Frontstretch Newsletter: Feb. 28, 2025
Volume
XIX, Edition XX |
What to Watch: Feb. 28-March 2 |
- The FIA World Endurance Championship Qatar 1812km is ongoing. Live coverage can be seen on Max. - This weekend, NASCAR teams are at Circuit of the Americas for their fifth visit. However, this time, they will be racing on the National Circuit for the first time. For
more information on the NASCAR Cup Series, check out the Frontstretch Folio below.
- NASCAR Xfinity Series teams are also in Texas and getting ready to go. Practice is scheduled to start at 5:05 p.m. ET today with live coverage on The CW App and/or website at 5 p.m. ET. Qualifying will be at 6 p.m. ET. Coverage of the Focused Health 250k will start with NASCAR Countdown
Live at 2 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW. Race coverage will start at 2:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 2:45 p.m. ET. - IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is also on the undercard this weekend. They are scheduled to practice twice today. Qualifying for them is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET tonight. Race No. 1 for the sprint series is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Coverage will air live on Peacock starting at 9:35 a.m. ET.
The grid for Race No. 2 will be formed by either a driver's second-best time in qualifying, or their best lap in Race No. 1, whichever is
quicker. Race No. 2 is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. ET after the Xfinity Series race. Coverage of that event will be on Peacock starting at 5:55 p.m. ET.
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series returns to Volusia Speedway Park for some more action this weekend. Coverage of the Bike Week Jamboree will start Sunday night at 6:15 p.m. ET on DirtVision. FOLLOW THE FRONTSTRETCH THIS WEEKEND
THROUGH OUR COLLEAGUES:
AUSTIN: ST. PETERSBURG NEW RIVER ALL-AMERICAN: Also, don't forget to follow our Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates from Circuit of the Americas! |
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| Zachary Tinkle Back for Full ARCA East
Schedule Fast Track Racing announced Friday that Zachary Tinkle will rejoin the team for the full eight-race ARCA Menards Series East schedule, including combination races with the ARCA Menards Series. |
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: Feb. 27 |
- In Day No. 2 of Formula 1 preseason testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, speeds began to increase on the 3.363-mile road course. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was fastest overall in the morning session with a lap at 135.455 mph. Hamilton was .399 seconds faster than his former teammate George Russell. Williams' Carlos Sainz Jr. was third, then Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin's Fernando
Alonso. Like during Session No. 2 on Wednesday, there was some precipitation during the session that curbed action. Only a couple of drivers drove on intermediate tires before the track dried and slicks returned. Session No. 4 saw Sainz go fastest in
his Williams with a lap at 135.502 mph. This lap ultimately held up for the fastest lap over the three days of testing. The lap was .031 seconds faster than Hamilton. Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari was third, then Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Session No. 5 Friday saw Leclerc go fastest in his Ferrari with a lap at 133.319 mph. The lap was .077 seconds faster than
Antonelli, then McLaren's Lando Norris and Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Alpine's Jack Doohan was fifth. The session had two separate red flags due to debris. The more notable of the two occurred when part of the engine cover off of Oliver Bearman's Haas flew off. In the final session, Russell was fastest in his Mercedes with a lap at 135.204 mph. He was .021 seconds faster than Verstappen. Williams' Alexander Albon was third, .105 seconds back. McLaren's Oscar Piastri was fourth, while Gasly was fifth. |
This is just a sampling of the videos that we uploaded to our YouTube channels from _ last weekend. For more from _, or from other race weekends, be sure to subscribe to our suite of YouTube channels (Frontstretch, Frontstretch
Grassroots, Frontstretch Plus and FS Open Wheel) and don't forget to click the bell to be notified of future videos. |
Frontstretch Folio: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
by Phil Allaway
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series makes their third visit to Circuit of the Americas near Austin for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Coverage is scheduled to start with NASCAR RaceDay at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX. Race coverage will start at 3:30 p.m. ET. The green should fly around 3:45 p.m. ET. Radio coverage will be
provided by local PRN radio affiliates and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). Records and facts Last year's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix was dominated by William Byron. After winning the pole, Byron led 42 of 68 laps. He took the lead after the
final round of stops on lap 51, then held off the pack on a late restart to win. Byron's margin of victory was .692 seconds over Christopher Bell. Ty Gibbs was third, then Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick. To this point, there have
never been a repeat winner at Circuit of the Americas. The races have been won by Byron, Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain. Of the active drivers in Cup, Elliott is the most successful driver on road courses with seven victories in 35 career starts. He's won twice at Watkins Glen, twice at Charlotte Motor Speedway's ROVAL and one each on Daytona's
infield road course, Road America and the inaugural race at COTA. Kyle Larson has six road course victories, while Martin Truex Jr. (not entered) has five. Kyle Busch has four point victories on road courses, plus the Busch Clash on Daytona's road course in 2021. AJ Allmendinger and Tyler Reddick both have three wins. Track
Facts
Track / Race Length: 2.356-mile road course, 95 laps (223.82 miles)
Banking: varies Straightaways: varies Grandstand Seating: 120,000 Pit Road Speed: 35 mph
Pace Car Speed: 45 mph
Opened: 2012 Website: http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CircuitoftheAmericas Twitter: https://twitter.com/COTA Pre-Race Schedule: Practice: Saturday, March 1, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video Qualifying: Saturday, March 1, 12:40 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video Say What? "I don’t know.. you know, I think you lose a couple passing zones. You lose turn 11, all the way up at the top. You lose coming down into turn 12 after the long
straightaway. I don’t think going into turn 6 is going to be a passing zone. It’s really tight. I mean, sure – guys are going to try and throw it in there and pass there, but it’s a 90 degree corner. It’s going to be slower and sharper than the frontstretch at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, when you come down into the turn on the front straightaway. As you come back onto the back straightaway, that corner is just kind of a flowy corner, so I don’t think you’ll get much two-wide racing
through there. Trying to setup something on that little short shoot you have now before turn 12 is going to be tricky to say the least because you want to be on the inside for that corner but the next two corners you’re going to want to be on the outside. So I don’t know.. I feel like we lost two and we didn’t gain any. We’ll see how that transpires and what it looks like. But being a shorter course and not having that long straightaway in turn 12, you’re going to get less separation from
all those other cars around you, so it’s going to be more Martinsville-esque with cars staying closer together and probably a little bit more pushing and shoving, and I’m sure that’s what the fans will certainly enjoy." - Kyle Busch "The course, I would say, is largely unchanged from – otherwise we’re just cutting a few corners out really simply. I think the larger conversation for us, at least within my race team, is the introduction of yet another road course tire, which is supposed to be similar to what we raced at Watkins Glen in the playoffs, so I think there’s probably more variables and more discussions based
around that and more potential strategy and certain things throughout the race that will be affected by having tire wear or not having tire wear and depending on where it falls. There have been repaved sections of the race track, but as far as the course itself, the shortcut through 6A and 6B, I think your restarts are already kind of single file by the time you get to the end of the esses, which is where 6A starts, so I don’t see a ton changing other than we’re just gonna run more laps and
I feel like that stadium section is gonna take a larger percentage of the lap and potentially be a more important part of the lap." - Austin Cindric "I think COTA is going to be a great race. I’ve talked to a few guys who have run the cut-through, including Shane van Gisbergen, who raced this layout in the [Repco
Supercars Championship]—it has a lot of unique characteristics and bumps, while the rest of the track is fairly smooth. The shorter course will also make pit strategy more interesting. The No. 42 Legacy Motor Club team has had a fantastic start to the season, and everyone is gelling right now. We’re staying focused on the race ahead, controlling what we can, and aiming to keep delivering strong finishes." - John Hunter Nemechek "I always enjoy going to COTA, I feel like we’ve had a lot of speed there in the past. We’ve had some success, but we’ve always been in the mix to run inside the top five. It’ll be a challenge this weekend with the new layout, but I feel good from where our road course program has been. If we can unload, have speed, and execute, we’ll give ourselves a shot to win the race." - AJ Allmendinger 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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The Critic's Annex: Fr8 208
by Phil Allaway
With the NASCAR Xfinity Series no longer on FOX Sports, I figured that the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series would get a little more focus in 2025 on FOX Sports 1. So far, not so much. What the broadcasts have received is the revolving door of guest analysts that had plagued Xfinity broadcasts over the past decade. Daytona had Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano in the booth. For Atlanta, Logano returned, but Harvick was replaced by Brad
Keselowski. Harvick has announced that he'll be back in the booth for Homestead in March. I don't like the idea of guest analysts in general since chemistry is very important to a broadcast booth
in NASCAR. We've seen how important it is just in the first two weeks with the Xfinity Series coverage on The CW. Adam Alexander, Parker Kligerman and Jamie McMurray are working together regularly and they can play off of each other well. You're never going to have that in the Trucks. Alexander leaving FOX Sports for his new roles with The CW, Amazon Prime Video and Warner Bros. Discovery has resulted in Jamie Little getting the full-time play-by-play role for the series. That exacerbates the chemistry issue since Little really isn't all that strong in the booth. I don't know what it is. It seems like Little really doesn't come off as all that enthusiastic for the racing that she's calling. I don't want to say she's bored up there because that's not something that I can prove, but she doesn't make the
race sound exciting at all. Knowing that this was a race that had a lot of action, that says something. Having Keselowski and Logano in the booth really helped to drive the narrative of the
broadcast. They both brought in some good analysis that really helped to explain what viewers were seeing out there. It was truly welcome. They were probably the best part of the broadcast. There
were issues in direction in regards to getting the right people on-air in the right place. That resulted in pit reports being uncoordinated and on top of each other. I also don't like the
complete lack of emphasis in regards to the starting lineup. They focused on the first six trucks and beyond that, they just put them on-screen and ignored them. That is a double whammy knowing that they're not really doing anything to preview the race since NASCAR RaceDay - NCTS Edition got sacked last season. The biggest incident of the race on Saturday was triggered by Rajah Caruth wiping out in turn 4 and taking out a few other drivers. It was very unclear as to what happened. The broadcast was convinced that Caruth cut a tire. It came out afterwards that he got in oil and spun. It sounds like this wasn't just a FOX Sports issue as it was an everyone issue. No one knew that there was oil at all, let alone where it came from. The result sheet would indicate that the oil came from Justin Carroll, who dropped out with engine issues
right around the time of the crash. There was basically no mention of this on the broadcast. Caruth ended up thinking that it was his fault that he junked the field, even though it wasn't. That's rough. The blasting of the front of the field with oil dry was ridiculous, but something that NASCAR probably caused themselves. I don't believe that the jet dryer nozzles are adjustable, so the trucks needed to be stopped against the outside wall instead of on the apron. That would have prevented the drivers from getting sandblasted. The broadcast did have some fun with some of the radio chatter that came out of this stupidity, though. Post-race coverage was ok. Viewers got interviews with four of the top-five finishers and some post-race analysis before FS1 left Atlanta. Overall, FOX Sports' Truck coverage needs some work. The direction needs to be sharpened up and Little needs to show more enthusiasm. They need a more permanent booth for the series as well. Get a regular analyst or two that can bounce ideas off of Little if
she's going to be the full-time play-by-play commentator for the series. Putting her in a position where she has to adjust to 10-12 different analysts in the broadcast booth over the course of a season isn't going to help her develop her skills at all. Do I think that the broadcast booth situation is why viewership for Saturday's race was down 26% year-to-year? I'm not sure, but it could be playing a role. Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
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