{"id":21344,"date":"2018-08-18T21:19:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T02:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=21344"},"modified":"2018-08-18T21:24:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T02:24:36","slug":"nascar-saturday-bristol-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/18\/nascar-saturday-bristol-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Bristol Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Kyle Larson sees a future of \u201cKyle, Kyle and Chris\u201d shows<\/b><\/p>\n

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Kyle Larson was well aware something was missing when he took the checkered flag in Friday night\u2019s Food City 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Larson, driver of the #42 DC Solar Chevrolet, poses with the trophy in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 17, 2018 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

That something was Kyle Busch.<\/p>\n

Starting from the pole, Busch led the first 69 laps of the race but slammed the Turn 3 wall on Lap 70\u2014the eventual result of a brush with the Turn 2 wall on Lap 66\u2014and exited the race with a broken front suspension.<\/p>\n

Larson took over after that and rolled home with the win in overtime, with Xfinity Series leader Christopher Bell close behind.<\/p>\n

But Larson would rather have beaten Busch at the finish as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish he could have been in the field,\u201d Larson said after the race. \u201cHe checked out that one run, but I was closing on him there at the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like Bell was just as good, if not better than Kyle. It was good to battle Chris and still get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson and Bell are long-time competitors in open-wheel events on dirt, and Larson is looking forward to his rival\u2019s ascension to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series\u2014perhaps as much as Bell is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun,\u201d Larson said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s been the Kyle and Kyle show at a lot of these places, but with Chris\u2019s driving style, I feel like it\u2019s going to be the Kyle, Kyle and Chris show at a lot of these places, especially at Bristol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for him to get his Cup opportunity, whenever that might arise. It\u2019s always fun racing Chris and Kyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

ROUSH FENWAY\u2019S NO. 60 CAR TRYING TO OUTLIVE APPARENT \u201cCURSE\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

You have to feel sorry for crew chief Mike Kelley, who is tasked with preparing the No. 60 Roush Fenway Ford for a trio of young Xfinity Series drivers\u2014Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric and Ty Majeski.<\/p>\n

No matter which young gun is driving the No. 60 Mustang, the car can\u2019t seem to avoid trouble, often through no fault of the drivers.<\/p>\n

Cindric was behind the wheel in the season-opening race at Daytona and crashed out in last place after 10 laps, the first of eight DNFs for the No. 60 this season. All told, the car has sustained damage in 17 of 22 races and has finished on the lead lap just seven times.<\/p>\n

Majeski owns the best finish in the car this year, a seventh at Iowa, but that came after he crashed out in his first three races in the 60.<\/p>\n

On Friday night at Bristol, with Briscoe driving, bad karma (or maybe it should be \u201ccarma\u201d) once again struck the star-crossed Mustang. Racing side-by-side with Ross Chastain, Briscoe washed up into Chastain\u2019s car and nosed into the inside wall, ending his race after 142 laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got racing with the 4 (Chastain) really hard,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cI\u2019m all for hard racing, but it\u2019s just frustrating when he lets four guys in a row go.  We were faster than him and just kept hitting on him and hitting on him. I just kept trying to pass him on the inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could never clear him, and I just got tight underneath him and drove up the race track a little bit and got my right-front up into him and spun out and hit the inside wall. It\u2019s definitely frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate it for all the 60 guys. They\u2019ve had to work on a lot of race cars this year. I felt like we had decent speed tonight and maybe could have contended for a top-10, but the day got cut short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the history, perhaps it\u2019s time to do what you do when an old girlfriend won\u2019t stop calling\u2014change the number.<\/p>\n

MARTIN TRUEX JR. EXPECTS TO HAVE 2019 PLANS IN FOCUS SOON<\/b><\/p>\n

The most striking aspect of Martin Truex Jr.\u2019s question-and-answer session with reporters on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway was that the reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion\u2019s status for 2019 is still in limbo.<\/p>\n

With the announced departure of sponsor 5-hour Energy, Furniture Row Racing has open inventory on the hood of Truex\u2019s No. 78 Toyota, which also receives support from NASCAR perennial Bass Pro Shops\/Tracker Boats and Auto-Owners Insurance.<\/p>\n

Truex is in a contract year and has yet to re-sign with Furniture Row, which in turn has yet to re-up its manufacturer deal with Toyota.<\/p>\n

Asked to estimate the percentage chance he will return to Furniture Row next season, Truex replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s hard to put a number on. Honestly, I really don\u2019t know. I think in another week or two I\u2019ll have a better answer for you. Better percentage \u2013 right now, we need sponsorship, and that\u2019s as simple as it gets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say. Is there a 50 percent chance we get that in a couple weeks or 100 percent chance or two percent? I don\u2019t know. I can tell you that everything is based upon that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear, though, that Truex would prefer to remain with team owner Barney Visser and crew chief Cole Pearn, even though rumors of other options already have begun to circulate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m starting to hear rumors,\u201d Truex acknowledged. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of how it works in this sport. I\u2019ve been in this position before. I\u2019ve got a great team\u2014Barney has done a lot for my career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we all want to keep going and just need a little bit of time to let the dominoes fall into place and see if we can keep it going. And, if not, I have to figure it out from there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson sees a future of \u201cKyle, Kyle and Chris\u201d shows BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Kyle Larson was well aware something was missing when he took the checkered flag in Friday night\u2019s Food City 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. That something was Kyle Busch. Starting from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":21346,"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-21344","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\/08\/357374.jpg?fit=4512%2C3272","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5yg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21344","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21347,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21344\/revisions\/21347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}