the restart. But that's my responsibility; not those guys in front of me. It was a disappointing day for the Quicken Loans Chevrolet team. It's entirely on me. But yeah, the restart, if I wanted to point fingers it was the restart. But it was still my fault." - Ryan Newman, finished 38th
~~~~~~~~~~
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:
Thinkin' Out Loud: Las Vegas Race Recap
by Matt McLaughlin
Pace Laps: A Passion To Prove, Sam's Town, And Surprise Winners
by the Frontstretch Staff
The Big Six: Questions Answered After the Kobalt Tools 400
by Amy Henderson
Silence! NASCAR's Unspoken Cry To Opinionated Drivers Needs To Stop
by Summer Bedgood
Happiness is... Pulling The Positives Out Of NASCAR's Weekend In Sin City
by P. Huston Ladner
-- Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
March 11th, 2013
Volume VII, Edition XXXII
~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sprint Cup Race Recap: Kenseth Claims First JGR Victory In Third Start
by Justin Tucker
2013 has been a year of transition for Matt Kenseth.
It took only three races to make it complete.
After 15 years at Roush Fenway Racing, Kenseth took his first checkered flag for a different team, capturing the Kobalt Tools 400 for his 25th career NSCS win. Pit strategy would prove to be the winning move for Kenseth and the No. 20 team after a late-race caution with 44 laps to go. Jason Ratcliff made a gutsy fuel only call on the final pit stop, putting him out front while Kasey Kahne, who led a race-high 116 laps got shuffled back to sixth. Kahne made a valiant comeback effort, getting back to Kenseth's bumper over the final ten laps of the race but could never get the right run to execute a pass.
"It feels pretty awesome to have this win here," said Kenseth, whose 128 laps led tops the Cup Series three races in. "We're only three weeks in, but man, all three races we had a car, if everything would have went right, we could have won."
Kenseth was clearly emotional after the checkered flag, a rarity for one of the most even-keeled drivers on the circuit. It was clear how much it meant to win for a new team, a move never fully explained by the driver when announced in the middle of 2012.
Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-5 finishers. Jimmie Johnson was sixth, after leading 66 laps and remains comfortably out front in the Cup Series standings. In general, the first race for the Gen-6 was semi-competitive, with 22 lead changes amongst eight drivers and 2,342 green-flag passes, a number NASCAR claimed was the most at Vegas since 2007.
"My car drove good," said runner-up Kahne. "I felt like I could pass, I could race underneath the car, do things that maybe I wouldn't have been able to do in the past."
It was a clean event, with only five caution flags for 25 laps and just one real spin (Bobby Labonte). The series now will head east, to Thunder Valley for the fourth event at the Cup Series schedule at Bristol.
Notes:
Brad Keselowski posted his third straight top-4 finish. Kes now has 20 top 10s in his last 23 races.
Ryan Newman continues to have some early-season struggles. After tire troubles at Phoenix prematurely ended his day last week, Newman would lose an engine with 32 laps to go, leaving him with a 38th-place finish. That's his second straight result outside the top 35.
16 of Jeff Gordon's 87 career wins have come on 1.5 mile race tracks, which makes Gordon's 25th place finish on Sunday all the more mind boggling. From the start Gordon fought a loose race car and was a lap down for a significant portion of the race. What's even more surprising is that all other HMS cars finished inside the top 10; in addition, shopmate Kasey Kahne was the dominant car for much of the race.
Justin Tucker is a Newsletter Contributor at Frontstretch. To reach Justin, please contact Newsletter Manager Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
Chasing the Chase: Point Standings after Las Vegas
by Phil Allaway
Jimmie Johnson's excellent start to the season continued on Sunday. Despite failing to finish in the top 5, Johnson's sixth-place finish was good enough to allow him to keep his lead. His advantage is just five points over Brad Keselowski, whose third top 5 in a row allowed him to keep Johnson in his sights. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., despite finishing in seventh, drops a spot to third.
Denny Hamlin remains in fourth after an unusual pit strategy that would have seemed more at home on a road course put him down a lap. Only the wavearound allowed him to finish on the lead lap. Carl Edwards is up to fifth after another great run, while the part-time Mark Martin is sixth. Matt Kenseth made the largest gain of the week, moving up 11 places into a tie for seventh with former teammate Greg Biffle
After a disastrous day, Clint Bowyer is down four positions to ninth, while Aric Almirola rounds out the top 10. Rookie Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. is 11th, while Paul Menard is now 12th after earning his first top 10 finish of the season.
Standings: 1) Jimmie Johnson 129, 2) Brad Keselowski 124, 3) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -10, 4) Denny Hamlin -27, 5) Carl Edwards -31, 6) Mark Martin -34, t-7) Matt Kenseth -36, t-7) Greg Biffle -36, 9) Clint Bowyer -40, 10) Aric Almirola -41, 11) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. -42, 12) Paul Menard -47.
Best of the Rest: 13) Jeff Gordon -50, 14) Kasey Kahne -52, 15) Joey Logano -53, 16) Marcos Ambrose -55, t-17) Kyle Busch -57, t-17) Tony Stewart -57.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Critic84.
Underdog Central At Daytona: Three Time's The Charm
by Amy Henderson
Editor's Note: This year, we're going to switch things up a little bit. Instead of just focusing upon one underdog (or underreported) car in the Secret Star section, we will point out three smaller teams that put up good finishes each week.
Underdog Selection No. 1: Kurt Busch for Furniture Row Racing; started 24th, finished 20th
Busch may be driving for the biggest of the small teams, but he still has to prove himself on track every week. Yes, FRR is a Richard Childress Racing satellite team, which gives them a leg up on equipment, but they're also based 2000 miles away from RCR in Denver, Colorado, so they can't work as closely as, say, Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing, which are located a few miles up the road from each other.
Busch is the team's fourth full-time driver, replacing Regan Smith this year. He's a proven commodity, and former champion, and probably this team's best chance to win races and improve their overall points finishes. He's also branded as a difficult driver, but so far hasn't shown that tendency.
This week, the RCR/Earnhardt-Childress Engines camp was split in the field. Two RCR teams, the Nos. 29 and 27, finished in the top 10, while Busch and Jeff Burton finished 20th and 26th, respectively.
"We just never got up to speed," said Busch after the race on Sunday. "The Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet was loose, then it was snug and no matter what adjustments were made we never could find the right balance for this track. We needed one more caution at the end to get back on the lead lap, which would have given us a good opportunity to pick up additional positions. It wasn't our day."
Busch has to be happy that the Cup Series is headed to Bristol this week; the Gen-6 cars have so far shown to be more equal away from the intermediate tracks, and Busch has five wins at Bristol, so it's a great chance for this team to show some muscle. While it's unlikely that this is a Chase-caliber team, they are easily the best among the small teams, and they could win a race or two this year.
Underdog Selection No. 2: Austin Dillon for Phoenix Racing; started 27th, finished 21st
Phoenix Racing has shown some strength early this year. Kurt Busch averaged a 25th-place finish in 29 races with the No. 51 last year; in 2013, their worst finish in three races, despite having three different drivers in the car, is the 21st they took home from Las Vegas. Regan Smith piloted the car to a top 10 at Daytona and AJ Allmendinger finished 11th in Phoenix last week.
This week, we learned that the small teams are still at a disadvantage on the intermediate ovals of 1.5-2 miles, but rookie Austin Dillon still made the most of the day for this team, finishing 21st, his best result in four Cup races so far for the youngster. Dillon is still learning, so running a few races in mediocre equipment isn't necessarily a hindrance to him as he looks to log laps and learn lines and setups. He also brought much needed sponsor dollars from Tag Heuer. If the team can't find sponsorship on their own, having drivers bring money to run a race or two here and there might be what keeps this team on track.
Phoenix racing does run Hendrick engines and chassis, but they're not a satellite team the way Furniture Row is to RCR. They have, in the past, resorted to running experimental packages for Hendrick in exchange for a reduced price on their power plants, and that's probably going to continue unless a major backer is found. That's a double edged sword-if they get an R&D package that's strong, they could pull off a few surprises, but if there are power or durability issues…well, ouch.
Underdog Selection No. 3: Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing; started 36th, finished 23rd
For a part-time team running a driver who's not eligible for series points, the No. 21 looked fairly stout on Sunday, gaining 13 spots during the race en route to their 23rd-place finish.
To get a clearer picture of Bayne's ability on the 1.5-mile tracks, perhaps we need to look at his Nationwide Series numbers. He has a win at Texas in 2011, and he ran fourth this Saturday. His best numbers are at the short tracks and road courses, but he's not bad on these ovals. But, like the other underdog drivers, his team is weakest at these tracks, where horsepower and cutting-edge chassis rule the day. With Penske Racing changing to Ford and Roush Yates power this year, the Wood Brothers sit about eighth in the engine line, behind three Roush Fenway Racing teams, the Penske duo, and the two teams at closer RFR satellite Richard Petty Motorsports.
The No. 21 team is one of the most iconic in NASCAR, with founders Glen and Leonard Wood in the Hall of Fame for their feats as owners and mechanics, and it's a shame that they lack the funding needed to compete on a full-time basis, because teams not on track each week get caught in a vicious cycle of falling behind when they're not on the track.
Is your favorite driver among NASCAR's underdogs? Are you frustrated with the lack of coverage they receive during the race broadcasts? Amy has all the small teams covered each and every week in The Big Six. Be sure to check it out to see how your favorites fared!
Amy Henderson is a Co-Managing Editor and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. She can be reached via e-mail at amy.henderson@frontstretch.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Writer_Amy.
~~~~~~~~~~
Letter of the Race: Sunday's Daytona 500 was brought to you by the Letter L, for Loose. Or, if you were Clint Bowyer, the word may have followed any number of expletives. A number of drivers struggled during Sunday's Kobalt Tools 400 with nearly uncontrollable race cars. In Bowyer's case, he started second thanks to his points from 2012, but was a complete non-factor. A unscheduled stop before Lap 20 put him two laps down, where he spent almost the entire remaining - Phil Allaway
~~~~~~~~~~
Sidebar Phoenix Stories
by Phil Allaway
Bowyer Completely Out to Lunch
The loss of all of Friday's on-track activities severely hurt a number of teams on Sunday in Las Vegas. However, no driver was more conspicuous with his issues early on in the race than Clint Bowyer. Due to all of Friday's action being rained out, Bowyer was placed second on the grid as a result of his second-place finish in the points last year. Saturday's practice sessions were encouraging, as Bowyer showed decent speed, including turning in the sixth fastest time in Happy Hour.
However, the slightly warmer conditions on Sunday afternoon completely threw the No. 15 team for a loop. When the green flag fell, Bowyer dropped like a stone. By Lap 12, he was out of the top 25. Back when he was at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, he described the diesel-power Mazda6 GX's as "chicanes." Here, Bowyer was the chicane. On Lap 14, Bowyer pitted, thinking that he was so loose that a tire had to be down. All four tires were inflated and were not cut. The stop put Bowyer at the rear of the field, two laps off the pace. Outside of green-flag pit stop sequences, Bowyer was never able to get either of his laps back and eventually finished 27th.
Newman's Bad Luck Continues
In Daytona, Ryan Newman quietly recorded a fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500. Since then, his 2013 has been all downhill. Last week in Phoenix, Stewart-Haas Racing had some setup issues. Newman blew one right-front tire and plowed into the wall exiting Turn 4 on Lap 98. The team made repairs to the Quicken Loans Chevrolet, but those repairs didn't quite hold. 43 laps after the first failure, a second blown right-front tire put Newman into the Turn 1 wall. After that crash, Newman simply made like Dr. Zoidberg on Futurama and went for a scuttle.
Newman was hoping for a much better race at Las Vegas. Unfortunately, that didn't come to pass. Early in the race, Newman had some handling issues that caused him to drop back from 14th at the start back into the 20's. Regardless, Newman's loose condition and the long green-flag runs resulted in the No. 39 falling off the lead lap fairly early in the race.
Despite being a lap down, Newman was able to keep himself in the top 20 until the final pit stop of the race. After the final planned pit stop of the race, disaster struck on a restart after a stack-up.
"I missed a shift," Newman said after the race. "I missed the shift because of the restart, but that's my responsibility, not those guys in front of me. It was a disappointing day for the Quicken Loans team. It's entirely on me. I could point fingers at the final restart, but it was still my fault."
Newman's engine failure relegated him to a 38th-place finish. Furthermore, with the Sprint Cup Series using 2013 points for provisionals starting this weekend at Bristol, Newman is in a substantial jam. He is now 31st in points and the better part of a full race out of 12th in the standings. If Newman plans on getting back into the Chase, he must reverse the slide and quick.
Patrick Struggles with Loose Car, Never Enters Top 30
For Danica Patrick, her first 400 mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was all but a complete failure. Yes, she finished the race (six laps off the pace), but she was never really competitive all day on her way to a 33rd-place finish. The reasoning for her lack of competitiveness? An extremely loose race car that was fairly unresponsive to all of the adjustments that the Tony Gibson-led crew made all day, despite being decent in practice on Saturday
"It was a real tough day, no doubt," Patrick said after the race. "We knew we were going to have tough days, but this is not the kind of tough day we thought about. We need to figure out how and why it (the car) changes so much from practice to the race and really learn this new car. I was extremely loose the whole time. We made it a little bit better in the middle of the race, to the point where it would go for half the run, but by the end of every run I would find myself very, very loose again. Being behind traffic, the aerodynamics change a lot, and it's a handful. I felt like I was about to spin on the [frontstretch]. We just have to figure out how to make it better and work our butts off to make sure that we never have this day again."
Patrick's 33rd-place finish dropped her back to 30th in points with Bristol next on the schedule. She does need to qualify better (her 37th-place starting spot in Las Vegas was forced by the cancellation of on-track activities on Friday). At Bristol, a bad qualifying effort could result in her being a lap down by Lap 15. However, Patrick did run well at Bristol last August, staying on the lead lap for most of the race before crashing late in the going.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Critic84.
Quotes to Remember: Kobalt Tools 400
"I had an unbelievable Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. Throughout the whole race the pit stops were great. We just came out sixth there which I think Matt (Kenseth) would have beat us out anyways because he didn't take tires. Tough to say if we would have gotten by him, but I think just two cycles on left sides I wasn't quite as good. I couldn't turn down the track quite as well as I could the runs before. It just got greasy out there and that was it. He beat us, but I had a great day. I drove so hard every single lap today and I think that is just the new Gen-6 car and the Chevy SS. It was a lot of fun. I love it. I had the car to beat today, we lost, but it was still a great run for all of our guys." Kasey Kahne, finished second
"Never ever give up. Never give up. This team doesn't and we didn't today. You get a good run like we did and that is a product of that effort. I thought we had some really good speed there at the end. I almost want another yellow to race the 5 and the 20. Matt (Kenseth) did a great job executing the restarts really well. We were so close." - Brad Keselowski, finished third
"We wanted better but I think if I would have done a better job on my restarts then we would have been better. We were sliding all over the place out there. I am sure we wore out some steering boxes and that was a good race. That was as hard as we could drive. Congrats to Matt (Kenseth) and those guys. He drives his heart out. That one restart he got sideways and I hit him just hard enough that I thought maybe I could straighten him up and go. It worked good for him and terrible for me. That was a wild race and some hard driving right there." - Carl Edwards, finished fifth
"We were racing really hard. It's fun to race that fast. We were flying (laughs). But at the end, I just wish we had a little bit more to go up there and race with those guys. But it was a solid performance, all in all." - Jimmie Johnson, finished sixth
"I loved it. It was so much fun. We were moving all over the race track. Just aside from the bumps, I'm not a big fan of all them bumps down in turn one. The surface and race ability here is just what all tracks ought to strive for. There are a few just like it on the circuit like Atlanta, but all the tracks ought to shoot for something like this." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished seventh
"I missed a shift. And I missed a shift because of the restart. But that's my responsibility; not those guys in front of me. It was a disappointing day for the Quicken Loans Chevrolet team. It's entirely on me. But yeah, the restart, if I wanted to point fingers it was the restart. But it was still my fault." - Ryan Newman, finished 38th
~~~~~~~~~~
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:
Thinkin' Out Loud: Las Vegas Race Recap
by Matt McLaughlin
Pace Laps: A Passion To Prove, Sam's Town, And Surprise Winners
by the Frontstretch Staff
The Big Six: Questions Answered After the Kobalt Tools 400
by Amy Henderson
Silence! NASCAR's Unspoken Cry To Opinionated Drivers Needs To Stop
by Summer Bedgood
Happiness is... Pulling The Positives Out Of NASCAR's Weekend In Sin City
by P. Huston Ladner
~~~~~~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: If you take a look at the track page for Bristol on Racing-Reference, you'll notice that the 1991 Valleydale Meats 500 had an astounding 40 lead changes. However, the race wasn't exactly that competitive. What caused the record high number of lead changes?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: On Racing-Reference.info's result page for the IRL's 1998 Las Vegas 500k, there is an error. There was not a 29-lap caution period during the race. That was actually two separate yellows. The first came out when Donnie Beechler crashed. What caused the second?
A: On the restart from the first crash, Scott Goodyear got up out of the groove in Turns 1 and 2, forcing him to back off the throttle. Jeff Ward, who had been leading prior to Beechler's crash, was charging past Arie Luyendyk on the outside and simply ran in the back of Goodyear. The hit put Goodyear into the wall and Ward slid into Goodyear. The crash can be seen at the 8:05 mark of this clip. Yes, that is Mike Joy with the call for TNN. Both Goodyear and Ward were ok after the crash, but they were done for the day.
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!
Coming Tuesday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Tom Bowles
-- Fan's View Commentary by Mike Neff
-- Numbers Game: Kobalt Tools 400 by Tom Bowles
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
We'll take a look at which drivers are in position to do well this weekend on the high banks, and who's likely to be a little sore in Tennessee.
Speedy Discoveries by Brett Poirier
Brett is back with another commentary to make you think.
Going By The Numbers by Kevin Rutherford
Kevin enlightens us with his weekly statistics column based on a trend we've been seeing in the Cup Series so far this season.
-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2013 Frontstretch.com
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: If you take a look at the track page for Bristol on Racing-Reference, you'll notice that the 1991 Valleydale Meats 500 had an astounding 40 lead changes. However, the race wasn't exactly that competitive. What caused the record high number of lead changes?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: On Racing-Reference.info's result page for the IRL's 1998 Las Vegas 500k, there is an error. There was not a 29-lap caution period during the race. That was actually two separate yellows. The first came out when Donnie Beechler crashed. What caused the second?
A: On the restart from the first crash, Scott Goodyear got up out of the groove in Turns 1 and 2, forcing him to back off the throttle. Jeff Ward, who had been leading prior to Beechler's crash, was charging past Arie Luyendyk on the outside and simply ran in the back of Goodyear. The hit put Goodyear into the wall and Ward slid into Goodyear. The crash can be seen at the 8:05 mark of this clip. Yes, that is Mike Joy with the call for TNN. Both Goodyear and Ward were ok after the crash, but they were done for the day.
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!
Coming Tuesday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Tom Bowles
-- Fan's View Commentary by Mike Neff
-- Numbers Game: Kobalt Tools 400 by Tom Bowles
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Five Points To Ponder by Danny Peters
Danny returns for his weekly edition of talking points, which will wrap up the Kobalt Tools 400 and get us ready for the Food City 500.
Couch Potato Tuesday by Phil Allaway
This past weekend, the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series were in action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for their first intermediate races of the year. Were the telecasts of these events "up to snuff?" Find out in this week's TV Critique.
We'll take a look at which drivers are in position to do well this weekend on the high banks, and who's likely to be a little sore in Tennessee.
Speedy Discoveries by Brett Poirier
Brett is back with another commentary to make you think.
Going By The Numbers by Kevin Rutherford
Kevin enlightens us with his weekly statistics column based on a trend we've been seeing in the Cup Series so far this season.
-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2013 Frontstretch.com
--
Feel free to forward this newsletter if you have any friends who loves
NASCAR and great NASCAR commentary. They can subscribe to the Frontstetch by visiting http://www.frontstretch.com/notice/9557/.
If you want to stop your Frontstretch Newsletter subscription, we're sorry
to see you go. Just send an email to
TheFrontstretch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com from the address that you
recieve the Frontstretch Newsletter.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Frontstretch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thefrontstretch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
No comments:
Post a Comment