THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Sep. 24, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CLXX
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Sep. 24, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CLXX
~~~~~~~~~~
What to Watch: Thursday
- Today is pull-in day for the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series teams at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. No on-track activity is scheduled.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
by the Frontstretch Staff
Clint Bowyer's Chase Takes Hit with Chicago Penalty
Wednesday, NASCAR released their weekly penalty report with a surprise hit to a main Chase contender. Clint Bowyer's No. 15 team, part of Michael Waltrip Racing was hit with a P4 penalty for illegal track bar adjustments behind the right rear quarterpanel of the car. The incident, discovered in prequalifying inspection cost Bowyer and owner Michael Waltrip 25 points. Crew chief Billy Scott has been suspended for three races and fined $75,000. The team plans to appeal. Read more
Sport Clips Doubles Sponsorship of Carl Edwards
Joe Gibbs Racing announced Wednesday that Sport Clips will expand their primary sponsorship on Carl Edwards' No. 19 Toyota from two to four races in 2015. The additional events include this weekend's Sylvania 300 in Loudon and the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Read more
Pocono to Be Added to XFINITY Schedule
Motorsport.com's Jim Utter is reporting Pocono Raceway will be added to the XFINITY Series schedule in 2016. The scalene triangle will replace the standalone race at Chicagoland Speedway for the series, an event that's been typically held in midsummer. Read more
Travis Pastrana Returning to NASCAR for Truck Race
Sport Clips Doubles Sponsorship of Carl Edwards
Joe Gibbs Racing announced Wednesday that Sport Clips will expand their primary sponsorship on Carl Edwards' No. 19 Toyota from two to four races in 2015. The additional events include this weekend's Sylvania 300 in Loudon and the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Read more
Pocono to Be Added to XFINITY Schedule
Motorsport.com's Jim Utter is reporting Pocono Raceway will be added to the XFINITY Series schedule in 2016. The scalene triangle will replace the standalone race at Chicagoland Speedway for the series, an event that's been typically held in midsummer. Read more
Travis Pastrana Returning to NASCAR for Truck Race
NTS Motorsports announced Wednesday that Travis Pastrana will drive the team's No. 31 Chevrolet at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It will be Pastrana's Camping World Truck Series debut and his first race in NASCAR since leaving Roush Fenway Racing at the conclusion of the 2013 season. Read more
TaxSlayer Returning to JR Motorsports in 2016
TaxSlayer Returning to JR Motorsports in 2016
JR Motorsports announced Wednesday that TaxSlayer has re-upped as a primary sponsor with the team for 2016. The company that specializes in tax returns will sponsor a combination of JR Motorsports' Nos. 7 and 88 for ten races. In addition, TaxSlayer will sponsor Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s No. 88 in the Sprint Cup Series for one event. 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~~~~~~~~~~
More Memories of Louisville's Fairgrounds Motor Speedway
Potts' Shots
by John Potts
Here's another story from the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway in Louisville involving some of the best drivers ever to come out of the area.
This one comes from Frank Scott, the historian and keeper of the FMS website. I knew the bare bones of the situation but Frank got the straight skinny in a conversation with Frank James Kimmel, Sr. Yeah, the guy who has won so many ARCA championships and is the son of Bill Kimmel, one of my oldest friends in racing.
It concerns Andy Hampton, another regular in ARCA as well as FMS who, as Milt Hartlauf used to say, was like fine bourbon: he got better with age. I once flagged a heat race at the Fairgrounds which Hampton was leading and he cut the left front tire on the second lap. I reached for the black flag but then I noticed he wasn't leaving any sparks.
Hampton drove the rest of that race keeping the left front up off the track, not causing any problem. When the checkered flag came out, he went straight into the pits to keep from tearing up the track.
Back in the late '60s, Hartlauf, as promoter and general manager at FMS, had a rough situation on his hands. Bobby Watson had built a '62 Ford which went anywhere he pointed it and was seriously stinking up the feature races. As Frank Scott says, "…he was spanking the field every Saturday night."
One weekend, Hartlauf offered Watson a $1,000 bonus if he would start on the pole, a lap down, and then come all the way through the field to win the race. Frank says he did it without the benefit of a caution flag but I think both Scott and Kimmel were a little young to remember it exactly. I was the pit steward at the time and remember Bobby came through the field but couldn't get past Roy Wathen at the finish.
I think Hartlauf paid him part of the bonus anyway. As I recall, Earl Baltes was there that night and he was willing to bet anybody that Watson would do it. Don't know how much Earl lost....
The track also had a Modified Division at the time and Frank Kimmel's dad, Bill Sr., was pretty much stinking up that show. These were older cars and interchanging of engine makes between brands was allowed. This adjustment wasn't allowed in the Late Models, but if the body style was of the current year, there was a bonus for winning.
There were some pretty wild nicknames on the Modifieds – "Wild Child," "Half Breed," and the never to be forgotten "Honcho" on Kimmel's 1955 Ford with a Chevrolet engine.
Always looking for a chance to make a buck, Kimmel told Hartlauf he could beat Watson with Honcho in the feature, which mixed the Late Models and Modifieds, provided he got a good set of cylinder heads and an intake. Hartlauf said if he did, he'd re-pay Kimmel for the investment in the new parts.
Kimmel rounded up the needed parts and personally put the engine together. Most of the good running Late Models were running big block engines but Bill had 327 in Honcho. The big blocks were only turning about 4500 RPMs and weighed close to 3,500 pounds or more. Honcho only weighed 2,900, and with the small block equipped with a roller cam and lifters, he could crank up to 7500 RPMs.
Then, another snag developed. Kimmel was doing well in the point standings in the Late Models with his 1967 Fairlane so he needed somebody to drive Honcho.
Enter Andy Hampton. Andy was heavier than Bill (still is) so some adjustments had to be made in the weight distribution. They worked it out and got the car ready.
With appropriate publicity, the big night arrived and Watson won his heat race. Meanwhile, Hampton captured his heat race driving Honcho. They raced together for the first time in the 15-lap Modified semi-feature and Watson won it with Hampton running second.
To the crowd's shock, Hampton pulled alongside Watson as he got the checkered flag for the victory lap, extending his left arm out the window holding the outer ring and one spoke of the steering wheel. Yeah, he drove most of the race using the two remaining spokes. A lot of the specialized equipment you see nowadays wasn't always in use at local tracks back in the day.
The field then got totally inverted for the feature and these two, as the fastest qualifiers, made up the last row. Before long, they got around Jerry Norris and John Sommerville, then Jesse Baird and Wathen and finally to the front.
With a repaired steering wheel, Hampton pulled away from Watson and won the feature. The story is that Hartlauf did, in fact spring for the price of the cylinder heads and intake, as he had promised Kimmel. It was probably worth it; the stands were packed and the crowd was treated to a great race.
I'm sure there are stories like this one and some even better about other short tracks which ran back in the day. Let me know if you have any and I'll try to pass them on.
John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com.
Here's another story from the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway in Louisville involving some of the best drivers ever to come out of the area.
This one comes from Frank Scott, the historian and keeper of the FMS website. I knew the bare bones of the situation but Frank got the straight skinny in a conversation with Frank James Kimmel, Sr. Yeah, the guy who has won so many ARCA championships and is the son of Bill Kimmel, one of my oldest friends in racing.
It concerns Andy Hampton, another regular in ARCA as well as FMS who, as Milt Hartlauf used to say, was like fine bourbon: he got better with age. I once flagged a heat race at the Fairgrounds which Hampton was leading and he cut the left front tire on the second lap. I reached for the black flag but then I noticed he wasn't leaving any sparks.
Hampton drove the rest of that race keeping the left front up off the track, not causing any problem. When the checkered flag came out, he went straight into the pits to keep from tearing up the track.
Back in the late '60s, Hartlauf, as promoter and general manager at FMS, had a rough situation on his hands. Bobby Watson had built a '62 Ford which went anywhere he pointed it and was seriously stinking up the feature races. As Frank Scott says, "…he was spanking the field every Saturday night."
One weekend, Hartlauf offered Watson a $1,000 bonus if he would start on the pole, a lap down, and then come all the way through the field to win the race. Frank says he did it without the benefit of a caution flag but I think both Scott and Kimmel were a little young to remember it exactly. I was the pit steward at the time and remember Bobby came through the field but couldn't get past Roy Wathen at the finish.
I think Hartlauf paid him part of the bonus anyway. As I recall, Earl Baltes was there that night and he was willing to bet anybody that Watson would do it. Don't know how much Earl lost....
The track also had a Modified Division at the time and Frank Kimmel's dad, Bill Sr., was pretty much stinking up that show. These were older cars and interchanging of engine makes between brands was allowed. This adjustment wasn't allowed in the Late Models, but if the body style was of the current year, there was a bonus for winning.
There were some pretty wild nicknames on the Modifieds – "Wild Child," "Half Breed," and the never to be forgotten "Honcho" on Kimmel's 1955 Ford with a Chevrolet engine.
Always looking for a chance to make a buck, Kimmel told Hartlauf he could beat Watson with Honcho in the feature, which mixed the Late Models and Modifieds, provided he got a good set of cylinder heads and an intake. Hartlauf said if he did, he'd re-pay Kimmel for the investment in the new parts.
Kimmel rounded up the needed parts and personally put the engine together. Most of the good running Late Models were running big block engines but Bill had 327 in Honcho. The big blocks were only turning about 4500 RPMs and weighed close to 3,500 pounds or more. Honcho only weighed 2,900, and with the small block equipped with a roller cam and lifters, he could crank up to 7500 RPMs.
Then, another snag developed. Kimmel was doing well in the point standings in the Late Models with his 1967 Fairlane so he needed somebody to drive Honcho.
Enter Andy Hampton. Andy was heavier than Bill (still is) so some adjustments had to be made in the weight distribution. They worked it out and got the car ready.
With appropriate publicity, the big night arrived and Watson won his heat race. Meanwhile, Hampton captured his heat race driving Honcho. They raced together for the first time in the 15-lap Modified semi-feature and Watson won it with Hampton running second.
To the crowd's shock, Hampton pulled alongside Watson as he got the checkered flag for the victory lap, extending his left arm out the window holding the outer ring and one spoke of the steering wheel. Yeah, he drove most of the race using the two remaining spokes. A lot of the specialized equipment you see nowadays wasn't always in use at local tracks back in the day.
The field then got totally inverted for the feature and these two, as the fastest qualifiers, made up the last row. Before long, they got around Jerry Norris and John Sommerville, then Jesse Baird and Wathen and finally to the front.
With a repaired steering wheel, Hampton pulled away from Watson and won the feature. The story is that Hartlauf did, in fact spring for the price of the cylinder heads and intake, as he had promised Kimmel. It was probably worth it; the stands were packed and the crowd was treated to a great race.
I'm sure there are stories like this one and some even better about other short tracks which ran back in the day. Let me know if you have any and I'll try to pass them on.
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: Federated Car Care Fall Classic 200
by Phil Allaway
The last few days have been very busy in the NASCAR TV realm. We had Jamie McMurray's debut as a booth analyst Saturday, which I covered yesterday here in the Newsletter. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. recently told FOX Sports Live's Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole during the Chase Across North America media tour that he'd like to give booth analysis a shot. Apparently, FOX has extended the offer to Earnhardt Jr. to do an XFINITY Series race (or more) in the booth next season. We'll see how that goes. At the very least, he should be interesting.
Over in ARCA, the series just had their second internet pay-per-view broadcast last weekend at Salem Speedway. I missed the Troop Aid 200 broadcast back in April and wanted to get an idea of what fans were getting. They had a special price of $9.98 and I decided to jump on it to see what you get.
For that money, you get a decent amount of pre-race coverage. Booth commentators Charles Krall and Tim Clagg served as hosts and introduced the race and the storylines in place. When they had interviews (and there were several) they would cut it down to the sole pit reporter on the broadcast. In Nashville, that role was taken by Kristen Beat, who is now the morning news anchor at FOX 47 and a reporter for WILX (NBC 10) in Lansing, Michigan (the two stations operate under a news share agreement).
With Beat out of the picture, the pit reporter role was taken by Matt Weaver, a veteran of covering short track action throughout the Eastern United States. Also, Weaver is officially a fellow writer at Frontstretch, having provided coverage of the Verizon IndyCar Series for us this year. That makes this critique a rare opportunity to assess a colleague. On the broadcast, it was mentioned that Saturday night was Weaver's very first TV gig. For that level of experience, I found Weaver did a good job. He had solid interviews with the various drivers he got to talk with before, during and after the race and gave viewers some good information from the pits.
If anything, I don't think the broadcast used Weaver enough during the race. News on issues that drivers were having were slow in coming. I don't necessarily know if that means teams weren't forthcoming with information or if Weaver just didn't get a chance to pass it along. I have no idea why Austin Wayne Self stalled during the final caution, for example.
If anything, I don't think the broadcast used Weaver enough during the race. News on issues that drivers were having were slow in coming. I don't necessarily know if that means teams weren't forthcoming with information or if Weaver just didn't get a chance to pass it along. I have no idea why Austin Wayne Self stalled during the final caution, for example.
Krall, who is essentially an ARCA expert (I first encountered him a decade ago on a long-dead message board, posting old ARCA clips, although he's more well-known for his alter ego these days) served as the play-by-play commentator while Clagg was the analyst. The actual race coverage that we got was not bad, although they had a fairly limited number of cameras covering the action. As a result, the broadcast missed some stuff. For instance, Thomas Praytor crashed on the frontstretch after blowing a tire and we never really saw what happened. We did get some replays during the race, like when Tyler Dippel ran in the back of Ken Schrader under yellow (that's a whoopsies) but not as many as the preview video seemed to promise.
Another issue: JJ Haley got busted for intentionally stopping on track to cause the second caution and was given a five-lap penalty. I don't believe that the penalty was ever mentioned on the broadcast, though. I don't even know why he stopped to draw the caution in the first place. It just came out of nowhere.
The scoring problems were ridiculous during the race, but it wasn't really the broadcast's fault; it was on ARCA's end. The race started off with a scroll on the screen that looked very similar to what I'm used to from the ARCA telecasts on CBS Sports Network. However, that scroll stopped updating on lap 17. There was no mention made of the issues at the time.
The scoring problems were ridiculous during the race, but it wasn't really the broadcast's fault; it was on ARCA's end. The race started off with a scroll on the screen that looked very similar to what I'm used to from the ARCA telecasts on CBS Sports Network. However, that scroll stopped updating on lap 17. There was no mention made of the issues at the time.
The scroll stayed frozen until lap 51, where it advanced to lap 42 and stayed there. Later on, the live scoring on ARCA's website froze on lap 78. The broadcast's graphics were tied into the official scoring, so when they would put graphics indicating individual drivers, they were based on whatever lap the scoring was on, a quirk which often meant that they were wrong.
Krall and Clagg did reference the scoring issues but they failed to be more proactive about telling the viewers what lap the race was actually on. It says a lot that I basically had to become my own lap counter for the purposes of note taking for this column. The result was a frustrating watch at times. I felt like I would have known more about what was going on if I were actually sitting in the stands at Salem Speedway. At least I'd have the scoreboard to go off of, you know? The scoring did eventually get corrected; it returned first to the website around lap 140, then to the broadcast (via the scroll) on lap 154.
Despite the terrible issues with scoring, the action on track was pretty good as Will Kimmel and A.J. Fike had a great duel for the lead. Krall and Clagg did a good job covering the on-track action despite being hampered by the aforementioned problems.
Post-race coverage was a little bit less than what CBS Sports Network usually provides for ARCA races. We got interviews with the top-3 finishers and that was it.
Since this broadcast was through the internet I must also critique the quality of the stream. However, this "watch" is just from my experience and my experience can differ from those of others. The picture fluctuated in qualify from crystal clear to muddy and pixelated, much like broadcasts on WatchESPN. I lost the stream once during the race, but all it took to get it back was to press play where the stream was, then click the live button. Later in the race, the video started to stagger a bit. However, I think that was more on my end than on theirs. I do think that other viewers had issues with the stream as well, based on the posts in the chat that I saw. Don Radebaugh, who you might remember from past ARCA broadcasts, was in the chat and tried to help users (he does communications for the series).
Overall, it was a pretty good race to watch on track but a number of issues hurt the broadcast. Internet streaming is clearly a work in progress for ARCA.
I hope you enjoyed this look at ARCA's stream of the Federated Car Care Fall Classic 200. Next week, we'll be back with more critiques, perhaps the new Beyond the Wheel piece on Robbie Allison. Until then, enjoy this weekend's action in Loudon, Sparta and Suzuka.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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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"I was texting Tommy on a Friday, just joking with him and saying to put me in a second car, and he was like nah. When we won at Stafford, he texted me at like 12:30 and I said 'Cup ride.' I got a text the next morning on the way to Riverhead and he said he had a handshake deal with Jay Robinson with the 98 number with his motor and Tommy Baldwin's equipment, car, frame, chassis, setup and everything. I'm excited to go do it." - Ryan Preece, on how he got the opportunity to attempt to make his Sprint Cup debut this weekend in Loudon
Frontstretch Line of the Week
"I was texting Tommy on a Friday, just joking with him and saying to put me in a second car, and he was like nah. When we won at Stafford, he texted me at like 12:30 and I said 'Cup ride.' I got a text the next morning on the way to Riverhead and he said he had a handshake deal with Jay Robinson with the 98 number with his motor and Tommy Baldwin's equipment, car, frame, chassis, setup and everything. I'm excited to go do it." - Ryan Preece, on how he got the opportunity to attempt to make his Sprint Cup debut this weekend in Loudon
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by P. Huston Ladner
by Aaron Bearden and Sean Fesko
by Toni Montgomery
by Beth Lunkenheimer
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In the 1998 Farm Aid on CMT 300, Jeff Gordon picked up his ninth win of the year and the fifth in six weeks. However, there was controversy after the race. What happened?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: In 1997, then-New Hampshire International Speedway received their second date after track founder Bob Bahre bought 50 percent ownership in North Wilkesboro Speedway for the sole reasoning of transferring the fall Cup race. In that first fall race in New Hampshire, Geoff Bodine finished on the lead lap in 16th, but had a heck of a time getting there. What happened?
A: Bodine finished 16th, but spun out four times in the race. The first time saw him get spun out by Jeff Gordon. Later on, Bodine spun exiting turn 2 on lap 167 in an incident that did not bring out a yellow, then spun again after hitting Ricky Rudd. Finally, Bodine spun again late in the race on the frontstretch and got hit from behind.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll cover any breaking Sprint Cup news and take a closer look at Sunday's Chase race at New Hampshire.
On Frontstretch.com:
We'll have a suite of great columns to prep you for this weekend's action.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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