Frontstretch Newsletter: March 17-19
Volume XVII, Edition XXXI |
What to Watch: March 17-19 |
- In Atlanta, both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series are scheduled to qualify this afternoon. Truck teams are scheduled to qualify at 3 p.m. ET, while Xfinity teams
will qualify at 4:30 p.m. ET. Both sessions are scheduled to air live on FOX Sports 1. Unfortunately, there is nearly a 100% chance of rain at Atlanta Motor Speedway. As a result, one or both of the sessions may end up being scrubbed. - Coverage of the Fr8 208 is scheduled to begin Saturday with NASCAR RaceDay - NCTS Edition at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Race coverage will begin at 2 p.m. with the green at 2:10. - Coverage of the Raptor King of Tough 250 will begin with NASCAR RaceDay - Xfinity Edition at 4 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon on FOX Sports 1. The start time could potentially be pushed back if the truck race runs long. Race coverage is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. - Formula 1 teams
are in Jeddah for the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Free Practice starts this morning at 9:25 a.m. ET on ESPN2. Free Practice No. 2 will be on ESPNEWS at 12:55 p.m. ET. Free Practice No. 3 will be Saturday morning at 9:25 a.m. ET on ESPN2. Qualifying is scheduled for 12:55 p.m.
ET on ESPNEWS. Coverage of the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia will start with Formula 1: Grand Prix Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN. Race coverage begins at 12:55 p.m. ET with the formation lap scheduled to begin precisely at 1 p.m. ET. - Today is also a very busy day in Sebring. Qualifying for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is due to start at 9:10 a.m. ET this morning. The session will be available at IMSA.com and on Peacock. - The FIA World Endurance Championship starts their 2023 season with the 1000 Miles of Sebring this afternoon. Coverage is due to start at 11:30 a.m. ET with the green flag at Noon. Flag-to-flag coverage will air live on Motor Trend and MotorTrend+. Also, don't forget to follow our Twitter
page, @Frontstretch as well for updates on Atlanta! |
| | Kaulig Appealing Penalty to No. 31
Team Kaulig Racing announced Thursday that they are appealing the 100-point penalty that was levied against the No. 31 team Wednesday for unapproved hood
louvers. |
| | Kevin Harvick Running No. 29 at North Wilkesboro for
All-Star Race On NASCAR RaceHub Thursday, Kevin Harvick announced that he will be running a throwback No. 29 at North Wilkesboro in May for
the NASCAR All-Star Race. |
| | Tom Blomqvist Quickest In Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring
Practices Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian's Tom Blomqvist overcame electrical issues and a flurry of red flags to set the fastest lap in WeatherTech practice
Thursday at 125.774 mph. |
| | Robby Foley, Vin Barletta Win Alan Jay 120 In Turner
Motorsport 1-2 Turner Motorsport's Robby Foley took the lead with under 25 minutes to go and held on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 along with Vin Barletta. KMW
Motorsports with TMR Engineering's Roy Block and Tim Lewis Jr. won in TCR. |
| | TCR Class Ends In Controversy In
Sebring Thursday's Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring saw KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering's Tim Lewis Jr. and Roy Block claim the TCR class victory. However,
Lewis gained the lead in the first place via a questionable call. |
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. |
Around the World in Motorsports: March 16 |
- JDC-Miller MotorSports, via SportsCar365.com, announced Thursday that they will officially debut their customer Porsche 963 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca May 14 in the Motul Course de Monterey. The team has run full-time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's top class since 2017. However, the team has not taken delivery of their new GTP car as of yet. According to the release, the team is scheduled to take delivery of their Porsche 963 in late April. The team will likely have little to no time testing the car prior to making their debut.
Who will
drive the team's No. 5 Porsche is still up in the air. No announcements in regards to drivers have been made to this point.
- Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Fuoco won the pole for today's 1000 Miles of Sebring Thursday evening with a lap at 128.147 mph. The lap was .214 seconds faster than Toyota GAZOO Racing's
Brendon Hartley. Teammate Kamui Kobayashi was third in the second Toyota, followed by Alessandro Pier Guidi in the second Ferrari 499P. Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Lynn was fifth in the best of the LMDh entries, a second off of Fuoco. The LMP2 pole was snatched by United Autosports' Oliver Jarvis with a lap
at 122.429 mph. The lap was .093 seconds faster than JOTA Sport's Pietro Fittipaldi. Team WRT's Robin Frijns was third, then Signatech Alpine's Matthieu Vaxiviere. Hertz Team JOTA's Yifei Ye was fifth. Iron Dames' Sarah Bovy won the pole in GTE-Am in her debut weekend in the Porsche 911 RSR-19
(the Iron Dames squad previously raced Ferraris). Bovy's lap at 113.191 mph was .396 seconds faster than Corvette Racing's Ben Keating. ORT by TF Sport's Ahmad Al Harthy was third, then Richard Mille AF Corse's Luis Perez Companc. AF Corse's Stefano Constantini was fifth in his Ferrari. - In the final
FIA World Endurance Championship practice session, Kobayashi was fastest overall with a lap at 127.279 mph. The lap was .609 seconds faster than Hartley and nearly a full second faster than Fuoco. Lynn was fourth, while Peugeot TotalEnergies' Mikkel Jensen was fifth. Fittipaldi was fastest in LMP2 with a
lap at 122.258 mph, .09 seconds quicker than United Autosports' Phil Hanson. Ye was third, then Jarvis and Prema Racing's Mirko Bortolotti. Northwest AMR's Nicki Thiim was fastest in GTE-Am with a lap at 113.114 mph in his Aston Martin. The lap was .043 seconds quicker than the Porsche of GR Racing's
Riccardo Pera. Kessel Racing's Daniel Serra was third in his Ferrari, then AF Corse's Francesco Castellacci. Corvette Racing's Nico Varrone was fifth. |
Frontstretch Folio: Ambetter Health 400 by Phil Allaway
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to Atlanta Motor Speedway for their first visit of the year. Coverage of the Ambetter Health 400 will start at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday with NASCAR RaceDay on FOX Sports 1. The show moves to FOX at 2 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 260 laps (400.4 miles) en route to the checkered flag.
Records and facts Last year's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was the first race for the NASCAR Cup Series on the newly-reconfigured version of Atlanta Motor Speedway. The result was a more competitive race, but also one run in tight packs. 12 drivers were ultimately eliminated from the race due to wrecks and a couple more crashed at the finish. William Byron was able to get past Bubba Wallace with 10 laps to go and was able to hold
off the pack to take the victory. His margin of victory was .145 seconds over Ross Chastain. Kurt Busch was third, then Daniel Suarez and Corey LaJoie, who had made a run for the lead on the final lap before hitting the wall in turn 1. Among active drivers, Kevin Harvick is the winningest driver with 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, 260 laps (400.4 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/ATLMotorSpdwy Twitter: http://twitter.com/ATLMotorSpdwy Pre-Race Schedule: Qualifying: Saturday, March 18, 11:30 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 Say What? "Driving at the new Atlanta configuration is definitely challenging just due to the fact that it’s really, really fast and it’s a mile-and-a-half so it seems like the
superspeedway speeds that you get at a mile-and-a-half make everything go by really quick and things happen quick, faster than a superspeedway. That’s definitely the challenging part. Understanding the grip level of what the cars have and the draft and the moves you can make is also pretty challenging. It’s easier for everybody to go faster with it being restrictor plate style racing and everybody being able to hold it wide-open to the most part makes it for a plate race. Drivers would rather
drive and have it as the old Atlanta." - Kyle Busch "It’s just a superspeedway race on a mile-and-a-half racetrack. Things just happen a lot faster, so the decisions have to happen faster, the cars move around a lot more, the corners come up a lot quicker. A lot more seat-of-your-pants, just, ‘Go here, go there, do this, do that.’ And I think that the way the lines formed and moved
and everything happened, you just had to get used to a different style of race than we’ve had before. "It’s got some characteristics of superspeedway racing in the way that you wind up in
a pack and you’re holding it wide open. But the way that the bumps and things are there, and the way you have to go into the corner, and the way the race developed, there wasn’t near as much pushing and shoving as there is at Daytona and Talladega." - Kevin Harvick "It’s definitely a speedway race, no question about it. Last spring, we led some laps and
we were leading there and had a late caution and restarted on the front row. We got a good shove down into (turn) one and (turn) two, and (Corey) Lajoie was leading the inside lane and got up inside of me, and Chase Elliott was stuck up in the middle of us and got us three wide and got into me and shoved me up the hill and got me out of line, and that was it. Sort of what happens at those types of places – you can be in the best spot possible, but you have to count on other guys to help you and
sometimes it just doesn’t work out. All I can do is hope we are in the same position this weekend with our Bass Pro Shops Camry TRD and maybe things will work out a little bit better in our favor and we can bring home the win." - Martin Truex Jr. "I liked racing in Atlanta last year. It was a lot different obviously with the new layout
and new format style of racing. It’s kind of like having an extra superspeedway track for us, but you have a little more handling involved, especially more than what we have at say, Talladega. I feel like our speedway program has been strong; I feel like at the Daytona 500, we had a good car. So hopefully, we can be just as strong there and be able to just lead some laps, be up front, and have a shot to win. Last year, we were pretty close in a couple of them in Atlanta. You know, I really felt
like in the second race there we had a great shot to win, and hopefully we can go back down there and close this one out with our Allegiant Chevy." - Erik Jones Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via Jared C. Tilton of Getty Images.
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