THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
May 14, 2015
Volume IX, Edition LXXV
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What to Watch: Thursday
- Today is the beginning of All-Star race weekend. Camping World Truck Series teams will hold their practice sessions today from 3 - 6 p.m. and 7 - 9 p.m. ET. These will both be televised live on FOX Sports 1. In addition, Indianapolis 500 practice continues this afternoon. That action will be streamed live at indycar.com.
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Thursday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Kyle Busch Granted Chase Waiver
by the Frontstretch Staff
Kyle Busch Granted Chase Waiver
NASCAR announced Wednesday that Kyle Busch has been given a waiver to potentially qualify for the 2015 Chase For The Sprint Cup. To do so, he'll have to win a race and finish inside the top 30 in points. To get a top-30 position in points, Busch will likely have to average finishing around 15th to do it. Read more
Brett Moffitt to Drive No. 34 for Rest of 2015
Brett Moffitt to Drive No. 34 for Rest of 2015
On Wednesday, Front Row Motorsports announced that Brett Moffitt will serve as the team's primary driver of the No. 34 Ford for the rest of the 2015 season. Moffitt more or less officially replaces David Ragan, who will drive the No. 55 Toyota in place of Brian Vickers for the rest of the season. Read more
Kyle Larson Reuniting with ParkerStore in XFINITY Series
Kyle Larson Reuniting with ParkerStore in XFINITY Series
On Wednesday, HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi announced the signing of Parker Hannafin Corporation via ParkerStore to serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 42 Chevrolet in the XFINITY Series for two races. In addition, ParkerStore will be on the car as an associate sponsor for the rest of the season. Read more
Jennifer Jo Cobb Gains Wreaths Across America Partnership, POW-MIA Banner for Truck
Jennifer Jo Cobb Gains Wreaths Across America Partnership, POW-MIA Banner for Truck
On Wednesday, Jennifer Jo Cobb announced a partnership between her team and Wreaths Across America. As a result of the deal, Cobb's No. 10 Chevrolet will carry POW-MIA banners for six races starting this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 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 its 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 its 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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John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com.
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Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
The Critic's Annex: Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis
by Phil Allaway
The sheer idea of this race existing is controversial in the eyes of many fans of open wheel racing. It was essentially suggested by The Boston Group, who did a study of the series and made a series of suggestions that INDYCAR almost universally adopted, including the condensed season that almost no one likes.
Regardless of how it came about, Saturday saw the Verizon IndyCar Series take to the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 82 laps of action. Or, 82 laps of anti-climax since Will Power administered a butt kicking on the field.
Pre-race coverage was relatively short. Viewers got a couple of intervew I'm unsure if INDYCAR pushed up the start of the race due to potential rain or not. ESPN did make mention of said potential for rain (including showing the radar for the region that had rain showers moving northward), but nothing about the race start being moved up.
It's like INDYCAR took one pace lap before throwing the green. Viewers came back from a commercial and you see everyone hustling on the pace lap to catch up, then the green flies. Something isn't really right there. If INDYCAR decided to rush the green, ESPN was bound to notify viewers that they had done so. If they didn't, then that's not good.
Overall, Saturday's race wasn't the most competitive event ever. Heck, last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis was quite a bit better. Since the front had effectively no action, ESPN went further down in the pack to find some action. That led to good coverage of battles such as Tony Kanaan's fight with Stefano Coletti. Those were legitimately good battles, as the booth stated. While the new aero kits for 2015 have led to a substantial increase in the amount of debris on-track, there was no debris shed in that battle.
The start crash was a little contentious. Replays showed that Helio Castroneves ran in the back of Scott Dixon, spinning the former champion out at the first turn. INDYCAR chose not to penalize Castroneves during the race for the incident, stating (without words) that Castroneves having to pit for repairs was penalty enough. However, INDYCAR penalized Castroneves eight points on Wednesday for what the stewards deemed "avoidable contact."
I don't get that. They couldn't have looked at the replays on Saturday and penalized Castroneves with a stop and hold after the green came back out? The booth claimed that it was pretty obvious that Castroneves hit him right in the tuchis. He could have avoided that. It was cut and dry and the officials blew it. Derrick Walker's quote in the press release that INDYCAR sent to announce the penalty seems to indicate that they believed that it was a racing incident at the time.
While ESPN showed some racing down in the pack on Saturday, they didn't really cover the field all that well. They did an Up to Speed segment that noted that J.R. Hildebrand was running sixth at the time. The report seemed to indicate that he'd gotten there on merit. However, ten laps later, Hildebrand was a lap down. I have no clue how that happened.
Outside of the top-3, it was difficult to follow what was going on. Watching the race, I didn't even realize that Charlie Kimball had climbed up to fifth. Had to be the quietest top-5 of his career. If you weren't in a Penske car or Graham Rahal, you were borderline invisible. I really hope that ESPN is more inclusive when it comes to the Indianapolis 500.
Since the race ended relatively quickly, ESPN provided viewers with a decent amount of post-race coverage. Viewers saw interviews and analysis of the race, in addition to the point standings before ESPN left the air.
I guess Saturday's race was relatively boring for ESPN to cover. They spent much of the race trying to make it seem like that there was an actual battle for the lead between Power and Graham Rahal. In reality, Rahal only led during rounds of pit stops and never got within 1.5 seconds of Power on equal footing. ESPN should have spread their focus around more on the telecast so that viewers could have gotten a more complete story of what was going on out there.
I hope you enjoyed this look at ESPN's broadcast of the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Next week, I'll be back with more action. Until then, enjoy this weekend's racing in Charlotte and Iowa.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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"It was the relationship with the Clark family. TJ always helped us out, and one day – I just started winning without any real training or experience. TJ sat me down one day and said I should consider doing it seriously. That was sort of the genesis of the whole thing." - Spencer Gallagher, on the role that former Truck Series regular T.J. Clark has played in his career
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
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COMING TOMORROW
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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!
©2015 Frontstretch.com
Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Beyond the Cockpit: Spencer Gallagher on Learning, Growing & Excelling"It was the relationship with the Clark family. TJ always helped us out, and one day – I just started winning without any real training or experience. TJ sat me down one day and said I should consider doing it seriously. That was sort of the genesis of the whole thing." - Spencer Gallagher, on the role that former Truck Series regular T.J. Clark has played in his career
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Beth Lunkenheimer
by P. Huston Ladner
by Toni Montgomery
by Joseph Wolkin
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: During TNN's coverage of the 1997 Winston Open, Eli Gold noted that there were actually 32 cars entered for the Winston Open, but that Joe Ruttman had withdrawn. What would Ruttman have been driving had he raced?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: In 1997, Jeff Gordon won The Winston with the controversial "T-Rex." However, he had to charge up from the rear to do it. Why?
A: In 1997, qualifying for The Winston was very similar to what we have today. Qualifying was the combined total of three laps with a pit stop thrown in there as well. Gordon blasted onto pit road and completely blew through his pit stall. Once that happened, Gordon pulled off and officially didn't take a time.
COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have a recap of Thursday's breaking news for you.
On Frontstretch.com:
We'll have some burning questions to consider heading into Kansas.-----------------------------
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!
©2015 Frontstretch.com
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