Friday, October 02, 2015

The Frontstretch Newsletter: All Friday Dover On-Track Activity Cancelled

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Oct. 2, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CLXXVI
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What to Watch: Friday
- All track activity has been cancelled at Dover International Speedway due to heavy rains.  XFINITY qualifying for tomorrow morning has also been cancelled.  Grids for both the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series will be set by points.  The K&N Pro Series East season finale scheduled for today has been rescheduled for 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, weather permitting.
 
- Meanwhile, the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge will race their season finale today at Road Atlanta in the rain.  Coverage can be seen at IMSA.com starting at 12:15 p.m. 
 
FOLLOW THE FRONTSTRETCH THIS WEEKEND IN DOVER FROM OUR COLLEAGUES:

Joseph Wolkin (@JosephNASCAR)
Zach Catanzareti (@ZachRacing)
 
and our own Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates!
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This weekend's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato
Tuesday here.

Top News
by The Frontstretch Staff

Friday On-Track Activities Canceled At Dover

Matt Kenseth is now on the pole for Sunday's race at Dover due to all on-track activites being canceled. The XFINITY Series will also be set by owner points for their race tomorrow afternoon. Read more

Elliott Sadler Joins JR Motorsports in 2016

Friday morning, JR Motorsports announced that Elliott Sadler has been signed to replace Chase Elliott in what is now the No. 9 Chevrolet for the full XFINITY Series season.  Long-time sponsor OneMain Financial will follow Sadler to JR Motorsports as the team's primary sponsor.  Read more


NASCAR Will Increase Restart Zone For Remainder of the Season

NASCAR announced that the Restart Zone will increase in size for the remainder of the season.  The size increase will depend on the track.  In the case of Dover this weekend, it will double in size from 70 to 140 feet.  Read more

NASCAR Penalties & Warnings from Last Weekend Include No. 4 Cup Team, Darrell Wallace

Thursday, NASCAR issued a series a number of warnings and penalties stemming from Loudon last weekend.  In addition, Darrell Wallace, Jr. and Whitney Scott (Brian Scott's wife) have been placed on probation until the end of the year due to a vulgar post-race altercation.  Brian Allen, Brian Scott's motorcoach driver, has been suspended from NASCAR indefinitely for his role in the incident.  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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Frontstretch Folio: AAA 400
by Phil Allaway

The Sprint Cup Series travels to Delaware for their second appearance of the season at Dover International Speedway.  The AAA 400 can be seen at 2:30 p.m. Sunday on NBCSN; the event can also be heard on your local MRN affiliate or SiriusXM Channel 90. Drivers will compete for 400 laps (400 miles) en route to the checkered flag.

Records and facts

Last year, Jeff Gordon passed Brad Keselowski on lap 305 to take the lead prior to the final round of pit stops.  Once the final round of stops were complete, Gordon led the final 71 laps to claim the win by over four seconds.  Keselowski was second, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth.

Jimmie Johnson is the winningest driver at Dover with ten of his 74 career victories coming on the concrete high banks.  Jeff Gordon has five career Dover wins, while Tony Stewart has four.

Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.058-mile oval, 300 laps (317.4 miles)
Banking: 24 degrees in turns

Straightaways: 1,076 ft., banked 9 degrees

Grandstand Seating: 96,000
Pit Road Speed: 35 mph
Pace Car Speed: 45 mph
Opened: 1969

Website: http://www.doverspeedway.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoverInternationalSpeedway

Twitter: http://twitter.com/MonsterMile

Pre-Race Schedule:

Practice 1: Friday, October 2, 11 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. ET on NBCSN

Practice 2: Saturday, October 3, 11 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. on CNBC

Happy Hour: Saturday, September 26, 2 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. ET on NBCSN

Qualifying: Friday, October 2 at 4:45 p.m. ET on NBCSN

Say What?!

"I think, when you look at the situation, every situation is different. Obviously, our situation last year at Phoenix was most like that. The one thing that we could control was to win the race and move on. I think, as you look back on it, I don't think second place would have been good enough to move on just because of the circumstances that we wound up with after Martinsville. Definitely, in that position, it was a lot of pressure. For us, it was a great confidence booster leading into Homestead just for the fact that we had dealt with most of the pressure the week before. Leading into this year after dealing with everything at Phoenix and dealing with the weekend in Homestead and coming out on top of both of those situations, I think we have definitely gained a lot of confidence in knowing we can handle every different situation. I don't think there are a lot of them that can say that. We are definitely happy that we have been through those moments and been able to capitalize on those situations. Moving forward is really good for us as a team." - Kevin Harvick

"We showed that we could be a spoiler in this Chase. Despite a wreck last week, we've been really strong these last few weeks. We've been very consistent this year, scoring top-15 finishes in over half the races, but now, we are working on making those top-15 finishes top 10s. We scored our first top-5 finish earlier this year in Dover. Hopefully, we can repeat that this weekend. Dover is one of my favorite tracks. It gives drivers the biggest sensation of speed, so it makes it fun to race there. We'll work to race up front all day and hopefully, score another top-5 finish." - Aric Almirola

"I always like going to Dover. The track is pretty fun. I remember everyone telling me how unique and challenging Dover was prior to my first race. At the time, I didn't have a whole lot to compare that track to. They said it was like a larger version of Bristol, but I hadn't raced at Bristol yet, either. It's nice to have more of a handle on what to expect heading in there now. Dover is fun. It's fast and it can make for a really long day of racing. I think that's part of the appeal of it – how demanding it can be. We definitely want to stay out of trouble, which is easier said than done at these types of tracks." - Danica Patrick

"I really like Dover [International Speedway] because it's a unique track. We don't race on a lot of concrete surfaces and Dover is very challenging. If you just barely miss your mark at Dover, you pay for it for several laps. It's so hard to get back in the racing groove if you get shuffled out. I'm hoping to have some better luck this weekend at Dover than we had at the last race. The guys at HScott Motorsports have prepared a great Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevy for this weekend." - Justin Allgaier

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.

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TODAY ON FRONTSTRETCH:
by Amy Henderson

by the Frontstretch Staff

as told to Mike Neff

by Aaron Bearden

by Kevin Rutherford

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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:
The 1990 Grand Prix of Japan is best known for a bizarre crash on the first lap between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.  Senna all but admitted that the crash was intentional.  Like every instance that involves the two drivers, there's more to the story.  What happened before the race that angered Senna?

Check back Monday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!

Thursday's Answer:

Q:  The 1993 SplitFire Spark Plugs 500 at Dover was a wreckfest that was slightly out of line with the pre-concrete era at the one-mile oval (the race took 4 hours, 59 minutes to run, roughly a half-hour longer than normal).  A quick look on the results on Racing-Reference.info shows that Dick Trickle drove the No. 26 Quaker State Ford for King Racing in place of Brett Bodine.  What happened?

A: Bodine was involved in a crash in practice that left him with a broken wrist and other injuries that forced him to sit out the race.  At the time, Bodine had finished in the top 5 the previous two races and the top 10 in the previous three (including a second-place finish at Darlington).  While Bodine did return for Martinsville and finished sixth, the rest of the season wasn't so great for Bodine or King Racing.

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COMING MONDAY
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have recaps of the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series races from Loudon, in addition to the XFINITY Series race from Kentucky.  There will also be an update on the points and any other news that breaks this weekend.

On Frontstretch.com:
We'll have a series of post-race commentaries breaking down this weekend's action in Loudon and looking forward to Dover, the third race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
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©2015 Frontstretch.com

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