THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Apr. 27, 2015
Volume IX, Edition LXII
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Apr. 27, 2015
Volume IX, Edition LXII
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What to Watch: Monday- Today, Goodyear is beginning a two-day tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of the Crown Royal 400 in late July. With the previous tire issues at the 2.5 mile rectangle, getting the right tire combination for durability and decent racing is crucial. Representatives from Hendrick Motorsports, Furniture Row Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports and BK Racing will be doing the on-track testing.
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Monday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here. Note that NBC Sports Network has officially nixed the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown from Monday's schedule. A change in the table has been made.
Kurt Busch Closes the Deal at Richmond, Wins First Race of 2015
Monday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here. Note that NBC Sports Network has officially nixed the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown from Monday's schedule. A change in the table has been made.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Kurt Busch Closes the Deal at Richmond, Wins First Race of 2015
On Sunday, Kurt Busch took the lead away from Joey Logano on lap 95 and never looked back. From there, he led all but 14 laps on his way to his first win of 2015. Busch more or less clinches a spot for himself in the 2015 Chase For The Sprint Cup. Read more
Denny Hamlin Obliterates XFINITY Field to Win Richmond
Denny Hamlin Obliterates XFINITY Field to Win Richmond
On Friday night, Denny Hamlin spanked the field, leading 248 of the 250 laps to win the XFINITY Series ToyotaCare 250. Joey Logano was second, followed by Regan Smith, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott. Read more
Massive Pit Road Fire Sends Crew Members to Hospital
Massive Pit Road Fire Sends Crew Members to Hospital
Just before the halfway point of Friday night's ToyotaCare 250, a massive fire was sparked while the No. 62 of Brendan Gaughan was being refueled. The fire burned two of Gaughan's pit crewmembers. A third crewmember from Eric McClure's team was hospitalized after somthering one of Gaughan's crewmembers, then getting a face full of spray from a fire extinguisher. Read more
David Ragan Ready to Move to Michael Waltrip Racing Soon
David Ragan Ready to Move to Michael Waltrip Racing Soon
For now, David Ragan is driving the No. 18 M&M's Toyota in place of the injured Kyle Busch. However, that could be changing soon. Michael Waltrip will drive the No. 55 this weekend at Talladega, then Ragan could step into the Aaron's Toyota as a long-term substitute as JGR looks to give Busch's seat to Erik Jones. Read more
Kenny Wallace to Sub for Brother Mike at Talladega for JGL Racing
Kenny Wallace to Sub for Brother Mike at Talladega for JGL Racing
On Friday, JGL Racing announced that Kenny Wallace will drive the team's No. 26 Toyota in this weekend's Winn-Dixie 300 at Talladega Superspeedway in place of his older brother Mike. Mike Wallace had triple bypass surgery last week after experiencing chest pains. 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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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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Chasing the Chase: Harvick Continues to Increase His Advantage
by Phil Allaway
Kevin Harvick is living a charmed life these days. Last week, he had some strife for the first time all season and still managed to increase his lead. Sunday was back to the norm. Yet another second-place allowed him to beat out Joey Logano and increase his lead slightly. His advantage is now 33 over Logano. Martin Truex, Jr. earned another top 10 finish to maintain the third spot in points. However, Truex did lose a few points to Logano.Jimmie Johnson had a miserable time in qualifying on Sunday, puting himself 36th on the grid. Once the green came out Sunday, Johnson went towards the front. Despite a long stop to patch the nose at one point, Johnson came up through the field to finish third and close up on Truex. Brad Keselowski is still in fifth, but engine problems hampered his effort. Late cautions dropped him from the top 5 to a 17th-place finish. Kasey Kahne quietly charged up from provisional land to finish sixth on Sunday and move up to sixth in points.
Kahne's advantage is just two points over Matt Kenseth, who had another solid run to finish seventh. Both Kahne and Kenseth jumped over Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the points. Earnhardt Jr. had an average day on the way to a 14th-place finish. Jamie McMurray enters the top 10 after a great run to third, gaining three positions in the standings. Jeff Gordon rounds out the top 10.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 357, 2) Joey Logano -33, 3) Martin Truex, Jr. -42, 4) Jimmie Johnson -58, 5) Brad Keselowski -74, 6) Kasey Kahne -82, 7) Matt Kenseth -84, 8) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -86, 9) Jamie McMurray -93, 10) Jeff Gordon -94, 11) Aric Almirola -107, 12) Denny Hamlin -112, 13) Paul Menard -118, 14) Clint Bowyer -122, 15) Ryan Newman -123, 16) Danica Patrick -127.
Race Winners: Joey Logano (Daytona), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta, Texas), Kevin Harvick (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Brad Keselowski (Fontana), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville), Matt Kenseth (Bristol), Kurt Busch (Richmond)
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Toyota Owners 400 was brought to you by the letter "B," for Butt whooping. Quite simply, Kurt Busch had the field covered for much of the day. Richmond races in recent years have been susceptible to runaways and Sunday was just one more example of one. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Toyota Owners 400
compiled by Phil Allaway
"It's an incredible feeling. It's a total team effort. And the way that everything came together just seemed like we were building and building and building towards a great finish like this. And I have this opportunity because of Gene Haas and everybody that's part of our family at Stewart-Haas. It's an unbelievable feeling when you pull deep from within and you go through troubles and you know, when you're accused of something and things go sideways, your personal life doesn't need to affect your business life. And I'm here in Victory Lane. It feels great to do it here in Richmond and to do with Haas Automation, Chevrolet, Monster Energy, Mobil 1, Rush Truck Centers and everybody that's part of our family, and all these guys back here. But Tony Gibson is just an amazing crew chief and I'm glad I've got the chance to work with him. Thanks to everybody, we got it done today." - Kurt Busch, race winner
"What we really needed was just all the tires to be the same. We put that one set of tires on and went back to 12th or 13th and wound up making up the spots, but it just got us way behind. The track bar broke and we weren't able to get the track bar back where we needed to, but all in all, I'm just really happy for everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Kurt (Busch) and everybody on the No. 41 team and everybody on our Jimmy John's/Budweiser team on our No. 4 car. They've done a great job and made up a lot of ground after we lost it and we were able to get back up and at least have a chance there at the end." - Kevin Harvick, finished second
"We had a great race car and I really felt like that was the case on Friday, except for our Qualifying lap. I don't know what happened on Friday and in general, I'm not the best qualifier. So Fridays, we've got to get those better in order to really win as often as we'd like to. We've got two wins and we're making the most out of these poor starts and poor pit road picks. We've got to get better on Fridays. I really think our race car, we worked hard to make it last in the long run and with all the long runs that we had, I was able to get through the field and get this Lowe's Pro Service Chevy up front. Those last few restarts I was able to hang on and duke it out with those guys and get a nice top three finish." - Jimmie Johnson, finished third
"Well, this Energizer Chevy was just good on the long runs. It wouldn't take off real quick, but after 30 laps it was about the same as the leaders. It was so much fun at the end to be that much quicker than those guys. It reminded me kind of like the old Darlington or old Rockingham, when somebody would take off and then there would be the guy who couldn't go, that would come at the end. So, it was a lot of fun to get to be the guy that had the speed at the end. Kurt's (Busch) car just took off so much faster than ours. I'm really proud of our guys. We had a little bit of a hiccup in the pits at the beginning, and those guys did a good job of brushing that off and giving me good pit stops toward the end. And so, I'm really proud of our crew. We've run so good this year and it feels really nice." - Jamie McMurray, finished fourth
"We were good on the short run and then after about 10 to 12 laps we started losing speed and losing the center really, losing the turn. Those guys would start driving away and then really late before a green flag pit stop everyone's tires would be burned off enough that I could start catching back up but I could never catch back up what we lost. Those late race restarts helped a lot and we were able to be aggressive and got a couple spots and came home for a top-five. Overall a top-five is nice. It looked like we were probably a seventh or eighth place car so we got a little more out of it and we will work on it for the fall." - Joey Logano, finished fifth
"I just go in there, close my eyes and hope for the best." - Logano, on his four-wide move on a restart.
"It was kind of tit for tat really. We were racing hard there with 20 to go and he comes from the outside and crosses over and he kind of dive bombed me last minute. It really kind of scared me, so I gave him the spot and then fast forward one lap, exactly the same move back and he turned back down and I was already there and I got into him a little bit. It is what it is." - Clint Bowyer, finished ninth, on what his post-race discussion with Martin Truex, Jr. was about
"We had a top five car all day long, just had a bad set of tires there on that deal where the field got all messed up. We had a left-front tire come apart and just got destroyed on that run and fell back to like 17th. Once you get down towards the end it gets harder and harder to pass. I'm proud of the guys we had a really good car all weekend long. A top five for sure and just a shame we couldn't close it out today." - Martin Truex, Jr., finished tenth
"I felt like we had a really solid day overall. I was a little disappointed though there at the end that I fell back and then couldn't get going at the restart. But overall, everybody on our Napa team did great this weekend. I thought we had a fast car, especially in race trim. The guys made good adjustments to qualify where we did. We had a great car on the long run. We could really run well and run some guys down late in the run. Unfortunately, it always comes down to the short runs in these things. So, we'll try to get better and hopefully try to have a better effort at Charlotte." - Chase Elliott, finished 16th
"I felt like we were pretty solid on Friday and obviously a lot has changed since Friday – track conditions and weather – but when they dropped the green flag we just weren't as good. I was a little suspect that we could have had a bad set of tires to get going, but it wasn't. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and our M&M's Crispy Toyota team, they threw a lot of stuff at it all day and we did make it better, but when you start that far off a 400-lap race goes by really fast and I felt like if we could have started where we ended we would have been a little better. At the end of the day, we just didn't start that good and we really worked hard at it. Yeah, disappointed at one of the 18's best tracks and one of my favorite tracks. That was a disappointing day to get. Hopefully, we learn from it and these guys can be a little better here in September." - David Ragan, finished 23rd
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager as well as a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com."It's an incredible feeling. It's a total team effort. And the way that everything came together just seemed like we were building and building and building towards a great finish like this. And I have this opportunity because of Gene Haas and everybody that's part of our family at Stewart-Haas. It's an unbelievable feeling when you pull deep from within and you go through troubles and you know, when you're accused of something and things go sideways, your personal life doesn't need to affect your business life. And I'm here in Victory Lane. It feels great to do it here in Richmond and to do with Haas Automation, Chevrolet, Monster Energy, Mobil 1, Rush Truck Centers and everybody that's part of our family, and all these guys back here. But Tony Gibson is just an amazing crew chief and I'm glad I've got the chance to work with him. Thanks to everybody, we got it done today." - Kurt Busch, race winner
"What we really needed was just all the tires to be the same. We put that one set of tires on and went back to 12th or 13th and wound up making up the spots, but it just got us way behind. The track bar broke and we weren't able to get the track bar back where we needed to, but all in all, I'm just really happy for everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Kurt (Busch) and everybody on the No. 41 team and everybody on our Jimmy John's/Budweiser team on our No. 4 car. They've done a great job and made up a lot of ground after we lost it and we were able to get back up and at least have a chance there at the end." - Kevin Harvick, finished second
"We had a great race car and I really felt like that was the case on Friday, except for our Qualifying lap. I don't know what happened on Friday and in general, I'm not the best qualifier. So Fridays, we've got to get those better in order to really win as often as we'd like to. We've got two wins and we're making the most out of these poor starts and poor pit road picks. We've got to get better on Fridays. I really think our race car, we worked hard to make it last in the long run and with all the long runs that we had, I was able to get through the field and get this Lowe's Pro Service Chevy up front. Those last few restarts I was able to hang on and duke it out with those guys and get a nice top three finish." - Jimmie Johnson, finished third
"Well, this Energizer Chevy was just good on the long runs. It wouldn't take off real quick, but after 30 laps it was about the same as the leaders. It was so much fun at the end to be that much quicker than those guys. It reminded me kind of like the old Darlington or old Rockingham, when somebody would take off and then there would be the guy who couldn't go, that would come at the end. So, it was a lot of fun to get to be the guy that had the speed at the end. Kurt's (Busch) car just took off so much faster than ours. I'm really proud of our guys. We had a little bit of a hiccup in the pits at the beginning, and those guys did a good job of brushing that off and giving me good pit stops toward the end. And so, I'm really proud of our crew. We've run so good this year and it feels really nice." - Jamie McMurray, finished fourth
"We were good on the short run and then after about 10 to 12 laps we started losing speed and losing the center really, losing the turn. Those guys would start driving away and then really late before a green flag pit stop everyone's tires would be burned off enough that I could start catching back up but I could never catch back up what we lost. Those late race restarts helped a lot and we were able to be aggressive and got a couple spots and came home for a top-five. Overall a top-five is nice. It looked like we were probably a seventh or eighth place car so we got a little more out of it and we will work on it for the fall." - Joey Logano, finished fifth
"I just go in there, close my eyes and hope for the best." - Logano, on his four-wide move on a restart.
"It was kind of tit for tat really. We were racing hard there with 20 to go and he comes from the outside and crosses over and he kind of dive bombed me last minute. It really kind of scared me, so I gave him the spot and then fast forward one lap, exactly the same move back and he turned back down and I was already there and I got into him a little bit. It is what it is." - Clint Bowyer, finished ninth, on what his post-race discussion with Martin Truex, Jr. was about
"We had a top five car all day long, just had a bad set of tires there on that deal where the field got all messed up. We had a left-front tire come apart and just got destroyed on that run and fell back to like 17th. Once you get down towards the end it gets harder and harder to pass. I'm proud of the guys we had a really good car all weekend long. A top five for sure and just a shame we couldn't close it out today." - Martin Truex, Jr., finished tenth
"I felt like we had a really solid day overall. I was a little disappointed though there at the end that I fell back and then couldn't get going at the restart. But overall, everybody on our Napa team did great this weekend. I thought we had a fast car, especially in race trim. The guys made good adjustments to qualify where we did. We had a great car on the long run. We could really run well and run some guys down late in the run. Unfortunately, it always comes down to the short runs in these things. So, we'll try to get better and hopefully try to have a better effort at Charlotte." - Chase Elliott, finished 16th
"I felt like we were pretty solid on Friday and obviously a lot has changed since Friday – track conditions and weather – but when they dropped the green flag we just weren't as good. I was a little suspect that we could have had a bad set of tires to get going, but it wasn't. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and our M&M's Crispy Toyota team, they threw a lot of stuff at it all day and we did make it better, but when you start that far off a 400-lap race goes by really fast and I felt like if we could have started where we ended we would have been a little better. At the end of the day, we just didn't start that good and we really worked hard at it. Yeah, disappointed at one of the 18's best tracks and one of my favorite tracks. That was a disappointing day to get. Hopefully, we learn from it and these guys can be a little better here in September." - David Ragan, finished 23rd
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Amy Henderson
by Summer Bedgood
by Jerry Jordan
by Matt Weaver
Honda Cuts the Gap to Chevrolet in Alabama
Honda Cuts the Gap to Chevrolet in Alabama
by Matt Weaver
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: When the foot stays on the floor repreatedly like it does at Talladega, strange things can happen. The 1999 DieHard 500 saw Mike Skinner eliminated from contention in a very unusual fashion. What happened?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Friday's Answer:
Q: The 2003 Spring race weekend at Richmond was a rough and tumble affair marked by pole winner Jerry Nadeau suffering career-ending injuries in a practice crash and rain. Early on, Ryan Newman was one of the potential contenders, but he was eliminated from a chance to win at the two-thirds' mark. What happened?
A: Newman's night was already miserable before this point, but he was still running reasonably well. Shortly after a restart, Newman was hit from behind by Ward Burton entering turn 1. That put Newman up the hill and caused a small scramble. In that scramble, Kevin Harvick ran in the back of then-teammate Jeff Green, spinning the No. 30 into the wall. Rusty Wallace ran in the back of Jason Keller (driving the No. 01 in place of Nadeau), spinning Keller into the wall and crowding Newman so that he had nowhere to go but directly into Green. The crash can be seen here.
COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have breaking news from Monday and S.D. Grady's Sitting In The Stands: A Fan's View commentary.
On Frontstretch.com:
Danny Peters gives us Five Points To Ponder after an action packed weekend of racing in Richmond. We'll also take a look at FOX Sports' broadcasts from Richmond in Couch Potato Tuesday.-----------------------------
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