NASCAR DFS: Gander RV 400 Practice Notes

Gander RV 400 Final Practice

Dover International Speedway

Saturday, May 4 12:00 pm ET

55 minutes in length

Weather

Warm, slight overcast and a bit damp

Penalized Drivers

All of these drivers lost 15 minutes of practice time:

Aric Almirola

Michael McDowell

Matt Tifft

Quin Houff

Top-20 Speeds (single lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• There is some question as to what the race pace will be given the qualifying pace set on Friday and just how close to undriveable several drivers said the cars were.
• The plan for most drivers is to make a few long runs to see what race trim is like since the second practice was canceled and this is the only race trim practice of the weekend.
• Clint Bowyer was very frustrated after his first run of the session and was slamming the steering wheel while in the garage
• Kurt Busch has a laundry list of things wrong with the car after the first run of the session in which each corner of the car felt like it was doing different things.
• Daniel Suarez brushed the wall off of Turn 4 but it was just cosmetic damage over the wheel well.
• Ty Dillon was working on “diamonding” the turns in which drift up in the middle of the corner to get a straight drive off the corner.
• Kevin Harvick is very good on the long run 20 minutes into the session even though his short-run speed isn’t great.
• Kyle Larson is tops in the 10 and 15 lap averages 20 minutes into practice.
• Ryan Blaney is the only driver to have run a 20-lap 22 minutes into the session to this point.
• Jimmie Johnson ran a five-lap run and then brought the car into the garage for adjustments for something he didn’t like.
• The entry to pit road is a tricky entry here this week with the grip and speed levels the cars have this week and so there could be a few commitment line violations in the race.
• Joey Logano was happy with the consistency with his first long run of the session as he lost only .2 seconds in lap time over a 25-lap run.
• Aric Almirola has made three different runs while making adjustments on the car as he tries to get the bumpiness out of the ride by adjusting the shocks and springs.
• Jimmie Johnson is still looking for the long run speed in his car that he likes at this track.
• Erik Jones has the third fastest single lap speed and is near the top of the 10 and 15 lap averages in this session.
• With five minutes left in the session, it’s gotten a bit racy with a few different lanes starting to develop on the track and some side-by-side racing happening.
• Kyle Larson led the best 10, 15, 20 lap averages and Joey Logano led the 30 lap average stat
• Daniel Suarez feels that the race track changed so much in the practice that the last 20 minutes is the most realistic part of the practice and he feels that they made progress in the setup for the race.

Through Final Practice

Gander RV 400 Opening Practice

Dover International Speedway

Friday, May 3 11:00 am ET

50 minutes in length

Weather

Foggy and overcast and damp and 58-degree air temp

Penalized Drivers

Kurt Busch (15 minutes at the end of the session from Talladega inspection issues)

Top-20 Speeds (single lap)

Best Lap Averages

Matt Tifft was the only driver to make 10-consecutive laps in this session

Items of Note:

• The air is misty but the track surface is dry after the Air Titans dried the track this morning
• Most cars will be in q-trim for this session with two practices on Saturday to get ready for the race trim.
• Ty Dillon was the first car on the track when the track went green along with Matt Tifft, Chris Buescher, and Ryan Preece.
• With five minutes elapsed in the session, there have only been 14 cars on the track so far.
• Nine minutes into the session the four Henrick cars went out together and shot to the top of the chart in the top four spots of the 24 cars that have been on track.
• Brad Keselowski got very loose in turns 3 & 4 with 12 minutes elapsed in the session and brought the car immediately back to the garage.
• Kevin Harvick has made one mock qualifying run with 15 minutes gone in the session but it wasn’t a great gauge for what they have since a slower car pulled out in front of them and messed up the mock qualifying lap.
• Jimmie Johnson is currently sitting P11 on the speed charts just under halfway through the practice as he looks to end his 69-race winless streak, with his last win coming at this track.
• Chevys have consistently been inside the top-five throughout the session through the first 30 minutes while there have been only one or two Fords inside the top-10.
• The track record here is 164.44 mph from 2014 and there are already 17 cars that have run faster than that this session including Kyle Larson atop the charts at 167.68 with 30 minutes elapsed in the session.
• With 15 minutes left in the practice, Kurt Busch took over the top of the chart at 168.44 mph
• Kevin Harvick finally made a second run for mock qualifying with a clean lap and shot to second on the speed chart.
• Ryan Blaney has consistently been in the top-five on the charts all practice long.
• Alex Bowman is happy with his car and said they freed his car up a bit on the last run out and he is P6 on the board with five minutes left in the session.
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. says he likes his car and is having fun in this package but does say that one little slip on the track can cost you .3 seconds making a big difference. He’s P7 on the board with three minutes left in the session.
• Kyle Larson took over the P2 spot on the last run of the session making both Chip Ganassi cars over 168 mph in this session.
• Ryan Newman finished P23 as the last driver to break the current track record with his run of 165+ mph.