Through Qualifying
Final Practice For FanShield 500
Phoenix Raceway
Friday, March 6 5:35 pm ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
87 degrees I Track Temp: 112 degrees I Wind at 8 mph I 15% humidity
Penalized Drivers
Martin Truex Jr. – 30 minutes at the end of practice
Kurt Busch – 15 minutes at the end of the session
Top-20 Speeds (single lap)
Best Lap Averages
Items of Note:
- It will be 13 degrees cooler for the race than it is at the start of this session which will change the way the cars drive on the track
- Joey Logano didn’t make a mock qualifying run in the first session and was happy with the car but said he needed the car to drive a bit better in the corners.
- Kurt Busch is planning on testing two different setups in this session despite a shorter time to practice in.
- At the very beginning of the session, several cars were testing pit road speeds and making sure their dash lights are calibrated the right way.
- The brakes will be as big as they can be this week as the low downforce will produce higher speeds but the concern is the heat that gets transferred to the bead on the tire which can cause the tires to go flat.
- Kevin Harvick is starting to move up in to the traction compound in Turns 2 & 3 and barely touched it in Turns 1 & 4 even though it’s lower than it was last year.
- Chase Elliott is having significant changes made to the race car and seven minutes into the session, they haven’t been on track just yet.
- Ricky Stenhouse is saying that exit of the corner isn’t good right now and he needs more balance in the car.
- Kyle Larson said that he feels like even though he’s on the brake on entry to the corner it’s not turning as much as it should be for him.
- A few different drivers are comparing themselves to Kyle Busch on the long run 10 minutes into the session as he’s been the fastest car to that point of the session and capped it off with a mock qualifying run.
- More drivers are getting into the PJ1 compound in the first set of corners now that Harvick has warmed it up.
- Once Elliott hit the track, he went to the top of the speed chart with 31 minutes left in the session.
- Martin Truex got better the longer he ran and was quite happy with the car.
- Daniel Suarez doesn’t like the tightness in the center of the corner and they’ve made several swings at improving it but it’s still not there yet.
- A number of drivers did very long runs in this session including Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch who did 25+ lap runs.
- Alex Bowman still doesn’t like how the car is turning in Turns 1&2 and wants it still a bit looser
- This aero package is similar to the 2018 package that was on the cars here.
- Denny Hamlin says the car is incredibly tight at the start of the run and frees up a bit as he runs but it’s too tight at the beginning.
- Phoenix has been a track that has ended very long race winless streaks historically including four of over 80 races.
- Ryan Newman was in the garage area helping the 6-car make adjustments and talking with Ross Chastain about data and telemetry notes.
- William Byron said his car got worse on one end of the track the longer he ran but did say he felt better about the car overall in his most recent run
- Kyle Busch says the only spot on the track that isn’t great is Turn 1 where the right rear slides and the car won’t turn but it does slide a bit in the other corners, just not as bad as Turn 1.
- Cole Custer is inside the top-10 on 10-lap and 15-lap averages with 11 minutes left in practice
- Brad Keselowski has the best 10-, 20-, 30-lap averages in this session with 8:30 to go in the session, though only four drivers have made 30-lap runs.
- Drivers got the feeling that the track slowed down towards the end of the session and Denny Hamlin was the only one in the PJ1 compound with six minutes left in practice.
- Kyle Larson went all four tires into the PJ1 by the start/finish line but there is a bunch of sand up there that could cause problems for handling.
- Alex Bowman says the adjustments they made were better and it’s in the ballpark though he did say it’s really loose and still not good but closer to raceable.
Opening Practice For FanShield 500
Phoenix Raceway
Friday, March 6 3:35 pm ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
86 degrees I Wind at 10 mph I 15% humidity
Penalized Drivers
No drivers were penalized this session
Top-20 Speeds (single lap)
Best Lap Averages
Items of Note:
- A lot of teams will be testing setups for the Championship race later this year.
- There are smaller spoilers on the cars this week in the 750 horsepower package as the spoilers were cut down by nearly six inches.
- Kyle Busch had to have an oil tank replaced this morning as there were leaks when it came off the hauler.
- Goodyear has supplied a new tire combination for this track that is trying to induce more fall off here.
- There will be PJ1 traction compound as well which will try and widen the Turn 4 and Turn 1 corner.
- Early in the run, the drivers aren’t getting into the traction compound in either set of corners since it has to warm up before it really gains traction.
- Alex Bowman says his car is really tight on throttle but frees up as he rolls it through the corners
- So far there are several drivers that have been sliding the cars through the corners as they get used to having a lot less downforce.
- Kurt Busch says he has no downforce or side force late on exit of Turn 2 and says the right rear is a bit too loose at the moment.
- Cole Custer is having a power steering issue when he has to turn the wheel from right back to left and it’s being fixed with 37 minutes left in the session.
- Kevin Harvick has been dominant here with the lower downforce packages and on his first run of the weekend he ran P3 on the speed charts.
- Austin Dillon wants it tighter in the middle and wants more drive off of the corners and those are related.
- Kyle Larson like his car on the second run of the practice saying about halfway through the session.
- Chase Elliott says he ran over something or something popped under his feet and then when getting back on the track he said the car is driving super bad and has zero drive when he turns and almost feels like the left rear is coming off the track.
- Jimmie Johnson has to be careful with how quickly he gets on to the throttle coming out of the corner as his car is a bit touchy at the moment with 15 minutes left in the session.
- Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson have suffered punctured right front tires and they were on the splitter at one point during their laps.
- Corey LaJoie brushed the right rear quarter panel on the wall coming off Turn 2.
- Denny Hamlin says his middle is too tight now but can afford to lose some tightness on entry to fix it.
- Towards the end of the session several times were working on hot pit road entries for timing purposes.
- William Byron and Erik Jones were the first two drivers to make mock qualifying runs late in the session. The time at the end of practice matched with when qualifying will happen on Saturday.
- Brad Keselowski jumped up to the top-three with a mock qualifying run after being in the middle of the pack most of the session.
- Early in the practice, William Byron brushed the wall coming off Turn 1 and just needs to get used to the sight lines here.