THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Feb. 24, 2015
Volume IX, Edition XVIII
~~~~~~~~~~
What to Watch: Tuesday
- Today, we're still going to be on the lookout for information on who will drive the No. 18 M&M's Toyota in place of the still-hospitalized Kyle Busch. If anything breaks, we'll have it at Frontstretch.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
BREAKING: RUMORS SWIRLING DAVID RAGAN TO REPLACE KYLE BUSCH IN NO. 18 TOYOTA. IF TRUE, SPECIAL NEWSLETTER EDITION WITH STORY TO COME.
Regan Smith to Pilot SHR No. 41 at Atlanta
On Monday, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that Regan Smith would once again pilot the No. 41 HAAS Automation Chevrolet in this weekend's QuikTrip Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team is continuing to decide who will drive in place of the suspended Kurt Busch on a week-by-week basis. Read more
Ryan Sieg Gears up For Atlanta Doubleheader
Ryan Sieg Racing has announced that the team's namesake will attempt double-duty at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday. He will compete as normal in the XFINITY Series Hisense 250 in the Uncle Bob's Self Storage Chevrolet, but will also compete in the Camping World Truck Series Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 in a No. 39 Chevrolet sponsored by Big Green Egg. Read more
On Monday, NASCAR officially released the entry list for Sunday's QuikTrip Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. 48 teams are due to battle for the 43 starting spots. 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today's Featured Commentary
Can Anything Justify the Cost of Running at Daytona?
Sitting in the Stands: A Fan's Viewby S.D. GradyWas the Daytona 500 a great race?
Well, I wouldn't go and give it a six pack. Maybe four brews. However, I did not walk out of the living room at the end of the day angry with the existence of the 2 1/2 mile superspeedway, as has become my habit every February and July. While there was a largish wreck on the last lap, the three-wide pack racing with cars bouncing off each other's doors earned a few heart-racing squeaks out of me over the last half-hour of the Great American Race. And after doing some preseason research this year, it is that pack racing that really did garner my adoration back in the day. I got to remember what it was like to sit on the edge of the couch for hours on end as I waited for somebody to slip an inch more than they could possibly control.
Sunday's version of the season opener held most of the hallmarks of those races the broadcasters so often harken back to, when they're trying to convince the new viewing audience NASCAR is the end all of spectator sports. We had Jeff Gordon sit on the pole in his final appearance as a driver at the track. The Hendrick, Gibbs and SHR crowd looked like they were ready to dominate the day and then, there was a plethora of young guns saddled up anxious to take away the trophy from the big boys. Two of the sport's stars were sidelined -- Kurt Busch, with his suspension while his little brother was injured in the XFINITY race Saturday. Danica and Denny set themselves up for potential excitement after exchanging words on pit road, post-Denny spinning Danica for the nth time. There were lots and lots of storylines for the FOX crew to chew on for the day.
Follow all that up with some engine failures, the new pit road penalty system and a couple minor spins. That made the day move along until we reached the crucial final 50 laps, when drivers had to stop playing with strategy and just put their nose where it wouldn't fit. What followed was some of the best plate racing I've seen in years.
All of this excitement adds up to remind me that, Daytona is a track capable of putting on a spectacular show; one that fuels the speedy demon in me, without necessarily raising the "WTF was that?" monster. However, Kyle Busch was injured the day before in a wreck that just shouldn't have resulted in such a serious outcome.
Yeah. Every year I and other writers spend thousands of words denigrating the plate tracks for their financial drain on the sport. Why do we run somewhere that is guaranteed to suck millions out of the operating budget? And this year, we had to add the brilliant concept of knockout qualifying so we could destroy even more cars before race day arrived. The barrel rolls, frightening impacts with walls and general wadding up of steel should be enough to make us reconsider the location of NASCAR's Super Bowl. But no.
Well then, how about when a driver suffers a compound fracture simply because it was too expensive in the first place to install SAFER barriers all the way around the track? That's an acceptable price to pay?
Every year, I walk this line of love and hate in regards to Daytona. Every year, it gets harder to watch it all. I dislike being angry, and as usual, I'm angry. It just took a day for it all to settle in. The three-wide racing mitigated the reaction only so much -- nothing can stop me from hitting my head when I think of Kyle Busch watching the 500 from his hospital bed.
But we're free of the monster, at least for another five months. By then, our memories will have softened toward these past ten days and Kyle might even be back in his car. Oh, wait. We've got Talladega to endure first. Never mind. I'm just destined to be an angry woman as long as we run at these places, and I imagine I'm far from the only one.
At least I'm looking forward to Atlanta. It's just as fast as Daytona (imagine that) but lacks the horror. Sounds good to me.
Sonya's Scrapbook
1995 Purolator 500
In his sophomore year of 1994, Jeff Gordon struggled to make his arrival in the Cup Series truly felt. While he won the Coke 600 and the inaugural Brickyard 400, he found the wall often. However, early in the season of '95, Gordon was making it plain he had every intention of taking home his first Winston Cup that year. The Purolator 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway was the fourth race and it would be Jeff Gordon's second win of the season, leading 250 of the 328 laps. This victory followed two poles at Rockingham (win) and Richmond.
At Atlanta, only four cars were on the lead lap when the checkered flag fell, something we just don't see these days. Those four teams? Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. All champions!
S.D. Grady is a Senior Editor for Frontstretch and runs a NASCAR blog called the S-Curves. She can be reached via email at sonya.grady@frontstretch.com. Follow her on Twitter at @laregna and on her Facebook page (she's an author, too!) at https://www.facebook.com/Author.SDGrady.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Numbers Game: Daytona 500
by Tom Bowles0Busch brothers in Sunday's Great American Race for the first time since 2000. That year, Kyle was 15 and Kurt was running the Truck Series full-time.
1
Lap led by Martin Truex, Jr. Sunday. That equaled his laps led count throughout the entire 2014 season.
2
Of three Penske-prepared cars blew engines. Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney headed to the garage early while Joey Logano went on to win the race.
3
Extra laps in this Daytona 500, the result of a red flag turned green-white-checkered finish. It was the fourth time in the last six years NASCAR's Super Bowl went to "overtime."
4
Straight top-3 finishes in the Daytona 500 for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Earnhardt's average finish since the 2012 edition of the Great American Race is 2.0, including a win in 2014 and his third-place result on Sunday.
5
Cautions in the final 250+ miles at Daytona after just two in the first 250.
6
Chevrolets to finish in the top 10 at Daytona, more than any other manufacturer. Ford had two, including the winner Joey Logano while Toyota also had two.
7
Cautions for 26 laps at Daytona, including a red flag that was just shy of seven minutes. That reduced the average speed to 161.939 mph, far off Buddy Baker's 1980 record of 177.602.
9th
The best finish for Joey Logano in six previous Daytona 500s prior to Sunday. Logano had also led just seven laps in the Great American Race before pacing the field for 31 in this year's 500 en route to the win.
13th
Finishing position for Michael Annett Sunday, a career best in the Cup Series. Annett was running his first race as part of the new second team for HScott Motorsports.
17
Daytona 500 starts for Tony Stewart without a victory. Remember, Dale Earnhardt, Sr. went 0-for-19 before cashing in during the 1998 Daytona 500.
158
Laps led out of 203 by Hendrick Motorsports, including a race-high 87 by Jeff Gordon in his final 500. Unfortunately for HMS, they didn't lead the lap that counted -- the last one.
Tom Bowles is the Editor-in-Chief of Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at tom.bowles@frontstretch.com.
TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Phil Allaway
by Jeff Wolfe
by Danny Peters
ATHLON SPORTS
by Tom Bowles~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 1993, both races on the schedule for Atlanta's Spring race weekend were wiped out due to a
massive blizzard. The Busch Grand National (now XFINITY Series) race was moved to November as part of the newly redubbed "Triple Championship Weekend." However, they were able to get qualifying in before the snows arrived. Eight months passing between qualifying and the race resulted in a jumbled grid once the race ran. Why?
Check back Wednesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Monday's Answer:
Q: Unlike FOX Sports' NASCAR pit reporters, ESPN requires all pit reporters to wear firesuits in the pits. The reason for the move dates back to a race at Atlanta in 1989. What happened?
A: Back in 1989, the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway was the one points race that ABC televised each year (they also aired The Winston at Charlotte Motor Speedway). Compared to other outlets, they had different rules for reporters. Pit reporters were expected to wear regular suits in the pits. That was the scenario when Richard Petty made a pitstop. Dr. Jerry Punch was in the pit, calling the stop in a regular suit when a large quantity of fuel spilled out. Then, Petty's car backfired, creating a huge blaze. When ESPN returned in Darlington, Punch and the other pit reporters were in firesuits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COMING TOMORROWIn The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have more NASCAR news to report, while Mark Howell returns with his Professor of Speed commentary.
On Frontstretch.com:
Amy Henderson returns with her award-winning Frontstretch 5 column, where she'll review Speedweeks and preview Atlanta. Also, Ray Evernham stops by to speak with our Mike Neff.
-----------------------------
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!
©2015 Frontstretch.com NASCAR and great NASCAR commentary. They can subscribe to the Frontstetch by visiting
.
to see you go. Just send an email to
recieve the Frontstretch Newsletter.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Frontstretch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to
.
.
