{"id":15260,"date":"2018-03-09T19:15:08","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T01:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15260"},"modified":"2018-03-11T12:19:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T17:19:27","slug":"nascar-friday-ism-raceway-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/09\/nascar-friday-ism-raceway-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday ISM Raceway Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports is back<\/b><\/p>\n

AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 That was the brief consensus when Jimmie Johnson shot to the top of the speed chart in the first round of Friday\u2019s knockout qualifying session at ISM Raceway.<\/p>\n

But the seven-time champion\u2019s stint at the front of the field was short-lived. In the second round, Johnson was 17th fastest and failed to advance to the final round.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 9, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Inexplicable? Hardly. <\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of look back to the amount of practice we had today. We only had 20 minutes practice because of the issues we had in Las Vegas, and I never had a chance to go out on scuffed tires to see what adjustments we had to make,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s car failed pre-race inspection three times at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and the team lost 30 minutes of practice time in the one session before qualifying on Friday. That left no time for the No. 48 Chevrolet team to make any runs on scuffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had two runs on stickers in practice, and we clearly dialed that part of the car in, and it would have been nice just to have a scuff run to go out and understand what exactly to do. I\u2019m very optimistic with the speed in the car in that first round and look forward to a full practice session or two (Saturday) and dial this Lowe\u2019s for Pros Chevy in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson needs a reason for optimism. He enters Sunday\u2019s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM) 29th in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points.<\/p>\n

BUBBA WALLACE SEARCHES FOR SPEED AFTER DISAPPOINTING RUN<\/b><\/p>\n

After a spectacular runner-up finish in the season-opening DAYTONA 500, Darrell \u201cBubba\u201d Wallace Jr. and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team have struggled to maintain that level of performance.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Darrell Wallace Jr., driver of the #43 Click n’ Close Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 9, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Wallace finished 32nd at Atlanta and 21st at Las Vegas. In Friday\u2019s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at ISM Raceway, he posted the 27th fastest lap and failed to advance to the second round.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we were trying to figure out, where our speed is,\u201d Wallace said after the session. \u201cA little frustrating, but it\u2019s not where you start, it\u2019s where you finish. I\u2019m trying to beat that into my head, but we get so far behind when we start back here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll go to work tomorrow on our Click N\u2019 Close Camaro ZL1 and see what we\u2019ve got, try to make some gains and get everything going. Just a little bit of a bummer. Wish we could have obviously gave it a shot for the second round, but we\u2019ll go have some fun (Saturday in practice).\u201d<\/p>\n

JUSTIN ALLGAIER NOTES SEAMLESS TRANSITION TO FLANGE-FIT BODY<\/b><\/p>\n

The good news about the flange-fit body in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year? As JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier put it, the transition from sheet metal bodies has been a smooth one.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Justin Allgaier, driver of the #7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet, talks to John Hunter Nemechek in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series DC Solar 200 at ISM Raceway on March 9, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Asked whether there were noticeable differences that accompanied the change, Allgaier said, \u201cAs far as the fundamentals go, no, not really.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do the same things when we go to the race track. The inspection line is the same, albeit probably a little bit harder if you\u2019re out of tolerance \u2026 it\u2019s harder to put yourself back into tolerance, because the bodies are not as pliable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the amount of bracing that we have is way different. We\u2019re kind of stuck in a box with where the braces have to be at. It puts it on the guys at the shop a lot more to have everything where it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASCAR\u2019s new Optical Scanning Station has put the onus on the race teams to make sure the bodies conform to the rules before they\u2019re unloaded at the race track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody\u2019s kind of going through that,\u201d Allgaier said. \u201cBut, for us, the one thing that\u2019s been nice is that the composite body has been pretty seamless, as far as just introducing it and rolling it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of work to make it seamless, but all the teams have put the effort and the time into it, and it seems like it\u2019s working out really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Early in Friday\u2019s first NASCAR Xfinity Series practice at ISM Raceway, the engine in Elliott Sadler\u2019s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet expired, trailing a plume of heavy smoke as the car slowed. Tied for the series lead with teammate Tyler Reddick after last week\u2019s Las Vegas race, Sadler will start Saturday\u2019s DC Solar 200 (4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) from the rear of the field because of the engine change.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Elliott Sadler, driver of the #1 Cessna Chevrolet, talks to Jamie McMurray, driver of the #42 DC Solar Chevrolet, in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series DC Solar 200 at ISM Raceway on March 9, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cNo warning at all from our side,\u201d Sadler said of the failure. \u201cWe\u2019ll go debrief and see what happened and go from there. It\u2019s just a fluke deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadler\u2019s crew had the new engine in place for final practice, and Sadler returned to the track 10 minutes into the session and posted the 11th fastest lap \u2026<\/p>\n

On his first lap in opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. smacked the outside wall in Turn 3 as the result of a brake issue in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. The heavy damage forced the team to roll out a backup car. As a result of the change, Stenhouse will start Sunday\u2019s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) from the rear of the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt OK going into Turn 1, and then going into Turn 3, something in the left front just kept locking up,\u201d Stenhouse said. \u201cHopefully, we\u2019ll go back and see what was wrong with it. Definitely not the way we wanted to start our weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Center Interviews:<\/h3>\n

Kevin Harvick – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joey Logano – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ISM_MENCS_Logano_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ryan Newman – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ISM_MENCS_Newman_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kyle Busch – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ISM_MENCS_KyBusch_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael McDowell – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ISM_MENCS_McDowell_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alex Bowman – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ISM_MENCS_Bowman_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier, Matt Tift and Brandon Jones – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ISM_NXS_Allgaier_Jones_Tifft_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Hendrick Motorsports is back AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 That was the brief consensus when Jimmie Johnson shot to the top of the speed chart in the first round of Friday\u2019s knockout qualifying session at ISM Raceway. But the seven-time champion\u2019s stint at the front of the field was short-lived. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[4],"tags":[561,16,562],"class_list":["post-15260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhra","tag-ism-raceway","tag-nascar","tag-ticket-guardian-500"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS_ISM_Elliott_Car_030918.jpg?fit=3876%2C2580&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3Y8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15273,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260\/revisions\/15273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}