Thursday, March 24, 2016

The Frontstretch Newsletter: Kyle Busch, Danica Patrick Penalized for Fontana Violations

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Mar. 24, 2016
Volume X, Edition XXXVI
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FRONTSTRETCH JOBS: 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: Thursday
- After today's penalty report was released, it is going to be a quiet day in NASCAR-land.  If anything else of note breaks, we'll have it for you at Frontstretch.
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Thursday's TV Schedule can be found here.

Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Kyle Busch Fined, Placed on Probation After Auto Club XFINITY Race
On Thursday afternoon, NASCAR announced that they have fined Kyle Busch $10,000 and placed on probation for the next four race weekends as a consequence of failing to fulfill his media obligations after Saturday's TreatMyClot.com 300.  There was no action taken on his radio rant that aired on FOX Sports 1 following the race.  Read more
 
Danica Patrick Penalized for Walking Up Track During Race
 
NASCAR also fined Danica Patrick $20,000 for approaching the racing surface to angrily gesture at Kasey Kahne following her crash during Sunday's Auto Club 400.  Patrick is also on probation for the next four race weekends.  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
Potts on Sprint Cup Drivers in the XFINITY Series
Potts' Shots
by John Potts

There was a lot of talk on the pre-race show before the XFINITY Series TreatMyClot.com 300 at Fontana on Saturday about Kyle Busch and other Sprint Cup regulars jumping into the series and "beating up" on the regulars, and generally making it difficult for one of the regulars to win.  I can recall Kenny Wallace pointing out sometime back that they don't let major league baseball players drop down into AAA or lower leagues on a regular basis (like weekly).

Also, I can recall another commentator pointing out that Kyle isn't just racing against the XFINITY Series regulars, he's racing against other big leaguers like Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and others.

Now, I was a part of this trend back in the 80s when I was working at what was then Indianapolis Raceway Park. Until the Brickyard 400 came along, we had a "stand alone" Busch Grand National Series race and we brought in Cup drivers. Kyle Petty and Bobby Allison were in the first one, along with Darrell Waltrip.

In 1986, we brought in Dale Earnhardt for the first time. This, if I remember correctly, was right after he reverse spun Darrell Waltrip into the wall at the old Richmond track. We jumped on that and called it "Saturday Night Live with the Bruise Brothers."

Eventually we had Bill Elliott, and several others taking part.  In the 15 years I was there, only one Cup regular managed to win that race – that was Michael Waltrip in 1989.

The big difference in those days, and I believe Larry McReynolds pointed it out last Saturday, was that Earnhardt and all those other guys came in with their own Busch Series team, not with backing from whoever they were driving for on the Cup schedule. The pit crew was usually guys from their own shop, and the trip to Indianapolis and taking part in the race was almost a reward.

I know DW considered it something like that, because he used the occasion to take his crew out to dinner and generally made sure they enjoyed the weekend. We used to have a big dinner the night before the race, hosting all the drivers, but DW always deferred so he could be with his own crew. Told me so himself. Bob Daniels and I respected that, and the same applied to Earnhardt.

The point here is that they didn't come in with a Cup team, the support of a Cup owner, and their Cup pit crew. When all this "development team" stuff started with lesser-known and younger drivers in ARCA, I can recall Frank Kimmel saying, "It's getting tougher each year with all those Cup teams and all that money behind 'em."

Now, at the time I'm talking about, there was some animosity between a few of the Busch regulars and the "interlopers" if you want to call them that.

One night I had an interview set up with one of the Indy TV stations for Tommy Houston, and the reporter came to me and said his station wanted to replace Tommy with Dale Earnhardt. I told him to come with me, because HE was going to tell Tommy about it. Tommy and his family had become good friends over the past couple of years, and I didn't want any part of it. Understandable, Tommy was a little put out about it.

I've told this story before, but that situation came to a head about 75 laps or so into the race, when Earnhardt was leading and Tommy was running second. This was a real battle, side-by-side, lots of "rubbing," and the crowd was really into it.

They finally got together really hard coming off the fourth turn, and the result was substantial contact with the wall for Earnhardt, and both cars spinning down the front straightaway. Tommy may have recovered if Brett Bodine hadn't been coming out of the pits at the same time.
I'll never forget Brett's explanation to me. "I don't know what happened. I was just coming out of the pits and this freight train ran right over me."

If I'm not mistaken, that incident ended the career of one of those famous Thomas Brothers Country Ham cars.

Tommy was the only one seriously injured, a broken arm I think, and was helicoptered to Methodist Hospital for treatment.

A week later, videographer supreme D.O. Laycock showed me a tape of the way the accident started.

As they were coming off that fourth turn, Houston seemed to make a sudden right turn into Earnhardt's car.

Some time later, at a Busch race at Louisville, I told Tommy about the tape I'd seen, and voiced the opinion that it looked like he had broken an axle.

"Naw," he replied, "I just hit him."

I know NASCAR has been talking about this kind of situation and considering what to do about it.

I just thought I'd pass on what guys like Tommy Houston did about it back in the 80s.

John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com.
 
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Editor's Note: The Critic's Annex will return next week with a look at FOX Sports 1's delayed coverage of the Sebring 150 from Sebring International Raceway.
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Frontstretch Line of the Week
 
From Beyond the Cockpit: Todd Parrott Using Experience to Lead Ty Dillon
"I think of the wins and the losses. I think of 1997, when we were leading the race by a half-lap and I made a gutsy call and lead for the halfway money, and we ran out of gas just past the start-finish line. We had to coast all the way back to the other end of the track. We had to push the car all the way down pit road and only one or two of them were able to help change the tires. We were four laps down and made three of them up, and we finished the race only one lap down." - Todd Parrott, on one of his biggest memories of racing at Indianapolis.
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Aaron Bearden and Sean Fesko
by Bryan Gable
by Beth Lunkenheimer
 
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 1996, Bobby Hamilton was in position to claim his first career win in the Goodwrench 400 at Rockingham.  However, it was not meant to be.  What happened that began a free fall to a 24th-place finish?

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

Wednesday's Answer:

Q:  The Inner Harbor tourist area of Downtown Baltimore hosted the Grand Prix of Baltimore INDYCAR/American Le Mans Series split-bill on Labor Day weekend from 2011-13.  One of the features of the incredibly bumpy course was a chicane right before the start-finish line, which broke up the flow while also hurting the chances for passing in turn 1.  Why was it there?

A: The chicane was there because Pratt Street (the start-finish straightaway) goes over light rail lines at that point.  Without the chicane, IndyCars were likely to briefly take flight.  In 2012, they actually planned on racing without the chicane and put a significant amount of work into trying to make it work.  Then Simon Pagenaud got all four wheels off the ground going over the rail lines in practice.  That was the end of that.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have some news from today.

On Frontstretch.com:
We'll have some more content to tide you over the Easter Weekend.
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Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
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©2016 Frontstretch.com

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