THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Jul. 30, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CXXX
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What to Watch: Thursday
- Today is load-in day for the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series teams at Pocono Raceway. No on-track activity is planned for today.
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Thursday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
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Thursday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Derrick Walker Resigns from IndyCar Competition Post
A major shakeup is coming to the IndyCar front office next season as President of Competition and Operations Derrick Walker has resigned from his duties according to the Indianapolis based sanctioning body.
Walker will finish out the season for the remaining three events of the season at Mid-Ohio, Pocono and Sonoma before officially moving on. IndyCar boss Mark Miles said in a news release that Walker's final day is August 31, 2015 and that he is leaving to pursue other professional opportunities. Read more
Rob Kauffman Purchasing Stake in Chip Ganassi Racing
After much speculation, it's official: Rob Kauffman, partial owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, has bought a stake in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, both parties involved confirmed Thursday. Read more
Chris Buescher Returns to Front Row Motorsports for Watkins Glen
It's been a season to remember for Chris Buescher so far in 2015; after all, the 22-year-old driver currently leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series point standings and has two victories. Not only has Buescher found success in the XFINITY Series, but he also made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut driving the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports. Read more
Premium Motorsports Docked for Indy Weight Loss
On Wednesday, NASCAR announced penalties against Premium Motorsports' No. 98 team in response to last week's ballast spreading at Indianapolis. While driver Timmy Hill is ineligible for Sprint Cup points (and thus, didn't lose any), the team was penalized rather harshly for the infraction. Read more
NXS Adds A Pair of Road Aces for Next Month's Road Swing
by the Frontstretch Staff
Derrick Walker Resigns from IndyCar Competition Post
A major shakeup is coming to the IndyCar front office next season as President of Competition and Operations Derrick Walker has resigned from his duties according to the Indianapolis based sanctioning body.
Walker will finish out the season for the remaining three events of the season at Mid-Ohio, Pocono and Sonoma before officially moving on. IndyCar boss Mark Miles said in a news release that Walker's final day is August 31, 2015 and that he is leaving to pursue other professional opportunities. Read more
Rob Kauffman Purchasing Stake in Chip Ganassi Racing
After much speculation, it's official: Rob Kauffman, partial owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, has bought a stake in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, both parties involved confirmed Thursday. Read more
Chris Buescher Returns to Front Row Motorsports for Watkins Glen
It's been a season to remember for Chris Buescher so far in 2015; after all, the 22-year-old driver currently leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series point standings and has two victories. Not only has Buescher found success in the XFINITY Series, but he also made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut driving the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports. Read more
Premium Motorsports Docked for Indy Weight Loss
On Wednesday, NASCAR announced penalties against Premium Motorsports' No. 98 team in response to last week's ballast spreading at Indianapolis. While driver Timmy Hill is ineligible for Sprint Cup points (and thus, didn't lose any), the team was penalized rather harshly for the infraction. Read more
NXS Adds A Pair of Road Aces for Next Month's Road Swing
On Wednesday, a couple of driver announcements were made pertaining to the upcoming road races for the XFINITY Series. Team Penske has signed Alex Tagliani to drive the No. 22 at Road America. Meanwhile, Magnus Racing's Andy Lally has signed a deal to drive the No. 90 at Road America for a combination of King Autosports and SS-Green Light Racing. Sponsorship will be provided by Anderson's Maple Syrup. 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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Today's Featured Commentary
Potts' Shots on Indianapolis and TV Start Times
Potts' Shots
by John Potts
I said last week that in the coming weekend we'd find out of the track-specific aero package NASCAR had decreed for the Brickyard 400 (pardon me, the Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard) would result in the competition they (and fans) wanted to see.
My opinion - It didn't.
From what I observed, only on restarts did we see a whole lot of side-by side racing. To be fair, those restarts were pretty wild for a lap or two.
Not that I didn't enjoy covering the race – far from it. Being honest, anytime I can spend most of two days at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is going to be an enjoyable time.
I've said before that I haven't been much of a Kyle Busch fan, but have also admitted that there is no way to deny that the boy can wheel a race car.
He proved it again on Saturday and Sunday.
On the last lap of the Lilly Diabetes 250, he got close enough to Ryan Blaney to upset Blaney's balance just a little, causing a bit of a push, and zoomed by going into Turn 3 to pick up the XFINITY Series win. This maneuver, which disturbs the lead car's air somewhat, must be the more sophisticated version of the old "bump and run" tactic. You don't have to actually nudge the guy in front of you to get it done.
It's a completely understandable deal. Every driver is going to do whatever he has to do to win, and this works – usually without any bent metal.
As part of his celebratory donuts, Kyle left some black streaks on the yard of bricks, and by the next morning some Indy purists were complaining about it. Calling it disrespect, sacrilege, or worse.
I mention this only because IMS president Doug Boles said in a TV interview on Sunday morning that his crew didn't care for it much, because they wanted the bricks to stay clean, and it was a pretty tough job getting that rubber off. To their credit, they got it done.
Kyle must have been watching that interview, or maybe somebody mentioned it to some of the drivers, because on Sunday he didn't leave any black stuff on those bricks.
As when it comes to feelings about the Speedway and Indianapolis, I heard and read nothing but respectful comments from drivers and others all weekend long. Most of them called it a true honor to be competing at the Motorsports Capital of the World, and becoming a part of its long history in racing.
Matt McLaughlin and Phil Allaway have already touched on the aerodynamic package and the TV coverage, and if you haven't read their comments I suggest you look at them. These guys are both very, very sharp, and extremely knowledgeable about the sport.
Most complaints around Indianapolis centered on the late starting time for the races, being late in the afternoon. This was very evident when it came to discussing Sunday's 400.
I learned a long time ago when working at what was then Indianapolis Raceway Park that when you see starting times being pushed around, television is usually the reason. Why NBC wanted this to happen at almost 4:00 p.m. (in the heat of the day in one of the hottest months of the year) is beyond me, but I'm sure that's what it was. The fact that it was on their cable outlet didn't seem to make any difference.
On Sunday morning, they did move the green flag time up from 3:49 to 3:39 because of the weather forecast. I didn't know they could predict the weather that close. Heck, in Indiana, I KNOW they can't.
As for TV setting start times, we went through this at IRP with Thursday Night Thunder featuring the USAC sprint cars and midgets. ESPN wanted to start at 8:00 p.m. on the east coast. At that time (1988), Indiana was still on "slow" time in the summer, and that would have meant 7:00 p.m.
We knew we had a crowd that traditionally came late, especially on weeknights, and entered into some serious negotiations about this. We did get it settled so we could start at 8:00 p.m. local, but until that was decided there were some intense discussions among our own staff about ways to delay the start of racing. Didn't have to resort to that, but there were some very interesting ideas about electrical failure, etc.
Back to the 400 – There were some disappointing aspects to it for me. Jeff Gordon's problem, for one. I got to see him win his first USAC midget race and his first Brickyard. I wanted to see him do well in his last one, but he got caught up in somebody else's problem.
Also, Tony Stewart's disappointment after doing so well in qualifying and running so well early in the race. He's another I watched start out in those midgets.
At one point, when he and Jimmie Johnson were running 25th and 26th in a latter part of the race, the opinion seemed to be that both were able to go the rest of the way on fuel, and expected to move up quickly if the race went green all the way. Didn't happen, of course.
We used FanVision for the first time, and it made the race a whole lot more interesting. I'm sure everybody who has ever used a scanner is way ahead of me on this, but it was a real experience for somebody who hasn't done it before at a NASCAR race.
I set mine up (actually, my son did it – I made the mistake of reading the instructions) for three race teams and the NASCAR officials. There were some very interesting exchanges.
I enjoyed listening to the officials, probably because I spent a lot of my racing life on that kind of network. During one caution period, it was obvious that Race Control was rapidly losing patience with trying to put three cars in the proper order before the restart.
Finally, he said, "Tell the 10 (Patrick), 22 (Logano), and 78 (Truex Jr.) that I'm about ready to send all three of them to the rear."
Amazingly, they got themselves lined up right on the next lap.
Another great exchange came between Kyle Busch and Adam Stevens, his crew chief late in the race. I think he was about fourth or fifth at time.
Kyle: "You want me to run up there and start racing for the win?"
Adam: "If you do that, Kyle,there won't be any win because you're gonna run out of gas. We're waiting for the caution."
Obviously, Stevens was sure a caution was coming and he was right. The rest is now history.
I said last week that in the coming weekend we'd find out of the track-specific aero package NASCAR had decreed for the Brickyard 400 (pardon me, the Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard) would result in the competition they (and fans) wanted to see.
My opinion - It didn't.
From what I observed, only on restarts did we see a whole lot of side-by side racing. To be fair, those restarts were pretty wild for a lap or two.
Not that I didn't enjoy covering the race – far from it. Being honest, anytime I can spend most of two days at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is going to be an enjoyable time.
I've said before that I haven't been much of a Kyle Busch fan, but have also admitted that there is no way to deny that the boy can wheel a race car.
He proved it again on Saturday and Sunday.
On the last lap of the Lilly Diabetes 250, he got close enough to Ryan Blaney to upset Blaney's balance just a little, causing a bit of a push, and zoomed by going into Turn 3 to pick up the XFINITY Series win. This maneuver, which disturbs the lead car's air somewhat, must be the more sophisticated version of the old "bump and run" tactic. You don't have to actually nudge the guy in front of you to get it done.
It's a completely understandable deal. Every driver is going to do whatever he has to do to win, and this works – usually without any bent metal.
As part of his celebratory donuts, Kyle left some black streaks on the yard of bricks, and by the next morning some Indy purists were complaining about it. Calling it disrespect, sacrilege, or worse.
I mention this only because IMS president Doug Boles said in a TV interview on Sunday morning that his crew didn't care for it much, because they wanted the bricks to stay clean, and it was a pretty tough job getting that rubber off. To their credit, they got it done.
Kyle must have been watching that interview, or maybe somebody mentioned it to some of the drivers, because on Sunday he didn't leave any black stuff on those bricks.
As when it comes to feelings about the Speedway and Indianapolis, I heard and read nothing but respectful comments from drivers and others all weekend long. Most of them called it a true honor to be competing at the Motorsports Capital of the World, and becoming a part of its long history in racing.
Matt McLaughlin and Phil Allaway have already touched on the aerodynamic package and the TV coverage, and if you haven't read their comments I suggest you look at them. These guys are both very, very sharp, and extremely knowledgeable about the sport.
Most complaints around Indianapolis centered on the late starting time for the races, being late in the afternoon. This was very evident when it came to discussing Sunday's 400.
I learned a long time ago when working at what was then Indianapolis Raceway Park that when you see starting times being pushed around, television is usually the reason. Why NBC wanted this to happen at almost 4:00 p.m. (in the heat of the day in one of the hottest months of the year) is beyond me, but I'm sure that's what it was. The fact that it was on their cable outlet didn't seem to make any difference.
On Sunday morning, they did move the green flag time up from 3:49 to 3:39 because of the weather forecast. I didn't know they could predict the weather that close. Heck, in Indiana, I KNOW they can't.
As for TV setting start times, we went through this at IRP with Thursday Night Thunder featuring the USAC sprint cars and midgets. ESPN wanted to start at 8:00 p.m. on the east coast. At that time (1988), Indiana was still on "slow" time in the summer, and that would have meant 7:00 p.m.
We knew we had a crowd that traditionally came late, especially on weeknights, and entered into some serious negotiations about this. We did get it settled so we could start at 8:00 p.m. local, but until that was decided there were some intense discussions among our own staff about ways to delay the start of racing. Didn't have to resort to that, but there were some very interesting ideas about electrical failure, etc.
Back to the 400 – There were some disappointing aspects to it for me. Jeff Gordon's problem, for one. I got to see him win his first USAC midget race and his first Brickyard. I wanted to see him do well in his last one, but he got caught up in somebody else's problem.
Also, Tony Stewart's disappointment after doing so well in qualifying and running so well early in the race. He's another I watched start out in those midgets.
At one point, when he and Jimmie Johnson were running 25th and 26th in a latter part of the race, the opinion seemed to be that both were able to go the rest of the way on fuel, and expected to move up quickly if the race went green all the way. Didn't happen, of course.
We used FanVision for the first time, and it made the race a whole lot more interesting. I'm sure everybody who has ever used a scanner is way ahead of me on this, but it was a real experience for somebody who hasn't done it before at a NASCAR race.
I set mine up (actually, my son did it – I made the mistake of reading the instructions) for three race teams and the NASCAR officials. There were some very interesting exchanges.
I enjoyed listening to the officials, probably because I spent a lot of my racing life on that kind of network. During one caution period, it was obvious that Race Control was rapidly losing patience with trying to put three cars in the proper order before the restart.
Finally, he said, "Tell the 10 (Patrick), 22 (Logano), and 78 (Truex Jr.) that I'm about ready to send all three of them to the rear."
Amazingly, they got themselves lined up right on the next lap.
Another great exchange came between Kyle Busch and Adam Stevens, his crew chief late in the race. I think he was about fourth or fifth at time.
Kyle: "You want me to run up there and start racing for the win?"
Adam: "If you do that, Kyle,there won't be any win because you're gonna run out of gas. We're waiting for the caution."
Obviously, Stevens was sure a caution was coming and he was right. The rest is now history.
John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com.
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The Critic's Annex: Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 presented by Federated Car Care
by Phil Allaway
Last weekend was quite the busy one. Yes, the trucks were off, but you had two major series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, TUSC and the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge at Lime Rock, and tangentially related to the Cup/XFINITY weekend was the ARCA Racing Series at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. The .686 mile oval always puts on an interesting race. Friday night was no exception.
The original plan was to critique the race off of the TV here. However, I'm having cable box problems. As a result, the whole broadcast was pixelated as here. While I could watch the race, I can't really critique like that. Luckily, the whole race is on YouTube, so I could re-watch it there.
During pre-race, you might have noticed something different during Ray Dunlap and Phil Parsons' introduction. To me, it seems like they didn't make the trip to Clermont for the race. Instead, they called the race from the FOX Sports studios in Charlotte. That's an unusual choice, but one clearly done to cut costs.
Early on in the race, FOX Sports did a pretty good job showing some of the furious action for position in the pack as Kyle Weatherman drove away from everyone else. That strategy continued for much of the race as there really wasn't all that much action at the front of the field.
The somewhat cheap nature of the broadcast did rear its head on multiple occasions. For example, FOX Sports seemed unable to fix the off-sync audio on A.J. Fike's in-car camera for the whole race. Another example is the crash that put Brian Finney out of the race. Finney crashed hard into the inside wall on the frontstretch on lap 75. The cameras only caught the wreck just as Finney hit the wall. With the commentators not on site, they didn't really have the line of sight to actively figure out what happened to cause Finney's crash. They could only speculate like I did watching the race.
Post-race coverage was featured as part of FOX Sports Live. Since the race technically ended early, that really wasn't necessary. I know that FOX Sports only had Jim Tretow in the pits, but they had time to give viewers more post-race coverage and chose not to do it. They didn't even fill their timeslot. As it stands, viewers got interviews with the top 2 finishers (Travis Braden and William Byron, both making their series debuts), showed the unofficial results and that's it. I wanted more than that and believe that the viewers deserved more.
Despite the limited production, FOX Sports 1 did do a decent job in covering the event. There was a decent amount of action shown throughout the field, despite the action up front not being all that exciting. The booth was quite enthusiastic, but their position in Charlotte did hurt the broadcast.
Hope you liked this look at FOX Sports 1's broadcast of the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 presented by Federated Car Care. We'll be back next week with another look at motorsports programming.
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
"After recovering from horrific injuries to his lower extremities suffered during the Daytona NXS race, Busch has made a remarkable comeback. Having found myself in physical rehab a couple times after injury, I can attest that physical therapy is a hellish process that occasionally leaves you ready to throw in the towel just wanting the pain to go away for a while. It's a whole lot easier to take some of those pills rather than push your limits, and that's in fact what makes Heroin, Inc. 2.0 such a lucrative business. In addition to the weekend sweep at Indy, in the last two months Busch has won three more Cup races and scored an additional win in the XFINITY series. Those are gum-card stats in anyone's league." - Matt McLaughlin, on Kyle Busch's recent run and how difficult physical therapy can be.
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Aaron Bearden
by P. Huston Ladner
by Toni Montgomery
by Joseph Wolkin
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: Dave Marcis had some hard hits in his career at Pocono. The 1999 crash is an all-timer in intensity. Marcis' 1998 Pennsylvania 500 also ended against the wall, but in a different way. What caused the crash?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: Pocono Raceway can be a quirky place where strange things happen. For example, a strange thing happened during a caution in the 2003 Pennsylvania 500. What was it?
A: During a yellow, a fan reportedly jumped out of the infield, ran across the track in front of Jeremy Mayfield, climbed over the outside wall and ran off into the woods. Such a move is an incredibly bad idea, done by someone who'd clearly had a number of beers. Today, his escape would not be possible because the track now has a catchfence all the way around.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll preview this weekend's racing at Pocono Raceway, in addition to bringing you Thursday's news.
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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