Frontstretch Newsletter: March 31, 2023
Volume XVII, Edition XLII |
What to Watch: March 31-April 2 |
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams are already at Texas Motor Speedway for this weekend's action. No on-track activity
today. Practice is at 10:35 a.m. ET Saturday morning. It will not be televised due to it running against NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at
Richmond Raceway. Qualifying will immediately follow. Coverage of the SpeedyCash.com 250 starts with NASCAR RaceDay - NCTS Edition at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Race coverage
is at 4:30 p.m. ET. - NASCAR Xfinity Series teams have a one-day show Saturday in Richmond. Practice will start at 8 a.m. ET with live coverage on FOX
Sports 1. Qualifying will immediately follow. Coverage of the ToyotaCare 250 starts with NASCAR RaceDay - Xfinity Edition at Noon ET on FOX Sports 1. The green flag will
fall around 1:05 p.m. ET. - NTT IndyCar Series teams will practice starting Saturday morning at 9 a.m. ET. That will be streamed live on Peacock. Qualifying
is at 12:15 p.m. ET, followed by a final practice with upper lane emphasis at 1:45 p.m. ET. Coverage of the PPG 375 will start at Noon ET Sunday on NBC. Check your local listings to see if your affiliate is airing the
race. If not, Peacock will be your only place to watch. The green flag will fly at 12:15 p.m. ET. - Formula 1 teams have Free Practice No. 3 tonight at 9:25 p.m. ET for the Grand Prix of Australia. That will air live on ESPNEWS.
Qualifying is at 12:55 a.m. ET late Friday night/early Saturday morning, which will air on ESPN. Coverage of the Grand Prix of Australia starts with Formula 1: Grand Prix Sunday at 11:30 p.m. ET Saturday night on
ESPN2. Race coverage will air on ESPN starting at 12:55 a.m. ET. SRO America teams are at Sonoma Raceway, where most series (with GT America being the exception) will start their seasons. With
five series now on the schedule, it will be a busy time on the 2.52-mile course. On Saturday, TC America has their first race at 2:30 p.m. ET. They will be followed by the third race of the year for GT America
at 4 p.m. ET. The inaugural race for the new Toyota GR Cup will be at 4:55 p.m. ET, while the first Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race of the year is at 6:05 p.m. ET. The day concludes with Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 at 7:50 p.m. ET. Sunday has GT America Race No. 1 at 11:55 a.m. ET, followed by TC America Race No. 2 at 12:55 p.m. ET. Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 2 is at 1:55 p.m. ET, followed by Toyota GR Cup Race No. 2. The weekend will conclude with Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at 5:15 p.m. ET. All events will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel. FOLLOW THE FRONTSTRETCH THIS WEEKEND THROUGH OUR COLLEAGUES:
RICHMOND: FORT WORTH: Mike Knapp Also, don't forget to follow our Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates from Richmond and Fort
Worth! |
| | Josh Williams Receives Xfinity Playoff
Waiver NASCAR announced Thursday that DGM Racing's Josh Williams has received a playoff waiver after he missed last Saturday's Pit Boss 250k at Circuit of the Americas
due to suspension. |
Photos are 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: March 30-31 |
- Formula 1 teams have already completed their first day on-track in Melbourne, and it was a weird one. Free
Practice No. 1 was red-flagged due to a rare GPS failure. On paper, that doesn't sound like too much of an issue, but in practice, it meant that teams couldn't tell where the others were on-track, leading to a series of near misses. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fastest with a lap at 149.867 mph, the best lap coming despite a spin that ruined a
set of soft tires. The lap was .433 seconds faster than Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez was third, then Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fifth. A second stoppage occurred when Williams' Logan Sargeant ground to a halt on the track. AlphaTauri's Yuki
Tsunoda spun as well and nearly went into the barriers. Free Practice No. 2 had teams scrambling to put down laps before rains came to the Victorian circuit. Prior to the
wet stuff arriving, Alonso was fastest at 149.682 mph, .445 seconds quicker than Leclerc. Verstappen was third in his Red Bull, followed by Mercedes' George Russell. Carlos Sainz Jr. was fifth. After the rains came, teams did venture back out on intermediate tires to get some data in adverse weather. No
improvements were made. |
Frontstretch Folio: Toyota Owners 400 by Phil Allaway
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series makes their first visit
of the year to Richmond Raceway. Coverage of the Toyota Owners 400 starts with NASCAR RaceDay at 2 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. This will be the first Cup race of the year on FOX Sports 1. The green flag is scheduled to drop around 3:45 p.m. ET. The race can also be heard on MRN Radio and
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). Records and
facts Last year's Toyota Owners 400 was a rather clean affair, something that has become the norm in recent years at Richmond Raceway. The final 137 laps were under green, resulting in a number of unusual pit strategies. Denny Hamlin pitted late and put himself roughly 45 seconds behind in the closing laps. On fresh tires, he made up the better part of two full laps in the final 40
laps to go to get past William Byron with five laps to go to win. Hamlin ended up .552 seconds ahead of Kevin Harvick at the finish. Byron ended up
third, then Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson. All-time, Richard Petty is the
winningest driver at Richmond with 13 career victories. Of those 13, three came on the dirt while the other 10 came on the old, .542-mile paved oval prior to the track's 1988 renovation. Petty's count also includes seven in a row from 1970-73, a NASCAR record for this track. Bobby Allison is second with seven wins while Rusty Wallace, Kyle Busch, Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson have six apiece. Wallace and Kyle Busch's wins have all come on the present three-quarters of a
mile configuration. Among active drivers, Kyle Busch is the winningest driver at Richmond with his six triumphs. Hamlin and Harvick each have four wins,
while Martin Truex Jr. has three. Kurt Busch and Joey Logano have two each. Track
Facts
Track / Race Length: .750-mile D-shaped oval, 400 laps (300 miles)
Banking: 14 degrees Frontstretch: 1,290 feet, banked 8 degrees Backstretch: 860 feet, banked 5 degrees Grandstand Seating: 59,000
Pit
Road Speed: 40 mph
Pace Car Speed: 45 mph
Opened: 1946 (first Cup race in 1953) Website: http://www.richmondraceway.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richmond.raceway Twitter: http://twitter.com/RichmondRaceway Pre-Race Schedule: Practice: Saturday, April 1, 10 - 10:50 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 Qualifying: Saturday, April 1, 11 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 Say What? "I’ve always really liked it to be honest. From the first time I raced there in 2003 I’ve always enjoyed the track. There was a long period where I didn’t have great numbers there, but I felt like I loved the track and always ran well there and had a lot of crazy things happen there throughout my career. Once I got to Furniture Row
we started leading a ton of laps there. We also had a couple of heartbreaking finishes there where we should have won the race but didn’t and I wondered if it was ever going to happen. Then we went on a streak there, so it’s been a great track and it’s a ton of fun. I’m curious to see how it works out with the new short track package that NASCAR has come up with. Last year the short tracks were tough to make passes and we would get stuck a car length behind someone. You would run them down and
get a car length back and you couldn’t make any moves because of the dirty air. Hopefully we’ve been able to help that some and we can go back to putting on a great show at places like Richmond and I hope for myself and my team we can get our Auto Owners Insurance Toyota back in victory lane there like we’ve done before." - Martin Truex Jr. "Richmond Raceway is a challenge. I loved the track for about half of my NASCAR life, and for the other half it was such a brutal place to come race for us. My Richard Childress Racing team really flipped the script the last couple of years, and we’ve been consistent in the top 10 and running well. I’m looking forward to getting back to Richmond with the new lower downforce package. Tire wear is very fast so
managing tires for 400 laps is key and I’ve always enjoyed the long runs. Richmond is a rhythm track, and after our top five run at the LA Coliseum, I’m excited to see what the No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE Chevrolet will do." - Austin Dillon "I’m not really sure [why Richmond is hard to
figure out]. I was never really a short-track racer, so I felt like that was a big part of it, but Richmond doesn’t really drive like a lot of the other short tracks. The corners aren’t as tight as what we see at some other places. It is more like Phoenix, I think, so being good there probably helped when it came to the Richmond races last year. It’s such a unique track and it’s a lot more fun when you have a car capable of running up front." - Chase Briscoe "Richmond is a challenging racetrack. There’s a lot of racing grooves on the track, which makes it fun. It was one of my best tracks in the Xfinity Series, but we have struggled a bit in the Cup Series with our short track
program. Hopefully we can take some of the stuff we learned at Phoenix and apply it here." - Justin Haley 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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