{"id":15923,"date":"2018-04-07T16:41:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T21:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15923"},"modified":"2018-04-07T16:41:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T21:41:34","slug":"nascar-saturday-texas-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/07\/nascar-saturday-texas-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Texas Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick enters a cell phone-free zone at Augusta National<\/strong><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 With the current emphasis on staying connected through social media, it\u2019s hard to find a cell phone-free zone, but that\u2019s what Kevin Harvick<\/strong> encountered during a Thursday visit to the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light Ford, stands in the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 6, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Cell phones aren\u2019t allowed on the course during tournament rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking about the trip this morning,\u201d Harvick told the NASCAR Wire Service after qualifying second for Sunday\u2019s O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). \u201cEverything around here is about trying to figure out who\u2019s better on social media and connect on social media. And (there) they take your phone away.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t get on the property with your phone, and nobody\u2019s worried about taking pictures. Everybody is engaged in the event and it\u2019s sold out every day. That\u2019s intriguing, just because of the fact of how everybody else is thinking in every other sport. It\u2019s one of those niche situations. It\u2019s outside of reality. It\u2019s refreshing. You don\u2019t even think about it because you don\u2019t have it \u2013 that being your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

With three professional golfers under his management umbrella \u2013 Jason Gore, James Hahn and Chesson Hadley \u2013 Harvick has a bested interest in the sport. In a global sense, he believes Chase Elliott could impact NASCAR racing the way Tiger Woods moves the needle in golf \u2013 provided Elliott can string together some victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy that has the most potential is Chase Elliott with the traditional NASCAR fans,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cIt\u2019s just like when (we) talk; you have to win. There\u2019s a difference between a superstar and a megastar. In the past, a superstar wasn\u2019t a megastar because of the fact that he didn\u2019t win enough. Chase Elliott is the next guy that can be a megastar \u2013 but you have to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

HOPING TO BREAK DROUGHT, JIMMIE JOHNSON FINDS SPEED AT TEXAS<\/strong><\/p>\n

If ever there were a track where Jimmie Johnson could be expected to break out of his current funk, Texas Motor Speedway would certainly be a likely candidate.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Crew members push the #48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet, driven by Jimmie Johnson (not pictured), during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 6, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

After all, the seven-time champion is a record seven-time winner at the 1.5-mile speedway. And even though Friday\u2019s qualifying session was halted by the threat of lightning and limited to one round, Johnson was encouraged that he had found speed in his car.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the case when the team unloaded the No. 48 Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off and struggled pretty bad,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI think the track was just really far off from what we anticipated. At the very end of (opening) practice, things started going much better for us and popped off a decent lap there (in the first round of qualifying) and making good gains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those gains were apparent in Saturday\u2019s first practice, too. In cold conditions after a drastic overnight drop in temperature, Johnson was fourth fastest in the session at 198.639 mph.<\/p>\n

In final practice, Johnson ran just three laps, but his third one was the fastest of the session at 198.143 mph.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a welcome omen, given that Johnson hasn\u2019t led a lap yet this year. In fact, the seven-time champ has led laps in only two of the last 25 races (five at Dover and 24 at Martinsville last year).<\/p>\n

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. TO BACKUP CAR AFTER CRASH IN PRACTICE<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the third time this season and the second event in a row, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will start from the rear of the field in a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race after crashing in practice and going to a backup car.<\/p>\n

Early in Saturday\u2019s first practice session, after running his fastest lap of the day, Stenhouse veered into the outside wall, damaging his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford beyond repair. The accident mirrored incidents at ISM Raceway in Phoenix and two weeks ago at Martinsville.<\/p>\n

Stenhouse said his spotter saw sparks from underneath the car before it shot into the wall at Texas.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be joined at the rear of the field by Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron, whose No. 24 Chevrolet needed an engine change after losing oil pressure during Friday\u2019s opening practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Kevin Harvick enters a cell phone-free zone at Augusta National FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 With the current emphasis on staying connected through social media, it\u2019s hard to find a cell phone-free zone, but that\u2019s what Kevin Harvick encountered during a Thursday visit to the Masters at Augusta National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15925,"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":[11],"tags":[575,16,413,21],"class_list":["post-15923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-my-bariatric-solutions-300","tag-nascar","tag-oreilly-auto-parts-500","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/942786774.jpg?fit=3918%2C2612&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-48P","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15923","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=15923"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15927,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15923\/revisions\/15927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}