The Frontstretch Newsletter: March 14th, 2013

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
March 14th, 2013
Volume VII, Edition XXXV
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FRONTSTRETCH FANTASY: GET IN THE GAME
Want to compete against some of your favorite Frontstretch writers this season? Our fantasy guru, Jeff Wolfe has created a Yahoo! league and wants you, our faithful readers to join in the fun with us. All you need is a Yahoo! ID and an internet connection... go through the following steps:

1) Sign in to Yahoo!, then go to http://racing.fantasysports.yahoo.com/auto
2) Create Your Team
3) Join our Group!
ID: 11132
Password: rickybobby

Come back every Thursday, to the website to get Jeff's advice on who to pick for your team, all season long and see if you can beat your favorite staff members! More special announcements about this league to come.

What to Watch: Thursday

- This afternoon, eyes will be focused on Sebring International Raceway as the new name for the merged Grand-Am/ALMS sports car series will be announced.  "The Reveal" will be made at 2:30pm.  The announcement will be streamed live on speedtv.com.  However, the announcement may already be spoiled.  Through some searches, he uncovered some trademark applications for the terms "United SportsCar Racing" and "USCR," along with a logo.  The automotive blog Jalopnik has also picked up on the story.

- The K&N Pro Series East teams are in Bristol right now for their season opener.  Today, those teams will practice and qualify on the high banks.  The race is scheduled for Saturday after the Nationwide Series Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 300.  However, the race will not be televised until March 28th on SPEED.

Top News
by Phil Allaway

Jeremy Clements Reinstated by NASCAR

On Wednesday morning, NASCAR announced that they have reinstated Jeremy Clements to NASCAR.  As a result, he is now eligible to return to the driver's seat.  He will be back in the No. 51 Chevrolet in Saturday's Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Clements had to meet a couple of obligations to get back in, which were done fairly quickly.

"As part of the requirements for reinstatement, Jeremy Clements participated in an individualized program with Dr. Richard Lapchick and his staff at the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports," said NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Steve O'Donnell.  "In Dr. Lapchick's judgment, Jeremy has successfully completed the program.  We're pleased that Jeremy has taken these important steps and will return to racing starting this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway."

Clements is also very happy to be back at the track in Bristol.

"I would like to thank NASCAR for their support throughout this entire process," Clements said in a statement.  "I would like to also thank Dr. Lapchick and his team for their time and the opportunity to help me grow.  I have learned a lot and am looking ahead to getting back in the car at Bristol and having a fresh start to the season.  I am truly grateful to my sponsors who have stood by me, to my fans for their tremendous outpouring of support and to my family and team for their unwavering love and support."

For the past two weeks, Camping World Truck Series regular Ryan Sieg has driven the No. 51.  His finishes of 21st and 18th have kept the No. 51 team in 24th in owner's points, allowing Clements to be locked into Saturday's race.

FAS Lane Racing Signs OXYwater to Three Year Sponsorship Deal

Last week, FAS Lane Racing posted on their Facebook page that they were in the process of negotiating a potential three-year sponsorship deal for the No. 32.  Late, late on Tuesday night (meaning, the wee hours of Wednesday morning), the team made it official.

The team has signed Imperial Integrative Health, via OXYwater, a brand of oxygenated water that is designed to be more effective at hydration than regular water, to serve as the primary sponsor on their No. 32 Ford starting this weekend at Bristol.  OXYwater's black (with bubble graphics) and white colors will be on the car for 24 races this season, and for all of 2014 and 2015.

FAS Lane Racing owner Frank Stoddard is very happy to have OXYwater onboard for the foreseeable future.

"OXYwater is a dynamic young company that features an oxygen-enhanced mineral water.  We are a young race team and are very proud that OXYwater has chosen us as their NASCAR marketing partner," Stoddard said.  "Proper hydration is very important for our drivers, team members and our race fans.  Through this partnership, we look forward to introducing OXYwater to the NASCAR fan base and growing our businesses together."

Stoddard makes an important point here.  The OXYwater brand is relatively new, having only launched in 2011.  According to OXYwater's website, the product is not widely available.  The majority of outlets that sell OXYwater (489 of them) are in Ohio, where the company is based.  The drinks are also available at stores in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Indiana, West Virginia, Maryland and Florida.  12-packs of OXYwater (20 ounces each) can also be purchased for $23.88 ($1.99 per bottle) plus shipping on the website.

Entry List Update:
Note: These entries are accurate as of Wednesday night.  However, they are still subject to change, right up until race time.

Sprint Cup Series Food City 500: 44 cars entered

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 35 - Josh Wise for Front Row Motorsports
No. 55 - Brian Vickers for Michael Waltrip Racing
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports/JRR

Driver Changes:
No. 32 - Terry Labonte returns to the seat, replacing Ken Schrader.
No. 51 - AJ Allmendinger returns to the seat, replacing Austin Dillon.
No. 55 - Brian Vickers returns to the seat, replacing Mark Martin.

Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 44 - Scott Riggs for Xxxtreme Motorsports

Not Entered:
No. 21 - Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing

Nationwide Series Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 300: 44 cars entered

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 22 - Brad Keselowski for Penske Racing
No. 25 - John Wes Townley for Venturini Motorsports
No. 27 - Michael McDowell for SR2 Motorsports
No. 33 - Kevin Harvick for Richard Childress Racing
No. 42 - J.J. Yeley for The Motorsports Group
No. 54 - Kyle Busch for Kyle Busch Motorsports/Joe Gibbs Racing

Driver Changes:
No. 4 - Danny Efland returns to the seat, replacing Daryl Harr.
No. 16 - Chris Buescher returns to the seat, replacing Trevor Bayne (from 2011).
No. 33 - Kevin Harvick returns to the seat, replacing Ty Dillon.
No. 42 - J.J. Yeley is in the seat, replacing Chase Miller.
No. 51 - Jeremy Clements returns to the seat, replacing Ryan Sieg.
No. 70 - Brad Teague is in the seat, replacing Johanna Long.  This is the first race of the year in which ML Motorsports will not be fielding the car, but the number will run to keep Long locked in.
No. 74 - Mike Harmon returns to the seat, replacing Kevin Lepage.

Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 01 - Mike Wallace for JD Motorsports with Gary Keller
No. 4 - Danny Efland for JD Motorsports with Gary Keller
No. 10 - Jeff Green for TriStar Motorsports (Guaranteed to start via the Past Champions' Provisional)*
No. 15 - Juan Carlos Blum for Rick Ware Racing
No. 16 - Chris Buescher for Roush Fenway Racing
No. 25 - John Wes Townley for Venturini Motorsports
No. 27 - Michael McDowell for SR2 Motorsports
No. 42 - J.J. Yeley for The Motorsports Group*
No. 46 - Chase Miller for The Motorsports Group*
No. 52 - Joey Gase for Jimmy Means Motorsports
No. 55 - Jamie Dick for Viva Motorsports
No. 89 - Morgan Shepherd for Shepherd Motor Ventures
No. 92 - Dexter Stacey for KH Motorsports

Entered, but Already Withdrawn:
No. 86 - Kevin Lepage for Deware Motorsports

Not Entered:
No. 8 - Scott Lagasse, Jr. for Tommy Baldwin Racing/TeamSLR
No. 88 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for JR Motorsports
*- Expected to Start-and-Park

American Le Mans Series Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring: 42 cars entered (in five classes)

Prototype 1 (P1) Entries:
No. 0 - Andy Meyrick and Olivier Pla for DeltaWing Racing Cars
No. 1 - Marcel Fässler, Oliver Jarvis and Benoit Treluyer for Audi Sport Team Joest
No. 2 - Lucas di Grassi, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish for Audi Sport Team Joest
No. 6 - Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr and Romain Dumas for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
No. 12 - Nick Heidfeld, Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost for Rebellion Racing
No. 13 - Mathias Beche, Andrea Belicchi and Congfu "Frankie" Cheng for Rebellion Racing
No. 16 - Chris Dyson, Butch Leitzinger and Guy Smith for Dyson Racing

Prototype 2 (P2) Entries:
No. 01 - David Brabham, Guy Cosmo and Scott Sharp for Extreme Speed Motorsports
No. 02 - Ed Brown, Anthony Lazzaro and Johannes van Overbeek for Extreme Speed Motorsports
No. 055 - Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud and Scott Tucker for Level 5 Motorsports
No. 41 - Tom Kimber-Smith, Eric Lux and Christian Zugel for Greaves Motorsport
No. 95 - Ryan Briscoe, Marino Franchitti and Scott Tucker for Level 5 Motorsports

Prototype Challenge (PC) Entries:
No. 05 - Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and Mark Wilkins for CORE Autosport
No. 7 - Tomy Drissi, Chapman Ducote and Rusty Mitchell for BAR1 Motorsports
No. 8 - Chris Cumming, Stefan Johansson and Kyle Marcelli for BAR1 Motorsports
No. 9 - Bruno Junqueira, Eddie Lawson and Alex Popow for RSR Racing
No. 52 - David Cheng, Mike Guasch and David Ostella for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports
No. 81 - Pierre Kaffer, Micro Schultis and Patrick Simon for DragonSpeed Mishumotors
No. 500 - David Heinemeier Hansson, Tristan Nuñez and Charlie Shears for Performance Tech Motorsports

Grand Touring (GT) Entries:
No. 007 - Paul Dalla Lana, Billy Johnson and Pedro Lamy for Aston Martin Racing
No. 3 - Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor for Corvette Racing
No. 4 - Oliver Gavin, Tom Milner and Richard Westbrook for Corvette Racing
No. 17 - Wolf Henzler, Bryan Sellers and Nick Tandy for Team Falken Tire
No. 23 - Townsend Bell, Leh Keen and Bill Sweedler for Team West/AJR/Boardwalk Ferrari
No. 48 - Marco Holzer, Richard Lietz and Bryce Miller for Paul Miller Racing
No. 55 - Bill Auberlen, Maxime Martin and Jörg Müller for BMW Team RLL
No. 56 - John Edwards, Joey Hand and Dirk Müller for BMW Team RLL
No. 62 - Olivier Beretta, Gianmaria Bruni and Matteo Malucelli for Risi Competizione
No. 91 - Ryan Dalziel, Dominik Farnbacher and Marc Goossens for SRT Motorsports
No. 93 - Jonathan Bomarito, Tommy Kendall and Kuno Wittmer for SRT Motorsports
No. 97 - Stefan Mücke, Bruno Senna and Darren Turner for Aston Martin Racing

Grand Touring Challenge (GTC) Entries:
No. 10 - Michael Avenatti, Andrew Davis and Bob Faieta for Dempsey Racing Del Piero
No. 11 - Jon Fogarty, Mike Hedlund and Jan Heylen for JDX Racing
No. 22 - Jeroen Bleekemolen, Cooper MacNeil and Dion von Moltke for Alex Job Racing
No. 27 - Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Andy Lally for Dempsey Racing Del Piero
No. 30 - Henrique Cisneros, Sean Edwards and Marco Seefried for NGT Motorsport
No. 31 - Mario Farnbacher, Jakub Giermaziak and Carlos Gomez for NGT Motorsport
No. 44 - Pierre Ehret, Alexandre Imperatori and Brett Sandberg for Flying Lizard Motorsports
No. 45 - Nelson Canache, Spencer Pumpelly and Brian Wong for Flying Lizard Motorsports
No. 66 - Damien Faulkner, Ben Keating and Craig Stanton for TRG
No. 68 - Al Carter, Kevin Estre and a driver to be determined for TRG
No. 99 - Lawson Aschenbach, David Calvert-Jones and Sascha Maassen for Competition Motorsports

News Bite

- Pocono Raceway announced a two-year deal with Strike Ten Entertainment, the sponsorship activation arm of the bowling industry, to sponsor the 2.5 mile scalene triangle's August Sprint Cup race.  The race will be called the GoBowling.com 400. 

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 Summer Bedgood's way at summer.bedgood@frontstretch.com; and, if you're lucky, you'll get your name in print when she does her weekly column answering back to you – the fans that keep Frontstretch afloat. Frontstretch Fan Q & A will run on Thursdays with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!

Today's Featured Commentary
Guns, Retirees Up Front And Faulty Restarts: What's Wrong With This Picture?
What's Vexing Vito
by Vito Pugliese

The best medicine the Generation Six car – and NASCAR – could get is this weekend in Bristol. No matter what the car, Bristol will always put on a solid show, and with the top groove gone (or at least hampered) the fight around the bottom will lead to the beating and banging that made Bristol once the toughest ticket to get in motorsports.  Denny Hamlin has still opted to not pay his fine, though there has been speculation that either Joe Gibbs Racing or FedEx may actually pay it.  One option would be for Hamlin to go the Rusty Wallace route and pay it in pennies.  Wallace did just that in 1997, when he was fined $5,000 for cursing which was heard over the radio.  Wallace upon presenting the Brinks truck full of little Lincolns to NASCAR President Bill France said, "Now remember – y'all can't never say $***."  Not sure how that would be received in today's NASCAR world.  Probably a lifetime ban or get drug behind the Air Titan at Darlington.  Then again, if Wallace was fined $5,000 for swearing on the radio, how is Kurt Busch not bankrupt by now?

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If you're looking for a sleeper pick to win this weekend, look no further than Brian Vickers in the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota.  Vickers made the most of his eight starts last year, splitting time with Mark Martin and car owner Waltrip.  His five top 10s were buoyed by three top 5's, both of which came at Bristol; a fifth in the spring and a fourth in August.  He was in position to win late in the going in August, and is trying desperately to work his way back into a full-time Cup ride following a brief hiatus due to a heart condition and blood clots in 2010, and the disbandment of Red Bull Racing following the 2011 season.  He scored his first top 5 in the Nationwide Series last weekend at Las Vegas with a third, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.  With MWR becoming Toyota's second top-tier team, he's the odds on favorite to take over the 55 full-time in 2013, should Martin not return as he has speculated.

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Don't look now, but Penske Racing is on the verge of becoming the dominant force in NASCAR.  Some were skeptical that the move to Ford would pan out. After all, why bail on Dodge after having just won the Cup as essentially a one-car team, with the revolving door that became the No. 22?  Had Dodge been able to lure a couple of more teams over prior to Penske punching out, they may have stayed. The move to Ford was said to be a means to benchmark themselves against the competition – i.e., Roush Fenway Racing. So far with the switch to Ford, Brad Keselowski has three top 5s to start the season, while Joey Logano has battled bad luck all year long, but soldiered through to a 12th-place finish on Sunday at Las Vegas.  Meanwhile the day before, Sam Hornish, Jr. dominated en route to his second career win, and on the strength of a second-place finish at Daytona and seventh at Phoenix, Hornish leads the Nationwide Standings.  So in the last three years, Penske has a Cup title, and Nationwide title, and very well could win both this year as well. Never doubt The Captain.

Vito Pugliese is a Senior Writer/Assistant Editor for Frontstretch.  He can be reached via e-mail at vito.pugliese@frontstretch.com.  Follow him on Twitter at @VitoPugliese.

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Editor's Note: Due to circumstances beyond our control (ok, it was mainly ESPN's fault since they bumped at least one episode of NASCAR Now this week), the Annex will not be seen this week.  It will be back here next week with the promised look at NASCAR Now.

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Frontstretch Line of the Week

From What Does NASCAR Want: Candid Answers Or Sponsor Whores?

"Honesty clearly has no place in NASCAR these days. Instead, it's 'push the product that the governing body is pushing, or else.' Share your opinion as long as it parallels our own."- Brett Poirier, on Denny Hamlin's recent fine from NASCAR and the fallout from it.
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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.

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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:

Mirror Driving: The Gambles Drivers Take... On And Off The Track
by the Frontstretch Staff

NASCAR Mailbox: Bristol, Trucks, And Weather Gone Nuts
by Summer Bedgood

Fantasy Insider: Fighting Through The Perils Of Bristol's Thunder Valley
by Jeff Wolfe

Truckin' Thursdays: Meet The 2013 Rookie Class, Part II
by Beth Lunkenheimer

Tech Talk: Jason Ratcliff Tries For Two In A Row
by Mike Neff

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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  In 1993, Michael Waltrip won the Busch Series Budweiser 250 at then-Bristol International Raceway.  After becoming the first driver to honor Alan Kulwicki with a Polish Victory Lap, what happened in Victory Lane?

Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
 
Wednesday's Answer:

Q:  The 1990 Valleydale Meats 500 is best known for the photo finish between Davey Allison and Mark Martin. However, there was a near fight in the garage after the race. Why?

A:  On the final lap, Sterling Marlin was spun out exiting Turn 2 by Ricky Rudd while fighting for third.  The incident can be seen here.  Marlin was none too pleased with Rudd's move and went to confront Rudd inside his hauler.

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! 

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Coming tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Tom Bowles
-- In Case You Missed It by Rick Lunkenheimer
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, trivia, and more!

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Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:

Four Burning Questions: Bristol by Matt Stallknecht
Matt gets your engines revved up for 2013 with a preview of this weekend's Food City 500.

Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
Amy returns this week with another intriguing Friday commentary.
 
Nuts For Nationwide by Kevin Rutherford
Kevin's back with a preview of Saturday's Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 300.

Voices From the Heartland by Jeff Meyer
Our Tennessee transplant returns with another interesting take on recent events.

Driver Diary: Brendan Gaughan as told to Amy Henderson
The driver of the Camping World Truck Series No. 62 Chevrolet Silverado joins us to talk about his offseason and the first couple of races of 2013.
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©2013 Frontstretch.com

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