{"id":22155,"date":"2018-10-05T15:50:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T20:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=22155"},"modified":"2018-10-05T19:26:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-06T00:26:20","slug":"nascar-friday-dover-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/05\/nascar-friday-dover-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Dover Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

What\u2019s one point? Joey Logano says it can make all the difference<\/b><\/p>\n

DOVER, Del. \u2013 Joey Logano<\/strong> got a stark reminder at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course<\/strong> last Sunday of just how important a single point can be in a championship run.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, and his team stand on the grid during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway on October 5, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fortunately, the wake-up call didn\u2019t prove costly to Logano himself.<\/p>\n

But when Kyle Larson bounced off the outside wall in a crippled car on the final lap of the Bank of America Roval 400 and finished just high enough to create a three-way tie for the last two berths in the Round of 12 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff<\/a>s, the complexion of the title competition changed radically.<\/p>\n

Moments earlier, entering the final chicane, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson had been battling Martin Truex Jr. for the race win. But Johnson lost control in the chicane and ultimately knocked Truex into the outside wall.<\/p>\n

Johnson would have advanced to the Round of 12 had Larson not steered his car around the track and passed the stalled car of Jeffrey Earnhardt 100 feet from the finish line to gain the one position he needed to create the three-way tie. On a tiebreaker using the respective best finishes in the Round of 16, Johnson was the odd man out.<\/p>\n

And Logano noticed.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Dover2_MENCS_Logano_100518.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u201cWe always say, \u2018Man, we need every point possible; we need to get every little bit that means so much,\u2019\u201d Logano said on Friday at Dover International Speedway. \u201cBut think about like not only during that race, but the races leading to it or the regular season. You know how big one stage win would have been? That\u2019s all that matters sometimes to make a huge difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour whole season can be on one point, and that\u2019s what these Playoffs bring, and that\u2019s so cool. We all knew that, but when you see it again, and sometimes you get kind of comfortable with a situation and then you see that and it\u2019s like, \u2018Wow, one point would make a really big difference a lot of times.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we need to race aggressively knowing that. You can be put into a situation where the smallest thing makes a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

KYLE LARSON TESTS 2019 MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP RULES PACKAGE<\/b><\/p>\n

The new 2019 competition package introduced this week for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series features considerably more downforce than the current configuration, thanks to a taller spoiler and a wider splitter.<\/p>\n

To Kyle Larson, who ran a Chevrolet set up with the new rules package during a Goodyear tire test at Phoenix on Wednesday, the difference was obvious.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did about half the day or a little bit more in 2019 aero package,\u201d Larson said on Friday at Dover International Speedway. \u201cIt just has way more grip. We ran through some different tire compounds and stuff to get an idea. All of them had a lot of grip, so you could carry a ton of throttle. The acceleration obviously wasn\u2019t the same as the \u201918 package, just because you have the bigger blade and stuff on the back. A lot more drag.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo acceleration wasn\u2019t quite as much. It was pretty crazy how far you could run in the corner and then also how quick you could pick the gas up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2019 rules feature a 1.17-inch tapered spacer\u2014the same as the 2018 configuration, with engines capable of generating 750 horsepower\u2014for tracks shorter than 1.33 miles. For tracks 1.33 miles and longer, the 2019 rules include a .922-inch spacer at approximately 550 horsepower\u2014a 37.5-percent increase over the package run at the widely acclaimed Monster Energy All-Star Race in May.<\/p>\n

UNEXPECTED CHARLOTTE WIN BUOYS CHASE BRISCOE\u2019S CONFIDENCE<\/b><\/p>\n

Austin Cindric had heard the same old song before. His buddy and fellow Ford driver, Chase Briscoe, was poor-mouthing his chances in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on the dirt half-mile at Eldora Speedway earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Before the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last Saturday, Briscoe was similarly negative after practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, the two races he\u2019s won this year, which were probably the two biggest wild cards in NASCAR, he\u2019s texted me back and forth after practice about how terrible he was in practice,\u201d Cindric said on Friday at Dover International Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Eldora he was like, \u2018We\u2019re terrible.  I\u2019m going to run like junk.\u2019  And he goes and wins the race the next day. It was the same thing at the Roval.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Ford development driver, Briscoe hasn\u2019t firmed up his plans for next year, but the Charlotte victory certainly lifted his spirits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to say that we\u2019re the first guy to win at the Roval, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s sunk in quite yet, just because, going to Saturday, I truthfully didn\u2019t expect to go win,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cI was just going to be happy to run around 10th and have a clean race and finish, so to be able to get the win like that and not just lead the last lap, but lead quite a bit of the laps, it was definitely cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s necessarily sunk in yet, but I think confidence-wise it\u2019ll help for the remainder of this season just building that, being able to go to the race track, just because, truthfully, my confidence had been a little bit down with the way the season had been going.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for next year, I think it always helps if you\u2019re winning, whether it\u2019s in a sprint car or an XFINITY car or whatever. We\u2019re still trying to line up what 2019 holds, but Ford has assured me that I\u2019ll be in something, just trying to figure out what it\u2019s going be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service What\u2019s one point? Joey Logano says it can make all the difference DOVER, Del. \u2013 Joey Logano got a stark reminder at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last Sunday of just how important a single point can be in a championship run. Fortunately, the wake-up call didn\u2019t prove costly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":22158,"comment_status":"open","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[222,16],"class_list":["post-22155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-dover-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5Ll","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/358095.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155","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=22155"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22160,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155\/revisions\/22160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}