The Frontstretch Newsletter: Matt Tifft To Return at Daytona

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THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!

Jun. 21, 2016

Volume X, Edition XCIX

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What to Watch: Tuesday

- Teams are setting out today for the cross-country haul from North Carolina to California.  If anything breaks today, we'll have it for you at Frontstretch.

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Tuesday's TV Schedule can be found here.

 

Top News

by the Frontstretch Staff

Matt Tifft Set to Return at Daytona

Joe Gibbs Racing announced Monday that Matt Tifft will return to the drivers' seat for the Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona July 1st.  Tifft missed Iowa last weekend due to a back injury.  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

Short Track Tempers or Something More? Wild Saturday Night at Bowman Gray

Sitting in the Stands: A Fan's View

by S.D. Grady

Ah, short track tempers.  They are the stuff that NASCAR was built on.  Unfortunately, an altercation at Bowman Gray Stadium Saturday night sets an example nobody should follow.  The night ended with an owner in the emergency room and a driver in handcuffs.

What happened?  Joe Ryan Osborne got into it on track with James Civali.  Blocks were thrown, Civali's Modified Division car spun out and tempers ignited.  Osborne drove for the owner of Civali's machine last year and the bad blood has been boiling throughout the beginning of the season. When Osborne pulled into the pits, he was met by Civali's owner, David Hill.  This part is where the story goes two ways....

Hill says he was simply at the driver's window, explaining his displeasure with the way Osborne has been racing the Hill machines this year.  20-year-old Osborne told Speed51.com that six Hill crew members were trying to pull him out of the car, throwing punches at his head and yanking his head around.  Osborne then said he just had to get away from the group and gunned his engine.

The Winston-Salem police on detail at the stadium were summoned to the pits for Osborne doing donuts.

David Hill reported that Osborne kept gunning the engine, then simply put the pedal down and Hill's arm was caught between the wheel and the fender.  He was ultimately flung off the car. Hill was released from the hospital early the next morning with stitches in his hand and road rash on his arm.  Osborne was arrested back at his hauler and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, but released on his own recognizance pending his court date.

This is one of those cases where I can understand the fear Osborne might have felt if he was being hauled out of his Modified by an angry mob bent on beating him. However, when I picture a modified doing donuts in a crowded pit area after the end of a race, my blood runs cold.  It could have been the worst possible scenario--a race car running amok through a crowd of innocent bystanders. Fearing for his life or not, that was a very unfortunate choice that Osborne made.

In the back of every racing fan's mind lingers the sad story of Kevin Ward and Tony Stewart.  We've all examined in our hearts the possibility of a driver getting so angry with a competitor they might aim their car at a person.  I don't think we ever considered a driver getting so pissed that he would send his car into an uncontrolled spin in a crowd. It's just inconceivable.

Osborne is a young twenty years old and his age does add a maturity angle to the situation.  Would an older person react the same way? Well, 37-year-old Kevin Harvick played tug of war between his truck and a couple crew members from the Camping World Truck Series No. 3 at Martinsville in 2013.  After repeated on-track incidents between the two teams, Harvick parked in Dillon's pit. He ultimately ended up trying to fend off angry fists through his window net by gunning his truck forward.  So, no, age does not automatically trigger cooler heads.

What perhaps differentiates the Osborne incident from the Harvick altercation is one of money.  At the top tiers of NASCAR, pit road and even the garage area tend to be roomier and the number of people allowed on them are limited.  However, if you consider the fact that if Osborne turned differently or revved his engine a little bit more, the whole evening could have gone from a single person injured to somebody dead -- and then the number of people around the car becomes moot.

When all is said and done, Osborne should be suspended from competition for the remainder of the year. Other young men and women fighting their way through the ranks of local short tracks don't need to use his actions as something to aspire to.  Nobody does, no matter how threatened he may have felt at the time.

SOMETHING SHINY

Daniel Hemric shares his memories of his first go-cart when he gets it back after many years.  How did that Little Red Wagon song go? The front seat's broke and the axle's draggin'.  It doesn't matter when it was your first, though....

S.D. Grady is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch and runs a NASCAR blog called the S-Curves. She can be reached via email at sonya...@frontstretch.com. Follow her on Twitter at @laregna and on her Facebook page (she's an author, too!) at https://www.facebook.com/Author.SDGrady.

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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:

5 Points to Ponder: Wine Country and the Power of a Win

by Danny Peters

Sprint Cup Crystal Ball: A Potential Path To 17 Winners?

by Tom Bowles

Beside the Rising Tide: WTF(OX)

by Matt McLaughlin

Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in NASCAR: Sonoma Edition

by Jeff Wolfe

Couch Potato Tuesday: Iowa Puts Trucks and XFINITY on Display
by Phil Allaway

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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q: Ernie Irvan claimed the first of two victories at Sonoma back in 1992 from the outside pole.  However, he made it about as hard as he possibly could to do so.  What happened to make his race significantly more difficult?

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

Monday's Answer:

Q:  In the summer of 1992 at Watkins Glen, ESPN introduced a new type of camera for use on race broadcasts.  It came in handy for the battle between Geoff Bodine, Ricky Rudd and Ernie Irvan at Sears Point the following spring.  What was it?

A: This was the Cable Cam, an ancestor of the SkyCam that you often see during football games today.  At Watkins Glen, it was placed at the then-brand new Inner Loop.  At Sears Point, it was placed in the middle of turn 11 in 1993 (for 1994, Sears Point Raceway created Gilligan's Island, the overflow pit road).  It captured a great battle for the lead late in the race.

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COMING TOMORROW

In The Frontstretch Newsletter:

We'll have more NASCAR news to report.  Meanwhile, Mark Howell returns with the Professor of Speed column.

On Frontstretch.com:

NASCAR experts from around the country weigh in on future stars of the Sprint Cup Series in The 10.

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