DFS NASCAR: Hollywood Casino 400 Practice Notes

Final Practice for Hollywood Casino 400

Kansas Speedway

Saturday, October 20th 1:05 pm ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

The temperature is similar to tomorrow’s race but the wind is expected to be blowing 180 degrees the other way.

Penalized Drivers

No drivers faced penalties this session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• The wind could be a bigger factor here tomorrow because it will create a tailwind and headwind in different corners than it was at in practice
• This track has similar grooves to Miami-Homestead and so some of the drivers that have a comfortable margin or have already advanced are experimenting with a higher line since that’s the fastest way around the championship track.
• If drivers can’t hold the bottom line because they are tight, the middle lane is a highly used line on this track as a way to avoid the risk of hitting the wall on the outside.
• Kurt Busch just needs to complete a solid run here to advance and doesn’t need a win
• Ryan Blaney is 22 points below the cut line but they feel like Kansas is his best race track and is fine being here in a must win scenario
• Kyle Busch had two top-10s in the first 14 races here and since that seven in the last nine.
• Chip Ganassi drivers, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray have had a rough week between Larson going to a backup car and McMurray having an oil fire in the first session on Saturday after a leak caused it.
• The SHR engineers that were at the tire test here a few weeks ago said the track has lost 25% of its grip since the repave.
• Kevin Harvick waited about 15 minutes into practice to go out on the track and let others clean the track a bit and lay down some rubber for him
• Kyle Busch had a plan to go out and run a 20-lap run and actually ran a 22-lap run. The last four laps he ran to the top of the track and he picked up nearly half a second per lap compared to the bottom line.
• Alex Bowman was matching Busch’s lap times at the top of the track late in a tire run and then when he went to the bottom for his last lap the lap time fell off by .4 seconds.
• Joey Logano was out on sticker tires and running at the bottom line in the low-to-mid-29 second range (equal with most of the field) and he should be doing 15-20 laps in this run.
• Brad Keselowski says he feels his car is fast this week and that if it comes down to track position they have the speed to overcome bad positioning.
• In a graph during the broadcast the 22-lap run from Kyle Busch was broken down and it should that his last four laps were the same time as his 10th and 11th laps of the run after losing .5-.6 seconds up to lap 18th.
• The 18-team has sent Kyle back out on the track for another long run on the same tires he just did the 22-lap run on to see how the time fall off is up to lap 40 on them.
• Chase Elliott is having trouble with front grip in the car on the lower line and he wants to adjust the balance to see if they can fix it in the garage. During the race he will simply have to move around to find a line that works but the bottom line is good on short runs and could be effective late in the race after a caution.
• Clint Bowyer has started to migrate up the race track as his run has gone longer in order to see what the lap times look like for him.
• Kevin Harvick has run two different 15-lap runs and the first one is the best 15-lap average while the second run would be the second fastest one ahead of Kyle Busch currently sitting in second in that metric.
• Erik Jones ran the second fastest lap average in the second practice and he’s run the fourth fastest in this session making him a bit of non-playoff sleeper.
• Aric Almirola looks like his team is racing looser after the win at ‘Dega and he is sitting at P2 in 10-lap average with 3 minutes left in the session.
• Joey Logano said the wind was a big factor on the line you could run when the gusts kicked up and pushed his car up the track during the session and it made him cautious driving right up against the wall.

Second Practice for Hollywood Casino 400

Kansas Speedway

Saturday, October 20th 10:30 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

50 degrees Air Temp I Wind at 7 mph I 65% Humidity 

Penalized Drivers

 No drivers were penalized in this session

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Average Speeds

Items of Notes:

• The broadcast didn’t have audio for the first 17 minutes of the session
• Brad Keselowski feels like he’s in a must win situation given who is ahead of him in the standings right now
• Jamie McMurray had a fire under his car with 31 minutes left in the session that was caused by an oil leak and it brought out a red flag for the session.
• At the time of the red flag Aric Almirola had run the fastest lap of the session
• The 10-car team feels like the car didn’t fire off well enough in the May race here and that’s what they are working on this week and they are feeling pretty good about the car with nearly getting the pole on Friday evening.
• A few teams that will make the Round of 8 are planning strategy around getting bonus points this week to close the gap between their competitors after the reset that comes following the Kansas race.
• The track opened back up with 20 minutes left in the original practice
• Alex Bowman has the ninth fastest time in this practice to this point and has the best overall average for laps run. He needs a win to advance. The counterpoint is that Bowman has only run six laps before the red flag came out
• Kurt Busch doesn’t like how tight his car is and is getting early in a run. He couldn’t get the car to turn the way he wanted it too. The first run it was tight on corner entry and the second it was tight on corner exit and he didn’t feel that the car was connected through the corner and wasn’t getting off the corner like he wanted.
• Kyle Larson says he is comfortable in the backup car this week and so far with 12 minutes left he was sixth fastest on the board in that car.
• Kyle Busch is complaining of his car being too tight on him despite him still laying down one of the fastest laps of the session and one of the best lap averages too.
• Kevin Harvick has run more laps this session than anyone and he is atop 10-lap average and third in lap average overall even with old tires on the car.

Opening Practice Hollywood Casino 400

Kansas Speedway

Friday, October 19th 2:05 pm ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

57 degrees Air Temp I 10-15 mph WSW winds I Overcast skies

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized for this first session

Best Average Speeds

No drivers ran 10 laps consecutively to qualify for the lap averages.

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Items of Note:

• The colder weather has increased speeds early in the first session with Martin Truex Jr. posting the fastest lap five minutes in while going 204 mph into Turn 1.
• Everybody is in qualifying trim in this practice and working on different lines for their qualifying lap.
• With 35 minutes left in the session Brad Keselowski is one second slower than Aric Almirola who is the fastest lap so far. Over the radio he said he thought he left everything on the track and is still in 20th on the speed charts.
• Alex Bowman is trying to learn about Kevin Harvick’s most recent line to get speed out of the track. He jumped from P19 to P2 on his second mock Q lap run.
• With 28 minutes left in practice Jimmie Johnson had some issue in Turn 2 and was big time loose when it got down onto the splitter.
• Chase Elliott said he was able to improve his lap time to get to P3 on the charts by driving the car harder into the corner in Turn 1 and that’s what the rest of the field seems to be doing as well as the speeds keep improving throughout the session.
• Kyle Larson with 15 minutes left tore up the front right of the car when he hit the wall in Turn 2 after getting very loose and over correcting it. He is going to a backup car and will have to start from the rear.
• Ryan Blaney went out late in the session and ran the fastest lap of the session nearly a half mile an hour faster than Kyle Busch.
• By the end of the session Brad Keselowski had brought his speed up to just .3 seconds off the fastest lap but was still P16 on the board.
• Once more the Fords are showing their speed early as seven of the top-10 speeds were run by Ford drivers with two Toyotas sandwiched in P2 and P6