Final Practice at Food City 500

Saturday, April 14 11:05 a.m. ET

55 minutes in length

Penalized Drivers

No drivers served penalities during the Happy Hour session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

PosCarDriverMakeLapsLast LapBest TimeBest SpeedBest Lap
138David RaganFord71114.53515.051127.4872
29Chase ElliottChevy75120.84615.1127.0735
311Denny HamlinToyota63119.04715.109126.9976
441Kurt BuschFord69120.42215.164126.5378
534Michael McDowellFord17122.59115.193126.2955
647AJ AllmendingerChevy61119.61815.204126.2043
718Kyle BuschToyota70122.81915.213126.12910
819Daniel SuarezToyota5628.49115.215126.1124
995Kasey KahneChevy5695.86315.219126.0792
1048Jimmie JohnsonChevy95119.8815.226126.0213
1117Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Ford65119.79815.228126.0057
1237Chris BuescherChevy58122.14715.255125.7826
1320Erik JonesToyota55122.0315.256125.7737
1478Martin Truex Jr.Toyota46122.51315.259125.74913
1514Clint BowyerFord61121.51215.26125.748
1612Ryan BlaneyFord48121.61215.269125.6665
173Austin DillonChevy63119.70115.278125.5927
1810Aric AlmirolaFord63120.29315.291125.4869
1988Alex BowmanChevy65121.22815.294125.4615
202Brad KeselowskiFord80121.56615.303125.3876

Best 10-lap Averages

Items of Note:

  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr. loves his car so far this week and his Crew Chief said his car just “rolls fast.” It’s also his favorite race track and they are simply hoping to make it through happy hour without issues. 
  • Joey Logano is the first car on the track as practice opens, though he and a few others are just running through pit road speed tests.
  • Pit road speeds here can be tricky because it’s two sections and the radius around the turn can throw drivers off on their speeds plus the final section is just 49 feet long and that can cause issues too.
  • Kyle Larson is still working adamantly to get a top groove going during this session as well. He is still one of only two or three drivers trying to do it 
  • Jeff Gordon says that there is a totally different feel to the top groove than the bottom. There is a bump in the middle of 1 & 2 to contend with and there is a different balance to the car that has to be there to make it fast at the top of the track.
  • Denny Hamlin likes his car a lot better to start the happy hour than this morning’s practice. He said the balance is better, the bumpiness has calmed down quite a bit and it’s much more to his liking, though there is still work to be done.
  • When the track reapplied the PJ1 compound this morning they increased it to five feet wide at the bottom of the track and a further 20 feet coming off each corner
  • AJ Allmendinger said his car is diabolical with 38 minutes left in practice and he is coming back into the garage area to have it worked on. He looked nervous driving it
  • Ryan Blaney is still trying to work on the turn in the car. They were hoping to make two long runs in happy hour but they are trying to make the car more secure in the corners
  • William Byron can’t get the front end to turn the way he wants and after a few laps the car just starts to chatter in the corners with 36 minutes left in practice.
  • Joey Logano got loose going into turn 3 and is having to adjust his entrance into the corners to keep from getting free and to get as much of the traction compound as he can.
  • With 32 minutes left in practice, Kyle Busch leads the 15-lap average chart with Chase ElliottKurt BuschBrad Keselowski, and Michael McDowell rounding out the top-five on the chart
  • The 4-car team is working really hard on getting the backup car ready for the race but the car is all over the track according to Kevin Harvick and he says it feels nothing like the first practice and wants the team to take big swings and squaring it away.
  • Clint Bowyer is trying to figure out what happened to his race car because it went from really loose to really tight in just a few laps with 20 minutes left in the session.
  • Kyle Larson says his car is pretty good around the bottom but he prefers the top groove and was frustrated that no one would go up there with him in happy hour
  • With 7 minutes left in practice, Jimmie Johnson and Darrell Wallace Jr. have run 90 and 82 laps respectively including a few 35+ lap runs each.
  • With four minutes to go Kurt Busch hit the wall got loose in the rear and tagged the inside the wall on the back stretch going into turn 3. He will go to a backup car and have to start in the back of the field but still be scored at P2.
  • Clint Bowyer hit the back of Trevor Bayne’s car with the front right of his car. They are trying to work on it to see if they can use the car. 
  • Kyle Busch topped all of the long run averages at the end of practice.

Second Practice at Food City 500

Saturday, April 14 8:30 a.m. ET

55 minutes in length

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized in this session

Top-20 Best Speeds (one lap)

PosCarDriverMakeLapsLast LapBest TimeBest SpeedBest Lap
142Kyle LarsonChevy70122.86614.874129.0045
278Martin Truex Jr.Toyota4076.65414.88128.9525
310Aric AlmirolaFord44121.55114.881128.9435
418Kyle BuschToyota50123.56214.882128.93410
595Kasey KahneChevy53119.21714.894128.833
638David RaganFord53120.86214.898128.7965
722Joey LoganoFord43123.39514.907128.7186
817Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Ford43124.48414.913128.66612
948Jimmie JohnsonChevy31121.28214.925128.5635
109Chase ElliottChevy62123.05514.932128.50340
1120Erik JonesToyota52116.16414.939128.4423
1237Chris BuescherChevy47123.39514.939128.4426
1334Michael McDowellFord49123.05514.941128.4255
1488Alex BowmanChevy37120.62614.942128.41717
1541Kurt BuschFord52122.94514.949128.35612
164Kevin HarvickFord37124.88114.975128.1348
1714Clint BowyerFord40123.21314.978128.1087
186Trevor BayneFord40124.17814.993127.983
1947AJ AllmendingerChevy41123.83315.008127.8526
2012Ryan BlaneyFord3999.14215.02127.758

Best 10-lap Averages

Best 20-lap Averages

Items of Note:

  • Kyle Busch made major changes to the car in this practice session trying to find more grip in the track after not being comfortable with the traction compound yesterday
  • Kyle Larson has run the most laps in this session as he tries to find a line that he likes around the track and his car felt too tight by the end of the long run
  • Martin Truex Jr. ran over something on the track and took it to the pits to have it looked over
  • David Ragan had his car become looser on him as his run went longer but he’s not sure what’s causing it
  • Erik Jones is likes his car a lot and thinks he has the speed he needs for the race
  • Denny Hamlin is having trouble with turning on his car. They were trying to fix the middle of the corner and took wedge out but now it is sliding through entry and he even said on the radio that he’s a mess
  • Joey Logano thinks his car has pretty good speed at the beginning of practice but he’s one of the ones getting loose in the corner. He’s still just working the bottom of the track
  • Jimmie Johnson won’t be able to start the race on his qualifying tires and thus will start in the back of the field, but will still count for scoring as having started P17 to start the race
  • Kasey Kahne wasn’t happy with the car at the beginning of the session as he was getting very free and sliding up the track however it got a bit better throughout practice but isn’t quite where he wants it to be.
  • Kevin Harvick was taking the backup car through its paces in this practice. This is the first time while at SHR that he has needed a backup car.
  • Aric Almirola has an issue with his car being “snappy” off the straightaways and early in practice the car wasn’t great on landing coming out of a corner

 

First Practice for Food City 500

Friday, April 13th12:00 pm ET

55 minutes in length

Weather

71 degree air temp with 87 degree track temp and winds at 4 mph

Penalized Drivers

These drivers went through inspection too many times at Texas and will serve penalties in the first practice:

Reed Sorensen (15 minutes at end of practice)

Paul Menard (15 minutes at end of practice)

Kyle Larson (15 minutes at end of practice)

Jamie McMurray (15 minutes at end of practice)

Top-20 Speeds(one lap)

PosCarDriverMakeLapsLast LapBest TimeBest SpeedBest Lap
112Ryan BlaneyFord10128.9614.774129.8772
220Erik JonesToyota23129.87714.774129.87723
341Kurt BuschFord14128.79614.799129.65713
418Kyle BuschToyota15127.66514.822129.45611
542Kyle LarsonChevy17128.40814.84129.29916
611Denny HamlinToyota21129.28214.842129.28221
788Alex BowmanChevy20127.13214.859129.13419
82Brad KeselowskiFord11124.37114.874129.0048
938David RaganFord18127.75814.875128.99514
1078Martin Truex Jr.Toyota11128.92614.883128.92611
1195Kasey KahneChevy19125.34614.936128.46818
1210Aric AlmirolaFord18128.44214.939128.44218
1322Joey LoganoFord32128.28814.957128.28832
1448Jimmie JohnsonChevy15128.23614.963128.23615
156Trevor BayneFord11128.16814.971128.16811
1619Daniel SuarezToyota12126.89614.977128.11611
1714Clint BowyerFord16128.08214.981128.08216
1817Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Ford13127.99714.991127.99713
1934Michael McDowellFord22127.76715.018127.76722
2021Paul MenardFord15127.3615.026127.69914

 

Best 10-lap Averages

Items of Note:

  • The track laid down PJ1 (grip compound) on the bottom groove of the track
  • Five minutes into practice only three cars have hit the track while they wait out the grip level to change because of the warming of the track
  • It’s a bit more abrupt getting into Turn 1 and 2 than Turn 3 and 4 and it’s throwing some guys a bit.
  • Kurt Busch is in qualifying trim and is waiting for other drivers to work in the traction compound a bit more before getting on the track
  • Kyle Larson’s crew chief said they will tend toward being loose all week here since previously the track has changed as the rubber gets laid down and his car has gotten tight when that’s happened
  • With 45 minutes left in practice nearly half the field have now run at least a lap on the track
  • Jimmie Johnson had a wiggle coming out of Turn 4 getting out of the PJ1 compound and pulled into the garage for adjustments, he did not hit anything when getting loose
  • The traction compound has been applied to the bottom four feet of the track, previously it’s been eight feet.
  • Brad Keselowski was late arriving to practice because he had an outdated schedule that showed it starting at 12:30 instead of 12.
  • A lot of drivers are having issues with getting loose even in the middle of the corner if they get the right side tires out of the PJ1.
  • William Byron is getting a new left rear spring put in the car after getting very loose coming out of Turn 4. They are possibly changing the ride height too to see if that will help with getting loose.
  • Goodyear slightly changed the tires for this week’s race and added a bit more stagger to the left sides than in races past at Bristol. Stagger is the differential between size of the left side compared to right side. The smaller left side allows for a tighter turn.
  • The pit road at Bristol is a very tricky one since it’s split and there are two possible entries for it and two identical looking sets of pit stalls. It can confuse drivers occasionally,
  • Aric Amirola has a new Crew Chief this week (Tony Gibson) as his regular Crew Chief is at home with his wife and newborn son. He is in race trim to start practice.
  • Several drivers have already changed out the left rear spring with 30 minutes left in the session.
  • With 29 minutes left in practice, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch are the top two on the charts. Each ran a mock qualifying run and Blaney is the only driver with a sub-15-second lap to this point.
  • Michael McDowell started in race trim and are switching to Q trim now. He was the first one on the track in the session. This is the first time he’s been here in a Ford Fusion and he wanted to get the rhythm of the track in the different car with ride heights.
  • It’s been more than 30 years since the points-leader coming into Bristol has won the Bristol race. Kyle Buschis the points-leader currently. Dale Earnhardt Sr.was the last one to do it in 1987.
  • Joey Logano is still in race trim with 18 minutes left in the session.
  • Daniel Suarez is dealing with a left thumb injury from his crash at Texas. Ligaments and tendons actually pulled a small piece of bone out of place and he’s wearing a brace on that hand this week.
  • With 16 minutes left in the session, five drivers have now posted sub-15-second laps in qualifying trim with Blaney still being quickest.
  • The track hasn’t taken the traction compound as far off the corner as they have previously and that is causing problems for drivers coming off the turns.
  • AJ Allmendinger got very loose in Turn 1 and has damage to the rear of the car. It’s unclear exactly how much damage was done.
  • Kevin Harvick got into the wall in Turn 3 with nine minutes left in practice. The car never turned and there was an audible loud pop on the audio. A piece broke and a tire went down. He will go to a backup car.
  • With eight minutes left in practice, Allmendinger’s team was pulling the backup car out of the hauler and will switch to that for the race.
  • David Ragan liked his car by the end of practice and said it was pretty close after having the balance be off for most of the session
  • Kasey Kahne is concerned with the fall off in his car and think they will still need adjustments for qualifying runs and more work for the race as it's still a bit free.