THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Jun. 27, 2016
Volume X, Edition CIII
- Teams are currently hauling back to North Carolina to swap out the goods prior to traveling to Daytona. If anything of note breaks, we'll have it for you at Frontstretch.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
Smoke Rises: Tony Stewart Wins Sonoma Thriller
Tony Stewart, stuck in midpack for most of the day at Sonoma Raceway took advantage of pit strategy to gain the lead through a debris caution. From there, he held off the pack until the final lap, then retook the lead in turn 11 from Denny Hamlin to claim his first NASCAR victory since June 2013. Joey Logano was third, followed by Carl Edwards and Martin Truex, Jr. Read more
Power Triumphs in IndyCar's Road America Return
Sunday, the Verizon IndyCar Series returned to Road America in Wisconsin for the first time since 2007. Will Power dominated the race, but had to hold off Tony Kanaan to take the win for Team Penske. Graham Rahal was third, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves. Read more
Christopher Bell Bounces Back, Punches Potential Chase Ticket with Gateway Win
Saturday night, Christopher Bell was able to hold off a charging Ben Rhodes to take his first career Camping World Truck Series win in the Drivin' for Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park. Daniel Hemric was third, followed by Johnny Sauter and a damaged Erik Jones. Read more
John Wes Townley, Spencer Gallagher Fight in Gateway, Twitter Hilarity Ensues
With seven laps to go in Saturday night's Drivin' for Linemen 200, John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher collided for the second time in the race. Townley, who crashed earlier after contact from Gallagher, was none too pleased and went after Gallagher. What followed was a quite memorable event. 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: Harvick Gives Himself Breathing Room over Kurt Busch
by Phil Allaway
Much like at Michigan two weeks ago, Kevin Harvick qualified poorly Friday but made up for it in the race at Sonoma Sunday afternoon. Pit strategy got Harvick toward the front and he stayed there to finish sixth after starting 25th. Behind him, teammate Kurt Busch fell back late to run tenth, a drop which allowed Harvick to expand his lead in the standings by five points. Carl Edwards' fourth-place finish, meanwhile allowed him to jump Brad Keselowski and move up to third. Keselowski was fairly anonymous Sunday on his way to a 15th-place result.
Joey Logano was strong at the end of the race. His run up to a third-place finish allowed him to gain a single point on Harvick while maintaining fifth. A fellow "young gun" didn't do so well; Sonoma wasn't expected to be a great race for rookies and Chase Elliott was no exception to that rule. Elliott did stay on course all day and finished 21st, the best-running rookie on the lead lap. It was enough to keep sixth in points, a strong cushion over others in Chase contention but he lost quite a bit of ground to those above him. Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex, Jr. are now tied for seventh in points, just four behind Elliott.
Kyle Busch effectively stood pat by bringing his No. 18 Toyota home in seventh. He lost one point to Harvick. Matt Kenseth rounds out the top 10 in points, but he's no road course expert; Kenseth finished 20th as the weakest of the four Joe Gibbs Racing entries. Denny Hamlin's second-place result moved him up two places to 11th in points while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. dropped back to 12th thanks to damage late in the race after contact with Edwards.
Ryan Newman is up two places this week to 13th after finishing a quiet eighth while Austin Dillon drops another place to 14th. Jamie McMurray is down to 15th in points, the result of a mediocre Sonoma performance while Kasey Kahne had a decent ninth-place finish and moved into the top 16. Keep in mind Kahne's spot in the Chase would go away if Sunday's winner Tony Stewart climbs inside the top 30 in points.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 562, 2) Kurt Busch -35, 3) Carl Edwards -52, 4) Brad Keselowski -56, 5) Joey Logano -69, 6) Chase Elliott -89, t-7) Jimmie Johnson -93, t-7) Martin Truex, Jr. -93, 9) Kyle Busch -110, 10) Matt Kenseth -132, 11) Denny Hamlin -141, 12) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -149, 13) Ryan Newman -160, 14) Austin Dillon -162, 15) Jamie McMurray -164, 16) Kasey Kahne -177.
Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta, Auto Club), Brad Keselowski (Las Vegas, Talladega), Kevin Harvick (Phoenix), Kyle Busch (Martinsville, Texas, Kansas), Carl Edwards (Bristol, Richmond), Matt Kenseth (Dover), Martin Truex, Jr. (Charlotte), Kurt Busch (Pocono), Joey Logano (Michigan), Tony Stewart (Sonoma)
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/Save Mart 350k was brought to you by the letter "C," for Clean. Say what you want about the finish, but Sunday's event was the cleanest Sprint Cup Series race ever run at Sonoma Raceway. Somehow, the entire field made it through 218.9 miles on a road course without someone spinning out. Shocking, isn't it? - Phil Allaway
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350k was brought to you by the letter "C," for Clean. Say what you want about the finish, but Sunday's event was the cleanest Sprint Cup Series race ever run at Sonoma Raceway. Somehow, the entire field made it through 218.9 miles on a road course without someone spinning out. Shocking, isn't it? - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Toyota/Save Mart 350k
compiled by Phil Allaway
"I made mistakes the last two laps. I had just a little bit too much rear brake for Turn 7, and wheel-hopped it two laps in a row. But, I felt a nudge when I got down there and [Denny Hamlin] knew where it was and he did the right thing doing it there; but if I could get to him, he knew what was coming. He told me he was proud of me. He knows what it means. We were teammates for a long time and we respect each other a lot." - Tony Stewart, race winner
"I don't know, I thought I had just missed the corner more than – I should have not left the bottom open. I thought if I leave the bottom open, maybe [Tony Stewart] will think he can get there in a different kind of way. I just overshot the corner a little bit. Still a pretty good day. This is definitely a step in the right direction on the road course, but man, utterly disappointed." - Denny Hamlin, finished second
"We had a hard-fought third-place finish today, which is no easy finish here at Sonoma at any point. I'm really proud of the effort that we have made here in Sonoma over the last – not just this race, we did make progress throughout the race – but in the last three years. I think a couple of years ago we had a fast short-run car and we fell off harder than anybody. Last year, we had a slow short-run car, but a good long-run car. This year, we had a pretty decent car throughout the whole run. It didn't fall off really hard, so I'm super-proud of the effort that has been put into this racetrack here in Sonoma. This is a nice, solid third-place finish. I thought I could win the race there on the last lap when you're watching those two go into seven and 11 and you're running third. You think you're in a pretty good spot to win this thing, thinking that they're most likely going to crash each other. It was a fun race to watch. Going into turn 11 I was 100 percent sure that Denny was not going to win just by watching it, and we were right there on the cusp of trying to sneak one by. It would have been a gift if we got it, but you take them any way you can." - Joey Logano, finished third
"Overall, it's really cool for Tony Stewart. I said earlier that we're probably witnessing a historic moment right now in NASCAR. It was a really cool thing for Tony to be able to come back and get that win, obviously it's the same place Kyle did it last year. It's just kind of ironic after he was hurt, so I don't know what the deal is with Sonoma but, overall, it's cool to see Tony get that win here when it's much needed. It still shows he's got what it takes if you give him the right stuff. He's gonna push hard when he needs to. I noticed that from lap one. I started right next to him and he was hammering right off the bat. I said, 'Alright, we've got that Tony Stewart today.' There are two different ones, and it was the aggressive one all day. Obviously, we saw that going into turn 11, so it's cool for him. Overall, like I said, I'm proud of the effort we put into today." - Logano on Stewart's victory
"It was a lot of fun racing out there today – we had an excellent race car, this Furniture Row Toyota was awesome. Feel like we had the best car, we just couldn't get track position. Every time we would get past the guys that we were racing on the racetrack, the caution would come out and guys would beat us out of the pits. Little frustrated with that, thought we had the car to win and then that last set of tires we just got in position and we just got too loose. I'm not sure what happened, but all in all a solid weekend for us – we qualified third and finished top 5. We just burned it up at the end trying to get Smoke (Tony Stewart) and I gave up a couple spots, but I had to try to go for it. The rear tires were gone at the end. It was a good race and congrats to Tony, it's good to see and it's been a long time coming for him." - Martin Truex, Jr., finished fifth
"Yeah, I'm just really proud of Tony (Stewart). That is really the best thing. We didn't have a lot of good happen today. We fought all day on pit road and got a decent finish out of it. But other than that, we had a little bit of a struggle with getting it to turn." - Kevin Harvick, finished sixth
"I don't know what happened at the end of the race, but thought we had a shot to end up in the top-4at least. For some reason there at the end it blew the rear tires off there on the last run when I was trying to race those guys for the top 4. I couldn't even gain on them, I was just trying to hang with them. We just burned the rear tires off on that last run just trying too hard and went backwards." - Kyle Busch, finished seventh
"We battled really hard, I was somewhat surprised by the lack of grip in the rear of the car. It showed a little bit of that in practice and some of the other guys had the same issues as far as our teammates. We just didn't correct it enough. It's my fault that I didn't relay the information well enough to the Monster Energy guys and thanks to Gene Haas. Congratulations to Tony Stewart, this is a huge day for SHR. To have three cars in the Chase, to have Tony's confidence up, to have him battle Denny Hamlin like that this is the best way for a champion like him to go out. He deserves this now. He can settle in and run until September. He knows what to do in the Chase." - Kurt Busch, finished tenth
"Randall Burnett (crew chief) and all the guys Brian Burns, Tony Palmer, all my guys they did a great job. We weren't very good. We were pretty junkie on Friday. They worked hard to get this thing as good as it could be. Such a strange race. At one point you think the tires go off and then you find something and manage them again. I thought whatever it was, 25 to go, we were coming. So in the end just a bad pit stop and let the tire get away and penalty. That took away our chance to win the race. Overall, I thought the Ralph's/Kingsford Chevy was pretty good. It was for sure a top-3, top-4 car. We just need to be up there at the end and we weren't." - AJ Allmendinger, finished 14th
"We had about a 16th-place car and that's right about where we finished. We just fought all day and tried to hold our track position, but that's just as fast as our car was. It was a really good call by Brian Pattie and the team on how to call the race. They did a great job. It couldn't have worked out better for us, but that's all we had." - Greg Biffle, finished 18th
"We just weren't very good. We were really good on the long run, if I could save my tires, but I didn't have any short-run speed. That really made the restarts tough to not lose any track position, but still not wear out my tires. We've got to go back to the drawing board for the road course here. We definitely struggled today." - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., finished 26th
"It had to be the ignition. It was a wiring fire. I've had oil smoke and stuff like that before in the car blowing out but I've never had an electrical fire. Man it shook me out. I couldn't breathe. I bailed out and the thing starts rolling, so I had to reach in and put it in gear. That's a great start to the day." - Clint Bowyer, finished 40th (Fire)
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.~~~~~~~~~~
by Mike Neff
Wollek was shaken, but generally ok after the wreck. He did not miss any time and was back in a car only a few weeks later in Germany.
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2016 Frontstretch.com
The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2016 Toyota Save Mart 350
by Amy Henderson
The Chase to the Chase: Smoke's In. Who's Out?
by Amy Henderson
The Chase to the Chase: Smoke's In. Who's Out?
by Aaron Bearden
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: Despite the growing popularity of NASCAR, the now-Coke Zero 400 was one of the last races on the Cup schedule to get a live, flag-to-flag broadcast on TV (the first one was held in 1989 on ESPN). Why did Daytona lag behind the other races?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Friday's Answer:
Q: As previously noted, Sonoma Raceway has a history of big crashes. The late Bob Wollek is just one more example of a great driver who got it wrong on the twisty road course back in 1987. What happened?
A: Wollek was passing the start-finish line and entering turn 1 when he had a massive right rear tire failure on his Porsche 962. Wollek spun up the hillside and rolled, coming to a halt on his side. The crash can be seen here.
Wollek was shaken, but generally ok after the wreck. He did not miss any time and was back in a car only a few weeks later in Germany.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
-----------------------------COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have breaking news from Monday, Tom Bowles gives you a stats breakdown of Sonoma 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 Sonoma.Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2016 Frontstretch.com
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