THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Jul. 2, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CX
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What to Watch: Thursday
- With the different schedule for Daytona this year, today will only see the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series team park their haulers today. For any news that breaks, check out Frontstretch.com.
- Also, our own Tom Bowles is subbing today for Chocolate Myers on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's Tradin' Paint with Jim Noble. You can listen starting at 11 a.m.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Truck Series Qualifying Procedure Tweaked to End Drafting Issues
by the Frontstretch Staff
Truck Series Qualifying Procedure Tweaked to End Drafting Issues
On Wednesday, NASCAR announced a new procedure for qualifying on intermediate tracks in the Camping World Truck Series. In order to prevent the current situation, where drafting determines where you start, a system similar to the restrictor plate format will be used from now on. Read more
Daytona Rising Climbs to New Heights With Chevrolet Partnership
Daytona Rising Climbs to New Heights With Chevrolet Partnership
On Wednesday, Daytona International Speedway announced that General Motors, via the Chevrolet brand, has become a partner of the ongoing Daytona Rising project. 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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Editors' Note: Potts' Shots will return next week.
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The Critic's Annex: Herr's Chase the Taste 200
by Phil Allaway
Hello again. Welcome back to another edition of the Critic's Annex. This week, we're going back to the ARCA till (no pun intended). While the Sprint Cup Series was in action out in Sonoma, the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards made a stop at one of their traditional Midwestern venues, the 101-year old Winchester Speedway, for a 200-lapper. This is the only race in the current stretch of events that FOX Sports isn't televising.
CBS Sports Network got the call and Rick Benjamin was back in the play-by-play chair. To me, Benjamin has always been a rather dependable person in the booth. You know what you're going to get with him. Joining Benjamin was Jim Tretow, who usually shows up on ARCA telecasts in the pits and Spencer Gallagher, who brought his own experience onto the telecast.
In the pits this week was Charles Krall, a person that I'm familiar with from the internet. Back in the pre-YouTube days, Krall would post old-school ARCA clips from short tracks like Flat Rock Speedway. Today, he's a common presence on Twitter and very knowledgeable. While Krall was working the pits by himself, we still got a lot of good information from him.
Benjamin's ARCA productions (remember, he owns Carolinas Broadcast Group, the company that produces the ARCA telecasts for CBS Sports Network) tend to be frugal affairs, but based fully around the racing. It's the kind of broadcast that a diehard fan can appreciate. If the race that they're covering is any good, they'll typically do a good job with it. Sunday's race was pretty dang good and viewers got to see lots of good racing for position.
Benjamin is not the most expressive person in the play-by-play role, but he knows what he's doing and brings his A-game when the action gets good. Tretow is decent as well. I wanted to focus a little on Gallagher since I had never seen him in the booth previously. In the rarity that you see get camera time in Camping World Truck Series races, he's an incredibly happy-go-lucky guy. He'd be a great interview that I'd personally like to do in the future.
Here, Gallagher is a little subdued because it's television, but he's solid. He weaves his own experiences in ARCA into his commentary. He gave great anecdotes about racing with Grant Enfinger on restarts (he claims that he cannot beat him on a restart), and stressed the importance of long runs. While if you look at the restarts, there weren't really that many of them, the teams only got six fresh tires for the race. Enfinger's car was not good on worn tires, but drivers like Ken Schrader were. Adjustments were key in the race.
The frugal aspect of the coverage did hurt the telecast at times. For instance, Bo LeMastus' spin that brought out the yellow on lap 139. Yes, the cameras caught it, but only one of them. It was a relatively shaky handheld camera from just inside the inside wall that caught LeMastus spinning. Viewers couldn't tell that LeMastus hit the water barrels at the blunt end of the pit wall; Benjamin had to tell them that it had happened. We also couldn't see the contact from A.J. Fike that caused the incident, but we did see a clip of Fike's car touring under yellow with damage near the right side headlight.
Post-race coverage was very brief due to the fact that the race had a two-hour timeslot and it was right up against that when the race ended. As a result, viewers only got a winner's interview and the results before the race ended. It's a disappointment, but understandable.
Overall, Sunday's race at Winchester was a very enjoyable watch for me. The racing was good and we had very good, no nonsense commentary. No shameless self-promotion. Gallagher is officially a teammate of Enfinger, but he kept up the necessary objectivity to do his job correctly. I just wish there were about eight or so more good cars in the series to make the race that much better.
That's it for this week. Next week, we'll be back with more commentary. Until then, enjoy this week's action in Daytona and Silverstone.
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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Frontstretch Line of the Week
"When everyone is sitting there going 'hey, you know the guy owes me money' or something like that, I don't want anything to do with that. I'm just trying to race. At the end of the day, Ron still took great care of me and allowed me to do what I did. I'm still grateful for the opportunity. I always told him that if he got his motor program together, it would be pretty good. They got Triad's now, and they are running pretty well, so I'm happy for him. I kind of wish they made that move when I was there. It is what it is, and it wasn't the right situation for us. It just seemed to be like a good fit over here." - Cole Whitt on why he left BK Racing for Front Row Motorsports.
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Tom Bowles
by P. Huston Ladner
by Toni Montgomery
by Joseph Wolkin
by Joseph Wolkin
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: Sonoma Raceway has a history of rather bizarre crashes over the years. In 2008, Jeff Jefferson was involved in one of these bizarre crashes. What happened?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: In Tuesday's question, we asked about why Greg Sacks was unintentionally being a roadblock at the start of the 1990 Pepsi 400 and the big wreck afterwards. What did Geoff Bodine say to explain what happened that day?
A: After saying hello to Darrell Waltrip, who was laid up at Halifax Medical Center with a broken leg at the time, Bodine blamed the restrictor plates for the crash, claiming that you couldn't get away from anyone. At the time, NASCAR mandated plates with 15/16ths of a inch holes. With the exception of Dale Earnhardt's performances earlier that season, no one was really able to pull away.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have a recap of Thursday's breaking news for you and preview this weekend's racing in Daytona.
On Frontstretch.com:
Amy will be back with another edition of Holding a Pretty Wheel.-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
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