Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Category: Race Central

Race Central Stories

DiBenedetto Earns First Top-10 Finish

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Matt DiBenedetto was teary-eyed following his top-10 finish at Thunder Valley.

The driver of the No. 83 BK Racing Toyota earned his career best sixth-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“I’m sorry I’m so speechless – just I’m so thankful to everybody on this team, everybody at BK Racing, Cosmo Motors in Hickory, North Carolina – they’re local to me, he’s my best friend, sell some awesome cars, please check them out – everyone at BK Racing, Dustless Blasting,” DiBenedetto said. “These guys, man – that’s unbelievable for a team like to us to be growing this much and for us to get a sixth-place run – I’m sorry I’m so emotional, it’s just this is like a win for us. I am so excited. I see my family back here – my wife, Taylor, my brother is in town from the military and I’m so glad he got to experience this. This is just – this is incredible. I’m so blessed to be here.”

It’s the first top-10 for the second year driver out of Grass Valley, California and first top-10 finish for the fledgling BK Racing organization.

“A sixth-place finish for BK Racing and for all my guys, this is like a win for us,” DiBenedetto added. “I apologize for being so emotional, but this is an incredible run. I can’t thank my team enough, my crew chief Gene Need and everyone on this team for working so hard and busting their tails for me to be able to drive this race car in the Sprint Cup Series. This is such an honor and I’m so thankful to all the sponsors – Dustless Blasting, Cosmo Motors, Dr. Pepper and I know I’m forgetting people. Thank you to the fans most importantly – they are so great and so supportive. I’m just really thankful to be here, this was a great day.”

The finish moves DiBenedetto up to 30th in points.

April 17, 2016
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Overcomes Early Misstep to Finish Runner-Up

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to overcome a loss of power and loss of laps to come home runner-up at Thunder Valley.

After making an unscheduled stop on lap 1 for lack of power and falling two laps down, the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet rallied back to a second-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Yeah, we got the Roush system on our cars for the stuck‑throttle issue, and just warming the brakes up, I engaged that system to kill the throttle,” Earnhardt said. “I was warming the brakes up like I always do, and apparently I applied too much pressure and it killed the motor.

“We’ll work on that and maybe raise that threshold a little bit because I wasn’t really using the brake that much.

“So I just needed to cycle the ECU, reset that, came to pit road and did that. I probably could’ve done it on the track and saved ourselves a lot of trouble, but you don’t know what’s going on at that particular point, and you listen to the first thing anybody tells you when it comes to direction, and the first thing that my spotter said was that if I need to pit, I need to come on now. We got on pit road, cycled it, lost a couple laps. Greg did a good job getting the wave‑arounds and knowing when to take them and stuff, and we got back on the lead lap. We had about a 10th‑place car. We weren’t really that good all day. We tried a setup that we’ve never really ran here before, just trying to learn a little something going forward, and we’ll go home and science it out a little bit.

“We got real lucky the last three restarts to be on the outside line. We restarted 10th, 6th and 4th, and when you restart 4th you’re typically going to come out in second place after that. I was hoping we didn’t have any more cautions after that. So it was good. We’ll take it.”

This runner-up finish is his second consecutive second-place finish this season after a runner-up the week before in Texas.

“Well, I hope the second comes a little easier than this one did,” Earnhardt said. “I’d love to get a win. We weren’t really as close today as we were last week. We had a really good car last week, a top‑3 car. This car wasn’t that good, but we kind of understand why. We’re going outside the box as far as what we typically run here for setup.

“And that’s good. You didn’t ‑‑ the setup didn’t quite work but you still had a good day and you can go home and learn and try to science it out and make that setup work. I like finishing good, and that’s going to help us get into the Chase pretty comfortably if we don’t have any major issues, but we certainly want to win. Going to victory lane is important to our sponsors, and it’s obviously fun. But it’s good for our team to set ourselves up to not have to worry about the Chase anymore. Even though you know you’re a top‑5 team or top‑10 team that should make the Chase without any issue, you can’t help but count them points to 16th or 17th each week.”

Earnhardt leaves Bristol sixth in points trailing new points leader Kevin Harvick by 37.

April 17, 2016
Carl Edwards Tops the Field in Thunder Valley

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Carl Edwards led over half the race on his way to scoring the victory at Thunder Valley.

The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 276 of the 500 laps on his way to winning the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It’s his 26th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series and fourth at Bristol.

“There were so many different things happening out there,” Edwards said. “Different guys were fast at different times. I have to work on my drag racing stuff, Kurt (Busch) has those restarts figured out. He was tough. Just awesome. This is a real testament to my team. The guys have been working really hard. We’ve got Comcast Business folks here and they helped put this whole thing together with ARRIS and Toyota, TRD, Stanley – all the folks that made this 19 team happen. Just great and so awesome. Thanks to Sprint and Cessna and all the folks that make this happen. Now we’re in the Chase and we can go have some fun. Just so cool, awesome to be here.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. overcame an issue with a loss of power after making an unscheduled stop on the first lap and finished runner-up in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“We had a lot of luck on those last several restarts,” Earnhardt said. “You start on the outside and just gain some spots just being on the right lane. We didn’t have a good enough car to run in the top-five today, but Greg (Ives, crew chief) and those guys did a great job getting our laps back. We had a dead battery at the start of the race; something bad like that, same thing I think happened to the No. 22. That cost us two laps early in the race and we worked real hard. Greg did a great job helping us get our laps back. The car was about a 15th or 10th-place car. We were just lucky on those restarts as to where we lined up. And that really helped us.”

Kurt Busch led 41 laps to round out the podium in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

“We just battled through it,” Busch said. “Junior had trouble at the start and I was 40th when we started the race. One car at a time. One set of tires at a time. And then we were in great position around lap 350. We got the lead from Edwards for a little bit. And we just kept working on it. And there’s nothing more that I could have gotten out of the car. I’m really happy with the way that everybody worked together. I shouldn’t be happy about finishing third, but I’ll take it. It’s just a great effort. And the way that this team has come together is perfect. We just need to find that last little bit.”

Chase Elliott finished fourth in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet.

“The guys brought a fast car here this weekend,” Elliott said. “Started off a little slow. I didn’t qualify as well as we wanted to on Friday, but we hit on a couple of things, I thought, right there towards the end of final practice yesterday that we really liked. Fortunately that carried over to today and I was able to move forward. I hated to have a loose wheel, but stuff happens. The guys did a good job having a good pit stop under green. We only ended up losing two laps and that gave us a shot to get back. One down, and then trying to get back to the lead lap. It was a long day but I’m definitely proud of the effort. We’re chipping away, just not close enough.”

Trevor Bayne overcame a commitment line violation to round out the top-five with his second career top-five finish in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

“It was a lot of battling back,” Bayne said. “We went through a lot of adversity to get there, but we just didn’t give up. We had a really good race car. That’s what paid off. You can’t come back if you make mistakes and get back to a top-five finish. I kept getting on the bottom on restarts every time, but it came back me at the end. We were able to start on the top those last three and that’s really what got us in the top-five.”

Matt DiBenedetto earned his first career top-10 finish with a sixth-place finish in his No. 83 BK Racing Toyota.

“I’m sorry I’m so speechless – just I’m so thankful to everybody on this team, everybody at BK Racing, Cosmo Motors in Hickory, North Carolina – they’re local to me, he’s my best friend, sell some awesome cars, please check them out – everyone at BK Racing, Dustless Blasting,” DiBenedetto said. “These guys, man – that’s unbelievable for a team like to us to be growing this much and for us to get a sixth-place run – I’m sorry I’m so emotional, it’s just this is like a win for us. I am so excited. I see my family back here – my wife, Taylor, my brother is in town from the military and I’m so glad he got to experience this. This is just – this is incredible. I’m so blessed to be here.”

Kevin Harvick led 13 laps on his way to a seventh-place finish in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet.

“Yeah, it was definitely the biggest challenge for us…We had the speed but it seemed like every restart we were just struggling to make ground on the restart and by the time you get to two or three spots back, you battle back to where you were and then the caution would come out again,” Harvick said. “But there’s nothing you can do about that. We raced hard all day and we’ll go to the next one.”

Clint Bowyer earned his first top-10 finish of the season with an eighth-place finish in his No. 15 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet. Ryan Newman finished ninth in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Joey Logano led four laps on his way to rounding out the top-10 in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

“We fought hard and we got all the way back, and then the car just shut off there at the end for some reason,” Logano said. “We’ve got to figure that out a little bit, but I just hate it because I feel like we’ve got a car that’s capable of winning this thing and every time we come here in the spring it’s the same story. We had a fast car and we just blow it somehow.”

Aric Almirola, who finished 34th after a late-race wreck, was called to the NASCAR hauler for “not following proper race protocol” when he refused to get out of his car.

The race lasted three hours, 15 minutes and 52 seconds at an average speed of 81.637 mph. There were 16 lead changes among seven different drivers and 15 cautions for 102 laps.

Kevin Harvick leaves Bristol as the points leader.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/C1608_UNOFFRES.pdf”]

April 17, 2016
Erik Jones Steals One in Thunder Valley

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Erik Jones got a great restart in the closing laps and passed the leader to score the victory at Thunder Valley.

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota passed to the outside of Kyle Larson with three laps to go to win the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It’s the third win in the XFINITY Series for the 19-year-old rookie out of Byron, Michigan.

“I don’t know, we had a really good restart there,” Jones said. “The 18 hadn’t been getting going. I lost my voice because I’ve been screaming so much on the cooldown lap. We got a really good restart and Kyle just left the top open and we went up there and he worked pretty hard to keep us behind him. We just kept digging and it worked out. Just an awesome feeling. I never thought we’d get our first win here at Bristol this year.

“I figured at some point in the year we could get a win when those guys weren’t in the field, but it would be a tall task with them in the field. Here at Bristol for those two guys, this is one of their best tracks. I’m just so excited and you can tell, I’m out of breath. I wasn’t working that hard. Just so excited about the win and to be here in victory lane and beat those guys. This is a really big day for us.”

Kyle Busch led 43 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in his No. 18 JGR Toyota.

“When I went to the gas on the last two restarts, it just didn’t accelerate,” Busch said. “I lost all my acceleration and those guys were just gone. I didn’t even have a chance. Jones cleared me by the time we got to Turn 1, that’s how bad it was.

“I ran too low for a lap and Erik got to my outside. I tried to slide him into (Turn) 1 and I was hoping he’d make a mistake and I’d get another shot at him in 3, but I just ran into the side of him. I did a really poor job the last two laps and I just blame myself.”

Larson, who led the most laps at 94, was edged out by Busch at the line and settled for rounding out the podium. Austin Dillon finished fourth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

“This was definitely a different race today,” Austin said. “It was interesting to have the heat races. The No. 2 Rheem Chevrolet was really strong for the second heat race. Danny (Stockman, crew chief) and the guys had the handling dialed in for me. After the heat race, a lot of rubber was laid down and the handling for the main changed. I got pretty tight in the center of the corners but with only 200 laps, it’s hard to make adjustments. I’m proud of the No. 2 team. We have some things we’re going to try next week at Richmond that I’m pretty excited about.”

Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-five in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

Daniel Suárez finished sixth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Ty Dillon finished seventh in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.

“That was definitely a tough finish at the end,” Ty said. “I’m disappointed the way it turned out. We had a lot faster car than a seventh-place finish. It was difficult to pass and make a move today, unless you could really race the bottom of the track. I enjoyed the heat racing today, but wish we were there at the end to have a chance to win the Dash4Cash.”

Kevin Harvick finished eighth in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet. Joey Logano finished ninth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Aric Almirola rounded out the top-10 in his No. 98 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.

“We struggled,” Almirola said. “We were off on our balance. We did all of our practice in the morning yesterday and the track was never really the same today. That’s good though because I felt like I learned quite a bit that will help me tomorrow and we’ll go from there. All in all, it was a pretty good day for us…We qualified in the top-10 and pretty much raced in the top-10 all day, so I’m proud of that.”

The race lasted one hour, eight minutes and 10 seconds at an average speed of 93.829 mph. There were 10 lead changes among four different drivers and three cautions for 29 laps.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/N1607_UNOFFRES.pdf”]

April 16, 2016
Hamlin Fastest in Final Practice

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Denny Hamlin topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 15.213 and a speed of 126.129 mph. Chase Elliott was second in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 15.250 and a speed of 125.823 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was third in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 15.259 and a speed of 125.749 mph. Carl Edwards was fourth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.266 and a speed of 125.691 mph. Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 18 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.302 and a speed of 125.395 mph.

Jimmie Johnson will start sixth in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick will start seventh in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Kyle Larson will start eighth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne will start ninth in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-10 in his No. 20 JGR Toyota.

Larson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 124.657 mph. Busch was second at an average speed of 124.561 mph.

All that remains for the Sprint Cup Series is to run the Food City 500 tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. ET.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/C1608_PRACFINAL.pdf”]

April 16, 2016
Jones on the Pole in XFINITY at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Erik Jones will lead the field to the green flag for this afternoon’s XFINITY Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 with a time of 15.239 and a speed of 125.914 mph. It’s his fifth career pole in the XFINITY Series and second of 2016.

Austin Dillon qualified second in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.284 and a speed of 125.543 mph. Kyle Larson qualified third in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.337 and a speed of 125.109 mph. Daniel Suárez qualified fourth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.347 and a speed of 125.028 mph. Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 18 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.355 and a speed of 124.963 mph.

Joey Logano qualified sixth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Justin Allgaier qualified seventh in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Aric Almirola qualified eighth in his No. 98 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. Brandon Jones qualified ninth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet. Ty Dillon rounded out the top-10 in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.

Ross Chastain qualified 11th in his No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick rounded out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet.

Carl Long and Morgan Shepherd were the two drivers that did not qualify.

Next up for the XFINITY Series will be the two heat races with race 1 at 12:30 p.m. and race 2 at 1:30, all times ET.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/N1607_HEAT1STARTROW.pdf”]

April 16, 2016
Kyle Busch Fastest in Second Practice at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Kyle Busch topped the chart in second Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was fastest in the second practice session with a time of 15.184 and a speed of 126.370 mph.

Chase Elliott was second in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 15.196 and a speed of 126.253 mph. Kurt Busch was third in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.212 and a speed of 126.137 mph. Aric Almirola was fourth in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford with a time of 15.230 and a speed of 125.988 mph. Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.232 and a speed of 125.972 mph.

Joey Logano was sixth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Casey Mears was seventh in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet. Matt Kenseth was eighth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Kasey Kahne was ninth in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. Ryan Newman rounded out the top-10 in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Kyle Busch posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 125.569 mph. Edwards was second at an average speed of 124.762 mph.

The Sprint Cup Series is back on track this morning at 11 a.m. ET for final practice.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/C1608_PRAC2.pdf”]

April 16, 2016
The White Zone: The bottom line is the way around Bristol again…for now

BRISTOL, Tenn.– “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and after the first day of race activity at Thunder Valley, It appears the bottom line is the way around Bristol again.

After one day of practice and qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway, a number of things are noticeably different than in previous years. To start, the Sprint Cup Series cars are running around the bottom at Bristol. Since the top lane was grounded out back in the summer of 2012, the fast way around the track has been the high line up against the wall.

During final practice for the XFINITY Series, the cars were running the against the wall again. But during Sprint Cup Series qualifying, everyone way hugging the bottom.

During his media availability earlier today, I asked Carl Edwards why everyone was running the bottom line when the top had been the norm and he said he wasn’t sure why.

“There might be some slight differences with the Goodyear tires, but probably the best reason or most likely reason for that is that we haven’t put a lot of rubber down on the track yet and it just seems like this place moves around a lot,” he added. “We talked about it in practice, I don’t think that the race will be run on the bottom like that. I think it will really widen out, but I don’t know when it will happen. I don’t know if it will happen today or all the way where we might have to wait until Sunday for it.”

“I think you are going to see cars wherever the grip is,” Chase Elliott said. “If the grip is up top that is where you are going to see them and if it’s around the bottom that is where it’s going to be. The way the races have gone here the past few years, I’m sure, maybe not today or tomorrow, but definitely Sunday and I would expect by tomorrow afternoon you will see everybody up to if I had to guess.”

I have to believe that the low-downforce package is playing a part in these cars hugging the bottom, although the drivers I’ve spoken to today can’t say for sure.

When asked how the package will affect Bristol, Elliott said he thinks “you might see some difference. I don’t know, as you said, being a half-mile racetrack I’m not sure just how much it will play a role. Looking back to Martinsville, I do think on the braking side of things you didn’t have as much downforce and as much drag helping you get stopped, whereas here you have a lot of the banking to catch you. I don’t know that you will see a big difference in that this weekend.”

Cars running against the wall the last many years has been among the biggest complaints fans have lumped at Bristol since the surface was revamped into a progressive banking surface. Now that cars are running the bottom this time around and if this continues through the weekend, those of you who’ve begged and pleaded for a return to “old Bristol” may finally get your wish.

My plane is about to take off, so I must get going. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. You can be fined up to a thousand dollars for whistling on Sunday in Salt Lake City.

*The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author. They may or may not represent the views of SpeedwayMedia.com.

April 15, 2016
Edwards Grabs the Pole for Sunday’s Race at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Carl Edwards will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday at Thunder Valley.

The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway with a time of 14.991 and a speed of 127.997 mph. This is his 18th career pole in 417 starts in the Sprint Cup Series.

He described taking the pole position as, “Just awesome, what Comcast Business does is they find solutions for complex problems and this place is really complicated and my guys did a really good job making the car drive well on all different segments. When you’re driving in the corner and these things take off and slide and Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and everybody did a really great job. It’s really cool to get this pole.”

Defending race winner Matt Kenseth will start second in his No. 20 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 15.059 and a speed of 127.419 mph.

“We were just a little off,” Kenseth said. “These guys did a great job with our Dollar General Camry today. Obviously, all of the JGR cars were fast again so thanks to everyone who’s building these things and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) with the engines. In the first round we were pretty good we thought and then the second round we tried something and we were too tight and then the third round we were a little too loose really. We were just that much off, but overall it was a great day and we’ll still get a good pit stop and a good place to start and hopefully we’ll get it driving good tomorrow and we can race them on Sunday.”

Joey Logano will start third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 15.086 and a speed of 127.191 mph.

“It’s always exciting qualifying here at Bristol,” Logano said. “I’m not sure I’m holding my breath, but I’m breathing really hard when I’m done, so I’m thinking I probably do hold my breath. Things happen so quick around this race track and we’ve got a really good AutoTrader Fusion. We were close. We won the first session. We were second in the second session and in the third session we were third, so we just kept losing a little bit. Overall, I’m proud of the effort and it’s obviously a decent starting spot for a 500-lap race.”

Denny Hamlin will start fourth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 15.132 and a speed of 126.804 mph.

“The car has good speed and that’s one good thing about it,” Hamlin said. “The FedEx Freight car has really had good speed all day. Those last two rounds definitely didn’t go the way we had hoped – the track changed a little bit there and we didn’t quite keep up with it. Overall, pretty happy with the effort. That will get us a good pit stall hopefully and we can have a smooth 500 laps around here Sunday.”

Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five starters in his No. 18 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 15.162 and a speed of 126.553 mph.

“We’re alright, the second round was really good and not sure what happened in the third round,” Busch said. “Just missed the speed we were looking for and got real loose on entry. Didn’t make up a whole lot of time from the loose on entry on the exit.”

Jimmie Johnson will start sixth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“I’m excited about how comfortable the car has been, the speed that we have had in it,” Johnson said. “Practice sessions can be quite frustrating for us here and qualifying sessions. To be off to a good, calm, smooth, fast start is really good for us.”

Kevin Harvick will start seventh in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

“I’m really happy with where we qualified as bad as it drove on entry,” Harvick said. “We just had a loose into the corner that we hadn’t really expected. They made some good adjustments and we were able to salvage a decent position and get a good spot. Hopefully, we will make it better than it was in race trim in practice tomorrow.”

Martin Truex Jr. will start eighth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. AJ Allmendinger will start ninth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.

“Overall, just getting better in all of qualifying,” Allmendinger said. “We have made the second round every race so far, which heck, we weren’t even close to that last year. I think we have made the third round at least close to half. It’s a big deal. We are just getting more speed in the cars, trying to learn how to get through these three rounds of qualifying. The guys that do it every weekend they know what tire pressure, what to do to keep up with the race track as the tires go off. There are definitely a couple of cars that are way quick, but to be top 10 at Bristol in qualifying is a huge deal. Everybody gets lapped pretty quickly here, so hopefully we can stay up front and keep working on the car. We have some room to improve for sure. It’s getting good.”

Trevor Bayne rounded out the top-10 qualifiers in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

“That’s a pleasant surprise for our race team,” Bayne said. “Coming to a short track we know that’s not our strongest suit, especially in qualifying when you’re asking the most out of the race car. Normally, we can make the long run speed, but to have short run speed and get a good qualifying spot here at Bristol is a big deal. Track position is always huge. Starting 10th, we’re on the outside lane. As the race progresses you definitely want to be on the outside on restarts. I’m just really proud of this team. Last year, I would have been throwing a party right now if we were top 10 in qualifying here. The fact that I’m not jumping around and acting crazy is that we’re getting immune to running well and that’s a good thing. We keep pushing that needle every week. Last week was one of our strongest runs that we’ve had all season, and I thought we had a top-5 car, so to come to Bristol and keep building on that and have consistency to be able to do it every week and not be so hit or miss, it’s come a long way for this AdvoCare team and I can’t be more proud of my guys.”

Kasey Kahne will start 11th in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. Brad Keselowski rounded out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 2 Penske Ford.

During round 1, Ty Dillon got loose exiting turn 2, slid down the track and slammed into the rear of Landon Cassill’s car.

When asked if he could’ve avoided being hit, Cassill said he “wasn’t looking in my mirror. If I would have seen a car sideways at the right time, I probably would have tried to speed up. I don’t know how much that could have helped me, but it’s bad timing on my part, I guess.”

Neither will go to a backup car.

“It’s quite a bit of damage to the right-rear,” Cassill said. “It’s gonna be a lot of work for the guys to fix it, but it’s pretty much just cosmetic, so we’ll get it fixed, I think.”

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/C1608_STARTROW.pdf”]

April 15, 2016
Koch Fastest in Final XFINITY Practice at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn.– Blake Koch topped the chart in final XFINITY Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 15.516 and a speed of 123.666 mph.

Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 123.364 mph. Austin Dillon was third in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.555 and a speed of 123.356 mph. Jeb Burton was fourth in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford with a time of 15.579 and a speed of 123.166 mph. Erik Jones rounded out the top-five in his No. 20 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.612 and a speed of 122.905 mph.

Kyle Larson was sixth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Ty Dillon was seventh in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet. Daniel Suárez was eighth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Elliott Sadler was ninth in his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Joey Logano rounded out the top-10 in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

Busch posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 122.007 mph. Jones was second at an average speed of 121.940 mph. Larson was third at an average speed of 121.761 mph.

The XFINITY Series will be back on track tomorrow morning at 9:30 for pole qualifying.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/N1607_PRACFINAL.pdf”]

April 15, 2016