Monday, March 21, 2016

The Frontstretch Newsletter: Inside Jimmie Johnson's Thrilling Fontana Win

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Mar. 21, 2016
Volume X, Edition XXXIII

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NEW POSTING: SALES & BRANDING MANAGER

Frontstretch is seeking a dynamic, creative individual to head our sales team. This self-starter 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, with the Western Swing complete, the haulers are currently en route back to the shops for a well-deserved weekend off for Easter.  Much of the discussion today will be centered on the action Sunday in Fontana.  If any news of note breaks today, we'll have you covered at Frontstretch.

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

Jimmie Johnson Soars to Sixth Fontana Victory

Kevin Harvick dominated Sunday's Auto Club 400...until the race came down to a green-white-checkered finish.  Kyle Busch's wreck with two laps left threw out the yellow, left the field darting down pit road for fresh rubber and pushed Harvick back to third. On the ensuing restart, Harvick was pushed past Denny Hamlin by Jimmie Johnson, only for Johnson to make the move down the backstretch to take the lead.  From there, Johnson held off the pack to earn his sixth career victory at Auto Club Speedway.  Harvick was second, followed by Hamlin.  Joey Logano was fourth while Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. just beat out Chase Elliott for fifth.  Read more

Austin Dillon Stretches Fuel For TreatMyClot.com 300 Victory

On Saturday, Kyle Busch dominated the XFINITY Series TreatMyClot.com 300, leading 133 of 150 laps.  While many others around him were running out of fuel, Busch appeared to be safe... or so he thought.  Just after taking the white flag, Busch blew a left front tire.  Rather than pull to the apron, Busch kept on truckin'.  Teammate Daniel Suarez took the lead briefly, then ran out of gas on the backstretch, allowing Busch to re-assume the lead.  However, Austin Dillon was able to get pass the stricken Busch exiting turn 4 and made his fuel last to take the win.  Busch settled for a very disappointing second, then ignored his obligatory media requests from NASCAR which could draw a potential fine this week.  Darrell Wallace, Jr. was third followed by Suarez and Elliott Sadler.  Read more

Tequila Patron ESM Wins Sebring Thanks to Derani's Charge

On Saturday, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams dealt with hot weather and heavy rains at Sebring International Raceway.  In the end, those obstacles turned a 12-hour race into a 12-minute sprint.  In that finish, Tequila Patron ESM's Pipo Derani came from fourth on the final restart to claim overall victory in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.  Action Express Racing's Nos. 31 and 5 were second and third, respectively.  CORE Autosport won the Prototype Challenge class while Corvette Racing's No. 4 won GT-Le Mans and Scuderia Corsa won GT-Daytona with their brand new Ferrari 488 GT3.  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: Kevin Harvick Takes Over the Points Lead
by Phil Allaway

While Kevin Harvick is frustrated he missed out on another win after dominating at Auto Club Speedway, he does have the consolation of breaking a points tie with Kyle Busch.  Harvick now leads race winner Jimmie Johnson by 11 points going into the Easter break.  Carl Edwards is up to third in points, meanwhile after his seventh-place finish on Sunday; he's currently the highest winless driver in the standings.  

Defending champion Kyle Busch's tire issue that brought out the final caution dropped him from a sure podium to a 25th-place result at Fontana.  That dropped him from a tie for the lead into a tie for fourth.  Denny Hamlin, who did earn a podium Sunday (third) officially gets fourth in points by virtue of his win in the Daytona 500.

Joey Logano is up one place to sixth in points after his fourth-place finish, but he found himself in a little controversy after a late incident with Martin Truex, Jr.  Logano is 17 points ahead of Kurt Busch, who was hit early by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Fontana and hit the wall exiting turn 4.  Busch was forced to pit under green for repairs and never recovered, finishing 30th.  Earnhardt Jr. may have lost the Batman vs. Superman challenge, meanwhile but he did make some gains on Sunday.  His 11th-place finish moved him up two positions to eighth in the standings.

Brad Keselowski is up two places to ninth in points after finishing ninth Sunday.  Meanwhile, Austin Dillon is down two places to tenth after fading during the race.  On the final stop, the team broke an air gun, which dropped him to a 24th-place finish after starting on the pole.  Truex, behind him dropped to 11th as a result of his 32nd-place finish due to damage from his wall contact in turn 1 and an unscheduled pit stop late in the going at Fontana.  

Jamie McMurray rode his tenth-place finish Sunday into a three-position gain in points.  He's now 12th. Aric Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Matt Kenseth, and Chase Elliott round out the 16 Chase spots heading into Easter break.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 195, 2) Jimmie Johnson -11, 3) Carl Edwards -24, t-4) Denny Hamlin -25, t-4) Kyle Busch -25, 6) Joey Logano -30, 7) Kurt Busch -47, 8) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -50, 9) Brad Keselowski -53, 10) Austin Dillon -56, 11) Martin Truex, Jr. -68, 12) Jamie McMurray -70, 13) Aric Almirola -75, 14) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. -76, 15) Matt Kenseth -82, t-16) Chase Elliott -85, t-16) Ryan Blaney -85

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta, Auto Club), Brad Keselowski (Las Vegas), Kevin Harvick (Phoenix)
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Auto Club 400 was brought to you by the letter "C," for Competitive.  Sunday's race saw drivers all over the place, trying to make moves on each other.  There was three and four-wide racing, some tempers flaring and good action.  I suppose that's all you could really ask for from an intermediate like Fontana.   - Phil Allaway

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Quotes to Remember: Auto Club 400
compiled by Phil Allaway

"Man, this is cool.  First off all 'hi' to my family at home, I can't wait to see you guys.  I knew we had a great car and that caution fell at a bad time the run before.  I just didn't have the tires on the car to race with those guys.  To go there at the end and have good tires on the car, [Kevin] Harvick and I got by I guess Joey [Logano] there at the start.  I got a great run off of Turn 2 and I thought, 'man, I've got a shot at this thing'.  Which I didn't expect to have, Harvick has been so fast.  I cleared him and kind of got away.  We saved our best for last, for sure.  I told everybody Superman kicked Batman's butt and it happened." - Jimmie Johnson, race winner

"Disappointing third, I can tell you that, but two penalties, radio changes, just a lot of mistakes on my part early on and we still gave ourselves a shot there. I just – the 22 (Joey Logano), the one time he time didn't get a good restart, we didn't have that push there and that hurt us. I thought going early in the zone was probably the thing to do – hindsight maybe later, but who knows? Those two (Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick) linked up on the bottom and there's really nothing we could have done at that point. Good day – just not a great day." - Denny Hamlin, finished third

"It was completely my fault.  I was gonna go in on the outside of him and he was gonna go in on the top as well and I just ended up being right on him.  We never touched each other, but just taking the air off these cars makes them uncontrollable.  I didn't mean to do that.  I was gonna try to go to the top and I just got a little bit close to him and got him free, so I'm taking the hit on that one." - Joey Logano, finished fourth, on his issue with Martin Truex, Jr.

"It was really good for us.  That was a crazy restart there at the end.  We had a really good Fastenal Ford on the long run and that's where we excelled – kind of like Atlanta and Las Vegas.  On the long run, we excelled and that really paid off today.  Our tires were good every pit stop, which was good for us, and we made the right adjustments there at the end.  Nick (Sandler, crew chief) did a great job.  The pit crew did a great job and we were able to get the adjustments that we needed and were able to really rip the top there and gain a few extra spots at the end." - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., finished fifth

"I thought we had a good car yesterday in practice and I was kind of looking forward to the race and then when we started, we were real tight.  The No. 41 came in front of me off of (Turn) 4 and I just couldn't do anything.  He was clear, but I couldn't stop.  I had so much momentum and that hurt the left-front real bad and bent the splitter.  So, we fought that all day long.  We changed a shock and that helped the balance a little bit.  We changed and changed and changed and worked on the car all day.  We got it to where we could race a little bit.  Then, we were up in the top 10 pretty good and short-pitted a little bit for that last run and that damn caution came out for a piece of debris in the middle of the cycle.  That killed us. I had a blast though.  I love racing here regardless of what aero package we have.  This is a fun track.  I like the low downforce.  What can I say?  I'm having fun and had a good time today.  Usually, you would be real frustrated driving the cars we drove the last two years finishing 11th, but I had fun running anywhere on the racetrack.  No matter where we were, we were racing somebody and driving the thing." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 11th

"The last 45 laps is what set that whole thing up because we had the long run, which we needed, and the car was really good on long runs but really, really bad on short runs.  Fortunately, with 40 to go we had a long run that put us in the top 20 and the guys had a phenomenal pit stop that held my position and we just had a great restart for the green-white-checkered.  Sometimes, you're proud of what you did, but I feel like I got lucky in some ways that the line just went my way and we were able to run 16th." - Landon Cassill, finished 16th

"We had a good run going until the No. 22 (Joey Logano) put our car into the fence. There was a lot of right-side damage to the car, and we were pretty much toast after that incident. Not sure what he (Logano) was thinking about at the time, but that hit spoiled our day. We went from being a contender to the back of the field. Really frustrating to have a good car and not have anything to show for it. I think we were running in or close to the top 5 when the (No.) 22 rammed our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota." - Martin Truex, Jr., finished 32nd

"We blew a tire.  I don't know what happened.  There was no warning and the tire just exploded into three.  That stunk.  We were good on some runs, but at the end of the race we weren't very good.  We really struggled bad on restarts, really bad.  It would take about 20 laps to go back forward, but we just lost all of our track position and then got in the wall and that really hurt our race car.  We were gonna salvage a decent day, and then the tire exploded." - Ryan Blaney, finished 35th (crashed out)

"We're not really sure.  It might be something in the engine.  It started smoking a little bit there and it was down on power, so we figured we would just bring it in and take a look at it before we break something out on the racetrack." - Greg Biffle, finished 37th (engine failure)

"We were on a restart and I had a run on [Kasey Kahne] so I went down low.  If you get too close to them, then it will drag you both back.  I was going low.  I saw him chase me down the track and then the next thing I know I was getting spun up the track. I was passing him.  He was behind me in the right rear.  I don't know what kind of day he was having. I just heard he was a lap down actually.  I feel bad if he felt like he was put in a position to have to be that desperate a lap down.  It's just unfortunate; he must be having a very tough time.  I was having a pretty good recovery day, kind of like last weekend.  I was just running good race laps and on the lead lap at the end of the race, pushing back up into the top 20 from a bad starting position.  And I was looking forward to a good finish and a good off week.  Unfortunately, now there is more work to be done at the shop, which I'm sure is not what they want, but we had a good TaxAct car and Billy (Scott, crew chief) did a good job to set up for today and we were moving forward." - Danica Patrick, finished 38th (crashed out)

"We were struggling all day. We were really bad. And just on that backstretch, my left rear tire got cut and spun me to the outside wall and then spun me back into the inside wall. By the time I could hit the brakes, it must have ripped the brake line and I had no brakes. They just went to the floorboard. I couldn't slow down and had a hard hit there; head-on. I'm OK. I'm thankful for SAFER barriers and thankful that I'm all right. That was definitely probably the hardest hit I've ever had in my career.  I'm glad to be on my feet right here." - Kyle Larson, finished 39th (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:  On the U.K. broadcast of Sunday's Formula One Grand Prix of Australia, commentator Martin Brundle remarked that Fernando Alonso's crash looked familiar to him.  Why?

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

Friday's Answer:

Q:  Michael Waltrip Racing's difficult 2007 season got in gear in Fontana.  Team owner Michael Waltrip failed to qualify while Dale Jarrett took a Past Champions' Provisional to make the race, then finished four laps down in 32nd.  David Reutimann was having the best weekend of the three until finding trouble late.  What happened?

A: Reutimann was running back in the pack a ways, but still on lead lap when he got tapped in turn 3.  The No. 00 got loose, then Reutimann corrected and the car shot hard into the outside wall.  The hit briefly knocked Reutimann out before he came back to and exited the car.  The crash can be seen here.

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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:
Danny Peters returns with Five Points to Ponder following Sunday's action in Fontana.
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