Through Qualifying
There was pre-qualifying tech inspection and failing three times disallowed the driver from taking a qualifying lap. Kevin Harvick had that happen and will start 40th. Martin Truex Jr. failed twice and his Car Chief was ejected from the track for the rest of the weekend.
Final Practice Hollywood Casino 400
Kansas Speedway
Friday, October 18th 7:05 pm ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
69 degrees and Sunny with 13 mph S winds and gusts over 15 mph
Penalized Drivers
No drivers were penalized in this session
Top-20 Speeds (Single Lap)
Best Lap Averages
Items Of Note:
- It is far cooler in this session than it was in the first session so several cars have gone out in Q trim for the start of this session.
- Half of the track is in the sun and half is in the shade which means there is a different effect on the cars depending on the side of the track their on.
- Balance issues are going to be more exaggerated in this practice because of the change in temps which could make it tough on the teams to adjust properly.
- The winds will be about the same strength and in the same direction on Sunday as they have been today for both practices.
- Drivers have been utilizing the top groove more earlier this session than the first simply because Xfinity cars were on track right before the Cup car and cleaned off the track pretty well.
- Chase Elliott said the car was neutral during the qualifying run and wasn’t concerned about the seeming lack of speed. He’s now out in race trim and seems to be holding steady speed wise as he’s stuck with the same cars he’s pulled out on the track with.
- Kurt Busch says he’s loose in mainly three and four even when he’s in clean air around the top of the track.
- Several drivers have complained of tightness early in the session.
- There is a different right side tire this week than the last time at Kansas and it’s a bit slicker right now than the drivers are used to and Clint Bowyer has said it feels less in the race track than he’s used to.
- Alex Bowman had a big moment coming off of Turn 4 but wound up saving it. He did bring the car into the garage for adjustments following that and said he was quite loose.
- With 15 minutes elapsed in the session, Daniel Hemric is a top the speed charts following a Q run he made.
- Just like in the first session, Joey Logano and William Byron were racing each other to see how their cars did while working near each other for multiple laps.
- Those two were then joined by Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman for a four-car pack that have been racing for several laps.
- William Byron tried to drive it in the corner pretty hard in Turn 3 and lost overall grip in the car.
- With 25 minutes elapsed in the session, Kyle Busch has put up a top-five laps total to try and find the balance and feel in the car that he wants and is sitting fourth on the speed charts.
- Ryan Preece is driving Chris Buescher’s back-up this week due to the hauler fire that damaged his cars beyond being salvaged, this is an update from first practice.
- Joey Logano is doing two 30-lap runs in this session and is in the middle of his second run on sticker tires with 15 minutes left in the session. He’s confident in the setup and feels he can handle and pass better than any car on the track.
- Kyle Busch is still disappointed when speaking on the radio and isn’t fully confident in the setup in the car right though he wound up with the fastest lap, fastest five-lap and 10-lap averages as well.
Opening Practice Hollywood Casino 400
Kansas Speedway
Friday, October 18th 4:05 pm ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
72 degrees and Sunny with 11 mph S winds and gusts over 20 mph
Penalized Drivers
No drivers were made to serve penalties this session
Top-20 Speeds (Single Lap)
Best Lap Averages
Items Of Note:
- The wind will have opposite effects on the cars depending on which end of the track they are on. It will push them into Turn 3 making braking tricky while it will try to push the car out of the groove in Turn 1.
- Denny Hamlin says he’s got a car that has some bounce in the front end as he goes through Turns 1 and 2 but doesn’t like the handling overall in the car as the car is being effected by the wind.
- Kurt Busch says his car is tight heading into Turn 3 and he doesn’t like the bumps in the first set of corners on his first run of the session with seven minutes elapsed.
- A few drivers are complaining that the splitter makes contact with the track in the first set of corners and the mechanical balance of the car isn’t fully correct.
- Ryan Preece’s car had to be completely re-built after the hauler carrying the car caught fire on the way to the track and it was nearly not salvageable. The team showed up at 7 pm last night to start working on the car and re-wrapping it to get it ready to race this weekend.
- Jimmie Johnson tried to get up in the high groove but there is a ton of dirt still up there that made his car step out and nearly get in the wall. He brought it to the garage for adjustments after that.
- There are several drivers that are still complaining of bad grip in the rear of the car with 20 minutes elapsed in the session.
- Kurt Busch said the adjustments on the car were better but he can’t hold it wide open in 3 & 4.
- Chad Knaus told William Byron to find traffic to drive in to learn how the car behaves around other cars instead of driving around solo.
- Alex Bowman said he can’t go as fast one groove up as he can on the bottom because he loses the nose if he pushes as hard. He also doesn’t have any turn in center off he said.
- Turn 3 is posing the most problems for the drivers in this first session as that seems to be when the cars get tight.
- Kyle Busch doesn’t like the handling of his car and just about spun the car out off of Turn 2. He said he’s got no idea what he’s got in his car except that it’s loose with 20 minutes left in the session.
- Chase Elliott was out of the car for 15 minutes as the team made a big change to the car and they aren’t confident in the balance of the car or the speed right now.
- With 12 minutes left, some drivers are going out with sticker tires on the car including Kyle Larson who is using this as a test run for Miami at the end of the season.
- William Byron says his car is handling the bumps in the first corners better than it was previously.
- Chase Elliott said the balance is better in the car than it was in his first run but after just a few laps in the car he brought it to the garage for adjustments with 7:35 left in the session.
- Ryan Blaney is changing to Q trim late in the session as this is an impound race so there’s less they can do after qualifying to the race than they can normally do.