Frontstretch Newsletter: Phoenix Gets Underway

Published: Fri, 03/11/22

Frontstretch Newsletter: March 11, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition XXX

What to Watch: March 11-13

- Pre-season testing for the afternoon session is underway in Bahrain. There is no TV coverage, but similar to the test in Barcelona, a live blog on Formula 1's website is available. Testing continues up until 11 a.m. ET.

- Friday sees NASCAR Xfinity Series teams load into the garage and work on their cars. They have no on-track activity scheduled, but inspection will take place.

ARCA Menards Series teams have a full day of action. They have practice and qualifying in the afternoon, then they race in the General Tire 150. Live coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on MAVTV and on FLORacing.com.

- Saturday brings the NASCAR Cup Series into the equation in Phoenix. They will practice and qualify for the Ruoff Mortgage 500k Saturday, but not before the Xfinity Series does so as well. The day will be capped off with the Xfinity Series United Rentals 200 at 4:30 p.m. ET. That race will air live on FOX Sports 1.

- Sunday sees the NASCAR Cup Series race for 500 kilometers (312 miles) at Phoenix Raceway. The race should go green shortly after 3:30 p.m .ET.

- Motorcycle racing will continue Friday at Daytona International Speedway as MotoAmerica's various classes will be on-track. There is tape-delayed coverage of the first King of the Baggers race of the year at 6:30 p.m. ET today on FOX Sports 2. Imagine touring-style motorcycles racing and you're close. Saturday is the main show, headlined by the Daytona 200.

- Monster Energy AMA Supercross will be at Ford Field in Detroit for Round 10 of their season. Qualifying coverage will be streamed live on Peacock starting at 1 p.m. ET Saturday. Race coverage will air live on CNBC at 7 p.m. ET.

Don't forget to follow our Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates!

TV Schedule: Here

Around the World in Motorsports: March 10-11

- AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was fastest overall in the first day of Formula 1's preseason test at the Bahrain International Circuit Friday with a lap at 128.930 mph during the afternoon session. Gasly's lap was more than four-tenths of a second faster than Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. Leclerc's quick time from the morning held up to be the third fastest lap of the day, followed by Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Williams' Alexander Albon.

There were a couple of red flags in the afternoon session. Stroll's Aston Martin brought one out for littering the track with aero rakes at one point (these are the metal grates you sometimes see attached to race cars in front of the sidepods that are used to measure airflow). The second red flag occurred in the closing minutes of the session when Red Bull's Sergio Perez spun and got stuck in the gravel.

- In this morning's test session, Alpine's Esteban Ocon was fastest with a lap at 128.419 mph. This was nine-hundredths of a second faster than Leclerc. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third quickest, then Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel and McLaren's Lando Norris.

The session also had a couple of red flags. Williams' Nicholas Latifi spun with his rear brakes on fire. Williams has determined that this was a minor issue, but the collateral damage of the fire didn't help things. At the time, Albon was talking to the commentators and made it sound like the team was experimenting with the brakes. The second one was part of an FIA test.

Today's Top News:

JR Hildebrand Running Ovals for AJ Foyt Racing in 2022

AJ Foyt Racing announced Friday that JR Hildebrand will drive the No. 11 in place of Tatiana Calderon during the INDYCAR oval weekends in 2022.

Chase Janes Debuting in Trucks With Reaume

Reaume Brothers Racing announced that they have signed a deal with Chase Janes to drive for the team. He will make his debut at Martinsville.

Photo is courtesy of Joe Skibinski of INDYCAR Media.

Have news for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising lead or tip.

Newsletter Exclusives:

Frontstretch Folio: Ruoff Mortgage 500k

by Phil Allaway

This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Arizona to wrap up the Western Swing. Coverage of the Ruoff Mortgage 500k begins with NASCAR RaceDay on FOX Sports 1 at 2 p.m. ET Coverage moves to FOX at 3 p.m. ET The green flag should fly around 3:40. Radio coverage will be provided by local MRN Radio affiliates and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).

Also, remember that Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend. Turn your manually adjustable clocks forward one hour before you go to bed Saturday night. The Phoenix area does not observe Daylight Savings Time. Instead, the area stays in Mountain Standard Time for the entire year. That means that Phoenix will be three hours behind Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday only.

Records and facts

Last year's Instacart 500k saw four drivers (Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin) combine to lead 259 of the 312 laps. Logano led the most laps (143) and put himself in position to win late. However, Truex was able to get past Truex on the final restart. From there, Truex held on to take the win.

Logano was 1.698 seconds behind in second at the finish. Hamlin was third, then Keselowski and Chase Elliott.

Kevin Harvick is the winningest driver at Phoenix International Raceway all-time with nine victories on the tricky tri-oval Jimmie Johnson has four victories in his own right, while Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. each have three.

Nine drivers have two victories in Phoenix. Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman are the active drivers in the group. The others are Davey Allison, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin.

Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1 mile tri-oval, 312 laps (312 miles, 502.32 kilometers)
Banking: 10-11 degrees in the backstretch dogleg, 8-9 degrees in Turns 1-2, 10-11 degrees in Turns 3-4

Frontstretch: 1,551 ft., banked 9-11 degrees

Backstretch: 1,179 ft., banked 3 degrees

Grandstand Seating: 45,000

Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 50 mph
Opened: 1964 (first Cup race in 1988)

Website: http://www.phoenixraceway.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhoenixRaceway

Twitter: http://twitter.com/phoenixraceway

Pre-Race Schedule:

Practice 1: Saturday, March 12, 1:30 - 2: p.m. on FOX Sports 1

Qualifying: Saturday, March 12, 2:15 p.m. on FOX Sports 1

Say What?!

"The balance of the car during the test didn’t change as much during a run compared to last November at Phoenix. My first time in the Next Gen car – well, at least my first time with the rules package as close to what we’re using this year – was at Phoenix in January, which was the freshest track in my mind. It helped me realize it didn’t drive too much differently." - Kyle Larson

"This weekend’s race at Phoenix Raceway is going to provide some really entertaining and exciting racing, I think. When we were out there for the test, we didn’t get to run a lot in traffic but that will be different on Sunday. We’ve seen such solid and good racing at all the tracks we’ve visited so far this season and it feels like Phoenix is going to be the perfect mix of all of them. This car is so challenging to drive and with the aerodynamics at Phoenix, practice is going to be crucial to see what kind of speed and car you’ve got. Qualifying is going to be really important too, you want to have a good starting position especially as the tires start to give throughout the first stage or two. My team has been working really hard each and every week and I think we’ll have a good game plan put together for this weekend and hopefully we’ll be able to run upfront and put on a good show." - Tyler Reddick

"The key for us this week is just minimizing some mistakes and also some gremlins we’ve been fighting these last few weeks. Obviously, with this being a new car everybody is learning a lot in these first few races and we’ve had some issues that we’ve navigated through the first three weeks. Daytona wasn’t really much of an issue, but we’ve had good speed and our cars have been really fast, especially the first half of the race, so we just have to execute. We knew that there was gonna be things that sort of were not expected that with a new car you just kind of figure out and so we were having to make some adjustments, which is hard to do when you’re in the west coast swing because the cars aren’t going back and forth, so you really have a day in the shop before you load up and it has to be gone for the next one to do the swap out, so Phoenix in particular, I feel like, with the test that we had here last month, that’s gonna help a lot because most of us got an opportunity to feel things out and get our cars close and have at least some targets for simulation and all those things, so this weekend should go a little bit smoother than the last two, but for us it’s just cleaning up some of the details that we had some issues with the last two weeks." - Michael McDowell

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Randy Lanning Photography.

The Critic's Annex: Victoria's Voice Foundation 200
by Phil Allaway

Last Friday night saw the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series take on Las Vegas Motor Speedway for 200 miles of action. It was fast and furious, to say the least. Starting this event a little later than in past years seemingly made it more ridiculous than normal.

Todd Bodine, normally of FOX Sports, made his first of what will be six starts in the Camping World Truck Series for Halmar Friesen Racing. This race was a bit of a nightmare for Bodine since he got caught up in two separate wrecks.

While that sort of bites for Bodine, that's life. The series is different now than it was when Bodine was still a regular. It's nowhere near as stark of a difference as compared to when Bill Lester made his one-off start at Atlanta last year when he was promoting his book, but similar. Bodine even mentioned before the race how important momentum is in the Camping World Truck Series these days. Mark Martin would clean up there if he were still racing.

What I found objectionable with Bodine's presence in the race was how FOX Sports 1 handled it. Especially on NASCAR RaceDay - CWTS Edition, it seemed like everyone was cheerleading for Bodine. That was ridiculous and unnecessary. Sure, wish him luck, but they do that for everyone. What we saw Friday night was point-blank unprofessional.

Prior to the race, Shannon Spake went one-on-one with Zane Smith, who was fresh off of his victory in Daytona. Here, the discussion was primarily focused on the mess towards the end of the NextEra Energy 250, where he effectively had to win the race twice.

In between incidents, there was plenty of excellent racing and I felt that FOX Sports 1 did a great job in bringing that action to the viewers. Of course, since there were 10 dang cautions in this race, that action was rather spread out.

The end of the race was a complete mess. As you know, there were at least three separate wrecks in the final two laps of the race. The first one (I guess) was when Spencer Boyd spun out and hit the inside wall on the backstretch coming to the white flag. I had no idea what happened at the time. Viewers only saw Boyd's truck against the inside wall after the checkered flag flew. There were no replays of this incident. At the time, I thought his wreck was tied in with the other final lap shenanigans. Someone posted a tweet a couple of days later that showed the crash from Bodine's roof cam.

Technically, this crash by itself should have triggered a GWC. Yes, the racing was fast and furious at the time, especially if Derek Kraus was around. Seriously, he was all over the place, like me playing ESPN SpeedWorld for the SEGA Genesis. The most likely reason why the caution wasn't thrown for Boyd's crash is that NASCAR didn't want to break up the racing.

However, the race was already over the timeslot by 20 minutes or so because of the earlier cautions. I feel like NASCAR could have felt some pressure to get the race over so that FOX Sports 1 could get to the next program.

The coverage of what happened on the final lap wasn't the best. Here, both Grant Enfinger and John Hunter Nemechek had separate wrecks. Enfinger appeared to blow a tire and smack the wall pretty hard. I have no idea what led Nemechek to spin out, but he got nailed as well. Pretty rough.

Post-race coverage was fairly brief. Viewers got quick interviews with race winner Chandler Smith, Zane Smith and winning truck owner Kyle Busch before leaving Las Vegas. Of course, the discovery of the illegal lug nuts on Zane Smith's truck came after the broadcast ended, so it wasn't covered here.

Overall, this was a race broadcast with good racing and decent booth dynamics that was undone by some bad production and cheerleading. I will state that the cheerleading was nowhere near as bad during the race broadcast as it was during NASCAR RaceDay - CWTS Edition. FOX Sports 1 needs to corral that because it threatens to make the network look bad.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

Today at Frontstretch:

4 Burning Questions: Is Chandler Smith KBM’s No. 1 Driver?

by Stephen Stumpf

Fire on Fridays: Don’t Stop at Just 1 Father-Son Faceoff a Year, SRX

by Kevin Rutherford

NASCAR 101: Phoenix’s Dramatic History

by Adam Cheek

Not Quite NASCAR: A Dirt-Racing Desert in, Well, the Arizona Desert

by Bryan Keith

NASCAR Mailbox: Will Next Gen Improve Racing at (Recently) Boring Tracks?

by Davey Segal

Stock Car Scoop: Who Needs a Boost to End West Coast Swing?

with Adam Cheek and Bryan Nolen

Tomorrow at Frontstretch.com:

We'll have recaps and breakdowns of all the action from Phoenix Raceway this weekend for your pleasure.

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