Monday, April 25, 2016

The Frontstretch Newsletter: Carl Edwards Goes Back-to-Back... Bumping Kyle In The Process

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Apr. 25, 2016
Volume X, Edition LVIII

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What to Watch: Monday

- Today, work resumes.  We've got restrictor plate racing this week (cue groans from expected sources) so everything has to be right.  Meanwhile, some teams are prepping for a Goodyear Tire Test.

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

Carl Edwards Shoves Kyle Busch For Richmond Victory

Carl Edwards led a race-high 151 laps Sunday at Richmond.  However, he had to execute a bump 'n' run on his own teammate Kyle Busch on the final lap in order to earn the victory in the Toyota Owners 400.  It's his second win in a row.  Behind Edwards and Kyle Busch came Jimmie Johnson in third followed by Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick.  Read more

Kasey Kahne Grabs "Encouraging" Fourth-Place Effort at Richmond

Speaking of Kahne, he finished a season-best fourth on Sunday.  It's a run that the No. 5 team desperately needed and a good sign for the team going forward.  Read more

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Dominates Richmond Toward 24th XFINITY Win

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. doesn't make that many XFINITY Series starts.  As a result, he took full advantage of his time in the No. 88 Saturday.  Earnhardt Jr. led 128 of 149 laps in the main race to take his 24th career XFINITY win.  Ty Dillon was second and earned the $100,000 bonus from XFINITY's Dash 4 Cash program.  Elliott Sadler, Daniel Suarez and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 5.  Read more

Cole Custer Impresses in XFINITY Debut

In addition to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. winning Saturday the ToyotaCare 250 was also the XFINITY Series debut for Camping World Truck Series regular Cole Custer.  Custer did nothing to disprove his skills, driving up to finish an impressive sixth in his first race running the series.  Read more

Pagenaud Outlasts Rahal for Barber Victory

At Barber Park Sunday, Simon Pagenaud dominated the race but ended up having contact with Graham Rahal that put him off the road late.  Pagenaud was then able to retake the lead with five laps to go after Rahal ran afoul of a lapped car and broke his front wing.  Pagenaud then pulled away to take his second win in a row.  Rahal held on for second, followed by Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya.  Read more

Patrick Carpentier to Return to Sprint Cup with Go FAS Racing

Friday, Go FAS Racing announced that currently retired racer Patrick Carpentier will come out of retirement to drive the No. 32 Ford at Sonoma and Indianapolis.  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: Consecutive Wins Give Edwards the Advantage
by Phil Allaway

Carl Edwards' bump 'n' run on teammate Kyle Busch coming to the finish not only gave him back-to-back wins; it gave him back-to-back maximum points hauls and the points lead for the first time this season.  His advantage is seven over Kevin Harvick, who led 63 laps but had a car better suited for long runs.  He didn't get them late and ended up finishing fifth.  Jimmie Johnson maintains the third spot in the standings after running third and leading 44 laps.  Kyle Busch may have been upset that he was the recipient of that Edwards bump, but his second-place result allowed him to move up one place in the standings to fourth.

Joey Logano had a miserable early part of the race due to Team Penske setting up the No. 22 for short runs, then getting burned with a 150+ lap run that put him a lap down.  After getting the Lucky Dog, Logano ran back up through the field to secure an eighth-place result.  It still cost Logano a spot in points, though.  Kurt Busch is up one place to sixth in the standings but he was likely disappointed with his tenth-place finish. Busch was leading prior to the final stops, lost spots, then got swamped on the restart.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. faded late to 13th place, dropping to seventh in points as a result.

Denny Hamlin is eighth, 20 points behind Earnhardt Jr. with Brad Keselowski close in tow.  Martin Truex, Jr. rounds out the top 10.  Further back, rookie Chase Elliott moved into a tie for 11th in points after finishing 12th.  He's tied with Austin Dillon, who finished 20th after an unscheduled pit stop.  Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman round out the current Chase field.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Carl Edwards 331, 2) Kevin Harvick -7, 3) Jimmie Johnson -21, 4)Kyle Busch -29, 5) Joey Logano -32, 6) Kurt Busch. -52, 7) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -53, 8) Denny Hamlin -73, 9) Brad Keselowski -76, 10) Martin Truex, Jr. -85, t-11) Chase Elliott -97, t-11) Austin Dillon -97, 13) Jamie McMurray -107, 14) Kasey Kahne -109, 15) Matt Kenseth -119, 16) Ryan Newman -126.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta, Auto Club), Brad Keselowski (Las Vegas), Kevin Harvick (Phoenix), Kyle Busch (Martinsville, Texas), Carl Edwards (Bristol, Richmond)
 
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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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Toyota Owners 400 was brought to you by the letter "W," for Wide Spaces.  While the race itself came down to the closest of quarters, that wasn't the case for much of the race.  The groove widened out to a level never seen at Richmond since the track was reconfigured in 1988.  The racing was interesting in that the passing occurred wherever you could.  Inside passes and outside passes were used all day long.   - Phil Allaway

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Quotes to Remember: Toyota Owners 400
compiled by Phil Allaway
"Well, yeah, it was a huge question. Kyle [Busch is] an amazing teammate and it's like he got really slow there at the end. Something happened that last lap. It was like his rear tires went off or something. He went down into (turn) 1 and I dove it in and I got to him and I thought, 'Man, I've got something.' And he went to get down to the bottom and park it in three and four and I had already decided to go down there so I thought, 'Man, I'm going to give him a little nudge,' and we both have got wins and we're racing for fun getting these trophies and just an awesome day. I cannot thank XFINITY enough. I hope folks are watching with the X1. It's a revolutionary way to watch TV. Man, I didn't think we had anything. Kyle was so good there for that run. I was doing everything I could. He never spun his tires and if Dave (Rogers, crew chief) hadn't screamed at me to just go get him that last lap I don't know if I would've dove it in there that well. Just a team effort. I can't think ARRIS and Toyota enough. It's a great day for Toyota. They've done so much for me. Just everybody – Comcast, XFINITY all of these guys. And, all of the fans. It's an afternoon race which made it a lot of fun to drive and a bunch of families here. Just very cool. Subway, too – it's a big win for us." - Carl Edwards, race winner

"It was just racing, I guess. We had a great car. The Banfield Pet Hospital Camry was really good today. We were fast. Maybe not as good as Carl (Edwards) was on the long run but we did everything right. We did everything we were supposed to do and put ourselves in the right position. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) made some awesome adjustments to this car. We lost it there the second to last run and were fading a little bit but the guys gave me an awesome pit stop, got me track position and got us out front and we had a shot to win so that's all that matters." -Kyle Busch, finished second

"Yeah, it was. I think this tire was perfect for what we've been asking for. We had multiple lanes that laid the rubber in the racetrack and we didn't have all those marbles build up on the outside, where it really limited your opportunities up high. It was fun. The cars were slipping and sliding; there was a ton of falloff. I enjoyed the long runs. I really like sizing-up guys that I'm racing with and seeing how that works out. And then, at the end we had a bunch of short runs. Thankfully, we got our Lowe's Pro Services Chevrolet tuned-up at the end. We kind of lost our way in the middle part of the race, but we had good pit stops and some great adjustments at the end got us into the top 3." - Jimmie Johnson, finished third

"Yeah, it definitely is. The Mountain Dew Chevrolet was great the whole race. The pit stops were awesome and just the communication with Keith (Rodden, crew chief) and the team all weekend long; it was the same as last week and the same as the weekend before in Texas. It's been solid and we're heading in the right direction. It's been really nice. We got a good restart there at the end. I had pretty good starts all day. I screwed one up and other than that, we had good restarts. It feels good." - Kasey Kahne, finished fourth

"We started really loose to start the race and got into the wall there and we had to make some more adjustments after I self-adjusted it (laughs). And then, we had a couple of really good runs there in the middle of the race. As we started adjusting on it, we never could get the rear drive to go along with the turns. It's kind of a balance of where the turn is good enough and you can still manage the drive, but everybody tried everything we could. We threw a lot at it and just never could find that magic balance for the car that we had there in the middle of the race." - Kevin Harvick, finished fifth

"It was difficult. Definitely, the track was really slick. As you could see, the line was all over the racetrack. So, fun race. The tire did a good job holding up there and had a good fall off. Proud of the whole FedEx Ground team. We fought back from the pit road penalty and good for our teammates there one-two and we were just right there behind them." - Denny Hamlin, finished sixth

"I needed to find a different lane. Every lane I found didn't work. At the end, it started to and I felt like maybe a couple of more restarts and good pit stops we could have track positioned ourselves to be closer to the front and maybe squeak out a top 5 at the end. Taking a car from being the 35th-place car to a top-5 car throughout a race is quite impressive for what my team was able to do today. It was great teamwork. Everyone kept working hard and those are great opportunities to implode internally as a race team and completely throw away a whole race and start yelling and screaming at each other but there was not one moment of that today from my team. Everyone was very methodical about the changes and we tried things that didn't work so we went the other way and it started to work for us. I am proud of the effort from my team today. We need to make the cars a little faster, but I am proud of the effort." - Joey Logano, finished eighth
 
"We got tight at the end.  I don't know … we couldn't keep our track position.  The car wasn't turning in the middle.  I didn't like restarting on the bottom; that hurt me a little bit.  We just couldn't get the car to turn at the end.  The last two runs were real tight.  I'm not sure exactly what we should have done to the chassis, but we certainly didn't keep up with the track there.  We did a good job all day long.  Greg (Ives, crew chief) was giving me some good adjustments to get the car better.  We weren't that good at the start of the race.  We kind of finished where we started.  The car was about as good at the end of the race as it was at the beginning.  Right in the middle there we had it handling pretty well.  All of those debris cautions hurt us.  We didn't have good short run speed.  We needed the long runs and didn't really need that.  Those last several cautions kind of tightened the track up on me a little bit.  I just wish it would have gone green, but it didn't." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 13th
 
"How much fun I had in it (laughs). This place is so cool anyway. It's always been my favorite racetrack. Like we predicted, a day race we'd be all over the racetrack. That's what made it fun. The drivers got to dictate it today as far as.  You weren't just stuck in one line. You had the ability to move around and change lines. We got in a spot there with a group of five cars racing for position once and it was fun because the five of us totally ran the track totally different. So, it made it a lot of fun. We got the lap down there. I got a lap down and almost drove back by and got my lap back. But Carl (Edwards) was strong. I knew I wasn't going to be able to hang on long, but I was going to hold on as long as I could and hope we got a caution. It just seemed like we would get really close to being able to get that Lucky Dog spot back, and something would happen and we'd miss it by one. So, magic cautions coming out at wrong times for us. But it was fun. I had a good time and I'm looking forward to running the rest of this year with these guys." - Tony Stewart, finished 19th

"Yeah, the cars were all over the place. The bottom, middle and top. The top rolled pretty well at the beginning of the race when it was fresh. Then rubber got laid on it and it wasn't very good. You could roll the middle pretty good. I was best in the middle. I couldn't run the bottom at all. It looked like the leaders, the guys who won, ran the middle too. That is promising I guess. We can move around the racetrack a lot and I think Goodyear did a decent job with that and bringing a good tire for us. That was fun." - Ryan Blaney, finished 28th

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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by Aaron Bearden

by Bryan Gable

by Amy Henderson

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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  The 1993 Fram Filters 500k was the second race at Talladega for the then-Busch Grand National Series.  Dale Earnhardt won the race but fellow Cup regular Ernie Irvan was in the hunt right up until the last lap.  He ended up 17th.  What happened?

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

Friday's Answer:

Q:  NASCAR has made a multitude of changes in recent years in an attempt to please race fans.  In the past, that wasn't really the case.  However, that began to change at Richmond in 1998.  First, the spring race was moved from March to early June in order to avoid the typical cold weather.  Then, NASCAR did something unprecedented late in the event.  What was it?

A: With eight laps to go, Kevin Lepage (in the American Equipment Racing No. 96), Derrike Cope, Mike Skinner and Jerry Nadeau crashed in turn 2, bringing out a caution.  Lepage's No. 96 put down a bunch of fluid.  Here, NASCAR made the decision to put out the red flag so that the track could be properly cleaned up before the finish.  The incident and red flag can be seen here.

The red flag did allow for one last restart.  In those last couple of laps, Terry Labonte went from third to take the lead from Dale Jarrett. Just before Labonte took the lead, Johnny Benson hit the wall in turn 1.  He then continued to hit the wall, eventually drawing a race-ending caution.
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COMING TOMORROW

In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have breaking news from Monday, Tom Bowles gives you a stats breakdown of Richmond in Numbers Game 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 Richmond.
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