Frontstretch Newsletter: March 1, 2024
Volume
XVIII, Edition XX |
Welcome our New Presenting Sponsor, Race Face Digital! |
The Frontstretch Newsletter is presented by Race Face Digital, the ultimate entertainment platform for race fans and collectors to collect, buy, sell and trade digital MP4 collectible racing cards. |
- NASCAR teams are back in action this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While NASCAR Cup Series are scheduled to work on their cars and go through inspection today, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams will qualify today. Coverage starts with Truck practice at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Qualifying will follow immediately afterwards. Xfinity Series teams will practice at 6:30
p.m. ET, then qualify afterwards. Coverage of the Craftsman Truck Series Victoria's Voice Foundation starts with NASCAR RaceDay - NCTS Edition at 8 p.m. ET tonight on FS1. Race coverage will start at 9 p.m. ET with the green flag around 9:10 p.m. ET. Coverage of the Xfinity Series The LiUNA! starts with NASCAR RaceDay - Xfinity Edition at 4 p.m. ET on FS1. Race coverage will begin at 5 p.m. ET with the green flag around 5:10 p.m. ET. - This weekend's Grand Prix of Bahrain will be the first Formula 1 season opener to be held on a Saturday in many, many years. There are two
reasons for this move. One is the fact that the month of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar starts next weekend when Formula 1 will be in Saudi Arabia. The second is that the FIA has a rule stating that there must be a minimum of seven days between races. As a result, race fans can wake up bright and early Saturday morning to catch the season opener. Coverage will start with
Formula 1: Grand Prix Sunday (not renamed to Formula 1: Grand Prix Saturday despite the circumstances) at 8:30 a.m. ET on ESPN. Race coverage will start at 9:55 a.m. ET with the formation lap starting right at 10 a.m. ET. - FIA World Endurance Championship teams are scheduled to race in Qatar early Saturday morning, early enough that it could be considered to
be in DVR Theater for most of our readers. Coverage of the Qatar 1812km is scheduled to start at 2:30 a.m. ET on Motor Trend with the green flag at 3 a.m. ET. Motor Trend will have live coverage of pre-race, the first hour, last hour, and some post-race coverage. The race will be available flag-to-flag on MotorTrend+ and on the B/R Live Sports Add-On in the Max app. - The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint
Car Series will be back at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. for the World of Outlaws Bike Week Jamboree starting Sunday night. Night No. 1 from the half-mile dirt track (formerly paved in the 1990s) will begin at 6:15 p.m. ET on DirtVision. FOLLOW THE FRONTSTRETCH THIS WEEKEND IN LAS VEGAS THROUGH OUR COLLEAGUES:
Also, don't forget to follow our Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates from Las Vegas. |
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| Max Verstappen Begins Season With Bahrain
Pole Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the pole Friday for the Grand Prix of Bahrain with a lap at 135.758 mph in Q3. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will start second, then George Russell, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sergio Perez. |
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| Pato O’Ward Extends With Arrow
McLaren Arrow McLaren SP announced Friday morning that they have signed Pato O'Ward to a multi-year contract extension that will see him stay with the team in INDYCAR. |
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| Sean Hingorani Running ARCA Season for
Hattori Hattori Racing Enterprises announced Thursday that Sean Hingorani will run a limited schedule in the ARCA Menards Series for the team starting next weekend at Phoenix Raceway. |
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| Lowden Jackson Returning to ARCA West, Johnny Borneman
Running Partial Schedule Lowden Jackson Motorsports announced that they will run a full schedule in ARCA Menards Series West in 2024 with series veteran Johnny Borneman III running part-time. |
Photos are courtesy of Clive Mason of Getty Images, Nigel Kinrade Photography, Joe Skibinski of INDYCAR Media and Julia Schachinger of ARCA Racing. 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 1 |
- In Bahrain, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. was fastest in Free Practice No. 3 with a lap at 133.300 mph in his Ferrari SF-24. Sainz was .141 seconds quicker than Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third fastest, then Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari. McLaren's Lando Norris was fifth. The session was clean with no interruptions over the 60 minutes of on-track action. - In Qualifying for the FIA World Endurance Championship Qatar 1812km, Porsche Penske Motorsport's Matt Campbell won the pole for Saturday's race with a lap at 122.009 mph. It is the fastest lap of the entire week around the 3.367-mile road course.
Campbell's lap was .164 seconds faster than Toyota GAZOO Racing's Nyck de Vries, by far the highest up the order that Toyota has been all week. Hertz Team JOTA's Callum Ilott qualified in third, followed by Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Fuoco. Kevin Estre was fifth quickest in the second factory Porsche.
In LMGT3, The Heart of
Racing's Ian James, who also serves as the team principal, won the class pole with a lap at 105.172 mph. James was .360 seconds faster than the Porsche of Manthey PureRxcing's Alex Malykhin. D'Station Racing's Clement Mateu was third in his Aston Martin, then the Corvette of TF Sport's Tom van Rompuy. Vista AF Corse's Thomas Flohr was fifth. - In Free Practice No. 3 in Qatar,
Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Lynn was fastest in his Cadillac VSeries.R with a lap at 120.409 mph. Lynn's lap was .180 seconds faster than Campbell. Ilott was third, then Laurens Vanthoor in the second factory Porsche. Peugeot TotalEnergies' Stoffel Vandoorne was fifth.
The best Ferrari was AF Corse's Yifei Ye in sixth, while de Vries was ninth in the quickest Toyota. The best Alpine was Nicolas Lapierre in
12th. BMW has struggled for pace in Qatar and the final practice was no different as Raffaele Marciello in 14th was the fastest BMW driver.
In LMGT3, The Heart of Racing's Alex Riberas was fastest with a lap at 105.435 mph in his Aston Martin. The lap was .053 seconds faster than Vista AF Corse's No. 54 Ferrari for Davide Rigon. Rigon's teammate Simon Mann was third, then Iron Lynx's Franck Perera. D'Station Racing's
Marco Sorensen was fifth. There was one red flag in the session when United Autosports' James Cottingham spun his McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and got stuck in the gravel in turn 6. The car was not significantly damaged, but there was a stoppage to remove the McLaren. |
Frontstretch Folio: Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube
by Phil Allaway
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series makes their first visit to the western part of the United States with the first of two visits to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Coverage of the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube will start
with NASCAR RaceDay at 2 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. At 3 p.m. ET, NASCAR RaceDay moves to FOX. Race coverage will start at 3:30 p.m. ET, while the green flag is scheduled to fly around 3:45 p.m. ET. The event can also be heard on your local PRN affiliate or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Channel 90. Drivers will compete for 267 laps (400.5 miles) en route to the checkered flag.
Records and Facts
Last year's Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube was a very clean race. There were only two incidents in the entire race. One early in the final stage saw Joey Logano hit the wall exiting turn 4 and spin into the grass. The team ran out of time trying to fix the car, resulting in Logano being the race's sole DNF. Kyle Larson was in great position to pick up the victory until Aric Almirola got loose and spun in turn 4 to bring out the yellow and extend the race. A round of stops resulted in William Byron winning the race off of pit road over Larson. Martin Truex Jr. took the lead by
staying out. William Byron took the outside line on the final restart (pictured abbove) and swept past to take the lead in turn 1. From there, Byron, who led 176 of 271 laps on the day, held on to take the win. Byron won by .622 seconds over Larson. Alex Bowman completed a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2-3. Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell were fourth and fifth. Truex fell to seventh on his old tires. Jimmie Johnson (not entered this weekend) has the most victories all-time at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with four, including three in a row from 2005-2007. His most recent win there was in 2010. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth each have three victories. Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. each
have two. Track Facts
Track / Race
Length: 1.5-mile tri-oval, 267 laps (400.5 miles)
Banking: 20 degrees
Frontstretch: 2,275 ft, banked 9 degrees
Backstretch: 1,572 ft., banked 9 degrees
Grandstand Seating: 80,000
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 1996, first Cup race in 1998
Website: http://www.lvms.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LVMotorSpeedway Twitter: http://twitter.com/LVMotorSpeedway Pre-Race
Schedule: Practice: Saturday, March 2, 2 - 2:50 p.m. ET on FOX Sports
1 Qualifying: Saturday, March 2, 3 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 Say What? "Las Vegas has a ton of grip, probably the highest level of grip of any track we go to. Last spring, the race at Vegas was completely different than we have seen with this car so far. It had a lot to do with colder ambient temperatures and no
sun, and we are expecting some cooler temperatures this weekend, especially on Sunday. Last fall, it was obviously warmer and made the track more slick. Not sure how much rubber we will put down this weekend to widen the track. Vegas is a place where if you are typically faster than the guy in front of you, then you can pass them because you can move around. You can run the top, you can run the bottom, you can create momentum on guys, and the same thing can be said if you are bad – you can’t
hold off guys if they are faster than you. We obviously had a great car there last fall and came so close to winning there. Hoping we can put it all together and finally get a win with our Interstate Batteries Camry at a place that’s been good for us." - Christopher Bell
"I think it’s super-important to start the year out strong, especially to get through the west-coast swing in as good of a points position as possible. Jeff Dickerson’s favorite
thing to say is ‘get out ahead of it early.’ We want to try and build ourselves a little bit of a points cushion between our team and the guys who might catch you throughout the course of the year. If you start the year strong, like we have, and we continue that, it’s going to be tough for some of those guys to catch us. "I’m always excited to go
to Las Vegas. I’ve had some really good runs there the last couple years. That’s going to be a true barometer of where we stack up as a team with downforce and horsepower. I think we have a lot of the tools we need to bring a really good USANA Chevrolet Camaro to the race track this weekend. I’m excited to go out there and see how we stack up at the first true intermediate track of the season." - Corey LaJoie
"Speed. You can’t drive a slow car fast. That’s something that I feel like we’ve all been working toward by communicating with the crew chiefs about what we need out of the car, and the crew chiefs communicating to the aero department on what we need in
order to optimize everything to get the car to go faster on mile-and-a-half tracks. This is what the two-and-half months of work during the off-season has been building toward. When we left Phoenix last year and began working toward 2024, we circled all the mile-and-a-half tracks and said, ‘If we’re going to compete this year, we need to be better here.’" - 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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