{"id":20919,"date":"2018-08-03T06:45:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T11:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20919"},"modified":"2018-08-04T14:28:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T19:28:45","slug":"nascar-friday-watkins-glen-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/03\/nascar-friday-watkins-glen-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Watkins Glen Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

Search for speed continues for Joey Logano and Team Penske<\/b><\/p>\n

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. \u2013 Joey Logano can see what Kevin Harvick is doing.<\/p>\n

He just can\u2019t duplicate it, and that\u2019s a major source of frustration as Logano and Team Penske try to match the speed of the six-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all the data these days,\u201d Logano said. \u201cWe have all the SMT stuff (comparative SportsMEDIA Technology data) to look over. \u2018Oh, he\u2019s doing this different as a driver. He\u2019s doing that different.\u2019 His car is allowing him to do that, where I try to do that, and I can\u2019t. My car is not allowing me to do that.<\/p>\n

Joey Logano – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s a little frustrating sometimes, because you can see it and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, I just have to do that,\u2019 but you can\u2019t do it. So you know what you\u2019ve got to get to. I guess it gives you a good goal and a good baseline to try to get off of. He\u2019s driving a Ford as well, so we know it\u2019s possible. We just have to get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logano has a victory at Talladega this season and an accompanying guaranteed berth in the Playoffs, but the No. 22 Ford team hasn\u2019t been able to run with NASCAR\u2019s triumvirate of Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who collectively have won 16 of the 21 events so far this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all talk about the big three and how fast they are,\u201d Logano said. \u201cWell, we\u2019re not going to catch them if we don\u2019t try something different. A majority of the time, when you try something, it doesn\u2019t work, but maybe one out of 10 things you try does work, and you\u2019re able to make some gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just the mentality and the thought process has changed a little bit on how can we get faster for when we get to the Playoffs, because the speed that we have right now is not enough to win the championship. We have to get better, no doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way I know how to get better is you have to try new things. You have to be willing to change as a driver, as a team with the setups, the way we build cars and the thought process. Things have to change to be able to keep up with the top three cars right now that we constantly talk about, and we constantly see winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

QUEST FOR FOUR STRAIGHT WINS PRESENTS MAJOR CHALLENGE FOR CHRISTOPHER BELL<\/b><\/p>\n

Christopher Bell can reach rarefied air in Saturday\u2019s Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Rheem Toyota, drives during practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Zippo 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 3, 2018 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But it won\u2019t be easy.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday at Iowa Speedway, Bell won his third straight NASCAR Xfinity Series race, becoming the first driver to win three in a row since Dale Earnhardt Jr. accomplished the feat in 1999.<\/p>\n

Sam Ard holds the series record of four straight, winning at South Boston, Martinsville, Rougemont and Charlotte in 1983 over a star-studded cast of runners-up\u2014Jack Ingram, Morgan Shepherd, Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt, respectively.<\/p>\n

But Ard never had to deal with the vagaries of a road course. If Bell is to tie the series record, he\u2019ll have to do it not only on a road course, but on a road course he had never seen before Friday\u2019s abbreviated practice in the rain at 2.45-mile Watkins Glen.<\/p>\n

As a WGI rookie, Bell had to run one lap in the wet, per NASCAR, and that was all he ran, posting an average speed of 82.282 mph, fourth fastest among six drivers who participated in the opening practice session.<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/WGI_NXS_Bell_080318.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even though a fourth straight victory represents an uphill climb for Bell\u2014and not just through the high-speed esses at WGI\u2014don\u2019t discount his chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have the chance to do it,\u201d Bell said on Friday at Watkins Glen. \u201cMy car and crew chief (Jason Ratcliff) are great. If anyone else was driving this thing, they would probably be the favorite. But with me and my lack of road course experience, I\u2019m definitely not a favorite heading into this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got the equipment. I\u2019ve got all of the pieces to do it. It\u2019s going to be a matter of me getting familiar with the race track and seeing where we stack up. I\u2019ve never been here before, and I\u2019m going to try to not overstep my boundaries and make sure we race our primary car and not the backup.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATKINS GLEN GARNERS THIRD STRAIGHT \u201cTOP NASCAR TRACK\u201d HONOR<\/b><\/p>\n

Watkins Glen International president Michael Printup credits a strong social media effort for success at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

For the third straight time, WGI was voted the top NASCAR track in USA Today\u2019s 10Best Readers\u2019 Choice poll.<\/p>\n

Michael Printup – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/WGI_Printup_080318.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you how we did it,\u201d Printup said. \u201cIt was our social. Our guy was on it every day, all the time\u2014Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… I\u2019m really proud of our team. I wanted to make that announcement today, as we were notified by USA Today a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did it hard, and we did it proud, and I\u2019m really proud of our fans for jumping on social networking. This little old track is the little red train that can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doubtless Printup hopes success in the USA Today vote is a harbinger for success in his own quest for office. Printup announced his candidacy for the Chemung County Legislature in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Search for speed continues for Joey Logano and Team Penske WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. \u2013 Joey Logano can see what Kevin Harvick is doing. He just can\u2019t duplicate it, and that\u2019s a major source of frustration as Logano and Team Penske try to match the speed of the six-time Monster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":20922,"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":[16,472],"class_list":["post-20919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-watkins-glen-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/WGI_NXS_Bell_practice_080318.jpg?fit=4038%2C2692&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5rp","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20919","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20919"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20928,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20919\/revisions\/20928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}