{"id":16362,"date":"2018-04-14T18:32:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-14T23:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=16362"},"modified":"2018-04-14T18:32:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-14T23:32:23","slug":"nascar-saturday-bristol-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/14\/nascar-saturday-bristol-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Bristol Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Crash in final practice knocks Kurt Busch off front row<\/b><\/p>\n

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Kurt Busch<\/strong> was a mere .002 seconds behind Kyle Busch<\/strong> in Friday\u2019s Monster Energy NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Haas Automation\/Monster Energy Ford, talks with a crew member during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 14, 2018 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

On Saturday, however, a wall came between the brothers, who no longer will start side-by-side on the front row for Sunday\u2019s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Up until the final 10 minutes of final practice, the weekend had gone nearly perfectly for Kurt Busch, who was set to be part of a 1-2 start with his pole-winning brother for the third time. Then, suddenly, it all fell apart.<\/p>\n

Busch was fourth fastest in Happy Hour, but on his 70th lap of the session, his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford lost traction in Turn 2, spun sideways, slid down the backstretch and nosed into the inside SAFER barrier near the entrance to Turn 3.<\/p>\n

With damage too severe to repair, Busch will be forced to start Sunday\u2019s race in a backup car. That also means dropping to the rear of the field before the green flag.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, gets into his car during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 14, 2018 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSorry, guys,\u201d Busch said on his radio after the wreck. \u201cI was just trying to get everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

After exiting the car, Busch provided a post-mortem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had 45 laps on the tires and was trying to get to 50, Busch explained. \u201cThe setup changes dramatically with air-pressure builds and the VHT (traction compound) changing, so I was just trying to do as much research as I could. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe lap times were really good in the car and then, boom, there\u2019s just no forgiveness right now with how many variables there are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crew chief Billy Scott was busy harvesting items to transfer from the primary car to the backup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (backup) car will be just as good,\u201d Scott said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to sort out all the parts and pieces to put on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

MICHAEL MCDOWELL\u2019S QUALIFYING EFFORT A STEP FORWARD FOR FRONT ROW<\/b><\/p>\n

Michael McDowell may not have qualified on the front row\u2014the Busch brothers did that\u2014but his ninth-place effort during Friday\u2019s time trials at Bristol Motor Speedway meant the world to Front Row Racing.<\/p>\n

The addition of McDowell to an organization that already included two-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series winner David Ragan seems to have formed a critical mass that is evident in the team\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

When McDowell takes the green flag in Sunday\u2019s Food City 500, he\u2019ll be well within sight of the leaders. McDowell\u2019s ninth-place qualifying run is a personal best at Bristol and the best-ever for Front Row.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking about that (Friday), about what it means to an organization like ours, a smaller organization,\u201d McDowell said after Saturday\u2019s first practice at Thunder Valley. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a confidence-builder. It gives you life inside the competitive side of things. It gives you hope, and it gives you a sense of accomplishment and gratification\u2026 and that there will be moments where you can capitalize.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, you build a season off those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another such moment occurred on Saturday, when Ragan, who had qualified 23rd, topped the speed chart in final practice.<\/p>\n

SHORT STROKES<\/b><\/p>\n

Kurt Busch\u2019s wreck wasn\u2019t the only issue for Stewart-Haas Racing. Kevin Harvick, who had to go to a backup car after crashing in opening practice on Friday, struggled through two practice sessions on Saturday, running 16th in the morning and 24th in Happy Hour.<\/p>\n

SHR teammate Clint Bowyer tangled with the No. 6 Ford of Trevor Bayne with roughly 10 minutes left in final practice, damaging the left front of his No. 14 Ford, but not severely enough to require a backup car.<\/p>\n

In cooler temperatures on Saturday morning, Kyle Larson led the day\u2019s first practice session at 129.004 mph, which exceeded Kyle Busch\u2019s pole-winning speed of 128.822 mph from Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Larson then spent most of final practice trying to rubber-in the top lane, where he prefers to run. Martin Truex Jr., who qualified 26th, was second fastest in Saturday\u2019s first practice at 128.952 mph.<\/p>\n

David Ragan paced final practice at 127.487 mph, followed by Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Crash in final practice knocks Kurt Busch off front row BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Kurt Busch was a mere .002 seconds behind Kyle Busch in Friday\u2019s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway. On Saturday, however, a wall came between the brothers, who no longer will start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[177,16],"class_list":["post-16362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MENCS_Bristol_KyBusch_041418.jpg?fit=3436%2C2286","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4fU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16362"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16367,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16362\/revisions\/16367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}