NASCAR DFS: Toyota/Save Mart 350 Practice Notes

Through Qualifying

*Ross Chastain has been in St. Louis for the Truck Series race on Saturday but will drive at Sonoma on Sunday. He didn't practice or qualify the car as Kyle Weatherman drove the car and so Chastain will start 38th in the race.

Final Practice for Toyota/Save Mart 350

Sonoma Raceway

Friday, June 21 5:35 pm ET

80 minutes in length

Weather

Very similar to first practice and similar to race conditions.

Penalized Drivers

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

Top-20 Speeds (single lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• Clint Bowyer had a transmission change in between practice to help him get out of Turn 5 and into Turn 6 a bit better and they are planning on doing two long runs to start this session.
• There are no specific ratios in the transmission through the first three gears this week but fourth gear has to be a 1:1 ratio.
• A few drivers missed the right-hand turn into Turn 4 and used the old Chute section to get back on the track, which is an access road this weekend, and they have been warned by NASCAR not to do that.
• With 60 minutes left in practice both Chip Ganassi cars are at the top of the chart for single lap speeds.
• Kyle Busch has missed Turn 4 twice in this session as he’s had a problem with the downhill braking zone heading into the turn coming off a blind uphill climb. About 10 minutes later he went off the track in Turn 2.
• Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski were racing pretty hard for a few laps as they experimented with where passing zones are on the track and Turn 7 in the hairpin is a new one that wasn’t there before.
• Kyle Larson did a mock qualifying lap to start the session but now with 40 minutes left in the practice he’s in the middle of a 20-lap run to try and avoid what’s happened previously here as the car doesn’t last over the long run.
• Ty Dillon likes his setup this week and feels like it pulls off nicely he is planning on a final long run in this session to lock everything down but did give himself a blister on his right hand from not wearing padded gloves in the first practice.
• Martin Truex Jr. feels really good about his car and is happy in long and short runs with it.
• Aric Almirola has a very solid looking car on long runs and he is happy with the balance on the car.
• Kevin Harvick is starting to find speed late in this session with fresh tires on the car but overall his car hasn’t shown much in the way of short or long run speeds.
• Bubba Wallace spun in Turn 7 with three minutes to go in the session but didn’t hit anything as he just spun in the run off area.
• Alex Bowman was happy with his car but thought it lost front grip a bit too much in the later laps of the run.
• William Byron was picking up time on people in the carousel as Brad Keselowski specifically noticed and his crew chief was happy with the pace he was able to keep through multiple laps.

Opening Practice for Toyota/Save Mart 350

Sonoma Raceway

Friday, June 21 2:40 pm ET

85 minutes in length

Weather

Sunny and warm temps which are forecasted all weekend

Penalized Drivers

No drivers were penalized in this session.

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

Best Lap Averages

Items of Note:

• It is a completely new setup on the track for everyone this week as the Carousel is there not The Chute.
• Jimmie Johnson will be waiting to go out for this practice as they have more time on the track than they have tires to use so they will wait. He also drove on this traditional Sonoma layout when he was 15 years old.
• One minute into practice, Bubba Wallace spun the car into the grass.
• A lot of crew chiefs have said that they are focusing on getting the cars to turn left this week instead of in the past when they focused on turning right and so the setup is like a short track sort of.
• There is a lack of braking markers on this track so NASCAR set some out but after a few test laps of Jeff Gordon in the pace car, they will be moving them back a bit to give them more braking distance getting into the turns.
• William Byron and Landon Cassill have both driven off the track in Turn 7 into the dirt but kept driving right onto the asphalt.
• With 68 minutes left in the session, there is a group of four or five cars making laps together trying to find passing zones in the new configuration.
• There are windshield wipers on the cars this week and drivers will have them set in a few different positions to help downforce just a touch.
• Early on, Turn 4 and Turn 7 are the two most troublesome spots on the track as they adjust to a quicker right turn in Turn 4 and a hairpin in Turn 7.
• William Byron is using Max Papis as a driving coach, whose home track is Sonoma and has given him spots to look at to be able to brake or attack passing zones.
• Joey Logano has the best single lap on the board with 60 minutes left in the session.
• There are three blind rises heading into turns on this track where you just have to point for a spot as you crest the hill.
• Ryan Preece, Austin Dillon, and Daniel Hemric are going to be running the K&N West Series race this weekend to get more experience on this layout of track in race conditions.
• No driver this decade has finished in the top-10 in their first road course start in the Cup series, meaning Matt Tifft, Justin Haley, and Ryan Preece are the drivers making their first road course Cup start this week.
• David Ragan says that as the load builds on his right side tires he loses all grip and down force on his left side tires but overall he has the fifth fastest lap time with 45 minutes left in the session.
• Jimmie Johnson sounds like he is still trying to find the right transmission gears and ratios for the track. He is getting out of the throttle in spots that others aren’t getting out of the throttle in.
• Austin Dillon was in the garage getting dents knocked out of his car with 35 minutes left in the session after colliding with the tires on the inside of Turn 12.
• Ryan Blaney has a solid looking car as it rolls through the corner well on both the left and right-handers.
• Kyle Larson went way off the Turn 7 hairpin turn and went deep into the runoff area.
• Chase Elliott has his dad, Bill Elliott, helping him out as a spotter and advisor this week and he is helping to pinpoint adjustments needed on the 9-car.
• With 30 minutes left, Brad Keselowski is 28^th on the speed charts and looks as though he can’t get back to the throttle as quickly as he wants to be able to.
• Kyle Larson is happy with his car but feels like he has to get more consistent in his lap times and make less mistakes from lap to lap. He was second on the board with 15 minutes left and he ended his session early.
• Michael McDowell is taking to the new layout very well and has been the fastest car in single lap runs a few different times during practice.