DFS NASCAR: Ford EcoBoost 400 Practice Notes

Ford EcoBoost 400 Final Practice

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Saturday November 17 2:00 pm ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Time-wise this was the most similar to the start of the race and for the bulk of the race in the heat of the day

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized in this session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• Three of the four playoff drivers all went out together to start the session with Kevin Harvick being the only one not to immediately go out.
• Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick both have two sets of sticker tires for this practice while the others only have one.
• The 4-team likes the new tire this week because it makes you want to drive the bottom groove more which fits their style more than the others since they are the most adept at hugging the bottom line on the track.
• There was quite a race feel to this practice with several two-car battles breaking out during the early part of the session.
• Kyle Busch had a handling issue with 33 minutes left that took a big save from him as he came out of the turn pretty well sideways.
• Kevin Harvick decided to run the bottom groove and that really improved his handling and his lap times and he has a rule that he won’t go to the top groove until it gets dark during the race.
• Joey Logano has the best car through the early part of practice with the best five-lap, 10-lap, 15-lap times in runs.
• Kyle Larson with 31 minutes left in the session is a half a second faster than any of the Championship four drivers.
• Erik Jones is having another good race trim practice this week and is among the top-five in the single-lap and long-run metrics
• This is how close the Championship drivers are

• The graph above shows there is four seconds of falloff over a 30 lap run
• Each of the last several races here have featured a final run of the race of no more than 34 laps meaning short run speed at the end of the run is important here
• Kyle Busch has decently significant damage on the right side of his car after hitting the wall on his last run of practice. Most of the damage however is cosmetic and shouldn’t really effect the structure of the car.

Ford EcoBoost 400 Second Practice

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Saturday November 17 11:30 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Clear skies and a light breeze, pretty similar to the start of the race conditions

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized for this session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• With 45 minutes left in the practice Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. have been on the track amongst 31 other cars and Logano is tops on the board after eight laps.
• Kevin Harvick is not happy with the race car so far with 39 minutes left in the session and they are making adjustments to the springs in the car to loosen the car up. They were tight yesterday in qualifying and are tight again this morning despite starting on scuffed tires.
• Kyle Busch is running the bottom of the track and not getting more than a half a car off the bottom of the track. He didn’t go out right away and so his speed may not come until later in his run as he’s P23 at this point.
• There is some controversy this week as Denny Hamlin gave up the first pit stall after winning the pole in order to take the fourth one and give Kyle Busch the first one. Though Truex won from the fourth stall last year.
• Kevin Harvick got back on the track with 30 minutes to go and has only run three laps to this point in the session. He still seems to be giving a lot of inputs into the car each lap even after adjustments.
• Kyle Busch just barely brushed the wall coming out of Turn 2 but didn’t do anything but scrape some paint off the quarter panel.
• Over 24 lap runs in practice the 18-car lost 2 seconds in lap time compared the to the first lap on the track.
• Joey Logano is best across single-lap, five-lap, 10-lap, and 15-lap speeds with 19 minutes left in the session.
• Aric Almirola is third in five-lap average and sixth in 10-lap average with 19 minutes left in practice.
• Chase Elliott is a sleeper for this race on Sunday with a solid history here and good speed once again this week.
• Erik Jones’ team developed the new platform that JGR has used in the playoffs that has resulted in faster cars across the organization
• Paul Menard is sixth in the five-lap average and Wood Brothers is showing good speed again this week as they have shown in the second half of the season.
• With 15 minutes left in the session Ryan Blaney is the best for overall lap average but has just 11 laps tallied on the track.
• With 12 minutes left in the session Joey Logano came back to the garage saying he was tight after running 30 laps in the session.
• Kyle Larson is the non-Championship contender that has the best chance to win on Sunday because of his driving style and its match with this track.
• There is a new left side tire from Goodyear at this track that is supposed to help drive the bottom groove but so far in practice everyone is running the high line here anyway.
• Late in practice Joey Logano was trying to do mock pit runs and missed pit road on one of the runs

Ford EcoBoost 400 Opening Practice

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Friday November 16, 1:00 pm ET

80 minutes in length

Weather

Overcast skies I Light wind I Pretty similar temps to the rest of the weekend

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized this session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

No drivers ran 10-consecutive laps

Items of Note:

• Pretty much everyone is in qualifying trim in this session with qualifying on Friday evening
• Martin Truex Jr. was the first one on the track trying to get a clean lap in and mainly because they had to leave a day early from their headquarters in Denver to get to Miami on time and they had reduced prep time in the shop,
• Kyle Busch is still getting through tech inspection early in practice and Joey Logano is going through tech at the same time. After they pass inspection they plan on making three or four runs on the track in the extended practice.
• Several cars have tinted right side windows this week because of how substantially the sun can effect their vision in the corners during the day portion of the race.
• Kevin Harvick has made it through qualifying without issue with 70 minutes left in the session.
• NASCAR is enforcing ride heights and quarter panel heights in inspection this week because the right side quarter panel being lower gets better force and grip in the rear of the car.
• With 70 minutes left, 30 of the 39 cars haven’t been on track yet.
• Kevin Harvick hit the track for the first time with just over an hour left in the session and did a quick two-lap q-run that showed second best speed. The last time he finished outside of the top-10 here was back in 2007.
• Martin Truex Jr. is the fastest lap to this point (55 minutes left) and he set that mark in the first run of the day,
• Kyle Busch went out with 55 minutes left and set down the fastest lap but did look a little loose on the back end of the car which they will make adjustments to now.
• With 50 minutes left in the session, Martin Truex Jr. went out for the second run of the practice on the same tires as the first run and run .2 seconds faster on scuffs with a slightly higher line in Turns 3 & 4 than the first lap he ran.
• Joey Logan’s first lap on the track wasn’t smooth as he really had to save the car in the corner as he got snap loose and it drove up the track.
• Chase Elliott said his car drove nice and straight on his first run and he was pretty happy with the speed he had in the car as well.
• Jamie McMurray got a bit loose coming out of Turn 2 on one of his laps with 40 minutes left in the practice but it didn’t fully mess with the lap overall
• Kyle Larson said that he laid back last year and let the race get decided by Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. since they were both in the playoffs and he wasn’t despite having a faster car than likely both of them. This year he said he won’t do that. He’ll go and win the race if he has the faster car.
• Joey Logano went out for a second run but is the fourth fastest of the playoff drivers on both runs and is a half of a second behind MTJ after the second runs for everyone
• The third run on the tires for the playoff contenders has begun with 24 minutes left in the session and the 4-car is a tenth of a second faster on that same amount of runs despite being slower on the fastest lap overall
• Kyle Busch will run a third run on the same tires and then will go out for a fourth run but that will be made on sticker tires to see what the changes have actually done. He got very loose in Turns 3 & 4 and got very high at that end of the track but in the end he ran right in between Harvick and Truex’s times for the same run
• The 4-car and the 78-car decided to end practice after the three runs and not use another set of sticker tires with 10 minutes left in the session.
• Two non-playoff drivers snuck into the top-five speeds late in practice in Clint Bowyer and Chase Elliott fitting in third and fourth respectively between Busch and Harvick.
• Joey Logano went out with seven minutes left and ran a 31.36 (faster than either of the big three ran on the same lap) while Kyle Busch ran a 29 second lap on sticker tires which gives the advantage to Logano having not use another set of tires like the 18-car did.
• Kyle Busch says the got some response out of the race car with the changes they made and was a bit disappointed in the relative lack of speed on the last run with the sticker tires on the car.
• Martin Truex Jr. says the made some adjustments between the first and second lap that made it faster and he liked the car to this point and saved a set of tires for the race trim practices on Saturday since they only have four sets total for the practices and qualifying.