John Andretti News - September 2009

Continental Fire & Safety on the #34

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Continental Fire & Safety on the #34: Continental Fire & Safety will be an associate sponsor on Front Row Motorsports' #34 Sprint Cup entry and the primary sponsor on FRM's #34 Nationwide entry at Dover International Speedway for the upcoming race weekend. The Continental Fire & Safety #34 Chevy in the Nationwide series will be piloted by Tony Raines who is currently 15 in driver points. FRM's entry in the Sprint Cup series will be driven by John Andretti.(Continental Fire & Safety PR)(9-24-2009)

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Bubble Breakdown: Andretti, Labonte's Solid Showing Leaves Speed Searching For Answers

Tracking The Top 35 In Owner Points · Mike Ravesi · Monday September 21, 2009

Bubble Breakdown

Well if you were to ask John Andretti, he’d tell you that New Hampshire is just beautiful this time of year; but ask Scott Speed, and you may get a totally different answer. While driving to a solid 26th-place finish, Andretti and the No. 34 team extended their lead over Speed and the No. 82 car for the final “locked in” spot in the field each week. So to see just how badly Front Row Motorsports beat their rivals, as well as how your other bubble dwellers did, read on in this week’s edition of the Breakdown.

Focusing on the bubble

For the second week in a row, Scott Speed and his Red Bull Toyota outqualified John Andretti and Front Row’s No. 34 Chevrolet; but for the second week in a row, Andretti overcame his starting position to get ahead of Speed by the time the checkered flag flew. However, it wasn’t easy as Andretti had to take advantage of two Lucky Dog awards, one on Lap 85 and another on Lap 161. Then, on a Lap 194 caution, crew chief Steven Lane opted to leave his driver out there in order to gain track position. However, the 12th position in the running order was short-lived, and soon Andretti was again running outside the top 25. The team continued to wrench on it, though, and eventually got the handling a little better following the final green-flag pit stop of the day. A few late race cautions helped the team climb up the standings before finally finishing in the 26th position, one lap down to the leader.

Full Story on FrontStretch.com

Bubble Breakdown: Smith Smashes Streak While Andretti Extends Lead On 35th

Tracking The Top 35 In Owner Points · Mike Ravesi · Monday September 14, 2009

With NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup upon us and twelve of the sport’s top drivers locked in and ready to battle for the championship, the chase just to be in the top 35 has boiled down to pretty much two teams: John Andretti (No. 34) and Scott Speed (No. 82). Andretti’s once comfortable margin in Front Row’s car had dwindled to less than 100 points heading into Richmond last Saturday night, as Speed had strung together a number of decent runs while Andretti struggled to even crack the top 30.

So was Scott able to keep narrowing the gap at Richmond, or was John able to stabilize his lead? Read on to find the fate of that duo, as well who’s mourning the end of an impressive streak in this week’s edition of the Bubble Breakdown:

Focusing on the Bubble

Scott Speed again won the qualifying battle in the race for 35th, beating Andretti with a 20th place qualifying effort for Red Bull Racing as compared to a 39th place starting spot for Front Row Motorsports’ No. 34 Chevrolet. But qualifying pays no points, and Speed’s advantage evaporated almost immediately as he was tapped and spun into the wall on Lap 6. The team then lost several laps in the pits and struggled all night to get the car drivable for Scott. To add to the team’s frustrations, they were penalized by NASCAR twice: once on lap eight for being too fast off of pit road and once again on lap 59 for pitting before pit road was open. The team eventually ended the night in 36th place, four laps down, never really able to recover from their crash.

That left the No. 34 team with an opportunity to extend their lead; however, Andretti really didn’t take all that much advantage of it. Also fighting an ill-handling car, the veteran found himself a lap down just 41 laps into the event. After a number of multi-adjustment pit stops and a pair of wave arounds, John was able to rebound a bit, mustering a 29th place finish for the Front Row Motorsports team. The run extends the team’s lead over Red Bull to 115 points with just ten races to go.

Full Story on FrontStretch.com