DFS NASCAR: AAA 400 Practice Notes

Final Practice for AAA 400

Saturday, May 5^th11:00 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Overcast conditions and a bit warmer than race temps 

Penalized Drivers

Both serving 15-minute penalties at the end of practice

Kevin Harvick

Kurt Busch

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best 10-lap Averages

Items of Note:

• A lot of cars will make long runs in this happy hour session
• Martin Truex Jr. will be working on balance over the long runs in this session and is using two sets of sticker tires to do it.
• With 43 minutes left in practice Clint Bowyer appears to have a very good car with grip and speed. He’s been able to drive it anywhere he wants to and run multiple grooves.
• Kevin Harvick joins the other Stewart-Haas cars as being the strongest on the track through practices this week. He leads in 10-lap average and is third on the 15-lap averages with 40 minutes left in practice
• Kasey Kahne got very loose coming out of turn 4 and the car nearly hit the wall after a wobble but Kahne was able to save it.
• Alex Bowman has a bouncy nose of the car at the moment and he can’t get the speed to be the way he wants and he is struggling in the mid-20s at practice with 38 minutes left.
• Hendrick Motorsports has yet to get a win this year but with Chase Elliott and Jimmie Johnson running so well here that could come to an end this week. Overall HMS has won 19 races at Dover, the most of any team.
• This is last race for Trevor Bayne as a full-time driver for Roush Fenway Racing as Matt Kenseth will be in the 6-car next week at Kansas Speedway.
• Halfway through the practice Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney are tied atop the 20-lap average stat.
• Kurt Busch feels that his car is tight everywhere and he can’t get it to turn the way he wants it to in the center of the turn. With 21 minutes left in practice he is 15^thon the single lap times and 8^thon the 10-lap averages
• Aric Almirola is first on the speed charts with 19 minutes left in practice, fifth on the 10-lap average times and third on 20-lap average. In post-practice interviews he said he was really happy with his car and his car was really fast.
• In post practice interviews Kurt Busch said the practice times today won’t represent the race pace and so he was working on long run speed mostly in happy hour and that he’s happy with his car at what they suspect is race pace. Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip believe that Jimmie Johnson is doing the same thing as Busch and running more similar to race pace.
• Ryan Blaney has made a 30-lap run, the only on track that has run that long of a run in this or any session.
• Kyle Larson said he didn’t feel very good in the happy hour session. He started off real loose and they tightened it up all session until he got too tight and then on the last run he was loose again.
• Denny Hamlin was working on pit road speed during the last couple of minutes of practice. He’s been penalized more than anyone other than Daniel Suarez and Alex Bowman who are tied with him for most pit road speeding infractions this season.

Second Practice for AAA 400

Saturday, May 5^th 7:30 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

This session is 20 degrees cooler than yesterday but it similar to what race conditions will be.

Penalized Drivers

All serving 15-minute penalties for inspection issues

Daniel Suarez

Trevor Bayne

Gray Gaulding

Kasey Kahne

Derrike Cope

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best 10-lap Averages

Items of Note:

• Kyle Larson is going to stay on scuffed tires for the whole practice this morning and work on some big changes they have in mind. They will then work on stickers and race balance at happy hour.
• Very early in practice William Byron got loose coming out of turn 2 but saved it. He pulled it into the garage to make adjustments.
• The track won’t take the rubber like it did in the first practice since it is 20 degrees cooler this session than the first one. That will keep the cars looser this session than the first one.
• Pit road is one of the toughest to get onto. It’s the fourth narrowest pit road on the schedule and has short segments that make speeding tough to avoid. It is also asphalt while the rest of the track is concrete and the pit boxes are concrete.
• Jimmie Johnson was working on pit road speed a couple of different times while the track got rubbered-up a bit more with 40 minutes left in the session.
• Clint Bowyer had a left rear wheel rub on his car with 35 minutes left in the session and the car is in the garage being adjusted to avoid the rub.
• During the truck race on Friday night, the upper groove came very well and it’s expected to come in on Sunday for the Cup race and make it pretty racey with a lot of passing ability.
• Darrell Wallace Jr. wants more grip on the landing out of a turn so he can get to the throttle faster. He also doesn’t want to have to run a diamond pattern on the track and wants to round out the trajectory a bit more.
• Kevin Harvick has run the most laps in this session since he is facing a penalty in the second practice Saturday.
• Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones had their splitters on the track to start a run and were sparking while their teammates Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez were not sparking.
• Towards the end of practice several drivers were really racing each other around the track, most notably several of the younger drivers with less experience on the track.
• Kyle Busch says his car is fast but he’s still looking for more speed but mostly he’s just looking for more balance in the car. The tire fall off is something they’re still trying to figure especially balance-wise on the concrete.
• Denny Hamlin is trying to change the why he drives on the track. He has never won and is some times a top-five finisher but wants to be more consistent and so he’s trying to change his style.
• Kevin Harvick really liked his car by the end of practice after the team made some adjustments to it and was able to put up consistent lap times over the long run.
• Best 20-lap averages for this session were Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, and Kurt Busch.

First Practice for AAA 400

Friday, May 4^th10:30 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Track temp is near 100 degrees for this practice

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized this session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best 10-lap Averages

No drivers ran 10-consecutive laps in this practice session

Items of Note:

• The ride heights this week will be much higher this week than previous races because of the roller coaster effect of the track and the bumps especially in turn 3.
• Darrell Waltrip said on the broadcast he always found this track to be the toughest to set the car up for in order to get it drive around the track the way he wanted it to. Jeff Gordon concurred with that statement
• Inspection has been taking a while with only nine cars on track with 43 minutes left in the session
• Ryan Blaney made a few laps in race trim to try it out and with 40 minutes left in practice they are switching over to qualifying trim. He ran third here last year before an issue with the axel forced him off the track and to a DNF.
• Joey Logano made a few laps in race trim then went in for adjustments and with 37 minutes left and is now making a double-digit lap run. They will use most of this practice for race trim runs before switching to qualifying trim
• With 28 minutes left in practice, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, and Ryan Newman are at the top of the speed charts and each has made a mock qualifying run.
• Kyle Busch is the first Toyota on track at the 25-minute mark and he made a mock qualifying run going to third on the speed chart
• There are several drivers that will likely miss practice due to an inspection backlog over the splitters on the front of the cars
• William Byron made his first laps on Dover in a Cup car but he did finish P6 and P3 in the two Xfinity races last seasons.
• Last Spring’s race pole lap was 22.64 seconds and Paul Menard ran a 22.524 mock qualifying run in this practice session
• This should be a big week for Chevy given the history of the drivers here but it is yet to be known if they have figured out the new car body.
• Erik Jones made one qualifying run already and is making some adjustments since the car is a bit free on him with 10 minutes left in practice.
• A trail of oil or fluid of some sort is leaking from the 72-car of Corey LaJoie has stalled practice with 2:30 minutes left in practice.