THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Feb. 26, 2015
Volume IX, Edition XX
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What to Watch: Thursday
- Today, there is an open test scheduled to be held at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Sprint Cup teams. That is, if the weather cooperates. There is wintry weather in the Atlanta metro and as recently as Wednesday morning, the track was under a Winter Storm Warning until 10 a.m. today. That warning has since been rescinded. However, there could be ice at the track, which could delay the test session.
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Thursday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Kyle Busch Has Foot Surgery
Joe Gibbs Racing announced on Wednesday that Kyle Busch had surgery to repair his broken left foot from Saturday's crash in the XFINITY Series Alert Today Florida 300. Read more
Joe Nemechek Replacing David Ragan at Atlanta
After an agreement was reached on Tuesday for regular driver David Ragan to sub for Kyle Busch, Front Row Motorsports needed a sub for their No. 34. On Wednesday, they announced that Joe Nemechek will drive the No. 34 Ford this weekend in Atlanta. Plans are still unclear for the team beyond Atlanta.
Read more
NASCAR Penalizes Two Truck Teams, Warns No. 10 Cup Team for Daytona Violations
On Wednesday, NASCAR announced penalties against the No. 20 for NTS Motorsports and the No. 29 of Brad Keselowski Racing in the Camping World Truck Series following post-race inspection Friday. In addition, Stewart-Haas Racing's No. 10 team was warned for a heat shield issue. Read more
Thee Dixon, First Modern Era African American NASCAR Team Owner, Passes at 76
Former Cup Series car owner Thee Dixon passed away on Friday at the age of 76. Dixon was the owner of Mansion Motorsports, a team that competed in the Cup Series off and on between 1990 and 2002 with drivers such as Mike Skinner, Ken Bouchard, Jim Sauter and Carl Long. Read more
NASCAR, XFINITY to Continue Dash 4 Cash Program
On Wednesday, NASCAR announced that one of the standout programs for regular drivers in the Nationwide Series will continue under the XFINITY banner in 2015. The redubbed XFINITY Dash 4 Cash will once again feature a race-in event (Charlotte in May), and four races where the top finishing eligible driver will win a bonus. Read more
Have news for The Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.
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FRONTSTRETCH JOB: WEBMASTER
Frontstretch.com is looking for a talented and motivated individual to fulfill the role of the site's webmaster. The ideal candidate must be highly proficient in WordPress, as the site recently converted from Textpattern to WordPress as the content management system. The webmaster will assist with leftover conversion tasks, work with the management team to implement site enhancements and help troubleshoot problems as they arise. The candidate must also have a working knowledge of search engine optimization strategies to help improve search rankings for the site. Motorsports knowledge is preferred but not required. The candidate should have on average at least 1-2 hours per week to devote to Fronstretch initiatives. If you are interested, please contact our Business Manager, Tony Lumbis at
Tony.Lumbis@gmail.com.
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Today's Featured Commentary
Lingering Thoughts from Speedweeks
Potts' Shots
by John Potts
OK, before we start ranting, we'd like to congratulate Penske Racing and Joe Logano for their Daytona 500 victory. Great job by a driver that Mark Martin said "can't miss" years ago.
However, I refuse to call him the greatest thing since sliced bread. I pointed out a few years back in a column and also in my book that we were applying that nickname to Mario Andretti back in the mid 1960s. Nuff said.
Now to get on the soap box. Any questions about my subject for ranting this week?
Yes, it's the Kurt Busch situation.
NASCAR has apparently decided to adopt a policy that you are guilty until you are proven innocent, contrary to the basis of law in this country.
I'm not particularly a Kurt Busch fan, although my estimation of him rose considerably when he ran the Indianapolis 500 and performed well last year. On the other hand, I've always felt that anybody with the intestinal fortitude to strap himself or herself into a race car is a cut above the average person, and I don't like seeing someone of that caliber having their rear end on the receiving end of a helical ridge wrapped around a conical cylinder.
First, the statement from NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell…
"NASCAR has made it very clear to our entire membership and the broader industry that any actions of abuse will not be tolerated in the industry. I want to make it clear that any inference that there is a culture of tolerance for this type of behavior is patently false."
Thank you Mr. O'Donnell.
For my part, and it seems a LOT of people in the racing industry, it seems rather strange that this action has been taken against Kurt Busch before he has even been tried in a court of law. All that has happened is that a judge in Delaware has issued an opinion that Mr. Busch abused his bat-crazy (my opinion) ex-girlfriend.
This is similar to the Tony Stewart situation from last year, when some of our compatriots in the press wanted Smoke drawn and quartered before the grand jury had even been given the case.
I'm sort of disappointed that Tony, of whom I am a pretty big fan, didn't come out in support of Kurt on this deal, but I understand. As Larry McReynolds said, this is a sponsor-driven sport. I think the fact that Chevrolet immediately discontinued its relations with Kurt has something to do with it. Chevrolet may even have acted first, which caused NASCAR's reaction. It was at Chevrolet's urging that Tony bought into the Haas team, and I suspect they still depend a lot on their support.
My question for Mr. O'Donnell and the rest of NASCAR is - why did you decide to make it so clear that this will not be tolerated at this time? And as for his contention that he wants to "…make it clear that any inference that there is a culture of tolerance," where was any NASCAR official wanting to "make it clear" back in October of 2013?
For those who don't recognize that month and year, it was when Travis Kvapil was arrested for domestic abuse in North Carolina. He was accused of pulling his wife by her hair into the bedroom and striking her in the head. Alcohol was not a factor, according to police reports.
On March 31, 2014, Kvapil pleaded GUILTY in a North Carolina courtroom.
According to court records, he pleaded guilty to the charges as part of an agreement which will dismiss the case after he completes two years of probation, at least one year of which was to be supervised, and 72 hours of community service. He had to pay $460 in fees and court costs and attend an anger management class (sound familiar, Smoke?) The probation stipulated that he could travel out of state for work purposes as long as he gave notice to his probation officer.
Whether those two years extended from the date of the arrest or the date of the court ruling, it means that Mr. Kvapil is still on probation for a crime he admitted committing.
WHERE WAS NASCAR'S IMMEDIATE REACTION TO THIS CASE?
They obviously missed it or decided to overlook it for some reason or another, because Travis Kvapil competed in 21 Sprint Cup Series races during the 2014 season, as well as three Camping World Truck Series events.
Personally, I consider this an example of selective enforcement. NASCAR, in their infinite wisdom, will decide who will be penalized, how much, and for which infraction.
There's also little hope that Kurt Busch will move over to IndyCar, as they are carefully monitoring the situation and have the same attitude about spousal abuse.
I also have a serious attitude about spousal abuse, but I believe a man deserves his day in court.
Lastly, very sorry to learn of the serious injuries to Kurt's younger brother Kyle, in that accident near the end of Saturday's race.
Yes, there should have been a SAFER barrier there. International Speedway Corporation obviously didn't consider it a risk area, but with all that grass leading up to it, there's no doubt it is. A car doing upwards of 160 miles an hour doesn't accelerate when it hits a grassy area, as some folks believe, but it doesn't decelerate either.
To their credit, they did announce the same day that a tire barrier would immediately be put in place, and they would start work on a SAFER barrier the day after the Daytona 500.
The Critic's Annex: Media Members Getting Traded like Basketball Players
by Phil Allaway
Editor's Note: The original plan for today's edition of the Critic's Annex was to write about the K&N Pro Series East opener from New Smyrna Speedway. However, an interesting scenario popped up on Wednesday that resulted in a change to the grandmaster plan.
Last Thursday was the NBA Trade Deadline. What followed were a flurry of deals resulting in roughly ten percent of the players in the league switching teams. However, what if that scenario played out in motorsports television?
On Wednesday, The Big Lead reported that last year, ESPN attempted to acquire the services of Katie Nolan from FOX Sports via a trade so that Nolan could write for the Bill Simmons-led Grantland. In the original plan, FOX Sports would have received the services of soccer play-by-play commentator Ian Darke in return. Remember, FOX has the TV rights to the next three FIFA World Cups for the United States. They're going to need on-air talent. Was this particular deal discussed? I don't know. However, Simmons recently had Nolan as a guest on his B.S. Report and stated that he wanted Nolan for Grantland. (Note: The clip may contain profanity. Viewer discretion is advised)
Now, what would ESPN trying to acquire someone who very briefly worked with our fearless leader on FOX Sports 1's now-cancelled Crowd Goes Wild have to do with NASCAR coverage? Here's the kicker. Apparently, at some point during the negotiations, FOX Sports tried to bring Marty Smith into the deal as well. ESPN reportedly balked and called the deal off due to the move.
A number of thoughts come to mind here. ESPN pulling out of such a deal that would have undoubtedly benefited Grantland shows just how much of an asset that they believe Smith is to the network. I would agree with that notion. The past couple of years have shown that he's a skilled interviewer with significant versatility. In NASCAR, Smith is considered to be one of the most highly respected writers in the sport. Heck, even Brian France becomes cheerful and loquacious in Smith's presence (Seriously, France was joking around with Smith the day of the State of the Sport address). ESPN didn't want to lose him. Perhaps that's why they expanded his duties to include college football and even the NBA in addition to NASCAR. Also, as I've stated previously, ESPN has what amounts to a murderer's row of NASCAR reporting talent in Smith, Ryan McGee and Bob Pockrass. As far as mainstream sports media goes, they have three of the best five or six writers in the sport at the moment. While they're not all-in anymore, they're still a force.
Secondly, it presents an interesting notion. If FOX Sports were able to get Smith in the deal, what would his role have been? Would he only be a writer for FOXSports.com? Would he have a role similar to what he had at ESPN last year? Would it be like his current role with ESPN as something of a jack of all trades? Or, could they have been looking to have Smith as a permanent on-air personality for NASCAR RaceHub and the race telecasts, potentially to replace someone like Jeff Hammond? Remember, FOX Sports acquiring Smith would have constituted a return of sorts since Smith made appearances from time to time on SPEED back when they had NASCAR Nation (at the time, Smith was primarily writing for NASCAR.com) back around 2006.
Thirdly, trades in sports media are fairly rare, but they do happen. The only one that affected NASCAR that I can recall was in 2000 when ESPN acquired re-air rights to the Final Round of the 2000 U.S. Open from Pebble Beach. You might remember that major as the time that Tiger Woods annihilated the field by 15 strokes, something that may never be seen again on such a big stage. As part of that deal with NBC that gave ESPN the re-air rights, Benny Parsons was allowed to be an analyst in the broadcast booth for the one Cup race that NBC had that year (the Pennzoil 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway) with Allen Bestwick in preparation for NBC (along with TNT) taking over the second half of the next season. 2000 was way before I ever starting critiquing, but the 1999 NBC broadcasts from Homestead were rather miserable. Bestwick was working with Joe Gibbs and Mike Wallace in the booth and my guess is that NBC wanted a little more experience in the analyst position.
The most famous sports media trade came in 2006 when NBC acquired the services of Al Michaels to do play-by-play for the then-new Sunday Night Football package. ABC received better access to Olympic highlights that NBC controlled, cable rights for Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups and the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the first cartoon character created by Walt Disney before he formed his own company. However, in his autobiography, You Can't Make This Up - Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television, Michaels describes that "trade" as essentially him breaking his contract with ESPN and The Walt Disney Company (parent company of ESPN) getting compensation. Getting Oswald in the deal was something that the Disney family had wanted for years and including the cartoon character in the deal gave something for the press to latch onto and take the heat off of Michaels.
Ultimately, all parties involved are doing just fine. Smith's role has expanded with ESPN while Darke continues to work soccer games. As for Nolan, since the cancellation of Crowd Goes Wild, she's become a rising star at FOX Sports, hosting a online show on FOXSports.com called No Filter with Katie Nolan. For lack of better words, it's a low budget show in which Nolan talks about various topics, serious or not. Nolan infamously took the NFL to task for their handling of the Ray Rice case on the shoq, gaining a fair amount of attention for doing so. FOX Sports thinks highly enough of Nolan that they are creating a new TV show for her called Garbage Time With Katie Nolan. Garbage Time With Katie Nolan is scheduled to premiere on March 15 on FOX Sports 1 at 9:30 p.m. and continue on Sunday nights. A press release indicates that the show will be a natural progression of No Filter With Katie Nolan, but with guest commentators and occasion celebrity guests. Awful Announcing thinks that it could be a sports version of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. If so, it's been done before, but it should be somewhat interesting. It's worth a watch. We'll see if NASCAR gets much coverage there, but it might be doubtful. If NASCAR (or other forms of racing) gets a fair amount of coverage on the show, then an Annex critique could be coming somewhere down the line. I'll still watch anyway to gather my thoughts..
Here in NASCAR, we've had a number of on-air personalities switch networks over the past six months. However, none of those moves came as a result of trades. They were all due to contract expiration and new opportunities being presented. FOX, which had the steadiest on-air lineup in NASCAR, has half a dozen new faces this season, two of which came over from ESPN after their time airing races ended. NBC will have a number of familiar faces when they start airing Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series races in July (Rick Allen, Krista Voda, Mike Massaro, Dave Burns, etc.), along with a couple of new faces.
Trades are a little difficult in NASCAR since the philosophies of NASCAR's two TV partners are so different. It's still too early to tell what NBC's return will feel like, but recent years have looked like a Lakers-Celtics setup. FOX is the flashy bunch, like the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980's. ESPN was more like the Boston Celtics of that era. Just like with the NBA of that 1980's, fans have their preferences. I couldn't perceive of one of NASCAR's TV partners trying to acquire NASCAR TV talent from the other unless that other partner were leaving. If it did happen, it could get bizarre pretty fast and dilute the loyalty that many fans have towards certain broadcasts.
Guess what. We've got a bonus critique this week. I will still cover the K&N East opener in tomorrow's edition of the Frontstretch Newsletter. Next week, I will cover I Am Dale Earnhardt, a new special that will air on SPIKE Monday night at 10 p.m. According to SPIKE, the show will "...dig deep beyond the legend to reveal the complex figure at the core of 'The Intimidator.'" Sounds like a compare and contrast with CMT Films' Dale to me. Until then, enjoy this weekend's action in Atlanta.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer at Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Beyond the Cockpit: Alex Bowman, New Teams and New Tricks
"I have a dog named Roscoe. He's an idiot. He is kind of funky. I got a phone call today that he farted and literally blew a bubble out of his butt. I guess that is kind of funky right? I feel like he's probably not supposed to do that (laughs)." -
Alex Bowman, on his dog Roscoe~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by P. Huston Ladner
by Toni Montgomery
by Mike Neff
by Beth Lunkenheimer
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: Aside from his third-place finish in the Daytona 500, Ricky Craven had a very rough first half of 1997 that culminated in his injuries in Texas that eventually derailed his career. Atlanta was no different as Craven was eliminated early. What happened?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: When Neil Bonnett replaced Dale Earnhardt for the snow-delayed Slick 50 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1993, it was his first time in a Busch Grand National (now XFINITY Series) race since 1988. Despite the five-year break, he ran very well while racing up from the rear. Unfortunately, the race did not end well. What happened?
A: Bonnett was running a very competitive third in the Goodwrench when his car suddenly swapped ends and spun in turn 4. Bonnett then hit the wall drivers' side first before sliding onto the apron and coming to rest at the entrance to pit road. The crash can be seen here.
With Bonnett's history of head injuries, there was every reason to be concerned about a near flush hit on the drivers' side. However, he walked away uninjured from his stricken Lumina.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have a recap of the open test at Atlanta Motor Speedway, as well as a look at NBC Sports Network's K&N Pro Series debut (delayed from today).
On Frontstretch.com:
We'll have some discussion questions to cover ahead of this weekend's QuikTrip Folds of Honor 500.
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