DFS NASCAR: Pocono 400 Practice Notes

Final Practice at Pocono 400

Pocono Raceway

Saturday, June 2 11:00 am ET

90 minutes in length

Weather

Air Temp 71 I Track Temp 92 I Winds at 13 mph I Race conditions will be 10 degrees cooler

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized in the final practice

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best 10-lap Averages

Items of Note:

• Aric Almirola qualified 34th for the race after aborting his lap in the session because of a severe vibration. The team is listening and looking for the vibration in the final practice but hasn’t found anything to cause it.
• Martin Truex Jr. feels that he is pretty close to the 4 and 18 cars but just hasn’t gotten some breaks he got the last couple of years
• Michael McDowell say his car was “overall too free” in the first run and he headed back to the garage for adjustments
• Erik Jones can’t stay in the throttle anywhere on the track he says and came back in after just a four-lap run to open the session
• In Alex Bowman’s first run he said his car was “little free on entry. Cut the center pretty well. I could use a little more turn through Turn 3” and he will head to the garage for adjustments.
• Kyle Larson was working on the pit road entry and getting to his pit with 68 minutes left in the session
• In last July’s race there were 10 pit road speeding penalties during the race
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. put the left side tires on the apron in Turn 2 and spun the car around but didn’t hit anything and didn’t damage the car with 65 minutes left in the session.
• Kurt Busch says his car feels a bit better today than it did yesterday but still not locked in with 55 minutes left in practice.
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said they were working on handling after locking down the speed to within the top-10 but the car was still tight in the lap that he spun it out in.
• Kyle Busch put up a fast lap early in the session but has been in the garage for a while as they work on the balance of the car since he doesn’t feel it has the long-run speed he wants
• Denny Hamlin wants some adjustments to his brakes. Heading into the turns he is free and when he downshifts in the corner he gets looser when the engine braking kicks in.
• You are allowed a transmission change after qualifying here at Pocono without having to start in the back of the field.
• The last few times the 17-car has crashed at practice this season, he has had his worst finishes of the year.
• Ryan Blaney is pretty happy with his car right now and his team is trying some experimental setups with 40 minutes to go and they are shifting the weight around on the frame rails to try and get the balance of the car right. If you move the weight forward you can tighten the car up into the corner and if you move it back you can loosen it up in the corner,
• Jamie McMurray is pull tight off the corner and is having to slow down in the entry in order get it to steer the way he wants but overall he is happy with the car and is 10th on the board with 30 minutes left and 25 laps run this session.
• Bubba Wallace has made three different runs and picked up speed in each of them and is working on different lines into Turn 1 to find his most comfortable way through it and is sitting P27 with 24 minutes left
• Martin Truex Jr. says he is happy with his car and says he likes the feel and balance throughout all three turns. He will lack initial get off speed but has a long-run car and can put down consistent lap times.
• Kevin Harvick has changed the way he is shifting this week since he blew an engine shifting last year by shifting from 3rd to 2nd instead of 3rd to 4th.
• Jamie McMurray heard a clunk in his transmission as he shifted in his last go around and the team is looking the transmission over.
• Kyle Larson ran P6 in practice and worked on being smoother around the track and shifting in better spots and more consistently in the same spots.
• Erik Jones has been fighting looseness all weekend and they made improvements on the throttle issue they had earlier in practice and finished P14 this session
• Kurt Busch said they are sliding around the track and was loose on scuffs and sticker tires. They have to find the balance without giving up speed because restarts are so important here.

Opening Practice for Pocono 400

Pocono Raceway

Friday, June 1st 11:35 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Similar temps to race day but there was moisture on the track at the beginning of the session

Penalized Drivers

Jimmie Johnson (15 minutes at the end of practice)

Martin Truex Jr. (15 minutes at the end of practice)

Ross Chastain (15 minutes at the end of practice)

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best 10-lap Averages

Clint Bowyer was the only driver to log 10-consecutive laps in this session

Items of Note:

• A lot of the drivers are starting in race trim this practice as it was delayed due to some moisture on the track
• About a half a dozen drivers will start the practice in qualifying trim and then have their teammates use the notes to set the car up
• There is a new left side tire for the cars this year and it has a bit more fall off than tires in the past and there is no traction compound on the track this week either
• Green Flag pit stops are able to be made without losing a lap here since it takes about 50 seconds to make a lap around the Tricky Triangle
• Based on fuel mileage it is only a three pit stop race, however the stages change that strategy and may have teams pitting 5-6 times instead
• Down shifting around the turns is spot that can get drivers into trouble with blowing engines
• The weather on Saturday doesn’t look great for on track activity
• Early in practice, Paul Menard was second on the board driving the Wood Brothers 21-car which won the race last year driven by Ryan Blaney.
• Darrell Wallace Jr. had a regulator issue with 30 minutes left in practice and his car spewed water everywhere.
• Denny Hamlin ran the start of practice in race trim and posted a P3 lap in that trim and with 23 minutes left in the session he’s swapping to qualifying trim. He had four wins here before they repaved the track several years ago,
• With 20 minutes left in the session there are three Chevys in the top-10 of speeds but there are three Toyotas in in the top-four at the same time.
• Martin Truex Jr. ran at qualifying trim for his first laps on the track and sits atop the board with 18 minutes left.
• Kyle Busch says his car is plowing in the first turn and bouncing all the way through turn 2 and free on exit of turn 3. They are replacing some shocks in the car but staying in qualifying trim and sitting third on the speed charts.
• Pit road is an easy one to enter but slowing down from 180-200 mph down to pit road speed is a hard task under green flag conditions.
• Jimmie Johnson ran the whole practice in race trim knowing he was being penalized for the final 15 minutes and made a several-lap run.
• In the final 10 minutes of the session a lot of flip flopping happened on the speed charts as drivers made mock qualifying runs.
• The new shocks and adjustments for Kyle Busch made a big difference as his qualifying lap after the changes took nearly a second off of his lap time.
• Matt DiBenedetto had some handling concerns through all of the corners with it being tight center off and complained of lacking front grip.