THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Aug. 6, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CXXXV
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What to Watch: Thursday
- Today is load-in day for the Sprint Cup, XFINITY and K&N Pro Series East teams at Watkins Glen International. While the K&N garage will be open for much of the afternoon, no on-track activity is scheduled.
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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
No Penalties Announced, But Changes Made to NASCAR Warning System
On Wednesday, NASCAR did not announce any warnings. However, they did announce that the warning system will change. Instead of focusing on warnings in consecutive weekends, it will be more of a cumulative process as the year goes on. Read more
Welcome Back: Mikhail Aleshin Returns to IndyCar at Sonoma
by the Frontstretch Staff
No Penalties Announced, But Changes Made to NASCAR Warning System
On Wednesday, NASCAR did not announce any warnings. However, they did announce that the warning system will change. Instead of focusing on warnings in consecutive weekends, it will be more of a cumulative process as the year goes on. Read more
Welcome Back: Mikhail Aleshin Returns to IndyCar at Sonoma
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced on Wednesday that Mikhail Aleshin, who drove the No. 7 for the team last year, will return to the operation to participate in an open test at Sonoma Raceway. Afterwards, Aleshin will drive a third SPM entry in the season finale at Sonoma. 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 Mid-Ohio and Fairgrounds Speedway Shenanigans
Potts' Shots
by John Potts
Interesting thing happened this week in the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. The series now has a championship battle on their hands.
Interesting thing happened this week in the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. The series now has a championship battle on their hands.
With his win on Sunday, Graham Rahal has closed to within nine points of Juan Pablo Montoya, with just two races left.
Not going to say much more about this, because it's been beaten to death over the past few days in the regular media and on the internet, except to note that there seems to be some controversy over Sage Karam's spin, which benefited his teammate, Scott Dixon. Some folks appear to think it was deliberate, done under team orders. Karam says he was looking down at his computer readings and simply missed the corner, and calls the speculation "absurd."
I don't really know, but I do realize that it wouldn't be unprecedented. All you need is some kind of code or special signal from the pits to pass on something to the driver that those people monitoring wouldn't understand.
Back in the early 60s, before radios were in general use, I was talking to a NASCAR driver, and remarked that independents running Ford products seemed to get a lot of help from Holman-Moody, the factory's primary outlet, in the form of "gently" used parts, advice, etc. This same philosophy may have been in effect on the Chrysler side, too. This was before I had any first-hand experience on one of those teams.
I asked if H-M got anything in return, and he casually remarked, "Well, they always seem to get a caution flag when they need one."
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Now for another story about the innovative nature of our competitors at the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway in Louisville. I was a witness to this one, but had pretty much forgotten about it until Frank Scott brought it up on our Facebook page.
To spice things up one Friday night, we decided to have a special pit stop race for the Figure 8 cars. Thought it would be a real hoot, because how often to Figure 8 competitors get to practice pit stops? We offered $100 to win it, a big deal because I think the Figure 8 feature paid about $150 to win at the time.
At the time, future promoter extraordinaire Andy Vertrees (he was voted RPM's "Promoter of the Year" once) was teamed with crew chief Royce Foley. Foley, as Frank notes, was "very sly on staying competitive." As a matter of fact, they had a big sign on the door to their shop which read, "CHEATERS INCORPORATED."
We decided to keep the pit stop contest simple. Ten laps on the oval, and sometime during the race each car had to pull into the infield and have one tire and wheel removed and replaced. Like most things of this sort, we specified that all five lugs had to be tightened to proper torque, and we checked them after the race.
We limited them to just two pit crewmen. Meaning one had to jack up the car, and one had to handle the lug wrench (no air guns permitted), and the removal and replacement of the wheel.
As the race developed, Andy stayed out while everybody else pitted for a lengthy pit stop and built up a big lead. Maybe two laps – this was a third-mile track, remember.
Andy pits and is back on the track in NASCAR pit stop time with a new left front wheel and tire. Even back then, it was 20 seconds or so. Nobody could believe they'd done it, and of course we torqued the wheel nuts. All of them were tight.
Turns out, before the race Foley had removed the dust cap on the left front wheel hub, removed the cotter pin holding the crown nut on the spindle, and replaced it with a shortened ten-penny nail. I'm sure they picked the left front because it was on the side opposite most of the crowd.
As soon as Andy stopped, Foley knocks out the nail, spins the crown nut off the spindle, and pulls off the wheel. He puts the new wheel and tire on the spindle, spins down the crown nut, and replaces the nail. Down goes the jack, and out goes Vertrees, still more than a lap in the lead.
One of my favorite theories is that you can't stay ahead of racers' ingenuity for long. Sooner or later, they'll figure out a way to beat nearly every rule you can come up with.
Except for making all the cars exactly the same, and all of us know where that has gotten us. Bringing back the innovation would no doubt make things more interesting.
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For some more background on that old track, here's some of Frank Scott's "Random Thoughts"…
"Through the first decade of the track's existence (1961 until 1970), the speedway primarily entertained folks with two basic weekly racing classes, not counting the short-lived Powder Puffs or Modifieds. Claiming cars on the Figure 8 on Friday night, New & Late Models on Saturday.
"In 1969, the track implemented an Amateur Division, which had cars pitting in the parking lot and lined up only after the Late Model program was completed. In 1970, the Volkswagens came about…
"For 1971, the track was enlarged to a third-mile, the pits made larger. Only a few teams had transporters, and not many even had car trailers. While most got there on a wrecker, the 'have-nots' got there with a chain slipped through a piece of pipe. Some guys even left their cars in the pits all week.
"Somehow, it was all so magical back in those days, and those are the memories we all hold on to. It was a simpler time back then."
I'm sure many old timers, like myself, can relate to Frank's last comment.
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: Saturday at Pocono
by Phil Allaway
Saturday afternoon was a very busy day at the 2.5 mile scalene triangle as there were two Sprint Cup practice sessions, qualifying for the Camping World Truck Series, and races for the trucks and the ARCA Racing Series. It was a very interesting day at the track. FOX Sports had both of the races (FOX Sports 1 for the trucks, FOX Sports 2 for ARCA). Let's take a look at them.
Pocono Mountains 150
The now 150 mile race at Pocono Raceway for the Camping World Truck Series has always been home to some quirky instances. Saturday was no exception as crashes and controversy were the name of the game.
During the Setup, they had three stories that they were actively focusing on, although if you really wanted to, that could be cut to two. One was the return of Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick to the series. I figured that they were going to be up there for the win the moment that I noticed their entries in the race. That's not a surprise. The other stories were the weekly looks at Erik Jones and Matt Crafton. Despite the current standings, those two are viewed as the class of the series and the main championship contenders.
Saturday's race saw the debut of Vince Welch in the play-by-play role. He is the fifth man to serve in that role in 12 races. Please stop with the musical chairs. Viewers like to have familiar voices on the broadcasts and having this kind of turnover is not great.
During the Setup, they had three stories that they were actively focusing on, although if you really wanted to, that could be cut to two. One was the return of Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick to the series. I figured that they were going to be up there for the win the moment that I noticed their entries in the race. That's not a surprise. The other stories were the weekly looks at Erik Jones and Matt Crafton. Despite the current standings, those two are viewed as the class of the series and the main championship contenders.
Saturday's race saw the debut of Vince Welch in the play-by-play role. He is the fifth man to serve in that role in 12 races. Please stop with the musical chairs. Viewers like to have familiar voices on the broadcasts and having this kind of turnover is not great.
I'll fully admit that I've been critical of Welch's booth performances in the past with ESPN. He struck me as not being very polished, and just not all that great. I preferred his then-colleague Dave Burns, who has gotten a fair bit of booth work this year covering K&N Pro Series races for NBCSN. I think Welch got the gig Saturday because Ralph Sheheen was in Iowa calling the XFINITY Series race for NBCSN.
Overall, I found Welch to be just ok in the booth. He's improved a little since he was doing some of the standalone Nationwide/XFINITY Series races, but he's nothing special to me. It seemed like Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip played a much bigger role than normal in order to compensate. If Welch calling races is going to become more of a regular thing, then he needs to assert a little more control over the proceedings. Granted, with Michael in the booth, that can be a challenge. In my eyes, if you're the play-by-play man, you're the captain of the booth. Welch has to carry himself on-air as if that is the case.
The big story that came out of the race was the big crash on lap 6 where Crafton and Brad Keselowski went hard into the wall. FOX Sports had the definitive view from the back of Austin Dillon's truck of the contact that put both drivers in the wall live, yet they constantly showed replays from Harvick's truck, despite that not being the best view. Not sure why they thought that was the best decision.
Having said that, they should get kudos for being able to get interviews with both drivers involved. This is another one of those testy moments, so having both sides of the issue is crucial. Just wish we could have seen the Crafton interview live. It's referenced during Matt Yocum's interview with Keselowski, but viewers didn't see it until later in the race. The idea of Keselowski intentionally wrecking Crafton to benefit Tyler Reddick is rather ridiculous.
Post-race content was virtually nil. Since the race ran 20 minutes long, FOX Sports 1 left the air during Kyle Busch's burnout to go to BEING: Stewart-Haas Racing. While that's an interesting show that should have premiered months ago, but couldn't, I'd rather see post-race coverage. It's weak. There was a quick show of the point standings during the cool-down lap
ModSpace 125
FOX Sports 2 brought viewers the second half of the double bill. Of course, it was slightly behind schedule, but that was because the truck race had three GWC's. The ARCA race was just as wacky as the truck race was.
Ultimately, the condensed schedule did play a role here. There really wasn't much pre-race coverage for ARCA. Instead, FOX Sports 2 aired the Victory Lane interview from the truck race with Kyle Busch, tape-delayed by approximately 10-15 minutes. The same one that Welch stated would air on FOX Sports Live. ARCA got screwed over by FOX Sports' prior mistake. I'm sure people tuning in to the ARCA race on FOX Sports 2 would have liked some kind of a race preview, especially since ARCA qualifying sessions aren't televised like the trucks (Note: I haven't watched an ARCA qualifying session on TV since ESPN went wall-to-wall with coverage of Speedweeks in the late 1990's).
The race started out with a big wreck at the start of the race involving a number of the frontrunners. FOX Sports had that covered thoroughly. Three of the four drivers with in-car cameras were involved in the crash, so we got multiple views. We also got an interview from Kyle Weatherman as well.
Ultimately, the crash made the race a bit of an anti-climax. There was only so much racing out there that could be shown since half of the frontrunners were effectively eliminated on lap 1. Cole Custer quickly became the focus of the broadcast. He probably would have been to a certain extent had the crash not happened, but it was even more so.
I generally like having Ray Dunlap and Parsons call the ARCA races together. They have good chemistry and can make the races quite exciting. It's not quite Rick Allen and Parsons. They haven't done that many races together (400+ with Allen and a handful with Dunlap for Parsons), but they're growing on each other.
Post-race coverage was fairly brief, partially due to the race starting late. Viewers saw two post-race interviews and a check of the points before FOX Sports left Pocono. However, there was also a clip of Bobby Gerhart arguing with Frank Kimmel about something. I have no clue what the argument was about. The two drivers weren't racing for position. Gerhart finished on the lead lap, while Kimmel got lapped in the pits after the first lap crash and never got it back. My guess is that Gerhart thought Kimmel was holding him up at some point. However, without any kind of a replay, it's just a complete mystery. I don't recall anything in the actual race broadcast that would indicate any kind of animosity.
I hope you liked this look at FOX Sports' Saturday coverage from Pocono. Next week, we'll have some more motorsports TV commentary. Until then, enjoy this weekend's action in Watkins Glen and Elkhart Lake.
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
"I had a few really bad ones at Texas, Chicagoland, got knocked out in a test at Kentucky and had a horrible one at Atlanta. I had a really bad one at Michigan where a shock came off and punctured the tire. I had six or seven not minor concussions, but pretty major concussions. I had a vertebrate sore in my neck a couple of times, broke my scapula a few times, had a punctured lung, elbow, arm, knees, ankles and if you name it, I've had it broken or torn.
"I broke both my shoulders, both biceps. I just got beat up so bad before we started to use the HANS device [head and neck restraint] and having the walls a little softer. I was just very lucky. I was lucky that I got to keep going as long as I did. It was definitely one of those things where it was time for me to hang it up because, like the doctors said, they didn't know if you can take two more or one more hit for you to might not ever be normal again." - Mike Skinner, on the many injuries he's suffered during his career.
TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Beth Lunkenheimer
by P. Huston Ladner
by Toni Montgomery
Beyond the Cockpit: Colin Braun On How NASCAR Fell Apart
Beyond the Cockpit: Colin Braun On How NASCAR Fell Apart
as told to Phil Allaway
by Joseph Wolkin
by Joseph Wolkin
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: The opening laps of the 2000 Global Crossing @ the Glen were quite exciting with two of NASCAR's most popular drivers finding the wall. What happened?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: The aforementioned 1988 Bud at the Glen saw a rare mid-race competition caution. Why was NASCAR forced to throw such a yellow?
A: The race saw a series of tire problems, specifically blistering. Examples of such blistering can be seen here. Now that is nasty.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll preview this weekend's racing at Watkins Glen International, in addition to bringing you Thursday's news.
On Frontstretch.com:
Amy will be back with another edition of Holding a Pretty Wheel.
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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
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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
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