Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Frontstretch Newsletter: February 27th, 2014

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

February 20th, 2014
Volume VIII, Edition X
----------------
FRONTSTRETCH AT DAYTONA: Remember, our own Tom Bowles and Mike Neff are in Daytona and have all the latest news on their Twitter feeds: @MNeffShortTrack and @NASCARBowles.  Add them and join in the discussion.
~~~~~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH FANTASY: GET IN THE GAME

Frontstretch's own Jeff Wolfe is once again running a private NASCAR Fantasy league this season on Yahoo!  We'll have more of our writers onboard to compete against you.  If you're interested, go here and create a Yahoo! account (if you don't already have one).  Once that's completed, create your team and click on Join a Group.  Then, click on Join a Private Group once there.  Here, you'll have to enter our League ID and password.  The League ID is 10532, and the password is "stenica."  We hope to see you there!

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

What to Watch: Thursday


- Tonight, the K&N Pro Series West holds their season opener, the Talking Stick Resort 75, at Phoenix International Raceway.  The race is scheduled for 7:00pm tonight.  However, the race will not be seen on TV until next Friday at 1pm on FOX Sports 1.

Top News

by Phil Allaway

France Believes Earnhardt Jr. Victory Benefits NASCAR; Downplays Permanent Nighttime Move for Daytona 500

On Wednesday, NASCAR CEO Brian France talked about the impact of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the Sprint Cup Series in a phone interview.  If there is anything to take away from that conversation, it is that Earnhardt Jr. is quite important to NASCAR's success on and off of the track.

"Anytime his fanbase gets revved up, that's a good thing," France told Sporting News' Bob Pockrass.  "That's good for him, and that's good for us."

However, unlike past years, Earnhardt Jr. is beginning to open up a little more.  According to ESPN's Marty Smith, Jimmie Johnson convinced Earnhardt Jr. to start tweeting due to the importance of sponsorship and current relevance.  Michael Waltrip also tried to convince Earnhardt Jr. to start tweeting during a portion of an interview that aired on NASCAR RaceDay.  Earnhardt Jr. claimed that he might do it if he won the Daytona 500.  Sure enough, Earnhardt Jr. kept his word.

Since joining Twitter, Earnhardt Jr. has posted selfie pictures of himself in Victory Lane, and in front of the statue of his father in Daytona.  He has held a Q&A while flying to California from Texas.  Since the wee hours of Monday morning, Earnhardt Jr.'s follower count has grown from roughly 200,000 to 518,670 (yes, Earnhardt Jr. had 200,000 followers before tweeting anything).

In regards to the Daytona 500 running in prime time for the second time in three years due to rain, the possibility of the race moving to the night has been broached.  However, moving the race would not be France's call.

"We have considered it and for lots of reasons have not done that," France said.  "But it's always a consideration. Of course, it's not just our decision. FOX has to believe that's the right time and all the rest."

In addition, Daytona International Speedway would have to sign off on moving the race from 1:00pm to 7:30pm.  Moving the race to prime time does not guarantee high ratings.  The Monday night race in 2012 couldn't crack an 8.0 rating.  This year's rain delayed Daytona 500 pulled in a 5.6.

Target's Cartwheel to Sponsor Larson in Nationwide Series

On Wednesday, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates announced that Target is expanding their sponsorship of Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year candidate Kyle Larson.  In addition to full-time sponsor of the No. 42 in the Sprint Cup Series, Target will sponsor Larson's Nationwide ride with Turner Scott Motorsports via their new Cartwheel app.

Cartwheel is an unusual app, described as a "first-of-its-kind digital savings app."  Fans can download the app for their smartphones, or sign up at Target's website and choose from hundreds of discount offers in Target stores.  They'll have to sign up for a Target account (if they don't already have one), then pick up to ten offers to store on their cartwheel.  As of this writing, there are 431 offers to choose from with savings anywhere from five to 50 percent.  The offers can be printed out, or stored in a barcode on your smartphone.  The discounts would be applied at the register.

Larson is very happy to have Target continue their support of his career.

"I'm proud to have even more opportunities to drive behind a great brand with such a strong history in motorsports," Larson said.  "I'm already a huge fan of the Cartwheel app and placing it on my Nationwide car and fire suit is a fun way to differentiate the team on the track."

The white Cartwheel app paint scheme will debut this weekend in Phoenix and will run for the majority of Larson's Nationwide races this year.

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

Sprint Cup Series The Profit on CNBC 500: 46 cars entered

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 33-
Brian Scott for Circle Sport/Richard Childress Racing
No. 35-
Blake Koch for Front Row Motorsports
No. 40-
Landon Cassill for Hillman Racing
No. 66-
Joe Nemechek for Michael Waltrip Racing/Identity Ventures Racing
No. 87-
Morgan Shepherd for Identity Ventures Racing

Driver Changes:
No. 32-
Travis Kvapil is in the seat, replacing Terry Labonte.
No. 35-
Blake Koch is in the seat, replacing Eric McClure.
No. 66-
Joe Nemechek is in the seat, replacing Michael Waltrip.
No. 87-
Morgan Shepherd is in the seat, replacing Joe Nemechek.

Drivers who must qualify on speed in the top-36:
No. 26-
Cole Whitt for Swan Racing (No points)
No. 41-
Kurt Busch for Stewart-Haas Racing (No points, Guaranteed to start via the Past Champions' Provisional)
No. 77-
Dave Blaney for Randy Humphrey Racing (45th in owners' points, 23 attempts)

Other drivers in danger of failing to qualify:
No. 23-
Alex Bowman for BK Racing (34th in owners' points, 36 attempts)
No. 32-
Travis Kvapil for Go FAS Racing (37th in owners' points, 36 attempts)
No. 33-
Brian Scott for Circle Sport/Richard Childress Racing (38th in owners' points, 36 attempts)
No. 35-
Blake Koch for Front Row Motorsports (39th in owners' points, 36 attempts)
No. 36-
Reed Sorenson for Tommy Baldwin Racing (35th in owners' points, 36 attempts)
No. 40-
Landon Cassill for Hillman Racing (43rd in owners' points, 16 attempts)
No. 83-
Ryan Truex for BK Racing (36th in owners' points, 36 attempts)
No. 87-
Morgan Shepherd for Identity Ventures Racing (40th in owners' points, 36 attempts)
No. 95-
Michael McDowell for Leavine Family Racing (44th in owners' points, 22 attempts)
No. 98-
Josh Wise for Phil Parsons Racing (42nd in owners' points, 33 attempts)

Not Entered:
No. 21-
Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing
No. 52-
Bobby Labonte for Phoenix Racing
No. 93-
BK Racing/MacDonald Motorsports

Nationwide Series Blue Jeans Go Green 200: 40 cars entered

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 20-
Matt Kenseth for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 22-
Brad Keselowski for Team Penske
No. 39-
Ryan Sieg for RSS Racing
No. 40-
Josh Wise for The Motorsports Group
No. 42-
Kyle Larson for Turner Scott Motorsports
No. 54-
Kyle Busch for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 88-
Kevin Harvick for JR Motorsports

Driver Changes:
No. 10-
Blake Koch is in the seat, replacing David Starr.
No. 23-
Carlos Contreras is in the seat, replacing Robert Richardson, Jr.
No. 24-
An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Harrison Rhodes.
No. 44-
Will Kimmel is in the seat, replacing Blake Koch.
No. 46-
Matt DiBenedetto returns to the seat, replacing JJ Yeley.
No. 67-
Tommy Joe Martins is in the seat, replacing Clay Greenfield.  This will be Martins' Nationwide Series debut.
No. 87-
Daryl Harr is in the seat, replacing Joe Nemechek.
No. 88-
Kevin Harvick is in the seat, replacing Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Since there are only 40 cars entered, no one will miss the field.  However, these teams must still qualify on speed:
No. 10-
Blake Koch for TriStar Motorsports
No. 17-
Tanner Berryhill for Vision Racing
No. 28-
Mike Wallace for JGL Racing
No. 46-
Matt DiBenedetto for The Motorsports Group*
No. 55-
Jamie Dick for Viva Motorsports with Frank Cicci
No. 60-
Chris Buescher for Roush Fenway Racing
No. 67-
Tommy Joe Martins for Martins Motorsports
No. 76- Willie Allen for Martins Motorsports
No. 90-
Martin Roy
No. 93-
Matt Carter for JGL Racing

Not Entered:
No. 00-
Jason White for SR2 Motorsports
No. 13-
Carl Long
No. 15-
Rick Ware Racing
No. 29-
Scott Lagasse, Jr. for RAB Racing with Brack Maggard
No. 30-
Danica Patrick for Turner Scott Motorsports
No. 37-
Vision Racing
No. 80-
Johnny Sauter for Hattori Racing Enterprises
No. 84-
Chad Boat for Billy Boat Motorsports
No. 85-
Bobby Gerhart for Bobby Gerhart Racing
No. 91-
TriStar Motorsports
No. 98-
David Ragan for Biagi-DenBeste Racing
*- Expected to Start-and-Park

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.
 
~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Critic's Annex: New Smyrna 150 presented by JEGS
by Phil Allaway

Hello, race fans.  Welcome back to another edition of the Critic's Annex, where breaking down additional bits of motorsports programming is our goal here.  In recent years, Speedweeks has become an incredibly busy time in Volusia County, Florida.  All three of the county's racing facilities host 10-day racing festivals at the same time.

For 2014, NASCAR decided to start the K&N Pro Series East season at the .480 mile New Smyrna Speedway, a track that recently joined the Whelen All-American Series.  The event served as a standalone event in the much larger World Series of Asphalt Racing.  How did FOX Sports do with the telecast?  Let's take a look.

Adam Alexander had the play-by-play call for the race with Johnny Benson alongside.  While Alexander has some play-by-play experience through his Sprint Cup work with TNT, this is the first time that I can recall seeing him call a K&N Pro Series race.  As for Benson, he's done some TV work in the past, but it's been a few years.  This combination was actually not that bad, but it's not the normal group.  Normally, Rick Allen and Phil Parsons call K&N Pro Series East races.  However, they call the races from a studio in Charlotte.  With both men in Daytona for Speedweeks and FOX not sending booth commentators to the race, the decision was made to bring in the subs.

Meanwhile, Kristen Beat made her debut as a pit reporter on this telecast.  A couple of weeks before this race, Beat ended up in a Twitter fight with the infamous Orange Cone.  The Cone believed that Beat had a conflict of interest because not only is she pit reporting, but she's also working as a PR representative for one of the teams.  Needless to say, Beat won out and made her pit reporting debut.

With tape delayed races, FOX Sports has the discretion to air as much or as little pre-race coverage as they like.  Here, we got one pre-race interview with pole sitter Cameron Hayley and some keys to the race from Benson before we got to the start.  Ultimately, they were partly right.  Based on what I saw, it was a little easier to pass than Benson thought it would be.

I'll admit that I actually followed this race on the live feed co-produced by NASCAR Home Tracks and Bob Dillner's Speed51.com.  As a result, I knew that this was an excellent race to watch.  Those in attendance back on February 16th got their money's worth, that's for sure.  There was a lot of good action out there and FOX Sports' cameras did a pretty good job bringing the racing for position to viewers.

Having said that, I did have some gripes.  I feel like FOX Sports could have done something to make Beat's pit reports a little easier to hear during the telecast.  This is nothing against Beat, but I could barely hear her.  I know it's loud down there, but it's loud in the pits at every track.  If FOX can figure out a way for everyone to be heard and understood at Bristol with 43 cars racing there, they can figure it out for New Smyrna Beach with 30 cars.

Benson's color commentary strategy was to take what he was seeing on the track and compare it to his own experiences.  Not a terrible strategy.  However, Benson was never the most aggressive guy on the track.  This is someone that abhorred the bump n' run.  In the 2002 Old Dominion 500, all he needed to do to claim his first Winston Cup victory at Martinsville was to bump Kurt Busch out of the way.  But, he didn't do it.  And Benny Parsons in the booth for NBC knew he wouldn't do it.  Benson is a big proponent of, in his own opinion, winning the right way.  Luckily for him, he got his victory the right way two weeks later.

I'm not really sure about Alexander's comparison of New Smyrna Speedway to Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, to be honest.  Yes, there was a good amount of side-by-side racing in this race, but those two tracks are wildly different.

Post-race coverage was fairly decent in quantity, but not so much quality.  FOX Sports provided three post-race interviews and checks of the unofficial results and point standings before leaving the air. 
Unfortunately, the first interview contained a fairly substantial faux pas.  Here, FOX didn't air the audio of what Beat asked Suarez in Victory Lane.  Instead, Alexander covered up Beat's question with more commentary.  Yeah, that's not going to work, Adam.  Don't do that next time.  

I don't really know what Beat asked Suarez, but since I've critiqued something like 750 races for Frontstretch since 2009, I could probably render a decent guess.  The thing is that I shouldn't have to guess.  That's quite the screw-up.  Hopefully, next time out at Bristol, it doesn't happen.  Of note, Beat has stated that she won't be working the pits during the next K&N Pro Series East race, which is the PittLite 125 at Bristol Motor Speedway right after the Nationwide race, but that she'll be back at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in a shade over three weeks.

Overall, this was definitely one of the more exciting K&N Pro Series East races that I can remember watching.  There was a lot of action for position that we were able to see.  It was definitely a great way to kill an hour on Saturday morning.  Alexander and Benson do work fairly well together.  Benson's inexperience in the booth showed at times, though.  It seems like he didn't take enough time to memorize who the drivers were.  Granted, that's more Alexander's job, but names are important.  The audio issues with Beat's microphone during her pit reports are fixable, but Alexander shouldn't be taking time out of post-race interviews in order to give himself more time.  Knowing that this is a tape delayed telecast where commentary is recorded in post-production, that is inexcusable.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the New Smyrna 150 presented by JEGS.  Next week, I'll be back with either a look at NBC Sports Network's NASCAR America, or the Toyota 120 for the NASCAR Mexico Series from Phoenix, the first ever NASCAR telecast on mun2.  Until then, enjoy this weekend's action in Phoenix.

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frontstretch Line of the Week


From
Beyond The Cockpit: A Member Of NASCAR's Next Generation Gets His Shot

"
My biggest gripe with our sport is there's only one winner each weekend. To the fans, to the media… to everyone. But in all honesty, just like in football, there's 16 winners throughout a 43-car field because unlike any other sport, we put all our top teams, and every other small team all on the field at once.

So we can't "say" there are 16 winners, but there are actually 16 cars in the field, sometimes more each week that have overachieved, done well, done something above and beyond. At Texas, for example, with 18th we would be considered a Jacksonville Jaguars that went out and beat the Philadelphia Eagles. We achieved above what we were supposed to. You would see that in the NFL… you don't see that here."- Parker Kligerman on how overachievement is hidden in NASCAR.
~~~~~~~~~~

ADVERTISEMENT
Are you looking to advertise your website, product or brand?  A good way to get your name out there is via direct advertising here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!  Interested parties can contact us at tony.lumbis@frontstretch.com for details.

~~~~~~~~~~

TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:

Voice of Vito: Daytona Dilemma, Flagship Ford, and Points Paradox
by Vito Pugliese

Fantasy Insider: The Second Race Starts NASCAR's "Real" Season
by Jeff Wolfe

Beyond The Cockpit, Part II: How NASCAR, Business, And "Nootelligence" Mix
as told to Tom Bowles

Tech Talk: Danica's Crew Chief "Fuels" Through Daytona And Diagnoses Phoenix
as told to Mike Neff

Truckin' Thursdays: Meet Your 2014 Rookie Class
by Beth Lunkenheimer

~~~~~~~~~~

FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  In 1996, Kevin Harvick's NASCAR career was in its' infancy.  Driving for his father Mike at Phoenix in the Chevy Desert Star Classic, Harvick qualified a decent 21st, but got taken out early.  What happened?

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

Q:  The 1984 Stroh's Bobby Ball Memorial 150 was the slowest CART race ever run at Phoenix International Raceway, due to 46 laps of caution.  The longest of these yellows came for a wreck just after halfway.  What happened?

A:  Just after halfway, a multi-car crash on the frontstretch swept up the cars of Howdy Holmes, Pete Halsmer, Al Unser and Danny Sullivan.  It is unclear as to what happened.  What is known is that the blinding sun that shines on the frontstretch definitely played a role here (this was long before the grandstand was built in Turn 1).  Holmes spun and backed into the inside wall.  Unser and Halsmer likely collided trying to avoid Holmes and crashed.  A replay did catch Sullivan hitting Unser.  The crash can be seen here.

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! 

~~~~~~~~~~

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


~~~~~~~~~~

Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:


Mirror Driving by the Frontstretch Staff
A collection of your favorite writers are back to discuss a number of pertainent issues in NASCAR.  Topics this week include Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s potential momentum from his victory, the curtailment of Sprint Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series, officiating issues and more.

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

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.

Happiness Is... by P. Huston Ladner
Don't let your life sink into the pits. Huston takes a look at the racing stories from the last seven days that should leave you smiling.

-----------------------------
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!

©2014 Frontstretch.com

No comments:

Post a Comment