Monday, March 07, 2016

The Frontstretch Newsletter: Brad Keselowski Claims Kobalt 400 Win with Late Pass

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Mar. 7, 2016
Volume X, Edition XXIII

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NEW POSTING: SALES & BRANDING MANAGER

Frontstretch is seeking a dynamic, creative individual to head our sales team. The individual would be responsible for the following:
- Engaging new partners and taking the lead in brokering agreements for sales & advertising across all Frontstretch outlets: Website, Newsletter, Podcast, and video content
- Responding to exposure inquiries from potential advertisers
- Working with our social media team to enhance the marketing and branding experience for our advertising clients

The position will be a direct report to our Business and Financial Manager, a position that also will work closely with the Majority Owner and Social Media team. A fast-growing website whose writers have won multiple NMPA Awards, the Frontstretch is well-positioned for success in 2016 and has a healthy audience of over seven figures per year. The role, while initially commission-based offers a generous percentage and perks down the road for this startup company. Frontstretch management has, in many cases been in place for nearly a decade before becoming a for-profit website and we're excited to welcome the right person into this family atmosphere.

Interested parties should email tbowles81@yahoo.com with a short note on why they're interested and their current resume. 
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What to Watch: Monday

- Today, the teams are (if they didn't complete it after the race on Sunday) swapping out their equipment with new stuff brought on auxiliary transporters from shops on the East Coast (Furniture Row Racing, with their Colorado base, is again an exception).  From there, they'll make the haul to Phoenix or to a temporary West Coast base for the next couple of days.
 
- Also, with the Verizon IndyCar Series returning to action this weekend in Florida, expect to see some more INDYCAR publicity as well.  Juan Pablo Montoya is in Connecticut for the ESPN Carwash as this is being written.

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Monday's TV Schedule can be found here.
 
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff

Brad Keselowski Plays Winning Hand For Kobalt 400 Win

Brad Keselowski overcame a pit road speeding penalty to run down and pass Kyle Busch in the final laps to take the victory in Sunday's Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Teammate Joey Logano completed a Team Penske 1-2.  Jimmie Johnson edged Kyle Busch at the line for fourth, while Austin Dillon was fifth.  Read more

Kyle Busch Scores Dominant Boyd Gaming 300 Victory

On Saturday, Kyle Busch opened a can on the rest of the XFINITY Series field.  The 2015 Sprint Cup Series Champion led 199 of the 200 laps en route to his first XFINITY Series win in Las Vegas.  Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones completed a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3 finish.  Sprint Cup regulars Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon were fourth and fifth.  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: Kyle Busch Continues to Lead with Consistency
by Phil Allaway

Kyle Busch continues to place himself where he needs to be on Sundays.  His fourth-place finish in Las Vegas allowed him to keep the points lead and expand his advantage.  His lead is now seven points over Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.  Johnson finished third on Sunday and wins the tiebreaker over Harvick by virtue of his win at Atlanta.  Harvick finished seventh, but was never really a factor at the front of the field.  Joey Logano is up three positions to fourth in points after passing Kyle Busch on the last lap for second.

One point behind Logano is pole-sitter Kurt Busch.  Kurt led early on, then got busted for speeding on pit road during the competition caution.  Later, he had contact with Carl Edwards and almost spun in turn 1.  Despite those issues, Kurt still managed to finish ninth.  By virtue of his win, Brad Keselowski is now up to sixth in points.  Edwards is now seventh after spinning in a lap 225 crash and finishing 18th.  Denny Hamlin is down four places to eighth after a 19th-place finish.

Martin Truex, Jr. is back to ninth after a quiet 11th-place finish in Las Vegas.  One point behind Truex is Austin Dillon, fresh off of a fifth-place finish.  Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. is now 11th in points following a consistent run to 12th on Sunday.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rounds out the top 12.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Busch 115, t-2) Jimmie Johnson -7, t-2) Kevin Harvick -7, 4) Joey Logano -11, 5) Kurt Busch -12, 6) Brad Keselowski -18, 7) Carl Edwards -19, 8) Denny Hamlin -23, 9) Martin Truex, Jr. -25, 10) Austin Dillon -26, 11) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. -36, 12) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -37, 13) Kasey Kahne -38, 14) Ryan Blaney -42, 15) Aric Almirola -43, 16) Jamie McMurray -46.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta), Brad Keselowski (Las Vegas)
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Kobalt 400 was brought to you by the letter "W," for Weather.  Coming into the weekend, there was a substantial threat of rain that could have curtailed the entire day.  That didn't happen, although the race start was delayed due to a couple of showers.  The wind was a huge story, though.  Gusts to 45 mph made for a tricky handling situation all day.  - Phil Allaway

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Quotes to Remember: Kobalt 400
compiled by Phil Allaway

"Thrilled to be back in Victory Lane. Thrilled to be locked into the Chase so early in the season, which is a tremendous feeling for our team, one that we're of course very thankful for.

"Team Penske, 50th anniversary, this is the first win of the year. That feels really good.
For our team, I think we've seen such a major turnaround in a couple key areas, essentially the pit crew especially. My guys on pit road, there's nobody I would trade for right now. They're the hottest group on pit road, a large part of our success this week. They helped to keep us strong last week as well in Atlanta.

"All that stuff paid off and is a big part of being in Victory Lane here today. Had to fight for it. Certainly wasn't an easy race with, like you said, the weather. I didn't think the weather was as big of a challenge as I thought it was going to be, specific to the wind. You could feel it, but it didn't put us in anything that I thought was too risque.

"I did feel like the speeding penalty early, middle to late part of the race, was something that was very detrimental. But Paul and the team, they got us in a spot where we could have enough speed and strategy to get back in it." - Brad Keselowski, race winner

"Brad was able to beat me in the bottom of three and four and maintaining that turn and being able to drive up underneath guys. Congratulations to Brad and also for Team Penske getting a 1-2 finish. That is what we set out to do every week. I am proud of what we did. Gosh, we finished second so many times, Daytona and qualifying. You are so close and want it so bad but I am so proud of the Pennzoil boys here with everything they did all week. We will go get them next week.

"We had a good car. We led a lot of laps. Brad was just really good on the long run. I tried to hold him off as long as I could but he showed how fast he was getting by me and Kyle and checking out. Congratulations to Team Penske. It is something to be very proud of for our team. We have a lot of second place finishes already this year. I know we are only three races in but I am getting antsy. We have good speed in our cars, we will be alright." - Joey Logano, finished second

"Track position was pretty important.  The series of events leading up to that last restart kind of had us deeper in track position than we needed to be for the win.  We still got a third, which is good, but those top three or four cars were pretty equal.  It was just real hard to get there and get inside of somebody.  I was impressed the No. 2 was able to sit behind the No. 22 that long and finally get by and not wear his stuff out in the process.  But, decent day for us all-in-all." - Jimmie Johnson, finished third

"[We had a] huge vibration, I don't know. I had a vibration when they put the rights on and then it just kept getting worse and worse and there at the end I didn't know if the tire was coming apart or what the deal was. I was trying to give it everything I had and it just would not turn. It got so tight, that was the tightest we were all day. Ran my track bar up two inches and it didn't do anything. Definitely something wrong, but can't say enough about this whole M&M's Camry team, they did a great job and prepared a good car. We struggled really, really bad all weekend, we were horrible. That's not at all where we should have finished considering how it started. It was a good day. It wasn't a win, but we were doing a good job doing what we need to do to keep top-fiving it and the wins will come." - Kyle Busch, finished fourth

"It takes a lot of effort and these guys built such a fast race car I did all I could there to get ourselves back into a position to get back on the lead lap.  The caution fell perfect for us.  We took a gusty call there to take the wave around and get back on the lead lap to see if the caution would come out.  It did right in our window.  Things fell our way there for sure.  What a fast race car we were running some lap times faster than the leader at one point in the middle of the race when we were laps down that we were really proud of.  I wish the wind wouldn't have been so bad today.  I think it would have been an even better day for us.  Just proud of the Dow/Intellifresh team we have something to work with.  I think you will see us in Victory Lane before the season is over." - Austin Dillon, finished fifth

"This was really satisfying. It was a good day for us. We needed a good finish after last week and it is nice to go out here and we all had fast cars. Congrats to the 2 team, they did a great job coming back from that speeding penalty and made a great call at the end. Good job by them and good job by our team. We were good all day. We were able to drive up through the field early and made it better throughout the day. We had some spectacular late runs but we'd give up a little too much early and we couldn't ever get back what we lost. It's a great day. I've got to thank Motorcraft, Quick Lane and Ford. It's a good way to get our season back on track after Atlanta. We had a good run and it always makes you feel good going into next week." - Ryan Blaney, finished sixth

"We just didn't have it today. We had some good runs, but at the end of the race the handling of our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota wasn't what we needed to bring home a strong top-10 finish. We could have used another caution close to the end. The car wasn't right and it was sure disappointing to see those other cars get by me. An 11th place finish is nothing to brag about or nothing to get depressed about. It just wasn't our day. We'll move on to Phoenix and hopefully be more competitive." - Martin Truex, Jr., finished 11th

"We had a really good Fastenal Ford Fusion. I put my guys behind when I sped on pit road with only 100 to go. That was tough to battle back from and Nick made a great pit call and took the wave around and we ended up catching a caution and we fought back really hard there. I thought we were a 10-12th place car all day so to come home 12th after a mistake by me, I am really happy with that. We have to make sure we don't make those mistakes so we have shots at top-five finishes. If not for that mistake we could have been really good there at the end. All in all I am really happy." - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., finished 12th

"I have no idea, honestly. I went into turn one and I wasn't really hardly turning yet and just spun out before I had any idea what happened. I don't know, after that I was just trying to save our DeWalt Toyota and got ran into from behind." - Matt Kenseth, finished 37th (Crashed out)

"Just disappointed, what a fast race car, I appreciate everybody working hard.  I feel like we made a lot of gains this weekend.  Just a terrible job on my behalf.  That is pitiful.  We have run three races and finished one.  Just a bad job on my end.  I ought to know better to miss a wreck like that." - Chase Elliott, finished 38th (Crashed out)

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

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by Aaron Bearden

by Bryan Gable


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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  The entire 2010 Izod IndyCar Series season for Milka Duno was a complete and total nightmare.  St. Petersburg was just the start the issues.  What happened to her early on race day?

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

Friday's Answer:

Q:  The 2008 Craftsman Truck Series championship seemed to be one in which no one wanted to win.  Johnny Benson was in position to solidify his points lead late in the Qwik Liner Las Vegas 350 when trouble struck.  What happened?  

A: On lap 65, Benson was leading in his No. 23 Toyota when he blew a right front tire entering turn 1. Benson's Tundra went straight up the hill and into the wall hard.  The crash can be seen here.

Benson was able to drive his Exide Batteries Toyota back to the garage, but the team could not repair the stricken truck.  Benson retired from the race and was credited with a 27th-place finish  The finish dropped his points lead from 74 to one.

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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:
Sean Fesko with Five Points to Ponder after Las Vegas.
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