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The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
August 11th, 2014
Volume VIII, Edition CXXXIII
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"There aren't words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr.," Stewart said . "It's a very emotional time for all involved, and it is the reason I've decided not to participate in today's race at Watkins Glen. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and everyone affected by this tragedy.
Sprint Cup Race Recap: Long Road Back: Allmendinger Scores Emotional Win at Watkins Glen
by Justin Tucker
After being suspended by NASCAR in July 2012 for a failed drug test, many believed that AJ Allmendinger's career in NASCAR was over.
The Los Gatos, California native went from driving for one of NASCAR's top teams in Penske Racing to a future filled with doubt. Even upon completion of NASCAR's Road to Recovery program, many wondered if any owners would give Allmendinger a second chance. Enter Roger Penske.
After winning two Nationwide Series races for Penske in 2013, the door opened at JTG Daugherty Racing to drive their No. 47 car for two races. That audition led to a full-time return to the Sprint Cup Series this season for JTG Daugherty Racing this season.
Allmendinger would complete the journey back on Sunday at Watkins Glen by holding off a furious charge by Marcos Ambrose over the closing laps to win the Cheez-It 355 At The Glen for his first career Sprint Cup Series win. The win was also the first for JTG Daugherty Racing.
Allmendinger, who led a race high 30 of 90 laps, was overwhelmed in Victory Lane as he described what the win meant to not only him but for the entire JTG organzation.
"My gosh, I can't believe we've won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race," Allmendinger said. "With this whole 47 team, [team owners] Tad Geschickter, Jody Geschickter, Brad Daugherty, all the great sponsors we have, our first Cup victory together, my first victory…I love these guys. I just wanted it so bad for them and this team. They work so hard. I wasn't gonna let Marcos take that from me."
Marcos Ambrose, the favorite coming into Sunday's race, showed his brilliance on the road courses again by dominating much of the middle stages of the race, but was denied a third Watkins Glen cup victory by a determined Allmendinger and watched his best shot at a berth into the Chase for the Sprint Cup fade away.
"First of all, congratulations to AJ and the 47 team," Ambrose said. "They deserved that win. I left nothing on the table. I tried to rattle his cage and couldn't shake him. We raced fair and square to the end there. It was a tough couple laps, but it was fair. We were both giving it to each other pretty hard. No harm, no foul. We just came up a little short."
Joining Allmedinger and Ambrose in the top five of Sunday's Cheez It 355 at the Glen were Kurt Busch in third, rookie Kyle Larson fourth and Sonoma race winner Carl Edwards fifth. Joey Logano finished sixth, while Kevin Harvick was seventh. Greg Biffle finished eighth, Matt Kenseth ninth, and Brian Vickers rounded out the top 10.
Many experienced tough days at the Glen on Sunday starting with pole sitter Jeff Gordon who led the opening 29 circuits before he lost power in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet on lap 50, relegating him to a 34th-place finish. Kyle Busch went to the garage for lengthy repairs after contact with Martin Truex, Jr., leaving him to settle for a 40th-place finish. Brad Keselowski would have brake issues leaving him to finish 35th.
Sunday's race had two lengthy red flags, most notably of which came on lap 56 when Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman made contact, sending Newman's No. 31 car violently into the Armco barrier. Newman's car spun back out onto the track and collected Michael McDowell's No. 95, leaving both cars destroyed. However, Newman and McDowell walked away without injury.
"I'm good. Thank the good Lord above, because that's a bad wreck," McDowell said. "It seems like when I do it they're fairly big. I'm not real sure what happened. I saw the 16 get a little wide and the 31 come back across the track and I didn't really have time to adjust and move. I just tried not to hit Ryan in the door there and that was pretty much it. Just along for the ride."
After walking out of the infield care center, Newman was more than critical of the safety innovation at Watkins Glen.
"I'm fine," he said. "Just wrong place at the wrong time. From my standpoint, Biffle jumped the curb and got the splitter up on the curb or something, got out and got across the grass. I probably could have given him a little more (room), but I tried to time it so I would shoot past and he slowed down when he got back on the race track. It's just really disappointing.
"We lost John Melvin here in the last couple weeks," Newman said. "He did a lot of innovations for our sport and it's really sad they haven't adapted any of them here at this race track. The barriers, the SAFER barrier, that doesn't exist here. The Armco walls, there's no concrete walls. It's just a very antiquated race track and the safety is not at all at NASCAR standards. It's a shame we have to have accidents like that to prove it."
McDowell's hit on the Armco and catchfence ripped a small part of the barrier apart. The red flag to repair the fence lasted for over an hour and twenty minutes.
One face was noticeably absent from Sunday's race at the Glen and that was five-time Watkins Glen winner Tony Stewart.
Saturday night, Stewart was involved in a tragic Sprint Car accident that claimed the life of 20 year old Kevin Ward, Jr. at Canandaigua Motorsports Park. Twelve hours before Sunday's race, all signs were leading to Stewart racing at Watkins Glen, but early on Sunday Morning the decision was made by Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing to sit out the event and Regan Smith filled in for Sunday's race.
Stewart did release a statement on Sunday Afternoon regarding the incident.
"There aren't words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr. It's a very emotional time for all involved, and it is the reason I've decided not to participate in today's race at Watkins Glen. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and everyone affected by this tragedy," he said.
Stewart Haas Racing Competition Director Greg Zipadelli also released a statement.
"I support Tony Stewart. I think I have shown that over the last 18 years," Zipadelli said. "[Stewart] feels strongly this is the right thing to do. We at SHR support it and agree with it. It's a difficult time for both parties. This is what we feel is right and we're supporting Tony in it."
A look at Sunday's Cheez It 355 at the Glen by the numbers. There were five lead changes among five different drivers and 6 cautions for 17 laps slowed the race pace to 90.123 MPH.
Next week the Sprint Cup Series makes its return trip to the Michigan International Speedway for the Pure Michigan 400. Green flag is set for 1:16 P.M. ET next Sunday.
Justin Tucker is a Newsletter Contributor at Frontstretch. To reach Justin, please contact Newsletter Manager Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chasing the Chase: Electrical Issues Cost Gordon the Lead
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via email at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Critic84.
Never Fear, The Underdogs Are Here: Watkins Glen Edition
by Phil Allaway
Are you a fan of a driver from a smaller team? Do you ever see one of these guys on the race results and wonder how he got there? NASCAR's small teams may not get much airtime during the race broadcast, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to talk about. Each week, we take a peek into how the little guys fared in the race.
Underdog Selection No. 1: AJ Allmendinger for JTG Daugherty Racing; Started 6th, won the race
Amy's Underdog Pick of the Week hit pay dirt on Sunday, leading 30 laps and taking his first career Sprint Cup victory. With the win, Allmendinger (currently 24th in points) essentially locked into the Chase. Of course, it wasn't easy. Allmendinger had to fight tooth and nail with Marcos Ambrose right up to the white flag before pulling away.
Allmendinger's victory is also the first Sprint Cup win for JTG Daugherty Racing, currently in their sixth full season in the series.
Underdog Selection No. 2: Casey Mears for Germain Racing; started 22nd, finished 15th
Remember that despite his decade and change in the Sprint Cup Series, Mears has a road racing background. Prior to his NASCAR move, Mears raced four full seasons in Dayton Indy Lights, finishing second in points in 1999. After splitting time between CART and the IRL in 2001, Mears moved to the Busch Series full-time in 2002. As a result of his experience, Mears hauling himself up into the top 15 is no real surprise at all.
Underdog Selection No. 3: Justin Allgaier for HScott Motorsports; started 15th, finished 17th
Allgaier turned some heads on Saturday when he qualified a season-best 15th, but didn't spend long there before pitting a couple of laps into the race for fuel as part of a three-stop strategy. The strategy put Allgaier in the back of the pack for much of the race, but Allgaier managed to drag the BRANDT Chevrolet up into the top-20 by the end.
Underdog Pick of the Week - Michigan-2: Justin Allgaier for HScott Motorsports
As noted above, Amy's pick of AJ Allmendinger won the race, but still failed to get a seat at the table for his press conference. Granted, that's because there weren't enough seats at the table, but it's still true.
Next weekend, the Sprint Cup Series travels to Michigan International Speedway, the fastest track in NASCAR. It is the toughest track for underdog teams to impress at. However, HScott Motorsports and driver Justin Allgaier had one of their best runs of the year in June, finishing 16th. They'll be my underdog pick of the week.
Is your favorite driver among NASCAR's underdogs? Are you frustrated with the lack of coverage they receive during the race broadcasts? Amy has all the small teams covered each and every week in The Big Six. Be sure to check it out to see how your favorites fared!
Letter of the Race: Sunday's Cheez-It 355 At The Glen was brought to you by the letter "L" for Lack of Joy. In all honesty, I love road racing, but the events of Saturday night just took the wind out of my sails and made it very hard to enjoy the race on Sunday. That's regardless of how good the race at the end actually was. - Phil Allaway
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Sidebar Stories: Watkins Glen
by Phil Allaway
"The SAFER barrier doesn't exist here, there are no concrete walls," Newman said to USA Today. "It's just a very antiquated race track and the safety is not at all up to NASCAR's standards and it's a shame that we have to have accidents like that to prove it. They have no problems spending $400 million in Daytona (for new grandstands), but they could spend a few million dollars here on safety and make a lot of drivers happy."
"We can always do more to be safe," Gordon said after the race. "It doesn't matter what we have out there. There are always ways to make it safer. Unfortunately I've been a part of incidents over there off the carousel. It's a very fast portion of the race track and when things happen cars seem to get knocked back out into the track. But what I question right now from what I saw is the rubber. The Armco barrier I think did its job. Softened the impact, tore the car up, but prevented the car from going through there. So you don't want a concrete wall you want a safer barrier, but that is tough to do on a track like this, multi-purpose track. That rubber wall with the tires just sucks the cars in, spins them around and spits them out. I definitely think there are areas on the track where it's good like down in turn one, but I think there are other parts of the track where there could be something better than that."
"I was hoping to make it boring, honestly. I wanted to lead all 90 laps and just have a cruise control. But that's what makes the Sprint Cup Series so fun. You know you're not going to get that. And Marcos, I don't believe he's one of the best road racers in NASCAR, I don't believe he's one of the best in the U.S., I believe he's one of the best in the world. To be able to have to go with him basically one‑on‑one there, and I felt like‑‑ I've always respected him, but I respect him so much now because he could have easily just wrecked me, and honestly probably moved me out of the way and wrecked me and drove to the win and made the Chase and everything is great, but he didn't. He moved me out of the way and he leaned on me and I leaned on him back, so to have that but have that mutual respect where we know what the limit is. We're going to take it right to the edge of that limit but to be able to lean on each other but not wreck each other and have such a great finish for us, for me to be able to have that race be so memorable about how it ended, for the fans, they were so great for staying around through all the red flags, the track workers did such a great job to fix the fence and everything. It's just a memorable day to go out there and remember everything that just happened, and I hope I win a lot more, but if I don't, to be able to remember it like this, it's pretty awesome." - AJ Allmendinger, race winner, on if he envisioned his first win being like Sunday's race
"I can't remember much of it, but I know there was a lot of door banging going on, a lot of corners we went round side by side. I got my tires really hot during that and I slid coming off Turn 11 after I got the lead and he was able to get it back before the caution dropped. That was probably the difference between winning and losing the race right there. If I could have held the lead when the caution came out, I would have probably had the advantage on the restart and been able to fend him off. But that's just racing, it's what it is, what it's all about. You try to land him on a restart, take a couple of chances. I'm pleased we got through the S's side by side without wrecking the whole field because it could have easily happened out there." - Marcos Ambrose, finished second, on the battle with Allmendinger
"Man, it was a heck of a race for us on the 41 Haas Automation Chevy. We were in position all day. We ran top 5 and executed well in the pits. I thought our strategy played out well, and the final pit stop was flawless, and that put us in position to race with Ambrose. Earlier in the day I was able to distance myself from the 47 car, and then I realized he was on a different tire sequence, and so he was going to be a force to be reckoned with at the end. He held his serve. Allmendinger deserves this win. He did a tremendous job to race Ambrose, one of the best guys in the world at driving one of these stock cars. Those two put on a good show. I thought I was sitting in a good spot running third hoping that the two would wipe each other out just enough that we would drive our Chevy into victory lane." - Kurt Busch, finished third
"It was a really good day for us. We were terrible all weekend long. I was down on myself it's probably the most frustrated I've ever been with myself, aside from racing sprint cars in Pennsylvania. I can't believe we finished top five. It feels like a win. This Target Chevy was good. I knew it was good I just knew I wasn't good. I learned a lot throughout the race and wasn't very aggressive on restarts in the beginning and I told myself I need to be more aggressive. It worked out we got a top five. I can't believe it. I was hoping for a top 15 or top 20 going into today. I'm totally shocked and super excited." - Kyle Larson, finished fourth
"That was crazy to say the least. We had about a fifth place car and had to go through a lot to get back to that point. We had a pit road penalty that was very questionable and definitely wasn't to our advantage to take a pass through penalty there and we lost a lot of track position. WE fought hard with this Shell Pennzoil Ford and put tires on it late and was very aggressive on the restarts and got a few spots back. I wish there were more laps. The tires were worth a few there at the end but I needed a few more laps there at the end." - Joey Logano, finished fifth
"The strategy bit us there. We probably should of come. Steve and I think we probably should have come and got tires there. That last stop a couple of guys on new tires beat us. We had a good fast car, real good speed, just got caught out on that strategy there and didn't finish in the top five. We had a good enough car to." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 11th
"It's a tough one. This race track is so narrow there's just no room for error when someone gets out of control or hits a barrier. It's going to knock you right back into the groove. I was lucky enough to where I was in a different zip code when I hit something hard (at Watkins Glen in 2011). I had a lot of time to think about that one. That was the scariest part for me watching it was that I knew it was coming and just couldn't do anything about it." - Denny Hamlin, finished 24th
"I'm not exactly sure I've got to get with the team and find out what caused it. It looks like we had a battery go dead, two batteries go dead. I didn't see anything on the volts meter that stood out or anything really going on there that was alarming. Everything thing was going along really well. Our Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet was strong. I feel like we were in control there when we were out front. We got a little bit behind on the pit stop sequence, but we were coming back. I was just having a blast out there. It's just great to be that competitive here at Watkins Glen again and I would rather these things happen now so we can determine what caused it and make sure it doesn't happen again because you can't have those kinds of things happen once this Chase starts." - Jeff Gordon, finished 34th
"We had something in the brakes that broke. The team is trying to fix it. At Watkins Glen you can't run without brakes. We nursed it around as best we could and had the yellow flag period to work on it and we came in to start working on it but it took longer than we had hoped and we were sitting in the garage here when that horrible accident happened. We will have to hang out here until the red flag is rescinded so we can finish up repairs on the Miller Lite Ford Fusion and get back out there." - Brad Keselowski, finished 35th
"I am good. I thank the good Lord above. That was a bad wreck. It seems when I do it they are usually fairly big. I am not sure what happened. I saw the 16 get wide and the 39 come back across the track. I didn't have time to adjust or move. I tried not to hit Ryan in the door there. That was pretty much it. I was just along for the ride. We had a good K-Love car today but we were off on strategy. It was going to work out. It was going to cycle out. I am glad to walk away from it. I am very thankful. I feel blessed." - Michael McDowell, finished 42nd (Crashed Out)
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Thinkin' Out Loud: Watkins Glen A Mix Of Tony's Tragedy, AJ's Triumph
by Mike Neff
Pace Laps: Settling Safety, Farewells At Watkins Glen
by the Frontstretch Staff
The Big Six: Questions Answered After the Cheez-It 355 At The Glen
by Amy Henderson
Tony Stewart and NASCAR's Tragic Monday Morning Reality
by Tom Bowles
by Matt Stallknecht
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: The weekend of the 1994 GM Goodwrench 400 at Michigan is best known for Ernie Irvan's near-fatal crash in practice on Saturday morning. Irvan's injury effectively eliminated Earnhardt's only real competition for the championship. A good way to completely assert control over the proceedings would have been to finish strongly at Michigan. That didn't happen. What occurred that knocked Earnhardt out of the race?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: In the past, some Cup drivers have voluntarily chosen to take relief during road races for various reasons. In 1998, Boris Said relieved Jimmy Spencer (and qualified Spencer's car) at Watkins Glen because Spencer was hurt the previous weekend in the Brickyard 400. Dick Trickle was not hurt, but simply putrid on road courses. As a result, Donlavey Racing brought in a driver to relieve Trickle in the Bud at the Glen. Who did they get?
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 triviaanswers@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
Coming Tuesday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Ashley McCubbin
-- Fan's View Commentary by S.D. Grady
-- Numbers Game: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen by Tom Bowles
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Who's Hot / Who's Not in Sprint Cup: Watkins Glen-Michigan Edition by Brad Morgan
We'll take a look at which drivers are looking good as the series shifts from a narrow road course to an ultra-wide superspeedway.
Racing to the Point by Brett Poirier
Brett returns with another interesting commentary that'll make you think.
Jeff returns with his typical blend of sarcastic humor tilted towards one of NASCAR's controversial issues.
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
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