Frontstretch Newsletter: Grant Enfinger Reunites With Jeff Hensley

Published: Thu, 06/30/22

Frontstretch Newsletter: June 30, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition CIX

What to Watch: Thursday

- The Super DIRTcar Series will be in action at Land of Legends Raceway near Canandaigua, N.Y. for the Stars and Stripes 76 tonight. Action starts at 5:45 p.m. ET on DirtVision.

- USAC Silver Crown National Championship and 500 Sprint Car Tour teams will be racing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The coverage will be split between MAVTV, MAVTV Plus and FLORacing (explanation is below).

- NASCAR teams are en route to Road America for this weekend's road course racing. If anything of note breaks, we'll have it for you at Frontstretch.

TV Schedule: Here

Around the World in Motorsports: June 30

- MAVTV and FLORacing.com announced a new partnership Thursday morning. As part of this deal, MAVTV Plus will be going away as of July 26. Events that previously streamed on MAVTV Plus will be on FLORacing under the MAVTV on FLORacing banner. The ARCA Menards Series events that air on MAVTV are already streamed on FLORacing.

If you already have a FLORacing.com subscription ($150 a year), then you don't have to do anything. If you're only on MAVTV Plus, then you would have to subscribe to FLORacing to continue watching the coverage previously exclusive to MAVTV Plus. For the next month, content on MAVTV Plus will be simulcast on FLORacing.

The partnership means that MAVTV Plus is the fifth service whose content has been swallowed up by FLORacing since 2019. Since then, they acquired streams from a number of tracks that were on the free-to-view FansChoice.tv when TrackPass launched in late 2019. They took over a number of properties from TrackPass when TrackPass folded. They outright bought SpeedShift.tv and made DirtonDirt into a wholly-owned subsidiary.

- Hitech Grand Prix announced Wednesday that Juri Vips will in fact maintain his ride with the team in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. In a statement released to Twitter, Hitech boss Oliver Oakes stated "...I choose to give [Vips] the chance to redeem himself. By allowing him to keep racing with Hitech, we are giving Juri the opportunity to demonstrate genuine and sincere remorse for his future actions."

Since Vips' Red Bull backing effectively paid for his ride with Hitech, it is unclear whether Hitech is allowing Vips to remain there for free, or if Vips is now paying out of pocket for his ride. Regardless, he will be on the grid this weekend in Silverstone.

Today's Top News:

Jeff Hensley Moving to GMS as Grant Enfinger’s Crew Chief

GMS Racing announced Wednesday that Jeff Hensley will move from ThorSport Racing to become the crew chief for Grant Enfinger's No. 23 team, effective immediately.

Entry List: Chevrolet Grand Prix

There are 27 teams entered in Sunday's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The most notable change is that Kamui Kobayashi will be in the Vasser Sullivan No. 14 Lexus in place of the injured Jack Hawksworth.

Entry List: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120

For Saturday's Michelin Pilot Challenge race at CTMP, there are 36 teams entered. Marc Miller returns to the series with Murillo Racing, while Stevan McAleer and Rennsport One are not entered.

Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography 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 Line of the Week

From Michael McDowell’s Recent Surge Boosts Hunger for Win

"So it’s definitely a big boost for us, but it’s also not an overnight success. I feel like we’ve been building all year and putting together some good results on the ovals and really everywhere. The last four or five weeks, we’ve really strung together some great results and finishes, and our cars have speed in them. I looked at Sonoma as, if you’re running 25th every weekend on an oval, going to a road course and winning it is a little bit out of reach. But when we’re running 10th every weekend, going to a road course and having a shot at winning isn’t out of reach. We sort of knew going into Sonoma that we’d have that shot, and just proud that we executed. " - Michael McDowell, on his third-place finish at Sonoma.

Today at Frontstretch:

Podcast: Grant Enfinger on His 2022 NASCAR Truck Season

with Grant Enfinger, Bryan Nolen and Jack Swansey

Predicting the Championship 4 in a Season of Parity

by Danny Peters

2-Headed Monster: Should JR Motorsports Move to Cup Series in 2023?

by Anthony Damcott and Luken Glover

Truckin’ Thursdays: Can Corey Heim Win Rookie of the Year as a Part-Timer?

by Anthony Damcott

ARCA Qualifying Matters

by Mark Kristl

F1 Midweek: Lewis Hamiltonʻs Other Fight

by Ava Ladner

Tomorrow at Frontstretch.com:

We'll have 4 Burning Questions to think about as NASCAR's National Series descend upon Road America.

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