Granted, practice speeds aren’t a guarantee of what will happen during the race, but they are the best indicator we have of which drivers have a handle on this current version of Kentucky Speedway. Kyle Busch dominated and won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kentucky on Friday night. We were way off in left field, so we worked hard all night long.
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Brad Keselowski continued his Kentucky mastery, milking his fuel in the final two laps and holding off a fast-closing Carl Edwards to win.
Truex rebounded from a pit road penalty earlier in the race to finish 10th. The 1.5-mile track was repaved with adjustment to the banking in turns 1 and 2 since 2015’s race. “Saved a little too much [fuel]”.
AJ Allmendinger will require precautionary x-rays after hitting the wall on lap 172, the JTG Daugherty driver having rejoined the race following extensive repairs after being caught up in the night’s biggest crash – a seven-car pile-up – 83 laps earlier.
Six cautions for crashes in the first 100 laps.
Given the 2014 champion’s consistency this season, Harvick seems likely to figure it out.
All things considered, I’m relying heavily on practices times when building my lineups.
“I think the low, low downforce package, if that’s what we’re calling it now, helped at this race on the repave”.
Rookie of the year leading contenders Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney crashed into one another . “I got loose and hit the wall about 10 laps before that and the vehicle got really loose when you tap the right-rear quarter over”. He came out of the care center with his wrist wrapped and said he would have X-rays later. Keselowski guided his Ford past Harvick’s Chevy on Lap 201 after the race record-tying 11th caution.
Keselowski’s gas tank was so empty that he couldn’t perform a celebratory burnout; his auto had to be pushed to victory lane by a safety truck.
The hurdle for Harvick, Dillon and others is conquering the dual juggernaut of Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing, whose drivers always seem to be in the mix at Kentucky. Was it a good race?
“I felt pretty good about it (fuel) until the 19 (Edwards) closed up on us”, he said.
Not everyone was pleased, though.
Despite crashing out of the Kentucky race, Elliott leads Ryan Newman (463), Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“Not fun”, he said when asked about the racing overall. Like any new coating of asphalt, only one groove developed, which meant precision was the key.
Sprint Cup runs at New Hampshire on Sunday, July 17 . Man, it’s hard to swallow that one.
“Unfortunately, I put us in a bad spot here”. He pointed out that with numerous crashes coming in “zero to five laps” after a caution, things got more complicated. “Hopefully we can head there with the same speed we had there last season where we had a really solid run”, said Bayne. “It’s really nobody’s fault”.
Races at Kentucky have typically been dominated by a single driver, and I don’t think that will change the first year of a new surface.
“The hard thing about repaves at some places is you can be overaggressive and slide up out of the groove, but here, you wind up knocking the side off the vehicle into the fence”.
Still, not everyone was questioning the conditions.
“We knew the fuel mileage, ” said Keselowski, who fast-pedaled his race vehicle to the front when race leader Matt Kenseth dropped off the pace with six laps to go and pitted for a last splash of gas. “I’d say it’s basically like starting over”.
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Particularly perilous throughout the race were the flatter of the two corners -Turns 3 and 4 – with the entry to Turn 3 especially daunting.
