DFS NASCAR: Federated Auto Parts 400 Practice Notes

Final Practice Notes Federated Auto Parts 400

Richmond Raceway

Friday, September 21 1:30 pm ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Track temp is 106 to start this session versus 97 at the high of the opening practice

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized in the final practice

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• Kyle Busch will start this practice in a long green flag run like he did last session and then will do mock qualifying at the end of this final practice.
• Martin Truex Jr. was blocked on a mock qualifying run early in the practice and instead of making another go immediately he took it to the garage to work on a few things.
• Jimmie Johnson has changed his typical practice routine yet again this week and went out in race trim to start the first practice and is in race trim again to start this one. They said the car was just “ok” during the opening practice. He finished P6 in April and has three top-10s in the last three short tracks.
• Kevin Harvick is sitting fourth in the standings after last week even with his early crash in the race because of all the other playoff drivers that also crashed at Vegas.
• Brad Keselowski went out early and ran mock qualifying runs that sat atop the speed charts and is now going to run the final 35 minutes in race trim to get a long green flag run in.
• Kyle Larson’s last win came in this race a year ago but so far they haven’t found all the speed they want to this weekend yet.
• Kurt Busch said his left front has started to turn better which is good but now he feels the car is loose off and it’s getting worse as he gets more laps on the track. He is trying to adjust the track bar inside the car.
• Ty Dillon and Busch were racing each other for several laps midway through the practice and was holding his own. He seems to be running a slightly higher line in Turns 3 & 4 than some others are running to this point.
• With 25 minutes left in the practice and 30 laps into a run, Jimmie Johnson is out of the car and they are completely retooling the setup to find a lot more speed for the race.
• Chase Elliott and Jeffrey Earnhardt were racing with 24 minutes left in the session and Elliott was hard up to pass him because he had several more laps on his tires than Earnhardt did.
• Denny Hamlin has yet to be on the track to this point (22 minutes left in practice) because they are making whole sale changes to the setup of the 11-car based on how they’ve done in the past here and a 2-day test they did here a few weeks back in which they tried several different setup configurations.
• Erik Jones says his car feels a lot better this session than it did last session and the speed is coming to them. With 20 minutes left he is in the garage fine tune a few things.
• Late in practice Chase Elliott was running the slowest of any of the playoff drivers at 30th fastest and said he just can’t find the speed or the balance in the car and they’ve been both tight and loose.
• Aric Almirola finished the first session on a 30-lap run and was happy with it and then has run two 30-lap runs in this session and been happy with it both times again. He then with seven minutes left made a pass to get around Joey Logano and went on the middle groove.
• Joey Logano has run 74 laps this practice (10 laps more than anyone else) and is still on the track with five minutes left in practice.
• Ryan Blaney ran sixth fastest in race trim and then did a mock qualifying run late in the session. They are one of the drivers that did a test here two weeks ago.

Opening Practice at Federated Auto Parts 400

Richmond Raceway

Friday, September 21st 11:30 am ET

55 minutes in length

Penalized Drivers

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (30 minutes at end of practice)

Jamie McMurray (15 minutes at end of practice)

Clint Bowyer (15 minutes at end of practice)

Kyle Busch (15 minutes at end of practice)

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• Clint Bowyer says he’s comfortable at Richmond and that they ran well here in the spring race and he’s hoping to repeat that performance so that he doesn’t have to worry going into the Roval next week
• Kyle Busch has four wins in the last seven short track races
• Martin Truex Jr. is tied for the most career wins without having won at a short track in Cup history. With 40 minutes left in practice the 78-car had the right front tire go down and he was able to drive back to pit road without damaging the car.
• There is a new configuration in the infield due to updates that happened since the first race this year and it has caused issues with the drivers trying to make it back to the garage area in between practice runs.
• There have been 12 commitment line violations in the last four races here while trying to get on pit road. It’s a very tricky pit road to get on to with where the entrance is.
• Halfway through practice Aric Almirola had the best average lap time across all laps run during the session
• Joey Gase hit the wall in Turns 3 & 4 and damaged the right rear of the car and possibly broke something inside the car
• Austin Dillon could be the first driver ever to win a championship in the Truck series, Xfinity series, and Cup series.
• Ty Dillon was running fourth on the board before he brushed the wall coming off Turn 2 but only had minor damage
• Guys were driving in multiple grooves this session to try and get them to come in during the race weekend