Folds of Honor 500 Practice Notes
Saturday February 23rd, 2019
Weather – It was a very misty, wet, and humid practice run in Atlanta. The weather has been grey, cold, and rainy all week in Atlanta. The good news for the race is that the conditions should be better. Any chance of rain clears out tomorrow morning so it’ll be in the low-60’s for tomorrow’s race.
Brad Keselowski – At the start of practice, Xfinity Series driver Austin Cindric, ran for Keselowski in the #2 car in the early part of the practice session. Keselowski has been dealing with flu-like symptoms, but he did make a run toward the latter portion of practice. The #2 car finished 28th on the final practice leaderboard.
Clint Bowyer – Bowyer’s looked fantastic all week in qualifying and practices. He recorded the fastest lap on Saturday and he’s in a good starting spot at third overall. He could definitely make a run at a win on Sunday. He’s had the fastest car all week.
Kyle Busch – Busch went up into the wall into Turn 2 during Saturday’s final practice. The car was running pretty well up until then as he had recorded the second-fastest lap early into the practice session. Busch sustained some damage to the read of his vehicle. Up until the crash he had the best 10-lap average, just ahead of Kevin Harvick. They brought the backup car out for the remainder of practice.
Erik Jones – Another JGR driver who had a great finish last week, but had some misfortunes in the last practice was Erik Jones. Jones left the track after noting to his crew on the radio he lost his power steering with about 40-42 minutes to go.
Jimmie Johnson – JJ has a phenomenal track history at Atlanta, but through 47 minutes he had only run the 23rd-fastest lap. That shouldn’t be too much of a concern though. Reports started coming out that Johnson was trying to feel the course out with the misty and wet conditions all day. He was actually letting a few cars pass him at times just to see how his car would perform with drivers ahead of him and if he could navigate around them easier.
Denny Hamlin – Coming off his Daytona 500 win, Denny Hamlin will start fourth but ran jut the 23rd fastest lap in practice.
The New Ford Mustangs – The new Mustangs ran together mostly toward the end of the race. There’s been a lot of talk as to how well they’ll look away from a Super Speedway. You have to imagine they’ll exclusively run together for Sunday.
McDonalds Cars – Don’t be confused if you see double on Sunday. Kyle Larson (#42 car) and Bubba Wallace (#43 car) will both be in McDonald’s vehicles. Larson has the national sponsor while Wallace is sponsored by a few regional chains.
This table is a new addition to the practice notes this season and hopefully it will help breakdown exactly where each driver fits in the practice speed listings. The drivers are in order of DK salaries and the columns mean the following: Prac to Qual is the difference between the Comb. Prac column and the Qualifying spot they have for the race. A positive number indicates they ran faster at average practice speed than where the qualified and should help show who has position differential upside and who may not. The Qual column is simply listing their qualifying spot for the race. The Comb. Prac column is an average of all of that driver's single lap speeds from practice. For example say Driver A registers 195 mph, 196 mph, 197 mph, and 198 mph in the four practices for a race, their Combination Practice speed would be 196.5 and then that speed is ranked amongst the other drivers to get the number you see in the column 1 is fastest and 40 is slowest. The others rank where that driver placed for that session and that session's 10-lap average where again 1 is fastest and 40 is slowest.
Best 10-Lap Averages For Final Practice
