Frontstretch Newsletter: Sept. 23, 2022
Volume XVI, Edition CLXV |
What to Watch: Sept. 23-25 |
- Today, there is no on-track activity scheduled at Texas Motor Speedway. NASCAR Cup Series teams are in the garage right now, working on their cars and getting them ready
to go through inspection. Additional schedule information for the NASCAR Cup Series can be found in the Frontstretch Folio below. - NASCAR Xfinity Series teams are scheduled to begin work in the garage at 3 p.m. ET. Inspection will begin shortly afterwards. Practice for the Andy's Frozen Custard 300 is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. CT Saturday morning (10:30 a.m. ET) and will be aired live on USA. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the race will begin with Countdown to Green at 3 p.m. ET on USA. Race coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:45.
- SRO America teams are practicing all day today at Sebring International Raceway. Qualifying
sessions start bright and early at 8 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Racing begins at 12:10 p.m. ET with GT America Powered by AWS, followed by TC America Powered by Skip Barber Racing School, Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS and Pirelli GT4 America SprintX. All of these races will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel. Sunday has the second race of the weekend for each series, starting at 9 a.m. ET with GT America. All races will once again be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel. Tape-delayed coverage of Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS Race No. 2 will air at 10:30 p.m. ET Sunday night on CBS Sports Network. - European Le Mans Series teams are scheduled to qualify at 8:25 a.m. ET Saturday morning for Sunday's 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. This session will be streamed live on the European Le Mans Series YouTube channel, or via MotorTrend+ (subscription required). The 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps will start at 5:30 a.m. ET Sunday morning
and will also be streamed on either the ELMS' YouTube channel or MotorTrend+. - This weekend, Eldora Speedway is hosting the Four Crowns, featuring sprints, midgets, late models and silver crown cars. Tonight's action features the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
in the BeFour the Crowns event. Action starts at 5:45 p.m. ET. Given the schedule, the stream will be split between DirtVision.tv (subscription required) and FLORacing.com (separate subscription required). - The Super DIRTcar Series travels to Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta,
N.Y. to headline the Malta Massive Weekend. Action from Malta will begin Saturday night at 5:45 p.m. ET on DirtVision. Action from the opening night of Malta Massive Weekend will be on DirtTrackDigest.tv at 7 p.m. ET tonight, which is headlined by a 40-lap Modified feature (pay-per-view broadcast, no subscription required). FOLLOW THE FRONTSTRETCH THIS WEEKEND AT TEXAS THROUGH OUR COLLEAGUES: Also, don't forget to follow our Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well
for updates on Texas! |
Around the World in Motorsports: Sept. 23 |
- In opening practice for the European Le Mans Series at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, United Autosports' Phil
Hanson was quickest overall with a lap at 125.361 mph in his ORECA 07-Gibson. Hanson's lap was .239 seconds faster than IDEC Sport's Patrick Pilet. Inter Europol Competition's Fabio Scherer was third in his green and yellow No. 43, followed by COOL Racing's Yifei Ye. Duqueine Team's Richard Bradley was fifth quickest. In LMP3, COOL Racing's Malthe Jakobsen was fastest in class with a lap at 118.924 mph, good for 17th overall.
Jakobsen's lap was two-thirds of a second faster than Inter Europol Competition's No. 13 for Nico Pino. RLR MSport's Valentino Catalano was third, then the Duqueine of BKR Engineering's Sebastian Alvarez. Eurointernational's Xavier Lloveras was fifth. In GTE, Absolute Racing's Alessio Picariello was fastest in his Porsche with a lap at 114.404 mph, 30th
overall. Picariello's lap was .586 seconds faster than Proton Competition's Richard Lietz. The Ferrari of JMW Motorsport's Matthew Payne was third, then Doriane Pin in the "Iron Dames" Ferrari for Iron Lynx. Finally, Mikkel Jensen was fifth in the Kessel Racing Ferrari. There was one red flag during the practice session when United Autosports' Bailey Voisin spun his Ligier JS
P320-Nissan at the Malmedy corner and got stuck in the gravel. Voisin was ok. |
| | Team Penske Appealing Penalty to Ryan Blaney’s Pit
CrewTeam Penske announced Friday that they are officially appealing the four-race suspensions that were handed down earlier this week due to Ryan Blaney losing his
left rear tire on pit road Saturday night in Bristol. |
| | Nicholas Latifi Not Returning to Williams in
2023Williams officially announced Friday that Nicholas Latifi's time with the team will come to an end at the conclusion of the 2022
season. |
| | BMW Officially Unveils Hybrid V8 GTP Challenger, Reveals Full-Time
DriversAt the Petersen Automotive Museum Thursday night, BMW Motorsport revealed the four full-time drivers of their new BMW M Hybrid V8 in IMSA competition (Connor de
Phillippi, Nick Yelloly, Philipp Eng and Augusto Farfus) along with the official race livery. |
| | Greg Van Alst Returning to ARCA Full Time in 2023Greg Van Alst confirmed to Frontstretch's own Mark Kristl Thursday that he will be back full-time in the ARCA Menards Series in
2023. |
Photos are courtesy of NASCAR Media via Logan Riely of Getty Images, Nigel Kinrade Photography, Williams Media and BMW Motorsport. Have news for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us
at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising lead or tip. |
Frontstretch Folio: AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 by Phil Allaway
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Fort Worth for the seventh race of the playoffs and the first race of the Round of
12. Coverage of the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 begins with Countdown to Green at 2:30 p.m. on USA. The green flag should fly around 3:45. Radio coverage will be provided by local PRN radio affiliates and SiriusXM NASCAR
Radio (Channel 90). Also, if you are venturing out to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, stay hydrated. Weather forecasts for both Saturday and Sunday indicate high temperatures in the upper 90s with very little cloud cover.
Records and facts Last year's AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 was completely dominated by Kyle Larson. A sizable wreck
early on wiped out a number of potential contenders and crippled others. Larson took the lead for good on lap 117 of
334. That's right. He led the final 218 laps, including a shootout over the last two laps to claim the victory and lock himself into the Championship 4 in a 500-mile race that had only eight lead changes. Larson was .459 seconds ahead of teammate William Byron at the finish. Christopher Bell was third for the second straight year, while Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five. Among active drivers, Kyle Busch is the winningest driver at Texas Motor Speedway with four career wins. Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick have three wins each, while Larson, Logano and Kurt Busch (still out due to injury) have one each.
All-time, Jimmie Johnson has the most victories at Texas with seven. Kyle Busch is tied for second with Carl Edwards with four, then Hamlin and Harvick.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.5-mile quad-oval, 334 laps (501
miles)
Banking: 24 degrees
Frontstretch: 2,250 ft., banked 5 degrees Backstretch: 1,330 ft., banked 5 degrees Grandstand Seating: 128,655 Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 1997 Website: http://www.texasmotorspeedway.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasmotorspeedway Twitter: http://twitter.com/TXMotorSpeedway Pre-Race Schedule: Practice: Saturday, Sept. 24, 12:35 - 1:15 p.m. ET on
USA Qualifying: Saturday, Sept. 24 at 1:20 p.m. ET on USA Say What! "I’d love to go to Texas (Motor Speedway) this weekend and have
a good, solid run and start this round off on a high note. We didn’t get to run the full All-Star Race earlier this year, but I still feel like we got enough track time to have good notes as we head back there. We just need to put a good weekend together and execute a solid day. If we can do that, then we have as good a shot as anyone to get a win and lock ourselves into the next round." - Chase
Elliott "I don’t know, we obviously were very fast there in the All-Star Race until we
had the tire issue. We’d like to think we can go out there and we’re fast and we have good strong race cars. As far as the track and the resin, I’m hoping we can dabble in it a little longer the outside way around, but it does seem to have grip and you can make some runs off the top of the corners and try to make some moves down the straightaway and such. Same old Texas, it looked to me there in the spring, from that standpoint. "Restarts in [turns 1 and 2] are certainly treacherous, just the way the banking is not quite there to hold you like it
used to be. The track ends are very different in three and four, different than one and two. We’ve seen some late-race restarts and some problems for some guys in that race a couple of times and, for us, it’s no different. We learned some things I think at Kansas that helped our car and hopefully we can transfer some of that knowledge to Texas, and Homestead as well, with our Interstate Batteries Camry this weekend." - Kyle Busch "Nobody expects it to be any different. I would say the teams have probably all got their cars handling better since we’ve last been there, but I wouldn’t expect anything different. We’ve tried some different things with PJ1
and resin, but I don’t know if you’re going to all of a sudden see different racing in Texas. At places like Charlotte, where it’s worn out and the track is aged well enough to where we can move around, we put on really good races. Even with the resin at Texas, I just don’t know if it’ll make a difference because the track surface is pretty new." - Chase
Briscoe Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade
Photography.
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