Happy Hour Practice at TicketGuardian 500
ISM Raceway
Saturday, March 9 2:05 pm ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
Air Temp – 64 degrees I Track Temp – 94 degrees I Slight breeze at 5 mph NE
Penalized Drivers
The following drivers are serving 15-minute penalties at the end of practice for inspection violations:
Brad Keselowski
Paul Menard
William Byron
Corey LaJoie
Michael McDowell
David Ragan
Cody Ware
Bayley Currey
Top-20 Speeds (single lap)
Last | Best | Best | Best | ||||||
Pos | Car | Driver | Make | Delta | Laps | Lap | Time | Speed | Lap |
1 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | -- | 49 | 132.34 | 26.13 | 137.79 | 6 |
2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 0.109 | 52 | 133.5 | 26.24 | 137.22 | 5 |
3 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 0.212 | 51 | 133.79 | 26.34 | 136.69 | 28 |
4 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0.261 | 58 | 132.61 | 26.39 | 136.43 | 7 |
5 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 0.282 | 47 | 133.75 | 26.41 | 136.32 | 15 |
6 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 0.295 | 30 | 135.38 | 26.42 | 136.26 | 9 |
7 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevy | 0.305 | 54 | 132.31 | 26.43 | 136.2 | 4 |
8 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevy | 0.315 | 56 | 133.78 | 26.44 | 136.15 | 10 |
9 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevy | 0.326 | 54 | 133.39 | 26.45 | 136.1 | 8 |
10 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 0.332 | 40 | 133.82 | 26.46 | 136.07 | 6 |
11 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 0.36 | 59 | 133.87 | 26.49 | 135.92 | 18 |
12 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevy | 0.363 | 50 | 132.82 | 26.49 | 135.91 | 4 |
13 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevy | 0.371 | 37 | 134.62 | 26.5 | 135.86 | 9 |
14 | 24 | William Byron | Chevy | 0.372 | 35 | 133.26 | 26.5 | 135.86 | 8 |
15 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 0.388 | 42 | 134.98 | 26.51 | 135.78 | 7 |
16 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 0.392 | 44 | 133.68 | 26.52 | 135.76 | 5 |
17 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 0.395 | 43 | 134.5 | 26.52 | 135.74 | 6 |
18 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | Ford | 0.399 | 48 | 133.34 | 26.53 | 135.72 | 15 |
19 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 0.439 | 48 | 133.3 | 26.57 | 135.52 | 8 |
20 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 0.443 | 45 | 133.26 | 26.57 | 135.5 | 30 |
Best Lap Averages
Pos | Car | Driver | From Lap | To Lap | Avg Speed |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 22 | Joey Logano | 20 | 29 | 136.137 |
2 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | 26 | 35 | 136.009 |
3 | 10 | Aric Almirola | 9 | 18 | 135.971 |
4 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | 1 | 10 | 135.962 |
5 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | 5 | 14 | 135.76 |
6 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 33 | 42 | 135.627 |
7 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | 5 | 14 | 135.551 |
8 | 1 | Kurt Busch | 9 | 18 | 135.545 |
9 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 3 | 12 | 135.48 |
10 | 88 | Alex Bowman | 5 | 14 | 135.407 |
11 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 2 | 11 | 135.398 |
12 | 24 | William Byron | 4 | 13 | 135.389 |
13 | 20 | Erik Jones | 9 | 18 | 135.365 |
14 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 27 | 36 | 135.302 |
15 | 9 | Chase Elliott | 2 | 11 | 135.283 |
16 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | 8 | 17 | 135.259 |
17 | 21 | Paul Menard | 5 | 14 | 135.219 |
18 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 2 | 11 | 135.094 |
19 | 6 | Ryan Newman | 5 | 14 | 134.98 |
20 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | 33 | 42 | 134.885 |
21 | 37 | Chris Buescher | 23 | 32 | 134.572 |
22 | 8 | Daniel Hemric # | 5 | 14 | 134.561 |
23 | 13 | Ty Dillon | 27 | 36 | 134.196 |
24 | 36 | Matt Tifft # | 25 | 34 | 134.012 |
25 | 43 | Bubba Wallace | 2 | 11 | 133.892 |
26 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | 35 | 44 | 133.857 |
27 | 34 | Michael McDowell | 1 | 10 | 133.737 |
28 | 32 | Corey LaJoie | 1 | 10 | 133.731 |
29 | 38 | David Ragan | 15 | 24 | 132.332 |
30 | 0 | Landon Cassill | 1 | 10 | 130.811 |
Items of Note:
- The practice time is at about race time and race temp
- Kevin Harvick is happy with the car but would like a touch more speed in this session
- Austin Dillon is starting the session on scuffed tires and trying to find a bit more balance over the long run
- It started off as a very racy practice as the drivers try to see how the cars work in traffic this week
- With 21 minutes elapsed in the session there was a caution on the track for fluid on the racing surface
- There was a 12-minute red flag to clean up the fluid on the track and the practice session won’t be extended meaning the penalized teams lose that track time.
- Nine of the last 19 winners at Phoenix have snapped 44+-race winless streaks
- With 23 minutes left in the session the four Hendrick cars are P7, P12, P13, P14 in single lap speeds
- Brad Keselowski just before getting off the track for practice was P6 in single lap and P2 in 15-lap average
- William Byron says he thinks they made improvements in this practice but it isn’t all the way to where it needs to be though
- Paul Menard ran the most laps of the session before being pulled of the track for the penalty and he said they did two long runs both on stickers and were looking for consistency in the car. He was fourth best in the 20-lap average
- Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch are very similar on the long run with Blaney having better speed earlier in the run and Kyle having better speed later in the run
- Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch were racing each other for the last several minutes of the session though Larson had fewer laps on the tires.
- Austin Dillon felt good about his car on his last run until team owner Richard Childress got on the radio and said what needed to change
- Kevin Harvick said a lot of his braking spots are different now with the power and downforce in the cars so they’ve had to go back 2014 notes rather than from last year but he feels confident in the car he’s got.
- Joey Logano was the only driver to make a run of 30 or more laps in the Happy Hour practice
- Martin Truex Jr. wasn’t as strong in this session as the morning session. It’s almost like his car had trouble with the warmer temps.
- Jimmie Johnson feels that his car is starting to get there and he’s starting to find his rhythm in race weekend after dealing with a cold for most of the week.
- Denny Hamlin finished both Saturday practices 11th but he’s got an issue with balance in the car and balancing long-run speed versus restart speed and he thinks track position will be key on Sunday.
- Daniel Suarez finished Happy Hour at P18 in single-lap speed and P16 in 10-lap average. His car he says is okay and they have better long-run speed than short run speed but they are still working on trying to find a bit more speed in the car.
Through Final Practice
This table is a new addition to the practice notes this season and hopefully it will help breakdown exactly where each driver fits in the practice speed listings. The drivers are in order of DK salaries and the columns mean the following: Prac to Qual is the difference between the Comb. Prac column and the Qualifying spot they have for the race. A positive number indicates they ran faster at average practice speed than where the qualified and should help show who has position differential upside and who may not. The Qual column is simply listing their qualifying spot for the race. The Comb. Prac column is an average of all of that driver's single lap speeds from practice. For example say Driver A registers 195 mph, 196 mph, 197 mph, and 198 mph in the four practices for a race, their Combination Practice speed would be 196.5 and then that speed is ranked amongst the other drivers to get the number you see in the column 1 is fastest and 40 is slowest. The others rank where that driver placed for that session and that session's 10-lap average where again 1 is fastest and 40 is slowest.
Qualifying and Practice | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Driver | Prac to Qual | Qual | Comb. Prac | Prac 3 10-lap | Prac 3 | Prac 2 10-lap | Prac 2 | Prac 1 |
Kevin Harvick | 3 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 15 |
Kyle Busch | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
Brad Keselowski | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
Martin Truex Jr | -3 | 9 | 12 | 20 | 17 | 9 | 16 | 9 |
Joey Logano | 8 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 23 | 7 | 12 |
Kyle Larson | 25 | 31 | 6 | 21 | 3 | 4 | 3 | |
Aric Almirola | -4 | 14 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 15 | 24 |
Chase Elliott | -6 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 12 | 17 | 18 | 4 |
Denny Hamlin | -13 | 3 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 19 |
Kurt Busch | 1 | 16 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 22 |
Erik Jones | -1 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 8 |
Clint Bowyer | 12 | 26 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 19 | 18 |
Ryan Blaney | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 |
Qualifying and Practice | ||||||||
Driver | Prac to Qual | Qual | Comb. Prac | Prac 3 10-lap | Prac 3 | Prac 2 10-lap | Prac 2 | Prac 1 |
Jimmie Johnson | 8 | 15 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 6 |
Austin Dillon | 0 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 8 | 17 |
Daniel Suarez | 11 | 28 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 21 | 22 | 16 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr | -2 | 19 | 21 | 18 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 20 |
Alex Bowman | -4 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
Ryan Newman | -1 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 21 | 13 |
William Byron | -15 | 7 | 22 | 12 | 14 | 18 | 24 | 11 |
Daniel Hemric | -13 | 11 | 24 | 22 | 23 | 22 | 23 | 23 |
Paul Menard | -3 | 17 | 20 | 17 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 21 |
Chris Buescher | 13 | 22 | 9 | 21 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 14 |
Ryan Preece | -7 | 21 | 28 | 28 | 31 | 26 | ||
Qualifying and Practice | ||||||||
Driver | Prac to Qual | Qual | Comb. Prac | Prac 3 10-lap | Prac 3 | Prac 2 10-lap | Prac 2 | Prac 1 |
Matt DiBenedetto | 2 | 25 | 23 | 26 | 27 | 17 | 10 | |
Bubba Wallace | -2 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 27 | |
Ty Dillon | -9 | 20 | 29 | 23 | 24 | 27 | 30 | 28 |
Ross Chastain | 0 | 33 | 33 | 32 | 33 | 33 | ||
David Ragan | -2 | 29 | 31 | 29 | 31 | 26 | 28 | 30 |
Michael McDowell | 1 | 27 | 26 | 27 | 25 | 24 | 29 | 25 |
Matt Tifft | 3 | 30 | 27 | 24 | 29 | 25 | 25 | 29 |
Corey LaJoie | -6 | 24 | 30 | 28 | 30 | 27 | 31 | |
Landon Cassill | 0 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 33 | 28 | 32 | 32 |
Quin Houff | -1 | 35 | 36 | 34 | 36 | 36 | ||
Cody Ware | 0 | 34 | 34 | 29 | 35 | 35 |
Second Practice for TicketGuardian 500
ISM Raceway
Saturday, March 9 11:35 am ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
Air Temp – 53 degrees I Track Temp – 69 degrees I Slight breeze of 5 MPH
Penalized Drivers
No drivers served a penalty in this session
Top-20 Speeds (single lap)
Last | Best | Best | Best | ||||||
Pos | Car | Driver | Make | Delta | Laps | Lap | Time | Speed | Lap |
1 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevy | -- | 28 | 134.34 | 26.09 | 137.97 | 2 |
2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 0.01 | 40 | 136.98 | 26.1 | 137.92 | 25 |
3 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 0.06 | 28 | 134.4 | 26.15 | 137.65 | 3 |
4 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevy | 0.07 | 42 | 132.73 | 26.16 | 137.62 | 9 |
5 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0.07 | 41 | 135.93 | 26.16 | 137.59 | 11 |
6 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 0.07 | 42 | 135.66 | 26.17 | 137.59 | 5 |
7 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 0.11 | 38 | 135.13 | 26.2 | 137.42 | 3 |
8 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevy | 0.11 | 39 | 134.85 | 26.2 | 137.39 | 4 |
9 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevy | 0.12 | 35 | 133.99 | 26.21 | 137.34 | 23 |
10 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevy | 0.13 | 46 | 135.37 | 26.22 | 137.28 | 18 |
11 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 0.15 | 45 | 136.22 | 26.25 | 137.16 | 15 |
12 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 0.18 | 31 | 135.38 | 26.27 | 137.05 | 8 |
13 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevy | 0.18 | 41 | 136.17 | 26.27 | 137.02 | 7 |
14 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 0.19 | 39 | 133.29 | 26.28 | 136.98 | 5 |
15 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 0.21 | 35 | 135.5 | 26.3 | 136.87 | 8 |
16 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 0.21 | 45 | 134.24 | 26.31 | 136.85 | 38 |
17 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 0.23 | 27 | 133.97 | 26.32 | 136.77 | 8 |
18 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevy | 0.23 | 44 | 135.88 | 26.33 | 136.75 | 14 |
19 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 0.24 | 38 | 136.2 | 26.33 | 136.74 | 5 |
20 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 0.25 | 46 | 134.14 | 26.34 | 136.67 | 30 |
Best Lap Averages
Items of Note:
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is really emphasizing pit road speed checks in this session because they had issues at Daytona and Atlanta with speeding and were borderline last week at Vegas
- Early in practice Chris Buescher went out and ran the fastest single-lap speed and for the first 10 minutes it held up.
- Brad Keselowski has never won at Phoenix, one of seven tracks that he’s not won at in Cup, and he is pushing for that win on Sunday. They are working on scuffed tires this session and pit road speed.
- Kyle Busch is in the middle of a long-run with 36 minutes left in the session and his fastest lap came in lap 11 of the run. He has the best 15-lap average at this point.
- Martin Truex Jr. was on a 20-lap run and his fastest lap came in lap 17 of that run as the new right-side tires are holding on for quite a long time this week
- There were 10 pit road speeding penalties in last Fall’s race so a lot of drivers are dialing in the speed lights on their dash in this session to try and avoid those penalties.
- Austin Dillon came on a pit road mock run and said he had four red lights on his dash, which is impossible, so he had to go to the garage to retune the dash lights to make them show correctly.
- Jimmie Johnson went on a 15-lap run and had a laundry list of things that he felt wrong with the car, but most were slight adjustments.
- Goodyear has warned teams multiple times this week to not go very far below the minimum air pressures because of the loads in the corners with the higher speeds so blown tires could be an issue on Sunday.
- The green flag runs at Phoenix are generally 75-80 laps in terms of fuel windows so the long runs in practice are important to get a feel for fall off and air pressures and handling.
- With 10 minutes left in the session, Chris Buescher still has the fastest lap of the session.
- Daniel Hemric is having some trouble putting together speed in the long runs and in the short runs he’s 23rd on the speed charts.
- Chris Buescher said he’s got good long run speed too but needs it to last a bit longer since it starts to fall off after the 10-lap average. This hasn’t been a great track for him but he feels good about the car they brought this week.
- Clint Bowyer is still searching for what he needs in his car as he feels like it’s loose in and tight in the middle and loose out. It hasn’t traditionally been a good track for Bowyer so far in his career.
- Matt DiBenedetto said he also had his qualifying lap obstructed on Friday but that is the nature of group qualifying when everyone waits for the last couple minutes of the clock to make their run.
- Martin Truex Jr. has run the longest run of the session at 24-consecutive laps and his 22nd lap was .2 seconds faster than his fifth lap.
- Kevin Harvick didn’t make any really long runs this session but has a very solid car on the long and short runs
- Kyle Larson was fighting a tight car on the first run but it kept getting tighter on each progressive run, but that’s typical for Phoenix. He wants to work on the long-run balance in the final session.
Opening Practice for TicketGuardian 500
ISM Raceway
Friday March 8 1:30 PM ET
50 Minutes in length
Weather
62 degrees Air Temp I Wind blowing at 15 mph I Clouds are moving out from over the track
Penalized Drivers
No drivers served penalities in this practice session
Top-20 Single-Lap Speeds
Last | Best | Best | Best | ||||||
Pos | Car | Driver | Make | Delta | Laps | Lap | Time | Speed | Lap |
1 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | -- | 10 | 141.14 | 25.4 | 141.72 | 7 |
2 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 0.187 | 8 | 140.26 | 25.59 | 140.68 | 5 |
3 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevy | 0.237 | 10 | 140.07 | 25.64 | 140.41 | 9 |
4 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevy | 0.244 | 8 | 140.37 | 25.65 | 140.37 | 8 |
5 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0.251 | 8 | 140.05 | 25.65 | 140.33 | 5 |
6 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevy | 0.275 | 8 | 140.2 | 25.68 | 140.2 | 8 |
7 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevy | 0.315 | 17 | 139.76 | 25.72 | 139.98 | 14 |
8 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 0.319 | 10 | 139.65 | 25.72 | 139.96 | 8 |
9 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 0.33 | 11 | 139.9 | 25.73 | 139.9 | 11 |
10 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 0.348 | 8 | 138.74 | 25.75 | 139.8 | 2 |
11 | 24 | William Byron | Chevy | 0.35 | 13 | 18.733 | 25.75 | 139.79 | 9 |
12 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 0.363 | 11 | 139.72 | 25.77 | 139.72 | 11 |
13 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 0.382 | 11 | 139.62 | 25.79 | 139.62 | 11 |
14 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevy | 0.382 | 20 | 139.38 | 25.79 | 139.62 | 19 |
15 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 0.395 | 8 | 138.85 | 25.8 | 139.55 | 5 |
16 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | Ford | 0.404 | 8 | 139.5 | 25.81 | 139.5 | 8 |
17 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevy | 0.417 | 12 | 139.37 | 25.82 | 139.43 | 8 |
18 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 0.418 | 8 | 138.6 | 25.82 | 139.42 | 5 |
19 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 0.421 | 8 | 139.41 | 25.82 | 139.41 | 8 |
20 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 0.427 | 11 | 139.37 | 25.83 | 139.37 | 11 |
Best Lap Averages
No drivers ran 10-consecutive laps in this practice session
Items of Note:
- Most cars will be in qualifying trim for much of this session with a few teams bringing out race trim for a portion of it
- There is a new right-side tire on the cars this week that will be being broken in along side seeing a different aero package this weekend again that has full horsepower and full downforce as part of it
- Five cars were on the track for the drop of the green flag with Matt Tifft, Ryan Preece, and William Byron being some of the early ones on the surface
- Brad Keselowski is waiting for his car to make it through inspection at the beginning of practice but did mention that his goal this weekend was to bring home his first win at ISM Raceway and said that it should all come down to late-race restarts and having four tires on the car being on the bottom lane
- Since Darlington of last year, Team Penske has won eight races through last week which is a bit more than half of the 15 races run in that time
- Early in the session, 7 minutes in, Matt DiBenedetto is tops on the speed chart nearly a full MPH faster than the next closest driver Chase Elliott
- With 15 minutes gone in the session, Brad Keselowski drove his car to the top of the chart just inching out DiBenedetto
- Denny Hamlin is in the garage noting the lines that other drivers are taking around the track to get a bit more speed out of his runs, though he sits sixth on the speed chart with 18 minutes gone in the session
- With 21 minutes gone in the session, Kevin Harvick is P26 on the speed charts having run two total laps
- Matt Tifft has run the most laps in this session so far with 13 under his belt since he’s not race here in a Cup car yet.
- Ryan Blaney took over the top spot on the speed chart halfway through practice with a speed of 141.03 MPH, nearly an MPH faster than Chase Elliott in second and 1.5 MPH faster than Brad Keselowski in third
- Quin Houff is making his Cup series debut this weekend for Spire Motorsports
- With 28 minutes gone in the session, Fords hold five of the top-10 spots with Toyota having three and Chey having two
- Just over halfway through the practice, Martin Truex Jr. is 18th and Kurt Busch is 20th on the speed charts
- Kevin Harvick jumped up to P8 on the charts 31 minutes into practice while fighting a bit of a tight race car but that’s about the only thing run with the car. He’s been quiet on the radio, which is good for him
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 25th on the speed charts with nine minutes left in practice and he’s fighting a tight race car in which the front end wants to slid up the track not allowing him to get in the gas as fast as he wants to
- Matt DiBenedetto said his practice went well today and it was fun to drive the full horsepower full downforce package and he put it as a combo between Cup cars and Indy cars in terms of speed and grip level
- Kyle Larson has had both a tight and loose car this session. It started loose with the backend wanting to kick out and then after adjustments it swung a little on the tight side
- Chris Buescher ran the most laps in the session with 20 run under green
- Ryan Blaney says his car is fast, started fast and got better. It’s taken a bit to get used to the added horsepower but the drivers can feel it especially going up through the gears and said you can really stand on the gas getting in the corner and can hustle them around the track