Final Practice Can-Am 500

ISM Raceway

Saturday November 10 2 pm ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Most like race conditions in this session

Penalized Drivers

Martin Truex Jr. penalized 30 minutes at the end of the session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

PosCarDriverMakeLapsLast LapBest TimeBest SpeedBest Lap
14Kevin Harvick (P)Ford53130.09526.642135.1256
22Brad KeselowskiFord46115.03426.769134.4845
318Kyle Busch (P)Toyota49129.77226.804134.3085
420Erik JonesToyota3299.47226.866133.9985
578Martin Truex Jr. (P)Toyota28132.08126.88133.9298
624William Byron #Chevy48128.67726.884133.9098
710Aric Almirola (P)Ford41105.70226.893133.8645
842Kyle LarsonChevy42123.5526.894133.8593
922Joey Logano (P)Ford59126.44926.902133.8195
103Austin DillonChevy46129.52926.912133.7695
111Jamie McMurrayChevy60128.6526.916133.7494
129Chase Elliott (P)Chevy52131.77626.926133.73
1341Kurt Busch (P)Ford58118.58126.931133.6759
1411Denny HamlinToyota48105.48526.931133.6758
156Matt KensethFord40116.02826.955133.5564
1688Alex BowmanChevy52130.56726.956133.5515
1719Daniel SuarezToyota53130.39726.975133.4575
1812Ryan BlaneyFord27132.9326.976133.45223
1914Clint Bowyer (P)Ford50129.72526.988133.3936
2017Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Ford40130.13326.995133.3586

 

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

  • Early in practice Kevin Harvick has the fastest car once again on the track.
  • Martin Truex Jr. is trying to get as much work done before the last 30 minute penalty kicks in and it has been a rough weekend this weekend for the 78-car after it took a while to make through pre-practice inspection and then was penalized.
  • The 17-car had a brake fire while being worked on on pit road with 40 minutes left in the session.
  • At the start of practice Truex, and Kyle Busch started in front of Harvick and after racing for a few laps, Harvick had passed both pretty quickly and then the 78 and 18 pitted.
  • The new pit boxes have been pretty slick so far for cars getting into them so a lot of drivers have been practicing getting into and out of the boxes.
  • Kurt Busch feels like after lap six his car is really really good and maybe the best one on the track, aside from his teammate.
  • Erik Jones has been atop the average lap speed chart all practice, but he only ran 22 laps up until 10 minutes left in the session. With 7 minutes left he ran some more laps but said his car couldn’t connect the two sets of corners on the track. He said they can either be good in Turns 1 & 2 or Turns 3 & 4 but not both.
  • With 2 minutes left in the session Paul Menard spun the car in Turn 3 and drove into the wall right rear first. They are going to a backup car but have no time to get the backup car on the track.
  • Chase Elliott says he feels like they made gains on the car in the final practice and feels pretty ready for the race. He likes the pressure of having to likely win to get to Miami.
  • Martin Truex Jr. seems to be happy with his car after Happy Hour but he will have to start from the back of the pack after failing inspection three times. He will count as starting P13 for the race however so keep that in mind.
  • Jimmie Johnson likes the long run on the car but not the short run. He said the longer he ran the better he got in terms of speed and didn't have a problem with corner entry.

Second Practice for Can-Am 500

ISM Raceway

Saturday November 10 11:30 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Cool temps because of the 9:30 am local time start of the practice

Penalized Drivers

No driver was penalized this practice

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

PosCarDriverMakeLapsLast LapBest TimeBest SpeedBest Lap
14Kevin Harvick (P)Ford2780.85726.724134.715
242Kyle LarsonChevy18132.76826.73134.683
32Brad KeselowskiFord3177.43126.77134.4794
418Kyle Busch (P)Toyota40108.08526.811134.2735
512Ryan BlaneyFord3284.4326.818134.2387
69Chase Elliott (P)Chevy3687.16726.858134.03810
73Austin DillonChevy3493.47326.868133.9883
848Jimmie JohnsonChevy3395.67326.876133.94923
911Denny HamlinToyota3287.24126.883133.91410
1078Martin Truex Jr. (P)Toyota3178.74726.902133.8195
1114Clint Bowyer (P)Ford4293.7726.936133.654
1219Daniel SuarezToyota4594.13226.939133.6355
1388Alex BowmanChevy2878.89226.967133.4965
1410Aric Almirola (P)Ford3979.96126.979133.4377
1541Kurt Busch (P)Ford5085.95626.98133.4326
1620Erik JonesToyota298.31926.986133.40326
1731Ryan NewmanChevy26129.52927.002133.3235
1824William Byron #Chevy4324.06127.029133.195
191Jamie McMurrayChevy31130.37827.03133.1857
2047AJ AllmendingerChevy28131.3127.033133.1716

 

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

  • A few drivers are doing pit road testing at the start of the session with learning speeds and getting used to the new configuration of pit road in general
  • The last 10 minutes of the session will be restart practice for the drivers since the restart zone and start/finish line have been moved since the March race and thus drivers need to get used to that as well.
  • Pit road speed is 45 mph but drivers are allowed up to 49.999 mph before they are docked for speeding and given a penalty and so drivers are trying multiple lines around the curve the of pit road.
  • Kurt Busch was 25 points behind the cut line after Harvick’s win at Texas but after the penalty, he is only 3 so he was a big beneficiary of his teammate’s penalty and now has a shot to point his way in.
  • With 28 minutes left in practice Tanner Berryhill spun and brought out a caution though he didn’t hit anything when he spun
  • Clint Bowyer got loose in Turns 3 and 4 and the car wouldn’t turn left as he got back into the throttle and about five minutes later got loose again and slid through Turn 2.
  • Kurt Busch said his car is loose through the corner and can’t get the rear tires to grip like he was having trouble with at Richmond seven weeks ago.
  • This is a short race lap-wise but it still has long runs of 40-60 laps in between cautions and pit runs.
  • Daniel Suarez is working on getting low in Turns 1 & 2 like Harvick does in driving below the yellow line. He is also trying to get out of Turn 4 on a low line in order to be able to pass in the dogleg.
  • The first ones to do the restart practice were rolling off in twos but not necessarily with teammates and Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin working together and Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. working together.
  • The outside line of the restarts seems to spin the tires more often then the inside line did but there was a ton of diving down in the dogleg much like I referenced there would be during the podcast this week.

Opening Practice for Can-Am 500

ISM Raceway

Friday, November 9th 1:35 pm ET

55 minutes in length

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized in the opening practice

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

No drivers ran 10-laps consecutively in this session

Items of Note:

  • Drivers have gone out in qualifying trim for the most part since the qualifying sessions are on Friday evening.
  • With 35 minutes left in practice, Kurt Busch was the only playoff driver to be on the track at that point.
  • A lot of drivers were still waiting on the their cars to come back from the inspection area 20 minutes into practice time including Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott and so they lost some track time on the redesigned surface and pit lane.
  • Joey Logano is feeling pretty good about his car heading into the Championship next weekend and he thinks he’s the favorite for the title.
  • Cody Ware, the driver of the 51-car got really loose going into Turn 1 because he had no brakes going into the corner and it’s the flattest one on the track at just 8-9 degrees of bank.
  • The new redesign has moved the start/finish line and the pit road further around the corner and the pit road has been widened a bit as well.
  • A few drivers have had issues with their cars getting loose in the turns and have driven a bit up the turns but none hit anything.
  • Since the start of practice the track has gotten faster by quite a bit and it’s partially due to the new tires on the right sides of the cars since they were here in March.
  • The fill ins for Kevin Harvick the next two weeks are Tony Gibson at Crew Chief (previously Kurt Busch’s Crew Chief) and an engineer from SHR is now the Car Chief the next two weeks.
  • Martin Truex Jr. got out on the track with 12:30 left in the session after a slow inspection process and ran P22 in his first time out but then ran P20 by the end of the session.
  • Matt Kenseth ran P7 in this session which is a great showing for the 6-car with the lack of speed they’ve shown throughout the season.