Frontstretch Newsletter: April 28, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition LXI |
What to Watch: April 28-30 |
- Today, NASCAR Xfinity Series teams are scheduled to practice and qualify for Saturday's A-Game 200
at Dover Motor Speedway. Coverage of practice is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, with qualifying beginning shortly afterwards. However, there is a very high chance of rain that could wipe the session out.
Coverage of the A-Game 200 will start with NASCAR RaceDay - Xfinity Edition at 3 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon on FOX Sports
1. Race coverage will follow at 4 p.m. ET with the green flag around 4:15. - ARCA Menards Series East teams are scheduled to compete in the General Tire 125 today in Dover. The race is scheduled to start
at 5:30 p.m. ET and will be streamed live on FLORacing.com. However, that race could be postponed due to rain as well. - NTT IndyCar Series teams are in Leeds, Ala. for this
weekend's Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. The opening practice session is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. ET today and will be streamed on Peacock. Practice No. 2 is scheduled for Noon ET Saturday. Qualifying is at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on
Peacock.
Race morning will have a 30-minute warmup at Noon ET. Coverage of the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix starts at 3 p.m. ET on
NBC. - In
Baku, Saturday will mark the first-ever Formula 1 Sprint Shootout, which will serve as qualifying for the sprint race. That will air live on ESPN2 at 4:25 a.m. ET. The Sprint race itself will air live on ESPN at 9:25 a.m. ET Coverage of the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan starts with Formula 1: Grand Prix Sunday at 5:30 a.m. ET Sunday morning on ESPN. Race
coverage starts at 6:55 a.m. ET with the formation lap starting at 7 a.m. ET sharp. - Coverage of the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of
Spa-Francorchamps begins Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. ET on Motor Trend with the green flag coming out at 6:45. Coverage will air on Motor Trend until 8 a.m. ET. It will be on MotorTrend+ exclusively until 11:30 a.m. ET. At that point, the race will return to Motor Trend until the finish. - SRO America teams are at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, La. this weekend. Today is a practice day for teams in all four
series. Saturday has qualifying in the morning, then races in the afternoon, starting with GT America powered by AWS at 1:55 p.m. ET. All races can be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel. Sunday has Race No. 2 for all four series. First up is TC America powered by Skip Barber Racing School at 9:30 a.m. ET, followed
by GT America at 10:30 a.m. ET. Race No. 2 for Pirelli GT4 America SprintX will be at 12:30 p.m. ET, while Race No. 2 for Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS will be at 2:45 p.m. ET. All races will again be streamed on the GT World YouTube channel. - World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams will be at Granite City, Ill.'s Tri-City Speedway tonight for some
action. Racing starts at 7:15 p.m. ET on DirtVision. - Saturday night sees the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams move to the quarter-mile Tri-State Speedway in
Haubstadt, Ind. Action at the Indiana dirt track starts at 7:15 p.m. ET on DirtVision. FOLLOW THE FRONTSTRETCH THIS WEEKEND THROUGH OUR COLLEAGUES:
DOVER: BARBER PARK: Also, don't forget to follow our Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates from
Dover! |
| | Charles Leclerc Upsets Red Bull for Pole in
Azerbaijan Ferrari's Charles Leclerc won the pole Friday morning for Sunday's Grand Prix of Azerbaijan with a lap at 134.008 mph. Red Bull's Max Verstappen will start
alongside. Sergio Perez starts third, then Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lewis Hamilton. |
| | Kasey Kahne Joining SRX Field at
Berlin Superstar Racing Experience announced Thursday that World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series owner/driver Kasey Kahne will race in the SRX event at
Michigan's Berlin Raceway. |
| | Greg Biffle Running Thunder Road in
SRX Superstar Racing Experience announced Friday that Greg Biffle will return to SRX to race in the second race of the season at Vermont's Thunder Road International
Speedbowl. |
Photos are courtesy of FIA Images and 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 27-28 |
- In the sole practice session of the weekend in Baku, Red Bull's Max Verstappen was quickest with a lap at 131.242
mph. The lap was .037 seconds faster than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull was third, then Carlos Sainz Jr. and McLaren's Lando Norris. - Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio
Giovinazzi set a lap right before the checkered flag flew Friday at 129.720 mph in qualifying to win the pole for Saturday's FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. His margin was a mere .035 seconds over Toyota GAZOO Racing's Kamui Kobayashi. Miguel Molina was third in the second Ferrari, followed by the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs driven by Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais. The No. 8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley did not record a time during the session. As a result, the team will have to start from the rear of the 13-car Hypercar grid. - In changeable conditions, Kobayashi was fastest in FIA World Endurance Championship Free Practice No. 3 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps with a lap at 121.732 mph. The lap was roughly seven seconds slower than the best laps on Thursday. Kobayashi's
lap was .734 seconds quicker than Bamber. Hertz Team JOTA's Will Stevens was third in the Hypercar class, then Ryo Hirakawa in the second Toyota and Bourdais.
Team WRT's Ferdinand Habsburg was fastest in LMP2 with a lap at 120.269 mph, third overall. His lap was .961
seconds faster than Vector Sport's Gabriel Aubry. United Autosports' Filipe Albuquerque was third, followed by teammate Josh Pierson. Prema Racing's Mirko Bortolotti was fifth.
In GTE-Am, the Porsche of Iron Lynx's Matteo Cressoni was fastest with a lap at 107.511 mph, 25th overall.
Cressoni's lap was 3.554 seconds faster than the Aston Martin of D'Station Racing's Casper Stevenson. Richard Mille AF Corse's Alessio Rovera was third in his Ferrari, then Kessel Racing's Scott Huffaker. Project 1-AO's Matteo Cairoli was fifth. The session was marked by a series of spins in the wet conditions. The most serious incident saw Porsche Penske
Motorsport's Frederic Makowiecki spin into the gravel at the Campus corner and hit the wall slightly. He was able to extricate himself from the runoff and After the crash at the end of Free Practice No. 2 Thursday, the No. 54 was able to be repaired and took part in the
session. The No. 21 is having a backup car brought from Italy with the hope of competing in Saturday's race. In addition to the four-race suspension, the team has been disqualified from McFadden's second-place finish from
April 14, they've been docked 500 points in the standings and fined $8200 (the $6000 from the second-place finish, $2000 for the violation and $200 for the testing costs). The penalty drops McFadden from seventh to 17th in points before the suspension even starts. Roth Motorsports has elected to appeal the penalty. As a result, the team will be allowed to compete tonight at
Tri-City Speedway. |
Frontstretch Folio: Wurth 400
by Phil Allaway
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Dover
for their only visit of the season. Coverage of the Wurth 400 begins with NASCAR RaceDay at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. The green should fly around 2:10 p.m. ET Radio coverage will be provided by local PRN radio affiliates and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast for Sunday. Frontstretch will keep you updated if any changes to the schedule are made.
Records and facts Last year's Drydene DuraMAX 400 was rain-plagued. Showers descended upon Dover Motor Speedway and put the race under yellow 69 laps in. On lap 78, the race was red-flagged and ultimately postponed to Monday. Once the race resumed, it was more wreck-strewn than normal as seven yellows flew due to crashes over the final 322 laps. While Kyle Busch led the most laps (103), the race came down to Chase Elliott getting a better restart than Ross Chastain on lap 348. That allowed Elliott to take the lead. Elliott led from there to take the victory. The victory came under caution after Martin Truex Jr. crashed on the final lap. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was second, then Chastain, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman. Among active drivers, Kyle Busch, Kevin
Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. each have three Dover victories, which lead the pack. Elliott has two wins, while three others have a victory. All-time, Jimmie Johnson is the winningest driver at Dover International Speedway, claiming 11 victories. Richard Petty and Bobby Allison each have seven wins at Dover, tied for the most on the asphalt
version of Dover (the track was converted to a concrete surface for 1995). David Pearson and Jeff Gordon each have five wins at Dover. Track Facts
Track / Race
Length: 1 mile oval, 400 laps (400 miles)
Banking: 24 degrees Straightaways: 1,076
ft., banked 2 degrees Grandstand Seating: 95,500 Pit Road Speed: 35
mph
Pace Car Speed: 45 mph
Opened: 1969 Website: http://www.doverspeedway.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoverInternationalSpeedway Twitter: http://twitter.com/MonsterMile Pre-Race Schedule: Practice: Saturday, April 29, 10:30 - 11 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 2.
Coverage moves to FOX Sports 1 at 11 a.m. ET Qualifying: Saturday, April 29, 11:40 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 Say
What?! "Dover [Motor Speedway] is just a tough place in general. We’ve always had really fast cars there, even with the Next Gen cars, but this track has a bit of a survival technique to it. The track is hard on the car, hard on a driver, and one mistake can
result in the end of your day or put you behind by quite a bit. That’s what happened last year unfortunately. We were able to overcome a wreck in practice, but then a caution during green-flag pit stops late in the race put us in a hole we couldn’t get out of. If we show up with the speed we usually have, though, and the speed we have shown this year, we should be in good shape. It will just be about maintaining that track position the whole race." - William
Byron "Dover is a cool place, I like going there. It’s been a fun track and it’s fast. As far as qualifying goes, Dover is one of the higher intensity tracks of the season, because of the speed you have to carry. It is really a cool track, and I am looking forward to competing in the Allegiant Chevy
this weekend. Now, with the Next Gen cars we move around a lot and you can run similar lanes as the old car if you run the bottom, so it was more similar in my opinion and probably more similar than most guys thought. I don’t expect to see anything out of the ordinary, and I am hoping to build off our success in Talladega." - Erik Jones "I really enjoy Dover and one of the best parts of it is that it’s a little bit closer to home for me. There’s a sense of familiarity and I love coming from the northeast, so I get excited about heading up there for Dover and other tracks in the area. This is actually a race that I’ve been stressing to Chad [Johnston] about. I really felt like we had such a great race car last year. We just
never got track position, and we actually had a tire go down a couple times. Then, I believe, when AJ [Allmendinger] lost a tire during the green flag pit cycle, we lost a lap or two and it just kind of put a damper on our day. But from a speed standpoint, we were really fast in practice and had a great race car. I feel like some of the baseline of what we decided to take for this weekend strongly goes off that, and I have high expectations." - Ryan
Preece 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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