Frontstretch Newsletter: April 8, 2021
Volume: XV, Edition XLIX
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Around the World in Motorsports: April 7
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- NASCAR announced Wednesday that the manufacturer versions of the new NextGen car will
officially be unveiled to the public on May 5. The announcement will include "specs and elements" of the new car.
- Lime Rock Park announced Wednesday that the track has been sold to a consortium known as Lime Rock Group, LLC. Previous sole owner
Skip Barber is part of that consortium, but will now only have a partial share of the track.
There are three general partners in Lime Rock Group, LLC. One is Dicky Riegel, the former CEO of Airstream, Inc., who will serve as Lime Rock Group, LLC's CEO. He's joined by Charles Mallory and Bill Rueckert. There are also private investors, of which Barber is one. Another private
investor is part-time racer and NBC Sports personality Parker Kligerman.
For those of you worried about what will happen to the 65-year old facility, it appears that any worries are unfounded. The entire ownership group is comprised of motorsports enthusiasts (and in Barber and Kligerman's cases, actual racers) determined to allow Lime Rock to
thrive.
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- Tonight, the Whelen Modified Tour begins their 2021 season with the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville Speedway. The race will be streamed live on NBC Sports' TrackPass service
at 8 p.m. We'll have a brief recap of it here in the Frontstretch Newsletter.
- Testing for the NTT IndyCar Series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins this morning. 32 teams will be making laps
around the 2.5-mile oval. Coverage of the test begins at 11 a.m. on Peacock. If anything of note breaks, we'll have it for you at Frontstretch.
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| | Taylor Gray Hospitalized After Car Accident
David Gilliland Racing announced Thursday morning that ARCA Menards Series regular Taylor Gray was involved
in a car accident Wednesday night in Statesville, N.C. At last check, he was in stable condition at a local hospital. Gray was scheduled to make his Camping World Truck Series debut at Richmond.
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| | IMSA Cancels CTMP Race Weekend, 2nd Watkins Glen Stop To Replace
IMSA announced Wednesday that the race weekend scheduled for Canada Day weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport
Park has been cancelled due to Canada's current quarantine requirements due to COVID-19 and the continued closure of the U.S.-Canada border.
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| | SXPEL Expands Sponsorship of Josef Newgarden
Team Penske announced Wednesday that XPEL has expanded their sponsorship of Josef Newgarden for 2021.
The company will serve as the primary sponsor of Newgarden No. 2 in the NTT IndyCar Series for three races this season.
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Photos are courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography, IMSA and Chris Owens of INDYCAR Media.
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Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Reel Racing: Stanton Barrett Chats Hollywood Stunt Work and Motorsports Career (Part 1)
"When you’re a kid, you don’t realize who people are. I never thought anybody was any different than the person waiting on us at a restaurant … whoever it was, whoever we met, I always felt everybody was equal. And that was the upbringing of my
grandfather, my dad, my mom: just everybody’s people, they do their thing and [to] respect everybody. So it was just how we grew up." - Stanton Barrett, on how he handled being around celebrities as a child.
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