Frontstretch Newsletter: April 14, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition LI |
What to Watch: April 14-16 |
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams will be out on the paperclip today for practice starting at 3 p.m. ET. That session will air live on FOX Sports 1. Qualifying
will immediately follow. However, there is a significant chance of rain.
Pre-race coverage starts with NASCAR RaceDay - NCTS Edition at 6:30 p.m. ET. Race coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on FOX Sports 1.
- NASCAR
Xfinity Series teams are scheduled to practice at Martinsville today at 5 p.m. ET. This session will air live on FOX Sports 1, with qualifying following shortly afterwards. The rain chance is still high Coverage of the Call 811 Before You Dig 250 is scheduled to start with NASCAR RaceDay - Xfinity
Edition at 7 p.m. ET Saturday night on FOX Sports 1. This may be pre-empted if the Milwaukee Brewers-San Diego Padres game runs long. Race coverage will start at 7:30 p.m. ET. - NTT IndyCar Series teams will have one of their crown jewel events, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, this weekend.
Practice No. 1 is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET today and will stream live on Peacock. Practice No. 2 is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. ET and will also stream on Peacock. Qualifying will be at 3:05 p.m. ET. There is a morning warmup Sunday scheduled for Noon ET on Peacock as well. Coverage of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach starts with INDYCAR Live at 3 p.m. ET on NBC. Race coverage will start at 3:30 p.m. ET. Depending on race length, there may be a post-race show on Peacock. - IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams are scheduled to practice and qualify today in Long Beach. Practice will not be televised, but qualifying will be at 8:10 p.m. ET on both IMSA.com and Peacock. Coverage of the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will air live on USA Saturday starting at 5 p.m. ET.
- The FIA World Endurance Championship is in Portugal for their first European round of the year. Qualifying for the 6 Hours of Portimao is scheduled for 10:20 a.m. ET Saturday morning and will be streamed on MotorTrend+. The race itself is scheduled to start at 7 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Coverage will start at 6:30 a.m. ET on Motor Trend and run through 8 a.m. ET. At that point, coverage will exclusively run on MotorTrend+ through Noon ET. At Noon, coverage returns to Motor Trend for the finish and post-race coverage. - World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams will be at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 for the I-55 Outlaw Showdown, which is comprised of two nights of racing. Both nights of racing are scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m. ET on DirtVision. FOLLOW THE FRONTSTRETCH THIS WEEKEND THROUGH OUR COLLEAGUES:
MARTINSVILLE: Luken Glover LONG BEACH: Also, don't forget to follow our Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates from Martinsville and Long
Beach! |
| | Daniel Dye Adds Champion
Sponsorship GMS Racing announced Thursday that Champion Container will serve as the primary sponsor on Daniel Dye's No. 43 Chevrolet in four races starting at North Wilkesboro
in May. |
Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography. Have news for Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com with a promising lead or tip. |
Around the World in Motorsports: April 13-14 |
- In Free Practice No. 1 this morning at the Algarve International Circuit, Toyota GAZOO Racing's Sebastien Buemi
was fastest with a lap at 112.161 mph in his Toyota GR010-Hybrid. Buemi was .384 seconds faster than teammate Mike Conway. Ferrari AF Corse's Alessandro Pier Guidi was third, nearly two-thirds of a second back. Nicklas Nielsen was fourth in the second Ferrari, then Porsche Penske Motorsport's Frederic Makowiecki. Prema Racing's Mirko Borolotti was fastest in LMP2 with a lap at 110.084 mph, good for ninth overall. Bortolotti was
.342 seconds quicker than teammate Bent Viscaal. Inter Europol Competition's Fabio Scherer was third, then United Autosports' Oliver Jarvis and Team WRT's Louis Deletraz. Deletraz's teammate Rui Andrade crashed in turn 11, which ended the session early. The WRT squad will have to repair
the car. Kessel Racing's Daniel Serra was fastest in GTE-Am with a lap at 102.699 mph in his Ferrari 488 GTE. Serra was .517
seconds faster than Northwest AMR's Nicki Thiim. Proton Competition's Harry Tincknell was third fastest in his Porsche, then Richard Mille AF Corse's Lilou Wadoux. Corvette Racing's Nicky Catsburg was fifth. Another red flag flew when Dempsey-Proton Racing's Mikkel Pedersen spun his Porsche and got stuck in the
gravel. - In Free Practice No. 2, Toyota
GAZOO Racing's Kamui Kobayashi was fastest overall with a lap at 112.936 mph. He was nearly a second faster than teammate Ryo Hirakawa. Ferrari AF Corse teammates Miguel Molina and James Calado were third and fourth, while Peugeot TotalEnergies' Nico Mueller was fifth. Vector Sport's Gabriel
Aubry was fastest in LMP2 with a lap at 110.006 mph, 11th overall. He was .082 seconds faster than Inter Europol Competition's Albert Costa. Bortolotti was third fastest, then Team WRT's Robin Frijns and Jarvis. Serra was once again fastest in GTE-Am with a lap at 102.833 mph, .046 seconds
faster than Wadoux in a similar Ferrari. AF Corse's Davide Rigon was third fastest, then GR Racing's Riccardo Pera in the fastest Porsche 911 RSR-19. Corvette Racing's Nico Varrone was fifth. At Frontstretch, we typically do not cover Porsche Sprint Challenge Iberica, but a frightening
incident happened in between the two WEC practices that could have future consequences for events at the Algarve International Circuit. Alexandre Areia had just set what turned out to be the third fastest time in their second practice session when he reportedly had his throttle stick at the end of the pit straight. As a result, he speared off the track in turn 1. He went through the gravel trap, got airborne, went through the catchfence and ended up in a grandstand.
Thankfully, no one was sitting in that area when the crash happened, so no one was hurt in the stands. Areia was unhurt as well. Regardless, the Algarve International Circuit is a FIA Grade 1 circuit. Such a scenario would be considered unacceptable. Expect major upgrades to the track in the near future in order to maintain their grade.
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Frontstretch Folio: NOCO 400
by Phil Allaway
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Martinsville for the eighth race of the season. Coverage of the NOCO 400 will begin Sunday with NASCAR RaceDay at 2 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Race coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:17 p.m. ET. Radio coverage will be provided by local MRN radio affiliates and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
Records and facts Last year's Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 was admittedly not the most competitive race with only five lead changes. William Byron was able to snag the lead on lap 309, won the race off pit road during a caution, then led the rest of the way
(with the exception of right at the restart) to take the win. Byron won by .303 seconds over Joey
Logano. Austin Dillon was third, then Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain. Denny Hamlin is the winningest
active driver at Martinsville with five career victories. Truex has three Martinsville victories, while the Busch brothers and Brad Keselowski each have two. All-time, Richard Petty is the leader with 15 career victories. Darrell Waltrip has 11 Martinsville victories, then Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson with nine. Rusty Wallace has seven wins and could have had an eighth if he didn't get black-flagged for jumping the final restart from the lead in the 1997 Hanes 500. Three other drivers (Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt and Fred Lorenzen) have six
wins each.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 0.526-mile oval, 500 laps (263 miles)
Banking: 12 degrees Straightaways: 800 ft., flat Grandstand Seating: 55,000 Pit Road Speed: 30 mph
Pace Car Speed: 35 mph
Opened: 1947 (first Cup race in the inaugural season, 1949) Website: http://www.martinsvillespeedway.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MartinsvilleSpeedway Twitter: http://twitter.com/MartinsvilleSwy Pre-Race Schedule: Practice: Saturday, April 15, 4:35 - 5:25 p.m. on FOX Sports 2 Qualifying: Saturday, April 15 at 5:30 p.m. on FOX Sports 2
Say What?! "I want to win at any track that I haven’t won at. Martinsville (Speedway) has been a place I’ve struggled at pretty regularly. Last year, we had two good races at Martinsville. I feel like it is potentially in our future to win a race there. If I did, that would probably be the all-time biggest win of my life, because any time you can accomplish something that is difficult to you or you don’t think you can
accomplish, it means a lot." - Kyle Larson
"Martinsville is a challenging short track. I think with the Next Gen race car it’s become a bigger
challenge just with the fact that everybody being a lot closer. Little setup differences with the old car meant an awful lot in speed and it seems like little setup differences with this car doesn’t really mean a whole lot so everybody runs the same speed no matter what so it just makes it tough to pass. Track position is everything. The aero effects when you get behind guys makes it tough to move around and find grip in other grooves in order to make moves. It seemed like with the old car you
could definitely follow a lot better and keep yourself closer to the guy in front of you so if he made a little, tiny mistake you could pounce on that and make a pass. "The racing there is pretty demanding. I mean, you’re on the brakes
all the time and steering all the time. You’re trying to feel that grip and not slip. You want to carry your speed as fast as you can while off the gas. The biggest thing that I learned that made me better at Martinsville is how fast can you go slow. You actually spend more of the lap off the throttle than you do on the throttle so it’s about figuring out how to go slow fast." - Kyle Busch "I’m really excited about Martinsville. We definitely have a better grasp of what we need on short tracks than we had before the NextGen and we’ve done really well the last two years. We gambled a little in the fall Martinsville race trying to get into the championship race, but we had a really good car and that’s what allowed us to come out with the finish that we
did. "I didn’t grow up doing this kind of racing, so I had a really hard time when it came to short tracks. It’s a different kind of aggressive driving and you really have to have a car that can stick to the bottom and turn well to be able to do anything. I think the biggest thing I’ve had to learn, and I
think it’s probably something I’ve just had to learn in general, but taking care of the tires is so important. It’s a long race, tempers get heated and, if you end up using everything up, you’re going to get run over or moved out of the way." - 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.
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