The Frontstretch Newsletter: Kyle Busch Motorsports Signs USAC Standout Christopher Bell
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Jun 11, 2015, 12:13:45 PM6/11/15
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THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
June 11, 2015
Volume IX, Edition XCV
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What to Watch: Thursday
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Today is pull-in day for Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series teams at Michigan International Speedway for this weekend's action. Also, the field will be set today (or tonight, if you're in France) for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Final qualifying is set for 4 p.m. ET (10 p.m. local time). We will have a recap of Le Mans Qualifying (where the provisional pole is at an average speed of just shy of 155 mph) in tomorrow's newsletter.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
USAC Champion Christopher Bell Set to Make Truck Debut for Kyle Busch at Iowa
by the Frontstretch Staff
USAC Champion Christopher Bell Set to Make Truck Debut for Kyle Busch at Iowa
Kyle Busch Motorsports announced on Wednesday that Christopher Bell, a USAC standout, will make his Camping World Truck Series debut at Iowa Speedway in the team's No. 51 Toyota on June 19th. Currently, Bell is only confirmed for Iowa, but more races can be added. Read more
Lucky Unlucky Hinchcliffe Doesn’t Remember Indy Incident
Yesterday, James Hinchcliffe spoke to the media for the first time since his near-fatal crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Here, Hinchcliffe mentioned that he required 15 pints of blood prior to his surgery at IU Health Methodist Hospital, or as he referred to it, a "complete oil change." He has no recollections of the crash, or most of the first week after it. 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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Today's Featured Commentary~~~~~~~~~~
by John Potts
Back on the subject of the Verizon IndyCar Series again this week. Quite a bit of news…
The Texas race wasn’t much of a nailbiter, but it was a pretty good example of how to win one of these things. Scott Dixon pretty much dominated from about the halfway point. He and Tony Kanaan were the class of the field.
I thought, like a lot of observers, that maybe the track came to Dixon as the sun disappeared and the track cooled down a bit. That may be true to an extent, but Scott said he felt it was the adjustments his crew made.
Well, at first I thought that was just a driver complimenting his crew, but then somebody posted a graph on a website I frequent that showed some pretty interesting data. At the start of the race, Dixon’s tire wear caused a performance drop off of about 12 miles per hour. After each pit stop, and each adjustment, this figure decreased until they got it down to about 7 mph.
Add to this the statement from Dixon that he likes the aero kits because they allow you to make a series of small adjustments.
Y’know, with the success Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson have in improving their cars over the span of an entire race, I wonder if we could ever get to see a graph like this for that 48 car. I suspect we’d find out something similar.
Still on that race, one of the funniest comments I heard came toward the end. Marco Andretti reportedly told his crew about a change or two he’d like made during his last pit stop. His father and car owner, Michael, informed him that he had already made his last pit stop and was supposed to be in “fuel conservation” mode.
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James Hinchcliffe, now recovering at home, said in an interview that he received 14 pints of blood prior to the operation on his injured leg after that horrendous crash at Indianapolis. That’s more than a complete oil change. The average human body contains 12 pints, as I recall from high school. Of course, that was a LOOONG time ago.
Hinch was once again effusive in his praise of the Holmatro Safety crew for the way they obviously saved his life by stemming the bleeding. One of those guys told me he’d never seen anybody bleed like that, leading me to believe it was a rupture of the femoral artery.
Those people are good.
And while I’m on the subject of that safety crew, there was a news blurb that a member who got hurt pretty bad at Detroit has now been released from the hospital.
If you didn’t hear much about this injury, it’s because it happened at the end of one of the sporty car races at Belle Isle. They didn’t release the man’s name, but according to IMSA, he suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung and injuries to his spleen and kidney.
Several cars were involved in an accident at the end of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race, including one that crashed into a safety truck that was on the track. One worker was evaluated and released from the infield care center, and the aforementioned guy was hospitalized.
We’re told one of the drivers involved visited the worker in the hospital.
Every track worker or official, just like a driver, knows the risks involved in their job. It’s nice to hear that this man is apparently going to have a complete recovery.
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I read that before the Texas race the powers-that-be decided that the rear wheel covers (IndyCars don’t have fenders, y’know) would no longer be open, but would have covers on them. That’s interesting, since some of us who really aren’t in the technical mix suggested that the air might be packing up in those things when a car got turned around. Hmm.
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Finally, Helio Castroneves says the IndyCar schedule is “brutal.”
After this Sunday’s race at Toronto, the series will experience their first weekend off since the first weekend in April.
“You can see everybody is wearing out,” he said, speaking of his crew. “It difficult for them to even take the time to work out. When we’re not racing, they’re changing cars from ovals to road courses and street courses, and then they’re back at work at the track. They just keep their heads down and keep working and moving forward.”
I can understand that. Gee, this is after nine races (plus a qualifying weekend at IMS) with seven left to go.
Imagine coping with a series that has 36 races, plus three non-points special races.
Back on the subject of the Verizon IndyCar Series again this week. Quite a bit of news…
The Texas race wasn’t much of a nailbiter, but it was a pretty good example of how to win one of these things. Scott Dixon pretty much dominated from about the halfway point. He and Tony Kanaan were the class of the field.
I thought, like a lot of observers, that maybe the track came to Dixon as the sun disappeared and the track cooled down a bit. That may be true to an extent, but Scott said he felt it was the adjustments his crew made.
Well, at first I thought that was just a driver complimenting his crew, but then somebody posted a graph on a website I frequent that showed some pretty interesting data. At the start of the race, Dixon’s tire wear caused a performance drop off of about 12 miles per hour. After each pit stop, and each adjustment, this figure decreased until they got it down to about 7 mph.
Add to this the statement from Dixon that he likes the aero kits because they allow you to make a series of small adjustments.
Y’know, with the success Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson have in improving their cars over the span of an entire race, I wonder if we could ever get to see a graph like this for that 48 car. I suspect we’d find out something similar.
Still on that race, one of the funniest comments I heard came toward the end. Marco Andretti reportedly told his crew about a change or two he’d like made during his last pit stop. His father and car owner, Michael, informed him that he had already made his last pit stop and was supposed to be in “fuel conservation” mode.
-
James Hinchcliffe, now recovering at home, said in an interview that he received 14 pints of blood prior to the operation on his injured leg after that horrendous crash at Indianapolis. That’s more than a complete oil change. The average human body contains 12 pints, as I recall from high school. Of course, that was a LOOONG time ago.
Hinch was once again effusive in his praise of the Holmatro Safety crew for the way they obviously saved his life by stemming the bleeding. One of those guys told me he’d never seen anybody bleed like that, leading me to believe it was a rupture of the femoral artery.
Those people are good.
And while I’m on the subject of that safety crew, there was a news blurb that a member who got hurt pretty bad at Detroit has now been released from the hospital.
If you didn’t hear much about this injury, it’s because it happened at the end of one of the sporty car races at Belle Isle. They didn’t release the man’s name, but according to IMSA, he suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung and injuries to his spleen and kidney.
Several cars were involved in an accident at the end of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race, including one that crashed into a safety truck that was on the track. One worker was evaluated and released from the infield care center, and the aforementioned guy was hospitalized.
We’re told one of the drivers involved visited the worker in the hospital.
Every track worker or official, just like a driver, knows the risks involved in their job. It’s nice to hear that this man is apparently going to have a complete recovery.
-
I read that before the Texas race the powers-that-be decided that the rear wheel covers (IndyCars don’t have fenders, y’know) would no longer be open, but would have covers on them. That’s interesting, since some of us who really aren’t in the technical mix suggested that the air might be packing up in those things when a car got turned around. Hmm.
-
Finally, Helio Castroneves says the IndyCar schedule is “brutal.”
After this Sunday’s race at Toronto, the series will experience their first weekend off since the first weekend in April.
“You can see everybody is wearing out,” he said, speaking of his crew. “It difficult for them to even take the time to work out. When we’re not racing, they’re changing cars from ovals to road courses and street courses, and then they’re back at work at the track. They just keep their heads down and keep working and moving forward.”
I can understand that. Gee, this is after nine races (plus a qualifying weekend at IMS) with seven left to go.
Imagine coping with a series that has 36 races, plus three non-points special races.
John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john....@frontstretch.com.
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The Critic's Annex: Firestone 600k
by Phil Allaway
Welcome back to another edition of the Critic's Annex. While the Sprint Cup Series was in Pennsylvania last weekend, the Verizon IndyCar Series made its annual trek to Texas Motor Speedway. Ahead of the race, the big story was about aerodynamic changes made to the cars.
Sure enough, that is more or less what NBC Sports Network started with. The new rear end package takes pieces from the original Dallara package to prevent air packing. That packing is likely why we saw so many flips at Indianapolis. In addition, the new package produced a little more downforce, resulting in a little more side-by-side action than last year.
Since NBC Sports Network hasn't aired a race since Barber Park, it recapped not only Detroit, but both races at Indianapolis as well. I do find it unusual that the network did that knowing that another two races had been run after Indianapolis. It makes viewers think that the Detroit races don't matter. Believe me, they do.
Last weekend was another split weekend for NBC Sports Network with Formula 1 in Montreal. As a result, Brian Till was in the broadcast booth for the evening along with Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy. Till was average in the booth; I didn't note anything positive or negative about his performance.
Overall, the race was relatively anti-climatic. Despite the aero changes, I doubt Eddie Gossage was all that pleased with what he saw. He's on record as stating that he wants pack racing back, despite nearly everyone involved with INDYCAR disagreeing.
When we did get some action for position, NBC Sports Network did show it. The drivers that did have more downforce provided more of the thrills (Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, etc.). However, the broadcast stated what was going to be the story of the night before the start. Tire wear, or tire degradation. A graph was shown detailing what drop-off would be like with different downforce configurations. Given that there was only one yellow, I would have gone with a higher downforce setting.
In regards to that one yellow, NBC Sports Network never really told viewers what it was for. According to the results, it was for a "track inspection." That's nice and all if someone had blown up or something. No debris made air. So, we have a 375 mile race with a mystery caution. Sweetness. (Editor's Note: The lone caution at Texas was for debris per the Frontstretch reporters at the track)
Also, the coverage of the two engine failures for CFH Racing may have left a little to be desired as well. Talk about bad luck, both Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden suffered engine failures during the same side-by-side segment. Woof. We did get interviews with both drivers, but very little coverage otherwise.
In addition, Jack Hawksworth's problems barely got acknowledged on the telecast at all. Based on Twitter during the race, my understanding is that he was having handling problems that were much worse than anything that Carpenter, Graham Rahal or Ryan Hunter-Reay were experiencing. 20 laps in, he was down around 193 mph for an average. At Texas Motor Speedway, you're a chicane at that speed.
As you may have seen, Saturday night's race had only one caution and ended pretty quickly. As a result, there was a decent amount of time for post-race coverage. NBC Sports Network provided viewers with multiple interviews, checks of the results and points, and finally, some post-race analysis.
Generally, NBC Sports Network's telecast Saturday was just average. In addition, it was not necessarily as inclusive as I've come to expect from what is really INDYCAR's primary TV partner (yes, ABC has rights to the Indianapolis 500 and has held them since the mid-1960's, but they air five races out of 18). Perhaps the lack of inclusiveness is due to the fact that the race got as spread out as it did. I thought they did do a good job explaining the new aerodynamic package, although I wish Jon Beekhuis was there to give it the full breakdown that it deserved.
That's it for this week. Next week, I'll be back with more motorsports-related programming to look at. Until then, enjoy this weekend's action at Michigan, Gateway, Toronto and Le Mans.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.a...@frontstretch.com.
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Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Beyond the Cockpit: Austin Dillon on Improving, Pulling Double-Duty & Learning"I think the ride height rule would be cool – changing it to the XFINITY Series rule. I think the cars are too sealed off, personally. I would like to see that changed back to the old way. I’d like to see a choice of two tires. That would be cool." - Austin Dillon on what he would do to improve the Sprint Cup Series rule package.
TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Beth Lunkenheimer
by P. Huston Ladner
by Toni Montgomery
by Joseph Wolkin
FROM ATHLON SPORTS:
by Tom Bowles
~~~~~~~~~~FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: The June race weekend at Michigan International Speedway in 1994 saw a series of spins and crashes in turn 3. Why was there so more carnage in one portion of the track?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: In 2001, the Audi Group created a second prototype team, Team Bentley, to field a pair of Bentley Speed 8's at Le Mans. Officially, these cars were prototypes, but weren't classified as part of the LMP900 class. Why was the differentiation made?
A: The Bentleys weren't considered part of the LMP900 class because they were closed top prototypes. At the time, the LMP900 class was open-top prototypes only. The Bentleys ran by themselves in a class called LMC900 that had different rules in regards to fuel and tires.
COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll have a recap of Thursday's breaking news for you.
On Frontstretch.com:
Matt Stallknecht will have four burning questions to consider heading into Michigan.-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
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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