The Richard Childress Racing fleet of cars had one goal for the morning session on Friday – full-out qualifying mode. They would tape the grill right up, bypass the oil cooler and do all those wonderful things they do just for qualifying. As a result, they led the speed charts with the top two speeds.
Jeff Burton led the way with a lap of 194.805 mph with teammate Kevin Harvick second at a speed of 193.557 mph.
Matt Kenseth continued his learning curve with Joe Gibbs Racing as he was third on the charts, four tenths off of Burton. Burton’s teammate Paul Menard and Roush Fenway driver Greg Biffle rounded out the top five.
Kyle Busch was sixth, followed by Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick and Austin Dillon.
Meanwhile, Dave Blaney would run into trouble as he would get loose coming out of turn two (oil, debris), getting into the outside wall. It marked the end of testing for the Tommy Baldwin Racing as they do not have a back-up car yet due to the lack of inventory in parts.
“A couple other guys thought they had a tire going down in one or two, but I guess it was like some oil,” Baldwin said. “The way he hit, the nose was hit and it needs a side. We’ll take it back and re-evaluate things…..This is definitely going to set us back. Chevrolet has been good with the parts so we’ll be ready. It’s just going to set us back a bit.”
A second caution flew when Kevin Harvick was smoking, but there was nothing leaking. The smoke was as a result of bypassing the oil cooler in qualifying trim.
Jeff Gordon also had a bit of a scare when the car snapped loose while he was on track by himself. Gordon was 12th on the speed chart.
Gordon’s teammate Jimmie Johnson will not participate in drafting, as per crew chief Chad Knaus. They are using their back-up car for testing at Daytona and will have a better car for the 500. Johnson was 27th on the speed chart.
According to Dale Earnhardt Jr., he says the company is behind where they thought they’d be so they have a lot of work to do. His team has a list that will last till 5pm on Saturday.
“We’re just making some changes – you try something, take it off if it doesn’t work, leave it on if it works and move on to the next thing.”
While some teams are going through the checklist, other teams are being conservative as Truex stated that he will be quicker once the car is taped up and in total qualifying trim.
“We actually have had a good test so far,” Truex said. “We’ve learned quite a bit. We haven’t gained or lost a lot of speed. It’s been a good day.The car has good speed in it……It has a lot left in it – we’re being conservative.”
Some teams have changed motors as Dillon took out his motor to run Burton’s motor to see if their times are close on track. Dillon will run the Las Vegas race later this season after Daytona as James Finch announced Dillon will be behind the wheel of the No. 51. Tag Heuer will be the sponsor.
Some teams also spent time getting to know each other, as rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. works with crew chief Scott Graves, who worked as an engineer last year with Carl Edwards in the Nationwide Series.
“He’s very methodical, very smart, worked a lot at Roush in the R&D section with this Gen 6 car,” Stenhouse Jr. said of Graves. “He’s quiet.”
The teams spent the morning testing single-car runs, as most discussed interest to do drafting in the afternoon session.
“We sit here, wait for that computer to calculate that last run and switch some decimals,” Bowyer said. “Then when that smart guy – usually he’s little – plugs his laptop in. Then we go out and do those two exhilarating laps and then come back in.”
Bowyer says that they also talk to the media about last season – noting that it doesn’t matter how his friendship goes with Gordon following their altercation.
Testing continues Friday afternoon and Saturday as teams continue learning.
