THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Aug. 20, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CXL
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Aug. 20, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CXL
~~~~~~~~~~
What to Watch: Thursday
- No official press conferences are scheduled but we'll keep you up-to-date with the latest news. XFINITY and Sprint Cup teams will head to Bristol for their turn to shine there Friday and Saturday night.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
by the Frontstretch Staff
Overcomer: Ryan Blaney Victorious in Bristol Truck Race
Ryan Blaney had one of the fastest trucks Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. He led the first 41 laps, then jumped the first restart and lost a lap performing a pass-through penalty. No problem. Blaney got back on the lead lap, charged through the field and passed Matt Crafton on a green-white-checkered restart to take the victory. Kyle Busch, after a rough start ran second while John Hunter Nemechek finished a career-best third. Daniel Hemric and Brandon Jones rounded out the top 5. Read more
Andretti Autosport Ends Lawsuit, Splits from Marketing Division
Andretti Autosport Ends Lawsuit, Splits from Marketing Division
Wednesday, Andretti Autosport announced that they have settled a lawsuit that had been brought against the race team by former employees of Andretti Sports Marketing, the outlet that has been responsible for promoting INDYCAR races at The Milwaukee Mile and NOLA Motorsports Park. As part of the settlement, Michael Andretti will divest himself of Andretti Sports Marketing, which will now rebrand itself. 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~~~~~~~~~~
Regan Smith's Bump and Sprint Car Roll Bars
Potts' Shots
by John Potts
I suppose by now just about everybody's opinion about the finish of the XFINITY race last week on Mid-Ohio's road course has been aired... except mine. Want to know that one? I didn't like it.
It's not because I'm a particular fan of Alex Tagliani or dislike Regan Smith. It's simply because Smith obviously didn't care how he won it and darn near shoved Tagliani into the pit entrance on the final turn.
I liked Tagliani's comment after the race when he said, "He knows I won't be around next week to retaliate." If I was Roger Penske, I'd have to think about putting Tagliani in a car for that Bristol race just to put some uncertainty into Regan Smith's head.
I suppose you could say Smith didn't want to wreck him; he just wanted to rattle his cage a little bit. Yes, I was a fan of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. but that doesn't mean I liked everything he did.
It seems that the "bump and run" has become accepted nowadays, but that still doesn't make it right. This one was more of a "shove and run." That's my opinion.
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Safety is such a hot topic nowadays. Here's a little dissertation about roll bars way before their time in open-wheel racing.
I've always been a big fan of sprint car racing and nobody was happier than I to see roll cages come along. Roll cages, yes; wings, no. Just don't like 'em.
There were times back in my younger days when it seemed like we were losing a driver a week.
(Back in the days when we were running the Thursday Thunder series at Indianapolis Raceway Park we had an SCCA official come out to help us and USAC with a computer program. He protested that he didn't like sprint car racing but agreed to assist. During practice, he turned to me and Dick Jordan, USAC's news director, and said, "Y'know, they don't look half bad without wings on 'em.")
Anyway, this story comes from an friend of mine in Indiana named Roger Zellner….
Back in the 1970s, when Pancho Carter was kicking everybody's tail in the USAC sprint cars, his father, the late Duane (Pappy) Carter Sr. was interviewed at Winchester. Pappy (and later Pancho as well as his half-brother Johnny Parsons Jr.) was a particular favorite of mine because as a pre-teen I'd seen him and drivers like Troy Ruttman do battle on the intimidating banks at Salem, Dayton, and Winchester, so this story interested me.
Roger thinks it was probably Bill Donnella doing the interview, and he mentioned that the sprint cars of the day had full roll cages while back in the early '50s the cars Pappy was driving didn't even have a roll bar. Pappy noted that he had actually driven a car out on the West Coast which had a roll bar long before they began appearing on open-wheel racers. The bars, he said, weren't there for the safety of the driver but for the convenience of the car owner and mechanic.
Back then, the cars were all hand built. You couldn't call up somebody like Maxim, Gambler, Speedway Motors, etc. and tell them to send you a new hood, nose, tail, or whatever. A lot of time-consuming work was required to put the car back into decent shape. The main reason for the roll bars, the senior Carter said, was to protect the car body in case it turned over.
He described in detail how the car not only had a roll bar over the tail right behind the driver but another small one over the nose as well.
Roger even included the accompanying photo, taken of Pappy in 1937, which shows one of those cars…
It's not because I'm a particular fan of Alex Tagliani or dislike Regan Smith. It's simply because Smith obviously didn't care how he won it and darn near shoved Tagliani into the pit entrance on the final turn.
I liked Tagliani's comment after the race when he said, "He knows I won't be around next week to retaliate." If I was Roger Penske, I'd have to think about putting Tagliani in a car for that Bristol race just to put some uncertainty into Regan Smith's head.
I suppose you could say Smith didn't want to wreck him; he just wanted to rattle his cage a little bit. Yes, I was a fan of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. but that doesn't mean I liked everything he did.
It seems that the "bump and run" has become accepted nowadays, but that still doesn't make it right. This one was more of a "shove and run." That's my opinion.
---
Safety is such a hot topic nowadays. Here's a little dissertation about roll bars way before their time in open-wheel racing.
I've always been a big fan of sprint car racing and nobody was happier than I to see roll cages come along. Roll cages, yes; wings, no. Just don't like 'em.
There were times back in my younger days when it seemed like we were losing a driver a week.
(Back in the days when we were running the Thursday Thunder series at Indianapolis Raceway Park we had an SCCA official come out to help us and USAC with a computer program. He protested that he didn't like sprint car racing but agreed to assist. During practice, he turned to me and Dick Jordan, USAC's news director, and said, "Y'know, they don't look half bad without wings on 'em.")
Anyway, this story comes from an friend of mine in Indiana named Roger Zellner….
Back in the 1970s, when Pancho Carter was kicking everybody's tail in the USAC sprint cars, his father, the late Duane (Pappy) Carter Sr. was interviewed at Winchester. Pappy (and later Pancho as well as his half-brother Johnny Parsons Jr.) was a particular favorite of mine because as a pre-teen I'd seen him and drivers like Troy Ruttman do battle on the intimidating banks at Salem, Dayton, and Winchester, so this story interested me.
Roger thinks it was probably Bill Donnella doing the interview, and he mentioned that the sprint cars of the day had full roll cages while back in the early '50s the cars Pappy was driving didn't even have a roll bar. Pappy noted that he had actually driven a car out on the West Coast which had a roll bar long before they began appearing on open-wheel racers. The bars, he said, weren't there for the safety of the driver but for the convenience of the car owner and mechanic.
Back then, the cars were all hand built. You couldn't call up somebody like Maxim, Gambler, Speedway Motors, etc. and tell them to send you a new hood, nose, tail, or whatever. A lot of time-consuming work was required to put the car back into decent shape. The main reason for the roll bars, the senior Carter said, was to protect the car body in case it turned over.
He described in detail how the car not only had a roll bar over the tail right behind the driver but another small one over the nose as well.
Roger even included the accompanying photo, taken of Pappy in 1937, which shows one of those cars…
John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com. Potts also provided the picture above, via Roger Zellner.
~~~~~~~~~~
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The Critic's Annex: UNOH 200 Presented by ZLOOP
by Phil Allaway
Gotta love those Wednesday night races. Despite what my colleagues say, Wednesday night races are a little tough. For me personally, Wednesday night is already the busiest night of the week without a race being run. With a race, it becomes exhausting. That is the background for today's critique.
The Camping World Truck Series returned to Bristol for another 200-lap slugfest with FOX Sports 1 at the helm. I was looking at a number of topics during the broadcast that peaked my interest.
One of those topics was essentially Michael Waltrip's mindset. As you all know, he announced the imminent closure of Michael Waltrip Racing Wednesday morning, then had to go on television that very evening. As much criticism (and rightly so) that I heap on Waltrip, that's a tough go in general. The man's put his heart into the team (and a buttload of his own money) for years only for it to blow up in his face. Adam Alexander acknowledged during NASCAR RaceHub Wednesday that he and Waltrip had been talking over the situation during the day and Waltrip was able to give his thoughts on there prior to the Setup. As a result, the topic never came up during the telecast.
During the race broadcast itself, Waltrip seemed to be about normal (well, normal for Waltrip). It appears that he was able to tune out his ongoing business woes and commit fully to the race. He didn't take over the airwaves with a "woe is me" mindset. As crazy as he can act in the booth at times (and believe me, he does. Look no further than the NASCAR Nonsense clips on YouTube) Waltrip can be a professional at times. Wednesday night was one of those times.
Another topic was that of the Nemecheks. Ray Dunlap did an interview with John Hunter Nemechek and his father/co-owner Joe where they talked about a number of topics. While Joe is naturally proud of his son, he's not above blaming him for things that he rightfully did. The Matt Crafton crash at Gateway back in June was one of those examples. Joe stated that he believed that the wreck was John Hunter's fault on FOX Sports 1's broadcast back then and repeated that during the interview. While he does field John Hunter's team, Joe's not in the business of being John Hunter's protector. I thought it was a great sitdown in that you can see just what the relationship is between the Nemecheks. It's a loving relationship but John Hunter is not in a position to take anything for granted.
Once the race started, the action was fast and furious. Having Adam Alexander back in the play-by-play role brought a sense of normalcy to the affair, which has been anything but this year due to the musical chairs booth setup. Viewers saw multiple split-screen battles for position and they weren't limited to the very front of the field.
The one story that really didn't get a lot of play last night were the debutant drivers Dalton Sargeant and JJ Haley. For the most part, they kept themselves out of trouble and had decent nights. Sargeant finished tenth, despite smacking the wall right at the finish. While it's not the best result Wauters Motorsports has posted in the series (John Wes Townley's fourth at Charlotte last year is the team's best effort to this point) it's a very good start. Haley finished 14th and was nearly invisible for most of the night. I just figured going in that there would have been more time spent on them, in particular for a series that has struggled to bring new teams to the table in recent years. Shrinking fields won't unshrink when the new trucks get no TV time.
The crash that took Cole Custer out of contention was not necessarily covered as well as it could have been either. FOX Sports 1's cameras were zoomed in a little too far on the battle for the lead between Custer and Matt Crafton. As a result, they missed Spencer Gallagher's spin that likely cost Custer the win; they only got the aftermath where we saw Custer hit Gallagher. Replays showed that Gallagher spun after contact from Dalton Sargeant, but the booth was never really sure about it.
I was not really a fan of how FOX Sports 1 handled the rain delay. They stuck around for about ten minutes, then left for FOX Sports Live with Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole. For some reason, only a 90-minute time slot was delegated for the race. Anyone could have told you that it wasn't going to be enough time without a rain delay. While Onrait and O'Toole did give updates on what was going on at the track, I would have liked to see FOX Sports 1 hold off on the highlight show. They ended up staying away so long that they missed the call to trucks, any real post-rain delay analysis and two laps under caution. I just don't think that's going to work going forward.
Once the race resumed, it was a mere ten minutes before it was over. Given that we were nearly a full hour over the scheduled sign-off time, viewers got a decent amount of post-race coverage, all while Onrait and O'Toole were twiddling their thumbs back in Los Angeles. There were some technical issues with Kaitlyn Vincie's interview with Crafton, though. We missed about half of it although viewers could still tell that Crafton was rather peeved with the final restart.
Overall, Wednesday's broadcast was a mixed bag. The racing itself was pretty good, but the way it was presented at times could be better. Zooming in too much bit FOX Sports 1, especially with the Custer wreck. You have to be careful about that.
Hope you enjoyed this week's look at the Camping World Truck Series UNOH 200 broadcast. Next week, we'll back with more TV criticism and opinion. Until then, enjoy the weekend of racing all over the country.
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
"The biggest advice they have given me is that whatever I want to do, I can pursue it, whether I want to be an astronaut and fly into outer space, be a racecar driver or make clothes for a living. I decided to try the competition side of racing, and that is where I am at today. I think their biggest advice has been do whatever you enjoy doing. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as you enjoy doing it." - Ben Kennedy, on the advice given to him by his family (Kennedy is the son of NASCAR's Lesa France Kennedy)
~~~~~~~~~~
by Beth Lunkenheimer (with Mike Neff reporting)
Beyond the Cockpit: Timothy Peters on Longevity in a Changing Series
Beyond the Cockpit: Timothy Peters on Longevity in a Changing Series
by Aaron Bearden
by Joseph Wolkin
by P. Huston Ladner
by Toni Montgomery
by Joseph Wolkin
ATHLON SPORTS:
by Tom Bowles
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: The 1999 Goody's Headache Powders 500 at Bristol is best known for Dale Earnhardt "rattling Terry Labonte's cage" all over turn 2 on the last lap. However, Labonte was actually leading with 15 laps to go. How did he end up behind Earnhardt in the first place?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: The 2002 Sharpie 500 is best known for Jeff Gordon executing his second bump 'n' run on Rusty Wallace to win at Bristol. But earlier in the race, Ward Burton's night ended after a race for 12th went wrong. What happened?
A: Burton was racing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for position when Earnhardt Jr. got in the back of Burton entering turn 3. Burton spun and backed into the wall while Earnhardt Jr. continued. The crash can be seen here.
Naturally, Burton was not pleased. In a move that would get him fined $25,000 now, Burton walked up onto the active track and threw his heat shield booties at Earnhardt Jr.'s car. Later, he gave an interview in which he had trouble keeping his true feelings inside.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll preview this weekend's racing at Bristol, in addition to bringing you Thursday's news.
On Frontstretch.com:
We'll have another edition of Four Burning Questions to get you ready for Bristol this weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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