Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The Frontstretch Newsletter: Sprint Unlimited Eligibility Announced


THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Jan. 12, 2015
Volume X, Edition II

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What to Watch: January 12-18

- This week is the 30th running of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.  Over 300 teams are currently in Tulsa prepping for the action.  Today is the first day of heat races and preliminary features.  If you wish to observe, it's available via pay-per-view.  The B-mains and A-main will be available on the recently launched Lucas Oil Racing TV, the internet streaming arm of MavTV.  It is $59.99 for access to Lucas Oil Racing TV for a year, including their Chili Bowl coverage.  Month-to-month subscriptions are $6.99, but do not seem to include the Chili Bowl.  My personal recommendation is to get the yearly subscription.

- In addition, Goodyear is holding their first tire test of the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway through Wednesday.

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This week's TV Schedule can be found here.

Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff

NASCAR Announces Eligible Drivers for Sprint Unlimited

On Monday, NASCAR announced the five different criteria that will be used to create the 25-car starting grid for February's Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway.  2015 pole winners, Chasers, previous Sprint Unlimited winners, Daytona 500 pole sitters and the remaining top drivers in points will comprise the field.  Read more

Panasonic Toughbook Continues Partnership With Hendrick Motorsports

On Tuesday, Hendrick Motorsports announced the continuation of their partnership with Panasonic's Toughbook brand of laptops and tablets.  For 2016, the sponsorship moves from Jeff Gordon's No. 24 to Kasey Kahne's No. 5 for two races as a primary sponsor.  Read more

Menards Continues XFINITY Series Partnership With RCR

On Tuesday, Richard Childress Racing announced that the team will continue their partnership with Menards in the XFINITY Series in 2016.  Menards will sponsor entries for Paul Menard and Brandon Jones in selected races.  Read more

IMSA Holds Annual Roar Before the 24 Open Test
 
Last weekend, IMSA held their annual three-day open test known as the Roar Before the 24 at Daytona International Speedway.  Here, teams in all four classes for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, along with teams from the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge got to see what they have.  Pipo Derani turned in the quickest lap of the weekend on Sunday with a time of 1:39.249 for Tequila Patron ESM.  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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The Critic's Annex: 1997 Winston West 150
by Phil Allaway

Welcome back to another edition of the Critic's Annex.  With my trip to Daytona for the Rolex 24 just 15 days away, we're going to take the downtime and go back to classic land while we have the time.

This week, we're going back to 1997 and NASCAR Winter Heat at then-Tucson Raceway Park (now Tucson Speedway).  The race can be seen here.  The last race of Winter Heat was usually the season opener for the Winston West Series (now the K&N Pro Series West.  A good crowd came out to see a field of 22 drivers have at it on the .375 mile oval with graduated banking. 

As much as our readers might not like Brian France, Winter Heat at Tucson Raceway Park was done under his watch (France formerly ran the track).  It was definitely one of the better ideas that he's cultivated over the years.  With that said, onto the race.

The beginning of the broadcast is cut off, but we begin right after the command.  Bob Jenkins and the late Larry Rice are in the booth for espn2 to call the action.  Prior to the race, Jenkins described the somewhat special rules that were in play for the race.  The halftime break was in play at lap 75, but no GWC's.  There was also a description of the Winston West rules, necessary since Winston West cars at the time looked like Winston Cup cars.  Essentially, they were, but with a couple of changes, most notably bias-ply tires instead of radials.  In addition, engine compression ratio could affect your weight (if you ran an open compression engine, you got a 100 pound penalty).

Given the rules at the time, it was possible for Winston West teams to race in West Coast Winston Cup races.  Sears Point in 1997 was the last conjunction race between the two series.  A couple of the cars in this race competed against Cup teams that year.  Pole sitter Gary Collins is driving a very similar car to the on that Kazateru Wakida drove in the exhibition race in Japan ten months later.  Butch Gilliland and Bill Sedgwick also drove in the Suzuka event with their respective teams as well.

Early on, the focus was on the actual for position.  Tuscon Raceway Park is well-known for side-by-side action and it did not disappoint on this day.  Gary Smith tried to make a move to the inside for the lead, but he couldn't get it done.  He did move up to second before dropping back, though.

Also, a bit of time was given to the musical chairs that occurred on the day of the race.  Three drivers (Joe Bean, Ron Esau and Sedgwick) all claimed their seats on the morning of the race.  It's quite interesting how those deals came together.  Remember that Sedgwick had spent the previous two years racing for Wayne Spears (1995) and Darrell Waltrip (1996) in the Craftsman Truck Series.  As a result, he would have been a known quantity to many NASCAR race fans.

Another aspect of the coverage I liked were the aerial shots.  espn2 had a "Tether Cam" attached to a small blimp that hovered 300 feet over the ground.  It was a relatively inexpensive alternative to having something like the Pennzoil CopterCam (which, from what I remember from the one ESPN race I went to in the late 1990's, was not actually a helicopter).  The shots from the Tether Cam were great.  You could see battle set up pretty well.  The shots were not overused either.  It was not a crutch for Jenkins and Rice.

The broadcast only had one car with cameras, the No. 16 of Bill McAnally.  McAnally was not in the hunt, but the cameras on his NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet gave viewers some great shots, like Sean Woodside's move on Butch Gilliland early on.

Seeing the Tether Cam made me think about IMSA's TV plans for this year.  In last week's Newsletter, I wrote a piece based on an article by RACER's Marshall Pruett.  Since then, IMSA has officially announced their plans.  In some aspects, they're just as bad as predicted, but not wholly.  Yes, Greg Creamer and Calvin Fish will be calling races from Charlotte starting with either Sebring or Long Beach.  No, Brian Till won't be completely alone in the pits; Justin Bell will join him.  However, a good chunk of his on-air usage will be centered around feature pieces.  It makes me think they need to just put that stuff online, or give the races pre-race shows.

IMSA is touting the changes as something that allows them to have an aerial camera for race broadcasts.  It's something that they haven't had for their broadcasts in quite a while (i.e: Years), but I haven't really noticed.  Done right, it can be beneficial.  Previously, it was just there.  We'll have to see what IMSA comes up.  Needless to say, I'll be keeping an eye on their broadcasts very closely.

In Tucson back in 1997, the most controversial incident was right before the Halftime Break when Butch Gilliland (we must make a distinction here because son David Gilliland made his series debut in this race by S&P'ing) had contact with Collins, spinning the No. 28 out.  Gary Smith was tapped by Larry Gunselman and spun into Collins.  NASCAR made the rare decision to send Butch to the rear for the contact, even though it didn't seem to be intentional.

Given when it occurred, viewers got the complete story.  We got replays, interviews with everyone involved and all the other frontrunners.  Arizona native Rick DeBruhl and his cameraman did a great job here bringing viewers the coverage.  I'd be hard pressed to find you better Halftime Break coverage in a NASCAR race.

DeBruhl was pressed back into action when the red flag was thrown due to a multi-car crash on lap 111, interviewing Sedgwick and Sean Woodside in the pits after their crash.  Sedgwick was very nonchalant after his Chevrolet Lumina was taken out of the lead in what he described as a "racing deal."

Smith didn't lose a lap when he spun into Collins, but did lose a lap right after the Halftime Break when he stalled trying to avoid the spun cars of Dan Obrist and Ron Burns.  An encounter with the wall in turn 3 also hurt his Tootisetoy Chevrolet.  Despite all that, Smith was able to get back onto the lead lap and eventually finish second.  I don't understand how he was not given the black flag for jumping the restart immediately after getting back on the lead lap.  From what I could see, it was blatant.  He just "hung a left" and drove underneath Wayne Jacks before the start-finish line.  I have no idea how a move like that could be legal.

Unfortunately, the tape cuts out shortly after the race ends.  As a result, I cannot critique the post-race coverage.  Given that the YouTube video is 62 minutes and change long, my guess is that post-race coverage was likely pretty minimal due to espn2's need to get to Louisiana for the Western Kentucky-Louisiana Tech Women's College Basketball game that they advertised briefly during the event.

Overall, this was a rather perplexing race.  Jenkins mentioned that there was no electronic scoring (everything was done manually).  That showed at times.  However, ESPN did a decent job of compensating there.  The action was fast and furious.  It seems that no one went unscathed that day.  None of the five drivers that finished on the lead lap stayed out of trouble (the top 4 all spun during the race, while fifth-place finisher Gunselman smacked the wall and technically finished the race under the black flag).

Watching this race makes me wish that NBCSN gave K&N Pro Series races 90 minute timeslots instead of an hour.  Here, you got a fairly comprehensive telecast in which ESPN caught all the shenanigans that were going on.  Jenkins and Rice are both Indiana guys that knew each other well, but they rarely worked together.  Regardless, the commentary was pretty good.  I have no complaints there.  I do remember watching the race live as a 12-year old and enjoying it then as well, although I'm almost as perplexed about the wrecking now as I probably would have been then.

Thank you for checking out this review of espn2's broadcast of the 1997 Winston West 150 from Tucson Raceway Park.  Since I have paid for my subscription to Lucas Oil Racing TV, next week will see a critique of their broadcast of the Chili Bowl.  Until then, have a great week.
 
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 TRIVIA:

Q:  In 1994, a record 46 drivers earned rides for one of the 14 teams that contested the Formula One World Championship.  Why was this number so high?

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

Friday's Answer:

Q:  Here's a rare instance in which racing and game shows collide.  Name the former racer who was a contestant on Press Your Luck in 1985.

A: In January of 1985, current Verizon IndyCar Series team owner Sam Schmidt was a contestant on Press Your Luck for three days.  In that time, Schmidt won $16,350.  Schmidt's second episode can be seen here.  In his first episode, Schmidt stated that at the time, he was racing "jalopies" and planned to use money that he won to acquire a new race car.
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COMING THIS WEEK AT FRONTSTRETCH:
We'll have news from all over the world of motorsports when it breaks.
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Posted by Curious ... at 5:03 AM

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