THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
March 4th, 2013
Volume VII, Edition XXVII
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Sprint Cup Race Recap: Edwards Triumphs, Snaps 70-Race Winless Streak
by Justin Tucker
To say it has been a tough couple of years for Carl Edwards is an understatement. Since a victory at Las Vegas, in March 2011 it has been nothing short of a rough road for him and the No. 99 Roush Fenway team over the last 70 Sprint Cup races. Coming into yesterday, at Phoenix he had posted a less than stellar showing during Daytona Speedweeks that led to him being called "Five-Time" for all the wrong reasons. After being involved in five on-track incidents, a 33rd-place finish at Daytona left him starting 2013 on the wrong foot, matching his career high for races out of Victory Lane.
But the last time Edwards had such a slump, Phoenix proved to be the place to break it, leading to a confidence-building win in early 2010. Turns out, three years later lightning really can strike twice in the sport's second race. The race's 15th-place starter, "Cousin Carl" charged forward to snap the streak on Sunday, leading a race-high 122 laps en route to a first-place finish. To do it, he got the best performance possible from his team, including new head wrench Jimmy Fennig who had the team focused in just their second race together. The pit crew, posting stops nearly a second faster than their rivals on average wound up getting him off pit road first at the perfect time -- during the race's final series of stops, under caution with 73 laps remaining. Edwards, following a fast stop had a clear path out, as opposed to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who got stuck behind the slower car of Casey Mears. That was all she wrote in an event where the Gen-6 chassis, combined with a hard tire from Goodyear made it extremely difficult to pass.
The No. 99 spent the rest of the event comfortably extending his lead, although in a race that saw only seven cautions for 39 laps, it appeared that fuel mileage would play a pivotal role in deciding the race outcome. With three laps to go and victory in sight, it appeared that Edwards had enough to coast to the checkers until the No. 32 of Ken Schrader would blow a right front tire and hit the Turn 3 wall. That set up a green-white-checkered finish where, using a push from Brad Keselowski, Edwards was able to separate from the field, then conserve just enough gas and hold off a charging Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin to score the victory.
After the race, Edwards seemed to just be relieved that the winless streak was over.
"After I left here this afternoon I told Randy [Fuller, PR representative], I'm going to quit being so nice when people ask about this losing streak because it is very frustrating," Edwards said in the post-race press conference. "To be in Victory Lane this early in the season, to have a car like we had today is really, really great. This win feels as good or better than any win I've ever had, so very excited about it."
Johnson beat out a resurgent Denny Hamlin to the line for second just a bumper. Defending champion Brad Keselowski was fourth, while Earnhardt Jr. would round out the top-5 finishers. Clint Bowyer was sixth, followed by Matt Kenseth. Tony Stewart had an up-and-down day to finish eighth, while Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton rounded out the top 10.
Mark Martin, the second-oldest pole sitter in NASCAR history led the field to the green flag and proved to be very strong from the get go, leading the opening 21 laps of the race. Scott Riggs brought the race's first caution after blowing a right front tire and hitting the turn 3 wall. This would set up a very interesting day of pit strategy as half of the field would split pit agendas and play the track position game. After a restart on lap 28, Jimmie Johnson would go past Kasey Kahne for second place as Martin would continue to assert his early dominance through the opening stages of the event.
On lap 49, Kyle Busch's day took a turn from bad to worse. After an engine change early Sunday morning, Busch fought his way from 40th to inside the top 15 within 50 laps. However, as Kyle was battling Carl Edwards for 15th, Busch's No. 18 got out of the groove and spun around hitting the wall with the left front of the race car. Busch would never truly recover, spending most of the race one lap down and finishing in 23rd place.
Martin Truex, Jr.'s Phoenix woes continued after a broken rear axle during the caution for Kyle Busch's crash caused the No. 56 to coast to a stop on pit road. After a period of time spent behind the wall for rear end repairs, Truex would return to the race and finish in 36th, 32 laps down. Ryan Newman also had his share of tire issues on Sunday. Two separate issues on lap 100 and lap 141 would end Newman's day prematurely in 40th place.
Lap 185 would see more right front tire issues as Danica Patrick would lose the right front off her GoDaddy Chevrolet off of turn 4. Patrick went hard into the outside wall, then collected David Ragan on the frontstretch. Both drivers would be OK, but out of the race.
After David Gilliland lost the right front tire on his No. 38 and hit the wall exiting Turn 2 to bring out the seventh caution on Lap 237, the pressure was on the pit crews for what proved to be the final pit stop of the day. Edwards would beat Dale Earnhardt, Jr. off of pit road in that drag race to take the lead - and the race.
Next weekend, the Sprint Cup Series continues their western swing with the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Coverage begins on FOX at 2:30pm ET.
Justin Tucker is a Newsletter Contributor at Frontstretch. To reach Justin, please contact Newsletter Manager Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
Underdog Central At Daytona: Three Time's The Charm
by Phil Allaway
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: AJ Allmendinger for Phoenix Racing. Started 23rd, Finished 11th
On Sunday, AJ Allmendinger embarked on what will be one of the more unusual 2013 seasons of any racer. He will be splitting his year between racing part-time for Phoenix Racing in the Sprint Cup Series and racing part-time for Team Penske in the Izod IndyCar Series. So far, it seems to be going pretty well for Allmendinger in both rides. While IndyCar season doesn't start until March 24th in St. Petersburg, Florida, Allmendinger only needed a few laps to put himself on pace with teammates Helio Castroneves and Will Power in Spring Training at Sebring International Raceway.
Meanwhile, at PIR, Allmendinger had a very quiet, but steady run on Sunday afternoon, moving the Guy Roofing Chevrolet up from 23rd on the grid to finish a very respectable 11th.
After the race, Allmendinger briefly took to Twitter to express his happiness.
"Really proud of Steve Barkdoll and Phoenix Racing's Guy Roofing Chevy," Allmendinger tweeted. "Everyone on the team kept fighting hard and worked their asses off for [our great finish today.]" Editor's Note: Allmendinger's tweet was incomplete, so we've added the words in the brackets to complete the sentence.
Sunday's run gives Phoenix Racing two great finishes to start the season. Owner James Finch is currently sixth in owner points through two races, just 19 behind the No. 48 for Hendrick Motorsports and driver Jimmie Johnson. Most importantly, with limited equipment available, Phoenix Racing didn't tear up any equipment this week.
Underdog Selection No. 2: Casey Mears for Germain Racing. Started 43rd, Finished 14th.
For Mears, the weekend started out horribly with the slowest time in qualifying on Friday. However, the team's pace was a little quicker in Saturday practice, which allowed the No. 13 team to be competitive on race day. During the race, Mears was able to keep himself on the lead lap, avoiding the tire issues that plagued a number of teams. With some late-race passes, Mears was able to claim a 14th-place finish, one of the better efforts that Germain Racing has been able to put together.
Mears was quite happy with his run after such a terrible qualifying effort.
"It was a good rebound. The guys worked really, really hard on Friday night and we definitely had a much better piece starting on Saturday," Mears said. "We chipped away at it and got it better, and then today we just really ground it out. We just stayed disciplined all day and tried not to make any mistakes and then at the end we had a car that was faster than a handful of them and we got five or six guys at the end. I'm real proud of them. We got a couple guys on that last restart as well, so our last run was really good."
Underdog Selection No. 3: David Reutimann for BK Racing. Started 34th, Finished 25th
BK Racing always seems to operate quietly. Their qualifying pace thus far has been miserable at best; between the team's two cars, Travis Kvapil's starting spot of 30th this Sunday has been the best they could muster for 2013. Reutimann wasn't quite as strong on Friday, qualifying in 34th, but also managing to avoid having to use a provisional. In the race, Reutimann managed to keep himself on the lead lap for most of the race, even leading one lap under the sixth caution by staying out briefly, before falling one lap during the final long green flag run of the race. From there, Reutimann held on to finish in 25th.
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.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Daytona 500 was brought to you by the Letter B, for Beads. Once again, blown right-front tires due to melted beads were a major story at Phoenix. It has been an ongoing issue on flat tracks for years. At least five yellows were brought out due to blown tires and wall contact. It could be assumed that bad setups lead to the blowouts, but at this point, is it fair to ask Goodyear to come up with a way to make the bead more durable? - Phil Allaway
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Sidebar Phoenix Stories
by Summer Bedgood
Kyle Busch Endures Long Day at Phoenix
No driver was happier to leave Phoenix on Sunday than Kyle Busch. His series of unfortunate events began before the green flag even flew, as the team had to change engines prior to the start of the race. For this reason, Busch was forced to give up his fourth-place starting spot and take the green flag in the rear.
At first, it looked as though Busch may have made the most of the situation. On lap 8, he had driven all the way up to the 30th position and was up to 24th eight laps later. Lap after lap, the driver of the No. 18 Toyota was picking off his competitors with precision. However, on lap 48 Busch got loose while racing with Carl Edwards and spun. Though there was no major damage, he did wind up with some right front splitter alignment problems and had to spend an extensive amount of time on pit road to fix it.
After losing a lap, Busch struggled to recover until lap 237, when he was the recipient of the free pass under caution. Again, he began marching his way up through the field and, once again, he found himself sideways when he had to check up to avoid hitting brother Kurt Busch on track. While there was no major damage - Kyle didn't even do a full 360 - after the second incident forward progress was limited. He finished 23rd, a disappointment that leaves him outside the top 25 in the point standings.
Tires Prove To Be an Issue in Phoenix
Several drivers found themselves to be the victim of a recurring trend on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway: blown right front tires. Stewart-Haas' Danica Patrick had the most notable, her blowout off Turn 4 also claiming David Ragan in a vicious midrace wreck. But she wasn't the only one. Ryan Newman, David Gilliland, Scott Riggs, and others suffered from the same issue -- a blown right front tire either ended their day or made it that much more difficult.
Though the incident was blamed on the drivers' use of the brakesm causing the beads to melt off due to overuse many drivers were left frustrated after the checkered flag had flown.
Jimmie Johnson Starts Year Off With a Bang
Winning the Daytona 500 means stop after stop at major pop culture talk shows and several celebrity appearances. Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson did just that last week after winning his second career Great American Race. However, Daytona is known for its crap shoot status and not for its determination of the rest of the season.
Someone forgot to tell that to Johnson. After winning the sport's Super Bowl, Johnson followed it up with a runner-up placement at Phoenix, just barely edging Denny Hamlin in a drag race to the checkers. Though he was unhappy with eventual race winner Carl Edwards' final restart of the race, Johnson and company were thrilled to have kicked off the season with such a statement.
"Oh, I'm just very proud of this whole Hendrick team and everybody on this Lowe's car and Chad Knaus (crew chief) and his leadership," said Johnson. "It was a tough year for everybody in our shop during the offseason. Everybody worked hard to get us ready. And to open like this with great qualifying efforts, great speed in the race car, and great pit stops. Across the board, I'm very proud of this Lowe's team."
Summer Bedgood is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. She can be reached via e-mail at summer.bedgood@frontstretch.com.
Quotes to Remember: Subway Fresh Fit 500k
"It bothered me [the final restart] because I was behind Jimmie (Johnson) and we were way too far back from the leader when we got to Turn 1. I was thinking the whole time, it was actually Jimmie's race to win. Usually, the guy who can get to the outside, into Turn 1 can typically be the guy in the catbird's seat off Turn 2, and obviously with Carl (Edwards), whatever he did — I didn't even see it because I was so focused on Jimmie's back bumper that I just know that Carl was way out there by the time we even got going. He was the leader, he had the right to go anytime he wants. But I didn't look and see when he went or if he went early or late or anything like that. I was plotting my move ever since I saw Jimmie and Brad (Keselowski) side-by-side. I knew it was going to be interesting, at least for that lap, because Brad was driving so hard, eventually he was going to slide up, and he knew he was going to slide up, and he did and opened the door for me." - Denny Hamlin, finished third
"After everything that happened, it was a decent day. We got up there and got position. I thought we were going to have at least a top-5 car. I was going to have to move him (Denny Hamlin) out of the way to get by him. Pretty early in the year to be causing feuds already. So, I just rode right there. Then I saw the 32 (Ken Schrader) have trouble and I was like, 'Uh oh, it's going to get wild now.' All in all, it was a decent day for our 5-Hour ENERGY Toyota." - Clint Bowyer, finished sixth
"I don't think the finish shows how good we ran. I thought we ran really, really good. I thought we had one of the best cars most of the day. Had really great adjustments. Great strategy — pit stops — the whole thing was there. We just didn't get the finish. Once we got singled out, you just couldn't really go anywhere. I felt like if we were in the front we would have driven away from everybody. I just couldn't get enough speed to get around the guys." - Matt Kenseth, finished seventh
"We learned a few things and we'll try to apply them next time. Obviously, it's a disappointing result for a great effort on the weekend. The car was pretty fast, but we had multiple problems today." - Mark Martin, finished 21st
"Racing-wise, it was tough to pass all day long. Track position, and strategy on pit road really seemed to be the big deal. We went four early, and it cost us a lot of track position. We never made that mistake the rest of the day, and stayed up front. Very exciting finish there. To come across the line like that with Denny (Hamlin) was exciting. I didn't think Carl (Edwards) followed restart protocol and slowed us down before we took off. But, outside of that, it was pretty much a perfect day. Very good start to the season. Leading the points. Up here running well on downforce tracks and superspeedway tracks. Life is good." - Jimmie Johnson, finished second
"Well, I think we used strategy to get up front, on pit road, to get ourselves track position. We had a pretty good car. On that pit stop the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) got the lead. I was on the inside of him on pit road and I think I could have beat him off, but the No. 13 was trying to get in his stall and I had to lift for that. And I knew right then my opportunity to win the race was right there. It's difficult to pass with the big spoiler. But our car was good enough to actually run up on some guys and make some passes. I want to thank (crew chief) Steve (Letarte). He made a lot of good changes and did some good stops on pit road. I've got to thank National Guard and Diet Mountain Dew and all our partners. But we haven't been good here. So that was a good run for us. I was a little disappointed because I think we could have won. And you hate to give away them points. And I'd love to get to Victory Lane. This is a good sign for us, though that we've improved this much at Phoenix. Hopefully, it's a sign for the rest of the season and that we're going to be all right." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished fifth
"I think it was just a matter of where you cycled on the pit stops as far as when everybody figured out you had to take two tires [or] four. It was just a matter of figuring out where in the cycle you were and whether you could get back the track position. When we got up to the top three or four there we had good speed, but when you got hemmed up in the back there, it was hard to make up that ground." - Tony Stewart, finished eighth
"It was a solid top 10. We had a better car than that. We just made some choices that lost us track position. Sometimes the cautions fall your way and sometimes they don't. Today most of them didn't, but we had a couple there at the end that did. That got us a little bit of that track position back. We were able to come home ninth, so all-in-all that was pretty solid." - Jeff Gordon, finished ninth
"Over the last 60 or so laps we consistently had the fastest car in the field. It was great to top it off with a top-10 finish. Especially after all the adversity the team faced early in the day when Luke (Lambert, crew chief) flew home to be with his wife who is pregnant. Ernie (Cope) stepped in and made great calls all day. I appreciate the entire Cheerios team pulling together and working hard. It paid off in the end with a solid finish and we hope to build on that momentum next weekend." - Jeff Burton, finished tenth
"Thank you and thank you to the fans, too. It's so cool to see the grandstands packed here at this race track. I thought for the last few laps it was gonna be easy and then they had that caution. It was an awesome restart. Brad Keselowski pushed me and that meant a lot. He stayed in line there and he pushed and we got a Ford to Victory Lane, so I've got to thank Brad. I've got to thank my crew. These guys were unreal and Subway, this is the Subway Fresh Fit 500k. We just won the race in the Subway Ford Fusion. This is insane, very cool." - Carl Edwards, race winner
"I think these cars probably drive easier than any race car I've ever driven in my life by themselves, and probably the hardest to drive of any race car I've ever driven in traffic. I think we can get that a little bit better and probably make them a little more difficult to drive by yourself, but a little easier to drive in traffic, we could have even better races than what we had today." - Brad Keselowski, finished fourth
"I think we're still learning. I'm still learning on exactly what I need during practice to make it good for the race and tell them what we need to change between practice and the race. All in all, it was an OK day. When we were out front, we could run really well and run some good lap times with those guys. On one pit stop, we got boxed in leaving. We got kind of pinched and I had to lift or we were gonna crash and I lost all of our track position. We were sitting on two tires, with a bunch of guys behind us on four and they ate us up. We were never able to get our track position back, but I felt like we had a top-15 car. We finished 16th and I think we passed six or seven cars on that green-white-checkered, so that was cool and that got us a decent finish. We still have a lot to improve on, but the guys worked very hard. We had a decent qualifying effort. You have to look at the positives and learn from the things we need to make better, but for the second weekend together I think we're definitely heading in the right direction and I'm looking forward to Vegas." - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., finished 16th
"We had a solid top-10 car, but track position was so important. We know that, but it seemed like whatever you could get in the first three or four laps was really important because then it got so hard to pass. But we got track position early and ran up in the top two or three. That's when we had a pretty good car, but when we lost our track position, the handling just went away really bad and it was all we could do just to hang on. I'm proud of all the guys on this Farmland Fusion team. Everybody does a great job. Todd Parrott made some great calls to get us some track position early and if we could have kept that throughout the race, I think we would have had a solid, top-5 car." - Aric Almirola, finished 15th
"We made a lot of improvements to our Front Row Motorsports Ford during the race and we were probably the best it had been the whole race long. A lot of people were having tire issues. I saw the 10 blew the tire, and I never thought she'd come across the track that fast. Typically, when you cut a tire you kind of ride the wall. Just unfortunate, being in the wrong place at the wrong time but nothing we could do." - David Ragan, finished 38th (Crashed out)
"I don't know if we ran something over or what, but we ended up blowing a right-front tire. We've seen a lot of that today. Our car was fine for over 200 laps, so I don't really get it. Our brakes were good. Everything felt good, but it's really disappointing because we were running really well. It's probably the best we've run at this style of race track in a long, long time, so we'll take the good out of that and go on and build on it. But this really puts us behind with two more torn-up race cars." - David Gilliland, finished 37th (Crashed out)
"Obviously, I blew a right front. No real warning. I wasn't that tight either; I was sliding a little bit. I felt like most of the day I was chasing the rear. It was a little unexpected. I took a hard hit to the right, and then on the left. I'm fine. The cars and the tracks are so safe. As a driver, that's a nice feeling. It doesn't change the fact that we aren't going to get any points really coming out of today, and it would have been nice. I was just saying that there isn't enough garage space for all of the cars, so unfortunately we're parked in the dirt this weekend. It would have been nice to get these points here, and then… especially off of our eighth last weekend (in the Daytona 500), and then have a decent run in (Las) Vegas. Then, when they re-establish the pits and the garage area, we would have been in better shape. These points in the beginning of the year are so important. We were making progress, but unfortunately, our day ended early." - Danica Patrick, finished 39th (Crashed out)
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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:
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Phoenix-1 Race Recap
by Matt McLaughlin
Pace Laps: NASCAR And Indy's Theme Of Ringing In The New... With The Old
by the Frontstretch Staff
The Big Six: Questions Answered After the Subway Fresh Fit 500k
by Amy Henderson
The Feel-Good Story Within NASCAR's Weekend At Phoenix
by Summer Bedgood
Goodyear's Fresh Take On Fresh Rubber This Weekend
by Mike Neff
Michael Annett's Nationwide Series Sub: Reed Sorenson?
by Mike Neff
-- Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
March 4th, 2013
Volume VII, Edition XXVII
~~~~~~~~~~
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: Edwards Triumphs, Snaps 70-Race Winless Streak
by Justin Tucker
To say it has been a tough couple of years for Carl Edwards is an understatement. Since a victory at Las Vegas, in March 2011 it has been nothing short of a rough road for him and the No. 99 Roush Fenway team over the last 70 Sprint Cup races. Coming into yesterday, at Phoenix he had posted a less than stellar showing during Daytona Speedweeks that led to him being called "Five-Time" for all the wrong reasons. After being involved in five on-track incidents, a 33rd-place finish at Daytona left him starting 2013 on the wrong foot, matching his career high for races out of Victory Lane.
But the last time Edwards had such a slump, Phoenix proved to be the place to break it, leading to a confidence-building win in early 2010. Turns out, three years later lightning really can strike twice in the sport's second race. The race's 15th-place starter, "Cousin Carl" charged forward to snap the streak on Sunday, leading a race-high 122 laps en route to a first-place finish. To do it, he got the best performance possible from his team, including new head wrench Jimmy Fennig who had the team focused in just their second race together. The pit crew, posting stops nearly a second faster than their rivals on average wound up getting him off pit road first at the perfect time -- during the race's final series of stops, under caution with 73 laps remaining. Edwards, following a fast stop had a clear path out, as opposed to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who got stuck behind the slower car of Casey Mears. That was all she wrote in an event where the Gen-6 chassis, combined with a hard tire from Goodyear made it extremely difficult to pass.
The No. 99 spent the rest of the event comfortably extending his lead, although in a race that saw only seven cautions for 39 laps, it appeared that fuel mileage would play a pivotal role in deciding the race outcome. With three laps to go and victory in sight, it appeared that Edwards had enough to coast to the checkers until the No. 32 of Ken Schrader would blow a right front tire and hit the Turn 3 wall. That set up a green-white-checkered finish where, using a push from Brad Keselowski, Edwards was able to separate from the field, then conserve just enough gas and hold off a charging Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin to score the victory.
After the race, Edwards seemed to just be relieved that the winless streak was over.
"After I left here this afternoon I told Randy [Fuller, PR representative], I'm going to quit being so nice when people ask about this losing streak because it is very frustrating," Edwards said in the post-race press conference. "To be in Victory Lane this early in the season, to have a car like we had today is really, really great. This win feels as good or better than any win I've ever had, so very excited about it."
Johnson beat out a resurgent Denny Hamlin to the line for second just a bumper. Defending champion Brad Keselowski was fourth, while Earnhardt Jr. would round out the top-5 finishers. Clint Bowyer was sixth, followed by Matt Kenseth. Tony Stewart had an up-and-down day to finish eighth, while Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton rounded out the top 10.
Mark Martin, the second-oldest pole sitter in NASCAR history led the field to the green flag and proved to be very strong from the get go, leading the opening 21 laps of the race. Scott Riggs brought the race's first caution after blowing a right front tire and hitting the turn 3 wall. This would set up a very interesting day of pit strategy as half of the field would split pit agendas and play the track position game. After a restart on lap 28, Jimmie Johnson would go past Kasey Kahne for second place as Martin would continue to assert his early dominance through the opening stages of the event.
On lap 49, Kyle Busch's day took a turn from bad to worse. After an engine change early Sunday morning, Busch fought his way from 40th to inside the top 15 within 50 laps. However, as Kyle was battling Carl Edwards for 15th, Busch's No. 18 got out of the groove and spun around hitting the wall with the left front of the race car. Busch would never truly recover, spending most of the race one lap down and finishing in 23rd place.
Martin Truex, Jr.'s Phoenix woes continued after a broken rear axle during the caution for Kyle Busch's crash caused the No. 56 to coast to a stop on pit road. After a period of time spent behind the wall for rear end repairs, Truex would return to the race and finish in 36th, 32 laps down. Ryan Newman also had his share of tire issues on Sunday. Two separate issues on lap 100 and lap 141 would end Newman's day prematurely in 40th place.
Lap 185 would see more right front tire issues as Danica Patrick would lose the right front off her GoDaddy Chevrolet off of turn 4. Patrick went hard into the outside wall, then collected David Ragan on the frontstretch. Both drivers would be OK, but out of the race.
After David Gilliland lost the right front tire on his No. 38 and hit the wall exiting Turn 2 to bring out the seventh caution on Lap 237, the pressure was on the pit crews for what proved to be the final pit stop of the day. Edwards would beat Dale Earnhardt, Jr. off of pit road in that drag race to take the lead - and the race.
Next weekend, the Sprint Cup Series continues their western swing with the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Coverage begins on FOX at 2:30pm ET.
Justin Tucker is a Newsletter Contributor at Frontstretch. To reach Justin, please contact Newsletter Manager Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
Underdog Central At Daytona: Three Time's The Charm
by Phil Allaway
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: AJ Allmendinger for Phoenix Racing. Started 23rd, Finished 11th
On Sunday, AJ Allmendinger embarked on what will be one of the more unusual 2013 seasons of any racer. He will be splitting his year between racing part-time for Phoenix Racing in the Sprint Cup Series and racing part-time for Team Penske in the Izod IndyCar Series. So far, it seems to be going pretty well for Allmendinger in both rides. While IndyCar season doesn't start until March 24th in St. Petersburg, Florida, Allmendinger only needed a few laps to put himself on pace with teammates Helio Castroneves and Will Power in Spring Training at Sebring International Raceway.
Meanwhile, at PIR, Allmendinger had a very quiet, but steady run on Sunday afternoon, moving the Guy Roofing Chevrolet up from 23rd on the grid to finish a very respectable 11th.
After the race, Allmendinger briefly took to Twitter to express his happiness.
"Really proud of Steve Barkdoll and Phoenix Racing's Guy Roofing Chevy," Allmendinger tweeted. "Everyone on the team kept fighting hard and worked their asses off for [our great finish today.]" Editor's Note: Allmendinger's tweet was incomplete, so we've added the words in the brackets to complete the sentence.
Sunday's run gives Phoenix Racing two great finishes to start the season. Owner James Finch is currently sixth in owner points through two races, just 19 behind the No. 48 for Hendrick Motorsports and driver Jimmie Johnson. Most importantly, with limited equipment available, Phoenix Racing didn't tear up any equipment this week.
Underdog Selection No. 2: Casey Mears for Germain Racing. Started 43rd, Finished 14th.
For Mears, the weekend started out horribly with the slowest time in qualifying on Friday. However, the team's pace was a little quicker in Saturday practice, which allowed the No. 13 team to be competitive on race day. During the race, Mears was able to keep himself on the lead lap, avoiding the tire issues that plagued a number of teams. With some late-race passes, Mears was able to claim a 14th-place finish, one of the better efforts that Germain Racing has been able to put together.
Mears was quite happy with his run after such a terrible qualifying effort.
"It was a good rebound. The guys worked really, really hard on Friday night and we definitely had a much better piece starting on Saturday," Mears said. "We chipped away at it and got it better, and then today we just really ground it out. We just stayed disciplined all day and tried not to make any mistakes and then at the end we had a car that was faster than a handful of them and we got five or six guys at the end. I'm real proud of them. We got a couple guys on that last restart as well, so our last run was really good."
Underdog Selection No. 3: David Reutimann for BK Racing. Started 34th, Finished 25th
BK Racing always seems to operate quietly. Their qualifying pace thus far has been miserable at best; between the team's two cars, Travis Kvapil's starting spot of 30th this Sunday has been the best they could muster for 2013. Reutimann wasn't quite as strong on Friday, qualifying in 34th, but also managing to avoid having to use a provisional. In the race, Reutimann managed to keep himself on the lead lap for most of the race, even leading one lap under the sixth caution by staying out briefly, before falling one lap during the final long green flag run of the race. From there, Reutimann held on to finish in 25th.
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.
~~~~~~~~~~
Letter of the Race: Sunday's Daytona 500 was brought to you by the Letter B, for Beads. Once again, blown right-front tires due to melted beads were a major story at Phoenix. It has been an ongoing issue on flat tracks for years. At least five yellows were brought out due to blown tires and wall contact. It could be assumed that bad setups lead to the blowouts, but at this point, is it fair to ask Goodyear to come up with a way to make the bead more durable? - Phil Allaway
~~~~~~~~~~
Sidebar Phoenix Stories
by Summer Bedgood
Kyle Busch Endures Long Day at Phoenix
No driver was happier to leave Phoenix on Sunday than Kyle Busch. His series of unfortunate events began before the green flag even flew, as the team had to change engines prior to the start of the race. For this reason, Busch was forced to give up his fourth-place starting spot and take the green flag in the rear.
At first, it looked as though Busch may have made the most of the situation. On lap 8, he had driven all the way up to the 30th position and was up to 24th eight laps later. Lap after lap, the driver of the No. 18 Toyota was picking off his competitors with precision. However, on lap 48 Busch got loose while racing with Carl Edwards and spun. Though there was no major damage, he did wind up with some right front splitter alignment problems and had to spend an extensive amount of time on pit road to fix it.
After losing a lap, Busch struggled to recover until lap 237, when he was the recipient of the free pass under caution. Again, he began marching his way up through the field and, once again, he found himself sideways when he had to check up to avoid hitting brother Kurt Busch on track. While there was no major damage - Kyle didn't even do a full 360 - after the second incident forward progress was limited. He finished 23rd, a disappointment that leaves him outside the top 25 in the point standings.
Tires Prove To Be an Issue in Phoenix
Several drivers found themselves to be the victim of a recurring trend on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway: blown right front tires. Stewart-Haas' Danica Patrick had the most notable, her blowout off Turn 4 also claiming David Ragan in a vicious midrace wreck. But she wasn't the only one. Ryan Newman, David Gilliland, Scott Riggs, and others suffered from the same issue -- a blown right front tire either ended their day or made it that much more difficult.
Though the incident was blamed on the drivers' use of the brakesm causing the beads to melt off due to overuse many drivers were left frustrated after the checkered flag had flown.
Jimmie Johnson Starts Year Off With a Bang
Winning the Daytona 500 means stop after stop at major pop culture talk shows and several celebrity appearances. Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson did just that last week after winning his second career Great American Race. However, Daytona is known for its crap shoot status and not for its determination of the rest of the season.
Someone forgot to tell that to Johnson. After winning the sport's Super Bowl, Johnson followed it up with a runner-up placement at Phoenix, just barely edging Denny Hamlin in a drag race to the checkers. Though he was unhappy with eventual race winner Carl Edwards' final restart of the race, Johnson and company were thrilled to have kicked off the season with such a statement.
"Oh, I'm just very proud of this whole Hendrick team and everybody on this Lowe's car and Chad Knaus (crew chief) and his leadership," said Johnson. "It was a tough year for everybody in our shop during the offseason. Everybody worked hard to get us ready. And to open like this with great qualifying efforts, great speed in the race car, and great pit stops. Across the board, I'm very proud of this Lowe's team."
Summer Bedgood is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. She can be reached via e-mail at summer.bedgood@frontstretch.com.
Quotes to Remember: Subway Fresh Fit 500k
"It bothered me [the final restart] because I was behind Jimmie (Johnson) and we were way too far back from the leader when we got to Turn 1. I was thinking the whole time, it was actually Jimmie's race to win. Usually, the guy who can get to the outside, into Turn 1 can typically be the guy in the catbird's seat off Turn 2, and obviously with Carl (Edwards), whatever he did — I didn't even see it because I was so focused on Jimmie's back bumper that I just know that Carl was way out there by the time we even got going. He was the leader, he had the right to go anytime he wants. But I didn't look and see when he went or if he went early or late or anything like that. I was plotting my move ever since I saw Jimmie and Brad (Keselowski) side-by-side. I knew it was going to be interesting, at least for that lap, because Brad was driving so hard, eventually he was going to slide up, and he knew he was going to slide up, and he did and opened the door for me." - Denny Hamlin, finished third
"After everything that happened, it was a decent day. We got up there and got position. I thought we were going to have at least a top-5 car. I was going to have to move him (Denny Hamlin) out of the way to get by him. Pretty early in the year to be causing feuds already. So, I just rode right there. Then I saw the 32 (Ken Schrader) have trouble and I was like, 'Uh oh, it's going to get wild now.' All in all, it was a decent day for our 5-Hour ENERGY Toyota." - Clint Bowyer, finished sixth
"I don't think the finish shows how good we ran. I thought we ran really, really good. I thought we had one of the best cars most of the day. Had really great adjustments. Great strategy — pit stops — the whole thing was there. We just didn't get the finish. Once we got singled out, you just couldn't really go anywhere. I felt like if we were in the front we would have driven away from everybody. I just couldn't get enough speed to get around the guys." - Matt Kenseth, finished seventh
"We learned a few things and we'll try to apply them next time. Obviously, it's a disappointing result for a great effort on the weekend. The car was pretty fast, but we had multiple problems today." - Mark Martin, finished 21st
"Racing-wise, it was tough to pass all day long. Track position, and strategy on pit road really seemed to be the big deal. We went four early, and it cost us a lot of track position. We never made that mistake the rest of the day, and stayed up front. Very exciting finish there. To come across the line like that with Denny (Hamlin) was exciting. I didn't think Carl (Edwards) followed restart protocol and slowed us down before we took off. But, outside of that, it was pretty much a perfect day. Very good start to the season. Leading the points. Up here running well on downforce tracks and superspeedway tracks. Life is good." - Jimmie Johnson, finished second
"Well, I think we used strategy to get up front, on pit road, to get ourselves track position. We had a pretty good car. On that pit stop the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) got the lead. I was on the inside of him on pit road and I think I could have beat him off, but the No. 13 was trying to get in his stall and I had to lift for that. And I knew right then my opportunity to win the race was right there. It's difficult to pass with the big spoiler. But our car was good enough to actually run up on some guys and make some passes. I want to thank (crew chief) Steve (Letarte). He made a lot of good changes and did some good stops on pit road. I've got to thank National Guard and Diet Mountain Dew and all our partners. But we haven't been good here. So that was a good run for us. I was a little disappointed because I think we could have won. And you hate to give away them points. And I'd love to get to Victory Lane. This is a good sign for us, though that we've improved this much at Phoenix. Hopefully, it's a sign for the rest of the season and that we're going to be all right." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished fifth
"I think it was just a matter of where you cycled on the pit stops as far as when everybody figured out you had to take two tires [or] four. It was just a matter of figuring out where in the cycle you were and whether you could get back the track position. When we got up to the top three or four there we had good speed, but when you got hemmed up in the back there, it was hard to make up that ground." - Tony Stewart, finished eighth
"It was a solid top 10. We had a better car than that. We just made some choices that lost us track position. Sometimes the cautions fall your way and sometimes they don't. Today most of them didn't, but we had a couple there at the end that did. That got us a little bit of that track position back. We were able to come home ninth, so all-in-all that was pretty solid." - Jeff Gordon, finished ninth
"Over the last 60 or so laps we consistently had the fastest car in the field. It was great to top it off with a top-10 finish. Especially after all the adversity the team faced early in the day when Luke (Lambert, crew chief) flew home to be with his wife who is pregnant. Ernie (Cope) stepped in and made great calls all day. I appreciate the entire Cheerios team pulling together and working hard. It paid off in the end with a solid finish and we hope to build on that momentum next weekend." - Jeff Burton, finished tenth
"Thank you and thank you to the fans, too. It's so cool to see the grandstands packed here at this race track. I thought for the last few laps it was gonna be easy and then they had that caution. It was an awesome restart. Brad Keselowski pushed me and that meant a lot. He stayed in line there and he pushed and we got a Ford to Victory Lane, so I've got to thank Brad. I've got to thank my crew. These guys were unreal and Subway, this is the Subway Fresh Fit 500k. We just won the race in the Subway Ford Fusion. This is insane, very cool." - Carl Edwards, race winner
"I think these cars probably drive easier than any race car I've ever driven in my life by themselves, and probably the hardest to drive of any race car I've ever driven in traffic. I think we can get that a little bit better and probably make them a little more difficult to drive by yourself, but a little easier to drive in traffic, we could have even better races than what we had today." - Brad Keselowski, finished fourth
"I think we're still learning. I'm still learning on exactly what I need during practice to make it good for the race and tell them what we need to change between practice and the race. All in all, it was an OK day. When we were out front, we could run really well and run some good lap times with those guys. On one pit stop, we got boxed in leaving. We got kind of pinched and I had to lift or we were gonna crash and I lost all of our track position. We were sitting on two tires, with a bunch of guys behind us on four and they ate us up. We were never able to get our track position back, but I felt like we had a top-15 car. We finished 16th and I think we passed six or seven cars on that green-white-checkered, so that was cool and that got us a decent finish. We still have a lot to improve on, but the guys worked very hard. We had a decent qualifying effort. You have to look at the positives and learn from the things we need to make better, but for the second weekend together I think we're definitely heading in the right direction and I'm looking forward to Vegas." - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., finished 16th
"We had a solid top-10 car, but track position was so important. We know that, but it seemed like whatever you could get in the first three or four laps was really important because then it got so hard to pass. But we got track position early and ran up in the top two or three. That's when we had a pretty good car, but when we lost our track position, the handling just went away really bad and it was all we could do just to hang on. I'm proud of all the guys on this Farmland Fusion team. Everybody does a great job. Todd Parrott made some great calls to get us some track position early and if we could have kept that throughout the race, I think we would have had a solid, top-5 car." - Aric Almirola, finished 15th
"We made a lot of improvements to our Front Row Motorsports Ford during the race and we were probably the best it had been the whole race long. A lot of people were having tire issues. I saw the 10 blew the tire, and I never thought she'd come across the track that fast. Typically, when you cut a tire you kind of ride the wall. Just unfortunate, being in the wrong place at the wrong time but nothing we could do." - David Ragan, finished 38th (Crashed out)
"I don't know if we ran something over or what, but we ended up blowing a right-front tire. We've seen a lot of that today. Our car was fine for over 200 laps, so I don't really get it. Our brakes were good. Everything felt good, but it's really disappointing because we were running really well. It's probably the best we've run at this style of race track in a long, long time, so we'll take the good out of that and go on and build on it. But this really puts us behind with two more torn-up race cars." - David Gilliland, finished 37th (Crashed out)
"Obviously, I blew a right front. No real warning. I wasn't that tight either; I was sliding a little bit. I felt like most of the day I was chasing the rear. It was a little unexpected. I took a hard hit to the right, and then on the left. I'm fine. The cars and the tracks are so safe. As a driver, that's a nice feeling. It doesn't change the fact that we aren't going to get any points really coming out of today, and it would have been nice. I was just saying that there isn't enough garage space for all of the cars, so unfortunately we're parked in the dirt this weekend. It would have been nice to get these points here, and then… especially off of our eighth last weekend (in the Daytona 500), and then have a decent run in (Las) Vegas. Then, when they re-establish the pits and the garage area, we would have been in better shape. These points in the beginning of the year are so important. We were making progress, but unfortunately, our day ended early." - Danica Patrick, finished 39th (Crashed out)
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Phoenix-1 Race Recap
by Matt McLaughlin
Pace Laps: NASCAR And Indy's Theme Of Ringing In The New... With The Old
by the Frontstretch Staff
The Big Six: Questions Answered After the Subway Fresh Fit 500k
by Amy Henderson
The Feel-Good Story Within NASCAR's Weekend At Phoenix
by Summer Bedgood
Goodyear's Fresh Take On Fresh Rubber This Weekend
by Mike Neff
Michael Annett's Nationwide Series Sub: Reed Sorenson?
by Mike Neff
~~~~~~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 1996, the then-Craftsman Truck Series served as the primary support to the IRL at the brand new Las Vegas Motor Speedway. However, the day ended quite early for visiting Cup regular Geoff Bodine. What happened to put him out of the race early?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: The 1991 Pyroil 500k was the first Cup Series race at Phoenix broadcast on TNN (and only the fourth Cup race there overall). Richard Petty, who was one of the most experienced Cup drivers, was eliminated from the event before Lap 100. What happened?
A: On Lap 90, there was a stack-up exiting Turn 4 as the rest of the field was trying to negotiate their way around the slower No. 72 of Mark Reed. In the resulting chain reaction, Richard Petty, Harry Gant, Dave Marcis, Herschel McGriff and Butch Gilliland all ended up in the inside wall on the frontstretch. The crash can be seen live at the 20:05 mark of this clip. McGriff, Gilliland and Gant all pulled away and continued, but lost a lap to the field before they could. Marcis drove away, but dropped out shortly afterwards due to a broken A-Frame. However, Petty was out on the spot.
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 S.D. Grady
-- Numbers Game: Subway Fresh Fit 500k by TBA
-- 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, and who's likely to be licking their wounds in Sin City.
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: In 1996, the then-Craftsman Truck Series served as the primary support to the IRL at the brand new Las Vegas Motor Speedway. However, the day ended quite early for visiting Cup regular Geoff Bodine. What happened to put him out of the race early?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: The 1991 Pyroil 500k was the first Cup Series race at Phoenix broadcast on TNN (and only the fourth Cup race there overall). Richard Petty, who was one of the most experienced Cup drivers, was eliminated from the event before Lap 100. What happened?
A: On Lap 90, there was a stack-up exiting Turn 4 as the rest of the field was trying to negotiate their way around the slower No. 72 of Mark Reed. In the resulting chain reaction, Richard Petty, Harry Gant, Dave Marcis, Herschel McGriff and Butch Gilliland all ended up in the inside wall on the frontstretch. The crash can be seen live at the 20:05 mark of this clip. McGriff, Gilliland and Gant all pulled away and continued, but lost a lap to the field before they could. Marcis drove away, but dropped out shortly afterwards due to a broken A-Frame. However, Petty was out on the spot.
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 S.D. Grady
-- Numbers Game: Subway Fresh Fit 500k by TBA
-- 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 Subway Fresh Fit 500k and get us ready for the Kobalt Tools 400.
Couch Potato Tuesday by Phil Allaway
This past weekend, the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series were in action at Phoenix Internaional Raceway for their first unrestricted 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, and who's likely to be licking their wounds in Sin City.
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
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