Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
August 14th, 2014
Volume VIII, Edition CXXXVI
----------------
- Wood Brothers Racing has set a teleconference for 2:00 PM this afternoon where they will talk about their plans for the 2015 season. It is widely expected that they will announce Ryan Blaney as their new driver in a part-time schedule. We'll have more information as it comes available.
Today's TV Schedule
Time Telecast Network
by Phil Allaway
Mars, Incorporated Re-signs with Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR
Entry List Update:
Note: These entries are accurate as of Wednesday night. However, they are still subject to change.
Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400: 43 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 21- Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing
No. 40- Landon Cassill for Hillman Racing
No. 66- Joe Nemechek for Michael Waltrip Racing/Identity Ventures Racing
Driver who must start at the rear of the field:
No. 78- Martin Truex, Jr. for Furniture Row Racing. Truex will miss qualifying to stay with girlfriend Sherry Pollex as she starts her cancer treatment. Matt Crafton will qualify the car.
Driver Changes:
No. 14- An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Regan Smith. Stewart-Haas Racing has still not made any announcements pertaining to when Tony Stewart plans to return to driving.
No. 32- Travis Kvapil returns to the seat, replacing Boris Said.
Since there are only 43 cars entered, no one will fail to qualify.
Not Entered:
No. 77- Nelson Piquet, Jr. for Randy Humphrey Racing
No. 95- Michael McDowell for Leavine Family Racing
Nationwide Series Nationwide Childrens' Hospital 200: 37 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 55- Brennan Newberry for Viva Motorsports with Frank Cicci/SS-Green Light Racing
No. 93- Tomy Drissi for JGL Racing
Driver Changes:
No. 14- Jeff Green returns to the seat, replacing Eric McClure.
No. 15- Kevin O'Connell is in the seat, replacing Carl Long.
No. 20- Kenny Habul returns to the seat, replacing Matt Kenseth.
No. 22- Alex Tagliani returns to the seat, replacing Brad Keselowski.
No. 23- Carl Long is in the seat, replacing Kevin O'Connell.
No. 31- Justin Marks returns to the seat, replacing Dylan Kwasniewski.
No. 42- Dylan Kwasniewski returns to the seat, replacing Kyle Larson.
No. 46- An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Josh Wise.
No. 54- Sam Hornish, Jr. returns to the seat, replacing Kyle Busch.
No. 74- Bobby Reuse returns to the seat, replacing his brother Roger Reuse.
No. 86- Tim Cowen is in the seat, replacing Jake Crum.
Since only 37 drivers are entered, no one will fail to qualify. However, these teams still must qualify on speed:
No. 10- Blake Koch for TriStar Motorsports*
No. 15- Kevin O'Connell for Rick Ware Racing
No. 17- Tanner Berryhill for Vision Racing
No. 46- Unknown driver for The Motorsports Group
No. 70- Derrike Cope for Derrike Cope Racing
No. 74- Bobby Reuse for Mike Harmon Racing
No. 86- Tim Cowen for DRG Motorsports
Not Entered:
No. 09- Marcos Ambrose for Richard Petty Motorsports
No. 12- Joey Logano for Team Penske
No. 33- Paul Menard for Richard Childress Racing
No. 75- SunEnergy1, LLC Racing
Camping World Truck Series Careers for Veterans 200: 28 trucks entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 05- Travis Kvapil for Athenian Motorsports
No. 9- Jason White for NTS Motorsports
No. 19- Joey Logano for Brad Keselowski Racing
No. 20- Austin Dillon for NTS Motorsports
No. 51- Kyle Busch for Kyle Busch Motorsports
Driver Changes:
No. 05- Travis Kvapil is in the seat, replacing Clint Bowyer. John Wes Townley was originally entered in the truck.
No. 08- Jimmy Weller returns to the seat, replacing Ray Black, Jr.
No. 19- Joey Logano returns to the seat, replacing Tyler Reddick.
No. 20- Austin Dillon returns to the seat, replacing Justin Lofton.
No. 32- Tayler Malsam returns to the seat, replacing Kyle Larson.
No. 51- Kyle Busch returns to the seat, replacing Erik Jones.
Since there are only 28 trucks entered, no one will fail to qualify. However, these teams must still qualify on speed:
No. 05- Travis Kvapil for Athenian Motorsports
No. 0- Caleb Roark for JJC Racing*
No. 23- Spencer Gallagher for GMS Racing
*- Expected to Start-and-Park
Not Entered:
No. 3- Richard Childress Racing
No. 28- Ryan Ellis for FDNY Racing
No. 40- Todd Peck for Peck Motorsports
No. 59- Kyle Martel for Martel Motorsports
Verizon IndyCar Series ABC Supply Wisconsin 250: 22 cars entered
Driver Changes:
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
~~~~~~~~~~
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!
Potts' Shots for August 14
Unable to sleep for one reason or another in the wee hours of Sunday morning, as happens often, I decided to make myself sleepy by checking things out on the web. There it was on my computer screen. Tony Stewart had been involved in an accident in which a fellow racer had been greviously injured.
Worse yet, Tony's sprint car had struck the driver, who was out of his car demonstrating his displeasure with Tony after the two had gotten together, resulting in the other car spinning against the wall and being eliminated from the race.
Still worse. It was soon confirmed that the other driver, 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr., had died from his injuries.
It didn't get any better. Tony was accused of running the younger man down deliberately.
A video on YouTube showed the original incident clearly. It was a racing deal, and I'm not saying that because Tony is a friend.
Kevin Ward then did what so many others have done before him, and probably will continue to do in the future regardless of new rules, etc. – he got out of his car determined to let Stewart know how he felt about the situation.
The actual impact wasn't really clear from the video, as Ward was struck by Stewart's right rear wheel & tire. You've read all this ground before. It's been hashed and rehashed since it happened on Facebook, Twitter, and on various news programs. The reports range from Tony Stewart being accused of outright murder, to Kevin Ward getting too close to a moving race car.
According to the sheriff's department where Canandaigua Motorsports Park is located, the cars had slowed to about 40 mph under the caution flag, and Tony's car was second in line coming straight at Ward. The car in front of Tony swerved left to avoid the driver. Witnesses said they could hear Stewart hit the throttle as he got close, and some of them used that as reasoning that he contact was deliberate.
It was also announced Wednesday that investigators have reviewed another video of the incident, with another angle of Ward walking on the track at turn two and being hit.
Another sprint car driver, Cory Sparks, has come forward with his side of the story, telling about the angle from which he witnessed it.
"From what I saw," he said, "Tony did everything in his power to turn down away from Kevin to avoid him. People say that they heard the engine rev up and he gassed it. In a sprint car, the only way to steer is you steer with the rear wheels as much as you do the steering wheel. In my opinion what he did was gassed it to turn down away from him."
Regardless, the result was devastating.
I don't presume to know what was going through Tony's mind as this all happened.
The sheriff's department stated that they are investigating the dim lighting in the area where the incident occurred, the fact that Ward was in an almost all black driving suit with a black helmet, and other factors.
They also said they were investigating it as an "on track accident."
Wherever the chips from this end up falling, Tony is never going to be the same.
Yes, Tony Stewart has had to go through anger management counseling, he almost lost his ride with Joe Gibbs Racing after a confrontation with a media representative at Indianapolis a few years back, and he threw his helmet at Matt Kenseth after an incident at Bristol.
But you'll never convince me that he deliberately set out to take the life of another driver.
One of the worst things to come out of this is the sudden appearance of a myriad group of pseudo-experts in the mainstream news media. I'm no expert on sprint car racing, and don't pretend to be. But suddenly we have people who paid little or no attention to this facet of the sport postulating about the situation and voicing opinions.
On the RaceDay broadcast Sunday morning, Kenny Wallace pointed out that in his travels around the country racing on dirt tracks, he sees this all the time – drivers out of the car when traffic is still moving and putting themselves in further danger. He said something needs to be done.
I don't know how it can be accomplished. In my younger days, I've sprinted across an infield or two in an attempt to get to a car before the driver got out, and I've watched countless other officials do the same thing.
Sure, there needs to be a rule (and some associations have it) that a competitor must stay in the car until emergency personnel arrive unless his or her life is in danger. On the other hand, this is sometimes the kind of excitement that the crowd loves.
As Steven Cole Smith of Speedway Sightings wrote, it is difficult - impossible, really – to imagine the storm that is about to rain down on sprint car racing in general, Tony Stewart in particular.
Smith is another who has covered Tony since his original short track days, and has knowledge of many of the charitable deed we don't know about.
As Smith also says, "Tony Stewart is as gruff as they come, but he has the biggest heart of any professional driver I have ever known. I can only imagine how his heart is broken for causing the death of another young driver, and to have people insisting that he did it on purpose."
And I'd also like to quote ESPN analyst Ricky Craven, who said on SportsCenter, "He's more than just a race car driver. He owns the team. He is the leader of the group. Many of his peers look up to him. He's going to have to stand tall through this…"
As for me, my prayers go out to everyone involved.
John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com.
ESPN seemed to have a lot of bad luck on Saturday. Major happenings tended to occur during commercial breaks, where fans could not see them. The Ambrose-Busch incident is just one example of that, occurring during the first commercial break, as did the first lead change. The first yellow (the first of at least three spins for Kenny Habul) also occurred during a break. If we can't get side-by-side breaks for Nationwide race telecasts, I wish we could get updates on the BottomLine during the break if something happens. Or even better, replace the BottomLine with the scroll during national TV breaks. Remember, no sport continues their action during commercial breaks except for auto racing.
The championship was a clear No. 2 story on Saturday. Viewers never even saw the updated point standings at the end of the race. ESPN would check in with the contenders every so often, primarily Elliott and Smith, but not so much Ty Dillon and Elliott Sadler. I will mention that the only Up to Speed of the race concerned only Elliott, Dillon and Smith. The result of the race was that the four drivers are separated by only 13 points. Also of note, the happenings in the race actually went against the narrative talked about on NASCAR Countdown. Chase Elliott's lead did not contract at all; in fact, it grew by ten points due to Smith's problems.
Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Beyond the Cockpit: Joey Coulter on Getting Started, Making Changes and Learning More
"I was in Toledo for an ARCA race in 2010, and I was doing an appearance at a Toledo Mudhens game, the minor league baseball team up there, and it was kids day. We brought 500 hero cards and I signed all of them. There were just more people in line. I was signing phones, wallets, purses, everything. This one kid came up and asked if I would sign his forehead. I told him I wouldn't sign his forehead and that he had to go get one of his parents. The last thing I needed was one of his parents mad at me for doing it. His mom came up and said it would wash off. I ended up signing his forehead for him. I think I was more surprised that the parents OK'd it more than the kid asking for it." - Joey Coulter, on one of the most interesting autograph signings of his career.
~~~~~~~~~~
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 AT FRONTSTRETCH:
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: The 2003 GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway is best known for the multiple year rivalry between Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer coming to a head when Busch tried to intentionally cut Spencer's tire. How did fans watching the race on television find out that Busch had done it intentionally?
A: Here's the rub. While fans did see the contact, they did not know that it was intentional until audio was released later in the week. That audio, which can be heard in this clip from Countdown to Green prior to the Sharpie 500, sees Busch admitting that he tried to do it intentionally on the radio, but failing to do so. In addition, the attempt resulted in Busch creating a handling problem for himself, hence why he finished 18th.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 Staff
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, trivia, and more!
~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
We'll have a preview of this weekend's ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 from The Milwaukee Mile.
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!
©2014 Frontstretch.com
No comments:
Post a Comment