Frontstretch Newsletter: Hendrick Motorsports To Enter Le Mans in 2023 with Next Gen Car

Published: Fri, 03/18/22

Frontstretch Newsletter: March 18, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition XXXV

What to Watch: March 18-20

- Today, all three of NASCAR's National Series will be at Atlanta Motor Speedway. They'll get 50 minutes of practice each today. Saturday will see all three series qualify. Then, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will race 208 miles, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series racing 250 miles. Finally, the NASCAR Cup Series will race 500 miles on Sunday.

- For INDYCAR, Texas is a two-day show. Teams will practice and qualify on Saturday, then race at Noon local time Sunday afternoon. Practice and qualifying will be streamed on Peacock, while the Xpel 375 will air live on NBC.

Formula 1 teams are back to their normal three-practice schedule for this weekend in Bahrain. The first practice is already done. Practice No. 2 is at 10:55 a.m. ET on ESPNEWS, while the third practice is Saturday morning. Qualifying is 10:55 a.m. ET Saturday on ESPNEWS. Race coverage starts at 9:30 a.m. ET on ESPN with the racing starting at 11 a.m.

- The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is scheduled to go green at 10:10 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Coverage of the race will begin at 10 a.m. ET on Peacock. USA Network starts at 3:30 p.m. ET and runs through the finish.

- Today will see the FIA World Endurance Championship teams compete in the 1000 Miles of Sebring, a race that will be either 1000 miles (268 laps) or eight hours, whatever comes first. The race will air flag-to-flag on Motor Trend and on MotorTrend+ starting at 11:30 a.m. ET.

- Monster Energy AMA Supercross teams will be at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis this weekend for Round 11 of the championship. Coverage starts at 7 p.m. ET Saturday night on CNBC.

TV Schedule: Here

Around the World in Motorsports: March 17-18

- AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was fastest in the first official Free Practice session of the Formula 1 season Friday morning with a lap at 128.532 mph, set on soft tires. Gasly's lap was more than a third of a second faster than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz Jr. was third, followed by Mercedes' George Russell and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton ended up being seventh quickest, while Fernando Alonso, who was quickest early on, was eighth. While Gasly had a big gap at the top, the top 12 drivers were within one second of Gasly's time.

There was a red flag early in the opening session when the right sidepod on Alpine F1's Esteban Ocon ripped apart, littering the pit straight with debris. Ocon later returned to the track with replacement bodywork. He ended up 12th quickest.

Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas failed to set a time during the session. He did go out on track, but reported a misfire on his warm-up lap.

- Free Practice No. 2 saw the pace pick up significantly. Verstappen ended up going quickest with a lap at 131.687 mph. The lap was nine-hundredths of a second faster than Leclerc. Sainz was third, then Russell and Alonso.

Bottas ended up sixth quickest after missing nearly all of Free Practice No. 1 with his misfire. Meanwhile, Hamilton struggled with the porpoising issues that have plagued testing. That left him ninth on the chart.

- Signatech Alpine's Nicolas Lapierre won the pole for today's 1000 Miles of Sebring Thursday with a lap at 125.355 mph in his Alpine A480-Gibson. Lapierre's lap was a full second and a third faster than Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus' Olivier Pla. AF Corse's Nicklas Nielsen won the LMP2 pole with a lap at 123.507 mph, third overall. Toyota GAZOO Racing's Brendon Hartley will start fourth, followed by United Autosports' Filipe Albuquerque.

- Thursday was a very good day for Kay van Berlo. The second-year racer swept two races from pole in Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by Visit Cayman Islands, leading flag-to-flag.

Today's Top News:

(Photo: NASCAR Media via Jared C. Tilton ofGetty Images)

NASCAR, Hendrick Running 24 Hours of Le Mans as Garage 56 Entry

NASCAR announced Thursday in Sebring that they plan to send a Next Gen car to Le Mans in 2023 to run as the Garage 56 entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car will be fielded by Hendrick Motorsports.

Sebastien Bourdais Wins Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Pole

Chip Ganassi Racing's Sebastien Bourdais won the pole Friday morning for the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring with a lap at 128.026 mph, a new WeatherTech track record.

Chad McCumbee, James Pesek Win Alan Jay Automotive Network 120

PF Racing's Chad McCumbee and James Pesek used pit strategy to get themselves to the front of the field Thursday. Once there, they held on to take the team's first IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge victory. VGRT's Victor Gonzalez Jr. and Karl Wittmer won the TCR class.

Pipo Derani Fastest in Sebring WeatherTech Practices

Action Express Racing's Pipo Derani was fastest overall in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice Thursday in Sebring with a lap at 127.319 mph.

Photos are courtesy of NASCAR Media via Jared C. Tilton of Getty Images and IMSA.

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: Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

by Phil Allaway

This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will enter charted, yet uncharted, territory in their first visit of the year to Atlanta Motor Speedway. Coverage of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 will start at 1:30 p.m. Sunday with NASCAR RaceDay on FOX Sports 1. The show moves to FOX at 2:30 p.m. The green flag is scheduled to drop around 3:10. In addition, the event can also be heard on your local PRN affiliate or SiriusXM Channel 90. Drivers will compete for 325 laps (500.5 miles) en route to the checkered flag.

Records and facts

Last year's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was dominated by Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson. Larson led 269 of 325 laps during the race. However, the handling went away in the final 25 laps. This allowed Team Penske's Ryan Blaney to run Larson down and take the lead with nine laps to go. From there, Blaney pulled away to take his first win of the year.

Blaney's margin of victory was 2.083 seconds over Larson. Alex Bowman was third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Among active drivers, Kurt Busch has the most victories with four, including last July. Kevin Harvick has three victories while Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch each have two. All-time, the late Dale Earnhardt tops the win charts with nine wins, while Cale Yarborough has seven. Richard Petty and Bobby Allison have six wins each.

Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.54-mile quad-oval, 325 laps (500 miles)
Banking: 24 degrees

Frontstretch: 2,332 ft, banked 5 degrees

Backstretch: 1,800 ft., banked 5 degrees

Grandstand Seating: 75,000
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 1960

Website: http://www.atlantamotorspeedway.com

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

Twitter: http://twitter.com/amsupdates

Pre-Race Schedule:

Practice 1: Friday, March 18, 5 - 5:50 p.m. on FOX Sports 1

Qualifying: Saturday, March 19, 12:30 p.m. on FOX Sports 1

Say What?!

"I have no clue on this one, actually. I watched a couple laps of the test that they had, and I’ve heard people say that we’re going to be wide open and speedway racing on a mile and a half, and it’s gripped up. We’ll just have to see what that really is like. I just hope it’s not a train race because Atlanta Motor Speedway has been a great track in the past with the old, worn-out asphalt. Our best races have come from places that have ancient asphalt that tears up tires. It can be a great race, and it could be a race where we just try to make it through it. I’m assuming with it being speedway-style and handling is up, there’s going to be some aggressive driving and some blocks made, and there’s potential to wipe out a bunch of cars. We’ll just see how it works out." - Austin Dillon

"It’s a headscratcher for me. My understanding is that it’s going to be a completely new experience, not just from the old Atlanta but just the style of racing that we’ve ever had across any of the speedways before. It’s going to have the banking to hold you in the corners like a speedway, but you don’t have long straightaways. Especially at Atlanta, the corners have always been long there, carrying a lot of speed at that racetrack even as the old surface aged. I truly don’t know what it means. I don’t know if it’s going to feel and drive just like the old 550 package did, I don’t know if it will be a race like that. I don’t know if it’s going to be a true, straight up superspeedway race either. For us and where we’re at compared to the Fords and Toyotas, I’m really hoping it isn’t a superspeedway-type style of race even though we are operating with that horsepower package because we definitely can’t lock up as well, push as well, as the Toyotas and Fords can. Even at a place like Daytona, me and my teammate Austin Dillon were trying to do what the Fords were, and we about crashed four or five times. So, at a place like Atlanta, that will be even more challenging so it could be a very interesting race for us. I don’t know how it’s going to play out, but practice is 50 minutes, and it will really show us what the race will look like." - Tyler Reddick

"It’s going to be wild. It’s great to win on Sunday, but this coming week there are going to be 39 guys that are going to try the same thing. A couple of guys in the shop asked me how it feels to get that first win and it feels good, but it doesn’t mean anything if we go run 40th this week. You’ve got to be able to go do it again. So I think, this week, there are a lot of unknowns for a lot of reasons. The NextGen car still is a big variable that we don’t really know a lot about, but then the track is totally different than anything we’ve ever had. It’s supposedly going to be like a mini-Daytona or Talladega with pack racing and drafting, but what really happens when we get there? It’s going to be intense, it’s going to be wild, it’s going to be a narrow track with a lot of speed and a lot of excitement. It’ll be interesting to see where we stack up when we get there. I don’t know what to expect. I’ve been on the simulator quite a bit trying to figure it out, but we won’t really know what it’s going to be like until we get there." - Chase Briscoe

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

The Next Gen Car at Le Mans Is Intriguing & a Sign of What’s to Come

by Phil Allaway

Fire on Fridays: Could There Be a NASCAR Drivers’ Strike?

by Michael Massie

NASCAR 101: The 1992 Hooters 500, 30 Years Later

by Adam Cheek

Not Quite NASCAR: Luck of the Irish Brings Dirt Racing Bounty to Georgia

by Bryan Keith

NASCAR Mailbox: Is Greg Biffle Tarnishing His Legacy With NY Racing?

by Davey Segal

Stock Car Scoop: What Can NASCAR Expect From Atlanta’s Reconfiguration?

with Adam Cheek and Bryan Nolen

Tomorrow at Frontstretch.com:

We'll have recaps and breakdowns of all the action from Atlanta, Texas and Sebring this weekend for your pleasure.

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