Thursday, July 04, 2013

The Frontstretch Newsletter: July 4th, 2013

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!

July 4th, 2013
Volume VII, Edition CXIX
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What to Watch: Thursday

- Today, on-track action is set to begin at Daytona International Speedway.  Two practice sessions will be held for both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.  The times are as follows (all times are in Eastern Daylight Time, adjust for your own time zone):

2:30 - 3:50 PM Nationwide Series Practice No. 1
4:00 - 5:20 PM Sprint Cup Series Practice No. 1
5:30 - 6:25 PM Nationwide Series Happy Hour
6:35 - 8:00 PM Sprint Cup Series Happy Hour

Top News
by Phil Allaway

Tire Testing to Continue

MRN's Jeff Wackerlin is reporting that Goodyear is currently planning on holding two more tire tests in the coming weeks in order to determine proper tire compounds for intermediate tracks.

The first of these scheduled tests will take place at Kansas Speedway on July 16th and 17th.  Three teams have already been nominated to take part.  Those teams are Roush Fenway Racing, with their No. 16 Ford driven by Greg Biffle; Furniture Row Racing with their No. 78 Chevrolet driven by Kurt Busch; and Joe Gibbs Racing, with their No. 18 Toyota driven by Kyle Busch.

In the case of Atlanta Motor Speedway, Goodyear held a tire test there just two weeks ago.  However, the tire manufacturer is bringing a new tire combination to Atlanta for the AdvoCare 500 weekend in early September.  As a result, they want to test again so that they're sure they have the right tire.

"We went back and poured over the data [after the original test]," said Greg Stucker, Goodyear's Director of Racing Tire Sales.  "Looks like we'll be coming back with a different right-side tire versus what we have raced there the last couple years. We're putting the final touches on that, but it looks like that's the way we'll be going. Cars were plenty fast and pretty tough on right sides. It's a big, fast race track with long corners so we're seeing a lot of wear and a lot of heat. That's why we feel like a right-side change is warranted for that track."

No teams were officially announced for the second Atlanta tire test.  However, it is currently scheduled to be held on August 6th.  In addition to the aforementioned two sessions, Goodyear is scheduled to hold three more tire tests before the end of 2013.  One will be at Phoenix International Raceway, while there will also be tire tests at Richmond International Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway prior to the start of the 2014 season.

City Chevrolet To Sponsor Phoenix Racing, Kurt Busch At Daytona

On Wednesday, a combination of the Armed Forces Foundation, Phoenix Racing and Rick Hendrick announced that City Chevrolet will serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 1 Chevrolet driven by Kurt Busch in Friday night's Subway Firecracker 250.  The car will carry a retro paint scheme based upon the first car that Cole Trickle raced in Winston Cup in the 1990 film Days of Thunder.

Busch is very happy to carry the yellow and neon green colors at Daytona.

"To be able to drive the City Chevrolet car at Daytona is awesome," Busch said.  "I really appreciate everyone wanting to do something special for my last ride with Phoenix Racing.  Being able to drive this iconic car in the Subway Firecracker
250 to raise awareness for the Armed Forces Foundation's Help Save Our Troops campaign makes it all the more meaningful.  I can't wait to get out there, drop the hammer and maybe do a little rubbin."

This will not be the first time that Busch has raced a paint scheme from a NASCAR movie.  Last season, Busch raced a "Me" car in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega.  That car was officially sponsored by the Armed Forces Foundation, but featured the scheme that Ricky Bobby drove in the climatic final race in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

City Chevrolet is actually a Chevrolet dealership in Charlotte, North Carolina that is considered the flagship dealership of the Hendrick Automotive Group.  Also, this will not be the first time that the green and yellow colors will have run in the Nationwide Series.  In 1990, Greg Sacks drove two races in a City Chevrolet-sponsored No. 46 for Hendrick.  Sacks' best finish was third in the Goody's 300 at Daytona.

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

Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400: 43 cars entered

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 21 -
Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing
No. 33 -
Landon Cassill for Circle Sport, LLC
No. 35 -
Josh Wise for Front Row Motorsports
No. 87 -
Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports/JRR

Driver Changes:
No. 32 -
Terry Labonte returns to the seat, replacing Ken Schrader. Labonte is running the restrictor plate races for the team in 2013.
No. 47 - Bobby Labonte returns to the seat, replacing AJ Allmendinger. Labonte will be the full-time driver for most of the remainder of the season.
No. 51 - AJ Allmendinger returns to the seat, replacing Austin Dillon. Allmendinger will drive in the last three races James Finch will own the team: Daytona, Loudon, and Indianapolis.
No. 55 -
Michael Waltrip returns to the seat, replacing Brian Vickers. Waltrip is running the remaining plate races for the team this season.

Since there are only 43 entries, no one will fail to qualify.

Not Entered:
No. 19 -
Mike Bliss for Humphrey-Smith Racing
No. 44 -
Scott Riggs for Xxxtreme Motorsports

Nationwide Series Subway Firecracker 250: 43 cars entered

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 1 -
Kurt Busch for Phoenix Racing
No. 18 -
Matt Kenseth for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 22 -
Joey Logano for Penske Racing
No. 33 -
Ty Dillon for Richard Childress Racing
No. 34 -
James Buescher for Turner Scott Motorsports
No. 54 -
Kyle Busch for Kyle Busch Motorsports/Joe Gibbs Racing

Driver Changes:
No. 18 -
Matt Kenseth returns to the seat, replacing Michael McDowell.
No. 22 -
Joey Logano returns to the seat, replacing Brad Keselowski.
No. 23 -
Robert Richardson, Jr. returns to the seat, replacing Harrison Rhodes.
No. 24 -
Jason White returns to the seat, replacing Ken Butler, III.
No. 33 -
Ty Dillon returns to the seat, replacing Matt Crafton.
No. 70 -
Tony Raines returns to the seat, replacing Johanna Long.
No. 74 -
Mike Harmon returns to the seat, replacing Carl Long.
No. 79 -
Jeffrey Earnhardt returns to the seat, replacing Bryan Silas.

Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 00 -
Blake Koch for SR2 Motorsports
No. 1 -
Kurt Busch for Phoenix Racing
No. 10 -
Jeff Green for TriStar Motorsports (Guaranteed to start via the Past Champions' Provisional)*
No. 18 -
Matt Kenseth for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 34 -
James Buescher for Turner Scott Motorsports
No. 42 -
Josh Wise for The Motorsports Group, LLC*
No. 52 -
Joey Gase for Jimmy Means Motorsports
No. 55 -
Jamie Dick for Viva Motorsports
No. 74 -
Mike Harmon for Mike Harmon Racing
No. 85 -
Bobby Gerhart for Bobby Gerhart Racing
No. 89 -
Morgan Shepherd for Shepherd Motor Ventures
No. 92 -
Dexter Stacey for KH Motorsports
No. 98 -
Kevin Swindell for Biagi-DenBeste Racing
*- Expected to Start-and-Park

Not Entered:
No. 46 -
JJ Yeley for The Motorsports Group, LLC
No. 73 -
Derrike Cope for Derrike Cope, Inc.

Izod IndyCar Series Pocono IndyCar 400: 24 cars entered

Driver Changes:
No. 4 -
Ryan Briscoe returns to the seat, replacing Oriol Servia.
No. 18 -
Pippa Mann returns to the seat, replacing Ana Beatriz.

Entries:
No. 1 -
Ryan Hunter-Reay for Andretti Autosport
No. 3 -
Helio Castroneves for Team Penske
No. 4 -
Ryan Briscoe for Panther Racing
No. 5 -
EJ Viso for Andretti Autosport/Team Venezuela
No. 6 -
Sebastian Saavedra for Dragon Racing
No. 7 -
Sebastien Bourdais for Dragon Racing
No. 9 -
Scott Dixon for Target Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 10 -
Dario Franchitti for Target Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 11 -
Tony Kanaan for KV Racing Technologies
No. 12 -
Will Power for Team Penske
No. 14 -
Takuma Sato for AJ Foyt Enterprises
No. 15 -
Graham Rahal for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
No. 16 -
James Jakes for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
No. 18 -
Pippa Mann for Dale Coyne Racing
No. 19 -
Justin Wilson for Dale Coyne Racing
No. 20 -
Ed Carpenter for Ed Carpenter Racing
No. 25 -
Marco Andretti for Andretti Autosport
No. 27 -
James Hinchcliffe for Andretti Autosport
No. 55 -
Tristan Vautier for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
No. 67 -
Josef Newgarden for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing
No. 77 -
Simon Pagenaud for Schmidt-Hamilton Racing
No. 78 -
Simona de Silvestro for KV Racing Technologies
No. 83 -
Charlie Kimball for Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 98 -
Alex Tagliani for Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian

American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix: 34 cars entered in 5 classes

Prototype 1 (P1) Entries:
No. 0 -
Katherine Legge/Andy Meyrick for DeltaWing Racing Cars
No. 6 -
Klaus Graf/Lucas Luhr for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
No. 16 -
Chris Dyson/Guy Smith for Dyson Racing

Prototype 2 (P2) Entries:
No. 01 -
Guy Cosmo/Scott Sharp for Extreme Speed Motorsports
No. 02 -
Ed Brown/Johannes van Overbeek for Extreme Speed Motorsports
No. 551 -
Marino Franchitti/Scott Tucker for Level 5 Motorsports
No. 552 -
Ryan Briscoe/Scott Tucker for Level 5 Motorsports

Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) Entries:
No. 05 -
Jonathan Bennett/Colin Braun for CORE Autosport
No. 7 -
Tomy Drissi/Rusty Mitchell for BAR1 Motorsports
No. 8 -
Chris Cumming/Kyle Marcelli for BAR1 Motorsports
No. 9 -
Duncan Ende/Bruno Junqueira for RSR Racing
No. 18 -
Tristan Nunez/Charlie Shears for Performance Tech Motorsports
No. 52 -
Mike Guasch/David Cheng for PR1 Mathaisen Motorsports
No. 81 -
Mirco Schultis/Renger van der Zande for 8star Mishumotors

Grand Touring (GT) Entries:
No. 06 -
Tom Kimber-Smith/Patrick Long for CORE Autosport
No. 3 -
Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen for Corvette Racing
No. 4 -
Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner for Corvette Racing
No. 17 -
Wolf Henzler/Bryan Sellers for Team Falken Tire
No. 23 -
Townsend Bell/Bill Sweedler for Team West/AJR/Boardwalk Ferrari
No. 48 -
Marco Holzer/Bryce Miller for Paul Miller Racing
No. 55 -
Bill Auberlen/Maxime Martin for BMW Team RLL
No. 56 -
Dirk Müller/John Edwards for BMW Team RLL
No. 62 -
Olivier Beretta/Matteo Malucelli for Risi Competizione
No. 91 -
Dominik Farnbacher/Marc Goossens for SRT Motorsports
No. 93 -
Jonathan Bomarito/Kuno Wittmer for SRT Motorsports

Grand Touring Challenge (GTC) Entries:
No. 10 -
Mike Avenatti/Andrew Davis for Dempsey Del Piero Racing
No. 11 -
Mike Hedlund/Jan Heylen for JDX Motorsports
No. 22 -
Jeroen Bleekemolen/Cooper MacNeil for Alex Job Racing
No. 27 -
Patrick Dempsey/Andy Lally for Dempsey Del Piero Racing
No. 30 -
Henrique Cisneros/Nicolas Armindo for NGT Motorsport
No. 44 -
Seth Neiman/Dion von Moltke for Flying Lizard Motorsports
No. 45 -
Nelson Canache/Spencer Pumpelly for Flying Lizard Motorsports
No. 66 -
Damien Faulkner/Ben Keating for TRG
No. 68 -
Unknown drivers for TRG

News and Notes:

-
Since it is the 4th of July, a number of teams will be running patriotic-themed schemes on their race cars this weekend in Daytona.  Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski will both be running schemes that debuted at Charlotte Motor Speedway Memorial Day weekend.  Danica Patrick will have a special scheme incorporating red, white and blue with the normal GoDaddy green in order to advertise new .us domains.  Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle will also have cars with patriotic colors.

In the Nationwide Series, Parker Kligerman will run a special patriotic themed No. 77 Toyota Camry.  Originally, the car was going to carry Toyota logos, but Bandit Chippers will sponsor the ride instead.
 
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!
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Editor's Note: What's Vexing Vito will return next week.
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The Critic's Annex: Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen
by Phil Allaway

Hello, race fans.  Welcome back to the Critic's Annex, where we take an additional look at motorsports-related programming.  While NASCAR's top series were all dealing with inclement weather in Kentucky, the Rolex Sports Car Series made their one and only trip of the season to Upstate New York.  However, they also issues with weather.

The Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen is a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series, and round No. 2 of the North American Endurance Championship, a "championship within a championship" designed to rewards teams instead of drivers.  It's confusing as heck.  I hope that doesn't come back for 2014 when the merger will be in full effect.

How did SPEED do with the telecast?  Let's take a look.

Even though the Six Hour race at Watkins Glen is a historic event in it's own right, it is just one race in a 12-race schedule.  To that degree, SPEED's race telecast started out by looking at the point battles in the Daytona Prototype and Grand Touring classes.  The Grand Touring Experimental (GX) class was more or less excluded here because the class has really not been much of a battle thus far.

For Watkins Glen, SPEED decided to expand their pit reporting corps from two to three people.  The third man in the pits ended up being the inexperienced (at pit reporting, but definitely not driving) Darren Law.  Law made his pit reporting debut earlier this season at Road Atlanta earlier this year.  In that circumstance, Law was working in place of regular pit reporter Brian Till, who was doing play-by-play for ESPN's coverage of the American Le Mans Series race at Long Beach.

Law appears to enjoy his work on pit road, but he's got a ways to go before he can be considered a good pit reporter.  On Sunday, Law bungled names (I believe that he referred to Katie Crawford, Engineer of the No. 42 BMW Riley for Team Sahlen by the wrong name to her face at one point), and just plain seemed unprepared at times.  I think Law may have taken the gig thinking that it was going to be a cake walk.  I've never worked as a pit reporter on a telecast, but I've interviewed drivers after races in the past.  That type of work requires people that can think very quickly on their feet and come up with decent questions on the spot.  I don't think Law's quite there just yet.

I think that SPEED is currently using Law in an unusual hybrid role between a pit reporter and a guest analyst.  For example, they will ask Law about certain things that happened in the past in reference to a specific driver's style.  This occurred after Max Angelelli was warned about rough driving after nearly pushing Christian Fittipaldi into the wall following an overtaking maneuver.  This prompted a look back at when Law was essentially crashed by Angelelli using a similar move last year at Barber Park.

In addition, I wasn't really feeling how SPEED was covering the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing team late in the race.  Yes, due to a series of wrecks and mechanical issues, the No. 60 entered Watkins Glen last of the 13 teams that had raced in all of the previous events thus far in 2013.  Also, Oswaldo (Ozz) Negri, Jr. had missed most of the season due to an off-season mountain biking crash that left him with a shattered ankle.  Regardless, it seemed like the booth was all but outright rooting for the No. 60 to win the race late.  I don't think the broadcast booth is really supposed to do that.  However, the cruel fate of a forced off-course excursion (Fittipaldi got loose, forcing Negri to drive into the grass to avoid hitting him) forced the team to pit in the final 20 minutes to remove caked on mud and grass from the grille.

Aside from Law's growing pains, SPEED showed a fair amount of coverage of the on-track action.  The trio of Bob Varsha, Dorsey Schroeder and Calvin Fish, even though they haven't always worked together, mesh very well.  There are jocular moments and serious moments during the race and these are handled just fine.

There were also a few great in-car shots from the race telecast.  One of them was when the transmission decided to disintegrate in the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda 6GX.  The 6 was trudging along when all of a sudden, a loud grinding noise, accompanied by a massive vibration broke out.  Varsha referred to it as the sound of money going away.

Another nice in-car camera was on the No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley DPG3 driven by Justin Wilson and Gustavo Yacaman.  It appeared to be mounted under the rear bodywork and showed off the amount of suspension travel that the Daytona Prototypes have to deal with at Watkins Glen.  With pavement that has aged quite a bit with the help of relatively harsh New York winters, it is quite a test.

In a rehash of a feature SPEED showed during their 24 Hours of Le Mans coverage, SPEED sent Justin Bell out into the campgrounds to find the wildest bunch of fans that he could.  After hanging out with a family camping out near "The Boot," he eventually finds a group of people that fit the bill.  Now, at Le Mans, such a feature should have never aired.  It was in at best, bad taste.  Here, it wasn't quite as bad, although it was still weird to watch.

Post-race coverage was fairly decent.  SPEED provided viewers with interviews of two drivers from each class-winning car (No. 5 Action Express Racing Chevrolet Corvette PD, No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro in GT and the No. 00 SpeedSource Mazda 6GX).  In addition, there were also interviews with the second-place drivers (Michael Valiante and Stephane Sarrazin) from 8 Star Motorsports.  There were also checks of the point standings in the DP and GT classes, along with a check of the North American Endurance Championship standings before SPEED left the air.

Overall, I did enjoy watching SPEED's telecast from Watkins Glen.  There was a lot of on-track action that SPEED did their best to show all the viewers.  Generally, SPEED went where the action was.  GX was more or less ignored, with the exception of when the No. 70 destroyed it's gearbox.  Then again, only one of the three entries managed to even finish the race.  The issues listed above are the primary issues that I had with the telecast.  However, 95 percent of what viewers got to see on Sunday was excellent.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at SPEED's telecast of the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen.  Check out next week's edition of the Critic's Annex, where we'll have yet another race telecast to critique.  Until then, enjoy this weekend's action from Daytona, Pocono, Lime Rock and the Nürburgring.

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Frontstretch Line of the Week


"Patrick is a poor qualifier right now, but Petty should have had one of the provisional spots named after him. And if you're wondering how Petty stayed in the sport for that long with that kind of performance, look no further than his legendary father, Richard Petty, who was at least part of the ownership group of Kyle's race team during those years when he would've otherwise been on the sidelines."  - Brett Poirier describes essentially the entire second half of Kyle Petty's career in the Cup Series.
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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:
by Jeff Wolfe

NASCAR Mailbox: Restarts, Underdogs, and Flubs
by Summer Bedgood

Truckin' Thursdays: Introducing Turner Motorsports' Harry Scott, Jr.
by Beth Lunkenheimer

Mirror Driving: Busting Through Slumps And Safety On Independence Day
by the Frontstretch Staff
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  In 1995, ESPN held a special simulcast telecast of the Pepsi 400 from Daytona.  How did these race simulcasts work?
 
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!

Wednesday's Answer:

Q:  Up until 2010, the Rolex Sports Car Series served as the tertiary series during the Independence Day race weekend in Daytona.  When Robin Liddell brought home his No. 57 Chevrolet Camaro home third in GT back in 2010, he did so while completely red in the face and wiped out.  What happened to cause this condition?

A: According to Team Manager Mike Johnson, Liddell had had issues with his cool suit in the practice sessions leading up to the race.  As a result, he chose to race without it.  He ended up roasting himself in the midday heat at Daytona because of that move.

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 Justin Tucker
-- In Case You Missed It by Beth Lunkenheimer
-- 
Frontstretch Folio: Daytona by Beth 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: Daytona-2 by Matt Stallknecht
Matt will get your engines revved up for 2013 with a preview of this weekend's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Holding A Pretty Wheel 
by Amy Henderson
Amy returns this week with another intriguing Friday commentary. 

Nuts For Nationwide by Kevin Rutherford
Kevin has another interesting look at the Nationwide Series prior to the Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway

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

Formula One Fridays
by Andy Hollis
Our expert returns with his weekly dish on what you should care about as the 2013 season in F1 rolls on.

Frontstretch Foto Funnies
by the Frontstretch Staff
Pictures can lead to a thousand laughs; join us in our weekly dose of humor that comes from those candid moments at the track.

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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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