Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
July 3rd, 2014
Volume VIII, Edition CVI
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Today's TV Schedule
Time Telecast Network
by Phil Allaway
Haas Automation to Sponsor Ferrari in Formula One, More to Follow?
Haas Automation announced early on Thursday morning that they have entered into a partnership with Scuderia Ferrari, effective immediately. As a result of the partnership, Oxnard, California-based HAAS Automation's logos will be placed on the lower sidepods of Ferrari's F 14 T's driven by Fernando Alonso (No. 14) and Kimi Räikkönen (No. 7) starting at this weekend's Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit. The deal is for the rest of the 2014 World Championship and all of the 2015 World Championship. Read more at Frontstretch here.
Menard Crashes in New Hampshire Test
This week, Michael Waltrip Racing and Richard Childress Racing spent Tuesday and Wednesday testing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway ahead of July 12th's Camping World RV Sales 301. For most of the drivers, the test went fine. However, Paul Menard wasn't so lucky. Read more at Frontstretch here.
Kentucky TV Ratings Down
Kentucky's woes continued on Wednesday. The Cincinnati Enquirer recently reported estimates that 60,000-80,000 people were in attendance for Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. That number includes the grandstands and the campers in the infield. With a grandstand capacity of 107,000 and the ability to hold thousands more in the infield, it would mean that the facility was at a little more than half-capacity. Admittedly, the track was pleased with the attendance afterwards.
On Wednesday, the final TV ratings for TNT's broadcast of the Quaker State 400 were released, and they were not all that great.
The broadcast Saturday night earned a 2.3 rating with 3.6 million viewers. Those are the lowest ratings of the 2014 Sprint Cup season to date, and the lowest ratings for a Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. The ratings are down 12 percent and viewership is down ten percent from last year.
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: 44 cars entered
Number Change:
- RAB Racing with Brack Maggard changes from No. 09 to No. 29.
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 21- Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing
No. 29- Joe Nemechek for RAB Racing with Brack Maggard
No. 40- Landon Cassill for Hillman-Circle Sport Racing
Driver Changes:
No. 29- Joe Nemechek is in the seat, replacing Kenny Wallace.
No. 32- Terry Labonte returns to the seat, replacing Travis Kvapil.
No. 33- Bobby Labonte is in the seat, replacing David Stremme.
No. 66- Michael Waltrip returns to the seat, replacing Joe Nemechek.
Driver who must qualify on speed (top-36):
No. 29- Joe Nemechek for RAB Racing with Brack Maggard (No Points)
Drivers who have provisionals, but must qualify on speed:
No. 7- Michael Annett for Tommy Baldwin Racing (30th in points, 17 attempts)
No. 21- Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing (42nd in points, 6 attempts)
No. 23- Alex Bowman for BK Racing (36th in points, 17 attempts)
No. 26- Cole Whitt for Swan Racing/BK Racing (32nd in points, 17 attempts)
No. 32- Terry Labonte for Go FAS Racing (38th in points, 17 attempts)
No. 33- Bobby Labonte for Hillman-Circle Sport Racing (41st in points, 17 attempts)
No. 34- David Ragan for Front Row Motorsports (35th in points, 17 attempts)
No. 36- Reed Sorenson for Tommy Baldwin Racing (34th in points, 17 attempts)
No. 38- David Gilliland for Front Row Motorsports (31st in points, 17 attempts)
No. 40- Landon Cassill for Hillman-Circle Sport Racing (33rd in points, 17 attempts)
No. 66- Michael Waltrip for Michael Waltrip Racing (39th in points, 17 attempts)
No. 83- Ryan Truex for BK Racing (40th in points, 17 attempts)
No. 95- Michael McDowell for Leavine Family Racing (44th in points, 10 attempts)
No. 98- Josh Wise for Phil Parsons Racing (37th in points, 17 attempts)
Not Entered:
No. 93- Mike Bliss for BK Racing
Nationwide Series Subway Firecracker 250: 45 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 5- Kasey Kahne for JR Motorsports
No. 20- Darrell Wallace, Jr. for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 22- Joey Logano for Team Penske
No. 25- John Wes Townley for Athenian Motorsports
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. 55- Ross Chastain for Viva Motorsports with Frank Cicci/SS-Green Light Racing
No. 80- Johnny Sauter for HRE Enterprises
No. 97- Joe Nemechek for Identity Ventures Racing
No. 98- David Ragan for Biagi-DenBeste Racing
Driver Changes:
No. 5- Kasey Kahne returns to the seat, replacing Kevin Harvick.
No. 10- Blake Koch returns to the seat, replacing Jeff Green.
No. 20- Darrell Wallace, Jr. returns to the seat, replacing Matt Kenseth.
No. 22- Joey Logano returns to the seat, replacing Brad Keselowski.
No. 23- Robert Richardson, Jr. returns to the seat, replacing Josh Reaume.
No. 29- Scott Lagasse, Jr. returns to the seat, replacing Kelly Admiraal.
No. 44- David Starr returns to the seat, replacing Blake Koch.
No. 55- Ross Chastain returns to the seat, replacing Jamie Dick.
No. 74- Mike Harmon returns to the seat, replacing Kevin Lepage.
No. 80- Johnny Sauter returns to the seat, replacing Ross Chastain.
No. 87- Carlos Contreras is in the seat, replacing Ruben Garcia, Jr. Much like at Road America, the No. 87 is being run this week by Rick Ware Racing/
No. 91- Benny Gordon is in the seat, replacing Jeff Green.
No. 98- David Ragan returns to the seat, replacing Corey LaJoie.
Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 5- Kasey Kahne for JR Motorsports
No. 10- Blake Koch for TriStar Motorsports*
No. 17- Tanner Berryhill for Vision Racing
No. 25- John Wes Townley for Athenian Motorsports
No. 46- Matt DiBenedetto for The Motorsports Group*
No. 70- Derrike Cope for Creation-Cope Racing
No. 74- Mike Harmon for Mike Harmon Racing
No. 76- Tommy Joe Martins for Martins Motorsports
No. 80- Johnny Sauter for HRE Enterprises
No. 84- Chad Boat for Billy Boat Motorsports
No. 85- Bobby Gerhart for Bobby Gerhart Racing
No. 91- Benny Gordon for TriStar Motorsports*
No. 97- Joe Nemechek for Identity Ventures Racing (Guaranteed to start via the Past Champions' Provisional)
No. 98- David Ragan for Biagi-DenBeste Racing
*- Expected to Start-and-Park
Not Entered:
No. 12- Ryan Blaney for Team Penske
No. 33- Paul Menard for Richard Childress Racing
No. 86- Jake Crum for DRG Motorsports
No. 90- Martin Roy for DGR Motorsports
Verizon IndyCar Series Pocono 500: 22 cars entered
Driver Change:
No. 20- Ed Carpenter returns to the seat, replacing Mike Conway.
Entries:
No. 2- Juan Pablo Montoya for Team Penske
No. 3- Helio Castroneves for Team Penske
No. 7- Mikhail Aleshin for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
No. 8- Ryan Briscoe for NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 9- Scott Dixon for Target Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 10- Tony Kanaan for Target Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 11- Sebastien Bourdais for KVSH Racing
No. 12- Will Power for Team Penske
No. 14- Takuma Sato for A.J. Foyt Enterprises
No. 15- Graham Rahal for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
No. 17- Sebastian Saavedra for KVAFS Racing
No. 18- Carlos Huertas 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. 28- Ryan Hunter-Reay for Andretti Autosport
No. 34- Carlos Munoz for Andretti Autosport/HVM Racing
No. 67- Josef Newgarden for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing
No. 77- Simon Pagenaud for Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports
No. 83- Charlie Kimball for Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 98- Jack Hawksworth for Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian
Not Entered:
No. 16- Luca Filippi for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
ARCA Racing Series Herr's Chase the Taste 200: 25 cars entered
Driver Changes:
No. 4- Brandon Jones is in the seat, replacing Kyle Larson. Jones will be making his ARCA Racing Series debut.
No. 40- Jami Weimer is in the seat, replacing Jon Haney. Weimer will be making her ARCA Racing Series debut.
No. 55- Cody Coughlin returns to the seat, replacing J.J. Haley.
No. 66- J.J. Haley returns to the seat, replacing Nick Barstad.
No. 68- Will Kimmel returns to the seat, replacing Chris Bailey, Jr.
No. 77- Anderson Bowen is in the seat, replacing Tom Hessert, III.
No. 97- Ray Ciccarelli is in the seat, replacing Tommy O'Leary, IV. Ciccarelli will be making his ARCA Racing Series debut.
Notable Entries:
No. 4- Brandon Jones for Turner Scott Motorsports
No. 6- Josh Williams for Williams Motorsports
No. 15- John Wes Townley for Venturini Motorsports
No. 17- Kyle Benjamin for Roulo Brothers Racing
No. 22- Austin Wayne Self for Cunningham Motorsports
No. 25- Justin Boston for Venturini Motorsports
No. 44- Frank Kimmel for Win-Tron Racing
No. 52- Ken Schrader for Ken Schrader Racing
No. 55- Cody Coughlin for Venturini Motorsports
No. 68- Will Kimmel for Kimmel Racing
No. 72- Tom Hessert, III for Cunningham Motorsports
No. 90- Grant Enfinger for Team BCR
Not Currently Entered, but Likely to be Added:
No. 23- Spencer Gallagher for GMS Racing
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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!
Hello, race fans. Welcome back to another edition of the Critic's Annex, where we take a look at additional motorsports programming. While NASCAR's National Series were porpoising around Kentucky Speedway, two other major race weekends were taking place. The Verizon IndyCar Series was in Houston for their second doubleheader of the year at NRG Park, a place that's probably just as bumpy as Kentucky Speedway. Finally, IMSA was at Watkins Glen International.
The primary support for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship's Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen was the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, the "Showroom Stock" series that accompanies TUSC at most of their races. If you want to watch the race for yourself, the delayed broadcast is due to premiere on Sunday morning at 10am on FOX Sports 1. However, what you're going to get on FOX Sports 1 is highlighted coverage, in addition to the fact that it's delayed by eight days.
The only way to see live coverage of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge (CTSC) is to watch the livestream of the races online. It is completely free and can be watched live at either IMSA.com or FansChoice.tv. I sat down Saturday morning and loaded up the race to see what was going to happen, mainly because I like sports car racing way too much. How was the livestream? Let's check it out.
Unlike watching races on television, you're often at the mercy of whoever's actually streaming the footage in this situation. The field rolled off right on schedule from pit road at 11:30am Saturday and the green flag flew a few minutes later. Was the stream ready to go? No. Technical issues prevented IMSA from getting the stream running until 11:53am. To their credit, IMSA put out tweets indicating their issues and asked viewers to be patient. I spent much of that time checking Twitter for updates and refreshing the stream.
Did viewers miss a lot of action due to the issues? Well, they missed a crash at the start that involved about five Grand Sport (GS) cars. Separately, despite the fact that the full course yellow was already out, three Street Tuner (ST) cars wrecked in Turn 1. Admittedly, I don't understand either one of the wrecks. In the case of the GS wreck, Saturday wasn't the first time that it's happened in GS. It's ridiculous. 150 minute race and they're wrecking 600 feet after the start-finish line. The ST wreck was even more indefensible. The race was still under caution due to that wreck when the stream finally went live.
Video quality for the race was admittedly changeable. In the past, the quality was generally pretty good, and it stayed that way. Saturday saw the quality change between the good stuff and miserable, much like how watching ALMS races on ESPN3 used to be. Unlike ESPN3, viewers are not given anything that indicates the quality. Viewers also cannot change the quality; what you see is what you get.
Unlike ESPN3's ALMS telecasts, IMSA.com/FansChoice.tv CTSC broadcasts are shown in a Satellite Feed-style. That means that there are no commercials, and viewers can hear pit reporters chime in unprompted. You'll hear information from pit reporters that will ultimately make Sunday's broadcast, but as it happens. Some of the audio will come off as a little unusual, though.
For example, there was a brief clip of Brian Till interviewing someone that I guess was involved with BMW, then the audio cut out. The booth asked what it was. Play-by-play man Bob Varsha simply said that it was "something important." You'll probably see what it is on Sunday's telecast. Another interview with Randy Pobst, who got caught up in the ST crash, was completely unseen. Pobst is a strong, veteran racer that drives for Freedom Autosport in a Mazda MX-5 that wouldn't get in that kind of wreck at the first turn of the race on his own. Why did he? He basically got run over from behind by the No. 95 Irish Mike's Racing Hyundai Genesis driven by Todd Buras.
In a drawback to the recent issues on TNT, the stream had some repeating issues as well, which is rather disappointing to see. Earlier this week, I contacted Nate Smeltz with Turner Sports to figure out what was causing that issue. He stated that they have been having satellite transmission issues. Maybe IMSA and FOX Sports were having similar issues Saturday. It should be noted that the issue did not manifest itself during FOX Sports 1's live broadcast of the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen on Sunday.
Having a satellite feed-style broadcast means seeing things that you wouldn't ordinarily. John Weisberg's ST-class Porsche Cayman was hit in a crash and broke the hood clips. As a result, the hood flew up and broke the windshield. IMSA officials wouldn't let Weisberg's No. 50 leave the pits. Weisberg, who also owns the car, took things into his own hands by kicking out his own windshield from the inside, complete with profanities. Unfortunately, the busted windshield put Weisberg out of the race. Despite the excellent form that the No. 50 was showing on Saturday, including leading laps, Berg's team is not one of the best funded teams out there. It appears that they didn't have a spare windshield and officials wouldn't let Weisberg race without a windshield (in some series, it is legal to race without one, the V8 Supercars being one of them in the past). I don't know if that whole situation, including Weisberg's interview will make the broadcast (the kicking out of the windshield will, in some form).
Post-race coverage was fairly typical. There were interviews with the winners in both classes (Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell for GS, Ryan Eversley and Kyle Gimple for ST), plus a conversation with B.J. Zacharias, who finished second overall and just missed the win. I'm not going to spoil what happened, but the last lap reminded me of a couple of jammers trying to score in Roller Derby.
Honestly, I have no clue how the winning No. 6 was not given a "Stop +60" penalty early in the race after Liddell got in the back of Max Riddle's No. 07 Aston Martin entering the Carousel just after taking the overall lead. Riddle spun and propped himself up on the tire barrier, nearly ending up on his side. Riddle was able to get himself off of the tires and continue, thus averting a full course caution. Apparently, that was deemed unavoidable. I don't get it. The broadcast booth didn't get it either. Oh well. I'm pretty sure an incident like that will make the telecast, so check it out on Sunday and decide for yourself.
That's all for this week. Next week, we'll be back with some more content. Until then, enjoy this weekend's racing in Daytona, Pocono and Winchester.
Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Tech Talk with Bono Manion: Daytona – Splitters, Tires and Engine Cooling
"Some drivers know exactly what they want and Michael is still learning that feel. Whether he's on the splitter a little too hard or if he needs a little right rear spring, he's still learning with these Cup cars. It is a new deal for everyone with these cars being down on the earth but being a rookie and having a whole new set of rules has made it a bit of a challenge. I do know that, when Michael complains about something, a lot of the other teams are complaining about the same issue. He has a great feel for the car. What he's good at, and what our M.O. as a team is isn't busting off that fast lap. That will come in time." - "Bono" Manion on Michael Annett's progression as a driver in Sprint Cup.
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: For Lake Speed, 1989 was a miserable letdown after 1988 saw his first career win. The month of July was particularly disastrous. Daytona was the first race of the month and it set the tone for an expensive and painful quagmire. What happened?
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 Staff
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, trivia, and more!
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Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Amy returns this week with another intriguing Friday commentary.
Pictures can lead to a thousand laughs; join us in our weekly dose of humor that comes from those candid moments at the track.
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!
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