Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Apr. 7, 2015
Volume IX, Edition XLVIII
What to Watch: Tuesday
Tuesday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
by Aaron Bearden
Brennan Poole, DC Solar Score Additional Races for HScott Motorsports
Brandon Gdovic to Make XFINITY Debut with Viva Motorsports
Team Chevrolet Penalized by IndyCar for Engine Infractions
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FRONTSTRETCH JOB: WEBMASTER
Frontstretch 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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Sitting in the Stands: A Fan's View
by S.D. Grady
It's six races into the Sprint Cup Series season. Five teams have locked themselves into the great lottery known as The Chase. There are 20 competitions left for us to determine which 11 other drivers might join the winners in the most lucrative part of the year. Right now, we're missing a long list of top guns from the almighty Chase list; most notably no Roush, Richard Childress Racing or Michael Waltrip Racing team has managed to snare a trophy. What will the stables like RCR be willing to do in order to slip their guy into The Great Race? What is NASCAR going to do to keep them out?
As far back as last November, in the midst of the Chase, teams were feeding the sanctioning body plenty of things that ought to be watched, including bending out sheet metal around the exhaust pipes and playing with tire pressure. NASCAR was convinced their laser-sighted inspection machines would take care of the rest. However, it didn't matter if the teams were tipping off the police, because given an opportunity to reap a massive reward, everybody who filled out entry forms has been willing to lay it all on the line in order to gain that extra 1/100th of an advantage in the pursuit of playoff media exposure.
While the No. 31 team scrambles to build a credible defense for Luke Lambert, the rest of the garage is slowly crossing the next boundary-pushing idea off the white board. The cat and mouse game with NASCAR is on.
- Don't punch pins through your tires.
- Don't bump the car when it sits in the inspection bay.
- Don't drop weights on the track during a race.
- Don't adjust the profile of your car between inspection and competition.
Damn! What else is left to do? Is it possible to wire an additional adjustment to the traction bar knob in the cockpit? How about an auto-dispensing fluid tank that can be opened up when you're being hunted down by the No. 4? What about some kind of explosive tape marking off your pit that can pop your neighbor's tire when they run over it? We've seen jet fuel before…
It's not like there's anybody to blame for the non-stop tweaking of the rules cage. When you have a rule book and the requirement to win or be left behind, there's not a whole lot that a highly competitive group of racers isn't willing to do. Install a chip the size of a fingernail into the fuel injection system — that could be useful.
The sport is supposed to be a hallmark of rewarding the fastest car, and nothing more. However, that definition was created in an idealistic setting by a few guys sitting on barstools. It lacked the requirement of a $20 million budget and the kind of propaganda machine only developed in small countries. Too much lay on the line for even the little guys to just follow the checklist and hope Lady Luck will smile down on you come Sunday afternoon. Complicating the rule book seemed to be the only way to halt the dominion of the chosen few.
Yet, in an intriguing backlash and balancing of justice's scales, the winner-take-all scenario for our playoff system simplified the whole thing.
You can put all the rules you want in that giant book. It doesn't matter. If a team wants to see their car and driver in Victory Lane, they will have to throw in all their chips — even the fake ones — into the pot. You can call it cheating the system. The fact is, playing against the fence is the only way they are going to get to the top of the pig pile, all the while hoping that the ump didn't notice the hole in the chain link.
It's been said that perhaps RCR went too far when they "fixed" Ryan Newman's tires in Fontana. However, without a trophy and now the possibility of a crew chief for six races, it easily argues that they didn't go far enough.
If you think that NASCAR just brought the hammer down and we'll see all the teams get in line over the next month or so, you're thinking wrong. Instead, be prepared to be stymied by the engineering genius solutions that teams will have to bring to the track in an effort to Stump the Inspector over the summer.
Breaking the Rules was never what NASCAR intended when they laid it all on the line, but that's what they got.
Sonya's Scrapbook
The Fight at Texas between Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton
OK, it wasn't really a fight. There was some heated flailing between the pair. The initial wreck looked downright awful, as Burton's No. 31 drilled Gordon's No. 24 straight into the wall with apparent intent. But what made this fight a video snapshot of NASCAR for years was the incredulity the NASCAR audience felt through the entire episode. There was no way Jeff Burton would intentionally wreck anybody, let alone Jeff Gordon. There was no way Jeff Gordon was gonna throw down, and yet he did.
After a 62-race winless drought, this 2010 moment reminded NASCAR Nation that Jeff Gordon had not given up, not yet, not for a long time to come. Enjoy!
S.D. Grady is a Senior Editor for Frontstretch and runs a NASCAR blog called the S-Curves. She can be reached via email at sonya.grady@frontstretch.com. Follow her on Twitter at @laregna and on her Facebook page (she's an author, too!) at https://www.facebook.com/Author.SDGrady.
~~~~~~~~~~TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Monday's Answer:
Q: When Texas Motor Speedway was brand new, the beginning of races had the reputation of being car breakers. The inaugural Coca-Cola 300 for the Busch Grand National Series was no exception as Jeff McClure's day essentially ended before reaching the start/finish line. What happened?
A: It appeared that Ron Barfield, Jr. (driving for Bill Elliott) failed to come up to speed and pulled to the inside. That precipitated a scramble at the back of the field. McClure, who was starting 42nd (last) stayed to the outside but got hit by Doug Reid III, who started 41st. The contact put McClure into the wall just after the first kink in the quad-oval before the start/finish line. A replay of the incident can be seen here.~~~~~~~~~~
COMING TOMORROW
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