The Frontstretch Newsletter: Carl Edwards Dominates at Bristol

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Apr 18, 2016, 12:39:19 PM4/18/16
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THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Apr. 18, 2016
Volume X, Edition LIII

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NEW POSTING: SALES & BRANDING MANAGER

Frontstretch is seeking a dynamic, creative individual to head our sales team. This self-starter would be responsible for the following:
- Engaging new partners and taking the lead in brokering agreements for sales & advertising across all Frontstretch outlets: Website, Newsletter, Podcast, and video content
- Responding to exposure inquiries from potential advertisers
- Working with our social media team to enhance the marketing and branding experience for our advertising clients

The position will be a direct report to our Business and Financial Manager, a position that also will work closely with the Majority Owner and Social Media team. A fast-growing website whose writers have won multiple NMPA Awards, the Frontstretch is well-positioned for success in 2016 and has a healthy audience of over seven figures per year. The role, while initially commission-based offers a generous percentage and perks down the road for this startup company. Frontstretch management has, in many cases been in place for nearly a decade before becoming a for-profit website and we're excited to welcome the right person into this family atmosphere.

Interested parties should email tbow...@yahoo.com with a short note on why they're interested and their current resume. 
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What to Watch: Monday

- Today, the teams are back at work, prepping for this weekend's action at Richmond.  However, outside of Sprint Cup, there's still plenty of fallout from the officiating decisions in seemingly every other series that raced last weekend outside of Bristol.  You'll likely see hot takes pertaining to the warning given to Simon Pagenaud for his commitment line violation exiting the pits in yesterday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

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Monday's TV Schedule can be found here.
 
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff

Carl Edwards Dominates Toward Wild Bristol Win

On Sunday, Carl Edwards led 276 of 500 laps to claim victory in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. recovered from a balky start and losing two laps to finish second.  Kurt Busch was third, followed by Chase Elliott in a career-best fourth, Trevor Bayne fifth and Matt DiBenedetto running a surprising sixth.  Read more

Erik Jones Claims Win in Competitive XFINITY Series race at Bristol

XFINITY Series points leader Erik Jones had an incredible final restart, allowing him to get past Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch to take the win and $100,000 as part of the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash.  Busch was second, followed by Larson, Austin Dillon and Justin Allgaier.  Read more

Simon Pagenaud Withstands Review, Scott Dixon to Score Long Beach Win

Sunday, Simon Pagenaud controversially held onto to the lead over Scott Dixon despite being warned for a commitment line violation exiting the pits on his final stop.  From there, Pagenaud was able to keep Dixon in check to take his first win of the year.  Behind Pagenaud and Dixon was Helio Castroneves in third, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya and Takuma Sato.  Read more

Taylor Brothers Defend IMSA Long Beach Victory

On Saturday, Wayne Taylor Racing's Ricky Taylor made a daring move at the start to get past Action Express Racing's Christian Fittipaldi.  That turned out to be enough as Ricky and his brother Jordan Taylor held on to take their first win of the year.  Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson won in PC, while Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy won controversially in GT-Le Mans after a late crash. Read more

Red Horse Racing Parts Ways With Driver Ben Kennedy

On Friday, Red Horse Racing announced that they have parted ways with Ben Kennedy, effective immediately.  Kennedy is currently mulling his options for the rest of the season.  It is unclear if Red Horse Racing's No. 11 will compete in Kansas although the team claims their future plans will be announced within the next few weeks.  Read more

Have news for The Frontstretch?  Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.a...@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.

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Chasing the Chase: Kevin Harvick Regains the Points Lead
by Phil Allaway

Kyle Busch's run as points leader lasted for only a little more than a week.  Kevin Harvick started and finished seventh Sunday, and that was enough for him to retake the points lead.  Harvick's margin is only one point over race winner Carl Edwards, who is on a roll right now.  Jimmie Johnson is down one place to third after making an unscheduled stop due to a loose wheel.  He would eventually finish 23rd, the first driver one lap down.

Joey Logano is up one place to fourth despite having a balky ECU on a late restart.  Even with the issue, Logano still managed to finish tenth.  Kyle Busch fell from the points lead to fifth after a terrible day.  Busch came back from a blown tire and a spin to run in the top 10 before blowing a second tire and wrecking.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished second, but he had a heck of a time getting there since his car refused to go on the initial start.  An ECU recycle got him back underway, but dropped him nearly three laps down.  From there, Earnhardt Jr. charged to a second-place finish and an 11-point gain.  Kurt Busch remains seventh after finishing in third right behind Earnhardt Jr.

Brad Keselowski is up one place to eighth in points after finishing 18th despite using his car in a similar manner to a battering ram.  Denny Hamlin had contact with the wall due to a blown right front tire.  That dropped him to a 20th-place finish, which dropped him to ninth in points.  Martin Truex, Jr. is up one place to tenth after a 14th-place finish.  That could have been much better, but a loose wheel forced an unscheduled stop under green on lap 428.

Austin Dillon is down a spot to 11th, while Chase Elliott moves up two places to 12th following his second consecutive top 5.  Jamie McMurray is 13th in points, followed by AJ Allmendinger and Kasey Kahne.  Ryan Newman rounds out the top 16.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 287, 2) Carl Edwards -1, 3) Jimmie Johnson -16, 4)Joey Logano -21, 5) Kyle Busch -25, 6) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -37, 7) Kurt Busch -40, 8) Brad Keselowski - 63, 9) Denny Hamlin -65, 10) Martin Truex, Jr. -73, 11) Austin Dillon -74, 12) Chase Elliott -82, 13) Jamie McMurray -88, 14) AJ Allmendinger -99, 15) Kasey Kahne -102, 16) Ryan Newman -105.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta, Auto Club), Brad Keselowski (Las Vegas), Kevin Harvick (Phoenix), Kyle Busch (Martinsville, Texas), Carl Edwards (Bristol)
 
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.a...@frontstretch.com.
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Letter of the Race: Sunday's Food City 500 was brought to you by the letter "W," for Wheels.  The whole "we're not going to tighten all the lugnuts" thing seemingly came to a head on Sunday as multiple drivers were forced to make green-flag pit stops due to loose wheels.  Don't press your luck with that, especially at Bristol.   - Phil Allaway

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Quotes to Remember: Food City 500
compiled by Phil Allaway

"There were so many different things happening out there. Different guys were fast at different times. I have to work on my drag racing stuff, Kurt (Busch) has those restarts figured out. He was tough. Just awesome. This is a real testament to my team. The guys have been working really hard. There was some concern [about the tires], but for some reason with our car we didn’t have any of those issues. Just really proud of these guys and thank you to everybody that makes this happen. This team is awesome and Dave (Rogers, crew chief) doesn’t quit. He can almost read my mind, he can tell me things in the race right when I needed them. It was just a good day." - Carl Edwards, race winner

"We had a lot of luck on those last several restarts. You start on the outside and just gain some spots just being on the right lane. We didn’t have a good enough car to run in the top 5 today, but Greg (Ives, crew chief) and those guys did a great job getting our laps back. We had a dead battery at the start of the race; something bad like that, same thing I think happened to the No. 22 (Joey Logano). That cost us two laps early in the race and we worked real hard. Greg did a great job helping us get our laps back. The car was about a 15th or 10th place car. We were just lucky on those restarts as to where we lined up.  And that really helped us." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished second

“We just battled through it. Junior had trouble at the start and I was 40th when we started the race. One car at a time. One set of tires at a time. And then we were in great position around lap 350. We got the lead from (Carl) Edwards for a little bit. And we just kept working on it. And there’s nothing more that I could have gotten out of the car. I’m really happy with the way that everybody worked together. I shouldn’t be happy about finishing 3rd, but I’ll take it. It’s just a great effort. And the way that this team has come together is perfect. We just need to find that last little bit. Thanks to Haas Automation, Monster Energy, and Chevrolet. It’s just wonderful to have a good group of guys to go out there each week to have a shot at it. And, I still don’t think I’m supposed to be happy about finishing 3rd. But, Edwards ran a great race. Congratulations to him." - Kurt Busch, finished third

"It was a lot of battling back.  We went through a lot of adversity to get there, but we just didn’t give up.  We had a really good race car.  That’s what paid off.  You can’t come back if you don’t have good race cars and we’ve got that now.  I need to minimize my mistakes going forward, but we were able to make mistakes and get back to a top-5 finish.  I kept getting on the bottom on restarts every time, but it came back to me at the end.  We were able to start on the top those last three and that’s really what got us in the top 5." - Trevor Bayne, finished fifth

"A sixth-place finish for BK Racing and for all my guys, this is like a win for us. I apologize for being so emotional, but this is an incredible run. I can’t thank my team enough, my crew chief Gene Need and everyone on this team for working so hard and busting their tails for me to be able to drive this race car in the Sprint Cup Series. This is such an honor and I’m so thankful to all the sponsors – Dustless Blasting, Cosmo Motors, Dr. Pepper and I know I’m forgetting people. Thank you to the fans most importantly – they are so great and so supportive. I’m just really thankful to be here, this was a great day." - Matt DiBenedetto, finished sixth

"[Restarting on the inside] was definitely the biggest challenge for us. The guys did a great job with our ditech Chevy. We had the speed but it seemed like every restart we were just struggling to make ground on the restart and by the time you get to two or three spots back, you battle back to where you were and then the caution would come out again. But there’s nothing you can do about that. We raced hard all day and we’ll go to the next one." - Kevin Harvick, finished seventh

"It was an eventful day.  I had a pit road speeding penalty and recovered from that, and got up towards the front and then the 18 spun out in front of me.  I barely touched somebody and the front end fell off the car.  We keep having that problem on short tracks, so I don’t know what we’ve got to do there, but we drove back up and the car was really fast.  We got up to third and then got a flat tire.  We lost two laps on that and fought really hard with the wavearound and lucky dog and got back to the lead lap with like eight to go and passed three cars in the laps we had and that was our day.  I feel like we were a pretty good car.  I was pretty happy overall with our performance, but we couldn’t get it all to come together." - Brad Keselowski, finished 18th

"Best car I’ve ever had here for sure.  Actually felt like I knew what I was doing around this place.  That was pretty cool.  I was having a lot of fun.  The Gibbs cars were definitely better, but I think we saw a couple of them obviously were right on the border line of probably having too much camber pushing the limits. Pit road problem, it’s the little stuff that we have to keep fixing.  I honestly think we had a… if you look at the top five results I think I was better than most of them.  I wasn’t going to beat the No. 19, but depending on where you restart and everything I think we were pretty good other than that.  Just a long day, disappointing.  It could have been a lot worse, but it could have been a lot better." - AJ Allmendinger, finished 19th

"We just keep blowing right front tires, I don’t know why. The first one was a little confusing, I knew I blew a right front, but I thought they were telling me it wasn’t flat so I was a little confused. This one just blew a lot earlier and the angle was a lot worse hitting the wall. We really weren’t very tight, our Dollar General Camry was pretty fast today. I was encouraged again today even though we don’t have the result. I have a smile on my face and we’ll go to Richmond and try again." - Matt Kenseth, finished 36th

"I have no idea. I just kept getting tighter in the long run, not sure why that was. We had a really great car yesterday and we were fastest in practice. I felt really good about things for today. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I hate it for all these guys, all the work and effort and everybody at M&M’s – all our M&M’s and Mars associates. Not a day we were hoping for. We had a really fast car. We drove up from the back to the front a couple times and showed what we were made of, but obviously it doesn’t matter when you’re in the garage." - Kyle Busch, finished 38th (Crashed out)

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.a...@frontstretch.com.

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by Aaron Bearden

as told to Mike Neff

by Bryan Gable

by Huston Ladner

by Amy Henderson

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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  Today, there is a steady protocol for setting the field if qualifying is cancelled (current points (races 4-36) or previous year's points (races 1-3) for positions 1-35 based on practice speeds (if any), Past Champions (if any remaining), then provisionals based on number of attempts).  In 1986, the very memorable Miller High Life 400 at Richmond (second race of the year at the time) had both rounds of qualifying rained out.  How was the field set?

Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!

Friday's Answer:

Q:  1992 was a very expensive year for the then-Bristol International Raceway.  In August, the track unveiled their original concrete surface.  However, they had already spent a bunch of money prior to concreting the track.  Why?

A: Bristol actually sported brand new asphalt for the Food City 500 that year, which brought about higher speeds.  The action was pretty good as the groove actually moved up the track during the race.  Unfortunately, the amount of maintenance for asphalt at Bristol was such that the move to concrete was made as a likely cost-cutting maneuver.  Previous repaves at Bristol had come up within a couple of years, or required multiple applications of sealer.
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COMING TOMORROW

In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have breaking news from Monday, Tom Bowles gives you a stats breakdown of Bristol in Numbers Game and S.D. Grady returns with Sitting In The Stands: A Fan's View.

On Frontstretch.com:
Danny Peters returns with Five Points to Ponder following Sunday night's action in Bristol.
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Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to edi...@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here! 
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