THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Aug. 10, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CXXXVII
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Aug. 10, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CXXXVII
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What to Watch: Monday- Today, teams are prepping for this weekend's races in Michigan and Ohio. No major press conferences are scheduled.
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Monday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
Joey Logano Sweeps The Glen; Harvick Runs Dry in Last Turn
Joey Logano Wins Zippo 200 at the Glen, Penske Racing 1-2
Monday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Buddy Baker Dead From Lung Cancer At Age 74
One of the sport's most well-known drivers and commentators has died. Buddy Baker, 74, passed away this morning after a short battle with lung cancer. The 1980 Daytona 500 winner had stepped down from his post at SIRIUS XM radio to fight the disease, found to be an inoperable tumor after months of increasing pain. Baker, whose driving career spanned parts of five decades is known by current fans for his analyst role at both SIRIUS XM and during stints as a TV commentator for The Nashville Network, CBS, and others. Read more
Joey Logano Sweeps The Glen; Harvick Runs Dry in Last Turn
Joey Logano made a fuel-only pit stop on lap 58 work out for him at Watkins Glen. Restarting 14th, Logano charged up to second in the final laps and put pressure on Kevin Harvick for the lead in Sunday's Cup race. By virtue of Logano going wide in turn 1 on the last lap, Harvick had a good-sized advantage; however, his fuel tank ran dry. Harvick could only watch as Logano swept past entering the final turn and drove on to the weekend sweep. Kyle Busch just nipped Harvick at the line for second while Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-5 finishers. Read more
Joey Logano Wins Zippo 200 at the Glen, Penske Racing 1-2
Sprint Cup regular Joey Logano dominated the weekend in the XFINITY Series, winning the pole, leading 39 laps and taking the Zippo 200 for his 25th XFINITY Series victory. The triumph came despite a penalty early on for taking a dump can out of his pit box. Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski was second, followed by points leader Chris Buescher. Boris Said was fourth for Joe Gibbs Racing while Ty Dillon rounded out the top-5 finishers. Read more
Regan Smith and RCR Drivers Tangle at the Glen
Regan Smith and RCR Drivers Tangle at the Glen
Arround the midpoint of Saturday's Zippo 200, Ty Dillon made an aggressive three-wide move on a restart into turn 1 on Regan Smith and Paul Menard. Dillon and Smith had contact, resulting in Smith spinning out. Later, Smith spun again after contact with Brendan Gaughan and eventually finished 20th. Dillon admitted afterwards that the move was a mistake. However, Dillon had to deal with Smith's wrath after the race as Smith grabbed Dillon's firesuit, resulting in a mini-wrestling match on pit road. 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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Chasing the Chase: Slight Changes Up Front, But Gaps Increase Further Down the Order
by Phil Allaway
by Phil Allaway
Kevin Harvick all but had Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen in the bag. However, the Budweiser Chevrolet burped and coughed with less than half a lap to go as a result of the fuel cell running dry. Harvick was able to coast to a third-place finish but he still lost ground to second place Joey Logano. By virtue of his victory, Logano gained a couple of points on Harvick, closing his margin down to 42. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had a decent day behind them but dropped back late due to fuel conservation en route to an 11th-place finish. It was good enough to keep third in the standings -- albeit barely.
Three points behind Earnhardt Jr. is his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson. Johnson had an eventful day after spinning out Justin Allgaier early on, then getting spun himself exiting the Inner Loop just as the last yellow flew. However, Johnson still recovered to finish tenth. Brad Keselowski is up one place to fifth in points after a solid run to seventh at Watkins Glen. He jumped over Martin Truex, Jr. who was in position for a great finish but cut a left front tire on lap 68 and was forced to stop. Truex would eventually finish 25th.
Matt Kenseth recorded his best-ever finish on a road course Sunday by bringing his Dollar General Toyota home fourth after starting 26th. Kenseth, who like Harvick ran 39 laps on his final tank of fuel used track position from the final caution to get toward the front. Nearly a full race behind Kenseth is Kurt Busch, overcoming a pit road penalty to finish fifth. Busch is now just 164 points behind Harvick despite missing the season's first three races.
Jamie McMurray is down one spot to ninth after breaking an oil cooler in a chain reaction incident on the lap 50 restart. McMurray would eventually finish 40th. Despite a rather bizarre day for Denny Hamlin, one that included the hood flying up after running into the back of David Gilliland, Hamlin rounds out the top 10 even with a 27th-place result. Turns out brake problems for Jeff Gordon left the No. 24 team 41st and the four-time champ tumbling out of the top 10 in the current standings.
Jamie McMurray is down one spot to ninth after breaking an oil cooler in a chain reaction incident on the lap 50 restart. McMurray would eventually finish 40th. Despite a rather bizarre day for Denny Hamlin, one that included the hood flying up after running into the back of David Gilliland, Hamlin rounds out the top 10 even with a 27th-place result. Turns out brake problems for Jeff Gordon left the No. 24 team 41st and the four-time champ tumbling out of the top 10 in the current standings.
Finally, Kyle Busch's second-place result Sunday moved him up to 30th in points. As a result, he is currently inside the Chase for the Sprint Cup (assuming that he can stay there through Richmond).
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 823, 2) Joey Logano -42, 3) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -73, 4) Jimmie Johnson -76, 5) Brad Keselowski -104, 6) Martin Truex, Jr. -109, 7) Matt Kenseth -120, 8) Kurt Busch -164, 9) Jamie McMurray -188, 10) Denny Hamlin -192, 11) Paul Menard -201, 12) Jeff Gordon -203, 13) Ryan Newman -210, 14) Clint Bowyer -211, 15) Carl Edwards -234, 16) Aric Almirola -261.
Drivers Outside the top 16 Eligible for Chase: 30) Kyle Busch -462
Letter of the Race: Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen was brought to you by the letter "N," for "Nailbiting." While Watkins Glen did not see the big wrecks that we've had there in recent years, we did have another race where fuel mileage came into play, in addition to some hard racing for position. The sellout crowd Sunday got their money's worth. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen
compiled by Phil Allaway
"It's remarkable. I've never swept a weekend before. I've come close a couple times, but never have actually done it. I didn't really think a road course would be the time that we would be able to sweep the weekend, but what a special race car I had yesterday – such a fast race car and we were able to drive up through the field and have a really good car. Today, Todd made some great adjustments overnight after we talked about the XFINITY race and got my Shell/Pennzoil Ford even better, which I thought was great. We kind of worked our way up through the field slowly and methodically throughout the race and then we kind of kept recycling as the pit sequence kept changing. Eventually, we found ourselves as the lead car on that pit sequence, so Todd did a great job calling this race obviously. That makes up a lot for last week, not that he called a bad race last week. I'm not saying that, Todd. I love you. I'm saying it's nice that it played out this time. Sometimes it doesn't work out the way you want it to and that's why we don't really talk about it much during the race. He does his thing and I do my thing and we have 100 percent faith in each other no matter what the decision is, whether I do what I do on the racetrack or what he does on pit road. Our team just executed perfectly today. We may not have had the fastest race car. We had a very good race car that was capable of running in the top 3, I felt like, but the execution of the day is what won us this race and I feel like that's the strong suit of this No. 22 team right now." - Joey Logano, race winner
"Our day was really good. You know, we had a really fast race car. I felt like we had one of the cars if not the car to beat. We just never really got to the front in order to show it." - Kyle Busch, finished second
"I'm sorry about that, guys. I thought I'd done a pretty good job of saving fuel under the caution. Really, I was just running as fast as I needed to, to protect the lead there as I was in front of the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth). And once the No. 22 (Joey Logano) got there, I had to pick up the pace just a little bit. But all in all, our Budweiser/Jimmy John's team did a great job today and we were in position to have a win; two corners away. But that's just kind of how the middle of this season has gone. We've had really fast cars, but the circumstances have just gotten the best of us. So, hopefully we're saving that up for the last 10 weeks." - Kevin Harvick, finished third
"It was a great effort. We had to overcome a pit road penalty and just being stuck in the back, I wasn't quite making the right decisions on some of the restarts. I was trying to be cool and be smooth and work our way back up with a nice pace, knowing some of the front-runners couldn't make it on fuel. For us on the Haas Automation Chevy, I wanted to finish what we started at Sonoma. I wanted to win it today." - Kurt Busch, finished fifth
"It was pretty good. Our car was good. Bono [Manion] had a good strategy. A couple of yellows fell the wrong way to make it work the way we needed, but the car was good. We were good in areas that some other cars weren't and that helped us pass people when we could get to them, but a lot of times we had issues trying to get the pass down because we just weren't fast enough up through the Esses. We'll work on the car so next time we'll be a little [better] going up into the Bus Stop." - Sam Hornish, Jr., finished ninth
"Yeah I guess we ran out of gas off the last corner. We had a fast car. Eleventh is not a great finish, but considering we were kind of not in a good position there on strategy. We didn't get the cautions. We just didn't get them. Usually you expect to get that late caution inside 20 to go. That would have made it good and we could have run hard, maybe run in the top 10." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 11th
"I'm not sure. We just kind of missed it today. The track was definitely tricky. We fought finding rear grip. We couldn't ever really get the grip in the rear that I was looking for. We kind of changed the platform and it chirped the car. I was really struggling on the second run and then the third run the battery died. When the battery died that obviously put us way behind. I thought the changes we made helped the car a little bit, but I got my lap back and drove as hard as I could to get as much as I could. I thought maybe we could get back to the top 10. Just 10 laps short. I don't know if it was another fuel pump issue or not."- AJ Allmendinger, finished 24th
"All weekend, we had transmission issues. This was a fresh transmission and from lap 1 it was a problem. It's just too bad. Our hands were tied the whole race, so I'm disappointed for our day and all the Love's folks. Unfortunately, that's all we could do."- David Gilliland, finished 33rd
"We had a brake line issue. It wasn't broken. It's not like I hit anything or something came into it and broke it that we can see. Something went bad with the line and it started leaking fluid and we started losing brakes. So we had to come in. Unfortunately, it took us four laps to get that changed. Just so hard to make up laps when you get that many down, especially at a track like this. We were okay at the beginning we weren't great. It's a long race, a lot can happen, but you have to be on the lead lap and we weren't." - Jeff Gordon, finished 41st
"I made it longer this week than last (laughs). That was pretty awful last week. Yeah, at this rate we're going to need to win. That's the only way we'll go into the Chase. I don't know what my deal is. But we've got to get a little better. I need to get a little better." - Kasey Kahne, finished 42nd
"At the end of the day the results won't show it, but I think for us it's … granted it's three totally different disciplines and packages and all that, but I feel like we are starting to gain some momentum. Like I said, it won't show it at the end of the day on the results, but I feel good about our weekend."- Tony Stewart, finished 43rd (broke rear gear)
"Our day was really good. You know, we had a really fast race car. I felt like we had one of the cars if not the car to beat. We just never really got to the front in order to show it." - Kyle Busch, finished second
"I'm sorry about that, guys. I thought I'd done a pretty good job of saving fuel under the caution. Really, I was just running as fast as I needed to, to protect the lead there as I was in front of the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth). And once the No. 22 (Joey Logano) got there, I had to pick up the pace just a little bit. But all in all, our Budweiser/Jimmy John's team did a great job today and we were in position to have a win; two corners away. But that's just kind of how the middle of this season has gone. We've had really fast cars, but the circumstances have just gotten the best of us. So, hopefully we're saving that up for the last 10 weeks." - Kevin Harvick, finished third
"It was a great effort. We had to overcome a pit road penalty and just being stuck in the back, I wasn't quite making the right decisions on some of the restarts. I was trying to be cool and be smooth and work our way back up with a nice pace, knowing some of the front-runners couldn't make it on fuel. For us on the Haas Automation Chevy, I wanted to finish what we started at Sonoma. I wanted to win it today." - Kurt Busch, finished fifth
"It was pretty good. Our car was good. Bono [Manion] had a good strategy. A couple of yellows fell the wrong way to make it work the way we needed, but the car was good. We were good in areas that some other cars weren't and that helped us pass people when we could get to them, but a lot of times we had issues trying to get the pass down because we just weren't fast enough up through the Esses. We'll work on the car so next time we'll be a little [better] going up into the Bus Stop." - Sam Hornish, Jr., finished ninth
"Yeah I guess we ran out of gas off the last corner. We had a fast car. Eleventh is not a great finish, but considering we were kind of not in a good position there on strategy. We didn't get the cautions. We just didn't get them. Usually you expect to get that late caution inside 20 to go. That would have made it good and we could have run hard, maybe run in the top 10." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 11th
"I'm not sure. We just kind of missed it today. The track was definitely tricky. We fought finding rear grip. We couldn't ever really get the grip in the rear that I was looking for. We kind of changed the platform and it chirped the car. I was really struggling on the second run and then the third run the battery died. When the battery died that obviously put us way behind. I thought the changes we made helped the car a little bit, but I got my lap back and drove as hard as I could to get as much as I could. I thought maybe we could get back to the top 10. Just 10 laps short. I don't know if it was another fuel pump issue or not."- AJ Allmendinger, finished 24th
"All weekend, we had transmission issues. This was a fresh transmission and from lap 1 it was a problem. It's just too bad. Our hands were tied the whole race, so I'm disappointed for our day and all the Love's folks. Unfortunately, that's all we could do."- David Gilliland, finished 33rd
"We had a brake line issue. It wasn't broken. It's not like I hit anything or something came into it and broke it that we can see. Something went bad with the line and it started leaking fluid and we started losing brakes. So we had to come in. Unfortunately, it took us four laps to get that changed. Just so hard to make up laps when you get that many down, especially at a track like this. We were okay at the beginning we weren't great. It's a long race, a lot can happen, but you have to be on the lead lap and we weren't." - Jeff Gordon, finished 41st
"I made it longer this week than last (laughs). That was pretty awful last week. Yeah, at this rate we're going to need to win. That's the only way we'll go into the Chase. I don't know what my deal is. But we've got to get a little better. I need to get a little better." - Kasey Kahne, finished 42nd
"At the end of the day the results won't show it, but I think for us it's … granted it's three totally different disciplines and packages and all that, but I feel like we are starting to gain some momentum. Like I said, it won't show it at the end of the day on the results, but I feel good about our weekend."- Tony Stewart, finished 43rd (broke rear gear)
Phil Allaway is the newsletter manager for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Amy Henderson
by Zach Catanzareti
by the Frontstretch Staff
Kickin' the Tires: Ward Family Seeks Jackpot Justice in Wrongful Death Case
by Jerry Jordan
XFINITY Breakdown: Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen
Kickin' the Tires: Ward Family Seeks Jackpot Justice in Wrongful Death Case
by Jerry Jordan
XFINITY Breakdown: Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen
by Joseph Wolkin
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:Q: In 2000, Kerry Earnhardt made his Cup Series debut at Michigan driving for Dave Marcis in his Realtree Chevrolet. However, that debut did not last very long. What happened?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Friday's Answer:
Q: For Sterling Marlin, the 2004 SIRIUS at the Glen is probably a race to forget. He ended up spinning into the barrier exiting turn 1. When asked what happened by NBC, what did Marlin say?
A: When asked about the crash by Bill Weber, Marlin replied, "I got run over by a bug-eyed dummy, I guess," in reference to getting hit by Greg Biffle. The crash can be seen here, while the interview can be seen here.~~~~~~~~~~
COMING TOMORROW
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©2015 Frontstretch.com
COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have breaking news from Monday and S.D. Grady returns with Sitting In The Stands: A Fan's View.
On Frontstretch.com:
Danny Peters returns with Five Points to Ponder leaving Watkins Glen.-----------------------------
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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