THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
January 27th, 2014Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Volume VIII, Edition IV
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For a full schedule of our driver reviews, click here.
- TV Schedule for January 27-February 2, 2014:
Monday, January 27
Time Telecast Network
4:00pm-5:00pm NASCAR RaceHub FOX Sports 1
Tuesday, January 28
Tuesday, January 28
Time Telecast Network
4:00-5:00pm NASCAR RaceHub FOX Sports 1
Wednesday, January 29
Time Telecast Network
7:00-9:00pm 2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony FOX Sports 1
Thursday, January 30
Time Telecast Network
Time Telecast Network
4:00pm-5:00pm NASCAR RaceHub FOX Sports 1
Saturday, February 1
Time Telecast Network
10:00pm-1:00am AMA Monster Energy Supercross: Anaheim 3 FOX Sports 1What to Watch: January 27-February 2
- This week is the annual NASCAR Media Tour in Charlotte. Plenty of announcements will take place pertaining the upcoming season. Fun will be had. Our own Mike Neff and Amy Henderson will be on-site to bring you updates from the tour. Watch the Breaking News box at Frontstretch for any big announcements, like any changes to the Chase (likely to come down on Thursday during Brian France's State of the Sport Address).
- One of the crown jewels of the Media Tour is the 2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which will be held Wednesday night and aired live on FOX Sports 1 starting at 7:00pm EST. Tim Flock, Dale Jarrett, Jack Ingram, Maurice Petty and Glenn "Fireball" Roberts will be the fifth class of five to be inducted.
Top News
by Phil Allaway
by Phil Allaway
Action Express Racing Wins Action-Packed Rolex 24 at Daytona
This past weekend was the inaugural race for the Tudor United SportsCar Championship, the result of the merger of Grand-Am and ALMS. The lead-up to the race was fraught with issues pertaining to rules and tire issues that resulted in a nasty crash during an open test session.
However, once the race came, all of the issues were over with and the action was brought. The Daytona Prototypes (specifically, the Chevrolet Corvette DP Evos) were the cream of the crop at Daytona all the way back to the opening tests in November, and it was no different during the race. The GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing No. 99 Chevrolet Corvette DP Evo driven by Alex Gurney won the pole, but really wasn't the car to beat. Action Express Racing's No. 5 (shared by Joao Barbosa, Sebastien Bourdais, Christian Fittipaldi and Burt Frisselle) was the class of the field, with the part-time No. 9 (Fabien Giroix, John Martin, Brian and Burt Frisselle) and the No. 10 from Wayne Taylor Racing (Wayne, Jordan and Ricky Taylor, along with Max Angelelli) were the class of the field.
Chip Ganassi Racing's two cars were very competitive as well, but ran into problems that kept them out of the hunt. Scott Pruett hit the wall during the night and broke the suspension on the No. 01. This cost the team over 25 laps in the garage before an engine problem put them out. The No. 02 dropped back due to penalties and later pulled out in the final hour.
A late race caution due to an incident for the No. 22 Porsche 911 GT America set up a five-lap sprint to the checkers. Angelelli tried to run down Barbosa in the No. 5, but came up just 1.5 seconds short as Action Express picked up their second Rolex 24 at Daytona overall victory.
After the race, Barbosa was overjoyed with his run.
"It's an unbelievable result for the team. These guys at Action Express Racing deserve everything they are getting now," Barbosa said. "It's really, really hard to finish on the podium at Daytona and to finish first and third is a great achievement and great work from all the team. They worked really, really hard during the winter. We went to every test we could. We did big preparation in the winter time. We knew we could do it but we didn't know it was going to be that hard. It's an unbelievable feeling. The end there was very intense, especially for me. The last 10 minutes was very intense. We did the job we were supposed to do and that we worked for and here we are."
"It's an unbelievable result for the team. These guys at Action Express Racing deserve everything they are getting now," Barbosa said. "It's really, really hard to finish on the podium at Daytona and to finish first and third is a great achievement and great work from all the team. They worked really, really hard during the winter. We went to every test we could. We did big preparation in the winter time. We knew we could do it but we didn't know it was going to be that hard. It's an unbelievable feeling. The end there was very intense, especially for me. The last 10 minutes was very intense. We did the job we were supposed to do and that we worked for and here we are."
Angelelli was quite disappointed that he just didn't have anything for Barbosa at the end.
"I can tell you, I tried everything, adjust all I had in the car, to settle the car, to find a good balance, a good run," Angelelli said. "I thought I had an opportunity with the two PC cars, and pretty slow on the bus stop. Unfortunately I got caught in one of them. But I did not have enough for him."
"I can tell you, I tried everything, adjust all I had in the car, to settle the car, to find a good balance, a good run," Angelelli said. "I thought I had an opportunity with the two PC cars, and pretty slow on the bus stop. Unfortunately I got caught in one of them. But I did not have enough for him."
In Prototype Challenge, much of the race was dominated by CORE autosport's No. 54, shared by Colin Braun, Jon Bennett, James Gue and Mark Wilkins. Despite a spin on the first lap of the race, the No. 54 ran a near flawless race to win the PC class and finish ninth overall. Their winning margin was one lap over the No. 25 from 8Star Motorsports shared by Enzo Potolicchio, Michael Marsal and Tom Kimber-Smith. The No. 38 shared by David Ostella, Raphael Matos, Tomy Drissi, Gabriel Casagrande and Julio Campos rounded out the podium.
The GT Le Mans class was dominated early on by the SRT Vipers. However, a garage stint for the No. 91 due to a broken power steering line and other issues for the No. 93 led to the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR for Porsche North America (operated by CORE autosport) taking over the point. Despite the sister 911 RSR having to go behind the wall due to a wheel bearing failure, the No. 911 had a near trouble-free race. However, a series of wavearounds under full course cautions allowed the No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE from BMW Team RLL to catch up on the final restart. Unfortunately, the No. 55 was nearly run into the wall with a lap and a half to go by a GT-Daytona Ferrari, allowing the Porsche driven by Richard Lietz, Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy to claim the win in sixth overall. The BMW was three seconds behind at the finish. The pole-winning No. 91 SRT Viper (Marc Goossens, Dominik Farnbacher and Ryan Hunter-Reay) finished third in class, four laps down.
The GT-Daytona class ended up coming down to a straight-up race for the win between the No. 555 Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia (Alessandro Pier Guidi, Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, Jeff Segal and team owner Scott Tucker) and the No. 45 Audi R8 LMS for Flying Lizard Motorsports (Markus Winkelhock, Tim Pappas, Nelson Canache and Spencer Pumpelly). After the final restart, Pier Guidi and Winkelhock had contact in the bus stop chicane, hurting the Audi's rear toe-in.
Pier Guidi nearly had the race won, then went through the grass at the bus stop, allowing Winkelhock to catch up. On the final lap, the two were side-by-side in the infield, with the No. 58 Snow Racing Porsche 911 GT America (Jan Heylen, Marco Seefried and Madison Snow) close behind. Winkelhock tried an outside move in the Kink and ended up in the grass, allowing Pier Guidi to pull ahead and take the win.
The move was very controversial. IMSA investigated the incident and decided to give Pier Guidi a stop + 75 second penalty for "avoidable contact," which would have dropped the No. 555 to fourth in class. Replays showed that no contact was made in the Kink between Pier Guidi and Winkelhock. However, IMSA's avoidable contact rule does allow for penalization when there is no actual contact. Four hours later, IMSA reversed themselves. At the time, they released a statement to explain themselves.
"A full post-race review of the incident on the last lap of the 52nd Rolex 24 At Daytona was completed by IMSA Supervisory Officials," wrote IMSA Vice President Scot Elkins in the official statement. "The decision has been made to reverse the decision by the race director [Paul Walter], rescind the penalty against the No. 555 Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia team, and reinstate drivers Scott Tucker, Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, Jeff Segal and Alessandro Pier Giuidi as the GT Daytona class winners. We regret the confusion following the race, and appreciate the patience by our fans, drivers, teams and the media so we could properly review and subsequently report this decision."
"A full post-race review of the incident on the last lap of the 52nd Rolex 24 At Daytona was completed by IMSA Supervisory Officials," wrote IMSA Vice President Scot Elkins in the official statement. "The decision has been made to reverse the decision by the race director [Paul Walter], rescind the penalty against the No. 555 Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia team, and reinstate drivers Scott Tucker, Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, Jeff Segal and Alessandro Pier Giuidi as the GT Daytona class winners. We regret the confusion following the race, and appreciate the patience by our fans, drivers, teams and the media so we could properly review and subsequently report this decision."
In addition to the aforementioned entries from Level 5 Motorsports, Flying Lizard Motorsports and Snow Racing, the No. 72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia driven by Mika Salo, Mikhail Aleshin, Maurizio Mediani, Boris Rotenberg and Sergey Zlobin also finished on the lead lap in the class in fourth.
The scariest moment in the race occurred in the third hour on Saturday when Matteo Malucelli had some sort of mechanical issue in his GT Le Mans-class Ferrari F458 Italia exiting the International Horseshoe. Malucelli moved over to the left side of the track at a very low rate of speed, but did not get off into the grass. Malucelli was then clouted from behind at full speed by Memo Gidley in the pole-winning GAINSCO No. 99. The impact crushed the front of the Corvette DP while the Ferrari was flung into the air before coming to rest in the grass.
Due to the viciousness of the crash, the race was red-flagged for 85 minutes in order for the drivers to be carefully extricated from the cars and for the cleanup. Both drivers skipped the Infield Care Center and were taken straight to Halifax Health Medical Center, located one mile east of the track. Information has been scarce on the drivers, but IMSA released a statement on Sunday that stated that Gidley underwent surgery on his left arm and left leg on Saturday. Gidley also has an "unstable back injury" that will require surgery as well.
According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Malucelli was released from Halifax Health Medical Center on Sunday. He plans to fly home to Italy today.
The next Tudor United SportsCar Championship event is the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, scheduled for March 15. It is also Round 2 of the Tequila Patron Endurance Cup.
NASCAR Announces New Qualifying Format
On Wednesday, NASCAR announced a brand-new qualifying format that will be used in all three of NASCAR's "National" Series starting next month in Daytona. Instead of single-car qualifying, there will be "Knockout qualifying," somewhat similar to what is used in Formula One.
There are two formats, one for longer tracks, and another for shorter tracks 1.25 miles in length or less. The only constant is that the whole qualifying session must be done on one set of tires.
There are two formats, one for longer tracks, and another for shorter tracks 1.25 miles in length or less. The only constant is that the whole qualifying session must be done on one set of tires.
On longer tracks, qualifying would start with a 25 minute first session. All of the vehicles entered would take part in the session. The fastest 24 would advance to the next session. Those outside the top-24 would take their positions based on where they qualified.
There would then be a five minute break for adjustments before the top-24 times are wiped out. The second session would last ten minutes and the top-12 would advance to the final session. Drivers in positions 13-24 would claim those starting spots for the race.
The 12 remaining drivers would have their times wiped out again and would battle for the pole for five minutes. Fastest time earns the pole.
On shorter tracks, there would be only two rounds of qualifying. The first session would be 30 minutes in length with all vehicles turning in laps. The fastest 12 advance to the second and final round, while everyone else earns their starting spots based on their times. Following a five minute break, the remaining 12 cars are ordered on pit road based on their times from slowest to fastest. Afterwards, their times from the first session are thrown out and they are sent out for a ten minute session to determine the pole winner.
For a more graphical description of the format, see this graphic. For an FAQ of the issues arising from this change, see this graphic.
NASCAR Vice President for Competition and Racing Development Robin Pemberton is very happy with the changes.
"We believe the timing is right for a new qualifying format across our three national series," Pemberton said. "This style of group qualifying has all the makings of being highly competitive and more engaging to our fans in the stands and those watching on television and online. For the drivers and teams, we believe this new qualifying will fuel even greater competition leading into the events. Additionally, it provides our tracks, broadcasters and other key partners with a greater opportunity to develop more entertaining content for our race weekends."
"We believe the timing is right for a new qualifying format across our three national series," Pemberton said. "This style of group qualifying has all the makings of being highly competitive and more engaging to our fans in the stands and those watching on television and online. For the drivers and teams, we believe this new qualifying will fuel even greater competition leading into the events. Additionally, it provides our tracks, broadcasters and other key partners with a greater opportunity to develop more entertaining content for our race weekends."
There are exceptions to this rule. One is the Daytona 500, which will keep the traditional single-car qualifying and the Budweiser Duel qualifying race format to fill the field. The Sprint All-Star Race will also maintain the current qualifying format. Finally, the Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway for the Camping World Truck Series will maintain the time trials/heat races/LCQ format from last year.
BK Racing Announces Bowman and Ryan Truex As Full-Time Drivers
Just after we sent out last week's edition of the Frontstretch Newsletter, BK Racing announced that Alex Bowman and Ryan Truex will drive for the team full-time in the Sprint Cup Series in 2014. At the time, Bowman and Truex were the sixth and seventh drivers to declare for the 2014 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year battle.
Truex, who tested the No. 93 during the Preseason Thunder test in Daytona, will drive the No. 83 this season. In addition to sponsorship from Burger King, the team has also reached a deal that will see Borla Exhaust sponsor Truex for five races, including the Daytona 500.
Truex is very happy to finally make his way up to the Sprint Cup Series on a full-time basis.
"Driving in the Sprint Cup Series has been a goal since I started racing, and to start this next chapter with BK Racing makes it extra special," Truex said. "I am very excited for this opportunity."
"Driving in the Sprint Cup Series has been a goal since I started racing, and to start this next chapter with BK Racing makes it extra special," Truex said. "I am very excited for this opportunity."
For Bowman, who tested at both Charlotte and Daytona in the No. 83, he will drive the newly renumbered No. 23 (formerly No. 93). The number change was done to better align the team with sponsor Dr. Pepper (the well-known soda contains 23 different ingredients).
Bowman is also happy to make his debut in the Sprint Cup Series.
"This is an extremely good opportunity for me," Bowman said. "Ron (Devine) and I first started talking about the possibilities months ago. I'm happy to be a part of this organization."
"This is an extremely good opportunity for me," Bowman said. "Ron (Devine) and I first started talking about the possibilities months ago. I'm happy to be a part of this organization."
While Bowman has never started a Sprint Cup race, Truex started three races last season in the No. 51 Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing. Truex's best finish was a 32nd at Dover in September.
Justin Allgaier to Phoenix Racing
On Tuesday, Phoenix Racing announced that Justin Allgaier will drive the No. 51 Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing full-time in 2014. Sponsor BRANDT, which has been with Allgaier ever since he joined Turner Scott Motorsports in the Nationwide Series in 2011, will sponsor the No. 51 for 21 races. Allgaier will be the eighth driver to declare for the 2014 Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year Award.
After five full seasons in the Nationwide Series and 174 starts, Allgaier is overjoyed to finally get the chance to race full-time in Sprint Cup.
"This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I intend to make the most of it," Allgaier said. "I am very grateful to Harry Scott and BRANDT for having faith in me to compete against the best drivers in the world."
"This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I intend to make the most of it," Allgaier said. "I am very grateful to Harry Scott and BRANDT for having faith in me to compete against the best drivers in the world."
Phoenix Racing owner Harry Scott, Jr. is very happy to continue his association with Allgaier and BRANDT.
"Justin has worked extremely hard to get to this level and he is ready to take the next step," Scott said. "Working with competition director and crew chief Steve Addington, I think the No. 51 can turn some heads this year."
"Justin has worked extremely hard to get to this level and he is ready to take the next step," Scott said. "Working with competition director and crew chief Steve Addington, I think the No. 51 can turn some heads this year."
In addition to BRANDT, the No. 51 will be sponsored by The National FFA (Future Farmers of America), TradeMark Nitrogen, Nutrients for Life Foundation, Precision Tank and Grigg Brothers. These are all companies or organizations involved in the agriculture industry.
Allgaier made his Sprint Cup Series debut last season with Phoenix Racing. In four starts, Allgaier's best finish was a 24th at Talladega in October.
News n' Notes:
- Red Horse Racing signed Brian Ickler to take over the No. 7 Toyota in the Camping World Truck Series in 2014. Ickler will replace John Wes Townley, who left the team and took his family sponsorship from Zaxby's to Wauters Motorsports. Bullet Liner will serve as the primary sponsor. In 22 career starts, Ickler has six top-5 and ten top-10 finishes. His career best finishes are a pair of thirds (2009 at Michigan and 2010 at Martinsville (Spring)).
- TriStar Motorsports announced that Ingersoll-Rand will return to sponsor the No. 44 at TriStar Motorsports for five races in the Nationwide Series this season. Will Kimmel, nephew of ten-time ARCA Racing Series Champion Frank Kimmel, will drive the No. 44 in those races. Kimmel. Kimmel has one career Nationwide Series start, back in 2011 at Kentucky Speedway for Go Green Racing. Kimmel qualified 15th, but crashed out and finished 35th.
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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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 1997, Melling Racing and Lake Speed raced the vast majority of the season with little primary sponsorship before picking up Advantage Camo. However, that wasn't supposed to be the case. What was going to be Melling Racing's sponsor that season?
Check back next Monday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Last Monday's Answer:
Last Monday's Answer:
Q: With the merger of Grand-Am and ALMS forming the new Tudor United SportsCar Championship (TUSC), a new driver rating system has been implemented. Every driver that races is given either a Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze rating based on a series of criteria. If 2014 Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year contender Michael Annett were entered in this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona (he's not), which rating would he have?
A: This might be hard to believe, given Annett's lack of road racing experience. He would be considered a "Platinum" level driver, the highest level of all. Drivers earn that ranking by either being the best of the best in sports cars (either on-track performance, or driving for a factory team), or finishing in the top-5 in an internationally recognized championship. The Nationwide Series is considered to be an internationally recognized championship. Since Annett finished fifth in points there in 2012, that gives him platinum status until he reaches age 55.
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 Monday, February 3rd, 2014 in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Phil Allaway
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles and more!
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
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