Thursday, October 23, 2014

The Frontstretch Newsletter: Crew Chief Swap for Stewart-Haas Racing

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

Oct. 23, 2014
Volume VIII, Edition CLXXXVI
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What to Watch: Thursday

- It's a relatively quiet news day for Cup and Trucks as the series pull into Martinsville Speedway. Sprint Cup haulers are scheduled to start unloading at the track at 5:30 p.m. today, and no major driver appearances are on tap in Virginia tonight.

- Tickets for July's Daytona Sprint Cup race go on sale effective tomorrow morning. Remember, the 2015 version of this race will be run at night, paired with the return of NBC Sports to live Sprint Cup coverage.

- Brendan Gaughan will pop up at SIRIUS XM Radio, Channel 90 right now to talk about re-signing with Richard Childress Racing for 2015. Don't have SIRIUS? Click too late? Check out his latest Frontstretch.com diary where he talks about how happy he's been running full-time in the Nationwide Series.

Today's TV Schedule

Time                                            Telecast                                                                                                                   Network
5:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m                 NASCAR America                                                                                                  NBC Sports Network
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.                NASCAR RaceHub                                                                                                FOX Sports 1
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.                NASCAR RaceHub                                                                                                FOX Sports 2*#
7:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.              NASCAR America: Scan all 43                                                                              NBC Sports Network# (seven episodes)
10:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.            NASCAR America                                                                                                  NBC Sports Network#

DVR Theater (Late Thursday Night/Early Friday Morning)
12:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.              NASCAR America: Celebrate the States                                                               NBC Sports Network# (four episodes)
2:00 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.                NASCAR America: Future Stars                                                                            NBC Sports Network
2:30 a.m. - 3:00 a.m.                The Grid                                                                                                                NBC Sports Network
7:00 a.m. - 7:30 a.m.                NASCAR America                                                                                                NBC Sports Network*# (from October 16)

* - Tape Delayed
/ - Highlighted Coverage
# - Repeat Coverage
$ - Available via password-protected online streaming.  Check with your internet and/or programming provider for availability.

Top News
by Phil Allaway

Stewart-Haas Racing Announces Crew Chief Swap for Nos. 10 and 41 Teams at Texas, Prepping For 2015

On Wednesday, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that the crew chiefs and "road crews" for Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch's teams will swap starting at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend.  The pit crews themselves, however will not be involved in the move and remain in their current assignments.  Read more at Frontstretch

NASCAR Announces Qualifying Changes for XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series for 2015; Cuts Truck Field Size

On Wednesday, NASCAR announced that the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series will adopt qualifying systems more in line with the Sprint Cup Series for the 2015 season.  The systems will replace the current format that locks the top 30 in owner points and top 25 in owner points, respectively, into each race.  In addition, the field size for Camping World Truck Series events, beginning in 2015 has been cut from 36 to 32 trucks.  Read more at Frontstretch


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


Sprint Cup Series Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500: 43 cars entered

 

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:

No. 32 - Kyle Fowler for Go FAS Racing
No. 40 - Landon Cassill for Hillman Racing

No. 66 - Mike Wallace for Michael Waltrip Racing/Identity Ventures Racing


Driver Changes:
No. 32
- Kyle Fowler is in the seat, replacing Terry Labonte.  Fowler, 22, will be making his Sprint Cup Series debut, and has driven for Go Green Racing (owned by team co-owner Archie St. Hilaire) in the Nationwide Series.

No. 66 - Mike Wallace returns to the seat, replacing Michael Waltrip. Wallace remains on a race-to-race deal with Jay Robinson Racing as their main driver when Waltrip or other MWR-aligned "prospects" don't take over the ride.

No. 93 - An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Clay Rogers. This car is typically brought out by BK Racing as a fourth entry to fill the field; more than likely, it will start-and-park Sunday unless a last-minute sponsor steps up.


Since there are only 43 entries, no one will fail to qualify.

 

Not Entered:

No. 12 - Ryan Blaney for Team Penske

No. 21 - Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing

No. 29 - Joe Nemechek for RAB Racing with Brack Maggard

No. 49 - Identity Ventures Racing (reverting back to a one-car effort this week)
No. 95 - Michael McDowell for Leavine Family Racing


Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200: 37 cars entered


Number Change:

- Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 54 changes to No. 34 as part of a tribute to NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott.

 

Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points: None

 

Driver Changes:

No. 07 - BJ McLeod returns to the seat, replacing Korbin Forrester. McLeod has been the start-and-park driver for this team all season, running no more than 13 laps in any of his six starts. The team will likely start-and-park again unless a funded driver steps up.
No. 08 - Camden Murphy is in the seat, replacing Jimmy Weller.  Murphy, an 18-year-old racer with experience in late models and the ASA Truck Tour, will be making his series debut.

No. 0 - Matt Tifft is in the seat, replacing Caleb Roark.  If Tifft qualifies, he will be making his Camping World Truck Series debut although this truck typically start-and-parks for Jennifer Jo Cobb.  Tifft raced for Ken Schrader in the ARCA Racing Series this season.

No. 8 - John Hunter Nemechek returns to the seat, replacing his father Joe Nemechek. John Hunter is running the short track races he's eligible for; NASCAR's rulebook limits drivers under age 18 from racing bigger tracks.

No. 9 - Brennan Newberry returns to the seat, replacing Ron Hornaday. Newberry has been running a limited schedule with the team.
No. 20 - Gray Gaulding returns to the seat, replacing Brennan Newberry. Gaulding is running a limited schedule with the team.
No. 23 - Max Gresham returns to the seat, replacing Spencer Gallagher. Gresham is running a limited schedule with the team.
No. 32 - Alex Guenette is in the seat, replacing Tayler Malsam. Guenette is running a limited schedule with the team.
No. 35 - An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing Daniel Suarez. This team has typically start-and-parked their truck since Mason Mingus left about a month ago.

No. 50 - T.J. Bell returns to the seat, replacing Derek White. Bell is running a limited schedule with the team.
No. 63 - Justin Jennings returns to the seat, replacing Scott Stenzel. Jennings has been the full-time driver of MB Motorsports' main truck most of the season.
No. 74 - Wendell Chavous is in the seat, replacing Mike Harmon.  If he qualifies, Chavous would be making his Camping World Truck Series debut.  Chavous is a dirt late model racer out of Georgia.

No. 92 - Austin Hill is in the seat, replacing Corey LaJoie.  If he qualifies, Hill will be making his Camping World Truck Series debut.  Hill ran full-time in the K&N Pro Series East this season, winning the season finale at Dover.


Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 05
- John Wes Townley for Athenian Motorsports

No. 0 - Matt Tifft for JJC Racing*

No. 23 - Max Gresham for GMS Racing

No. 33 - Brandon Jones for Turner Scott Motorsports/GMS Racing

No. 74 - Wendell Chavous

No. 75 - Caleb Holman for Henderson Motorsports

No. 80 - Jody Knowles

No. 82 - Cody Erickson for Empire Racing

No. 86 - Brandon Brown for Brown Motorsports

No. 87 - Charles Buchanan, Jr. for Buchanan Racing.  If Buchanan qualifies, he would be making his Camping World Truck Series debut.

No. 92 - Austin Hill for RBR Enterprises

 

Not Entered:

No. 03 - Mike Affarano for Affarano Motorsports

No. 1 - Milka Duno for MAKE Motorsports

No. 5 - Cody Ware for Rick Ware Racing

No. 28 - Ryan Ellis for FDNY Racing

No. 36 - MB Motorsports

No. 68 - Clay Greenfield for Clay Greenfield Motorsports
No. 84 - Chris Fontaine for Chris Fontaine, Inc.


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. Comments can also be sent to frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com.
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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 runs on Wednesdays with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
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Today's Featured Commentary
Beadle's Big Moment, NASCAR Staging Fights?, and More
Potts' Shots
by John Potts

​First off, congratulations this week to Brad Keselowski, who beat the odds by winning at Talladega to move on in the next stage of the Chase.  Personally, I had my doubts about Keselowski doing it, but he managed to pull it off.  That's why I felt like we had to mention it.
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Received word early this week that Raymond Beadle had passed away.  Raymond first gained fame as a drag racer, primarily racing the Blue Max Funny Car in the days when Funny Car match racing was big.  And I mean really big.  Guys like Raymond, Jungle Jim Liberman, Tom "Mongoose" McEwen, Don "Snake" Prudhomme and a host of others criss-crossed the country running at big and small dragstrips, drawing big crowds for what were usually two out of three shootouts. Top Fuel Dragsters were also popular for these things, but it seemed like the people loved the thunder and lightning the Funny Cars provided.

Dragstrip operators quickly realized that they could pay for two of these hotshots to show up, spend some cash on radio/TV advertising, spread posters all over the immediate area, and instantly bring in the fans.  By the same token, in the days before there were as many national events on the schedule, the more popular racers found they could support themselves and their teams by hitting the road for these appearances.

Sometimes, the races were mere barnstorming, that's for sure, because the equipment was expensive; often, they had to make three or four appearances in a weekend.  In addition to being before so many national events, this time period was before the huge payouts and sponsorships we see today. But the racing itself? Incredible.
If you've ever watched a Funny Car race up close, you know how exciting it can be.  I'll never forget my first experience standing on the starting line and watching a Funny Car burn out.

Beadle didn't limit himself to drag racing and stock cars.  He also put together a World of Outlaws team which showed up with the first eighteen-wheeler rig in that outfit. Eventually, Raymond moved into NASCAR, first hiring Tim Richmond, and then Rusty Wallace who brought the Kodiak-sponsored team a Winston Cup championship in 1989.  That particular episode ended in a lawsuit, with Beadle exiting the sport shortly thereafter while Wallace ended up with Roger Penske.

But those dragstrips? That's what Beadle was known for. I miss those days of match racing...
-----
Jumping back to NASCAR, I found a lot of the comments which appeared on Facebook after the Charlotte race.  Many folks voiced the opinion that the whole post-race dustup was staged by the sanctioning body, and a lot of people agreed with them.

Conspiracy theories are nothing new, but one particular comment caught my eye. A writer claimed the episode with Kenseth and Keselowski was obviously choreographed, adding, "Sure, there was a camera waiting in between a couple of haulers."

OK. Well, I'm not sure how much attention this guy was paying, but anybody watching that race and what happened after it was over had no doubt that Matt Kenseth was headed for Brad Keselowski, and that includes the TV people.  I can almost hear the director on their radio... "Stay with Kenseth, this is gonna be some really good footage."

John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.  He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com.
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The Critic's Annex: Drive For The Cure 300 Presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina
by Phil Allaway

Hello, race fans.  Welcome back to another edition of the Critic's Annex.  Before we get going with today's look at the K&N Pro Series West, ESPN announced on Wednesday that Marty Smith has signed a multi-year contract to remain with the network beyond the end of 2014.  Smith will serve as a bureau reporter based out of Charlotte, rather than move to NBC or FOX and continue covering stock car racing full-time. 

Smith will still cover NASCAR, to a certain degree but will also branch out into pro football, college football, basketball, and other sports.  The contract officially starts at the beginning of 2015, although Smith's first non-NASCAR assignment will be Tuesday, when he covers opening night for the renamed Charlotte Hornets at the Time Warner Cable Arena.  In addition, ESPN's press release states that he will continue writing about NASCAR at espn.com and will continue the "Marty and McGee" podcast with Ryan McGee.

While it's great that Smith has long-term employment nailed down, I have no idea what ESPN's coverage of NASCAR is going to look like once they no longer air races.  The last time the "Worldwide Leader In Sports" lost airing rights, NASCAR effectively banned the network from Cup races for years.  How bad did it get? Mike Massaro, at one point had to stake out airports to interview drivers after each event.  Right now, there's no indication that NASCAR would take those steps again since there is already decent NASCAR programming on other networks.  Also, ESPN already cancelled their daily NASCAR show, NASCAR Now, back in June, so it's unknown how much they would travel to races anyway.

With that said, onto the bullring for some decent K&N West Series action.

FOX Sports tends to have a revolving door of personalities in the booth for K&N West races since Rick Allen left for NBC Sports, and this particular race was no exception.  Ray Dunlap was on play-by-play, while Todd Bodine was providing the color commentary.  Having Bodine in the booth for a K&N Pro Series race was a first.  He was interesting in the booth and generally easy to follow along, driving the narrative more than I expected.  It was impressive, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of Bodine in future telecasts.  Of course, the 50-year-old Bodine would rather race than commentate.

The overall action that was shown during the race was decent.  All-American Speedway is a 1/3-mile bullring with slightly graduated banking.  As a result, it's possible to run side-by-side.  The booth did comment on how the banking made picking lanes on restarts a little tricky since the track is not quite symmetrical.  The drivers, as a result never really caught on to which lane was superior.  If the track were symmetrical, it would have been the outside lane.

Despite Bodine's general inexperience in color commentary, I found that he was the stronger of the two booth commentators.  Dunlap, for his part made a number of errors during the telecast.  For example, Dunlap claimed that he was unsure on how the first caution (caused by a Dave Smith spin) occurred.  Now, I'll admit right here that the camera shots on the telecast were not the best.  Far from it.  However, it looked obvious to me that Dylan Lupton spun him out. 

Dunlap almost significantly miscounted laps during the race as well.  That second issue wouldn't be as big if the race were live.  However, booth commentary for K&N Pro Series races is generally done post-production, inside a studio in Charlotte.  It's similar to how Rick Benjamin would work on Hooters ProCup telecasts, explained in a sidebar to a 2006 Car and Driver feature on SPEED's Formula One broadcasts.  Those type of mistakes should never happen in that type of environment.

Having races at tracks such as All-American Speedway means that there are limited places to put cameras.  As a result, viewers really couldn't see a lot of the incidents well.  It's a shame, but it's a product of both the venue and the production.  Despite those issues, the coverage of the final caution was a little lacking.  On the telecast, it showed that the caution flew due to Alex Schutte being spun out by Thomas Martin in turn 4.  We saw replays of that incident.  According to NASCAR, though that's not the listed cause of the yellow.  Instead, it appears that the No. 86 of Jacob Gomes blew an engine a couple of seconds after Schutte's spin in a spectacular way and caught fire, a problem viewers never saw.  Instead, there was a quick cutaway shot that showed Gomes stalled in turn 2 while Martin had spun out in turn 1, likely in Gomes' fluids.  The race was red flagged for cleanup because Gomes' car had drenched the track with oil.  Simply put, FOX Sports could have done better explaining and showing everything that happened, even with their limited resources available.

Despite the race having 22 starters, coverage was relatively restricted.  The fact that this event was a 150-lap race, run in 56 minutes with nine cautions definitely plays a role.  However, it seemed like the vast majority of coverage outside of the cautions was centered on debutante Christian PaHud, James Bickford, Brandon McReynolds and Greg Pursley.  Everyone else barely got mentioned outside of wrecks.

Post-race coverage was typical.  I just had one gripe.  Heather DeBeaux did a post-race interview with James Bickford, who finished second.  Bickford was happy with his performance and talked about how he had a good car; he said lapped traffic kept him from sticking it to PaHud.  However, something that needed to be brought up in that interview was the fact that Bickford spun out Dylan Lupton, his own teammate, on lap 89.  Bob Bruncati (car owner for both Bickford and Lupton) must have been cussing left and right when that happened, yet neither DeBeaux or Bickford referenced that fact.  What Bickford would have said is anyone's guess, but it needed to be broached.

Now, whether DeBeaux could have seen that incident at the time was debatable.  Unlike most tracks on the K&N Pro Series West schedule, All-American Speedway has pit facilities outside of the track and I'm unsure of whether DeBeaux has a monitor at her disposal during these races (the others with similar facilities to All-American Speedway are Stateline Speedway in Idaho and Colorado National Speedway).  However, DeBeaux was in the pits all night.  She could have seen Bruncati blowing his chimney stack during the race and asked him what was going on.  On top of an appearance in a celebrity late model race, one that lasted about 900 feet, it was not DeBeaux's best night at the races.

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer at Frontstretch.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Follow him on Twitter at @Critic84.

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Frontstretch Line of the Week


From Thinkin' Out Loud: GEICO 500 – Brad Keselowski Lives to Fight Another Day

"A lap at Talladega takes under a minute to complete. Therefore, a driver should be able to complete at least four laps during a session if they get on the track right away. Of course that would be too simple, so everyone has to try and line up and get other drivers to lead them around the track and allow them to get a good run and set a great time. By posturing and attempting to snooker opponents, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Justin Allgaier went home by not being able to post a time during qualifying." - Mike Neff, on the qualifying shenanigans Saturday afternoon at Talladega.
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:



by Justin Tucker

as told to Mike Neff

by Kevin Rutherford
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  Chuck Bown claimed his last victory in the Busch Grand National Series at Martinsville in 1993.  However, the method by which he earned the lead was a little controversial.  What happened?

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

Q:  In the 2004 Kroger 200 at Martinsville for the then-Craftsman Truck Series, Travis Kvapil was one of the primary contenders, leading 62 laps.  However, he ended up with a very disappointing finish.  What happened?

A:  Kvapil was leading the race with less than 30 laps to go when he crashed in turn 2 along with Jack Sprague.  Sprague was out on the spot, ending a rather contentious day for him.  Kvapil's truck was damaged and lost many laps on pit road getting repairs.  He would eventually finish seven laps down in 21st.  Jamie McMurray took advantage of the crash to slip by and take the win.

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
-- Frontstretch Folio: Martinsville by Brad Morgan
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, trivia, and more!

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Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:


Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
Amy gives her analysis on the move by Stewart-Haas Racing to give both Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch new crew chiefs.

Friday Faceoff by the Frontstretch Staff
Our new feature returns, a shorter, easier-flowing version of Mirror Driving with answers from a greater number of the staff you know and love.

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.

Nuts For Nationwide by Joseph Wolkin
Joseph returns to bring us up-to-date on NASCAR's second-tier series as they begin their two week break prior to the stretch run.

Creed's Corner by Aaron Creed
On a new day, Aaron returns to talk NASCAR at Martinsville.
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